Video Game Industry Thread: Master Chief -- script delivery boy

Synthesis

Ninja Snarl P wrote: »

Synthesis wrote: »

Maddoc wrote: »

It really wouldn't be that difficult to eliminate the used game market.

PC gaming did it years ago when CD keys became the norm.

That isn't to say the major consoles are going to go that way any time soon, but it'd be incredibly simple.

I've made peace with only being able to buy one or two used PC games a year. Sometimes none. I'd miss it on consoles, but it wouldn't be that new. Amazon.com will still have sales for new games--which is basically where I get all my PC sales, since they match each Steam sale.

Just out of curiosity, what PC games do you even manage to find used that end up being cheaper used with physical copies than through online sales? Because with online sales, I can't even keep up with all the games I end up getting for cheap as it is.

EDIT: I'm an idiot, and misread your post--I thought you said 'new', and typed out a whole response, which I'll just jam into the spoiler.

It's quite rare, but I picked up ME2 Collector Edition, with all the DLC still working, on PC for about....$20 less than the same price on Steam? Not including shipping, which was low. And that's canceled out by the mini artbook.

I believe I got Fallout: New Vegas under very similar terms--no DLC to worry about, and the game code had not been registered with Steam.

I guess you could make the case that they weren't really "used"--though ME2's case was a bit banged up.

Spoiler:

For new games: All of them almost? Mind you, I am not too deep into the indie gaming scene (my own loss, I suppose--not much free time as it is). But off the top of my head, Fall of the Samurai, TW: Shogun 2, Mass Effect 3, Flaming Cliffs 2, the latest expansion I bought for The Sims 3, Skyrim...the list probably goes on, I'm just looking at my shortcuts.

Pretty much the only place that consistently beats Amazon.com is GoG.com, and that's largely because they deal in a very specific type of game (older titles) which they sell at very low prices (games that, on Amazon.com, are quite rare and price inflated).

In the case of Steam, people tend to forget that Steam, while having awesome sales, still has sales. When they end--and they do--their prices go right back up. In either case, someone at Amazon is pretty obviously following Steam's prices and matching, or beating, them, because Amazon prices drop literally hours after Steam's do.

Of course, if one preferred Steam because of convenience, that's an entirely different matter, which I understand. The same way, I really like getting both my console and PC games in the same place.

Niceguyeddie616

So here's a laughable little Avengers tie-in,

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-04-20/marvel-vs-capcom-2-ported-to-iphone/ipod-touch-next-friday

first off, why no android port? and second, how the hell are combos gonna work on a touch screen only thing?

mojojoeo

I think this is the best place for this question- What is in place to stop kickstarter abuse?

I mean could you prototype a game to show, kickstart a ton of cash, and walk?

reVerse

mojojoeo wrote: »

I think this is the best place for this question- What is in place to stop kickstarter abuse?

I mean could you prototype a game to show, kickstart a ton of cash, and walk?

Yeah, you could do that. You'd probably get sued by the people who's money you took, though.

Foomy

reVerse wrote: »

mojojoeo wrote: »

I think this is the best place for this question- What is in place to stop kickstarter abuse?

I mean could you prototype a game to show, kickstart a ton of cash, and walk?

Yeah, you could do that. You'd probably get sued by the people who's money you took, though.

we were just talking about that same question over in the kickstarter thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/158364/the-official-video-game-kickstarter-thread/

RainbowDespair

Some old sales figures:

Working Designs Special Edition sales figures (from a podcast w/Vic Ireland)

Lunars - around 400,000 (I assume this is both PS1 versions combined)
Growlanser - 60k-70k

Algertman

I loved Lunar Silver Star Story Complete.

Rehab

The conspiracy theories can end, it turns out Apple and Valve never met!

Gabe Newell Debunks Apple CEO's Visit To Valve

HORSE SHIT! I told you! Speaking with Seven Day Cooldown in an hour-long podcast interview, Gabe Newell confirmed that Time Cook, CEO of Apple, did not visit Valve headquarters. Speaking with the 7DCD crew, Newell said:

We actually, we all sent mail to each other, going, "Who's Tim Cook meeting with? Is he meeting with you? I'm not meeting with Time Cook." So we're... it's one of those rumors that was stated so factually that we were actually confused.

That's right, and everyone bent over and took this rumor bullshit right in. How the hell does this industry operate in such a way? When everyone is taken in, who's watching the house burn down?

No one here was meeting with Tim Cook or with anybody at Apple that day. I wish we were! We have a long list of things we'd love to see Apple do to support games and gaming better. But no, we didn't meet with Tim Cook. He seems like a smart guy, but I've never actually met him.

Maybe we should all do a little more to follow up on these rumors when they come from completely anonymous and unstated sources. The full hour-long interview will be available in the next 24 hours at Seven Day Cooldown's site.

Algertman

Bullshit. Everyone knows Valve and Apple have teleporters.

plufim

So Valve accidentally released Sonic 4 Episode 2 over Steam for a few hours.

Henroid

Algertman wrote: »

Bullshit. Everyone knows Valve and Apple have teleporters.

Valve has teleporters. Apple has handhelds. Together, Star Trek is closer to reality.

UnbreakableVow

Couscous wrote: »

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/168955/Trials_Evolution_breaks_XBLA_record_with_highest_sales_100K_downloads.php

RedLynx's Trials Evolution has set a new record for highest grossing day-one sales on Xbox Live Arcade, and has sold more than 100,000 copies in its first day after releasing.

I just came in to see if someone had posted about this

Trials Evolution is amazing and deserves every single one of those sales

But the success of both Trials HD and Evolution kinda baffle me a bit. I'm not sure why.

Heisenberg

http://playeraffinity.com/xbox-360/xbox-360-featured/gabe-newell-e3-2012.html

So this is the strongest case yet for Half-Life 3 being announced at E3 this year. I can't imagine Gabe saying "something with a 3 will be announced" and it being anything other than HL3, since that would just be trolling of the highest order imaginable.

subedii

Heisenberg wrote: »

http://playeraffinity.com/xbox-360/xbox-360-featured/gabe-newell-e3-2012.html

So this is the strongest case yet for Half-Life 3 being announced at E3 this year. I can't imagine Gabe saying "something with a 3 will be announced" and it being anything other than HL3, since that would just be trolling of the highest order imaginable.

The "strongest case yet" is yet more MASSIVELY overblown fan angst speculation over a two sentence e-mail. They didn't even check if the sites they're hyperventilating about were Valve owned.

Call me, oh I don't know, an evil minded cynic with a big meany face, but I'm going to need more to go on than just this.

Heisenberg

subedii wrote: »

Heisenberg wrote: »

http://playeraffinity.com/xbox-360/xbox-360-featured/gabe-newell-e3-2012.html

So this is the strongest case yet for Half-Life 3 being announced at E3 this year. I can't imagine Gabe saying "something with a 3 will be announced" and it being anything other than HL3, since that would just be trolling of the highest order imaginable.

The "strongest case yet" is yet more MASSIVELY overblown fan angst speculation over a two sentence e-mail. They didn't even check if the sites they're hyperventilating about were Valve owned.

Call me, oh I don't know, an evil minded cynic with a big meany face, but I'm going to need more to go on than just this.

Yeah, I mean it's the strongest case yet in a 5 year string of weak to fabricated cases.

subedii

Fair point.

Left 3 Dead confirmed.

Aegeri

I can't wait for E3 and valve to announce a game that isn't HL3, just for the all the nerd rage. It will be delicious.

Absolutely epic trolling at its finest.

The_Spaniard

Aegeri wrote: »

I can't wait for E3 and valve to announce a game that isn't HL3, just for the all the nerd rage. It will be delicious.

Absolutely epic trolling at its finest.

Right?

reVerse

3 games they can announce:

Half-Life 3
Team Fortress 3
Portal 3
Left 4 Dead 3
Dota 3

subedii

Valve super brawl: The fate of three worlds.

A smash brothers style brawler. As the closure of the super-portal at the end of Episode 2 has unintended side effects, a massive quantum pulse has fused three separate universes together into an unstable configuration. With characters from HL / Portal, Team Fortress, and Left 4 Dead, all must vie for Dr. Kleiner's latest invention, the universal harmonic regulator, lest their reality be the one to be destroyed.

Dibs on the Hunter.

Jam Warrior

Why are people suddenly mentioning Animal Crossing? Was it in the US Nintendo Direct? If so then I'm a pensive bunny as it wasn't mentioned at all in the European one.

UncleSporky

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Why are people suddenly mentioning Animal Crossing? Was it in the US Nintendo Direct? If so then I'm a pensive bunny as it wasn't mentioned at all in the European one.

In the Japanese stream they said "2012" so I don't know why anyone's optimistic about it coming out soon when we don't even have a Japanese release date.

Jam Warrior

Cool. Fine by me as well. The longer they're working on it the more chance we have that it is actually a worthwhile sequel and not just another slightly different version of the same thing.

Linespider5

Hell, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Valve shows off something entirely new at E3 that isn't based off one of their existing properties. I'd almost consider that more likely.

But it's probably Team Fortress 3.

Maddoc

You have to bear in mind that the way Valve works is that a project doesn't get worked on unless there are people who get up and decide they. want to work on it.

So unless there are people that got together at Valve and started banging out TF3 because they felt like they could do something new that the framework of TF2 doesn't allow? Chances are that isn't happening.

Based on that I'd optimistically guess HL3, or far more hilariously, HL2:Ep3

electricitylikesme

Maddoc wrote: »

You have to bear in mind that the way Valve works is that a project doesn't get worked on unless there are people who get up and decide they. want to work on it.

So unless there are people that got together at Valve and started banging out TF3 because they felt like they could do something new that the framework of TF2 doesn't allow? Chances are that isn't happening.

Based on that I'd optimistically guess HL3, or far more hilariously, HL2:Ep3

It'll be HL2: Ep3.

HL3 will be a brand new project where Valve uses its billions of dollars to build a real Black Mesa facility, and then fills it with aliens from their very own Lambda complex. It will be monetized as an MMO called "The Black Mesa Experience" where you take control of an android through the real facility.

Dark Raven X

Hah. I'd like a HL3 announcement, and then at the end of it, "Also, surprise, HL2:E3 is out tomorrow!"

Corehealer

Dark Raven X wrote: »

Hah. I'd like a HL3 announcement, and then at the end of it, "Also, surprise, HL2:E3 is out tomorrow!"

I'm almost expecting that, like an Oprah moment where everyone looks under their seats and there's a copy of the game sitting there.

SanderJK

It's been a while since Valve released any major game, which makes me assume they're working on their next engine. Maybe with a planned staggered release for their flagships (So that once it's done, they can release HL3, L4D3, and possible Portal 3 or TF3 within a year or so).

Athenor

I really wonder if they are working on their next engine or not. I mean, the plan was for Source to be modular, and a good chunk of the Portal 2 engine is wholly different from HL2's. So it's more like an evolving engine...

But yeah. I am fairly certain their plans for Ep3 are done. That part of the story needs to be told, and we need to move onto the next major plot point.. but FPS's have changed so much, even from the time of Ep. 2...

Dragkonias

You know I'm actually surprised Ninja Gaiden did as bad as it did. I mean as a fan of the series I know that everything I heard about it was pretty bad but I thought that they would as least be able to get a few more sales off of general consumer ignorance.

That being said I guess the game is pretty difficult and as such probably had a more hardcore playerbase who would have at least heard about it in passing.

Peewi

SanderJK wrote: »

It's been a while since Valve released any major game, which makes me assume they're working on their next engine. Maybe with a planned staggered release for their flagships (So that once it's done, they can release HL3, L4D3, and possible Portal 3 or TF3 within a year or so).

It's only been a year since Portal 2 came out and they have Dota 2 and CSGO in beta. And there's also the Portal 2 puzzle creator and a secret TF2 thing coming. And that's just what we know about.

subedii

Peewi wrote: »

SanderJK wrote: »

It's been a while since Valve released any major game, which makes me assume they're working on their next engine. Maybe with a planned staggered release for their flagships (So that once it's done, they can release HL3, L4D3, and possible Portal 3 or TF3 within a year or so).

It's only been a year since Portal 2 came out and they have Dota 2 and CSGO in beta. And there's also the Portal 2 puzzle creator and a secret TF2 thing coming. And that's just what we know about.

People are always making comments about Valve's lack of output, but really, in the past years since the Orange Box they've released at least three "major" games.

Cantido

Skullgirls dev Reverge Labs discusses how working together with a publisher (Autumn Games) gives them different treatment than if they try to be an indie indie title.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-16-skullgirls-developing-a-digital-publishing-model

Wyckoff feels that finding a publishing partner is a must for an independent developer trying to put their game on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. "I don't even really know if it's possible to do it without a publisher," Wyckoff said. "You can go straight to the Xbox Indie channel, but then you're locked into the XNA development and you're not going to be able to do a PlayStation version at all if you wanted to. It seems if you're going to be a proper PSN/XBLA developer you're going to need a strong publisher partner involved in that."


...

Typically publishers like Electronic Arts and Activision would own the brands and the IP, and the developers would own the code, but they would have no say in the story IP and how that would be used in the future. Autumn's model is different. "We're literally true partners in the extension of that IP. To be totally honest, all of our relationships are different. I think every developer has a different viewpoint on things, what's important to them and what's less important," Collmer said. "Certainly we structure our business to work with our development partners to take those core IP that are created on whatever the initial platform is and then extend them, not only horizontally on other games platforms but beyond that into linear and traditional media and merchandising. The way all the relationships are set up, the developers are true partners in that extension exercise across the board. The developers are going to participate alongside of us in the economic benefits."

Xenogears of Bore

UncleSporky wrote: »

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Why are people suddenly mentioning Animal Crossing? Was it in the US Nintendo Direct? If so then I'm a pensive bunny as it wasn't mentioned at all in the European one.

In the Japanese stream they said "2012" so I don't know why anyone's optimistic about it coming out soon when we don't even have a Japanese release date.

The last two games in the series had nearly identical worldwide releases.

DiannaoChong

edit: Wrrrroooooooooooooooooooong threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaad.

Local H Jay

glad to hear trials is doing well, it's a really fantastic game

Ov3rcharge

Jam Warrior wrote: »

Cool. Fine by me as well. The longer they're working on it the more chance we have that it is actually a worthwhile sequel and not just another slightly different version of the same thing.

Generally the console versions of Animal Crossing just update the game Capcom style (Google Animal Crossing for the N64, it's almost the same as the Gamecube version.) While the handheld's tend to innovate.
Look at the concept art for the map for this game and tell me it's going to be City Folk with a few updates.

Heisenberg

http://atramental-plateau.com/

http://black-aperture.com/

Zephiran

Heisenberg wrote: »

http://atramental-plateau.com/

http://black-aperture.com/

Portal 3.

Platform + 3?

3rd game in a platformer franchise?

Gotta be Portal 3.