Video Game Industry Thread: 300+ people lose their jobs. Curt Schilling still rich.

SmokeStacks

"Xenogears wrote:

Crazy times those three years where you could claim (and would be absolutely right) that the 360 had more and better JRPGs then the PS3.

If you want to get technical, PS3s had BC for the first few years, which means they had the PS2 JRPG library, as well as the PS1's.

So there.

Aegeri

Technically speaking, in certain regions the PS3 never had backwards compatibility in the first place. I never had the option (unless I imported) of buying a PS3 that had BC for example.

Lanrutcon

SmokeStacks wrote: »

"Xenogears wrote:

Crazy times those three years where you could claim (and would be absolutely right) that the 360 had more and better JRPGs then the PS3.

If you want to get technical, PS3s had BC for the first few years, which means they had the PS2 JRPG library, as well as the PS1's.

So there.

Reeeeeeeaching.

EVOL

Rumour: 3D Resident Evil: Degeneration-Damnation-Downfall (3DS?)

On Digital Spy, there were reports about the alleged existence of "Resident Evil: Degeneration-Damnation-Downfall 3D". The title would appear at the end of this year and accordingly, it would contain Degeneration and Damnation in CG technology, and with the possibility of the Nintendo consoles you could see these two movies in 3D. Initial reports indicate that Downfall would be a new game that takes place between the events of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. The player would control Claire Redfield who would witness the "downfall" of humanity. The information was quickly removed from the website and Capcom has not confirmed anything yet. E3 takes place during June 5-7. If Downfall is real, it would probably be officially announced then.

I took a look around on Digital Spy and the website seems to be a very reliable source for new info pertaining to movies, games, etc. I've asked Alyson twice, Digital Spy once, and Capcom once (all over Twitter), and none of them have responded to me.

Note that the link provided by the original post is in polish. The text seems to have been translated by others. Credit to GAF goes for providing the translated text.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=473142

http://www.mwrc.pl/News/News.php''

On the one hand, the director of Revelations expressed interest in a sequel in the vein of Revelations...

On the other hand, that was before the NPD numbers were out, which were... disappointing.

plufim

So after this and Dream Drop Distance, D___ D___ D___ games are the new D___ S___? (Deadly Silence, etc)

Because if so: ugh.

The worldwide sales on Revelations weren't really that bad though, I could see a sequel. Although the shitty Socom Resident Evil sold much better.

Algertman

.

plufim wrote: »

20 new Vita games, followed by "OH GOD PLEASE BUY IT NOW"

If SONY had any Vita bombs that would truly surprise us they would have been announced by now. You don't let your console do as poorly as it's doing in Japan and hold off on games that could change that. TGS last year should have opened peoples eyes that Vita was going to have a worse time than the PSP did. The Vita is going to get slaughtered this year by the 3DS is every way possible on a global scale. People need to accept that and move on.

Couscous

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/habbo-online-firms-fighting-short-atten/095562

Pay attention. One of the most popular online ‘teen hangouts’ says digital games need to fight harder to battle brief attention spans.

The man in charge of Habbo says that the migration of games to the web is inevitable, but makes fighting for consumers’ time more difficult.

“10 years ago, in online games, the assumption was that people spend all their time looking at their computer screens,” CEO Paul LeFontaine told MCV.

“But today all of us spend less time looking only at a computer screen. We’re also looking at our phone screens and our tablet screens.

“So we have to adjust our product to match the time people have for us, when they use our service around TV, radio, online or other devices.”

Each month over 10m 13 to 15-year-olds log on to Habbo’s user-generated and branded chat rooms, which play host to browser games and celebrity ‘appearances’. The firm also recently launched a new mobile app.

“Fortunately we’re used to dealing with a segment that has a very short attention span, so we always think in terms of short interactions. For us, thinking about mobile is natural because short attention span is very much the audience we have.

“But attention span and time is probably the largest challenge for any media company wanting to move from one platform to another.”

How the hell does Habbo Hotel still exist?

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169866/Angry_Birds_merchandising_licensing_made_up_30_of_Rovios_2011_revenue.php

...

During the 2011 fiscal year, Rovio recorded total revenues of 75.4 million euros ($106.3 million) and earnings before tax of 48.0 million euros ($67.6 million). The company's employee count grew from 28 to 224 staffers.

Hed said that its consumer products business, which includes its merchandising and licensing outfits, generated revenues that represent 30 percent of the total revenue, thanks to Rovio's links with over 200 licensing partners.

"The heavy investments made in 2011 to all business areas will be seen in future products," said Hed.

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169868/The_time_is_right_for_Sony_and_Microsoft_to_lower_prices__analyst.php

The time is right for Sony and Microsoft to lower prices - analyst

Now is the right time for Microsoft and Sony to lower the prices on both hardware and software for their respective home games consoles, a new report from analyst firm Baird Equity Research suggests.

Baird's Colin Sebastian notes that core console gamers are already anticipating the next generation of hardware platforms, hence price cuts for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would prove an effective way to retain focus on the current generation for a while longer.

Microsoft's upcoming $99 Xbox 360 subscription offering signifies "a nice start to bring hardware into the value end of the consumer market," Sebastian says -- however, he believes that a straight price cut to the console would be more effective.

In terms of software, the analyst says that Microsoft and Sony should consider cutting the royalty rates that they each take from developers and publishers for game releases, which he believes would help bring prices of new releases down.

"For most software releases, we believe a $49 launch price now makes sense, given the late stage of the current console cycle," he notes.

This train of thought comes as the NPD is expected to report later this week that retail game sales in the U.S. declined year-over-year in April. Sebastian agrees with the earlier report from analyst firm PiperJaffray, stating that Baird expects April software sales to be down 25-30 percent compared to last year.

So he thinks that people are now tired of the current generation.

http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html

Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City: 1,700,000 (NA+EU only)
Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G: 1,600,000 (Japan only)
Street Fighter X Tekken: 1,400,000

Zephiran

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

Shutdown

AZChristopher wrote: »

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

Has anyone linked to this article about the death of Free Radical? It's interesting but yet very self serving. At one point I found myself starting to empathize with LucasArts but then I snapped out of it.

It does really bring home how the high budgets lead to huge huge expectations of devs these days. Time was 2 millions sold was a big deal.

Yup, I linked to it but it didn't spark a discussion. Still a good read if anyone hasn't clicked on it.

Also, Brian Fargo was tweeting about it today. Some interesting comments about publishers, I really hope Kickstarter continues to work for him.

https://twitter.com/brianfargo/status/198819671737237504

The 2 studios that I'm sorry aren't around anymore (amongst a dozen, but these 2 stand out) are Free Radical and Bizzare Creations. Back with the original Xbox those 2 companies just delivered again and again for me; the passing of each was quite sad.

FR really got screwed by the suits though... dayyyyyum.

EVOL

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Couscous wrote: »

Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City: 1,700,000 (NA+EU only)
Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G: 1,600,000 (Japan only)
Street Fighter X Tekken: 1,400,000

God, how the hell did ORC sell so well, even when getting critically panned. More excuses for rampant outsourcing for Capcom, fuck yeah.

Automaticzen

EVOL wrote: »

Lucasfilm Entertainment Company files “Star Wars 1313″ video game trademark

Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. has filed a trademark application (Serial Number: 85613835) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for “Star Wars 1313″.

The filing covers a variety of goods and services including interactive entertainment software, books, toy action figures, online social networking services, and interactive video games.

After I spotted over a dozen registrations earlier this week for Star Wars 1313 domains like StarWars1313.com, I had speculated the project could be related to a potential Boba Fett movie. It wasn’t a strong argument and was based on the fact that CT-1313 was once an alias used by Boba Fett and last summer director Joe Johnston said he was trying to get George Lucas to make a movie featuring the bounty hunter.

While “Star Wars 1313″ now looks less likely related to a new film, apart from the trademark application filed on May 1, 2012, not much else is known including which platforms the game will be available on.

The goods and services listed are similar to previous video game trademark filings by Lucasfilm.

http://fusible.com/2012/05/lucasfilm-entertainment-company-files-star-wars-1313-video-game-trademark/

I'm not optimistic at all.

I'm assuming this is what Clint Hocking is working on.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/06/ex-ubisoft-creative-director-clint-hocking-joining-lucasarts/

Synthesis

Arivia wrote: »

OneAngryPossum wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

C2B wrote: »

Also it features Offline Co-op for some reason. No idea how that works though.

Come here sonny boy, let grandpa tell you a story. Back when I was young - like you! - video games had multiple controller ports. You could plug in two at once, and play at the same time with someone! The game would be on the same screen, or it would be split half-way, player one on the top, player two on the bottom. Sure it was a little klunky, but by gosh we liked it! We'd sit on the couch together, have sleep overs, playing games together! You dang fabbled kids and your online-play-dongles.

While hilarious, he probably means how it works in an RPG. Only example I'm aware of is the SNES FF3, where you could make it so that each controller handled two of the four characters during battle. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Back when I was young, and all.

The Tales games have had multiplayer action in an RPG for ages. Since at least the PS2.

Tales of Vesperia on the 360 also had multiplayer support.

SyphonBlue

EVOL wrote: »

Resident Evil: Degeneration-Damnation-Downfall

no stop it stop it right now

Skull2185

EVOL wrote: »

God, how the hell did ORC sell so well, even when getting critically panned. More excuses for rampant outsourcing for Capcom, fuck yeah.

They appear to be getting their shit together though, DmC (Ironically the shittiest looking of the outsourced projects) is looking mighty fine now. After some tweaking of course, not entirely sure how much of the tweaking is at Capcom's request, but it would seem they're learning from the other less than stellar projects.

mrt144

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Couscous wrote: »

Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City: 1,700,000 (NA+EU only)
Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G: 1,600,000 (Japan only)
Street Fighter X Tekken: 1,400,000

God, how the hell did ORC sell so well, even when getting critically panned. More excuses for rampant outsourcing for Capcom, fuck yeah.

WHY IS IT NAMED RACCOON CITY?

Zephiran

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Curiously enough, they did announce a sequel to SK not long ago, didn't they? I would imagine they'd go the full mile eventually...

EVOL

Zephiran wrote: »

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Curiously enough, they did announce a sequel to SK not long ago, didn't they? I would imagine they'd go the full mile eventually...

I'm pretty sure they did. I really don't want to touch that series with a ten foot poll for various reasons, but it sold really good for a niche title so it'd make sense.

fake edit: Yup. http://andriasang.com/con0pr/senran_kagura_burst_screens/ It's called Senran Kagura Burst. oh dear god

Renzo

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Curiously enough, they did announce a sequel to SK not long ago, didn't they? I would imagine they'd go the full mile eventually...

I'm pretty sure they did. I really don't want to touch that series with a ten foot poll for various reasons, but it sold really good for a niche title so it'd make sense.

fake edit: Yup. http://andriasang.com/con0pr/senran_kagura_burst_screens/ It's called Senran Kagura Burst. oh dear god

"Burst" seems to be an increasingly-common subtitle. God Eater Burst. Danbooru Senki (Little Battlers) Burst.

Still, it's more than a little suggestive in this case.

Zephiran

You just know it's gonna be spelled BUrST.

HallowedFaith

Apparently Angry Birds Space did pretty damn well. 50 million downloads in 35 days according to source. Big chunk of change. I don't follow mobile much, thought it was pretty good.

Screencap of article in case of change/outage.

Spoiler:

Couscous

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/07/99-xbox-360-with-contract/

The rumored $99 Xbox 360 with two-year $15 a month contract is official. It includes a Kinect, Xbox Live Gold service and a two-year warranty. The offer is now available on the Microsoft Store site.

The math works out to roughly $460 for the bundle over the next two years. Currently the 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle goes for $277 on Amazon, with Gold costing about $50 a year, for a grand upfront total of $377 if you bought today.

Only 99$*

*Plus 15 dollars a month.

Brainiac 8

Renzo wrote: »

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

EVOL wrote: »

Zephiran wrote: »

Why Senran Kagura didn't capitalise on the same TRIPLE DEE opportunity (for obvious reasons) as KHDDD and now the rumoured REDDD, I will never know.

They're obviously saving that for the inevitable third entry. IIRC the first one hugely exceeded expectations.

Curiously enough, they did announce a sequel to SK not long ago, didn't they? I would imagine they'd go the full mile eventually...

I'm pretty sure they did. I really don't want to touch that series with a ten foot poll for various reasons, but it sold really good for a niche title so it'd make sense.

fake edit: Yup. http://andriasang.com/con0pr/senran_kagura_burst_screens/ It's called Senran Kagura Burst. oh dear god

"Burst" seems to be an increasingly-common subtitle. God Eater Burst. Danbooru Senki (Little Battlers) Burst.

Still, it's more than a little suggestive in this case.

At least we are past the "everything needs to have the word unleashed in it!" phase.

Brainiac 8

Might as well throw this out there and see what you guys think:

This was during the Bonus Round show when discussing MS and the upcoming E3.

http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/604

(On visiting MS in a few weeks) Pachter: "They told me don't expect a lot of game stuff, expect a lot of dashboard, interface, multimedia."

Oy, so this will be like the last two years E3s for MS. Halo/Kinect/and ESPN.

Renzo

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Might as well throw this out there and see what you guys think:

This was during the Bonus Round show when discussing MS and the upcoming E3.

http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/604

(On visiting MS in a few weeks) Pachter: "They told me don't expect a lot of game stuff, expect a lot of dashboard, interface, multimedia."

Oy, so this will be like the last two years E3s for MS. Halo/Kinect/and ESPN.

If they want to talk about dashboard, interface, and multimedia, they should just go to CES and let E3 be about games.

Skull2185

Maybe MS will announce that they're going to unfuck up the dashboard? I mean, I guess I've gotten used to it, but I still preferred the dash that wasn't made with Kinect in mind.

Couscous

I don't get the focus on nongaming stuff. Even with the nongaming stuff growing in importance, people would buy one of the boxes that offered all that nongaming shit if they didn't care about the games.

Allforce

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

Henroid

Personally, I don't understand the "UGH VIDEO GAMES ONLY, PLEASE" sentiment. As an adult with many interests, I'm intrigued by plenty of things that go on with video game consoles that AREN'T just video games. It's not like they're cutting out video games entirely. "We decided to abandon this profitable industry in favor of becoming a cable channel." That's never going to happen. Stop complaining.

Brainiac 8

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

The primary purpose of E3 has always been about the games. What happens when one of the big three attempt to make it about anything else? I'll point you to Nintendo the year they focused on puppies, Shawn White, and Animal Crossing.

Turkey

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

The primary purpose of E3 has always been about the games. What happens when one of the big three attempt to make it about anything else? I'll point you to Nintendo the year they focused on puppies, Shawn White, and Animal Crossing.

....they make millions?

Brainiac 8

Turkey wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

The primary purpose of E3 has always been about the games. What happens when one of the big three attempt to make it about anything else? I'll point you to Nintendo the year they focused on puppies, Shawn White, and Animal Crossing.

....they make millions?

I'm not sure WiiMusic did as well as they were hoping considering 30 minutes of the show went toward that...

Seriously though, I'm talking about the fallout from fans.

Skull2185

Cross post from the CoD thread:

Man, if I'm understanding this (lol)Yahoo Games article correctly:

"Preorders from day 1 of Black Ops 2 were more than 10 times the amount of preorders for the first Black Ops on its first day of availability," an Amazon representative told GameSpot. "Black Ops 2 even out preordered the first day of availability for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by more than 30 percent."

The number of copies of BLOPS2 preorderd on the day it was announced are ten times more than the number of copies of BLOPS1 sold on day 1? And BLOPS2 preorders are 30% higher than the day 1 sales of MW3? THe wording is a little confusing.

That's pretty crazy if that's what they're saying.

Dehumanized

Looks like it's this:

Day 1 of Blops2 preorders = 1000% of Day 1 Blops1 preorders
Day 1 of Blops2 preorders = 130%+ of Day 1 MW3 preorders

They are comparing preorder numbers to preorder numbers, basically.

Litany

Nah, it's "The number of units pre-ordered on the first day we took pre-orders for Black Ops 2 is more than the number of units pre-ordered of the first Black Ops (by ten times) and the number of units pre-ordered of Modern Warfare 3 (by thirty percent) on the first day(s) they were available for pre-order".

Skull2185

Ohhhh

That's less exciting Still pretty crazy though.

Absalon

Turkey wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

The primary purpose of E3 has always been about the games. What happens when one of the big three attempt to make it about anything else? I'll point you to Nintendo the year they focused on puppies, Shawn White, and Animal Crossing.

....they make millions?

Well, yes. But for the love of cuss, I would rather see them lose millions than see Wii Music 2. *I* would rather lose millions than see Wii Music 2.

UncleSporky

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

Do movie studios have booths to show off trailers at E3? What about comedy websites like Cracked or webcomics? Are there booths to show off those small LCD games and other toy electronics like Bop It? I honestly don't know.

But I don't think any importance should be ascribed to the name itself. DragonCon is a huge fantasy/sci-fi convention, they don't say "no starships allowed" or "no fantasy that lacks dragons." I'm sure it could go the other way too, a name that sounds open ended but the con itself is about a very specific market.

Henroid

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Turkey wrote: »

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Allforce wrote: »

Isn't it the Electronic Entertainment Expo? It's not just "VIDEO GAME CON" as far I have always understood it. Multimedia features, dashboard updates, and "nongaming stuff" qualifies as far as I'm concerned.

The primary purpose of E3 has always been about the games. What happens when one of the big three attempt to make it about anything else? I'll point you to Nintendo the year they focused on puppies, Shawn White, and Animal Crossing.

....they make millions?

I'm not sure WiiMusic did as well as they were hoping considering 30 minutes of the show went toward that...

Seriously though, I'm talking about the fallout from fans.

Yes, sometimes there are things that flop. But one example does not prove your point because there's been successes as well. As for the fallout from fans, as much as it pains me to say this because I hate what I'm about to mention, but E3 isn't just about us anymore. It's about investors. The rhetoric has changed because video games are a recognized profitable business. It's a massive shit pill to have to swallow, but once you do it, whatever, you take the good with the bad.

Speaking of WiiMusic though, does anyone have that gif on hand? You know the one. I need to see it again (don't post it in-line, link)

Ragnar Dragonfyre

Skull2185 wrote: »

Cross post from the CoD thread:

Man, if I'm understanding this (lol)Yahoo Games article correctly:

"Preorders from day 1 of Black Ops 2 were more than 10 times the amount of preorders for the first Black Ops on its first day of availability," an Amazon representative told GameSpot. "Black Ops 2 even out preordered the first day of availability for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by more than 30 percent."

The number of copies of BLOPS2 preorderd on the day it was announced are ten times more than the number of copies of BLOPS1 sold on day 1? And BLOPS2 preorders are 30% higher than the day 1 sales of MW3? THe wording is a little confusing.

That's pretty crazy if that's what they're saying.

COD fans are crazy. I got bored of the formula with BLOPs. Here I thought the fad would eventually collapse out under itself, but it seems COD is going the distance. It won't be long before COD is more synonymous with video games than Mario is.

Ugh... I feel like I need a shower after saying that.

LegendofLink

At least BLOPS 2 has the potential to mix things up a bit. I don't buy COD games as they come out any more (they come out far too often for that), but they certainly aren't bad games. I certainly don't fault anyone for being a fan of them. They really aren't the problem. The problem is that they've filled the niche for that style of shooter the same way that WoW has filled a MMO niche, but everyone tries to squeeze into that niche and take a slice of the pie, when there really isn't any room (again, same as WoW).