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

Aegeri · April 2012

It was also 100% using a beloved Nintendo IP in a great manner. Metroid prime shares so much in gameplay, even being an FPS that it's hard to argue it isn't a similar game. Syndicate used the IP, well what there is of it, fairly well but it's a general unknown beyond a few cranky PC players. So it was a pretty small blip on the radar and was ignored. Not being released in Australia at all didn't give it any help either I would wager.

joshgotro · April 2012

vsove wrote: »

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

I bet as an insider this makes you a lot more angry than your post shows.

Kadoken · April 2012

joshgotro wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

I bet as an insider this makes you a lot more angry than your post shows.

I used to really like EA. That was probably because I used to be obsessed with Battlefield and Command and Conquer, which they owned. Now they seem like gaming's Stalin to Activision's Hitler.

Skull2185 · April 2012

Kadoken wrote: »

joshgotro wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

I bet as an insider this makes you a lot more angry than your post shows.

I used to really like EA. That was probably because I used to be obsessed with Battlefield and Command and Conquer, which they owned. Now they seem like gaming's Stalin to Activision's Hitler.

Why?

mere_immortal · April 2012

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I really don'y understand this position. Yes EA make a lot of yearly franchises, but people buy them. It's not like if they stopped existing all the people who buy them will suddenly go out and grab Dark Souls or Xenoblade.

We tend to buy these games because we follow the industry and those genres, and yes they buy and break up smaller studios, but don't all successful businesses do that?

Also Syndicate was a pretty good FPS you guys.

Anyway, looking forward.

Yes, it's that time of year again. E3 is nearly upon us and two of the big three have today got things rolling, confirming exactly when they'll be taking to the stage to show off their latest and greatest.

Microsoft is first up on Monday 4th June at 10.00am Los Angeles time. That means 6.00pm in the UK.

Sony's event is on the same day but gets going a bit later - 6.00pm LA time. That's 2.00am here, so put coffee on the shopping list.

Nintendo is yet to announce when its show will get started, though it traditionally takes place on the Tuesday morning.

Exactly what they'll all be announcing is anyone's (educated) guess, though both Sony and Microsoft have insisted that they won't be unveiling new console hardware. Believe them?

Of the supporting players, Ubisoft is the only publisher to announce details of its showcase. That goes down at 3.00pm (11.00pm UK time) on the Monday.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-16-sony-microsoft-schedule-e3-conferences

Capt Howdy · April 2012

Can't wait for E3. Hoping to see more of Lego City Stories, and to see if the Endless Ocean Wii-U/3DS rumors are true.

Dragkonias · April 2012

Skull2185 wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/syndicate-sales-hurt-by-game-instability/094481

Developer Starbreeze has claimed that the recent instability at retailer GAME “hurt” the sales of its recent shooter Syndicate.

Syndicate was released in late February and was only temporarily stocked in the UK’s leading games retailers GAME and Gamestation following the collapse of terms with publisher EA.

Although EA is now back on board with GAME, stock of all releases post SSX is only arriving in stores today, meaning Syndicate was missing for a key period after its release.

"There's so many reasons why a game succeeds or fails from a commercial point-of-view,” Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told Games Industry. “We released the game about a month or more ago, and we're doing our post-mortem right now: what did we do right, what did we do wrong, and of course we will look at the commercial side as well.

"The numbers are not as high as we would like, and I think if you asked anyone they would say the same thing about any game they made.

“But [Syndicate] was released in the midst of GAME going under; the retail space is hurting, and I think that hurt us because we were such a retail product."

The game sold like shit in the USA too.

Syndicate didn't bomb because GAME went to shit. Syndicate bombed because the game had no target audience. It's a classic real time tactics game that was gutted and made into a generic FPS with no marketing push behind it. People who had never heard of Syndicate before didn't bat an eye at it because it looked generic and wasn't boosted by a massive marketing push to get it into public consciousness, and classic fans ignored it because it was so different from the original.

Which begs the question - what's the point of reviving a dead franchise if you're going to turn it into something completely different from the original, while also making it a "me-too" also-ran? Who's the target there?

I wouldn't say generic FPS. Its a pretty solid FPS, with some interesting abilities. I don't know of any FPS that lets you hack a grenade mid-flight, making it harmless. Plus all the other DART tricks you have. Its a pretty unique FPS, really. I never played the original though, so I didn't go into the new one already hating it because it wasn't the exact same game as the original.

I didn't buy it right away though, not because it looked "generic", but because I couldn't justify the $60 at the time. I did pick it up new for like $30 recently.

Also,

Is Bethesda expected to announce something tomorrow? According to Reddit(I don't know why I still go there...) The Bethesda FB page uploaded this pic:

with the caption "Tomorrow"

Skyrim expansion?

It's funny...because just yesterday I was talking to my brother about how surprising it is we've gone 6 months without even a hint of DLC for Skyrim.

That being said that picture doesn't really look Skyrim-ish.

Kadoken · April 2012

Skull2185 wrote: »

Kadoken wrote: »

joshgotro wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

I bet as an insider this makes you a lot more angry than your post shows.

I used to really like EA. That was probably because I used to be obsessed with Battlefield and Command and Conquer, which they owned. Now they seem like gaming's Stalin to Activision's Hitler.

Why?

Well, I'm not being fully serious. Buuut.
I really don't like Activision. I feel they ruined COD starting with MW2 and is now all about cash grabbing. They also buried Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, the latter I didn't like, but still.

EA's war on piracy with the online codes is irritating, but I like them a tiny bit more than Activision. They also buy studios and ruin them, like Westwood.

This is 100% biased and exaggerated. Don't take it too seriously.

OneAngryPossum · April 2012

To say nothing of EA's redistribution of state assets and Activisions ongoing wars of conquest.

lowlylowlycook · April 2012

mere_immortal wrote: »

Also Syndicate was a pretty good FPS you guys.

The problem is that no one care about "pretty good FPSs" anymore. Not the mass market and not the niche that knew what Syndicate was.

Couscous · April 2012

Who is Finland in this analogy?

mere_immortal · April 2012

lowlylowlycook wrote: »

mere_immortal wrote: »

Also Syndicate was a pretty good FPS you guys.

The problem is that no one care about "pretty good FPSs" anymore. Not the mass market and not the niche that knew what Syndicate was.

Oh yeah my opinion in no way reflects the general consensus, but being able to slide about with a guy and guns that felt like they had weight was awesome.

Multiplayer had a decent number of missions and some nice upgrade systems going too.

Couscous · April 2012

Multiplayer will be dead soon enough.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/gog-head-massive-discounts-bad-for-gamers/

GOG managing director Guillaume Rambourg shared a shockingly controversial opinion: there's a downside to Steam discounts. "Heavy discounts are bad for gamers," Rambourg told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "If a gamer buys a game he or she doesn't want just because it's on sale, they're being trained to make bad purchases, and they're also learning that games aren't valuable." The all-too-common phenomenon of spending more money than you want to just to get everything that's on sale in a particular week is "not good for anyone," he said.

If, like us, you wonder at this point how this attitude squares with GOG's own weekend sales, Rambourg explained: "Our average sale tends to be around 40% – 50% off; that's plenty of incentive to pick up a game if you're interested or if you just think you might like to try it because you're not sure about the game, but not some crazy 75% or 85% discount that damages the long-term value of a game." Of course, if you want to get extremely technical about it, the majority of GOG's business is selling $6 versions of games that cost upward of $50 when they originally came out (twenty years ago).

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/ea-allowing-banned-origin-players-access-to-offline-content/

EA has quietly made things a little easier for those banned from its digital Origin service, allowing even those scorned by the company to access single player content in purchased and downloaded games. Previously, gamers who behaved badly on official EA forums or otherwise caused their accounts to be revoked were locked out completely, but now EA is saying that by switching the Origin client over to offline mode, players can at least play bought games by themselves.

To get back online, players will need to appeal the ban, for which instructions can be found here. EA does say that most bans are only temporary, but just in case you want to speed up the process, we'll say this: Offering crop sacrifices to an idol of John Ritticello certainly can't hurt.

Via: GI.biz, CinemaBlend
Source: EA.com

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-dates-e3-press-conference/094494

The French arm of Sony Computer Entertainment has revealed the date of the company’s E3 press conference in an email sent to journalists today.

The briefing will take place on Monday June 4th at 18:00 PST (that’s 02:00 on the morning of Tuesday June 5th in the UK).

It will take place in the same venue as it did last year – the Memorial Sports Arena.

Microsoft and Nintendo have not yet dated their press conferences, but it is presumed that they will occupy their normal slots – that being early Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning respectively.

Shadowfire · April 2012

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/16/ea-allowing-banned-origin-players-access-to-offline-content/

EA has quietly made things a little easier for those banned from its digital Origin service, allowing even those scorned by the company to access single player content in purchased and downloaded games. Previously, gamers who behaved badly on official EA forums or otherwise caused their accounts to be revoked were locked out completely, but now EA is saying that by switching the Origin client over to offline mode, players can at least play bought games by themselves.

To get back online, players will need to appeal the ban, for which instructions can be found here. EA does say that most bans are only temporary, but just in case you want to speed up the process, we'll say this: Offering crop sacrifices to an idol of John Ritticello certainly can't hurt.

Via: GI.biz, CinemaBlend
Source: EA.com

How gracious of them. :lol:

cloudeagle · April 2012

Um, woops.

You'd expect to see videos showcasing epic killstreaks and particularly inventive death-dealing chosen to be highlighted as staff picks on Call of Duty Elite's Theater pages. You might not expect to find Adolf Hitler there, though. And yet, there he is.

Alongside how-to videos where players show other players how best to wield certain weapons, one of history's most reviled leaders pops up twice as a Call of Duty Elite Theater staff pick on the internet hub of the social network centered around Activision's hit FPS series. COD Elite user GhostOfTheReich links to a YouTube video with archival World War II footage where Adolf Hitler appears and another clip linked by user laliludo is for a music video by Aryan rock group Final War.

According to e-mails sent to Kotaku, complaints about the video have gone unanswered and comment threads beneath one of the video indicate that there's been outrage for atl least a week about the staff pick.

The problem here is that there's not much transparency as to how this staff picks are selected. The most likely explanation is that there's some sort of algorithm at work but it's unclear if there is an actual human vetting the content that gets categorized as a staff pick on the COD Elite Theater channel.

Ironically, for at least one video, you can't click through to YouTube without getting a warning about potentially offensive content. We've reached out to Activision for comment on this story and will update if we hear back.

http://kotaku.com/5902311/pro+hitler-video-is-a-call-of-duty-elite--staff-pick

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Welp, no more buying games for me for a while. Just finished my tax return. I owe a lot. I'm gonna basically wipe out 2/3 of my savings paying my taxes this year. This is the second time I've had to pay my taxes (as opposed to having it withheld by an employer), but never this much at once. Time for a period of saving.

At least I got some killer, long games to keep me occupied for a while. This is the hypothetical situation everybody builds up a giant backlog for - that time when you can't get anything new for a long while and you have to dip into the catalog of games you haven't played yet for entertainment.

EDIT: About CoD Elite: can you see youtube clips from your 360 using it?

Kadoken · April 2012

Couscous wrote: »

Who is Finland in this analogy?

THQ. They're not doing so well. Poland is Capcom, Italy is Ubisoft, England is Sega.

Dark Raven X · April 2012

Not even Sonic 4: Episode II?

I find it hard to believe no one vets those CoD vids, the amount of profanity and general assholery that goes on in every match? No way is that not making it into the clips.

cloudeagle · April 2012

Ouch, sorry to hear that... I got hit by taxes a bit my first year doing freelancing stuff, so I know how it goes.

Meanwhile, the folks behind Star Command (y'know, the game you can play on the pooper) break down what happened with their Kickstarter money. It's pretty fascinating:

Our kickstarter earned $36,967 after asking for $20,000 so that was incredible.

To begin with, we didn't get all of that. We lost about $2,000 to no-shows, just people that pledged and the funds did not transfer.

That got us down to $35k, and kickstarter and Amazon Payments take their portions, which got us down to right around $32,000.

Now, right off the top you had $10,000 for prize fulfillment. That includes printing the posters, the shirts and shipping everything (thanks Australia). If we had to do it again, we would have probably had the price point a bit higher for the t-shirts and posters, as those turned to be a very large expense. We also would have included the cost of a 3rd party fulfillment house - we just aren't equipped or skilled in that area, and it was (still is) something that we struggle with.

After that, we had $22,000 remaining. From there:

Music - $6,000
Attorneys, startup fees, CPA - $4000
Poster art - $2000
iPads - $1000
PAX East - $3000

TOTAL: $16,000

Leaving us with around $6000, which is income, so that was taxed (piece of advice to other kickstarters - spend that money before the end of the year).

So were right around $4000 remaining and even that cursory math isn't working as there are other things that weren't big tickets but sapped the coffers. There's odds and ends etc, so that goes rather quickly as you can imagine.

What would we do different? Keep the attorneys out of it. We got a little nervous after we recieved all the Kickstarter money and wanted to make sure our business was set up correctly. We registered our LLC's, got operating agreements etc, but in hindsight a nice piece of napkin paper probably would have done just as well. You plan for the worst (we all start hating each other and people start leaving) but if anything the team has gotten closer, so it seems like a lot of wasted money. If we could take it back we would. Maybe we will get another attorney and sue them.....wait.....

Rewards are something to watch out for as well. We just didn't fully appreciate the cost of printing 200 posters, shirts, and more than anything shipping. Shipping is a) expensive b) a pain in the ass when you have tubes and c) time consuming. None of those things are productive. We don't resent having sent that stuff off - we think the posters and shirts are awesome and we are super proud of them and it seems like everyone loved them, so thats great. But they were a lot of work.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starcommand/star-command-sci-fi-meets-gamedev-story-for-ios-an/posts/208395

tl;dr: Best case scenario these guys get to hang onto maybe one twelfth of their Kickstarter money.

Dark Raven X wrote: »

I find it hard to believe no one vets those CoD vids, the amount of profanity and general assholery that goes on in every match? No way is that not making it into the clips.

Not just into the clips, but a "staff pick." Just wow.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Dark Raven X wrote: »

Not even Sonic 4: Episode II?

I can swing $15 for a downloadable game. I mean full, $60 retail releases.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Kadoken wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Who is Finland in this analogy?

THQ. They're not doing so well. Poland is Capcom, Italy is Ubisoft, England is Sega.

Valve is the USA.

Skull2185 · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Dark Raven X wrote: »

Not even Sonic 4: Episode II?

I can swing $15 for a downloadable game. I mean full, $60 retail releases.

Just pretend you died.

Spending a year dead is a popular tax dodge. Or so I hear.

>.>
<.<

Couscous · April 2012

Console gaming is pretty much dead to me because of the cost. Graphical development has slowed enough that upgrading can be incremental and less costly than before as long as you aren't dealing with shitty console ports.

Henroid · April 2012

Sony going with their press conference of day one of E3 this year? Aren't they, like MS, usually on the second day? Usually Nintendo flies solo (from what I remember) on the first day when it comes to the console makers. Or maybe my memory is fucked.

Kadoken · April 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Kadoken wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Who is Finland in this analogy?

THQ. They're not doing so well. Poland is Capcom, Italy is Ubisoft, England is Sega.

Valve is the USA.

I was going to say Nintendo, but I erased it because they're not that comparable.

Valve as USA? Perfect.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Kadoken wrote: »

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

Kadoken wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Who is Finland in this analogy?

THQ. They're not doing so well. Poland is Capcom, Italy is Ubisoft, England is Sega.

Valve is the USA.

I was going to say Nintendo, but I erased it because they're not that comparable.

Valve as USA? Perfect.

Coming again to save the motherfucking day, yeah! (for PC gaming)

initiatefailure · April 2012

what exactly is unseemly about ww2 archival footage? That seems pretty cool, and fits the setting considering CoDs long history with that time period. Unless there's something that's not translating over here to me at work where I can't view the video itself. Hitler being in something does not make it instantly offensive. It's called history.

The music video I can understand as it doesn't serve a purpose in being there.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

initiatefailure wrote: »

what exactly is unseemly about ww2 archival footage? That seems pretty cool, and fits the setting considering CoDs long history with that time period. Unless there's something that's not translating over here to me at work where I can't view the video itself. Hitler being in something does not make it instantly offensive. It's called history.

The music video I can understand as it doesn't serve a purpose in being there.

Well, there hasn't been a CoD set in WWII since CoD5, and that was set in japan, and I assume the archival footage in question is one of Hitler's rants or something. I can see both sides of the argument. I think it is just being lumped in with this because they have an aryan nation band performing a music video as a pick.

maximumzero · April 2012

Kadoken wrote: »

joshgotro wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

Lanrutcon wrote: »

I hope I'm around when EA crashes and burns. Would help if people stop buying their sports title rehashes. Seriously, that UK top 20 list makes me facepalm.

I'm glad that you hope to see eight to ten thousand people lose their jobs. Thanks!

I bet as an insider this makes you a lot more angry than your post shows.

I used to really like EA. That was probably because I used to be obsessed with Battlefield and Command and Conquer, which they owned. Now they seem like gaming's Stalin to Activision's Hitler.

Does that make Capcom Hirohito?

cloudeagle · April 2012

initiatefailure wrote: »

what exactly is unseemly about ww2 archival footage? That seems pretty cool, and fits the setting considering CoDs long history with that time period. Unless there's something that's not translating over here to me at work where I can't view the video itself. Hitler being in something does not make it instantly offensive. It's called history.

The music video I can understand as it doesn't serve a purpose in being there.

You don't see anything odd about Hitler being mentioned as a staff pick video for Modern Warfare 3?

Allforce · April 2012

Odd yes, offensive, no. It's not like they listed the video as HEY GUYS THIS GUY MAKES SENSE LISTEN UP

E: didn't see your italics, to be fair you fight in Germany in 3

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

So Nintendo invented the Analog thumbstick with the N64 right?

WRONG. Sega, innovatin' yet again:

Sega's analog controller for Galaxy Force II on the Megadrive.

speaking of that design...

that's where it originates from

MechMantis · April 2012

Man, I have that game, and it certainly didn't come with one of those.

Goddamnit.

GnomeTank · April 2012

cloudeagle wrote: »

initiatefailure wrote: »

what exactly is unseemly about ww2 archival footage? That seems pretty cool, and fits the setting considering CoDs long history with that time period. Unless there's something that's not translating over here to me at work where I can't view the video itself. Hitler being in something does not make it instantly offensive. It's called history.

The music video I can understand as it doesn't serve a purpose in being there.

You don't see anything odd about Hitler being mentioned as a staff pick video for Modern Warfare 3?

Not really, no, since WW2 and Hitler specifically basically created the modern warfare doctrine. That whole "blitzkrieg" thing? That's how we run wars today, and love Hitler or hate him (please tell me you hate him), he was the architect of modern warfare.

Plus, it's HISTORY people. If you find history offensive when used mostly in context, you have an issue.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

MechMantis wrote: »

Man, I have that game, and it certainly didn't come with one of those.

Goddamnit.

Japan-land. It's also super rare.

it also works with MUSHA. Meaning that if you played MUSHA with this controller, you'd literally be playing with about $1000 worth of sega goodness.

Robes · April 2012

There ya go

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Apparently the Megadrive analog controller works with the following:

After Burner II
Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II
Fastest 1
Galaxy Force II
Musha Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Ellinor

Mega CD :
After Burner III
Night Striker
Star Blade

32X:
After Burner Complete
Space Harrier

All of these games apparently have full analog controls hidden in them that only are unlocked when using that controller. That's goddamn mindblowing.

MechMantis · April 2012

I'm seeing a decided lack of Shadow Squadron being listed there. Which is a goddamn shame. However, this is a decidedly large tangent.

but wow, it's really neat to see that progression.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

Robes wrote: »

There ya go

That's not a thumbstick, though. I mean, yeah, I agree with you, but that's the little nitpick I see people use all the time to say Nintendo invented the analog thumbstick, because obviously there were analog joysticks and flight sticks and racing wheels long before.

But there you go, sega with an analog thumbstick, not a joystick or flight stick, well before the N64.

TheSonicRetard · April 2012

MechMantis wrote: »

I'm seeing a decided lack of Shadow Squadron being listed there. Which is a goddamn shame. However, this is a decidedly large tangent.

but wow, it's really neat to see that progression.

Shadow Squadron is one of the only 32X games I'd legitimately call an underrated gem. That game is great, one of the best 3D shmups of that entire generation. it was so beyond Star Wars Arcade, too.

Penny Arcade

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

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