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

vsove · May 2012

darleysam wrote: »

vsove wrote: »

The thing is, if you're someone on Twitter who has an incredibly large number of followers, you have to understand that your tweets are reaching an absurd number of people - and that's going to mean that whatever you say is, to a large degree, 'news'.

Were it Notch's first faux pas on Twitter, I would likely not even have commented. But he has a habit of running his mouth, and then when people comment on it he tends to act offended that anyone's taking offense.

I don't know, I'm probably just hypersensitive to these sorts of things as of late.

No, that's fair, he's got a whole tonne of followers and yet doesn't use a private account to voice these kinds of opinions, so I guess he should realise that there's a responsibility there, that the things he's saying will be read by many and treated as a public statement. But at the same time, I think people are still coming to terms with exactly what Twitter is and what it can do, and treat it like a global text message. Which is why you get footballers making stupid comments that get printed in tomorrow's papers, and why some game developers (who should be more savvy about this) saying things about other companies that would be better kept in private. I think both sides should take a step back and think about things.

Twitter is a weird minefield to navigate. I'm lucky in that I've spent enough time on our forums that I've got a pretty good grasp of 'what you can and cannot say in public', but I've still been caught out on occasion because I forgot that I wasn't just talking to people I know.

Warlock82 · May 2012

From my co-worker on the Elder Scrolls MMO (and relevant to both conversations!):

"Did they call it Scrolls?"

subedii · May 2012

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Here's something I thought was interesting.

The Sega Genesis Collection 5 came out on Steam today. Probably the strongest collection yet. 10 games for $7.50. Phantasy Star 2-4, Beyond Oasis, Dynamite Heady, Golden Axe 3, Revenge of the Shinobi, Streets of Rage 3, Vectorman 2, and Wonder Boy in Monster World.

Even with the collection offering such a great deal, Phantasy Star IV at $3 is in the Top 10 Best Sellers under $5.

I think the audience for JRPGs on Steam is being drastically underestimated.

Quite possibly. I remember seeing Ys 3: Oath in Felghana making the Steam charts for a while, and that's generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series (the new achievements listings were a nice touch. Whoever did them clearly had fun with those). Then you've got guys like Carpe Fulgur translating Doujin games and putting them up there, and making more money for the Japanese devs years after release than they did when they first launched (although I'm not sure Fortune Summoners did as well, the reception it got in the relevant sites like RPS wasn't nearly as good).

So yeah, at least with the more small-scale stuff there would appear to be. I mean it's not Japanese, but it was pretty telling to me that Shadowrun got the absolute tar kickstarted out of it even though it was originally SNES / Megadrive based (ignoring the original roots as a P&P game I mean). There is an audience out there craving this stuff.

Speaking personally if a port of Chrono Trigger dropped it'd probably hit my Steam account before the page even had time to load.

darleysam · May 2012

Speaking of MMOs, has anyone else been following the 'Burn Jita' escapades going on in EVE? Because I know it's boring as hell lol spreadsheets in space, but I love that, because of how it all works, you can get something truly awesome come out of it, and as long as it falls within the TOS, CCP will not only allow it, but help you if it's needed:

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=28640

Things have been afoot in the Jita solar system recently...
WHAT IS JITA?

For quite some time, the Jita solar system has been the most populated solar system in EVE Online on a sustained basis, having organically risen as the main player trade hub in game due to its location and the basic human need to gather together and trade stuff.

It's had a varied reputation as [wretched hive of scum, villainy and scammers], [representative product of EVE's emergent sandbox game design], [indefatigable cog of economic prosperity], and [rallying point for impassioned protestors].

And, starting last Friday, it was on fire.

Actually, Jita itself wasn't on fire, but thousands of players who normally find it a "safe" haven of trade and economic gameplay found their ships on fire - everything from a lonely hauler on up to the simply massive, highly-armored freighters moving thousands of USD equivalents of ships and goods.

As you can see from the below "kill" heatmap of the EVE universe (where each dot is one of the 5,431 solar systems in EVE's known universe), it was a pretty big deal.

cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/28130/1/jita-heatmap-large.png

And it all happened because a few players wanted to make it happen and then, after convincing thousands of others to join them from around the world, they made it happen.

"BURN JITA"

For several months now, a coalition of thousands of players have been planning the "Burn Jita" event, aimed at disrupting the biggest trade hub in game in order to wreak some terrific, universe-wide changes by shaking the very pillars of EVE's economy at its metaphorical heart. Surely there was some sort of larger, meta-economic objective that likely would cause them great profit. This planning happened both in game and outside of game, via voice over IP chat, secret forums, Twitter and more. A sci-fi plot of the new information age if there ever was one.

Using game mechanics and some very impressive logistics, the coalition, lead by a group known as Goonswarm, amassed a tremendous amount of manpower and ships in a concentrated effort that would probably make many real life military strategists jaw-drop. Bravado-saturated propaganda was also a pretty big part of their plot.

Fast forward to Friday: Player fleets comprised of high-damage-dealing ships began to destroy high-value industrial ships during a sustained campaign with single, coordinated volleys, sacrificing themselves in waves because the in-game "police" warps in almost immediately with harsh, reprimanding justice.

Amidst this orchestrated chaos, opportunistic salvagers profited from the wrecks left behind and EVE's deep, talented player community began blogging about, filming, screenshotting, livestreaming and celebrating/decrying the event. Some opposing fleets rose up to fight the invading hordes as well - to mixed success.

All of it occured in the same framework of unrestricted player movement and limitless player choice in a single, shared game universe. As our senior producer put it "f*cking brilliant". As a participating player put it: "There’s just something special about building 15,000 spaceships and loading their guns with 1 round of ammo to shoot. And doing it right in front of the police."

As developers we watched in awe at another amazing thing our players brought to the universe we created. Yet there was a lot more going on behind the scenes on our end besides popcorn and a comfy chair...

It goes on with a bunch of the technical stuff they did to make it run. Basically, Goonswarm decided they wanted to cause a huge distruption in the trade hub of the entire game, a system called Jita. Jita is a policed system, so if you attack another ship, the in-game cops descend on you and blow your tits off before you can do anything. But Goonswarm decided to amass a ridiculous army of disposable ships and willing pilots, and organised a massive attack on the system to try and cause as much damage as possible. Realising this would probably nobble the server, CCP brought in extra hardware and went to work reconfiguring their 'Time Dilation' system (for managing large scale fights) to make the whole event go as smoothly as possible. Rather than shut it down because it was a Friday and they wanted to knock off early, they went to work to make it happen.

Deserves a special recognition for how to run your MMO.

RainbowDespair · May 2012

subedii wrote: »

I remember seeing Ys 3: Oath in Felghana making the Steam charts for a while, and that's generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series (the new achievements listings were a nice touch.

Actually, you got that reversed - Oath in Felghana is generally regarded as one of the best games in the series.

subedii · May 2012

RainbowDespair wrote: »

subedii wrote: »

I remember seeing Ys 3: Oath in Felghana making the Steam charts for a while, and that's generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series (the new achievements listings were a nice touch.

Actually, you got that reversed - Oath in Felghana is generally regarded as one of the best games in the series.

Really? Huh, I heard it was 1 and 2 that was preferred, guess I'm just remembering wrong.

TelMarine · May 2012

interesting news: FilePlanet no longer being updated and is being archived: http://www.bluesnews.com/s/132008/fileplanet-heading-towards-a-black-hole

I remember when it was THE site to get demos, patches, mod content etc.

subedii · May 2012

TelMarine wrote: »

interesting news: FilePlanet no longer being updated and is being archived: http://www.bluesnews.com/s/132008/fileplanet-heading-towards-a-black-hole

I remember when it was THE site to get demos, patches, mod content etc.

Terrible, dark days they were.

Took forever to find anything in those freaking nested menus, then you were waiting in queues, THEN you were downloading at a few bytes a minute because you hadn't subscribed to our AWESOME fileplanet service, subscribe now!

You'd better hope you didn't suffer any connection hiccups part way through. Honestly, the number of files I lost at 90% + completion... I had ridiculous patience back then just to get a demo or a patch.

SyphonBlue · May 2012

subedii wrote: »

TelMarine wrote: »

interesting news: FilePlanet no longer being updated and is being archived: http://www.bluesnews.com/s/132008/fileplanet-heading-towards-a-black-hole

I remember when it was THE site to get demos, patches, mod content etc.

Terrible, dark days they were.

Took forever to find anything in those freaking nested menus, then you were waiting in queues, THEN you were downloading at a few bytes a minute because you hadn't subscribed to our AWESOME fileplanet service, subscribe now!

You'd better hope you didn't suffer any connection hiccups part way through. Honestly, the number of files I lost at 90% + completion... I had ridiculous patience back then just to get a demo or a patch.

It wasn't patience so much as literally the only option.

RainbowDespair · May 2012

subedii wrote: »

RainbowDespair wrote: »

subedii wrote: »

I remember seeing Ys 3: Oath in Felghana making the Steam charts for a while, and that's generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series (the new achievements listings were a nice touch.

Actually, you got that reversed - Oath in Felghana is generally regarded as one of the best games in the series.

Really? Huh, I heard it was 1 and 2 that was preferred, guess I'm just remembering wrong.

It's an easy mistake to make - Ys 3 is generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series however the remake of Ys 3 (Oath in Felghana) is generally regarded as one of the best games in the series. And Ys 1 & 2 are either loved (mostly by the extremely retro crowd) or hated (by everyone else) - there's not really a middle ground there. Ys 1 & 2 are unusual from pretty much every other game out there in that combat involved running into things.

subedii · May 2012

SyphonBlue wrote: »

subedii wrote: »

TelMarine wrote: »

interesting news: FilePlanet no longer being updated and is being archived: http://www.bluesnews.com/s/132008/fileplanet-heading-towards-a-black-hole

I remember when it was THE site to get demos, patches, mod content etc.

Terrible, dark days they were.

Took forever to find anything in those freaking nested menus, then you were waiting in queues, THEN you were downloading at a few bytes a minute because you hadn't subscribed to our AWESOME fileplanet service, subscribe now!

You'd better hope you didn't suffer any connection hiccups part way through. Honestly, the number of files I lost at 90% + completion... I had ridiculous patience back then just to get a demo or a patch.

It wasn't patience so much as literally the only option.

There were cover discs too. I used to hoard those freaking things, even the ones that didn't have anything I wanted, because there were patches on there for games I might want to patch when I bought them later.

I never actually considered this an inconvenience at the time, because as you say, it was the only real option, it was all I really knew.

Pfft, kids these days don't know how good they've got it, with their auto-updating games in the background and other shenanigans. The stuff we went through in the early days of the net built character.

And phone bills, but mostly character.

EDIT: @ Rainbow: That would make sense, I think I may have been hearing about the original launch of Ys 3.

Dehumanized · May 2012

I liked the original SNES version of Ys 3. I was 8, though, so I can't have been expected to have a solid outlook on the general quality of things.

Back on the general subject, though, JRPGs have always been an underserved genre on PC. I just don't think the interest is there in Japan to support the platform -- from what I understand, PC gaming in Japan is basically the realm of creepy stuff.

Cade · May 2012

Elder Scrolls Online confirmed

Long rumored and much anticipated, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally being unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. In this month's cover story we journey across the entire land of Tamriel, from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between.

Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

"It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," said game director and MMO veteran Matt Firor, whose previous work includes Mythic's well-received Dark Age of Camelot. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."

An in-depth look at everything from solo questing to public dungeons awaits in our enormous June cover story – as well as a peek at the player-driven PvP conflict that pits the three player factions against each other in open-world warfare over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor's throne itself.

Come back tomorrow morning for a brief teaser trailer from Zenimax Online and Bethesda Softworks, and later on in the afternoon for the first screenshot of the game. Over the course of the month, be sure to visit our Elder Scrolls Online hub, which will feature new exclusive content multiple times each week. You'll meet the three player factions, see video interviews with the creative leads, and much more.

The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled to come out in 2013 for both PC and Macintosh.

So.....yeah....excited?

Couscous · May 2012

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169704/Game_retail_weakens_as_consumers_turn_to_alternative_entertainment__analyst.php

click here
A new report from analyst firm PiperJaffray projects that the upcoming NPD results for April 2012 will show U.S. video game software sales have declined significantly year-over-year.

With NPD's data for April due to be released on May 10, PiperJaffray's Michael Olson and Andrew Connor also expect video game sales to be down in May year-over-year, due to "thinning sell-through tails," although the decline will be offset by strong sales of Take-Two and Rockstar's Max Payne 3.

"Gamers are exiting the market for alternative forms of entertainment and leisure activities," states the report. "Consumers are increasingly demanding interactive media experiences that are social, mobile and free to play.

"These activities include photo/video sharing and social gaming, all of which are activities that the current consoles and new handhelds do not support effectively." The firm is estimating April NPD video game software sales of $375 million, down 25 percent year-on-year.

EA and BioWare's Mass Effect 3 was the highest-selling game title in the U.S. during April, says the report, followed by Activision's Prototype 2 and Nintendo-published Xenoblade Chronicles.

The analysts point out that Electronic Arts had no new retail titles launching in April, nor does it have titles launching in May, leading to "disappointing" sales during this period -- although they expect EA to report solid Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription numbers during the company's earnings call next week.

The analysts estimate that during April, Activision saw a modest increase in U.S. retail sales sales year-over-year during April, thanks to the launch of Prototype 2. However, the month also saw "weak Modern Warfare 3 demand," say the reports, indicating "a significant shortfall compared to Black Ops in the same period last year."

Forecasting U.S. game retail for May, Olson and Connor believe that Take-Two and Rockstar's Max Payne 3 will outsell Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future, Dragon's Dogma and Sniper Elite V2 combined. The analyst report focuses on console games, and did not include projections for Blizzard's highly-anticipated May PC release, Diablo III.

Why haven't MS and Sony jumped on the social gaming bandwagon? Nothing about their consoles prevents them from helping developers port the more popular shit over.

skeldare · May 2012

Cade wrote: »

Elder Scrolls Online confirmed

Long rumored and much anticipated, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally being unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. In this month's cover story we journey across the entire land of Tamriel, from Elsweyr to Skyrim and everywhere in between.

Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

"It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years," said game director and MMO veteran Matt Firor, whose previous work includes Mythic's well-received Dark Age of Camelot. "The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."

An in-depth look at everything from solo questing to public dungeons awaits in our enormous June cover story – as well as a peek at the player-driven PvP conflict that pits the three player factions against each other in open-world warfare over the province of Cyrodiil and the Emperor's throne itself.

Come back tomorrow morning for a brief teaser trailer from Zenimax Online and Bethesda Softworks, and later on in the afternoon for the first screenshot of the game. Over the course of the month, be sure to visit our Elder Scrolls Online hub, which will feature new exclusive content multiple times each week. You'll meet the three player factions, see video interviews with the creative leads, and much more.

The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled to come out in 2013 for both PC and Macintosh.

So.....yeah....excited?

So excited it's been talked about since the last page

Cade · May 2012

skeldare wrote: »

So.....yeah....excited?

So excited it's been talked about since the last page

[/quote]

Well boo to that I say, darn time travelers.

LegendofLink · May 2012

I'm still moderately excited because this means that there will be a non-WoW triple-A MMO that I can play on my Mac. Only moderately excited because it's still a year away and we know barely anything about it.

Cantido · May 2012

Couscous wrote: »

Why haven't MS and Sony jumped on the social gaming bandwagon? Nothing about their consoles prevents them from helping developers port the more popular shit over.

Because patching still costs 40,000 because FUCK YOU, DEVS.

SwashbucklerXX · May 2012

LegendofLink wrote: »

I'm still moderately excited because this means that there will be a non-WoW triple-A MMO that I can play on my Mac. Only moderately excited because it's still a year away and we know barely anything about it.

It's so not actually releasing in 2013.

ArcSyn · May 2012

darleysam wrote: »

Speaking of MMOs, has anyone else been following the 'Burn Jita' escapades going on in EVE? Because I know it's boring as hell lol spreadsheets in space, but I love that, because of how it all works, you can get something truly awesome come out of it, and as long as it falls within the TOS, CCP will not only allow it, but help you if it's needed:

http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=28640

Things have been afoot in the Jita solar system recently...
WHAT IS JITA?

For quite some time, the Jita solar system has been the most populated solar system in EVE Online on a sustained basis, having organically risen as the main player trade hub in game due to its location and the basic human need to gather together and trade stuff.

It's had a varied reputation as [wretched hive of scum, villainy and scammers], [representative product of EVE's emergent sandbox game design], [indefatigable cog of economic prosperity], and [rallying point for impassioned protestors].

And, starting last Friday, it was on fire.

Actually, Jita itself wasn't on fire, but thousands of players who normally find it a "safe" haven of trade and economic gameplay found their ships on fire - everything from a lonely hauler on up to the simply massive, highly-armored freighters moving thousands of USD equivalents of ships and goods.

As you can see from the below "kill" heatmap of the EVE universe (where each dot is one of the 5,431 solar systems in EVE's known universe), it was a pretty big deal.

cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/28130/1/jita-heatmap-large.png

And it all happened because a few players wanted to make it happen and then, after convincing thousands of others to join them from around the world, they made it happen.

"BURN JITA"

For several months now, a coalition of thousands of players have been planning the "Burn Jita" event, aimed at disrupting the biggest trade hub in game in order to wreak some terrific, universe-wide changes by shaking the very pillars of EVE's economy at its metaphorical heart. Surely there was some sort of larger, meta-economic objective that likely would cause them great profit. This planning happened both in game and outside of game, via voice over IP chat, secret forums, Twitter and more. A sci-fi plot of the new information age if there ever was one.

Using game mechanics and some very impressive logistics, the coalition, lead by a group known as Goonswarm, amassed a tremendous amount of manpower and ships in a concentrated effort that would probably make many real life military strategists jaw-drop. Bravado-saturated propaganda was also a pretty big part of their plot.

Fast forward to Friday: Player fleets comprised of high-damage-dealing ships began to destroy high-value industrial ships during a sustained campaign with single, coordinated volleys, sacrificing themselves in waves because the in-game "police" warps in almost immediately with harsh, reprimanding justice.

Amidst this orchestrated chaos, opportunistic salvagers profited from the wrecks left behind and EVE's deep, talented player community began blogging about, filming, screenshotting, livestreaming and celebrating/decrying the event. Some opposing fleets rose up to fight the invading hordes as well - to mixed success.

All of it occured in the same framework of unrestricted player movement and limitless player choice in a single, shared game universe. As our senior producer put it "f*cking brilliant". As a participating player put it: "There’s just something special about building 15,000 spaceships and loading their guns with 1 round of ammo to shoot. And doing it right in front of the police."

As developers we watched in awe at another amazing thing our players brought to the universe we created. Yet there was a lot more going on behind the scenes on our end besides popcorn and a comfy chair...

It goes on with a bunch of the technical stuff they did to make it run. Basically, Goonswarm decided they wanted to cause a huge distruption in the trade hub of the entire game, a system called Jita. Jita is a policed system, so if you attack another ship, the in-game cops descend on you and blow your tits off before you can do anything. But Goonswarm decided to amass a ridiculous army of disposable ships and willing pilots, and organised a massive attack on the system to try and cause as much damage as possible. Realising this would probably nobble the server, CCP brought in extra hardware and went to work reconfiguring their 'Time Dilation' system (for managing large scale fights) to make the whole event go as smoothly as possible. Rather than shut it down because it was a Friday and they wanted to knock off early, they went to work to make it happen.

Deserves a special recognition for how to run your MMO.

That's incredible. The policed systems make you feel safe, and to take that away.... EVE continues to impress me. Makes me want to play again, until I realize it'd be months to years before I could actually enjoy any of these shenanigans.

SirUltimos · May 2012

The best thing about EVE is just reading all these crazy stories that surface.

ArcSyn · May 2012

EVE is kinda like ARGs for me. I'll never participate, but observing and reading about the crazy things people have done while participating is incredible and I hope it never stops.

Zephiran · May 2012

EVE is like an Island For Rich, Famous And Slightly Unhinged Yet Seclusive People that everyone else gets to peek in at every now and then.

As for the TES MMO... How is it going to work, exactly?

RainbowDespair · May 2012

ArcSyn wrote: »

EVE is kinda like ARGs for me. I'll never participate, but observing and reading about the crazy things people have done while participating is incredible and I hope it never stops.

Same here. I love reading about EVE but I imagine I would hate actually playing it.

Skull2185 · May 2012

korodullin wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

Must you do this every time EA is mentioned in even a potentially negative light? This schtick is very, very tiresome.

What do I do?

The "let's all hate EA, because why not?!" schtick is very, very tiresome...

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

Let's take a quick look at some analyst predictions!

The following comes from a PiperJaffray report...

- predicts April 2012 sales will drop significantly year-over-year
- this is due to "thinning sell-through tails"

"Gamers are exiting the market for alternative forms of entertainment and leisure activities. Consumers are increasingly demanding interactive media experiences that are social, mobile and free to play. These activities include photo/video sharing and social gaming, all of which are activities that the current consoles and new handhelds do not support effectively."

- estimating software sales of $375 million, down 25 percent year-on-year
- Xenoblade Chronicles expected to be third best-selling title of the month
- "weak Modern Warfare 3 demand" leading to "a significant shortfall compared to Black Ops in the same period last year."

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169704/Game_retail_weakens_as_consumers_turn_to_alternative_entertainment__analyst.php

I'm not sure I'm that optimistic about Xenoblade, but I'm sure it sold decently. But it being exclusive to one store might have limited its sales some. I hope he's right though.

Beltaine · May 2012

"Gamers are exiting the market for alternative forms of entertainment and leisure activities. Consumers are increasingly demanding interactive media experiences that are social, mobile and free to play. These activities include photo/video sharing and social gaming, all of which are activities that the current consoles and new handhelds do not support effectively."

Doom?

"weak Modern Warfare 3 demand" leading to "a significant shortfall compared to Black Ops in the same period last year."

This is more due to market saturation than a mass exodus of gamers.

korodullin · May 2012

Skull2185 wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

Must you do this every time EA is mentioned in even a potentially negative light? This schtick is very, very tiresome.

What do I do?

The "let's all hate EA, because why not?!" schtick is very, very tiresome...

You get your panties in a twist every time one of these EA stories pops up and have been pretty much ever since the ME3 ending was big news. I can't possibly be the only one who's noticed.

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

Everyone here gets all riled up when something they like gets hated on. It's what we do as gamers. We hate on stuff we hate and defend stuff we like. Give Skullnumbers a break.

CygnusZ · May 2012

subedii wrote: »

RainbowDespair wrote: »

Here's something I thought was interesting.

The Sega Genesis Collection 5 came out on Steam today. Probably the strongest collection yet. 10 games for $7.50. Phantasy Star 2-4, Beyond Oasis, Dynamite Heady, Golden Axe 3, Revenge of the Shinobi, Streets of Rage 3, Vectorman 2, and Wonder Boy in Monster World.

Even with the collection offering such a great deal, Phantasy Star IV at $3 is in the Top 10 Best Sellers under $5.

I think the audience for JRPGs on Steam is being drastically underestimated.

Quite possibly. I remember seeing Ys 3: Oath in Felghana making the Steam charts for a while, and that's generally regarded as one of the less good games in the series (the new achievements listings were a nice touch. Whoever did them clearly had fun with those). Then you've got guys like Carpe Fulgur translating Doujin games and putting them up there, and making more money for the Japanese devs years after release than they did when they first launched (although I'm not sure Fortune Summoners did as well, the reception it got in the relevant sites like RPS wasn't nearly as good).

So yeah, at least with the more small-scale stuff there would appear to be. I mean it's not Japanese, but it was pretty telling to me that Shadowrun got the absolute tar kickstarted out of it even though it was originally SNES / Megadrive based (ignoring the original roots as a P&P game I mean). There is an audience out there craving this stuff.

Speaking personally if a port of Chrono Trigger dropped it'd probably hit my Steam account before the page even had time to load.

Oath in Felghana is considered one of the best in the series. It's based on a game called Wanderers from Ys which was a weaker entry (although still a good early SNES game).

Robes · May 2012

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Let's take a quick look at some analyst predictions!

The following comes from a PiperJaffray report...

- predicts April 2012 sales will drop significantly year-over-year
- this is due to "thinning sell-through tails"

"Gamers are exiting the market for alternative forms of entertainment and leisure activities. Consumers are increasingly demanding interactive media experiences that are social, mobile and free to play. These activities include photo/video sharing and social gaming, all of which are activities that the current consoles and new handhelds do not support effectively."

- estimating software sales of $375 million, down 25 percent year-on-year
- Xenoblade Chronicles expected to be third best-selling title of the month
- "weak Modern Warfare 3 demand" leading to "a significant shortfall compared to Black Ops in the same period last year."

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169704/Game_retail_weakens_as_consumers_turn_to_alternative_entertainment__analyst.php

I'm not sure I'm that optimistic about Xenoblade, but I'm sure it sold decently. But it being exclusive to one store might have limited its sales some. I hope he's right though.

Kinda surprised by this:

"Forecasting U.S. game retail for May, Olson and Connor believe that Take-Two and Rockstar's Max Payne 3 will outsell Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future, Dragon's Dogma and Sniper Elite V2 combined. The analyst report focuses on console games, and did not include projections for Blizzard's highly-anticipated May PC release, Diablo III. "

They only analyze consoles? How can you open an article with this statement: "will show U.S. video game software sales have declined significantly year-over-year." And not include the 3ds, vita, and PC?

Sheep · May 2012

Anyone else read that as "people are getting bored with this generation, yo"?

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

More:

"U.S. publishers usually think Japanese developers just can just make Nintendo platform console games, but those platforms are [declining]. Other big platforms like 360, PS3, and PC are getting bigger here, and they think Japanese developers cannot make big titles for those platforms." - Tose rep

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/169276/Why_ninja_developer_Tose_published_its_first_game_in_32_years.php

He has to be talking about the Wii & DS, both of which are at the end of their life cycle...so they would be in decline, it's how these things work.

The 3DS is far from being in a decline.

Algertman · May 2012

Skull2185 wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

Must you do this every time EA is mentioned in even a potentially negative light? This schtick is very, very tiresome.

What do I do?

The "let's all hate EA, because why not?!" schtick is very, very tiresome...

Fuck EA. They are a cancer.

Absalon · May 2012

Sheep wrote: »

Anyone else read that as "people are getting bored with this generation, yo"?

Yeah, a migration to PCs might be happening.

I still think the discussed Valve gaming PC with standard gamepad, specs and upgradable components sounded awesome. Stationary power for streamlined gaming, basic laptop for all the boring things you need to do with a computer plus surfing. Sounds like I would love it.

jothki · May 2012

Zephiran wrote: »

As for the TES MMO... How is it going to work, exactly?

In order for it to feel anything like an Elder Scrolls game, it'll have to have little mini-dungeons everywhere.

Skull2185 · May 2012

korodullin wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

korodullin wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

Must you do this every time EA is mentioned in even a potentially negative light? This schtick is very, very tiresome.

What do I do?

The "let's all hate EA, because why not?!" schtick is very, very tiresome...

You get your panties in a twist every time one of these EA stories pops up and have been pretty much ever since the ME3 ending was big news. I can't possibly be the only one who's noticed.

Its the incredible stupidity that gets me. Almost none of the "big" EA stories as of late have been legitimate reasons to dogpile them. But, I suppose jumping on every stupid "I haet EA LOL!" post is just as bad as the posts themselves. I shall do that with less frequency!

Its nice to know that someone's paying attention to me though 8->

Henroid · May 2012

skeldare wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

God I am so tired of Notch.

... Isn't this the guy who, instead of taking all the profits for himself, he shared the profits with his employees?

SO SICK OF THAT NOTCH.

skeldare · May 2012

Henroid wrote: »

skeldare wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Notch needs to calm down.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/notch-ea-are-cynical-bastards-who-are-methodically-destroying-gam/095466

Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has unleashed a vicious verbal assault on leading global publisher EA.

He was seemingly provoked by EA’s new Indie Bundle on Steam which includes indie titles EA has previously digitally published such as Shank and DeathSpank.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That's not how that works, EA,” he said.

“Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.

“I don't even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie. Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

I think he knows that all the morons over at Reddit masturbate furiously to anything Notch related, so he's just giving his fans what they want.

OMG Notch hates EA too! *SPLOOOGE*

God I am so tired of Notch.

... Isn't this the guy who, instead of taking all the profits for himself, he shared the profits with his employees?

SO SICK OF THAT NOTCH.

I should clarify that I'm mostly tired of hearing about Notch.

Rakai · May 2012

Yeah, this is Notch being retarded. His issue seems to be with what falls under Valve's "Indie" category and puts all the blame on EA because it's cool to blame EA for everything.

Penny Arcade

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

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