Considering my very positive experience with Steam, I wouldn't be worried about prices staying too high too long. Seems Steam is the place where you can get the best sales considering they don't have to pay the 70% (or whatever ridiculous number it is) retail margin.
I know this is a bit late but 70% retail margin?! What are you smoking man? Middleman and retailer margins aren't great by any standard. Hell with most new release games the store only makes a couple of dollars off of each sale. Why do you think they push used games so hard? Sell a new copy for 100% and make 5% or sell a used copy and make 80%.
I hate to contradict you, but NoE won't touch Mother 3 either which means it's not an NoA issue.
It's not NoE or NoA.
It's just N.
So then again, the situation is completely different because in this case NoE is getting the games in question (in English, in fact!) and NoA just doesn't seem interested.
Maddoc on
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I hate to contradict you, but NoE won't touch Mother 3 either which means it's not an NoA issue.
It's not NoE or NoA.
It's just N.
So then again, the situation is completely different because in this case NoE is getting the games in question (in English, in fact!) and NoA just doesn't seem interested.
And who can blame NoA? Why go to all the trouble of releasing games (that they would have to retranslate and do voice work for--since they never use NOE translations) that will sell almost no copies?
Let's say Nintendo caves and announces Xenoblade for an American release. The first thing that will happen is most of the Amazon pre-orders will be canceled, since most of the people pre-ordering it have no intention of actually buying the game.
Then give the publishing rights to Atlus, or XSEED who would take it up in a heartbeat. Xenoblade is a heck of a lot higher profile than 95% of what they release.
Edit: And preorders would be canceled as currently Amazon is the only place to order (and is priced $10 above normal at the moment) and localization would mean buying from the retailer of their choosing, typically closer to launch. (Preorders always spike closer to release.)
Edit 2: And Sheep, SCEA has rejected games that SCEE approved (and I'm not talking about games that Sony publishes). They're rather well known for doing so. (Syberia wasn't allowed to be released on the PS2 in the US. BoF3 wasn't allowed on the PSP in the US. etc.) Different branches make different decisions all the time.
Rakai on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
Let's say Nintendo caves and announces Xenoblade for an American release. The first thing that will happen is most of the Amazon pre-orders will be canceled, since most of the people pre-ordering it have no intention of actually buying the game.
So? The fact that it's released over here would generate just as many sales that were canceled, by virtue of actually being available in stores and also people who weren't willing to support it now but decide they want it later or are convinced through word of mouth.
I remember when Disaster was changed because of some demands NoA made (I can't find a link but I know I'm not going crazy [I don't actually know that]). They never released the game in NA.
Then give the publishing rights to Atlus, or XSEED who would take it up in a heartbeat. Xenoblade is a heck of a lot higher profile than 95% of what they release.
Edit: And preorders would be canceled as currently Amazon is the only place to order (and is priced $10 above normal at the moment) and localization would mean buying from the retailer of their choosing, typically closer to launch. (Preorders always spike closer to release.)
Edit 2: And Sheep, SCEA has rejected games that SCEE approved (and I'm not talking about games that Sony publishes). They're rather well known for doing so. (Syberia wasn't allowed to be released on the PS2 in the US. BoF3 wasn't allowed on the PSP in the US. etc.) Different branches make different decisions all the time.
This is the same company that bought the publishing rights to Fatal Frame 4 specifically because they didn't want it published in the US.
Then give the publishing rights to Atlus, or XSEED who would take it up in a heartbeat. Xenoblade is a heck of a lot higher profile than 95% of what they release.
Edit: And preorders would be canceled as currently Amazon is the only place to order (and is priced $10 above normal at the moment) and localization would mean buying from the retailer of their choosing, typically closer to launch. (Preorders always spike closer to release.)
Edit 2: And Sheep, SCEA has rejected games that SCEE approved (and I'm not talking about games that Sony publishes). They're rather well known for doing so. (Syberia wasn't allowed to be released on the PS2 in the US. BoF3 wasn't allowed on the PSP in the US. etc.) Different branches make different decisions all the time.
This is the same company that bought the publishing rights to Fatal Frame 4 specifically because they didn't want it published in the US.
Really? Bummer.
Synthesis on
0
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
Haha, yes, the only reason Nintendo bought the license is so that they could prevent it from ever being released here.
That makes perfect sense and is not tinfoil hat crazy at all.
IGN Australia reached out to dozens of former Team Bondi employees to help get a deeper look and tell the story. Eleven agreed to speak on the record, under the condition of anonymity; many feared reprisal from current and future employers if they were to be tagged as whistleblowers. The combined experience of these former staff is extensive: between them, they represent 24 years of service. Their individual tenures range from a few months, to four years, and they include artists, programmers, animators, and software engineers. We also spoke extensively with Team Bondi studio head Brendan McNamara for his perspective.
A recurring theme throughout the interviews that we conducted with the Bondi Eleven was that the mindset of Team Bondi's management was to hire junior employees, and make employees "work longer and faster," accepting high turnover in the course of it. "There was simply an expectation that you'd work overtime and weekends," said a source. "I was told that I was taking the piss by saying that I couldn't give every single one of my weekends away. We were looked at as a disposable resource, basically. If you weren't in the 'inner circle'" – an exclusive group which seems to have consisted of the former Team Soho employees – "you were just a resource to be burned through," he says. "Their attitude is: 'it's a privilege to work for us, and if you can't hack it, you should leave'. I heard one of the upper echelons say pretty much that. I thought it was disgusting. I don't understand how they can't see that maintaining talent would actually be good for them."
An artist with 12 years professional experience recalls, "They created a below-junior position; 'graduate junior', I think, so they could pay less and push people around." Team Bondi was the first – and last – game development company that he worked for. "I don't want another job in the game industry because of my experience [at Bondi]. Most of the [artists] I know who worked there, never want to work in games again."
A former programmer says that, during his three year tenure, the studio had a "massive turnaround, especially in the coding department. Out of the 45 people that no longer worked at the studio, 11 were fired. Out of the 34 that actually decided to leave, 25 of those were coders; most of whom had no job to go to, since they decided that it was better to be unemployed than to be working there. I was one of those."
This was echoed by a gameplay programmer, who had no prior game development experience. "They have a massive turnover; a huge attrition rate," he says. "I remember sitting in a meeting with all of the gameplay programmers. There were around 20 of us at the time. I looked around, and realised that out of all of them, other than the team lead, I'd been there the longest. And I'd only been there for under 12 months."
All eleven ex-employees who went on record blamed many of Team Bondi's problems on the studio's leadership. One programmer cited unrealistic goals, unreasonable deadlines and verbally abusive behaviour. Another describes McNamara as "the angriest person" he's ever met. "It's one thing for him to be angry behind closed doors, but it was incredibly common for him to scream at whoever was pissing him off in the middle of the office." In our conversation McNamara talked openly about his management style, saying that he sees getting into arguments as part of trying to get things done: "Am I passionate about making the game? Absolutely. Do you think that I'm going to voice my opinion? Absolutely. But I don't think that's verbal abuse."
Many of the ex-Bondi employees we interviewed talked about perpetual "crunch time" – a term often mentioned in the video games business when referring to long hours spent catching up on development milestones. While late hours are a common sight – and complaint – at American games and entertainment studios, designers new to the games business were taken aback. "When I joined the team, there was no indication that it was anything other than a 9-5, five-day-a-week job," said one artist who spent two years at the studio. "It was never outwardly said that you had to be working more [hours], but it was just the vibe of the place. If you weren't [working overtime], you couldn't progress any further."
"If you left at 7.30pm, you'd get evil eyes," another artist recalls. "The crunch was ongoing. It just kept on shifting; an ominous crunch that just keeps moving, and moving. Management would say, 'Oh, it'll finish once we meet this deadline,' but the deadline kept moving. That went on for a good year." Of the three years that this artist spent at Team Bondi, he worked 60-hour weeks on average. To meet each development milestone – around one per month, he says – his workload would jump to between 80 and 110 hours per week, for a period of one to two weeks at a time. The wider issue, one animator believes, is "game companies thinking that crunch can solve poor scheduling, or bad design decisions made early on in a project."
Another source who left the company in 2008 called his experience at Team Bondi the biggest disappointment of his life. "I left because of stress and working conditions, mainly. But the trigger was this: I received a reprimand for 'conduct and punctuality' for being 15 minutes late to work. I arrived at 9:15am – despite the fact I had only left work around 3:15am the same day, and paid for my own taxi home! I never would have thought you could put a sweat shop in the Sydney CBD."
Another issue raised by several of the Bondi Eleven related to overtime. "No overtime was officially paid in the three years and three months that I worked at Team Bondi," one artist told us. According to this source, staff contracts were worded in a manner which ensured that the only way employees would be paid for their overtime would be to wait until three months after project completion. Those who left the company before this time were not entitled to overtime payments.
Looks like somebody took some shit from EA's old playbook.
IGN Australia reached out to dozens of former Team Bondi employees to help get a deeper look and tell the story. Eleven agreed to speak on the record, under the condition of anonymity; many feared reprisal from current and future employers if they were to be tagged as whistleblowers. The combined experience of these former staff is extensive: between them, they represent 24 years of service. Their individual tenures range from a few months, to four years, and they include artists, programmers, animators, and software engineers. We also spoke extensively with Team Bondi studio head Brendan McNamara for his perspective.
A recurring theme throughout the interviews that we conducted with the Bondi Eleven was that the mindset of Team Bondi's management was to hire junior employees, and make employees "work longer and faster," accepting high turnover in the course of it. "There was simply an expectation that you'd work overtime and weekends," said a source. "I was told that I was taking the piss by saying that I couldn't give every single one of my weekends away. We were looked at as a disposable resource, basically. If you weren't in the 'inner circle'" – an exclusive group which seems to have consisted of the former Team Soho employees – "you were just a resource to be burned through," he says. "Their attitude is: 'it's a privilege to work for us, and if you can't hack it, you should leave'. I heard one of the upper echelons say pretty much that. I thought it was disgusting. I don't understand how they can't see that maintaining talent would actually be good for them."
An artist with 12 years professional experience recalls, "They created a below-junior position; 'graduate junior', I think, so they could pay less and push people around." Team Bondi was the first – and last – game development company that he worked for. "I don't want another job in the game industry because of my experience [at Bondi]. Most of the [artists] I know who worked there, never want to work in games again."
A former programmer says that, during his three year tenure, the studio had a "massive turnaround, especially in the coding department. Out of the 45 people that no longer worked at the studio, 11 were fired. Out of the 34 that actually decided to leave, 25 of those were coders; most of whom had no job to go to, since they decided that it was better to be unemployed than to be working there. I was one of those."
This was echoed by a gameplay programmer, who had no prior game development experience. "They have a massive turnover; a huge attrition rate," he says. "I remember sitting in a meeting with all of the gameplay programmers. There were around 20 of us at the time. I looked around, and realised that out of all of them, other than the team lead, I'd been there the longest. And I'd only been there for under 12 months."
All eleven ex-employees who went on record blamed many of Team Bondi's problems on the studio's leadership. One programmer cited unrealistic goals, unreasonable deadlines and verbally abusive behaviour. Another describes McNamara as "the angriest person" he's ever met. "It's one thing for him to be angry behind closed doors, but it was incredibly common for him to scream at whoever was pissing him off in the middle of the office." In our conversation McNamara talked openly about his management style, saying that he sees getting into arguments as part of trying to get things done: "Am I passionate about making the game? Absolutely. Do you think that I'm going to voice my opinion? Absolutely. But I don't think that's verbal abuse."
Many of the ex-Bondi employees we interviewed talked about perpetual "crunch time" – a term often mentioned in the video games business when referring to long hours spent catching up on development milestones. While late hours are a common sight – and complaint – at American games and entertainment studios, designers new to the games business were taken aback. "When I joined the team, there was no indication that it was anything other than a 9-5, five-day-a-week job," said one artist who spent two years at the studio. "It was never outwardly said that you had to be working more [hours], but it was just the vibe of the place. If you weren't [working overtime], you couldn't progress any further."
"If you left at 7.30pm, you'd get evil eyes," another artist recalls. "The crunch was ongoing. It just kept on shifting; an ominous crunch that just keeps moving, and moving. Management would say, 'Oh, it'll finish once we meet this deadline,' but the deadline kept moving. That went on for a good year." Of the three years that this artist spent at Team Bondi, he worked 60-hour weeks on average. To meet each development milestone – around one per month, he says – his workload would jump to between 80 and 110 hours per week, for a period of one to two weeks at a time. The wider issue, one animator believes, is "game companies thinking that crunch can solve poor scheduling, or bad design decisions made early on in a project."
Another source who left the company in 2008 called his experience at Team Bondi the biggest disappointment of his life. "I left because of stress and working conditions, mainly. But the trigger was this: I received a reprimand for 'conduct and punctuality' for being 15 minutes late to work. I arrived at 9:15am – despite the fact I had only left work around 3:15am the same day, and paid for my own taxi home! I never would have thought you could put a sweat shop in the Sydney CBD."
Another issue raised by several of the Bondi Eleven related to overtime. "No overtime was officially paid in the three years and three months that I worked at Team Bondi," one artist told us. According to this source, staff contracts were worded in a manner which ensured that the only way employees would be paid for their overtime would be to wait until three months after project completion. Those who left the company before this time were not entitled to overtime payments.
Looks like somebody took some shit from EA's old playbook.
The funny/depressing thing about this is that IGN is running a story on all these horrible practices when they themselves perpetuate a great deal of them.
I saw this slideshow about Battlefield Heroes and the freemium model over at the Eve MMO subforum thread.
Very interesting. As usual the takeaway is to ignore forum outrage. I'm guessing the difference between their experience and what happened to, say, Hellgate London is the fact that Hellgate wasn't actually free and also not very good.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I saw this slideshow about Battlefield Heroes and the freemium model over at the Eve MMO subforum thread.
Very interesting. As usual the takeaway is to ignore forum outrage. I'm guessing the difference between their experience and what happened to, say, Hellgate London is the fact that Hellgate wasn't actually free and also not very good.
A persistent MMO is also going to have a much harder time of preventing the nonpayers from being completely screwed and just leaving. It is the difference between losing an extra round or two in a random game and basically being screwed as far as getting into any group that will do shit with you. It also didn't have to worry about completely changing the current community for the worse and turning people off through that as it was freemium from the beginning.
Put Just Dance down ladies, because Ubisoft's got more barely functional dancing for you: The Black Eyed Peas Experience.
Click to view larger image
Like The Michael Jackson Experience, the game will have you waving your arms and legs around to songs from the insanely popular group as you dance along to pre-defined routines with on-screen renditions of the BEP members.
The announcement is light on details, Ubi saying only that its coming to Wii and Kinect for Xbox 360 "soon". But we expect the Kinect version to feature enhanced motion control mechanics that make it necessary to actually move your whole body, unlike the Wii games from Ubi so far, which have you wave around your arms and legs when the game can only detect the movement of the arm holding the Wii Remote.
Hurry up and run the dancing subgenre into the ground.
I saw this slideshow about Battlefield Heroes and the freemium model over at the Eve MMO subforum thread.
Very interesting. As usual the takeaway is to ignore forum outrage. I'm guessing the difference between their experience and what happened to, say, Hellgate London is the fact that Hellgate wasn't actually free and also not very good.
A persistent MMO is also going to have a much harder time of preventing the nonpayers from being completely screwed and just leaving. It is the difference between losing an extra round or two and basically being screwed as far as anybody caring about you goes.
This is true. Especially in Eve, where ruling the game world is more literal than in other MMOs.
Put Just Dance down ladies, because Ubisoft's got more barely functional dancing for you: The Black Eyed Peas Experience.
Click to view larger image
Like The Michael Jackson Experience, the game will have you waving your arms and legs around to songs from the insanely popular group as you dance along to pre-defined routines with on-screen renditions of the BEP members.
The announcement is light on details, Ubi saying only that its coming to Wii and Kinect for Xbox 360 "soon". But we expect the Kinect version to feature enhanced motion control mechanics that make it necessary to actually move your whole body, unlike the Wii games from Ubi so far, which have you wave around your arms and legs when the game can only detect the movement of the arm holding the Wii Remote.
Hurry up and run the dancing subgenre into the ground.
Is there any reason why these people feel the need to compete with themselves (in a sense)? What is the logic behind running shit into the ground in this manner?
I think the forsee the crash of the genre as some kind of prophecy, but that it will take place at a time in the future regardless of their actions so they just need to get as much in while they still can.
-SPI- on
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Haha, yes, the only reason Nintendo bought the license is so that they could prevent it from ever being released here.
That makes perfect sense and is not tinfoil hat crazy at all.
If I remember correctly they wanted two things from the developers before they'd release it: 1) fix all the bugs and 2) fix the controls. The developer refused to do any more work so it sits in limbo forevermore.
More links to things! Eurogamer have a piece up about indie developers nmaking games like this, but publishers they be wanting to publish games like that. And I guess Mexicans be making and publishing games like that.
Despite this, Capcom is saying that the second hand value will be retained. Sure it will.
Definately not getting it myself, I like to be able to play through this sort of game again. I understand the main point is playing for high score, but getting all the unlocks is still part of the experience. Only letting anyone do it once, and taking it away from second hand purchasers entirely blows.
Sadly there is no system level means of resetting a games data to original settings. Nintendo probably should have included being able to delete data in their "what games on the 3DS need to be able to do" list.
Posts
I know this is a bit late but 70% retail margin?! What are you smoking man? Middleman and retailer margins aren't great by any standard. Hell with most new release games the store only makes a couple of dollars off of each sale. Why do you think they push used games so hard? Sell a new copy for 100% and make 5% or sell a used copy and make 80%.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=19657485&postcount=75
Except the situation is different when the game is already localized.
I hate to contradict you, but NoE won't touch Mother 3 either which means it's not an NoA issue.
It's not NoE or NoA.
It's just N.
So then again, the situation is completely different because in this case NoE is getting the games in question (in English, in fact!) and NoA just doesn't seem interested.
Then again, Nintendo has been known to release things due to fan demand before. The prime example this generation is Sin and Punishment 2.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
And who can blame NoA? Why go to all the trouble of releasing games (that they would have to retranslate and do voice work for--since they never use NOE translations) that will sell almost no copies?
Let's say Nintendo caves and announces Xenoblade for an American release. The first thing that will happen is most of the Amazon pre-orders will be canceled, since most of the people pre-ordering it have no intention of actually buying the game.
Edit: And preorders would be canceled as currently Amazon is the only place to order (and is priced $10 above normal at the moment) and localization would mean buying from the retailer of their choosing, typically closer to launch. (Preorders always spike closer to release.)
Edit 2: And Sheep, SCEA has rejected games that SCEE approved (and I'm not talking about games that Sony publishes). They're rather well known for doing so. (Syberia wasn't allowed to be released on the PS2 in the US. BoF3 wasn't allowed on the PSP in the US. etc.) Different branches make different decisions all the time.
So? The fact that it's released over here would generate just as many sales that were canceled, by virtue of actually being available in stores and also people who weren't willing to support it now but decide they want it later or are convinced through word of mouth.
Which none of you then bought.
I did. Twice. Okay, one of them was a gift for the forum's secret santa.
DING DING DING! We have a winner.
This is the same company that bought the publishing rights to Fatal Frame 4 specifically because they didn't want it published in the US.
Really? Bummer.
That makes perfect sense and is not tinfoil hat crazy at all.
Twitter
Everything I have heard suggests the rest of the software industry is much nicer and less insane.
The funny/depressing thing about this is that IGN is running a story on all these horrible practices when they themselves perpetuate a great deal of them.
Very interesting. As usual the takeaway is to ignore forum outrage. I'm guessing the difference between their experience and what happened to, say, Hellgate London is the fact that Hellgate wasn't actually free and also not very good.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
A persistent MMO is also going to have a much harder time of preventing the nonpayers from being completely screwed and just leaving. It is the difference between losing an extra round or two in a random game and basically being screwed as far as getting into any group that will do shit with you. It also didn't have to worry about completely changing the current community for the worse and turning people off through that as it was freemium from the beginning.
This is true. Especially in Eve, where ruling the game world is more literal than in other MMOs.
Twitter
Is there any reason why these people feel the need to compete with themselves (in a sense)? What is the logic behind running shit into the ground in this manner?
I did so, thank you very much. :?
I do understand your point though. :P
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
If I remember correctly they wanted two things from the developers before they'd release it: 1) fix all the bugs and 2) fix the controls. The developer refused to do any more work so it sits in limbo forevermore.
I think you will appreciate this article
http://www.cracked.com/blog/10-toys-from-80s-that-just-didnt-care/
More links to things! Eurogamer have a piece up about indie developers nmaking games like this, but publishers they be wanting to publish games like that. And I guess Mexicans be making and publishing games like that.
THERE IS NO WAY TO DELTE OR RESET YOUR SAVE FILE. So that's it. You get to unlock everything just once. And if you buy a second hand copy, well - someone will have already done that shit.
Despite this, Capcom is saying that the second hand value will be retained. Sure it will.
Definately not getting it myself, I like to be able to play through this sort of game again. I understand the main point is playing for high score, but getting all the unlocks is still part of the experience. Only letting anyone do it once, and taking it away from second hand purchasers entirely blows.
Sadly there is no system level means of resetting a games data to original settings. Nintendo probably should have included being able to delete data in their "what games on the 3DS need to be able to do" list.
It's true.
If you don't think game publishers are overly concerned with how a game will make their system looks, then I got some serious news for you.