Codemasters co-founder David Darling, who is now head of mobile gaming company Kwalee, believes that the next-generation of games consoles will fail unless they are digital only. Darling looks towards things such as Steam, Facebook, and Apple’s AppStore as proof that boxed games are now history.
“Consoles have become like dinosaurs heading for extinction as their natural retail habitat begins to change. These ancient beasts must now adapt to a new environment where platforms like Steam, Facebook and Apple’s App Store are pushing innovation. People are already playing more games through digital download than physical media. For instance, Angry Birds has had more than one billion downloads, a sales figure totally beyond what can be achieved by boxed games sold in the likes of Game and GameStop.”
“With digitally distributed games we can cut out physical production, warehouses, distributors and retailers. We can publish our own games, reducing our costs so that we can deliver fun experiences to players for far less cost than a console game. Therefore it is no longer necessary to charge people huge prices to play video games.”
This is more or less MS' designs for Live and it's complete convergence on PC/Tablet/Phone/Xbox. Big push for a unified development platform with cross hardware compatibility and a seamless storefront.
It's a brilliant strategy if they don't muck it up.
They're definitely going to muck it up.
On the one hand, great idea in theory. On the other hand, I expect to see massive ratings fraud as soon as the site goes live.
And what happens when a developer does one small thing to piss off a bunch of cranks? Every game they put up will be 0 rated immediately.
How did Monster Hunter III do on the WII?
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Smash Bros Wii U: 'Big Priority For Namco', Tekken Team To Be Involved - Harada
Smash Bros is coming to Wii U courtesy of Nintendo and Namco Bandai. Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has revealed the scale of the project.
Smash Bros. Wii U is being co-developed by Namco Bandai, and is a "big priority for the company", Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada can confirm.
In an interview with NowGamer, Harada explained the true scale of Namco's massive joint effort with Nintendo.
"Obviously it’s a big priority for the company," Harada explained, "so company-wide there are a lot of people involved with that particular project. Not just from Tekken but a lot of our franchises. "
Harada continued, "Although our main core staff is busy with Tekken Tag tournament 2 and trying to finish that up, I do think we’ll support the initiative in some kind of capacity."
We also asked Harada if he knew of any Namco characters who would be appearing in Smash Bros. Wii U.
Harada responded, "That question was one of the most frequently asked questions we got when we announced the project. Especially from abroad."
"The fans, rather than asking about Tales or Gundam, or some of our other franchises, the fans abroad saw Tekken as one of the key words and took off on that."
"We’re not really sure at this moment but when thinking of the playerbase who is playing Smash Bros, maybe Tekken characters is something they wouldn’t want, so I’ve been pulling back on that a bit. But I don’t know."
We'll have more on Smash Bros. Wii U as it happens.
Looks like the dev team of the new SSB will be spread pretty evenly between Nintendo and Namco.
...or maybe even with a majority at Namco. I remember Brawl had a lot of help from Monolith Soft and Game Arts.
At any rate, the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived.
Back at E3, Activision teased us with the fact that Angry Birds was coming to consoles. Now, we know it's the Angry Birds Trilogy, and it's "built from the ground up" for HDTVs, according to Rovio's Executive Vice President of Games Petri Järvilehto.
"You can think of the game as the ultimate collector’s edition," he said. "There are new cinematics, extras and other entertaining content. In addition all of the existing material has been uprezzed and re-treated for the high-resolution and big screen."
Angry Birds Trilogy bundles the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio on one disc or 3DS cartridge. Järvilehto wasn't ready to say if players would get access to the free level packs iOS and Android players received, but he did say that there would now be individual leaderboards for each level.
"The backgrounds have been animated, we've added lighting modes, reactive backgrounds, the list goes on and on," Järvilehto said. "We believe that there are a lot of people on the consoles who appreciate a great casual game play experience. This is a game that resonates across a wide audience on many platforms."
Angry Birds Trilogy will support Microsoft Kinect, PlayStation Move and StreetPass on the 3DS. Järvilehto is happy to be bringing the birds to a brand new market this holiday.
"There have been so many fans asking to be able to play the game on their home console with their friends and family, and so far we haven't been able to offer anything to them," he said. "Now we're finally able to have a great high quality experience on those platforms."
At any rate, it's going to be next to impossible for this to settle the "people are only downloading it because it's free!" argument since it's ports of games that have been out a looooong time.
Oh, you know how LucasArts expands and contracts and expands and contracts? Well, they're expanding again.
LucasArts recently posted multiple openings for a team dedicated to an unknown first-person shooter game. One job description, that of the Senior Core Engineer position, listed the task of implementing "features and optimizations on current and Future Generation console and PC hardware." Still, it might be a stretch to assume that the finished product will land on any next-gen consoles.
The company posted four total positions to its recruiting page related to the FPS title: Senior AI Engineer, Senior Animator, Senior Core Engineer, and Gameplay Engineer, the last of which requires proficiency in Unreal Engine 3 and UnrealScript.
Are they the latest studio to contract the "we can sell as much as Call of Duty!" madness?
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited July 2012
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
Newly-announced Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington has described her work on Tomb Raider as "some of the most emotionally and physically draining work that I've ever done."
"When I got this role I never thought I would cry so much. I just thought I'd be kicking butt. That's the Lara I thought I'd gotten myself into," Luddington added.
"We're used to seeing Lara as cold-hearted, almost a killer. She's a badass, but in this you'll see her struggle," Luddington explained.
"Obviously she's a video game icon. But she's also a sex symbol. She fights for what she believes in. She's courageous. I think that's sexy.
Luddington added that the sequence where Lara makes her first kill was "probably one of the hardest things" she had to film.
"She has to fight for her life," Luddington concluded. "It's fascinating how she reacts to that. She doesn't just walk away from that first kill."
"The job itself was OK but the Crystal Dynamics guys kept interrupting me and saying that they were trying to protect me from the world" said a world weary Camilla Luddington.
I'm sure it'll sell well because Angry Birds has everyone by the balls now. Even if it's the SAME game they've been playing this gives them a new reason to replay it.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
Newly-announced Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington has described her work on Tomb Raider as "some of the most emotionally and physically draining work that I've ever done."
"When I got this role I never thought I would cry so much. I just thought I'd be kicking butt. That's the Lara I thought I'd gotten myself into," Luddington added.
"We're used to seeing Lara as cold-hearted, almost a killer. She's a badass, but in this you'll see her struggle," Luddington explained.
"Obviously she's a video game icon. But she's also a sex symbol. She fights for what she believes in. She's courageous. I think that's sexy.
Luddington added that the sequence where Lara makes her first kill was "probably one of the hardest things" she had to film.
"She has to fight for her life," Luddington concluded. "It's fascinating how she reacts to that. She doesn't just walk away from that first kill."
"The job itself was OK but the Crystal Dynamics guys kept interrupting me and saying that they were trying to protect me from the world" said a world weary Camilla Luddington.
Codemasters co-founder David Darling, who is now head of mobile gaming company Kwalee, believes that the next-generation of games consoles will fail unless they are digital only. Darling looks towards things such as Steam, Facebook, and Apple’s AppStore as proof that boxed games are now history.
“Consoles have become like dinosaurs heading for extinction as their natural retail habitat begins to change. These ancient beasts must now adapt to a new environment where platforms like Steam, Facebook and Apple’s App Store are pushing innovation. People are already playing more games through digital download than physical media. For instance, Angry Birds has had more than one billion downloads, a sales figure totally beyond what can be achieved by boxed games sold in the likes of Game and GameStop.”
“With digitally distributed games we can cut out physical production, warehouses, distributors and retailers. We can publish our own games, reducing our costs so that we can deliver fun experiences to players for far less cost than a console game. Therefore it is no longer necessary to charge people huge prices to play video games.”
Let me know when iPhone games are commonly like 8+ gigs and then we will talk.
A new video game console's been dreamed up... meet the Ouya.
It's $99, Android-based, purely digital and fully hackable. And yes, a Kickstarter is involved.
Enter Ouya, a startup founded by Julie Uhrman, the former head of IGN’s digital distribution business and who has also held executive positions at GameFly and Vivendi Universal. The company says it plans to launch an eponymous gaming console, for which it will launch a Kickstarter drive on Tuesday, that brings the smartphone paradigm to living-room gaming. The $99 Ouya is built on the Android platform, will allow developers to easily create and sell their games and be fully “hackable” — anyone will be able to pull the machine apart and tinker with it to their heart’s content.
Ouya expects to ship the first boxes in March 2013.
“I grew up playing games on TV, and I wasn’t along in feeling that the game industry is experiencing a brain drain,” Uhrman told Wired in advance of Tuesday’s announcements. “Developers are leaving triple-A shops and going to mobile, and we feel that’s a shame.”
...
Uhrman says that every game developed for Ouya must either be free-to-play or have a free trial version. Thirty percent of revenue will go to Ouya, the rest to the developer.
Ouya has recruited a handful of independent game designers to sing its praises before the launch, giving a little bit of street cred to an otherwise nebulous project.
“I’m excited for Ouya,” said Journey creator Jenova Chen in a statement. “I am a firm believer that there is always room to challenge the status quo.”
Other indie devs on board with Ouya include Markus “Notch” Persson of Minecraft fame, Canabalt designer Adam Saltsman and inXile Entertainment’s Brian Fargo. The company says that every Ouya box sold includes a software development kit at no extra cost. The console and controller will even use standard screws so that they can easily be pulled apart, examined and tweaked.
Loads more information, including the specs, here:
Personally, if this thing gets to market there's a real danger it will fall into the same trap the Gamecube did, namely feeling too cheap at $99. Plus there's going to need to be some big-name games that aren't just ports of smartphone stuff, and I'm not sure too many devs will bite at that.
The Ouya is the new Commodore 64. Hackable fun, coasting under the mainstream. Could improve Android support as a side-effect.
Sounds interesting and respectable, but I don't expect it to really damage the primary console market. If Google was smart, they'd step in and back to the project as a way to bring more developers to Android.
It's not going to revolutionize the console industry like that kickstarter implies, but I can see, at best, it becoming the "console" version of the GamePark plus whatever Android app ports it might get.
At any rate, it's going to be next to impossible for this to settle the "people are only downloading it because it's free!" argument since it's ports of games that have been out a looooong time.
Oh, you know how LucasArts expands and contracts and expands and contracts? Well, they're expanding again.
LucasArts recently posted multiple openings for a team dedicated to an unknown first-person shooter game. One job description, that of the Senior Core Engineer position, listed the task of implementing "features and optimizations on current and Future Generation console and PC hardware." Still, it might be a stretch to assume that the finished product will land on any next-gen consoles.
The company posted four total positions to its recruiting page related to the FPS title: Senior AI Engineer, Senior Animator, Senior Core Engineer, and Gameplay Engineer, the last of which requires proficiency in Unreal Engine 3 and UnrealScript.
At any rate, it's going to be next to impossible for this to settle the "people are only downloading it because it's free!" argument since it's ports of games that have been out a looooong time.
Oh, you know how LucasArts expands and contracts and expands and contracts? Well, they're expanding again.
LucasArts recently posted multiple openings for a team dedicated to an unknown first-person shooter game. One job description, that of the Senior Core Engineer position, listed the task of implementing "features and optimizations on current and Future Generation console and PC hardware." Still, it might be a stretch to assume that the finished product will land on any next-gen consoles.
The company posted four total positions to its recruiting page related to the FPS title: Senior AI Engineer, Senior Animator, Senior Core Engineer, and Gameplay Engineer, the last of which requires proficiency in Unreal Engine 3 and UnrealScript.
It's not going to revolutionize the console industry like that kickstarter implies, but I can see, at best, it becoming the "console" version of the GamePark plus whatever Android app ports it might get.
That's kind of what I'm seeing - that it will likely end up primarily an emulator & Netflix box for most users.
At any rate, it's going to be next to impossible for this to settle the "people are only downloading it because it's free!" argument since it's ports of games that have been out a looooong time.
Oh, you know how LucasArts expands and contracts and expands and contracts? Well, they're expanding again.
LucasArts recently posted multiple openings for a team dedicated to an unknown first-person shooter game. One job description, that of the Senior Core Engineer position, listed the task of implementing "features and optimizations on current and Future Generation console and PC hardware." Still, it might be a stretch to assume that the finished product will land on any next-gen consoles.
The company posted four total positions to its recruiting page related to the FPS title: Senior AI Engineer, Senior Animator, Senior Core Engineer, and Gameplay Engineer, the last of which requires proficiency in Unreal Engine 3 and UnrealScript.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
From those quotes alone, it sounds more like the back story of a standard action hero. Take a normal person, put him through a lot, wind up with a tough guy, quite possibly looking for revenge. The worse the suffering, the tougher the hero.
I'm not saying how the end product will wind up, but the formula isn't new.
Edit: Ben Kuchera put that better than I did, now that I read cloud's link.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
A new video game console's been dreamed up... meet the Ouya.
It's $99, Android-based, purely digital and fully hackable. And yes, a Kickstarter is involved.
Enter Ouya, a startup founded by Julie Uhrman, the former head of IGN’s digital distribution business and who has also held executive positions at GameFly and Vivendi Universal. The company says it plans to launch an eponymous gaming console, for which it will launch a Kickstarter drive on Tuesday, that brings the smartphone paradigm to living-room gaming. The $99 Ouya is built on the Android platform, will allow developers to easily create and sell their games and be fully “hackable” — anyone will be able to pull the machine apart and tinker with it to their heart’s content.
Ouya expects to ship the first boxes in March 2013.
“I grew up playing games on TV, and I wasn’t along in feeling that the game industry is experiencing a brain drain,” Uhrman told Wired in advance of Tuesday’s announcements. “Developers are leaving triple-A shops and going to mobile, and we feel that’s a shame.”
...
Uhrman says that every game developed for Ouya must either be free-to-play or have a free trial version. Thirty percent of revenue will go to Ouya, the rest to the developer.
Ouya has recruited a handful of independent game designers to sing its praises before the launch, giving a little bit of street cred to an otherwise nebulous project.
“I’m excited for Ouya,” said Journey creator Jenova Chen in a statement. “I am a firm believer that there is always room to challenge the status quo.”
Other indie devs on board with Ouya include Markus “Notch” Persson of Minecraft fame, Canabalt designer Adam Saltsman and inXile Entertainment’s Brian Fargo. The company says that every Ouya box sold includes a software development kit at no extra cost. The console and controller will even use standard screws so that they can easily be pulled apart, examined and tweaked.
Loads more information, including the specs, here:
Personally, if this thing gets to market there's a real danger it will fall into the same trap the Gamecube did, namely feeling too cheap at $99. Plus there's going to need to be some big-name games that aren't just ports of smartphone stuff, and I'm not sure too many devs will bite at that.
I can't say that I see the incentive to develop for a system like this. If you're doing something relatively low-budget, you'd be massively better off putting it on PC/Mac, or going the browser-based route. Everyone owns a computer, so as long as your game runs on a netbook your potential userbase is going to be overwhelmingly higher than with some niche console.
That being the case, it feels like the Ouya's entire existence is predicated on the hope that AAA free-to-play games become a massive deal within the next year or two (excluding stuff like your average MMO or DotA-like which require a keyboard and mouse to be playable anyway). There has definitely been some industry buzz indicating that this could happen, but it seems pretty early to be betting huge sums of money on it.
Wyvern on
Switch: SW-2431-2728-9604 || 3DS: 0817-4948-1650
0
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
From those quotes alone, it sounds more like the back story of a standard action hero. Take a normal person, put him through a lot, wind up with a tough guy, quite possibly looking for revenge. The worse the suffering, the tougher the hero.
I'm not saying how the end product will wind up, but the formula isn't new.
Yeah, I think people are being silly by calling it Torture porn, but at the same time weird statements like "you'll want to protect her" have been thrown around that make it creepier than the sum of its parts.
I still think the game will turn out fine and I'm looking forward to it, I'm just chalking the creepiness up to sound bites from people who never should have spoken to the gaming press about it.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
Newly-announced Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington has described her work on Tomb Raider as "some of the most emotionally and physically draining work that I've ever done."
"When I got this role I never thought I would cry so much. I just thought I'd be kicking butt. That's the Lara I thought I'd gotten myself into," Luddington added.
"We're used to seeing Lara as cold-hearted, almost a killer. She's a badass, but in this you'll see her struggle," Luddington explained.
"Obviously she's a video game icon. But she's also a sex symbol. She fights for what she believes in. She's courageous. I think that's sexy.
Luddington added that the sequence where Lara makes her first kill was "probably one of the hardest things" she had to film.
"She has to fight for her life," Luddington concluded. "It's fascinating how she reacts to that. She doesn't just walk away from that first kill."
"The job itself was OK but the Crystal Dynamics guys kept interrupting me and saying that they were trying to protect me from the world" said a world weary Camilla Luddington.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
From those quotes alone, it sounds more like the back story of a standard action hero. Take a normal person, put him through a lot, wind up with a tough guy, quite possibly looking for revenge. The worse the suffering, the tougher the hero.
I'm not saying how the end product will wind up, but the formula isn't new.
Edit: Ben Kuchera put that better than I did, now that I read cloud's link.
The formula doesn't work like they've implied Tomb Raider will though.
The formula uses a big loss to establish motivation and sympathy with the character. Then that character goes and kicks ass.
The implication we are getting from all the new Tomb Raider shit is this is like most of the game.
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
From those quotes alone, it sounds more like the back story of a standard action hero. Take a normal person, put him through a lot, wind up with a tough guy, quite possibly looking for revenge. The worse the suffering, the tougher the hero.
I'm not saying how the end product will wind up, but the formula isn't new.
Edit: Ben Kuchera put that better than I did, now that I read cloud's link.
So basically this Tomb Raider will be: Lara Croft: Other M.
We'll see how it turns out, but they keep using phrases like 'you'll want to protect her' and yadda yadda. I think PA put it well with their comic they did about it. The game is basically how many ways can we do brutal harm to Lara while she screams and moans.
Yea, really not looking forward to the new direction. I wonder how it will effect sales/interest once the game releases.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
Newly-announced Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington has described her work on Tomb Raider as "some of the most emotionally and physically draining work that I've ever done."
"When I got this role I never thought I would cry so much. I just thought I'd be kicking butt. That's the Lara I thought I'd gotten myself into," Luddington added.
"We're used to seeing Lara as cold-hearted, almost a killer. She's a badass, but in this you'll see her struggle," Luddington explained.
"Obviously she's a video game icon. But she's also a sex symbol. She fights for what she believes in. She's courageous. I think that's sexy.
Luddington added that the sequence where Lara makes her first kill was "probably one of the hardest things" she had to film.
"She has to fight for her life," Luddington concluded. "It's fascinating how she reacts to that. She doesn't just walk away from that first kill."
"The job itself was OK but the Crystal Dynamics guys kept interrupting me and saying that they were trying to protect me from the world" said a world weary Camilla Luddington.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Where is that quotation about the Crystal Dynamic guys? I can't find it in the link you posted.
Double standards are hilarious. Movie role is physically and emotionally draining and actors get lauded for them; video game role is the same thing and we get "oh noes torture porn!" Cripes, can we at least see the actual game before people bitch about how it's some masochistic mess instead of the bland, aloof Lara Croft we've had for ages?
Doubt the game will do well no matter what, though. The franchise has been low-key for ages now regardless of what the devs have tried to do to improve things. Unless they use a pretty big marketing campaing as well, I don't think most people are even going to know anything has changed.
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited July 2012
This is why you never confide personal information to Pachter:
EA president John Riccitiello fears he is at risk of losing his job over the publisher’s falling stock, according to US analyst Michael Pachter.
The media pundit told an audience at the Develop Conference that the EA president confided in him about the company’s falling stock.
Behind the scenes, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto is "like a slightly more friendly Steve Jobs but just as cutting".
That's the description of Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert, who has worked with Nintendo on the majority of the Star Fox series. "His private face is different to his public face," Cuthbert explained during a recent GAME Facebook fan Q&A, when asked about his most inspirational industry figure.
"His style of chasing ideas and cutting through bulls*** is brilliant. Internally he's kind of like a slightly more friendly Steve Jobs, but just as cutting."
Miyamoto has previously admitted keeping a close eye on Nintendo's various development teams, and "upending the tea table" on projects not to his satisfaction. Looking to the future, Cuthbert added that he already had ideas for how the Wii U GamePad could be used in a new Star Fox game, although whether he works on another remains Nintendo's decision.
"Those questions are best geared towards Miyamoto," he smileyed. "I know what I'd try and do with that tech, but at the end of the day, the ball's in Nintendo's court.
"I like to work on a variety of games, or life gets a little boring! Star Fox is a great world and series of characters, and one day I'd definitely like to go back to it and expand it further."
We'll see how it turns out, but they keep using phrases like 'you'll want to protect her' and yadda yadda. I think PA put it well with their comic they did about it. The game is basically how many ways can we do brutal harm to Lara while she screams and moans.
Maybe, but there are games like Resident Evil 4 and (ye gods) Dead Space which are kind of the same thing with male protagonists, and it doesn't seem controversial there. I mean, hitting a bunch of a branches and a pipe piercing his sternum would be Isaac on a good day.
0
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I could see them using the Wii U Gamepad gyros to steer and aim in Star Fox (I think they did something similar w/ SF 64 3DS?). Would work pretty well I'd guess.
The formula doesn't work like they've implied Tomb Raider will though.
The formula uses a big loss to establish motivation and sympathy with the character. Then that character goes and kicks ass.
The implication we are getting from all the new Tomb Raider shit is this is like most of the game.
I haven't followed the new Tomb Raider at all, so I have no idea what else has been said about it.
In more general terms, back story can be covered in different amounts of detail. In something like Unbreakable, the whole movie is back story. In the Hulk (the one after Ang Lee's version) it's covered in the intro credits. Given that the new Tomb Raider is supposed to be a reboot, it would make sense for most of the game to about building a character for future installments.
Of course, the quality of the writing will probably not have a whole lot do to with the number of sales.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
This is why you never confide personal information to Pachter:
EA president John Riccitiello fears he is at risk of losing his job over the publisher’s falling stock, according to US analyst Michael Pachter.
The media pundit told an audience at the Develop Conference that the EA president confided in him about the company’s falling stock.
And yet another bad decision. Damn it, Riccitiello!
The Miyamoto stuff is pretty much how I pictured him. Good thing he wants to see Metroid and Starfox appear on the Wii U.
V Faction on
Nintendo Network ID: V-Faction | XBL: V Faction | Steam | 3DS: 3136 - 6603 - 1330 PokemonWhite Friend Code: 0046-2121-0723/White2 Friend Code: 0519-5126-2990
"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
There seems to be a lot of pledging enthusiasm for the project, but I'm not sure that I really see it getting a lot of development enthusiasm. Looking at the backing limits* they're maybe committing to shipping around 7000 units. Their device will not be Android Market certified. You either hack the device and play phone/tablet games on your TV to your heart's content, or use whatever store they built to house Ouya-optimized games for all the developers chomping at the bit to target less than 10000 people.
*1000 consoles at $95, 5000 at $99, 500 at $225, 200 at $700, 200 at $1337, 20 at $10000
(Who am I kidding, it's TFU 3, in first person shooter mode. Two hours from start to finish.)
This is the sad, pathetic truth of what Lucasarts has become. I miss the good ole days when they were a respectable company.
Are they the latest studio to contract the "we can sell as much as Call of Duty!" madness?
If they're smart they'll be doing Battlefront 3 or Republic Commando 2 which are both titles that fans have been clamoring for for a long while now. If they're stupid they'll do Call of Dudebro Commando Dookie and just piss everyone off even more. If they want to do something smart AND cash in on the Call of Dudebro craze they'll do Republic Commando 2 with quality multiplayer included.
However, this is Lucasarts we're talking about so it'll probably be something terrible involving using the Kinect to play as Jar Jar Binks throwing poop at people with Boss Nass dancing minigames though.
*insert TK-420 why aren't you at your post joke here*
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
No no no, bad Mikami!
Japanese game studios need to adopt a Hollywood level of willingness to spend money if they are to catch up to their peers in the West.
That's according to ex-Capcom producer Shinji Mikami, who revealed in PSM3's latest issue that his personal interests are leaning more towards Western developed titles.
"Japan used to have the lead in the game industry, but now it's quite clearly America," he admitted. "To be told that Japanese games suck is a bit harsh," he added, responding to the criticisms made earlier this year by Fez developer Phil Fish.
Mikami agreed that Japan still produces high-quality games, alluding to Gravity Rush, Yakuza, Monster Hunter, Catherine and Super Mario 3D Land, but said these are few and far in between and skew too much in favour of Japanese tastes.
"Yes, there are amazing games, just not enough of them... So many are based on anime or fantasy - games that only appeal to Japanese people. Most gamers overseas aren't interested in anime," he said.
Mikami highlighted Okami, which melded Japanese mythology with a cel-shaded aesthetic and a Legend of Zelda gameplay framework, as an example of the taste discrepancy between Japanese and Western audiences.
"We made Okami at Clover. It was such a breathtaking game, yet it didn't sell. If that's the case, westerners obviously don't like that sort of game. Maybe they prefer something a little more straightforward."
He ended his sombre introspection by saying Japanese game developers need to be more like Hollywood movie studios and commit bigger budgets to create better experiences.
"Hollywood spends like 200 million dollars producing a movie, and you can make an incredible movie with that sort of money. But Japanese movie studios don't spend anything like that. The difference in [the] scale of the budgets [is] the same in games. Japan needs to make games like Hollywood makes movies. I think Capcom and Hideo Kojima's team are trying hard on that front."
...well, maybe we could give Pachter the benefit of the doubt and assume that he asked Riccitiello for permission to repeat that in public.
Then again, why would anyone possibly give permission to a well-known analyst to quote stuff like “He doesn’t understand what’s going wrong"? That's the signal for stockholders to abandon ship as quickly as possible. Either Riccitiello is a dumbass or Pachter's an utter tool. I'm going with the one that has a mountain of evidence behind it.
Japanese game studios need to adopt a Hollywood level of willingness to spend money if they are to catch up to their peers in the West.
That's according to ex-Capcom producer Shinji Mikami, who revealed in PSM3's latest issue that his personal interests are leaning more towards Western developed titles.
"Japan used to have the lead in the game industry, but now it's quite clearly America," he admitted. "To be told that Japanese games suck is a bit harsh," he added, responding to the criticisms made earlier this year by Fez developer Phil Fish.
Mikami agreed that Japan still produces high-quality games, alluding to Gravity Rush, Yakuza, Monster Hunter, Catherine and Super Mario 3D Land, but said these are few and far in between and skew too much in favour of Japanese tastes.
"Yes, there are amazing games, just not enough of them... So many are based on anime or fantasy - games that only appeal to Japanese people. Most gamers overseas aren't interested in anime," he said.
Mikami highlighted Okami, which melded Japanese mythology with a cel-shaded aesthetic and a Legend of Zelda gameplay framework, as an example of the taste discrepancy between Japanese and Western audiences.
"We made Okami at Clover. It was such a breathtaking game, yet it didn't sell. If that's the case, westerners obviously don't like that sort of game. Maybe they prefer something a little more straightforward."
He ended his sombre introspection by saying Japanese game developers need to be more like Hollywood movie studios and commit bigger budgets to create better experiences.
"Hollywood spends like 200 million dollars producing a movie, and you can make an incredible movie with that sort of money. But Japanese movie studios don't spend anything like that. The difference in [the] scale of the budgets [is] the same in games. Japan needs to make games like Hollywood makes movies. I think Capcom and Hideo Kojima's team are trying hard on that front."
Remember how Star Command was such a big success on Kickstarter a while ago? Remember how it had a "Holiday 2011" release date planned? Surely, it's done by now...
Oh wait, no. They've created a second kickstarter for it. "We are going to hire additional developer(s) and artist(s) to help us with the last stage of mobile, and more importantly work on the PC/MAC version."
So basically, they squandered away all of the money from the first kickstarter and now they're asking for more. Bleh.
Remember how Star Command was such a big success on Kickstarter a while ago? Remember how it had a "Holiday 2011" release date planned? Surely, it's done by now...
Oh wait, no. They've created a second kickstarter for it. "We are going to hire additional developer(s) and artist(s) to help us with the last stage of mobile, and more importantly work on the PC/MAC version."
So basically, they squandered away all of the money from the first kickstarter and now they're asking for more. Bleh.
Wait, that was the one where the Kickstarter was a success, but making the backer rewards ate up most of the money, right?
*looks it up*
Well, there were some other costs, but basically yup.
Remember how Star Command was such a big success on Kickstarter a while ago? Remember how it had a "Holiday 2011" release date planned? Surely, it's done by now...
Oh wait, no. They've created a second kickstarter for it. "We are going to hire additional developer(s) and artist(s) to help us with the last stage of mobile, and more importantly work on the PC/MAC version."
So basically, they squandered away all of the money from the first kickstarter and now they're asking for more. Bleh.
Yup, sounds like it. This is a reason I cannot get behind the kickstarter thing that's happening now. I'm sure some good stuff will come out of it eventually, but in many cases, you have no clue what that money is actually being used for, or if you'll ever see the game in question.
Who in their right mind would not calculate the cost of the backer rewards and a generous overestimation of the remaining dev/design time when setting their kickstarter goals? It beggars belief.
Can we now mourn the loss of one of gaming most prominent women.
Newly-announced Lara Croft actress Camilla Luddington has described her work on Tomb Raider as "some of the most emotionally and physically draining work that I've ever done."
"When I got this role I never thought I would cry so much. I just thought I'd be kicking butt. That's the Lara I thought I'd gotten myself into," Luddington added.
"We're used to seeing Lara as cold-hearted, almost a killer. She's a badass, but in this you'll see her struggle," Luddington explained.
"Obviously she's a video game icon. But she's also a sex symbol. She fights for what she believes in. She's courageous. I think that's sexy.
Luddington added that the sequence where Lara makes her first kill was "probably one of the hardest things" she had to film.
"She has to fight for her life," Luddington concluded. "It's fascinating how she reacts to that. She doesn't just walk away from that first kill."
"The job itself was OK but the Crystal Dynamics guys kept interrupting me and saying that they were trying to protect me from the world" said a world weary Camilla Luddington.
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Where is that quotation about the Crystal Dynamic guys? I can't find it in the link you posted.
Double standards are hilarious. Movie role is physically and emotionally draining and actors get lauded for them; video game role is the same thing and we get "oh noes torture porn!" Cripes, can we at least see the actual game before people bitch about how it's some masochistic mess instead of the bland, aloof Lara Croft we've had for ages?
Doubt the game will do well no matter what, though. The franchise has been low-key for ages now regardless of what the devs have tried to do to improve things. Unless they use a pretty big marketing campaing as well, I don't think most people are even going to know anything has changed.
If we have to see the game before having a negative reaction, is the same true of a positive one?
If that's the case, what's the point of promotional material?
I'm never understood this argument. The whole point of a trailer, interview, demo, or whatever is to engender a positive reaction in the audience. This can backfire. Them's the breaks.
Everything matters these days. Your screenshots, trailers, interviews, your developer's comments, everything. It's a constant exchange of trust with the consumer.
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This is more or less MS' designs for Live and it's complete convergence on PC/Tablet/Phone/Xbox. Big push for a unified development platform with cross hardware compatibility and a seamless storefront.
It's a brilliant strategy if they don't muck it up.
And what happens when a developer does one small thing to piss off a bunch of cranks? Every game they put up will be 0 rated immediately.
How did Monster Hunter III do on the WII?
Per the Monster Hunter wiki:
If I remember correctly I think it broke 1 mil but not sure how well after that it did. Apparently Capcom were happy with the sales for it.
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Looks like the dev team of the new SSB will be spread pretty evenly between Nintendo and Namco.
At any rate, the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/10/angry-birds-trilogy-coming-to-ps3-360-and-3ds
Huh, interesting that it's a physical release rather than digital.
At any rate, it's going to be next to impossible for this to settle the "people are only downloading it because it's free!" argument since it's ports of games that have been out a looooong time.
Oh, you know how LucasArts expands and contracts and expands and contracts? Well, they're expanding again.
The company posted four total positions to its recruiting page related to the FPS title: Senior AI Engineer, Senior Animator, Senior Core Engineer, and Gameplay Engineer, the last of which requires proficiency in Unreal Engine 3 and UnrealScript.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/09/lucasarts-hiring-for-unannounced-fps-project/
Are they the latest studio to contract the "we can sell as much as Call of Duty!" madness?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-10-lara-croft-actress-tomb-raider-role-emotionally-and-physically-draining
They've turned Tomb Raider into torture porn. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
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The E3 demo definitely got people talking... Lara was absolutely put through the wringer. The PA Report goes into it here:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/tomb-raider-throws-rape-assault-and-a-hostile-environment-at-lara-croft-to
Gabe and Tycho weighed in on it too, apparently very accurately:
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/06/06
Very interesting that the game itself appears to be kinda the opposite of the confident, sexy stuff they show in the marketing images.
Though I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing. Merely a thing that marketers do.
Let me know when iPhone games are commonly like 8+ gigs and then we will talk.
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It's $99, Android-based, purely digital and fully hackable. And yes, a Kickstarter is involved.
Loads more information, including the specs, here:
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/07/ouya/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Top+Stories)&pid=3009&viewall=true
Personally, if this thing gets to market there's a real danger it will fall into the same trap the Gamecube did, namely feeling too cheap at $99. Plus there's going to need to be some big-name games that aren't just ports of smartphone stuff, and I'm not sure too many devs will bite at that.
Sounds interesting and respectable, but I don't expect it to really damage the primary console market. If Google was smart, they'd step in and back to the project as a way to bring more developers to Android.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
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Battlefront 3? Battlefront 3? Is it Battlefront 3?
....is it Battlefront 3?
Or at least Republic Commando 2?
(Who am I kidding, it's TFU 3, in first person shooter mode. Two hours from start to finish.)
New Dark Forces game? Thanks LucasArts!
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That's kind of what I'm seeing - that it will likely end up primarily an emulator & Netflix box for most users.
The only Dark Forces involved with the project will be the company that makes the game.
From those quotes alone, it sounds more like the back story of a standard action hero. Take a normal person, put him through a lot, wind up with a tough guy, quite possibly looking for revenge. The worse the suffering, the tougher the hero.
I'm not saying how the end product will wind up, but the formula isn't new.
Edit: Ben Kuchera put that better than I did, now that I read cloud's link.
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I can't say that I see the incentive to develop for a system like this. If you're doing something relatively low-budget, you'd be massively better off putting it on PC/Mac, or going the browser-based route. Everyone owns a computer, so as long as your game runs on a netbook your potential userbase is going to be overwhelmingly higher than with some niche console.
That being the case, it feels like the Ouya's entire existence is predicated on the hope that AAA free-to-play games become a massive deal within the next year or two (excluding stuff like your average MMO or DotA-like which require a keyboard and mouse to be playable anyway). There has definitely been some industry buzz indicating that this could happen, but it seems pretty early to be betting huge sums of money on it.
Yeah, I think people are being silly by calling it Torture porn, but at the same time weird statements like "you'll want to protect her" have been thrown around that make it creepier than the sum of its parts.
I still think the game will turn out fine and I'm looking forward to it, I'm just chalking the creepiness up to sound bites from people who never should have spoken to the gaming press about it.
Where is that quotation about the Crystal Dynamic guys? I can't find it in the link you posted.
The formula doesn't work like they've implied Tomb Raider will though.
The formula uses a big loss to establish motivation and sympathy with the character. Then that character goes and kicks ass.
The implication we are getting from all the new Tomb Raider shit is this is like most of the game.
So basically this Tomb Raider will be: Lara Croft: Other M.
We'll see how it turns out, but they keep using phrases like 'you'll want to protect her' and yadda yadda. I think PA put it well with their comic they did about it. The game is basically how many ways can we do brutal harm to Lara while she screams and moans.
Yea, really not looking forward to the new direction. I wonder how it will effect sales/interest once the game releases.
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Double standards are hilarious. Movie role is physically and emotionally draining and actors get lauded for them; video game role is the same thing and we get "oh noes torture porn!" Cripes, can we at least see the actual game before people bitch about how it's some masochistic mess instead of the bland, aloof Lara Croft we've had for ages?
Doubt the game will do well no matter what, though. The franchise has been low-key for ages now regardless of what the devs have tried to do to improve things. Unless they use a pretty big marketing campaing as well, I don't think most people are even going to know anything has changed.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/41363/Pachter-EAs-Riccitiello-fears-for-his-job
How is Miyamoto as a boss, here's one devs take:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-10-star-fox-dev-miyamoto-like-a-slightly-more-friendly-steve-jobs-but-just-as-cutting
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Maybe, but there are games like Resident Evil 4 and (ye gods) Dead Space which are kind of the same thing with male protagonists, and it doesn't seem controversial there. I mean, hitting a bunch of a branches and a pipe piercing his sternum would be Isaac on a good day.
I haven't followed the new Tomb Raider at all, so I have no idea what else has been said about it.
In more general terms, back story can be covered in different amounts of detail. In something like Unbreakable, the whole movie is back story. In the Hulk (the one after Ang Lee's version) it's covered in the intro credits. Given that the new Tomb Raider is supposed to be a reboot, it would make sense for most of the game to about building a character for future installments.
Of course, the quality of the writing will probably not have a whole lot do to with the number of sales.
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And yet another bad decision. Damn it, Riccitiello!
The Miyamoto stuff is pretty much how I pictured him. Good thing he wants to see Metroid and Starfox appear on the Wii U.
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"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
There seems to be a lot of pledging enthusiasm for the project, but I'm not sure that I really see it getting a lot of development enthusiasm. Looking at the backing limits* they're maybe committing to shipping around 7000 units. Their device will not be Android Market certified. You either hack the device and play phone/tablet games on your TV to your heart's content, or use whatever store they built to house Ouya-optimized games for all the developers chomping at the bit to target less than 10000 people.
*1000 consoles at $95, 5000 at $99, 500 at $225, 200 at $700, 200 at $1337, 20 at $10000
However, this is Lucasarts we're talking about so it'll probably be something terrible involving using the Kinect to play as Jar Jar Binks throwing poop at people with Boss Nass dancing minigames though.
*insert TK-420 why aren't you at your post joke here*
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http://www.computerandvideogames.com/357308/mikami-japan-needs-to-make-games-like-hollywood-makes-movies/
For an industry with already inflated budgets and companies folding daily, I'm not sure if forcing even bigger budgets is the way to go.
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...well, maybe we could give Pachter the benefit of the doubt and assume that he asked Riccitiello for permission to repeat that in public.
Then again, why would anyone possibly give permission to a well-known analyst to quote stuff like “He doesn’t understand what’s going wrong"? That's the signal for stockholders to abandon ship as quickly as possible. Either Riccitiello is a dumbass or Pachter's an utter tool. I'm going with the one that has a mountain of evidence behind it.
It's thoughts like these that make me sad about the video game industry.
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Oh wait, no. They've created a second kickstarter for it. "We are going to hire additional developer(s) and artist(s) to help us with the last stage of mobile, and more importantly work on the PC/MAC version."
So basically, they squandered away all of the money from the first kickstarter and now they're asking for more. Bleh.
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Wait, that was the one where the Kickstarter was a success, but making the backer rewards ate up most of the money, right?
*looks it up*
Well, there were some other costs, but basically yup.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/168618/Star_Command_dev_shares_realities_of_costs_after_Kickstarter_funding.php
Yup, sounds like it. This is a reason I cannot get behind the kickstarter thing that's happening now. I'm sure some good stuff will come out of it eventually, but in many cases, you have no clue what that money is actually being used for, or if you'll ever see the game in question.
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I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
If we have to see the game before having a negative reaction, is the same true of a positive one?
If that's the case, what's the point of promotional material?
I'm never understood this argument. The whole point of a trailer, interview, demo, or whatever is to engender a positive reaction in the audience. This can backfire. Them's the breaks.
Everything matters these days. Your screenshots, trailers, interviews, your developer's comments, everything. It's a constant exchange of trust with the consumer.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.