In other news, could you imagine the shift in branding power if this happened:
Vivendi is strangled by a pile of only slowly declining debt that currently stands at about $15.5 billion. The sale of Activision Blizzard, which is majority-owned by Vivendi, could alleviate the growing pain substantially. The 60 percent stake Vivendi holds is estimated to be worth about $10 billion. According to Reuters, Vivendi may have started fielding potential buyers, which reportedly include Time Warner as well as Microsoft.
When asked for comment, both companies declined to comment on Activision Blizzard, but did not deny their interest either. Similarly, Vivendi did not deny that Activision Blizzard is for sale and said that "all options are on the table". As attractive as Activision Blizzard may be as a game publisher, it would be relatively easy for Vivendi to part ways as it is not a core business for the company.
Founded back in 1853, and headquartered in Paris, Vivendi's heart is in music publishing and TV
Aaaaah, now I see why Vivendi is so hot to sell off a perfectly profitable division.
Changing direction, I think this is pretty fascinating:
Variety has learned that WBIE (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is set to introduce members of the Justice League of America in the next installment of Rocksteady's Batman series.
The entertainment trade magazine reports that the much-anticipated sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City will, in fact, be a prequel centred on Batman's first meeting with his arch-nemesis The Joker. Stylistically, it's said to be based on the Silver Age era of DC's comicbooks, dating from the 1950s, when Batman first team up with other iconic DC heroes, like Superman and The Flash, establishing the Justice League of America.
Variety claims this is part of a conscious effort by Warner Bros. to expose audiences to the Justice League of America, as it ramps up production on a JLA movie. It also reports the game will be released in 2014 at the earliest.
The Silver Age JLA typically consisted of 7 heroes: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman.
Not only does that sound like a fantastic way to keep things fresh, it's a nice thing to see in an era when AAA titles are mostly brown and grimdark. It also seems to indicate that DC may really be getting its act together in finally putting out a Justice League movie.
In other news, could you imagine the shift in branding power if this happened:
Vivendi is strangled by a pile of only slowly declining debt that currently stands at about $15.5 billion. The sale of Activision Blizzard, which is majority-owned by Vivendi, could alleviate the growing pain substantially. The 60 percent stake Vivendi holds is estimated to be worth about $10 billion. According to Reuters, Vivendi may have started fielding potential buyers, which reportedly include Time Warner as well as Microsoft.
When asked for comment, both companies declined to comment on Activision Blizzard, but did not deny their interest either. Similarly, Vivendi did not deny that Activision Blizzard is for sale and said that "all options are on the table". As attractive as Activision Blizzard may be as a game publisher, it would be relatively easy for Vivendi to part ways as it is not a core business for the company.
Founded back in 1853, and headquartered in Paris, Vivendi's heart is in music publishing and TV
Aaaaah, now I see why Vivendi is so hot to sell off a perfectly profitable division.
Changing direction, I think this is pretty fascinating:
Variety has learned that WBIE (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is set to introduce members of the Justice League of America in the next installment of Rocksteady's Batman series.
The entertainment trade magazine reports that the much-anticipated sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City will, in fact, be a prequel centred on Batman's first meeting with his arch-nemesis The Joker. Stylistically, it's said to be based on the Silver Age era of DC's comicbooks, dating from the 1950s, when Batman first team up with other iconic DC heroes, like Superman and The Flash, establishing the Justice League of America.
Variety claims this is part of a conscious effort by Warner Bros. to expose audiences to the Justice League of America, as it ramps up production on a JLA movie. It also reports the game will be released in 2014 at the earliest.
The Silver Age JLA typically consisted of 7 heroes: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman.
Not only does that sound like a fantastic way to keep things fresh, it's a nice thing to see in an era when AAA titles are mostly brown and grimdark. It also seems to indicate that DC may really be getting its act together in finally putting out a Justice League movie.
That's like selling off the car you need to get to work in order to pay your credit card bill. Unless they fix some fundamental flaws in their business habits, all they're doing is staving off death for a little while by selling off ActiBlizzard.
In other news, could you imagine the shift in branding power if this happened:
Vivendi is strangled by a pile of only slowly declining debt that currently stands at about $15.5 billion. The sale of Activision Blizzard, which is majority-owned by Vivendi, could alleviate the growing pain substantially. The 60 percent stake Vivendi holds is estimated to be worth about $10 billion. According to Reuters, Vivendi may have started fielding potential buyers, which reportedly include Time Warner as well as Microsoft.
When asked for comment, both companies declined to comment on Activision Blizzard, but did not deny their interest either. Similarly, Vivendi did not deny that Activision Blizzard is for sale and said that "all options are on the table". As attractive as Activision Blizzard may be as a game publisher, it would be relatively easy for Vivendi to part ways as it is not a core business for the company.
Founded back in 1853, and headquartered in Paris, Vivendi's heart is in music publishing and TV
Aaaaah, now I see why Vivendi is so hot to sell off a perfectly profitable division.
That's like selling off the car you need to get to work in order to pay your credit card bill. Unless they fix some fundamental flaws in their business habits, all they're doing is staving off death for a little while by selling off ActiBlizzard.
It's really not all that uncommon for struggling companies. I've seen it happen before with a national energy trader in my town that bet heavily and lost hard on telecom during the dotcom bubble last decade... to keep afloat, they had to sell off rights to natural gas pipelines that were reliable moneymakers. In their case it worked, and they were able to rebuy the pipelines when things got better.
Of course, the major problem in that case was the bad dotcom bet rather than something ongoing. I don't know enough about Vivendi to tell whether or not they can fix what's causing the debt.
And I don't think any console developer will get a cable deal. Again, as people have mentioned, it's way too fragmented and the companies are way to greedy. They only place they can offer services right now is on the Streaming front.
The cable companies would happily give up any profit on tuner sales for a chance at adding $20-$60 to the monthly bill of anyone with a next generation console. If the 720 could act as a cable box, the major carriers would jump at the chance to sell HD packages to more households than ever before. Giving MS a small cut would still be a good deal.
The other option would be to bypass the cable companies entirely, but that would leave MS with a whole ton of other problems including dealing with each network individually.
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.
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Someone post the link to how many hundreds of billions the networks and cable providers make on the current cable model and how it will never EVER change to some ala-carte method.
Pretty much. Suffice to say that cable companies like things the way they are, and are very, VERY unlikely to get into a partnership with Microsoft on, well, anything, especially since they're starting to get panicky about the amount of video people are streaming (most cable companies are also Internet providers). I doubt they'd want to do something that would encourage even more streaming via the 360, or indeed do anything that doesn't involve making Microsoft (and the customer) pay through the nose.
As said before I think the more likely strategy is to continue seeking out individual channels or online video content outside of the cable companies, as they've done with the 360. But even that is risky... there's still the rumor that the reason for Live going from $50 to $60 per year is largely based on the fees ESPN demands. And they demand much, MUCH higher fees from the cable companies than any other channel.
Yeah, for Japan that's a little odd. Though it'd be even more odd if it were the 360 version.
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HAIL HYDRA
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Pokemon continues to dominate.
I wonder what a full fledged 3DS sequel would do for the system.
Yea, not a great week for anyone, but the 3DS still reigns supreme in Japan. Yeesh, the only consistant thing about the Vita is that it's consistantly inconsistant. :P
“Console will have to be multiple purpose devices, though. The Xbox 720, this is my prediction, is going to be your television as well [as your game console]. You’ll be able to tune into television through it.
By "tune into your television" he probably means what we have now: ATT will let you use your 360 as a set top box. All you're doing is saving ATT some money in hardware. That or HBO Go, which requires traditional cable service anyway.
For all intents and purposes, both of those are considered as situations where your 360 provides television service.
Wow, not a very good week for anybody it looks like.
52k for a system that has a new model release in two weeks is incredibly good. Also that is the best start of an EO game ever by a few thousand. Even Little Battlers did well for itself considering this is the third or so time that same game more or less has been released!
So it's fairly safe to say that console gaming is pretty much dead in Japanland?
Yes, with two exceptions:
#1: You're a high-profile famous developer with loads of advertising and pull like Capcom or Namco or Square Enix that can sell just by your company name.
#2: You're a budget game developer that puts out lower funding but enjoyable B+ titles with realistic expectations instead of AAA+ titles like NIS, Atlus, Idea Factory, From Software, and the like.
P4 shows that even a relatively strong fan base can't really push sales on the Vita. People bought it and the system, sure, but they aren't continuing to buy it...or the system!
Well P4 only boosted Vita hardware sales for a single week before going back down to this range of numbers, so no surprise there.
What I find interesting is a running theory that I've heard that the release of the 3DS LL / 3DS XL is going to somehow reduce the disparity between 3DS and Vita sales, because, since the 3DS LL / XL is going to be more expensive, that it will make the value proposition for the Vita seem more appealing.
Personally I expect the release of the 3DS LL and XL to do nothing for the Vita, but rather cause a great deal more 3DS systems to be sold.
P4 shows that even a relatively strong fan base can't really push sales on the Vita. People bought it and the system, sure, but they aren't continuing to buy it...or the system!
That's pretty typical for RPGs in Japan though. Unless it's Pokemon, the vast majority of sales are in the first week.
I know and that's rational. People who were really interested in The Golden anyways are those that have been for months and months and bought a PSV before then or right when it came out.
Some people thought it would be a multi week breakthrough sort of title. A real system seller.
In other news, could you imagine the shift in branding power if this happened:
Vivendi is strangled by a pile of only slowly declining debt that currently stands at about $15.5 billion. The sale of Activision Blizzard, which is majority-owned by Vivendi, could alleviate the growing pain substantially. The 60 percent stake Vivendi holds is estimated to be worth about $10 billion. According to Reuters, Vivendi may have started fielding potential buyers, which reportedly include Time Warner as well as Microsoft.
When asked for comment, both companies declined to comment on Activision Blizzard, but did not deny their interest either. Similarly, Vivendi did not deny that Activision Blizzard is for sale and said that "all options are on the table". As attractive as Activision Blizzard may be as a game publisher, it would be relatively easy for Vivendi to part ways as it is not a core business for the company.
Founded back in 1853, and headquartered in Paris, Vivendi's heart is in music publishing and TV
Aaaaah, now I see why Vivendi is so hot to sell off a perfectly profitable division.
Changing direction, I think this is pretty fascinating:
Variety has learned that WBIE (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is set to introduce members of the Justice League of America in the next installment of Rocksteady's Batman series.
The entertainment trade magazine reports that the much-anticipated sequel to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City will, in fact, be a prequel centred on Batman's first meeting with his arch-nemesis The Joker. Stylistically, it's said to be based on the Silver Age era of DC's comicbooks, dating from the 1950s, when Batman first team up with other iconic DC heroes, like Superman and The Flash, establishing the Justice League of America.
Variety claims this is part of a conscious effort by Warner Bros. to expose audiences to the Justice League of America, as it ramps up production on a JLA movie. It also reports the game will be released in 2014 at the earliest.
The Silver Age JLA typically consisted of 7 heroes: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman.
Not only does that sound like a fantastic way to keep things fresh, it's a nice thing to see in an era when AAA titles are mostly brown and grimdark. It also seems to indicate that DC may really be getting its act together in finally putting out a Justice League movie.
I was reading somewhere recently (I can't remember where) that Chris Nolan was approached about creating a Justice League movie and integrating it with his Dark Knight trilogy, but he turned them down. No idea how this would affect the video game side of things though... I'd assume WBIE and DC would want that sort of tie-in, but the Rocksteady games are already far removed from the movies.
Did we know there was going to be a God of War movie?
It seems that God of War movie still exists on some nebulous, astral plane of pre-production. The screenplay originally penned by executive producer David Self is now being rewritten by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Melton and Dunstan come from a primarily horror-based background, with their resumes consisting of such classics as Saw IV, V and VI, as well as Feast, Feast II: Sloppy Seconds and Feast III: The Happy Finish. Considering how eloquent the dialogue generally is in a God of War game, they're probably the perfect choices.
It's happened before. Pokémon has done it twice, FF III DS did it, DQ V PS2 did it.
Those are all drastically more popular series though.
Persona is in this weird space where it's nowhere near as popular as the big RPG series but it's still way more popular than the other niche RPG series that you get out of companies like NIS and Idea Factory.
Frankly, I'm shocked that it looks like Persona 4 Golden has sold about 200k. According to Vita LTD reports, that means about 25% of all Vita owners have bought it. That's an incredibly high attach rate for any game.
I just want to broach the prediction Patcher made about the new Xbox joining forces with cable providers.
At least here in Canada, it makes A LOT of sense. Recently, Rogers closed down all their video store locations across Canada, which came shortly after Blockbuster shuttering all stores. There's literally nowhere to rent physical copies of movies/games in the Greater Toronto Area anymore. There might be a few mom & pop stores around, but none in my area. It really sucks, because while I don't rent as much as I used to, there are certain games that aren't worth buying but are definitely great rental titles.
Rogers now solely rents out movies through their OnDemand service over your cable box. If Microsoft teams up with Rogers, they could set up a way to rent games through OnDemand as well. As long as they keep the costs low to make up for the inconvenience of downloading the title, it could potentially be a great service.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
The only issue I have with this prequel is it's going to be weird to have a Rocksteady Batman game without the Joker being voiced by Hamil.
I wouldn't be surprised if they recast everyone, considering how different modern Batman is from Silver Age.
My guess is that "prequel" is the wrong word for this. If it's really Silver Age, I have to think this will be another thing entirely and not actually related to the Arkham games directly. So it's a "prequel" in that it takes place in like the 50s or whatever, but otherwise it's not related to the same storyline.
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Also your character is your Xbox avatar. Orcs and elves, what are those? It's dudes with Master Chief helmet all day every day.
You couldn't tell me that it wouldn't sell units and be a pretty major blow to Sony.
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Aaaaah, now I see why Vivendi is so hot to sell off a perfectly profitable division.
Changing direction, I think this is pretty fascinating:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/11/arkham-city-sequel-will-be-a-silver-age-prequel
Not only does that sound like a fantastic way to keep things fresh, it's a nice thing to see in an era when AAA titles are mostly brown and grimdark. It also seems to indicate that DC may really be getting its act together in finally putting out a Justice League movie.
That's like selling off the car you need to get to work in order to pay your credit card bill. Unless they fix some fundamental flaws in their business habits, all they're doing is staving off death for a little while by selling off ActiBlizzard.
It's really not all that uncommon for struggling companies. I've seen it happen before with a national energy trader in my town that bet heavily and lost hard on telecom during the dotcom bubble last decade... to keep afloat, they had to sell off rights to natural gas pipelines that were reliable moneymakers. In their case it worked, and they were able to rebuy the pipelines when things got better.
Of course, the major problem in that case was the bad dotcom bet rather than something ongoing. I don't know enough about Vivendi to tell whether or not they can fix what's causing the debt.
The cable companies would happily give up any profit on tuner sales for a chance at adding $20-$60 to the monthly bill of anyone with a next generation console. If the 720 could act as a cable box, the major carriers would jump at the chance to sell HD packages to more households than ever before. Giving MS a small cut would still be a good deal.
The other option would be to bypass the cable companies entirely, but that would leave MS with a whole ton of other problems including dealing with each network individually.
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
As said before I think the more likely strategy is to continue seeking out individual channels or online video content outside of the cable companies, as they've done with the 360. But even that is risky... there's still the rumor that the reason for Live going from $50 to $60 per year is largely based on the fees ESPN demands. And they demand much, MUCH higher fees from the cable companies than any other channel.
"Hey, you built, maintain, and advertise Live. Live is the reason our game is so popular. So give us some money or we stop making our games for you."
F.O.E. F.O.E.
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Isn't that odd?
Yeah, for Japan that's a little odd. Though it'd be even more odd if it were the 360 version.
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I wonder what a full fledged 3DS sequel would do for the system.
Yea, not a great week for anyone, but the 3DS still reigns supreme in Japan. Yeesh, the only consistant thing about the Vita is that it's consistantly inconsistant. :P
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By "tune into your television" he probably means what we have now: ATT will let you use your 360 as a set top box. All you're doing is saving ATT some money in hardware. That or HBO Go, which requires traditional cable service anyway.
For all intents and purposes, both of those are considered as situations where your 360 provides television service.
52k for a system that has a new model release in two weeks is incredibly good. Also that is the best start of an EO game ever by a few thousand. Even Little Battlers did well for itself considering this is the third or so time that same game more or less has been released!
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It's just what they do.
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Yes, with two exceptions:
#1: You're a high-profile famous developer with loads of advertising and pull like Capcom or Namco or Square Enix that can sell just by your company name.
#2: You're a budget game developer that puts out lower funding but enjoyable B+ titles with realistic expectations instead of AAA+ titles like NIS, Atlus, Idea Factory, From Software, and the like.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
What I find interesting is a running theory that I've heard that the release of the 3DS LL / 3DS XL is going to somehow reduce the disparity between 3DS and Vita sales, because, since the 3DS LL / XL is going to be more expensive, that it will make the value proposition for the Vita seem more appealing.
Personally I expect the release of the 3DS LL and XL to do nothing for the Vita, but rather cause a great deal more 3DS systems to be sold.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
That's pretty typical for RPGs in Japan though. Unless it's Pokemon, the vast majority of sales are in the first week.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Some people thought it would be a multi week breakthrough sort of title. A real system seller.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
I was reading somewhere recently (I can't remember where) that Chris Nolan was approached about creating a Justice League movie and integrating it with his Dark Knight trilogy, but he turned them down. No idea how this would affect the video game side of things though... I'd assume WBIE and DC would want that sort of tie-in, but the Rocksteady games are already far removed from the movies.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
I wouldn't be surprised if they recast everyone, considering how different modern Batman is from Silver Age.
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http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/11/god-of-war-screenplay-being-rewritten-by-saw-vi-alumni/
It would be odd to have another Greek mythology splatterfest so soon after Clash/Wrath of the Titans, but there it is.
Those are all drastically more popular series though.
Persona is in this weird space where it's nowhere near as popular as the big RPG series but it's still way more popular than the other niche RPG series that you get out of companies like NIS and Idea Factory.
Frankly, I'm shocked that it looks like Persona 4 Golden has sold about 200k. According to Vita LTD reports, that means about 25% of all Vita owners have bought it. That's an incredibly high attach rate for any game.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
The attach rate in Japan for Super Smash Bros. Melee is over 30 percent for example.
Isn't the Japanese economy still in the midst of their huge lost decades now?
Consumer spending over there has shit the bed in general afaik.
Man, if they have a playable Wonder Woman in there I just don't know what I'll do. I can't imagine she's popular enough for that to happen tho.
At least here in Canada, it makes A LOT of sense. Recently, Rogers closed down all their video store locations across Canada, which came shortly after Blockbuster shuttering all stores. There's literally nowhere to rent physical copies of movies/games in the Greater Toronto Area anymore. There might be a few mom & pop stores around, but none in my area. It really sucks, because while I don't rent as much as I used to, there are certain games that aren't worth buying but are definitely great rental titles.
Rogers now solely rents out movies through their OnDemand service over your cable box. If Microsoft teams up with Rogers, they could set up a way to rent games through OnDemand as well. As long as they keep the costs low to make up for the inconvenience of downloading the title, it could potentially be a great service.
My guess is that "prequel" is the wrong word for this. If it's really Silver Age, I have to think this will be another thing entirely and not actually related to the Arkham games directly. So it's a "prequel" in that it takes place in like the 50s or whatever, but otherwise it's not related to the same storyline.