[Industry Thread] I shall call him...Mini Wii.

Tommatt

Has there been any talk of wiiu sales? Is it sold out it is it findable in stores? How are early reviews? I only saw cnn's and it wasn't much of a review. More an exposé.

McHoger

Is it me or is the Wii U's release pretty muted? I checked out the local Walmart and there was nothing about it beyond there just being a Wii U section where there was one a Wii one. The Gamestop here seems to be about the same.

Couscous

http://www.ign.com/articles2012/11/20/tolkien-estate-sues-studio-over-lord-of-the-rings-online-games

Just weeks before the Dec. 14 release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the estate of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien has filed an $80 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. claiming the studio is "usurping rights to which they are not entitled" in merchandising Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, specifically online games and gambling slots.

The Tolkiens and publisher Harper Collins sued Warners, its New Line subsidiary, and LOTR/Hobbit screen rights holder Saul Zaentz Co. on Monday claiming they've violated a decades-old agreement to make only "tangible" merchandise and consumer products based on the books.


The plaintiffs are particularly offended by recent digital exploitations, specifically the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring: Online Slot Game. They're also angered by planned traditional slot machines set to feature LOTR characters.

The Hollywood Reporter says the "tangible" merchandising rights agreement does not extend to "downloadable video games available only on mobile devices or tablets or Facebook" because the contract, signed in 1969, reserved rights for the Tolkiens "not herein specifically granted."

"Not only does the production of gambling games patently exceed the scope of defendants' rights, but this infringing conduct has outraged Tolkien's devoted fan base, causing irreparable harm to Tolkien's legacy and reputation and the valuable goodwill generated by his works," according to the complaint. The suit alleges that settlement talks have gone on for some time, but to no avail.

http://youtu.be/iKMBup7oxPg
Yeah, a slots game was probably in poor taste.

Mego Thor

I've seen actual, physical LoTR slots games in casinos.

It was weird.

plufim

McHoger wrote: »

Is it me or is the Wii U's release pretty muted? I checked out the local Walmart and there was nothing about it beyond there just being a Wii U section where there was one a Wii one. The Gamestop here seems to be about the same.

I wonder if Nintendo knew they'd sell out and decided to ease off, since they had previously commented that given the demand for Wii they probably spent more than necessary on advertising back then

Skull2185

Cade wrote: »

Now everyone can sing their praises for returning something they had taken away!

Wasn't really taken away though. Nobody lost the map, they just stopped the 24/7 playlist.

Nuketown is fun, but only in short bursts. The chaos moshpit thing is a good idea though.

Gaslight

Cade wrote: »

Now everyone can sing their praises for returning something they had taken away!

I love when companies expect consumers to be overjoyed at the easing of scarcity they created.

Like when the iPhone "finally" came out in white. What was stopping it from being available in white before? That Apple chose not to make them in white.

Skull2185

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

Henroid

It's still a weird situation because people paid for access to something. A rotation was made for that access to be 24/7. Then it looked like it was "pay for access when we decide to allow access whatsoever." I don't know how long gameplay sessions go or how numerous map rotations are, but even this "You have access to it sometimes" thing isn't exactly as promised or inferred in the writing.

Whatever. I don't have a horse in this race and I know better than to buy into AAA publisher deals. I trust Korean MMOs way more.

Donnicton

Gaslight wrote: »

Cade wrote: »

Now everyone can sing their praises for returning something they had taken away!

I love when companies expect consumers to be overjoyed at the easing of scarcity they created.

Like when the iPhone "finally" came out in white. What was stopping it from being available in white before? That Apple chose not to make them in white.

Given the way the patent system works, someone probably held the patent for 'violet' in the color spectrum when implemented as part of a phone case coloring.

Couscous

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people? To use a car analogy, you are given a car and then told you can only drive it at 10 miles an hour.

Machismo

Henroid wrote: »

It's still a weird situation because people paid for access to something. A rotation was made for that access to be 24/7. Then it looked like it was "pay for access when we decide to allow access whatsoever." I don't know how long gameplay sessions go or how numerous map rotations are, but even this "You have access to it sometimes" thing isn't exactly as promised or inferred in the writing.

Whatever. I don't have a horse in this race and I know better than to buy into AAA publisher deals. I trust Korean MMOs way more.

It certainly should rock consumer confidence in the brand. I doubt it is enough to really matter though.

Fawst

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

Nuketown wasn't in regular rotation playlists. The only playlist that included it was specifically labeled as "24/7, we never close." Then it closed. Players had a right to be pissed.

Henroid

Machismo wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

It's still a weird situation because people paid for access to something. A rotation was made for that access to be 24/7. Then it looked like it was "pay for access when we decide to allow access whatsoever." I don't know how long gameplay sessions go or how numerous map rotations are, but even this "You have access to it sometimes" thing isn't exactly as promised or inferred in the writing.

Whatever. I don't have a horse in this race and I know better than to buy into AAA publisher deals. I trust Korean MMOs way more.

It certainly should rock consumer confidence in the brand. I doubt it is enough to really matter though.

Yeah. I mean, if anyone takes the defense of, "Well, it didn't NOT say!" I'd just flick a bean at their forehead or something. Being coaxed into buying something and finding out after the fact that it doesn't work as things normally do is dumb. If I had gotten the game and this map access, this situation would just let me know that buying any extra content that has no specifics about its use in the future is ill-advised. There's nothing wrong with being burned once and being wary of things.

Fawst

To be fair, there is precedent for getting a map for CoD and expecting it to be available forever and always afterwards (ie. map packs). Telling people they get a map through pre-ordering without saying it's specifically for double XP events and special occasions is just stupid all around as the assumption is there that it was a permanent item.

Henroid

Fawst wrote: »

To be fair, there is precedent for getting a map for CoD and expecting it to be available forever and always afterwards (ie. map packs). Telling people they get a map through pre-ordering without saying it's specifically for double XP events and special occasions is just stupid all around as the assumption is there that it was a permanent item.

Yeah well we now live in a world where turning off your helmet display costs four-fucking-dollars.

Skull2185

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

urahonky

Nuketown is the most fucking awful map in the history of CoD maps.

Henroid

urahonky wrote: »

Nuketown is the most fucking awful map in the history of CoD maps.

I was curious if there would be another Dust.

Magic Pink

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

Is that that awful awful awful one of the rooftop with the one idiot running and the other idiot diving through the air? Christ that's a terrible ad.

urahonky

Henroid wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

Nuketown is the most fucking awful map in the history of CoD maps.

I was curious if there would be another Dust.

You mean from CS? If so yeah that is awful.

Couscous

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

So you are just going to completely ignore the people who want to play Nuketown but aren't going to play custom games and were expecting it to work like every other DLC map? Because taking away something that was expected and essentially implied by a lack of disclaimer isn't OK if there is a way to use it that many people don't want to use. There being other maps to play is irrelevant as to whether it is OK.

fearsomepirate

L Ron Howard wrote: »

It's also a matter of having old programs that do something very specific, and not having those applications be compatible with Win7's new architecture.

This. When the software on your machine is mission-critical, and it costs literally orders of magnitude more than your OS (or, even better, it's in-house stuff and rewriting it would put other important projects on hold/cost lots of money), then a new OS not working = we don't buy the the new OS.

Skull2185

Magic Pink wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

Is that that awful awful awful one of the rooftop with the one idiot running and the other idiot diving through the air? Christ that's a terrible ad.

That's the one. Awful stuff... just terrible. Also the ad states "CoD multiplayer, now on a handheld!" but isnt that not the case? Don't reviews say that it doesn't even work half the time?

Edit re: the Nuketown stuff: The map comes with all new copies of BLOPS 2, nobody had to pay extra for it. You didn't have to buy the CE or anything. Its just a bonus map. Treyarch wasn't doing anything nefarious by shutting it down for public matches after the double XP weekend ended. I'm just not seeing a case of the devs trying to screw anyone over here. But it is a non-issue now since the fans let the devs know that they want to keep a Nuketown playlist, and they delivered the Chaos moshpit.

Fawst

Magic Pink wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

Is that that awful awful awful one of the rooftop with the one idiot running and the other idiot diving through the air? Christ that's a terrible ad.

I hate that commercial so much. And it comes down to two things: the dude who isn't strafe-diving's wardrobe is hideous (along with his hair) and the closeups of his hands moving back and forth like he's shooting an actual gun make zero sense when the gameplay being shown isn't a gun firing.

Seriously, I wouldn't actively hate the ad like I do if not for those things. Even if they had just shown a gun firing on his screen every time they did that closeup thing, it wouldn't bother me so much. But if you're going to create an internal logic like that, at least do it well.

cloudeagle

Mego Thor wrote: »

I've seen actual, physical LoTR slots games in casinos.

It was weird.

There have been actual, physical LoTR slots games in casinos for YEARS. And there have been many, many versions of them.

I think the actual reasoning behind the suit is that Christopher Tolkein is a hateful bastard and the popular excitement for a Hobbit movie that's a little different from the Hobbit book has sent him into a rage.

Zephiran

plufim wrote: »

McHoger wrote: »

Is it me or is the Wii U's release pretty muted? I checked out the local Walmart and there was nothing about it beyond there just being a Wii U section where there was one a Wii one. The Gamestop here seems to be about the same.

I wonder if Nintendo knew they'd sell out and decided to ease off, since they had previously commented that given the demand for Wii they probably spent more than necessary on advertising back then

Considering the piece Ben put up on PAR pretty recently, it almost sounds like their first shipment is fairly low. I'm guessing somewhere in the vicinity of a million units for NA?

Cade

He's also probably a jealous little guy who is mad Jackson made something so successful and gets much praise while his own takes on extending the Tolkein franchise has fallen flat.

Donnicton

cloudeagle wrote: »

Mego Thor wrote: »

I've seen actual, physical LoTR slots games in casinos.

It was weird.

There have been actual, physical LoTR slots games in casinos for YEARS. And there have been many, many versions of them.

I think the actual reasoning behind the suit is that Christopher Tolkein is a hateful bastard and the popular excitement for a Hobbit movie that's a little different from the Hobbit book has sent him into a rage.

Tolkien the Lesser was always was a hilariously litigious wang about the properties, especially for someone who's been riding daddy's coattails his entire life(Chris' "works" are nowhere near Tolkien the Elder's quality IMO). The Saul Zaentz Company(an arm of Tolkien's estate granted certain rights to The Hobbit/LotR) bullied a UK pub earlier this year over the name 'The Hobbit', which they carried for twenty years, to the point where Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen themselves stepped up and paid the licensing fees for the pub to get them off the pub's asses.

Couscous

Zephiran wrote: »

plufim wrote: »

McHoger wrote: »

Is it me or is the Wii U's release pretty muted? I checked out the local Walmart and there was nothing about it beyond there just being a Wii U section where there was one a Wii one. The Gamestop here seems to be about the same.

I wonder if Nintendo knew they'd sell out and decided to ease off, since they had previously commented that given the demand for Wii they probably spent more than necessary on advertising back then

Considering the piece Ben put up on PAR pretty recently, it almost sounds like their first shipment is fairly low. I'm guessing somewhere in the vicinity of a million units for NA?

That is probably fairly high for an initial shipment these days. I'm going to wait and see what happens on black Friday before making any judgments.

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1687689/wii_u_has_a_horrible_slow_cpu_says_metro_last_light_dev.html

One of these titles will be 4 A Games’ Metro: Last Light. Chief technical officer, Oles Shishkovtsov, explains why Metro’s sequel won’t be appearing.

“[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU,” explained Shishkovtsov. “We had an early look at it, we thought we could probably do it, but in terms of the impact we would make on the overall quality of the game – potentially to its detriment – we just figured it wasn’t worth pursuing at this time. It’s something we might return to. I really couldn’t make any promises, though.”

...

“We had an initial look at the Wii U, but given the size of the team and compared to where we were last time, just developing for the Playstation 3 is a significant addition.”

While I'm not going to doubt that the Wii U has a bad CPU, I'm going to guess that the extra development cost was probably at least as big a factor considering that THQ strikes me as in no position to pay money for a port. THQ also strikes me as the kind of company that wouldn't give a shit about quality compared to other versions if it thought there was money to be made.

Magic Pink

Fawst wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

There was no scarcity! The map didn't go anywhere!

You don't see how removing the only way of playing it that most people cared about is essentially taking it away for most people?

If you just have to play Nuketown, its there for you to play. There are a ton of other maps to play on too, just not a 24/7 Nuketown playlist to grind out weapon/equipment challenges on. The fans requested a Nuketown playlist though, and Treyarch made the chaos moshpit. So, all is well.


Speaking of CoD. I keep seeing a very irresponsible CoD Vita ad. Two dudes are playing the game and appear to be having fun.

Is that that awful awful awful one of the rooftop with the one idiot running and the other idiot diving through the air? Christ that's a terrible ad.

I hate that commercial so much. And it comes down to two things: the dude who isn't strafe-diving's wardrobe is hideous (along with his hair) and the closeups of his hands moving back and forth like he's shooting an actual gun make zero sense when the gameplay being shown isn't a gun firing.

Seriously, I wouldn't actively hate the ad like I do if not for those things. Even if they had just shown a gun firing on his screen every time they did that closeup thing, it wouldn't bother me so much. But if you're going to create an internal logic like that, at least do it well.

Seriously, he's dressed like the whole wardrobe budget was "go roll around in that alley with the homeless people for 12 minutes and we'll just have you wear whatever sticks. Try to get some feces in your hair too; yeah, that's it, roll you ginger bitch".

And the throbbing hand motion thing was massively pants. I just thought he was doing it because he was SO OMG EXCITED TO PLAY THIS GAME but if it's a gameplay thing it's even worse; if I have to shoot in a game it better be a button press by crikey.

Skull2185

I think his hands were moving, because it was supposed to be like he was running like his character on screen. Just so bad though... so so bad. I don't change the channel on commercials much (Except for those dang Sarah Mclaughlin animal commercials), but after the second or third time I saw this CoD Vita thing on ESPN last night, I just kept flipping to something else.

Magic Pink

Skull2185 wrote: »

(Except for those dang Sarah Mclaughlin animal commercials)

THIS JUST IN Dr. SKULLNUMBERS A BLEEDING HEART ANIMAL LOVING PETA DONATING GODAMNED HIPPY LIBERAL SOCIALIST



He is supported by some chicks at the beach I guess.

Couscous

Being under powered even compared to current generation consoles shouldn't be much of a problem because it would only result in a decent amount of ports for about a year unless they wanted to spend far more money than they want to on hardware to compete with the PS4 and next Xbox.

I really need to avoid NeoGAF. Way too many trolls that are considered part of the community and people generally be apoplectic.

Skull2185

I'll take the beach chicks, but I hate PETA! I don't support terrorist organizations.

Anyway, I feel sorry for the people who end up getting the CoD Vita Black Friday Bundle...

Dark Raven X

Why, they'll be getting a Vita with a couple dollars worth of trade in fodder for free!

Brainiac 8

XSeed has reason to celebrate. I wonder what Nintendo thinks.

XSEED Games Releases New Standalone Version of The Last Story to replace the sold-out Premium Launch Edition

Highly Acclaimed Action RPG Title from Legendary Game Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi Most Successful Title in Publisher’s History

Torrance, Calif., (November 20, 2012) – XSEED Games, an independent-minded publisher, is pleased to celebrate the success of its hit action RPG, The Last Story, by announcing that it is releasing an all-new standalone version of the Wii™ exclusive, which started shipping today to select retailers throughout North America at an MSRP of $29.99. In addition to this new standalone game package, any remaining copies of the premium launch units at retailers, which included a bonus 44-page softcover art book packaged together with the game in a custom outer box, are now available for $39.99.

“The Last Story has been an amazing title for XSEED Games and it has become our most successful title to date,” said Ken Berry, Executive Vice President at XSEED Games. “This is a must have title for RPG fans, and we’re looking forward to more players discovering the magic that lies in Lazulis Island.”

Brainiac 8

Also a pretty balanced article by Stephen Totilo aka the only guy worth his merit at Kotaku.

Nintendo's new console is just three days old and already one of the most controversial creations the company has ever produced. The Wii U is better than you may have heard, but it's in some ways worse. It's also changing. Constantly. And mostly for the better.

It's good to see that the Wii U was packed with ambition. It's understandable that in reaching further on day one than probably any other console maker ever has, Nintendo has made several gaffes. It's gratifying to see some problems already being fixed and to see functionality improving. It's nevertheless worrisome that some issues may be inherent to the machine, and it's disappointing to see that in cases like Wii backwards compatibility, Nintendo has delivered an experience that technically fulfills its promise but doesn't provide an ideal user experience.

The Wii U is no more shaky at launch than the PS3 or the 360. All these machines sputter at take-off before they soar. There's potential here. Let's hope there are no fatal flaws and that Nintendo prepares to be a proper pilot for the journey that many people have already spent a lot of money to be a part of.

http://kotaku.com/5962143/the-state-of-the-wii-u-just-three-days-in

Al Baron

That reminds me of Atlus and Demon Souls. Sony gave two shits about localizing it so Atlus does it and it actually charts on the NPD.

Kryhs

The "all consoles have issues at launch!" reply is getting tired. That assumes (and then wastes time) that people complaining about it are only after Nintendo. It's stupid and every console should be judged separate. I had issues with my 360 when I got it. It was irritating. I did not have any issues with my Wii when I got it, it was a fine launch. Doesn't make me any less happy to see Nintendo stumbling, for no reasons other than my own.