They were also able to get away with that sort of budget because Heavy Rain kinda follows a visual novel-ish style that allowed them to rein in players pretty effectively. The more constrained by circumstance a player is, the less work the devs have to do accounting for different variables and do brute rendering work. That they managed to actually make the game itself with just 20 million, in this industry, is kind of remarkable though.
Cool story, Uncharted/2 cost 20 million to make as well.
God of war 3 cost 44 million to make. So it's one of those things were one has to qestion the overheads of Sony Santa Monica vurses Naughty Dog. (killzone 2 was similar 40million or so).
Of course for whatever reason Uncharted 3 balloned to about 100 million, does it look 5 times better than Uncharted 1 or 2?
Philippe about the tactical deployment of german Kradschützen during the battle of Kursk:
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
Isn't 52 million kind of an insane number itself? In fact, according to this list, it was one of the most expensive games ever made up to 2010, which is when it came out.
They were also able to get away with that sort of budget because Heavy Rain kinda follows a visual novel-ish style that allowed them to rein in players pretty effectively. The more constrained by circumstance a player is, the less work the devs have to do accounting for different variables and do brute rendering work. That they managed to actually make the game itself with just 20 million, in this industry, is kind of remarkable though.
Cool story, Uncharted/2 cost 20 million to make as well.
God of war 3 cost 44 million to make. So it's one of those things were one has to question the overheads of Sony Santa Monica versus Naughty Dog. (killzone 2 was similar 40million or so).
Of course for whatever reason Uncharted 3 ballooned to about 100 million, does it look 5 times better than Uncharted 1 or 2?
Not all that surprising because while it doesn't follow the exact same visual novel-ish style Uncharted 2 is still quite "Railroads"-heavy, so to speak.
Is Uncharted 3 more or less scripted? I wouldn't think it'd be, but if it is then maybe that's where the budget went.
Or maybe Kaz Hirai ate it for breakfast or something.
Zephiran on
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
I actually hate using it after their shenanigans with Katrina donations and various sites back in the day but they're so good at making paying online so fucking fast and safe and easy
Using Paypal as a consumer is no problem. It's when you're a merchant when it becomes apparent they are a shitty company.
+1
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I actually hate using it after their shenanigans with Katrina donations and various sites back in the day but they're so good at making paying online so fucking fast and safe and easy
Using Paypal as a consumer is no problem. It's when you're a merchant when it becomes apparent they are a shitty company.
Well, it also produced unforeseen problems back during the first Solid Saints Auction. The kind of problems they spring up on you just because of a lot of money rolling through and there's no documentation on their site about it. I can't remember the details, it was pretty dumb.
Actually, a lot of it is all there. It's just buried under so much text and links that you'll probably never find it. However, you can bet your ass they have all their bases covered when you try to hold them accountable.
My problem with Paypal is they only let you do so many transactions before you have to link your bank account. No way am I doing that.
Also, OP is the best OP.
Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
+1
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
I forget when it happened but somewhere along the way Paypal finally setup an interface where you didn't need an account with them or anything (as a consumer) and only the merchant did, so your only interaction with Paypal was just the interface you entered your CC info into. The shit about consumers needing their own accounts is ancient history (thank god).
My problem with Paypal is they only let you do so many transactions before you have to link your bank account. No way am I doing that.
Also, OP is the best OP.
I just opened another bank account with my bank, and linked my Paypal account to that. Using the bank's netbanking system to deposit small sums of money from my main savings account into it, I can make sure that Paypal has exactly as much money to play with as I want it to.
Warner’s ‘Injustice: Gods Among Us’ debuts at No1 and is the first Warner No1 since ‘Lego Batman DC Superheroes’ which debuted back in week 25, 2012 and held on to the top spot for 5 consecutive weeks. ‘Injustice’ is a fighting game from Netherrealm, the Warner studio that brought us the ‘Mortal Kombat’ reboot which debuted at No2 back in week 16, 2011 (behind ‘Portal 2’ in that week). The last fighting game to gain a No1 footing was THQ’s ‘UFC Undisputed 3’ back in week 7, 2012 which sold almost exactly the same amount in week 1 as ‘Injustice’, with both games released for 360/PS3. 2K/Take 2’s ‘Bioshock Infinite’ (-43%) drops to No2 after 3 weeks at the top and at No3 we have the only other new entry of the week, Nintendo’s 3DS ‘Fire Emblem: Awakening’ which launched alongside a limited edition 3DS XL Blue, taking 31% of all 3DS XL hardware sales this week, helping 3DS XL hardware sales to increase 49% over the previous week.
In the UK / Europe? A lot of fucking people. Soccer is huge outside of North America (or, that's not accurate - outside the USA, I'm sure Canada is into it).
0
Options
fearsomepirateI ate a pickle once.Registered Userregular
I'm sure it will come as no surprise that there are a lot of copies of FIFA on the shelves here in Chiapas, too.
Nobody makes me bleed my own blood...nobody.
PSN ID: fearsomepirate
I actually hate using it after their shenanigans with Katrina donations and various sites back in the day but they're so good at making paying online so fucking fast and safe and easy
Using Paypal as a consumer is no problem. It's when you're a merchant when it becomes apparent they are a shitty company.
There's a LOT of horrible things Paypal can do to consumers as well. If you link a bank account to them they can actually legally drain it of any funds they want.
Not that they would but the fact that they can should be reason enough to avoid them.
0
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
John Walker over at RPS put up an article about Maxis and EA's silence tactic regarding SimCity. Disclaimer: I am not bringing this up to discuss SimCity or always-on. I am bringing this up to discuss PR maneuvering and strategy.
Basically as soon as individuals started to investigate the situation and truths became known, Maxis and EA played a brief game of, "Oh we'll have something to say soon," without saying anything soon, and eventually went silent. And really that's the biggest power play when it comes to dealing with investigative journalism - remaining silent. Especially when (Walker told me directly just a couple minutes ago) there's things like the laws in the UK about libelous material to stop people from reporting on things, even despite any use of the word "allegedly" and others along that line.
I mean, in what other situation in life does remaining silent work to someone's benefit? PR for video games really has a great fallback here, and it's perpetuated by journalist outlets releasing their bite after a brief while as well as consumers doing the same. Bleh. What shit.
I actually hate using it after their shenanigans with Katrina donations and various sites back in the day but they're so good at making paying online so fucking fast and safe and easy
Using Paypal as a consumer is no problem. It's when you're a merchant when it becomes apparent they are a shitty company.
There's a LOT of horrible things Paypal can do to consumers as well. If you link a bank account to them they can actually legally drain it of any funds they want.
Not that they would but the fact that they can should be reason enough to avoid them.
Actually they do. If you have 0 funds in your PP account, and you pay for something with a CC through paypal, then try to get paypal to reverse and they dont, and then you use your CC protection to reverse, paypal will deduct funds from your paypal account, which will get filled from your bank account. if your bank account is empty, they immediately just send you to collections and suspend the account. It happens often enough. There's alot of sites detailing the history of "we are/aren't a bank and therefore afford the protections/refuse the regulations as one."
John Walker over at RPS put up an article about Maxis and EA's silence tactic regarding SimCity. Disclaimer: I am not bringing this up to discuss SimCity or always-on. I am bringing this up to discuss PR maneuvering and strategy.
Basically as soon as individuals started to investigate the situation and truths became known, Maxis and EA played a brief game of, "Oh we'll have something to say soon," without saying anything soon, and eventually went silent. And really that's the biggest power play when it comes to dealing with investigative journalism - remaining silent. Especially when (Walker told me directly just a couple minutes ago) there's things like the laws in the UK about libelous material to stop people from reporting on things, even despite any use of the word "allegedly" and others along that line.
I mean, in what other situation in life does remaining silent work to someone's benefit? PR for video games really has a great fallback here, and it's perpetuated by journalist outlets releasing their bite after a brief while as well as consumers doing the same. Bleh. What shit.
Libel laws in the UK are crazy nuts. True fact supported articles that are negative can be seen as libelous.
In the UK / Europe? A lot of fucking people. Soccer is huge outside of North America (or, that's not accurate - outside the USA, I'm sure Canada is into it).
I know, I'm from the UK myself and I'm a big football fan. I meant it more as in me and all my friends who care about it have had the game for months.
At least they can't do anything about the lasting impression. Sim City is freakin' labeled. People are going to remember it like they are going to remember every failure on this level - Ubisoft's constant phoning home with Assassin's Creed 2, for example.
I rag on David Cage all the time about being a pompous hack with a hugely inflated sense of self-importance, but I guess I can give him this: he can deliver a game without the production costs being completely ludicrous.
It does help to lower costs when your voice actors are terrible and your story is garbage.
All snark aside, the game look(ed)(s) damn good and it's impressive it only cost that much, especially with all the little branching paths and such.
John Walker over at RPS put up an article about Maxis and EA's silence tactic regarding SimCity. Disclaimer: I am not bringing this up to discuss SimCity or always-on. I am bringing this up to discuss PR maneuvering and strategy.
Basically as soon as individuals started to investigate the situation and truths became known, Maxis and EA played a brief game of, "Oh we'll have something to say soon," without saying anything soon, and eventually went silent. And really that's the biggest power play when it comes to dealing with investigative journalism - remaining silent. Especially when (Walker told me directly just a couple minutes ago) there's things like the laws in the UK about libelous material to stop people from reporting on things, even despite any use of the word "allegedly" and others along that line.
I mean, in what other situation in life does remaining silent work to someone's benefit? PR for video games really has a great fallback here, and it's perpetuated by journalist outlets releasing their bite after a brief while as well as consumers doing the same. Bleh. What shit.
Yes, people ask why we don't ask "the hard questions" in interviews. The falls out in a couple of ways:
1) We ask, they say no comment. That may or may not be worth printing. (Happens a lot)
2) We ask, they're about to answer, but the PR person in the room gives them a stern look. Becomes a no comment.
2) We ask, they (or PR) flip out and possibly cut off the interview completely (this happened recently to a colleague of mine)
3) We ask, they answer in marketing speak. At least we have something to print! (also happens a lot)
4) We ask, they answer! Score! I run off to transcribe my beautiful nugget.
Video games aren't politics. People generally aren't living or dying by the hard questions in our business. And as the SimCity article shows, it sometimes benefits PR just to stay quiet. For them, it's all about controlling the message. Remaining silent benefits all aspects of PR at times, some are just more important than others. Remaining silent about an oil spill is vastly different from remaining silent on a cut feature.
Sources are anonymous much of the time because no one wants to lose their job to tell you about console specs or game features.
EDIT: The best interviews tend to be with high-level developers long after they've left a company.
Exactly. And it's damned hard to do investigative stuff for individual companies because, other than the stuff publicly-traded companies are required to provide, there's really no other way to get the information. Sure, there's leakers, but considering the leaker is damn near guaranteed to get fired and become unemployable in the biz if he identifies himself and anonymous sources pretty much result in "pfft, why should we believe this crap," very few people stick their necks out that way.
Which is why we may never know just what really happened within EA/Maxis on the SimCity mess. Hell, we can't even get a definitive answer on the Amazon/Nintendo thing.
Thousands of Razer customers scored a sweet deal this week. According to a statement issued by the gaming hardware maker's CEO, Min-Liang Tan, an unauthorized coupon code for 90% off any order placed through Razer's online store leaked online, resulting in a flood of new orders with deep discounts. While the company says it's within legal boundaries to invalidate the orders, Razer will honor the discount, allowing users to apply the 90% discount to one product in their order.
"It will likely cost us an insane amount of losses to make good on the orders which will really really hurt us as we’re still a small company," Tan said. "That much said, we want to do right by the community."
As the company begins sifting through the thousands of orders placed using the coupon, it's urging customers to be patient. In his statement, Tan says that orders generated using the code could take weeks or even months to process.
That is an astounding showing of good faith on their part. I'm trying to put this in context with other snafus like this and I can't think of a single situation where a discount of that size was honored. I imagine that being a smaller company, this hurts them far more than it would hurt a large company.
Yeah, I saw that. It's a big financial risk, but it's amazingly cool of them. I just hope it doesn't inspire people to make more fake coupons.
I believe it was an actual real coupon code that was valid on the Razer store for a time. It managed to leak out and people used it.
Why such a thing would even exist as something you could enter into the Razer store and it would accept, I don't know though. Employee discount code maybe, but I would think that would be something that the store would only accept from some accounts specifically.
And yes, the market today is fractured. This normally would be of little concern to a publisher, since porting costs per platform are next to nothing. BUT. These new platforms (Facebook, iOS, Android, the resurgence of PC) do not require publishers for success. You want your game on the Xbox Live Arcade? You’ll need a publisher (and some will literally let YOU pay THEM for the privilege). You want to release on the latest iPhone? There’s no gatekeeper… that market is all yours. A publisher could help with the marketing, but trust me, your budget title is getting an associate brand manager at best, and about $50k max to play with. So developers are going out there on their own. It’s a tough market to turn a significant profit (which is part of the publisher paradigm), as you can see by EA’s apparent closure of Playfish. The almost complete radio silence from the other publishers on the social/mobile front should tell you one thing: they’re not making enough money in the space, so they’re getting out.
When the actuals tend to creep above the forecasts, is it because, as the author says, “imbecilic publishers tend to vastly underestimate the budget”? No. The budget comes from the developer and is validated by all management involved, publisher and developer alike. Creeping costs are common with all new product development; to lay the blame at the feet of the publisher strikes me as a bit inappropriate. Too often the first a publisher will hear of money problems is when it’s too late, and the trust is broken.
On Nintendo's dev practices:
1) Nintendo will often fund prototypes for only three months at a time. If the game isn’t progressing well, they’ll cancel development and move on. Because they’re Nintendo, as a developer you take the risk. No one would do that for Activision.
2) All publishers pay a cut to first party on every game they sell. As a first party publisher, your profit margin (and thus, the amount of money and time you’re willing to spend) is much higher as all profits go directly to you.
3) Nintendo turns a profit on (most of) their consoles (as do Microsoft and Sony, at least at the moment). This gives them much more financial flexibility to work on their flagship titles.
Why does Valve spend years and years on their titles? Because with Steam, they live above the store, so to speak. They’re private and have alternate forms of income keeping them solvent. No publicly traded company has this freedom.
In the past thread, we spoke about B-list titles funding the AAA games, the publisher gives it as the other way around (which was my theory).
Assassin’s Creed comes out once a year, but it was only a few years ago that Ubisoft took a chance on a parkour game set during the Crusades. If I pitched that in most sane environments, I would have been laughed out the door. They took a chance, and it paid off. They also took a chance on a bunch of other titles no one else played (Child of Eden anyone?), but Assassin’s Creed more than made up for it. That’s what publishers do: they take a handful of risks while they rely on the profits from their flagship and catalog titles.
AC is annual because Ubisoft can reasonably expect it to keep the bottom line level. Which leads to Ubisoft adding more resources to keep the whole thing annual, and here we are.
We need everyone to be better, because the market is getting tougher. For every success story you hear, there are many, many more that fail. Publishers provide a source of income and stability for a team to work through a project, and no one is forcing anyone to take their money. If you don’t need them, great! Publish your work on Steam and I’ll pick it up when it’s under 10 bucks. But if you still have a desire to work on a huge title, on a console, that funding has to come from somewhere.
And you’d be naïve to think that millions of dollars won’t come with strings attached.
You know, that reminds me of something I've noticed lately... the publishers/developers that have found big success on tablets and smartphones are completely different from the ones that have made it big on consoles and PCs. Even though the traditional ones have tried, they haven't been able to replicate their success for the most part. Meanwhile the lion's share of the successes are from brand-new names.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
+1
Options
ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
edited April 2013
Speaking of tablet/smartphone games... the PSP Idolm@ster game has been rereleased on iOS as of today.
Strangely, rhythm game pricing controversy isn't new to TouchArcade as many people were upset at the piecemeal way in which Square Enix brought Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [Free] to the App Store, but NamcoBandai may have just one-upped them with the US release of their hit Japanese rhythm game iDOLM@STER on iOS.
The gist of iDOLM@STER (yes, that's how they stylize it) centers around managing an up-and-coming pop star and taking them to the top of the charts, using your typical rhythm-based gameplay of tapping various combinations in time with the beat. The game has seen a few different releases on various consoles and handhelds since 2005, and as best as can be determined by some fans in our forums this iOS version is based off of the Sony PSP release from several years back. Also, the band management portion and arguably the one thing that sets this apart from being just another rhythm game doesn't appear to be in the iOS versions of the game.
The real kicker here is that iDOLM@STER has been split into three separate apps: iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record [$54.99], iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Melodic Disc [$54.99], and iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Harmonic Score [$54.99]. The difference between each seems to be the selection of idols and songs that you can play with, basically chopping the PSP game into three $55 chunks. Also, each app is roughly 2 GB to download and around 3 GB installed.
So this is a perplexing release on several levels. For one, I think there's definitely an audience who are stoked for an English version of iDOLM@STER, and if you're absolutely nuts for the series then maybe you're down to drop the $165 to get all three games on your iOS device. But I can't imagine there are a significant number of people who feel that way. If the goal is to broaden the audience for this niche genre, which has blown up in Japan and other markets but never really hit hard in the West, then this pricey and split-up iOS release is a tough barrier to entry for newbies. Finally, why the heck would they strip out the actual band management mechanics when that sounds like the most interesting part?
I guess we'll just keep our eye on iDOLM@STER and see how it shakes out, but if you are a huge fan who has been waiting for a native English version of the game and you have both the money and device space to spare, then feel free to check out the iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa games with the links below or hit up the forums for more impressions and discussion.
That's weird. Namco Bandai is doing very well in the Asian mobile market, and I don't think the Asian and Western markets are that different. Cheap and freemium are the watchwords in both markets. Why would the company think that $55 apps for a franchise that isn't well-known in a particular reason are a good idea in any way?
Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
In the UK / Europe? A lot of fucking people. Soccer is huge outside of North America (or, that's not accurate - outside the USA, I'm sure Canada is into it).
I know, I'm from the UK myself and I'm a big football fan. I meant it more as in me and all my friends who care about it have had the game for months.
I've often wondered this about the year-on-year release titles, like Fifa, CoD, etc.
If they're really selling enough copies after 6 months to stay in the top 20, who is buying them ? People who waited for price drops, first DLC packs, etc ?
I've always imagined the people who want the latest version would get it in the first month of release, then sales would sharply drop off, but apparently this isn't the case.
Strangely, rhythm game pricing controversy isn't new to TouchArcade as many people were upset at the piecemeal way in which Square Enix brought Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [Free] to the App Store, but NamcoBandai may have just one-upped them with the US release of their hit Japanese rhythm game iDOLM@STER on iOS.
The gist of iDOLM@STER (yes, that's how they stylize it) centers around managing an up-and-coming pop star and taking them to the top of the charts, using your typical rhythm-based gameplay of tapping various combinations in time with the beat. The game has seen a few different releases on various consoles and handhelds since 2005, and as best as can be determined by some fans in our forums this iOS version is based off of the Sony PSP release from several years back. Also, the band management portion and arguably the one thing that sets this apart from being just another rhythm game doesn't appear to be in the iOS versions of the game.
The real kicker here is that iDOLM@STER has been split into three separate apps: iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Rhythmic Record [$54.99], iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Melodic Disc [$54.99], and iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa Harmonic Score [$54.99]. The difference between each seems to be the selection of idols and songs that you can play with, basically chopping the PSP game into three $55 chunks. Also, each app is roughly 2 GB to download and around 3 GB installed.
So this is a perplexing release on several levels. For one, I think there's definitely an audience who are stoked for an English version of iDOLM@STER, and if you're absolutely nuts for the series then maybe you're down to drop the $165 to get all three games on your iOS device. But I can't imagine there are a significant number of people who feel that way. If the goal is to broaden the audience for this niche genre, which has blown up in Japan and other markets but never really hit hard in the West, then this pricey and split-up iOS release is a tough barrier to entry for newbies. Finally, why the heck would they strip out the actual band management mechanics when that sounds like the most interesting part?
I guess we'll just keep our eye on iDOLM@STER and see how it shakes out, but if you are a huge fan who has been waiting for a native English version of the game and you have both the money and device space to spare, then feel free to check out the iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa games with the links below or hit up the forums for more impressions and discussion.
Whatever. Once they've released the games in a digital format on a widely supported device that lots of people have, I guarantee the enthusiasts who'd ever give a shit about it will either buy the game or get it through nefarious or illegal means. It sucks for everyone involved.
That's weird. Namco Bandai is doing very well in the Asian mobile market, and I don't think the Asian and Western markets are that different. Cheap and freemium are the watchwords in both markets. Why would the company think that $55 apps for a franchise that isn't well-known in a particular reason are a good idea in any way?
Namco Bandai needed to self-sabotage some more crappy sales figures to prop up their false justification that it isn't worth their time to bring their Japanese titles to the Western markets.
0
Options
CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
Their initial plans are to update and rerelease Homeworld 1 and 2 on "leading digital platforms" (so, Steam).
Homeworld 1/2 on modern platforms = great.
What Gearbox is going to actually do with the license? Who knows, but they don't seem like a very good fit for the series.
Color me concerned. Would have much rather given Relic another crack at it, but realistically, they'll be doing CoH and Warhammer games for the foreseeable future (Spehs Mahreens!).
Their initial plans are to update and rerelease Homeworld 1 and 2 on "leading digital platforms" (so, Steam).
Are they going to outsource this to TimeGate Studios too?
Whatever happened to all that talk of legal issues in the aftermath of the Aliens debacle? A lot of he said she said, people threatening lawsuits, etc.
I don't know if Borderlands can take the continued PR hits.
Posts
Cool story, Uncharted/2 cost 20 million to make as well.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uncharted-sequel-costing-usd-20-million
God of war 3 cost 44 million to make. So it's one of those things were one has to qestion the overheads of Sony Santa Monica vurses Naughty Dog. (killzone 2 was similar 40million or so).
Of course for whatever reason Uncharted 3 balloned to about 100 million, does it look 5 times better than Uncharted 1 or 2?
"I think I can comment on this because I used to live above the Baby Doll Lounge, a topless bar that was once frequented by bikers in lower Manhattan."
Not all that surprising because while it doesn't follow the exact same visual novel-ish style Uncharted 2 is still quite "Railroads"-heavy, so to speak.
Is Uncharted 3 more or less scripted? I wouldn't think it'd be, but if it is then maybe that's where the budget went.
Or maybe Kaz Hirai ate it for breakfast or something.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Using Paypal as a consumer is no problem. It's when you're a merchant when it becomes apparent they are a shitty company.
Well, it also produced unforeseen problems back during the first Solid Saints Auction. The kind of problems they spring up on you just because of a lot of money rolling through and there's no documentation on their site about it. I can't remember the details, it was pretty dumb.
Also, OP is the best OP.
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
I just opened another bank account with my bank, and linked my Paypal account to that. Using the bank's netbanking system to deposit small sums of money from my main savings account into it, I can make sure that Paypal has exactly as much money to play with as I want it to.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
http://ukie.info/content/ukie-week-16-2013-uk-video-games-charts
In the UK / Europe? A lot of fucking people. Soccer is huge outside of North America (or, that's not accurate - outside the USA, I'm sure Canada is into it).
PSN ID: fearsomepirate
There's a LOT of horrible things Paypal can do to consumers as well. If you link a bank account to them they can actually legally drain it of any funds they want.
Not that they would but the fact that they can should be reason enough to avoid them.
Basically as soon as individuals started to investigate the situation and truths became known, Maxis and EA played a brief game of, "Oh we'll have something to say soon," without saying anything soon, and eventually went silent. And really that's the biggest power play when it comes to dealing with investigative journalism - remaining silent. Especially when (Walker told me directly just a couple minutes ago) there's things like the laws in the UK about libelous material to stop people from reporting on things, even despite any use of the word "allegedly" and others along that line.
I mean, in what other situation in life does remaining silent work to someone's benefit? PR for video games really has a great fallback here, and it's perpetuated by journalist outlets releasing their bite after a brief while as well as consumers doing the same. Bleh. What shit.
Actually they do. If you have 0 funds in your PP account, and you pay for something with a CC through paypal, then try to get paypal to reverse and they dont, and then you use your CC protection to reverse, paypal will deduct funds from your paypal account, which will get filled from your bank account. if your bank account is empty, they immediately just send you to collections and suspend the account. It happens often enough. There's alot of sites detailing the history of "we are/aren't a bank and therefore afford the protections/refuse the regulations as one."
Libel laws in the UK are crazy nuts. True fact supported articles that are negative can be seen as libelous.
I know, I'm from the UK myself and I'm a big football fan. I meant it more as in me and all my friends who care about it have had the game for months.
All snark aside, the game look(ed)(s) damn good and it's impressive it only cost that much, especially with all the little branching paths and such.
Yes, people ask why we don't ask "the hard questions" in interviews. The falls out in a couple of ways:
1) We ask, they say no comment. That may or may not be worth printing. (Happens a lot)
2) We ask, they're about to answer, but the PR person in the room gives them a stern look. Becomes a no comment.
2) We ask, they (or PR) flip out and possibly cut off the interview completely (this happened recently to a colleague of mine)
3) We ask, they answer in marketing speak. At least we have something to print! (also happens a lot)
4) We ask, they answer! Score! I run off to transcribe my beautiful nugget.
Video games aren't politics. People generally aren't living or dying by the hard questions in our business. And as the SimCity article shows, it sometimes benefits PR just to stay quiet. For them, it's all about controlling the message. Remaining silent benefits all aspects of PR at times, some are just more important than others. Remaining silent about an oil spill is vastly different from remaining silent on a cut feature.
Sources are anonymous much of the time because no one wants to lose their job to tell you about console specs or game features.
EDIT: The best interviews tend to be with high-level developers long after they've left a company.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Which is why we may never know just what really happened within EA/Maxis on the SimCity mess. Hell, we can't even get a definitive answer on the Amazon/Nintendo thing.
Razer 90% Off Coupon Leaks, Company Honors Orders Anyway
That is an astounding showing of good faith on their part. I'm trying to put this in context with other snafus like this and I can't think of a single situation where a discount of that size was honored. I imagine that being a smaller company, this hurts them far more than it would hurt a large company.
I believe it was an actual real coupon code that was valid on the Razer store for a time. It managed to leak out and people used it.
Why such a thing would even exist as something you could enter into the Razer store and it would accept, I don't know though. Employee discount code maybe, but I would think that would be something that the store would only accept from some accounts specifically.
On Nintendo's dev practices:
In the past thread, we spoke about B-list titles funding the AAA games, the publisher gives it as the other way around (which was my theory).
AC is annual because Ubisoft can reasonably expect it to keep the bottom line level. Which leads to Ubisoft adding more resources to keep the whole thing annual, and here we are.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Split into three parts.
For $55 each.
I've often wondered this about the year-on-year release titles, like Fifa, CoD, etc.
If they're really selling enough copies after 6 months to stay in the top 20, who is buying them ? People who waited for price drops, first DLC packs, etc ?
I've always imagined the people who want the latest version would get it in the first month of release, then sales would sharply drop off, but apparently this isn't the case.
Their initial plans are to update and rerelease Homeworld 1 and 2 on "leading digital platforms" (so, Steam).
Ehhhhhhh :?
I just hope that they don't decide to develop any sequels to Homeworld while simultaneously working on another Borderlands.
Are they going to outsource this to TimeGate Studios too?
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
God dammit.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Whatever. Once they've released the games in a digital format on a widely supported device that lots of people have, I guarantee the enthusiasts who'd ever give a shit about it will either buy the game or get it through nefarious or illegal means. It sucks for everyone involved.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Namco Bandai needed to self-sabotage some more crappy sales figures to prop up their false justification that it isn't worth their time to bring their Japanese titles to the Western markets.
Homeworld 1/2 on modern platforms = great.
What Gearbox is going to actually do with the license? Who knows, but they don't seem like a very good fit for the series.
Color me concerned. Would have much rather given Relic another crack at it, but realistically, they'll be doing CoH and Warhammer games for the foreseeable future (Spehs Mahreens!).
Whatever happened to all that talk of legal issues in the aftermath of the Aliens debacle? A lot of he said she said, people threatening lawsuits, etc.
I don't know if Borderlands can take the continued PR hits.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00