i'd say it's that the DS library is full of amazing games. PSP/vita... not so much. vita has time to change that, but since it's mostly ports of PS3 games i think they are shooting themselves in the foot there.
That's just a matter of opinion though - I personally like the PSP/Vita library a lot more than the DS/3DS one. In particular, if you like RPGs and Strategy/RPGs, the PSP library is solid gold (and the Vita is getting an enhanced version of one of the best RPGs of all time soon).
i'd say it's that the DS library is full of amazing games. PSP/vita... not so much. vita has time to change that, but since it's mostly ports of PS3 games i think they are shooting themselves in the foot there.
That's just a matter of opinion though - I personally like the PSP/Vita library a lot more than the DS/3DS one. In particular, if you like RPGs and Strategy/RPGs, the PSP library is solid gold (and the Vita is getting an enhanced version of one of the best RPGs of all time soon).
Also, the idea that smartphones and tablets are somehow inferior to portable systems is pretty ridiculous. Yes, certain types of games won't work as well on the smartphones/tablets, but other types of games work just as good or better. For example, I just finished Ghost Trick on the iPad and I imagine that's the best version of the game (all the great story/gameplay of the DS original but with better visuals); I can think of several other popular DS games like Ouendan and Trauma Center that I imagine would work fantastically on the iPad.
The PSP and Vita's library woes aren't really something you can handwave away with "well, that's just your opinion man." Hell, I'm sure someone out there thought the Virtual Boy's library was totally solid too. The DS and 3DS have much stronger libraries as a whole and it's a noticeable gulf. RPGs/Tactics games do well on the PSP/Vita because they get back to that whole "appropriate for the system" thing. They aren't terribly graphics dependent and the controls/playstyle work well on the system but for the most part, the PSP/Vita libraries are kinda janky.
I'm not gonna lie, I really hope Microsoft's Surface takes off so that we can see what happens when people start making mobile games for an operating system that comes with a keyboard in mind and attached to hardware that has a USB port already on top of the touchscreen interface. I would not be surprised in the slightest if you could plug a 360 pad into the Surface and have it work natively.
Vita has, among other things, has: Uncharted, Unit 13, Gravity Rush, Hot Shots, Wipeout, Lumines, and Mutant Blobs Attack for good to great non-port games. Then there's ports of BlazBlue, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, MK, Rayman, and Disgaea 3, with the exception of MK all are great ports and MK's only problem is the graphics are disappointing.
That's a pretty damn solid lineup. The Vita has no games meme is false.
Now, it's a valid argument to point out that there's no killer app on that list. Uncharted and Gravity Rush are the closest, and neither really end up getting there. It's also valid to point out that since Gravity Rush came out nearly two months ago, the releases have totally dried up. The Vita has problems. But people really need to stop pretending like genuinely good games haven't come out for it.
I've never heard anyone get hype for Vita games ever. On the other hand, I hear people gabbering about 3DS titles all the time. I own neither system and never will so therefore don't go out of my way to follow those scenes. What do you think an outsider like me would assume just based on those observations? Obviously if the games aren't selling then even if they are good, then nobody wants them or the system they're on.
I would be thoroughly unsurprised if FFXIV's original budget was very tiny, given the mad rush to finish FFXIII, and that the 2.0 budget is the first "real" meaty budget they've seen.
Edit: Also, going back a few pages, some of you seem to have some weird conceptions about what a class action lawsuit's goal is. It's not meant to make the end-user a lot of money, and while it does have the side-effect of (if successful) making the lawyer representing the class quite wealthy, that's not really the goal either; the goal is to give the business in question a hefty monetary incentive to stop doing the shitty business practice that got them into the class-action suit in the first place, usually to the tune of many tens of millions - if not into the hundreds of millions - of dollars in damages and a major loss of PR capital. Having to spend time and money to go into arbitration or small claims court for recompense is yet another barrier that just makes it much easier for the consumer to just sigh, roll over, and take it. The number of people who would actually take their cases to arbitration or small claims court would be so miniscule that there is no incentive for the business in question to stop their shitty practice and keep on truckin'.
I don't care what spin is put on the subject, hindering or stopping the ability of a large number of consumers to form a class to represent them in court benefits nobody but the company.
korodullin on
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I would be thoroughly unsurprised if FFXIV's original budget was very tiny, given the mad rush to finish FFXIII, and that the 2.0 budget is the first "real" meaty budget they've seen.
There might be something to that, especially if the rumors that it was originally developed by a Chinese studio are true.
i'd say it's that the DS library is full of amazing games. PSP/vita... not so much. vita has time to change that, but since it's mostly ports of PS3 games i think they are shooting themselves in the foot there.
That's just a matter of opinion though - I personally like the PSP/Vita library a lot more than the DS/3DS one. In particular, if you like RPGs and Strategy/RPGs, the PSP library is solid gold (and the Vita is getting an enhanced version of one of the best RPGs of all time soon).
i'd say it's that the DS library is full of amazing games. PSP/vita... not so much. vita has time to change that, but since it's mostly ports of PS3 games i think they are shooting themselves in the foot there.
That's just a matter of opinion though - I personally like the PSP/Vita library a lot more than the DS/3DS one. In particular, if you like RPGs and Strategy/RPGs, the PSP library is solid gold (and the Vita is getting an enhanced version of one of the best RPGs of all time soon).
Also, the idea that smartphones and tablets are somehow inferior to portable systems is pretty ridiculous. Yes, certain types of games won't work as well on the smartphones/tablets, but other types of games work just as good or better. For example, I just finished Ghost Trick on the iPad and I imagine that's the best version of the game (all the great story/gameplay of the DS original but with better visuals); I can think of several other popular DS games like Ouendan and Trauma Center that I imagine would work fantastically on the iPad.
The PSP and Vita's library woes aren't really something you can handwave away with "well, that's just your opinion man." Hell, I'm sure someone out there thought the Virtual Boy's library was totally solid too. The DS and 3DS have much stronger libraries as a whole and it's a noticeable gulf. RPGs/Tactics games do well on the PSP/Vita because they get back to that whole "appropriate for the system" thing. They aren't terribly graphics dependent and the controls/playstyle work well on the system but for the most part, the PSP/Vita libraries are kinda janky.
I'm not gonna lie, I really hope Microsoft's Surface takes off so that we can see what happens when people start making mobile games for an operating system that comes with a keyboard in mind and attached to hardware that has a USB port already on top of the touchscreen interface. I would not be surprised in the slightest if you could plug a 360 pad into the Surface and have it work natively.
Vita has, among other things, has: Uncharted, Unit 13, Gravity Rush, Hot Shots, Wipeout, Lumines, and Mutant Blobs Attack for good to great non-port games. Then there's ports of BlazBlue, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, MK, Rayman, and Disgaea 3, with the exception of MK all are great ports and MK's only problem is the graphics are disappointing.
That's a pretty damn solid lineup. The Vita has no games meme is false.
Now, it's a valid argument to point out that there's no killer app on that list. Uncharted and Gravity Rush are the closest, and neither really end up getting there. It's also valid to point out that since Gravity Rush came out nearly two months ago, the releases have totally dried up. The Vita has problems. But people really need to stop pretending like genuinely good games haven't come out for it.
I've never heard anyone get hype for Vita games ever. On the other hand, I hear people gabbering about 3DS titles all the time. I own neither system and never will so therefore don't go out of my way to follow those scenes. What do you think an outsider like me would assume just based on those observations? Obviously if the games aren't selling then even if they are good, then nobody wants them or the system they're on.
Well, yeah. But you were speaking about the actual quality of the library before, not "hype".
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
It's either "we can't let a Final Fantasy game become a bomb" or "we must save face." Or a combination of the two. But you're right, pretty much every page of MMO history shows that spending a ginormous amount of money to try to resuscitate it is a horrible idea.
And I completely forgot about Temple Run when people asked what mobile games are hits:
Imangi Studio's Temple Run has achieved 100 million downloads across iOS and Android. We'd describe what the game is about, but from those numbers it appears you either already know or could simply turn to the person next to you and ask. Breaking it down, the free reflex actioner has had over 68 million downloads on iOS and 32 million on Android.
"We never imagined that the game we were making and loved would be so well received around the world," said Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd. "The last year has been incredible for us, and we are grateful to fans of the game."
To celebrate the milestone, all Imangi's games released prior to Temple Run are free for a limited time.
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
Square has two options: they can either cut their losses and shut down FFXIV and move on, or they can finally put the effort and time into it that they should have in the first place and try to salvage it with a good marketing campaign, a launch on a new platform (PS3), and generous offers to old players. Shutting down FFXIV is untenable for multiple reasons, but most importantly it would pretty much remove a numbered Final Fantasy game from the series. It would be a black mark on a franchise that's already been taking a bit of a pummeling in the public eye the past few years (FFXIII-2 sales notwithstanding) and that black mark would never go away. Ever.
Square would rather have a game that they put an honest effort into redeeming that nobody plays rather than having that black mark. I can't really fault them for that, even if it's not the completely 100% most rational thing to do.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Actually, come to think of FFXIV... I forgot it's getting a PS3 release as well. Between the refurbishing, the change in the logo, and the PS3 version, it is going to seem like a totally new game in the FF series.
They're not going to fool all that many FF fans or even general gamers with it, but it's a pretty good way of covering up the fact that a game known as Final Fantasy XIV existed once, and that it was a really shitty MMO.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
As you might expect, the launch of an MMO on Nintendo's taped-together GameCubes was a complete and utter trainwreck... wait, it wasn't?
Yesterday marked the release of Dragon Quest X, the newest title in one of Japan's most phenomenally popular series. But not only is this a new Dragon Quest game, it's also an MMORPG.
You could say that I am a veteran of MMO launches—and countless pre-launch beta test weekends (which, let's face it, are basically the same thing). And these days it's rare to hear of a big-name online game that doesn't have problems during launch.
When The Old Republic launched late last year, it was possible to log in but server queue times went as high as a day. Even worse was the launch of Diablo III (a game that's only part MMO) where players were unable to even access the single player content due to server problems.
So when I heard that Dragon Quest X was going to be an MMORPG—and on an MMORPG-absent system like the Wii no less—I was certain the launch would turn into a complete and utter train wreck. After all, if big-name experienced developers like Blizzard and Bioware are unable to pull off a smooth launch, what chance would there be for the game aiming to be the biggest MMO in Japanese history?
Yet, clearly Square Enix has learned much from its launches of Final Fantasy XI and XIV as this was by far the most hassle-free MMO launch I've ever experienced.
What's interesting about Dragon Quest X is that you don't even make an account and sign in at the start of the game. After the admittedly long install, you are dropped directly into the game's single player campaign where you will stay till about the two-and-a-half hour mark. Once the prologue is complete, you start the process to enter the online portion of the game.
This process is largely simple. Accept some licensing agreements, make/login to a Square Enix account, enter the product code from the game box for your free 20 days, and you're good to go.
As Kotaku readers who were watching our live stream may remember, the only problems I had getting online were of my own doing. (I hadn't logged into the Wii store in so long that I needed to accept the general online agreement again. …I also forgot the user name and password for my Square Enix account).
Even with those problems, it only took 15 minutes and I was in the online part of the game. Was it crowded? Sure. Was the Wii chugging hard to render all those people? Oh yeah. But in my time online so far, I've only disconnected once—and was back online within seconds. In an age where MMO launches are expected to go poorly, it was especially gratifying to have one go so well. So props to Nintendo and Square Enix on a job well done.
One of many images from EA's filing demonstrating the similarities between The Ville and The Sims Social.
It hasn't been a great couple of weeks for Zynga, whose less-than-stellar earnings report last Friday was quickly followed by allegations of insider trading by no fewer than five different law firms. Now, Electronic Arts and Maxis are piling on, suing Zynga over The Ville's similarities to EA's own The Sims Social.
EA believes that Zynga copied The Sims Social's game design, graphics, and other elements to such an extent that "the two games are, to an uninitiated observer, largely indistinguishable," said Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw in a press release posted over at Joystiq. Bradshaw also wants to protect the "creative teams who feel that their hard work and imaginations have been ripped off" by the alleged copying.
It's not just that character personality types in both games are so similar... ...it's that those personality types also yield similar-looking characters. Here, a The Sims Social character and his doppelgänger rub their hands together nefariously.
For its part, Zynga intends to defend The Ville, which it says merely builds on innovations from earlier Ville titles, and General Counsel Reggie Davis said in a statement that it was "ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga's CityVille game."
Zynga has been accused of lifting ideas from other games before—Zynga's Dream Heights and Zynga Bingo both share more than a passing resemblance with Nimblebit's Tiny Tower and Buffalo Studio's BINGO Blitz, respectively—but those relatively small studios often don't have the resources to respond through legal channels. In challenging Zynga over The Ville, EA also hopes to set a precedent that will protect the intellectual property of smaller developers whose ideas are being copied by Zynga and others. A recent New Jersey case involving Tetris clones did show that some basic game elements can be protected under copyright, but that the difference between a game that was copied wholesale from another and a game that was merely inspired by another is still difficult to distinguish in court.
The full complaint, which contains many more comparison images, can be found here.
"We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. The Ville is the newest game in our 'ville' franchise – it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today. It's unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles. It's also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga's CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players."
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
Square has two options: they can either cut their losses and shut down FFXIV and move on, or they can finally put the effort and time into it that they should have in the first place and try to salvage it with a good marketing campaign, a launch on a new platform (PS3), and generous offers to old players. Shutting down FFXIV is untenable for multiple reasons, but most importantly it would pretty much remove a numbered Final Fantasy game from the series. It would be a black mark on a franchise that's already been taking a bit of a pummeling in the public eye the past few years (FFXIII-2 sales notwithstanding) and that black mark would never go away. Ever.
Square would rather have a game that they put an honest effort into redeeming that nobody plays rather than having that black mark. I can't really fault them for that, even if it's not the completely 100% most rational thing to do.
It's like that piece of shit 1988 Honda Civic you have that has 250,000 miles on it, and is falling apart. Do you spend the $5000+ to get it working again, or do you turn around and sell it for $500 and try to get another car?
well in this case it's more of a, lets strip out everything so that it's still called a "Honda Civic" and if you squint it does look kinda similar to how it used to, but otherwise it's a completely new car.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
As you might expect, the launch of an MMO on Nintendo's taped-together GameCubes was a complete and utter trainwreck... wait, it wasn't?
Yesterday marked the release of Dragon Quest X, the newest title in one of Japan's most phenomenally popular series. But not only is this a new Dragon Quest game, it's also an MMORPG.
You could say that I am a veteran of MMO launches—and countless pre-launch beta test weekends (which, let's face it, are basically the same thing). And these days it's rare to hear of a big-name online game that doesn't have problems during launch.
When The Old Republic launched late last year, it was possible to log in but server queue times went as high as a day. Even worse was the launch of Diablo III (a game that's only part MMO) where players were unable to even access the single player content due to server problems.
So when I heard that Dragon Quest X was going to be an MMORPG—and on an MMORPG-absent system like the Wii no less—I was certain the launch would turn into a complete and utter train wreck. After all, if big-name experienced developers like Blizzard and Bioware are unable to pull off a smooth launch, what chance would there be for the game aiming to be the biggest MMO in Japanese history?
Yet, clearly Square Enix has learned much from its launches of Final Fantasy XI and XIV as this was by far the most hassle-free MMO launch I've ever experienced.
What's interesting about Dragon Quest X is that you don't even make an account and sign in at the start of the game. After the admittedly long install, you are dropped directly into the game's single player campaign where you will stay till about the two-and-a-half hour mark. Once the prologue is complete, you start the process to enter the online portion of the game.
This process is largely simple. Accept some licensing agreements, make/login to a Square Enix account, enter the product code from the game box for your free 20 days, and you're good to go.
As Kotaku readers who were watching our live stream may remember, the only problems I had getting online were of my own doing. (I hadn't logged into the Wii store in so long that I needed to accept the general online agreement again. …I also forgot the user name and password for my Square Enix account).
Even with those problems, it only took 15 minutes and I was in the online part of the game. Was it crowded? Sure. Was the Wii chugging hard to render all those people? Oh yeah. But in my time online so far, I've only disconnected once—and was back online within seconds. In an age where MMO launches are expected to go poorly, it was especially gratifying to have one go so well. So props to Nintendo and Square Enix on a job well done.
That seamless starting area thing is absolutely brilliant from so many angles. Purely from a gameplay perspective it makes sense to get people into the proceedings as soon as possible, and it likely also staggers some of the server load. Does any other MMO have a setup like that? I haven't touched the genre since a brief shameful fling with WoW back at it's height.
well in this case it's more of a, lets strip out everything so that it's still called a "Honda Civic" and if you squint it does look kinda similar to how it used to, but otherwise it's a completely new car.
...and all your friends come up to you and say "you still have that piece of shit car?"
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
Square has two options: they can either cut their losses and shut down FFXIV and move on, or they can finally put the effort and time into it that they should have in the first place and try to salvage it with a good marketing campaign, a launch on a new platform (PS3), and generous offers to old players. Shutting down FFXIV is untenable for multiple reasons, but most importantly it would pretty much remove a numbered Final Fantasy game from the series. It would be a black mark on a franchise that's already been taking a bit of a pummeling in the public eye the past few years (FFXIII-2 sales notwithstanding) and that black mark would never go away. Ever.
Square would rather have a game that they put an honest effort into redeeming that nobody plays rather than having that black mark. I can't really fault them for that, even if it's not the completely 100% most rational thing to do.
It's like that piece of shit 1988 Honda Civic you have that has 250,000 miles on it, and is falling apart. Do you spend the $5000+ to get it working again, or do you turn around and sell it for $500 and try to get another car?
Problem is, MMO development takes years. They scrap FFXIV, they're not launching until 2015 or something. And during that time, money is going in the development hole.
As you might expect, the launch of an MMO on Nintendo's taped-together GameCubes was a complete and utter trainwreck... wait, it wasn't?
Yesterday marked the release of Dragon Quest X, the newest title in one of Japan's most phenomenally popular series. But not only is this a new Dragon Quest game, it's also an MMORPG.
You could say that I am a veteran of MMO launches—and countless pre-launch beta test weekends (which, let's face it, are basically the same thing). And these days it's rare to hear of a big-name online game that doesn't have problems during launch.
When The Old Republic launched late last year, it was possible to log in but server queue times went as high as a day. Even worse was the launch of Diablo III (a game that's only part MMO) where players were unable to even access the single player content due to server problems.
So when I heard that Dragon Quest X was going to be an MMORPG—and on an MMORPG-absent system like the Wii no less—I was certain the launch would turn into a complete and utter train wreck. After all, if big-name experienced developers like Blizzard and Bioware are unable to pull off a smooth launch, what chance would there be for the game aiming to be the biggest MMO in Japanese history?
Yet, clearly Square Enix has learned much from its launches of Final Fantasy XI and XIV as this was by far the most hassle-free MMO launch I've ever experienced.
What's interesting about Dragon Quest X is that you don't even make an account and sign in at the start of the game. After the admittedly long install, you are dropped directly into the game's single player campaign where you will stay till about the two-and-a-half hour mark. Once the prologue is complete, you start the process to enter the online portion of the game.
This process is largely simple. Accept some licensing agreements, make/login to a Square Enix account, enter the product code from the game box for your free 20 days, and you're good to go.
As Kotaku readers who were watching our live stream may remember, the only problems I had getting online were of my own doing. (I hadn't logged into the Wii store in so long that I needed to accept the general online agreement again. …I also forgot the user name and password for my Square Enix account).
Even with those problems, it only took 15 minutes and I was in the online part of the game. Was it crowded? Sure. Was the Wii chugging hard to render all those people? Oh yeah. But in my time online so far, I've only disconnected once—and was back online within seconds. In an age where MMO launches are expected to go poorly, it was especially gratifying to have one go so well. So props to Nintendo and Square Enix on a job well done.
That seamless starting area thing is absolutely brilliant from so many angles. Purely from a gameplay perspective it makes sense to get people into the proceedings as soon as possible, and it likely also staggers some of the server load. Does any other MMO have a setup like that? I haven't touched the genre since a brief shameful fling with WoW back at it's height.
Do you mean single-player starting area? I think only AoC really did that.
It's generally not done because people don't want to have to play 2+ hours with every character before they can actually do the multiplayer part of an MMO.
Though MMOs like SWTOR have used a sort of similar system where starting areas are kept as really small mini-servers to make sure they aren't overcrowded.
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
It's either "we can't let a Final Fantasy game become a bomb" or "we must save face." Or a combination of the two. But you're right, pretty much every page of MMO history shows that spending a ginormous amount of money to try to resuscitate it is a horrible idea.
And I completely forgot about Temple Run when people asked what mobile games are hits:
Imangi Studio's Temple Run has achieved 100 million downloads across iOS and Android. We'd describe what the game is about, but from those numbers it appears you either already know or could simply turn to the person next to you and ask. Breaking it down, the free reflex actioner has had over 68 million downloads on iOS and 32 million on Android.
"We never imagined that the game we were making and loved would be so well received around the world," said Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd. "The last year has been incredible for us, and we are grateful to fans of the game."
To celebrate the milestone, all Imangi's games released prior to Temple Run are free for a limited time.
Simultaneously Temple Run shows exactly why iOS games are (IMHO) terrible: It's on-par with a flash game you found on the internet around the turn of the century.
While we're discussing iOS, is there any news of the App Store getting any sort of redesign soon? I can imagine that it's tough to break into when only the top-selling apps are easily accessible.
Also, about 1.2 million of those 9 million remaining are still locked in due to the Annual Pass Blizzard offered (agree to a year's worth of WoW, get Diablo III for free)...so in October/November, the first of those people will be free to resubscribe or not.
The buzz around Panda isn't nearly as big as Cata was, at least for my large group of WoW playing friends. In fact many of them have already moved on and are playing other games.
Though they say that now, but I'm sure in a moment of weakness they'll own the game and a year subscription.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
It's either "we can't let a Final Fantasy game become a bomb" or "we must save face." Or a combination of the two. But you're right, pretty much every page of MMO history shows that spending a ginormous amount of money to try to resuscitate it is a horrible idea.
And I completely forgot about Temple Run when people asked what mobile games are hits:
Imangi Studio's Temple Run has achieved 100 million downloads across iOS and Android. We'd describe what the game is about, but from those numbers it appears you either already know or could simply turn to the person next to you and ask. Breaking it down, the free reflex actioner has had over 68 million downloads on iOS and 32 million on Android.
"We never imagined that the game we were making and loved would be so well received around the world," said Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd. "The last year has been incredible for us, and we are grateful to fans of the game."
To celebrate the milestone, all Imangi's games released prior to Temple Run are free for a limited time.
Simultaneously Temple Run shows exactly why iOS games are (IMHO) terrible: It's on-par with a flash game you found on the internet around the turn of the century.
100 million downloads isn't really something huge, either. I mean, yeah, that's a lot of downloads, but I downloaded it, played it twice, and got bored with it. That's like... 20 minutes of play time on a free game. Hooray for their internet dollars? And I'm pretty persistent when it comes to new things; I imagine a good 90% of those downloads didn't even spend as much time as I did playing.
looks like wow has lost almost 25% of its user base
This isn't the best point to look at anyway. It's the pre-expansion lull right now.
The real numbers to see will be what they look like post-Pandas.
Right. What was the pre-Cata lull like?
No clue on exact numbers. But there was quite the lull. And they even tried to kill time with a quick raid injection (that no one really liked much).
Patch 5.0 (the pre-expansion patch that upgrades all the game systems to the new setup) hasn't even hit yet either. It's been like ... fuck, 8 months since the last major patch? (holy shit, is it really that long?)
But basically, this is your expected lowest point. It's the jump in subs (or expected jump) after Pandas and how the numbers stay afterwords that will be the most telling.
Will they plateau? Will we see a slower steady decline? Will we see a big uptick as people try it out and then a huge drop as they quickly get bored again?
The whole FFXIV reboot thing puzzles me. I dunno, on the one hand, it's cool they're saying "yeah that wasn't so great, here's what we meant to do" but on the other, doesn't it seem more sensible to cut their losses and move on to the next project? At best, they'll probably pull some earlier players back, but all most anyone else is gonna see is "FFXIV" - the game they heard sucked.
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
It's either "we can't let a Final Fantasy game become a bomb" or "we must save face." Or a combination of the two. But you're right, pretty much every page of MMO history shows that spending a ginormous amount of money to try to resuscitate it is a horrible idea.
And I completely forgot about Temple Run when people asked what mobile games are hits:
Imangi Studio's Temple Run has achieved 100 million downloads across iOS and Android. We'd describe what the game is about, but from those numbers it appears you either already know or could simply turn to the person next to you and ask. Breaking it down, the free reflex actioner has had over 68 million downloads on iOS and 32 million on Android.
"We never imagined that the game we were making and loved would be so well received around the world," said Imangi co-founder Keith Shepherd. "The last year has been incredible for us, and we are grateful to fans of the game."
To celebrate the milestone, all Imangi's games released prior to Temple Run are free for a limited time.
Simultaneously Temple Run shows exactly why iOS games are (IMHO) terrible: It's on-par with a flash game you found on the internet around the turn of the century.
100 million downloads isn't really something huge, either. I mean, yeah, that's a lot of downloads, but I downloaded it, played it twice, and got bored with it. That's like... 20 minutes of play time on a free game. Hooray for their internet dollars? And I'm pretty persistent when it comes to new things; I imagine a good 90% of those downloads didn't even spend as much time as I did playing.
This. I played it once and hated it because, as was stated, it's barely as good as a flash game from 2001.
The buzz around Panda isn't nearly as big as Cata was, at least for my large group of WoW playing friends. In fact many of them have already moved on and are playing other games.
Though they say that now, but I'm sure in a moment of weakness they'll own the game and a year subscription.
Kind of odd that the buzz is low, since this expansion is more in line with Burning Crusade or Wrath.
In the end, Cataclysm's problem was that the 80-85 experience was so disjointed (5 zones scattered all over the map) and the revamp of the 1-60 content used a lot of resources that could have gone toward 80-85+endgame.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
"We are committed to creating the most fun, innovative, social and engaging games in every major genre that our players enjoy. The Ville is the newest game in our 'ville' franchise – it builds on every major innovation from our existing invest-and-express games dating back to YoVille and continuing through CityVille and CastleVille, and introduces a number of new social features and game mechanics not seen in social games today. It's unfortunate that EA thought that this was an appropriate response to our game, and clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic copyright principles. It's also ironic that EA brings this suit shortly after launching SimCity Social which bears an uncanny resemblance to Zynga's CityVille game. Nonetheless, we plan to defend our rights to the fullest extent possible and intend to win with players."
So not giving a shit about anything Facebook-related, how does SimCity Social steal from CityVille? I'd think it would just be Sim City with a bunch of stupid facebook crap tacked on, but I saw some people in the comments of that saying it's not. I just find it hard to believe that they ripped off Zynga there when they've had that franchise for decades.
This Sims Social thing though, yeah, Zynga doesn't even have a chance here. They would be seriously smart to just settle (not that I want them to, I want them to lose :P). I can't believe they were so lazy they even ripped off the fucking RGB skin color values. Come on Zynga...
The main thing that caused Cata to leak subs was how unforgivingly hard the first heroic dungeons and raid tier was. They basically scared away a huge amount of their playerbase by making things too hard and complicated up front such that after headbutting things for a few weeks they just said screw it and quit. This concept goes hand-in-hand with our conversation about controllers earlier and how if you engage people and ease them into things you'll retain more users than if you slam it down in front of them and tell them "too bad" when they don't get it.
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I've never heard anyone get hype for Vita games ever. On the other hand, I hear people gabbering about 3DS titles all the time. I own neither system and never will so therefore don't go out of my way to follow those scenes. What do you think an outsider like me would assume just based on those observations? Obviously if the games aren't selling then even if they are good, then nobody wants them or the system they're on.
Because sooner or later, all that money sunk into development just seems to evaporate into nothing.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Edit: Also, going back a few pages, some of you seem to have some weird conceptions about what a class action lawsuit's goal is. It's not meant to make the end-user a lot of money, and while it does have the side-effect of (if successful) making the lawyer representing the class quite wealthy, that's not really the goal either; the goal is to give the business in question a hefty monetary incentive to stop doing the shitty business practice that got them into the class-action suit in the first place, usually to the tune of many tens of millions - if not into the hundreds of millions - of dollars in damages and a major loss of PR capital. Having to spend time and money to go into arbitration or small claims court for recompense is yet another barrier that just makes it much easier for the consumer to just sigh, roll over, and take it. The number of people who would actually take their cases to arbitration or small claims court would be so miniscule that there is no incentive for the business in question to stop their shitty practice and keep on truckin'.
I don't care what spin is put on the subject, hindering or stopping the ability of a large number of consumers to form a class to represent them in court benefits nobody but the company.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
There might be something to that, especially if the rumors that it was originally developed by a Chinese studio are true.
Well, yeah. But you were speaking about the actual quality of the library before, not "hype".
My Let's Play Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2go70QLfwGq-hW4nvUqmog
And they'll throw money at the failure but hold off on the remake their fans are all clamouring for? And that Versus thing? I can appreciate they might be nervous of the hype built around those two, but at this point they could probably phone it in and still ship a million.
It's either "we can't let a Final Fantasy game become a bomb" or "we must save face." Or a combination of the two. But you're right, pretty much every page of MMO history shows that spending a ginormous amount of money to try to resuscitate it is a horrible idea.
And I completely forgot about Temple Run when people asked what mobile games are hits:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/03/temple-run-races-to-100-million-downloads/
Square has two options: they can either cut their losses and shut down FFXIV and move on, or they can finally put the effort and time into it that they should have in the first place and try to salvage it with a good marketing campaign, a launch on a new platform (PS3), and generous offers to old players. Shutting down FFXIV is untenable for multiple reasons, but most importantly it would pretty much remove a numbered Final Fantasy game from the series. It would be a black mark on a franchise that's already been taking a bit of a pummeling in the public eye the past few years (FFXIII-2 sales notwithstanding) and that black mark would never go away. Ever.
Square would rather have a game that they put an honest effort into redeeming that nobody plays rather than having that black mark. I can't really fault them for that, even if it's not the completely 100% most rational thing to do.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
They're not going to fool all that many FF fans or even general gamers with it, but it's a pretty good way of covering up the fact that a game known as Final Fantasy XIV existed once, and that it was a really shitty MMO.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
http://kotaku.com/5931511/how-the-wii-pulled-off-a-hassle+free-mmo-roll-out
Huh.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
looks like wow has lost almost 25% of its user base
Yep, $13 a month.
In fact I'm having a hard time thinking of another western-released MMO with a monthly fee at this point, besides WoW of course.
...25%? Does the article mention something I'm missing? I can't stomach the terrible Gawker layout. (Plus it's blocked here...)
Maxis and Electronic Arts sue Zynga over The Ville
EA says that The Ville is "largely indistinguishable" from The Sims Social.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/maxis-and-electronic-arts-sue-zynga-over-the-ville/
Zynga also posted a response over at Joystiq:
at the end of wrath/start of cataclysm wow had 12 million subs. now it has just over 9
It's like that piece of shit 1988 Honda Civic you have that has 250,000 miles on it, and is falling apart. Do you spend the $5000+ to get it working again, or do you turn around and sell it for $500 and try to get another car?
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
That seamless starting area thing is absolutely brilliant from so many angles. Purely from a gameplay perspective it makes sense to get people into the proceedings as soon as possible, and it likely also staggers some of the server load. Does any other MMO have a setup like that? I haven't touched the genre since a brief shameful fling with WoW back at it's height.
Ah, since Wrath. I was trying to math out ~10 million to ~9 million.
...and all your friends come up to you and say "you still have that piece of shit car?"
Problem is, MMO development takes years. They scrap FFXIV, they're not launching until 2015 or something. And during that time, money is going in the development hole.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
This isn't the best point to look at anyway. It's the pre-expansion lull right now.
The real numbers to see will be what they look like post-Pandas.
Right. What was the pre-Cata lull like?
How much did it sell?
Most of the time, bad launches are caused by too many people buying the game day 1 and trying to play right away. Or, usually, more then was expected.
Do you mean single-player starting area? I think only AoC really did that.
It's generally not done because people don't want to have to play 2+ hours with every character before they can actually do the multiplayer part of an MMO.
Though MMOs like SWTOR have used a sort of similar system where starting areas are kept as really small mini-servers to make sure they aren't overcrowded.
Simultaneously Temple Run shows exactly why iOS games are (IMHO) terrible: It's on-par with a flash game you found on the internet around the turn of the century.
While we're discussing iOS, is there any news of the App Store getting any sort of redesign soon? I can imagine that it's tough to break into when only the top-selling apps are easily accessible.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1.png
Put in that context, WoW is still bigger than Jesus, but this is really the first true sustained decline in the game.
Though they say that now, but I'm sure in a moment of weakness they'll own the game and a year subscription.
100 million downloads isn't really something huge, either. I mean, yeah, that's a lot of downloads, but I downloaded it, played it twice, and got bored with it. That's like... 20 minutes of play time on a free game. Hooray for their internet dollars? And I'm pretty persistent when it comes to new things; I imagine a good 90% of those downloads didn't even spend as much time as I did playing.
No clue on exact numbers. But there was quite the lull. And they even tried to kill time with a quick raid injection (that no one really liked much).
Patch 5.0 (the pre-expansion patch that upgrades all the game systems to the new setup) hasn't even hit yet either. It's been like ... fuck, 8 months since the last major patch? (holy shit, is it really that long?)
But basically, this is your expected lowest point. It's the jump in subs (or expected jump) after Pandas and how the numbers stay afterwords that will be the most telling.
Will they plateau? Will we see a slower steady decline? Will we see a big uptick as people try it out and then a huge drop as they quickly get bored again?
This. I played it once and hated it because, as was stated, it's barely as good as a flash game from 2001.
Kind of odd that the buzz is low, since this expansion is more in line with Burning Crusade or Wrath.
In the end, Cataclysm's problem was that the 80-85 experience was so disjointed (5 zones scattered all over the map) and the revamp of the 1-60 content used a lot of resources that could have gone toward 80-85+endgame.
So not giving a shit about anything Facebook-related, how does SimCity Social steal from CityVille? I'd think it would just be Sim City with a bunch of stupid facebook crap tacked on, but I saw some people in the comments of that saying it's not. I just find it hard to believe that they ripped off Zynga there when they've had that franchise for decades.
This Sims Social thing though, yeah, Zynga doesn't even have a chance here. They would be seriously smart to just settle (not that I want them to, I want them to lose :P). I can't believe they were so lazy they even ripped off the fucking RGB skin color values. Come on Zynga...
Excellent news. Zynga gets called on their bullshit while they're down.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW