First off, I hope everyone had a Hoppy Easter.. and I promise, that is the last pun I will throw at you. It's Monday, and probably my readership's tolerance for puns is at the weekly ebb.
Let's see..
Nice to see Harmonix is still in the game, as they've secured funding for three new IP's from a capital venture firm. Not much is known about the new IP's, but they are not related to their existing franchises (Rock Band, Dance Central, etcetera). Nice to see the local group still in the game. BTW, Harmonix, would you grant somebody the right to make the classic five button guitars? I'm looking to replace my guitar, and everyone wants an arm and a leg for them.
This is Foz's Total Lack of Surprise: Gamestop recently announced that more then a third of gamers who bought Bioshock Infinite and Gears of War 3 during the midnight release party or the day of release also paid the extra $20 for the Season Pass which allowed players to get access to DLC (and in Gears Of War 3's case, a Pay to Win double XP mode for online multiplayer). With such things growing, I wouldn't be surprise to see it being built in to the game from the start. "Oh, it was $50 last year, and $75 this year, but it comes with the free Season Pass built in to the game cost."
I came across a very interesting article about the history of Uber Entertainment (Creators of Monday Night Combat).. the one part that I found interesting was the fact that Uber had to fight Microsoft tooth and nail to get their game a featured spot on the ever popular Summer of Arcade, how a Microsoft screwup tanked the future of the popular series and the sad state of Microsoft Q&A, taking five plus weeks to approve Monday Night Combat updates. You can read the story at Polygon here.
And finally, from the "Department of Video Game Stupidity".. Machinima has released the first episode of a new series called Player versus Pain, which features people playing video games while being.. harassed let's say in potentially painful ways. The first episode features people playing Mario Kart while getting atomic wedgied. Now that I think of it, that sounds way too much like a lot of video game fanatics lives while growing up.
Oh, and one more thing. Before you believe any news today, check the date. Don't be the April Fool in your group. That, and remember, chocolate cures cancer!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
The (slightly Late) Friday Funspot:
I could blame it on Rio, or the rain, or a bunch of other things, but I will blame it on being tired. What can I say, blogging is hard *grins*. But that just means you get an extra-special holiday weekend Funspot.
First up: The transition to an all-digital environment is picking up pace.
Saw this article in GamesIndustry, which states that analysts project that digital content sales in the US and EU (that is, full game downloads, DLC, and mobile game sales) grew 33% year over year, and is worth about $10 Billion annually. With the next-gen consoles looking more and more like the disc will only be needed to hold the data (as Durango, the next-gen Xbox looks to install games from the disc to the drive as part of an initial playing, I'd say it's very likely that we're headed to an all-digital marketplace within the next 5-10 years tops.
Second: Tomb Raider: Where being a great game may not be enough.
By all accounts, Tomb Raider is a great game, and a worthy reboot to the series. However, in this age of massive games and marketing campaigns, that's not enough to make a profit, at least so far.. Tomb Raider has sold about 3.4 million copies, and according to industry analysts, they need to sell something in the order of "5 to 10 million" to make a profit. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the linear progression of budgets for games is unsustainable and we've seen even rocks like EA and Square Enix take big hits lately. Where does it end?
Third up: Ouya arrives in June...
One of the big name kickstarter projects, the android-based games console Ouya has announced that it will sell for $99 in June when it's released. Also the first, unpolished units are heading to backers of the kickstarter now. Color me interested, but concerned. In an age where one of the major concerns of players is taking your game play anywhere, releasing a console who has one big selling point that you can play your mobile content on the TV screen seems, almost backwards at this point. But I'm rooting hard for it, more choice in the market is always good.
"Love Question Four......": KICKSTARTER ALERT!
Oh, and a special no-prize for anyone who recognizes where the title above comes from. Looks even with Hawken and MechWarrior Online chugging towards full releases, there's always more room for big f'n robots shooting each other with large caliber weaponry. At the recent Game Developers Conference, they showed off a game demo of Heavy Gear Assault, which, you guessed it, showed big f'n robots shooting each other with large caliber weaponry, in an arena environment. It looks like they're going to hit Kickstarter in April, with a goal of $800,000. The game will have a playable alpha phase open to Kickstarter backers, later this year. My advice? Budget for some stretch goals, developers. (and with all the kickstarted games looking to hit in the next 18 months, must invent a way to add an extra 8 hours or so to a single day)
And finally... Play Ball!
The 2013 major league baseball season begins with Opening Day on Monday. It's a crying shame that there aren't any new baseball games for 360 this year. No, I'm not ignoring MLB2K13, I'm just considering it warmed-up leftovers that were left in the fridge too long. Just think of it this way, despite the fact that one New York Yankee (A-Rod) makes more money then an entire team (the Houston Astros), both teams are tied in the standings.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
EA Labels Prez: "DRM is a failed strategy"
Wow. EA Labels President Frank Gilbeau had what would seem to be heretical words with regards to Digital Rights Management, the thing that tells you how and when you can play the game you purchased in an order to try to stop people from playing the game without paying for it.
"DRM is a failed dead-end strategy; it's not a viable strategy for the gaming business. So what we tried to do creatively is build an online service in the SimCity universe and that's what we sought to achieve."
Well, I like the words that acknowledge a very valid issue, after a certain point of restriction, DRM doesn't restrict pirates as much as it annoys your customer base.
But what he doesn't say is that SimCity deliberately made itself a game that didn't use DRM per se because they wanted it so tied in to online that the always on nature of the internet was de-facto DRM.. and that, quite frankly, failed horribly.
If there was two modes, an offline mode and an online mode, then you wouldn't see these issues, but for a lot of folks, the fact that this game could certainly played offline if not for the deliberate design decisions to make it online only, and the fact that EA did not adequately plot out the launch demand.. So it's good to see that a major company realizes DRM is dead, but the way to fix it is not making it DRM under another guise.
"DRM is a failed dead-end strategy; it's not a viable strategy for the gaming business. So what we tried to do creatively is build an online service in the SimCity universe and that's what we sought to achieve."
Well, I like the words that acknowledge a very valid issue, after a certain point of restriction, DRM doesn't restrict pirates as much as it annoys your customer base.
But what he doesn't say is that SimCity deliberately made itself a game that didn't use DRM per se because they wanted it so tied in to online that the always on nature of the internet was de-facto DRM.. and that, quite frankly, failed horribly.
If there was two modes, an offline mode and an online mode, then you wouldn't see these issues, but for a lot of folks, the fact that this game could certainly played offline if not for the deliberate design decisions to make it online only, and the fact that EA did not adequately plot out the launch demand.. So it's good to see that a major company realizes DRM is dead, but the way to fix it is not making it DRM under another guise.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
MGS V: The Phantom Pain announced
Not much happening today...
Unless you count the announcement of the long rumored and anxiously awaited latest game in the Metal Gear Solid series.
Looks pretty solid too, they had a trailer as part of the announcement, as well as some game footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEuJ2q3uBYI - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=52ngbRyoAPw - Gameplay
Unless you count the announcement of the long rumored and anxiously awaited latest game in the Metal Gear Solid series.
Looks pretty solid too, they had a trailer as part of the announcement, as well as some game footage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEuJ2q3uBYI - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=52ngbRyoAPw - Gameplay
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Supreme Court upholds "Right of First Sale".. what does it mean for video games?
I've been having a discussion via email with Bill Harris, who runs the most excellent Blog "Dubious Quality" on the recent Supreme Court decision that upheld the "Right of First Sale" in a case where a foreign student bought textbooks overseas (where prices were cheaper), and then imported them back into the US for resale (at lower than list price.). The court case found that the book publisher could not block the sale on copyright grounds.
Now, at first look, you may not think that this has a lot to do with the video game markets. More often than not, games are region locked for consoles, so you can't play a Japanese Playstation game on an American console, but there are signs that this discussion opens the door to looking at this deeper.
The video game industry has been paranoid about used game sales and their claimed effect on companies bottom line ever since the days Nintendo tried to bar renting of NES cartridges. And the right of first sale, established back in the day of the historic Betamax case says that once we buy something, we control what we do with it. We can sell it on to someone else (as long as we do not infringe the copyright by making an illegal copy of the product) without any consequences.
And the content industries have been wrong about this from the Betamax case. In hearings before Congress, the then-head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti said "The VCR is to the American film producer and the American Public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.". Wow, hyperbole much? Considering the industries that sprang up from the VCR/DVD markets, and how much more money it made the content companies, you'd think they had learned their lessons.
But you see import issues even today. And sometimes, it's not even the US doing the importing! On Steam, it's not unusual to see someone from another country send money to someone to purchase and gift a game to someone else, just because it would cost more, sometimes significantly more to buy a game in countries like Australia (where sometimes a game will not even be allowed to be sold at all, due to not being issued a rating due to violence or something similar). This problem is so widespread in Australia that the Adobe, Microsoft and Apple recently got called on the carpet for price gouging in front of the Australian Senate.
If you want to see why publishers want digital downloads so much, it's because they can get away with calling this a license instead of a purchase. You can't sell a game you've finished on Steam. Should you? I'd say yes, but that's just me.
This will get looked at deeper, and I have a feeling sometime in the next two years or so, we'll start to see court cases trying to determine where the line is between licensing a video game and selling a video game, and if it determines that games are sold, not licensed, whether it's an illegal restraint of trade to region lock your DVD player or console system.
You can read a New York Times article (Minimal Paywall) on the court decision here
Now, at first look, you may not think that this has a lot to do with the video game markets. More often than not, games are region locked for consoles, so you can't play a Japanese Playstation game on an American console, but there are signs that this discussion opens the door to looking at this deeper.
The video game industry has been paranoid about used game sales and their claimed effect on companies bottom line ever since the days Nintendo tried to bar renting of NES cartridges. And the right of first sale, established back in the day of the historic Betamax case says that once we buy something, we control what we do with it. We can sell it on to someone else (as long as we do not infringe the copyright by making an illegal copy of the product) without any consequences.
And the content industries have been wrong about this from the Betamax case. In hearings before Congress, the then-head of the MPAA, Jack Valenti said "The VCR is to the American film producer and the American Public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.". Wow, hyperbole much? Considering the industries that sprang up from the VCR/DVD markets, and how much more money it made the content companies, you'd think they had learned their lessons.
But you see import issues even today. And sometimes, it's not even the US doing the importing! On Steam, it's not unusual to see someone from another country send money to someone to purchase and gift a game to someone else, just because it would cost more, sometimes significantly more to buy a game in countries like Australia (where sometimes a game will not even be allowed to be sold at all, due to not being issued a rating due to violence or something similar). This problem is so widespread in Australia that the Adobe, Microsoft and Apple recently got called on the carpet for price gouging in front of the Australian Senate.
If you want to see why publishers want digital downloads so much, it's because they can get away with calling this a license instead of a purchase. You can't sell a game you've finished on Steam. Should you? I'd say yes, but that's just me.
This will get looked at deeper, and I have a feeling sometime in the next two years or so, we'll start to see court cases trying to determine where the line is between licensing a video game and selling a video game, and if it determines that games are sold, not licensed, whether it's an illegal restraint of trade to region lock your DVD player or console system.
You can read a New York Times article (Minimal Paywall) on the court decision here
Monday, March 25, 2013
Just some various thoughts Post Pax
Well, the knee feels a bit better, but I'm assured that's solely because of the pain pills, so not much today..
It seems like we're in the retrenching period. Despite there being a lot on show at PAX East, it felt like things broke down into two main categories..
Either non-playable demos for the next generation of games (the Diablos on Console, Elder Scrolls Online, Watch_Dogs, etcetera), or playable lower level/indy games such as DuckTales, Organ Trail, etcetera (I met up with them and told them how much I appreciated the cleverness of the title)
As we get closer to the second quarter of the year, I have a feeling as we get closer to the 2013 holiday season we'll start to see more next-gen games announced and more importantly, footage. It seems like we're just in a holding pattern till the big two can get all their ducks in a row
It seems like we're in the retrenching period. Despite there being a lot on show at PAX East, it felt like things broke down into two main categories..
Either non-playable demos for the next generation of games (the Diablos on Console, Elder Scrolls Online, Watch_Dogs, etcetera), or playable lower level/indy games such as DuckTales, Organ Trail, etcetera (I met up with them and told them how much I appreciated the cleverness of the title)
As we get closer to the second quarter of the year, I have a feeling as we get closer to the 2013 holiday season we'll start to see more next-gen games announced and more importantly, footage. It seems like we're just in a holding pattern till the big two can get all their ducks in a row
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Sunday thoughts..
Thanks to my good friend TK for getting me a ticket to PAX East, and a fun time was had by all, well, until my knee went several ways at the same time apparently.. so while I'm waiting for the pain killers to settle in, you get a new post.
Just saw a news bit that the DuckTales Remastered game brought back all the original voice actors from the show. That includes 94 year old Alan Young, who provided the voice for Scrooge McDuck. That is awesome.
Interesting to see that they're bringing the latest XCom game to Iphones and the like. They say it will be the full game, but you have to wonder how they can do that.
Also in Firaxis news, they're teasing a new XCom game or a DLC featuring a new threat at PAX today... going to be intrigued on where they take the series, which will apparently have a bit of a cross over with Civilization V (new expansion in July) where you can research the Xcom project and drop xcom troopers on your enemies..
And as a kind of a Post Mortem of the Mass Effect Trilogy, they released a graphic showing the breakdown of the game's stats. Amongst the things that jumped out at me was the breakdown between male and female Shepherd.. With the amount of "FemShep is the real Shepherd!" I've seen online, I was expecting FemShep to be played by more than the 18% that was recorded.
The coolest stat was that its players spent 88.3 million man-hours playing the game (that's 8,625 years).
I was going to joke that didn't even count the 25 million man-hours that players then spent online being angry at the ending, but that just may be the painkillers talking.
Just saw a news bit that the DuckTales Remastered game brought back all the original voice actors from the show. That includes 94 year old Alan Young, who provided the voice for Scrooge McDuck. That is awesome.
Interesting to see that they're bringing the latest XCom game to Iphones and the like. They say it will be the full game, but you have to wonder how they can do that.
Also in Firaxis news, they're teasing a new XCom game or a DLC featuring a new threat at PAX today... going to be intrigued on where they take the series, which will apparently have a bit of a cross over with Civilization V (new expansion in July) where you can research the Xcom project and drop xcom troopers on your enemies..
And as a kind of a Post Mortem of the Mass Effect Trilogy, they released a graphic showing the breakdown of the game's stats. Amongst the things that jumped out at me was the breakdown between male and female Shepherd.. With the amount of "FemShep is the real Shepherd!" I've seen online, I was expecting FemShep to be played by more than the 18% that was recorded.
The coolest stat was that its players spent 88.3 million man-hours playing the game (that's 8,625 years).
I was going to joke that didn't even count the 25 million man-hours that players then spent online being angry at the ending, but that just may be the painkillers talking.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Lots to talk about..
Geez, I figure with the Funspot all posted, things would be nice and quiet.. right?
WRONG.
Then again, this is day one of PAX East, so... let's see.. what is there to talk about....
Blizzard announces a Warcraft digital Collectible Card Game:
It's called Hearthstone, and you can sign up for the beta now. Very interesting, it will be very interesting to see if Blizzard can extend their reach with one of their two big games (Diablo being the other). It's not a huge effort, from a team of 15 designers, but we'll see how they balance it.
You can see more here...
Ducktales, Wooooo-hooo..
If you're of a certain age, there are some Disney themes that stick in your head, even years, decades later. And that earworm won't be leaving any time soon as Capcom announced "Ducktales, Remastered" and offered a trailer that you can watch here.
They have a good sense of humor about the whole thing, too :)
D&D Arcade Collection has a release date
I previously mentioned that I couldn't wait for the D&D collection of arcade video games to hit the console.. well. I will but not as long as I thought I would, as it's been announced that the Mystara collection of video games would be released in June/
Diablo 3 possibly coming to next-gen Xbox as well?
Well, it's probably too early to even be hinting about it, but one of the big announcements in the PS4 reveal was that Diablo 3 was coming to the Playstation universe. Today's news that a Blizzard exec told the Penny Arcade report that they were only going to be talking about the PS3 version, not the rumored one for the PS4, and that.. "We don't have any announcements to make at this time... but we're not necessarily a Sony exclusive.
That sounds to me like saying "Hey, Microsoft, come pay us lots of money to blunt one of the big name reveals Sony has." D3 has a big enough audience that depending on exactly how much the ransom is, I'd be willing to pay it. See the full article at the Penny Arcade Report here.
Interesting times, my friends, interesting times.
WRONG.
Then again, this is day one of PAX East, so... let's see.. what is there to talk about....
Blizzard announces a Warcraft digital Collectible Card Game:
It's called Hearthstone, and you can sign up for the beta now. Very interesting, it will be very interesting to see if Blizzard can extend their reach with one of their two big games (Diablo being the other). It's not a huge effort, from a team of 15 designers, but we'll see how they balance it.
You can see more here...
Ducktales, Wooooo-hooo..
If you're of a certain age, there are some Disney themes that stick in your head, even years, decades later. And that earworm won't be leaving any time soon as Capcom announced "Ducktales, Remastered" and offered a trailer that you can watch here.
They have a good sense of humor about the whole thing, too :)
D&D Arcade Collection has a release date
I previously mentioned that I couldn't wait for the D&D collection of arcade video games to hit the console.. well. I will but not as long as I thought I would, as it's been announced that the Mystara collection of video games would be released in June/
Diablo 3 possibly coming to next-gen Xbox as well?
Well, it's probably too early to even be hinting about it, but one of the big announcements in the PS4 reveal was that Diablo 3 was coming to the Playstation universe. Today's news that a Blizzard exec told the Penny Arcade report that they were only going to be talking about the PS3 version, not the rumored one for the PS4, and that.. "We don't have any announcements to make at this time... but we're not necessarily a Sony exclusive.
That sounds to me like saying "Hey, Microsoft, come pay us lots of money to blunt one of the big name reveals Sony has." D3 has a big enough audience that depending on exactly how much the ransom is, I'd be willing to pay it. See the full article at the Penny Arcade Report here.
Interesting times, my friends, interesting times.
Friday Funspot for 3/22
Starting off: PAX East. Can Anyone Spare a ticket?
So, I was unable to procure PAX East tickets, despite it taking place less than an hour from where I am. I am the sad, as they say. But it'll be interesting to see what comes out of PAX East. It's become the early-year go to point for announcements and first looks at upcoming games. If you're going (and not going to give me a ticket *grin*), do me a favor, will you? Roll a d20 and play a round of Super Smash Brothers for me, will ya? Gotta keep the history alive...
Next Up: Neverwinter's Third Beta Weekend...
I haven't read the NDA for Neverwinter, so I'm not going to say whether I'm in this weekend's beta or not, because I think the non-dislcousre agreements punishes revealing anything about the upcoming game with a lightning strike (or having to write a 15,000 word paper on SimCity's release.. I think I'd prefer the lightning bolt). But I will say this.. it's gone pretty much under the radar, and it will be interesting to see how a fairly major MMO release goes when it starts off as Free 2 Play.
Getting to third base with: Miami Heat, and rubber-band AI... and March Madness
For those of you who do not follow basketball, the Miami Heat have won 24 in a row, coming back from down 17 against (my beloved) Boston Celtics and then 20-odd points against Cleveland. If this happened in NBA2K13, we'd be yelling about Rubber-Band AI (or as Bill Simmons puts it, the NFW game, you know, the one where the Computer gets fed up with you beating it and turns it up to 11 and starts kicking your butt? The one where you end up throwing a controller before hitting the reset button and stalking away)..
Also in non-video game basketball news, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, or more commonly, March Madness going on. I'm surprised that neither of the big video game providers has made a deal to offer free streaming of the games.. you think with the TV focus that they have now, it'd be a big seller..
Four on the Floor: Celebrating 20 years of NHL '94..
NHL.Com has an awesome article about NHL '94, which is hitting its 20th anniversary this year.. It's a great look about a game that inspired to many hockey players, and so many video games Not to mention this from Mallrats: "Breakfast? Breakfast, schmekfrest. Look at the score. I'm only in the middle of the second, and I'm winning Twelve to Two. Breakfasts come and go, Rene. Now, Hartford - the whale - hey... they only beat Vancouver once.. maybe twice in a lifetime."
(((Oh, and EA, remake Mutant League Football and Hockey. Please. I'm asking nicely. Don't make me beg. I will if I need to however)))
And Finally... (insert Jingoistic slogan here)
Good luck to the US Men's Soccer Team, which has a couple key games over the next seven days, tonight (Friday) against Costa Rica, and then Tuesday against Mexico. So, remember this everyone, USA! USA! USA! USA!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
BioShock Infinite: The $200 million Gamble..
$100 million to make, and another $100 Million to market. And people wonder why there's not that many quirky, fun small games for home consoles on disc. They just can't fight for attention with the AAA games, where if it's not a hit, it's a company destroying cruise missile.
$200 million.
This market is unstable, and it won't take many failures at this level to kill the market
$200 million.
This market is unstable, and it won't take many failures at this level to kill the market
League of Legends: SRS BIZNESS.
Yes indeed, League of Legends is indeed serious business. Usually, a game maker telling one of its players "Stop being a jerkass to other players, or we'll ban you" isn't such a big deal, but since it's League of Legends, where the players can make a ton of money in the eSports arena, it is indeed interesting.
The story, as reported on Rock, Paper, Shotgun boils down to the fact that one of its players did the Internet equivalent of what Tonya Harding did to Nancy Kerrigan. Well, without the lead pipe, and the screaming of "WHHHHHYYYYYY?"
Apparently during a ranked match, he publicly posted a command looking for another opposing player's IP, one of his teammates messaged him "HIT IT", and suddenly, his opponent was disconnected. The strong circumstantial evidence is that this player DDoS'd his opponent, forcing a disconnect (which led to the opposing team being disadvantaged, even after he reconnected).
Also, apparently this person has "has been given an official warning about his terrible behavior" and his harassment rating is currently the worst of all league players. Sounds like a charming "Gentleman".
Now, trashtalking is definitely a part of any sport, Esport or otherwise. But this guy sounds like a real winner. Of course, this is no surprise, as it confirms the old theory: Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total.. well, you know.
The story, as reported on Rock, Paper, Shotgun boils down to the fact that one of its players did the Internet equivalent of what Tonya Harding did to Nancy Kerrigan. Well, without the lead pipe, and the screaming of "WHHHHHYYYYYY?"
Apparently during a ranked match, he publicly posted a command looking for another opposing player's IP, one of his teammates messaged him "HIT IT", and suddenly, his opponent was disconnected. The strong circumstantial evidence is that this player DDoS'd his opponent, forcing a disconnect (which led to the opposing team being disadvantaged, even after he reconnected).
Also, apparently this person has "has been given an official warning about his terrible behavior" and his harassment rating is currently the worst of all league players. Sounds like a charming "Gentleman".
Now, trashtalking is definitely a part of any sport, Esport or otherwise. But this guy sounds like a real winner. Of course, this is no surprise, as it confirms the old theory: Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total.. well, you know.
The Return of Might and Magic
For a series that's been dead for a decade since the ninth installment of the RPG series in 2002, it's been rather busy (including three games in the turn based strategy "Heroes of Might & Magic" series), but it's good news to see the main series will be returning. Here's a teaser from the press release, ahead of a possible showing at PAX East this weekend:
"In the wake of the spectacular events in Might & Magic Heroes VI, you will play a party of four adventurers entangled in intrigue and political machinations unfolding in and around Karthal. The city, on the verge of secession, is prey to competing factions vying for its control. Your actions will determine the fate of the city."
Consider my interest tickled, hopefully we'll know more in the next few days.
"In the wake of the spectacular events in Might & Magic Heroes VI, you will play a party of four adventurers entangled in intrigue and political machinations unfolding in and around Karthal. The city, on the verge of secession, is prey to competing factions vying for its control. Your actions will determine the fate of the city."
Consider my interest tickled, hopefully we'll know more in the next few days.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
From the Pun-Gent files of the Department of Pun-ishment..
I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried... Just saw a video for a new retro game on Steam, that crossed over the hit educational game of the 80's, and the modern craze of zombie apocalypses.
The name: Organ Trail.
And yes, you can die of dysentery. Or having your spleen eaten by a zombie.
(if you don't get it, remember Oregon Trail? Yeah.)
We now resume your normal programming after you finish your facepalm.
The name: Organ Trail.
And yes, you can die of dysentery. Or having your spleen eaten by a zombie.
(if you don't get it, remember Oregon Trail? Yeah.)
We now resume your normal programming after you finish your facepalm.
Activision's "Walking Dead: Survival Instinct" bombs out..
Apparently Activision believes there's no such thing as bad publicity, and they're tired of EA hogging the spotlight, because new release The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct" is, as my friend's kid would say, "Pee Yoo Stinky".
Here's some collected quotes I've come across:
Both the zombie apocalypse and the game's utter badness are readily apparent within the first five minutes. (Kotaku)
(The tutorial) is a crap tutorial even among other crap tutorials, and a precursor to all the crap to come. (Kotaku)
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that this game is a tragedy in several respects. (@Totalbiscuit 's Review)
Oh dear god, this game looks worse than Half Life 2. I mean honestly if your textures look like they're from almost 10 years ago, you did something really wrong.(@Totalbiscuit's Review)
But in the end this is an outdated, very generic, very boring and often very ugly zombie action that certainly fails to live up to the big name it carries. (4players.de review)
It's sad, but it's probably to be expected. Big name conversions from movies/TV don't often turn out too well, and Activision and ground breaking are two phrases you'll never see put together.
Here's some collected quotes I've come across:
Both the zombie apocalypse and the game's utter badness are readily apparent within the first five minutes. (Kotaku)
(The tutorial) is a crap tutorial even among other crap tutorials, and a precursor to all the crap to come. (Kotaku)
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that this game is a tragedy in several respects. (@Totalbiscuit 's Review)
Oh dear god, this game looks worse than Half Life 2. I mean honestly if your textures look like they're from almost 10 years ago, you did something really wrong.(@Totalbiscuit's Review)
But in the end this is an outdated, very generic, very boring and often very ugly zombie action that certainly fails to live up to the big name it carries. (4players.de review)
It's sad, but it's probably to be expected. Big name conversions from movies/TV don't often turn out too well, and Activision and ground breaking are two phrases you'll never see put together.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
DLC becomes Pay 2 Win: Gears of War: Judgement
There can be a very thin line between DLC and Pay 2 Win (that is, people who pay more have a better chance to win) that has been approached in various ways over the last couple of months, but it looks that line has been crossed by today's release of Gears of War: Judgement and its Season Pass. Here's the gory details.
So, if you want double XP (ie, advance twice as fast as normal plebes?). Pony up. Want double XP but don't want to shell out $20 (1600 MS Points)? They offer a short term boost by paying lower amounts, you'll get double XP for a number of matches.
The difference between Mass Effect style packs (which I've admitted to buying in the past) and this, is that Mass Effect Multiplayer is co-op.. that is that guy who spent beaucoup bucks on Microsoft Points to unlock stuff earns the same XP as you to advance their characters.
This crosses a very significant line, and is a way to soak those who are your best fans for a good amount of money. I'll be honest, First Person Shooters aren't my thing, but I'm certainly not going to pay $60 for a game where one of the most significant features puts you at a significant disadvantage against players who kicked in an extra $20.
Count me out.
So, if you want double XP (ie, advance twice as fast as normal plebes?). Pony up. Want double XP but don't want to shell out $20 (1600 MS Points)? They offer a short term boost by paying lower amounts, you'll get double XP for a number of matches.
The difference between Mass Effect style packs (which I've admitted to buying in the past) and this, is that Mass Effect Multiplayer is co-op.. that is that guy who spent beaucoup bucks on Microsoft Points to unlock stuff earns the same XP as you to advance their characters.
This crosses a very significant line, and is a way to soak those who are your best fans for a good amount of money. I'll be honest, First Person Shooters aren't my thing, but I'm certainly not going to pay $60 for a game where one of the most significant features puts you at a significant disadvantage against players who kicked in an extra $20.
Count me out.
The Wii U deflation : Sony and Microsoft should be worried..
The Wii U had a pretty good release in 2012. Three million consoles sold in the holiday season is nothing to sneeze at. But apparently, as the holiday season ended, so did any sense of momentum and progress for the newest entry into the console wars.
Via Gamasutra, estimated Wii U sales for the first two months of 2013 combined may be as low as 120,000. They provide a couple of reasons for this (speculators hoping to resell the console for a profit during a projected shortage, then returning the consoles when this secondary market failed to happen, a lack of new premium games for the consoles over the last few months are two of them).. but I think Sony and Microsoft have good reason to look at these numbers and be concerned.
I've said it in previous posts, but I abhor playing it safe. No one can say the Wii U really played it safe. There's a lot of interesting features in the new box.. it's not nearly as powerful as the next-gen products from Sony and Microsoft, but it had hoped to beat them on the same things that made Wii such a big player in the "current" generation. Unique features the other consoles couldn't match, and fun games outside the big sellers that the other two consoles feature.
I do think a lack of premium system selling games is a huge issue here, and if I was Sony and Microsoft, I'd be double and triple checking with third party sellers to make sure that the premium third party titles will be ready for the PS4/720 in the months after system release. But it's amazing to see how the Wii U has just fallen off a cliff, sales wise.
Via Gamasutra, estimated Wii U sales for the first two months of 2013 combined may be as low as 120,000. They provide a couple of reasons for this (speculators hoping to resell the console for a profit during a projected shortage, then returning the consoles when this secondary market failed to happen, a lack of new premium games for the consoles over the last few months are two of them).. but I think Sony and Microsoft have good reason to look at these numbers and be concerned.
I've said it in previous posts, but I abhor playing it safe. No one can say the Wii U really played it safe. There's a lot of interesting features in the new box.. it's not nearly as powerful as the next-gen products from Sony and Microsoft, but it had hoped to beat them on the same things that made Wii such a big player in the "current" generation. Unique features the other consoles couldn't match, and fun games outside the big sellers that the other two consoles feature.
I do think a lack of premium system selling games is a huge issue here, and if I was Sony and Microsoft, I'd be double and triple checking with third party sellers to make sure that the premium third party titles will be ready for the PS4/720 in the months after system release. But it's amazing to see how the Wii U has just fallen off a cliff, sales wise.
"It's like Princess Maker, with less dresses and more eating of helpless humans..."
Thanks to 8bitreader Mike M. for the description above for the #1 (and best) way to describe new release on Steam "Monster Loves You".
Basically, it's a monster "life simulator" as you control a baby monster who's just become an orphan, as some humans are now wearing your mom and dad's pelts as clothing. You control the future of your lil Monster.. do you work to promote better relations between humans and monsters? Or do you become a thing out of every young children's nightmare?
Honestly, I can't stop giggling about the description, it's the juxtaposition that gets me going.
More later:
Monday, March 18, 2013
EA CEO resigns: What's next?
I saw the news about Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello resigning today, and I have to admit, I have ambivalent feelings about the whole thing.
From his statement:
"My decision to leave EA is really all about my accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year. It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued to the Street, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. And for that, I am 100 percent accountable."
Let's look at some of the positives and negatives from the six or so years Riccitello has been at the top of the EA world:
On the positive side, under his direction, EA took a chance on new titles, signing Harmonix from Activision, and making Rock Band. Also breaking new ground under his reign were: Brutal Legend, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space.
On the negative side, we see too many games on the EA Sports label that have coasted for too long on an existing engine , the NBA Live debacle (two years running, but credit to the folks that cancelled the game rather than trying to recoup their money rather than releasing a sub-par game), and some really horrible decisions with the recent release of SimCity (with the latest hit being that if you comment out one line of code, you can play off line without being disconnected.)
Electronic Arts were the top flyer in the gaming world when he took over. The recession hit all companies hard, but EA hasn't been able to pull themselves out of the doldrums. It's been two steps forward, two steps back.
Where does EA go from here? There's a cross roads, one fairly smooth but boring path entitled "Continue to coast and play it safe, relying solely on proven titles and small iterations." Then there's a rocky path that has a ton of pitfalls and hidden dangers but has so much reward waiting at the end with it.
Most people would choose the first path, being afraid to fail. Here's hoping the new EA prez takes the path less traveled, because it may make all the difference.
From his statement:
"My decision to leave EA is really all about my accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year. It currently looks like we will come in at the low end of, or slightly below, the financial guidance we issued to the Street, and we have fallen short of the internal operating plan we set one year ago. And for that, I am 100 percent accountable."
Let's look at some of the positives and negatives from the six or so years Riccitello has been at the top of the EA world:
On the positive side, under his direction, EA took a chance on new titles, signing Harmonix from Activision, and making Rock Band. Also breaking new ground under his reign were: Brutal Legend, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space.
On the negative side, we see too many games on the EA Sports label that have coasted for too long on an existing engine , the NBA Live debacle (two years running, but credit to the folks that cancelled the game rather than trying to recoup their money rather than releasing a sub-par game), and some really horrible decisions with the recent release of SimCity (with the latest hit being that if you comment out one line of code, you can play off line without being disconnected.)
Electronic Arts were the top flyer in the gaming world when he took over. The recession hit all companies hard, but EA hasn't been able to pull themselves out of the doldrums. It's been two steps forward, two steps back.
Where does EA go from here? There's a cross roads, one fairly smooth but boring path entitled "Continue to coast and play it safe, relying solely on proven titles and small iterations." Then there's a rocky path that has a ton of pitfalls and hidden dangers but has so much reward waiting at the end with it.
Most people would choose the first path, being afraid to fail. Here's hoping the new EA prez takes the path less traveled, because it may make all the difference.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Tripwire blames Call of Duty for "Ruining a generation of gamers"
Ran across this statement from Tripwire (Killing Floor and Red Orchestra) President John Gibson:
" but I’m really, I feel like Call of Duty has almost ruined a generation of FPS players. I know that’s a bold statement, but I won’t just throw stones without backing it up. When I was developing Action Mode [for RO2], I got a group of people that I know that are pretty hardcore Call of Duty players. And my goal was to create something that was accessible enough for them to enjoy the game—not turn it into Call of Duty, but try to make something that I thought was casual enough but with the Red Orchestra gameplay style that they would enjoy. And we iterated on it a lot. And just listening to all the niggling, pedantic things that they would complain about, that made them not want to play the game, I just thought, “I give up. Call of Duty has ruined this whole generation of gamers.”
He goes on to say some of the valid things that gamers have come to expect as a result of the Call of Duty series versus some "more realistic" shooters (full acceleration versus a more natural speeding up, for example).. but sometimes the fact that something is 99% reasonable gets overshadowed by the 1% that's out of line. And this is way out of line.
There was so many other ways he could have put it, that gamers have moved away from games like the Red Orchestra series because games like CoD have narrowed the skill gap, etcetera, but to say its "ruined a generation of gamers.. well, I think he needs to understand that he has two options. One) Accept that gamers prefer a more arcadey experience then what he planned to offer, and make a change, or Two) Lower his expectations and his target accordingly. But to say that Call of Duty "ruined a generation of gamers"... just wow.
" but I’m really, I feel like Call of Duty has almost ruined a generation of FPS players. I know that’s a bold statement, but I won’t just throw stones without backing it up. When I was developing Action Mode [for RO2], I got a group of people that I know that are pretty hardcore Call of Duty players. And my goal was to create something that was accessible enough for them to enjoy the game—not turn it into Call of Duty, but try to make something that I thought was casual enough but with the Red Orchestra gameplay style that they would enjoy. And we iterated on it a lot. And just listening to all the niggling, pedantic things that they would complain about, that made them not want to play the game, I just thought, “I give up. Call of Duty has ruined this whole generation of gamers.”
He goes on to say some of the valid things that gamers have come to expect as a result of the Call of Duty series versus some "more realistic" shooters (full acceleration versus a more natural speeding up, for example).. but sometimes the fact that something is 99% reasonable gets overshadowed by the 1% that's out of line. And this is way out of line.
There was so many other ways he could have put it, that gamers have moved away from games like the Red Orchestra series because games like CoD have narrowed the skill gap, etcetera, but to say its "ruined a generation of gamers.. well, I think he needs to understand that he has two options. One) Accept that gamers prefer a more arcadey experience then what he planned to offer, and make a change, or Two) Lower his expectations and his target accordingly. But to say that Call of Duty "ruined a generation of gamers"... just wow.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Coming Soon: Saints Row IV, A Sports Sequel to Frozen Synapse, D&D Re-releases and more..
Quite a few interesting games that were announced in the pipeline this week
Saints Row IV: This Time, He's the President with Superpowers!
I have to admit, I loved Saints Row: The Third when I played it on PC. It was so over the top ridiculous and fun that I still have it on my machine now. From all indications, Saints Row IV takes a series that was already "Turned up to Eleven" and breaks the knob off and shoves it down someone's throat. That's right, the Saints Boss is now the president of the United States, and he'll be put in a situation where aliens invade, and he (and the Saints) will be put in a VR situation where the Saints have superpowers.
Normally, I'd be like that guy from the show frantically waving my dollar bills in the air screaming "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY".. but honestly, I see enough yellow flags here that I may not be a day one purchase.
First off, it's rumored that the core of this games was scheduled to be a DLC for Saints Row The Third, called Enter the Dominatrix. So there's the "Paying Full Price for what is a pumped-up DLC" yellow flag
Secondly: You think if their had been a full new game in the pipeline, considering how many bajillions bought the previous games, THQ would have announced it in an attempt to secure funding to keep it alive. Then you get this announcement so soon after THQ's demise...
And finally, the release date is in August. Yes, I'm concerned a game is coming out too soon. Aren't these games usually hyped well before five months before release, at least a "It's Coming?" (actually, considering where SR would have gone with that, probably a good thing that they didn't say exactly that)
As I said, no red flags, but I'm nervous.
Frozen Synapse meets Football: Frozen Endzone
A lot of the turn based strategy fans I know loved Frozen Synapse. It had a weird flavor where both sides executed commands at the same time in a turn based manner to make outguessing the human opponent very fun. So, they've turned this into a game where the same kind of thing happens, but instead of shooting each other, you're trying to get a ball into the endzone on a field that is never the same twice. I never could get into Frozen Synapse, as I never got into the communities when I picked it up in beta and never had that moment where it all clicked. I'll definitely give this game a look when it hits beta later this year (it's currently on Steam Greenlight), and for a release next year.
Dungeons and Dragons arcade game re-releases:
Give me something relatively decent related to Dungeons and Dragons and I've played it. Gold Box series? Check. Eye of the Beholder? Check. Icewind Dale? Check. Baldur's Gate? Check. Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2? Check and Check. Heck, I even own the original disk for the Temple of Elemental Evil (Which is so buggy, I'm surprised it didn't come with an exterminator ad inside).
So I was very happy to see the news that there's going to be a re-release of the D&D arcade games (Shadow over Mystara and Tower of Doom) for PSN and Xbox Live. The details, such as cost and release date will likely be announced at PAX East. Can't wait.
You Got Your Shin Megami Tensei in my Fire Emblem!
And finally, in a personal note: I'm a sucker for a good turn based battle game, that's why I was so happy when Fire Emblem Awakening came out. Nintendo somewhat botched the release, not expecting so much interest in the game? How badly did they botch it? There wasn't enough copies at a lot of game stores to fufill pre-orders (this happened to fuel a couple conspiracy theories that Nintendo purposely did this to force people to get it from their digital download service). But they finally got more copies in the pipeline, and the result has been the hottest US release of any game of the series. The previous record for a Fire Emblem game was 230K copies total, Fire Emblem: Awakening was 150K in its first month alone. So it's good to see that Atlus is striking while the iron is hot, offering a crossover between the Fire Emblem series and another popular series from Japan, the Shin Megami Tensei series for the Wii U.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Friday Funspot...
No full column today, just some bits and pieces that are floating around in my mind:
First up: SimCity drowning in its own sewage?
SimCity is down to a 67 critics rating at MetaCritic (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity/critic-reviews). It highlights one of the problems with online games. When you play a game before its release, you are seeing it in the pristine condition. You're not seeing all the laggy bits or in SimCity's case, you're not seeing the servers go down, and some of the wackiness in the code that only appears in bursts. Now there's a rumor that there's a way for griefers to go in and maliciously damage other people's cities. If that's true, and it's not quickly patched, it's game over for the series. That'd be a shame
Next In Line: The Showdown Effect, a Multiplayer SPS?
I'm hearing good things about The Showdown Effect (http://www.theshowdowneffect.com/), which just released on Steam about ten days ago... kinda interesting in that it's a 2.5D Multiplayer Shooter (what I'm calling a SPS, a Second Person Shooter), and a parody of those over the top 80's and 90's action movies that had the best one-liners ever. I'm always up for games that offer quick bursts of fun and are intentionally cheesy in all the right ways (Orcs Must Die comes to mind here). So I'll have to see how this goes.
Batting Third: Blizzard's turn for server issues?
Not exactly a smooth launch for Blizzard's second release in the Starcraft II trilogy "Heart of the Swarm", as there was some reported login server issues that prevented people from playing (that also affected their perennial cash cow, the World of Warcraft series).. again, when you make a game so closely ties in to online play, you're at the mercy of someone else's connection to play your game. Understand it's necessary, but... it's concerning.
In the Clean-Up Spot: Why is there no World Baseball Classic mode for American Baseball Games?
I'll freely admit I'm a night owl, so watching some of the late night games from Japan and Taiwan was a bonus, and I loved the atmosphere and some great games, not to mention some upsets no one saw coming (If you had the Netherlands advancing to the final round, you're either Dutch, or picking teams at random). I would love to play for the Red White and Blue, but sadly, there's no mode for that in either the MLB2K series or MLB 13 The Show. Understandable, in that both games only have MLB players, but it's something I'd love to see.
And Finally: Arcadecraft. Why didn't anyone tell me before now?
As you can probably tell, I spent way too much time in arcades when I was a youngun (in fact, I named this blog post after the mega arcade I visited while on vacation, that's still around today!).. My friend Chris T pointed me at a Xbox Indie Game that gave me flashbacks of when five dollars could last me all day, it's called Arcadecraft, and it puts you in charge of your very own virtual arcade. You buy and sell arcade machines, collect the money before the coinbox fills up, even have to deal with unruly patrons, as you try to keep folks interested in the latest and greatest games to be released to the arcades. It's a mere 240 points, so it costs less then a trip to the arcade in the old days. Check out photos here:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Arcadecraft/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550c9b
Anyway, that's the Friday Funspot. Happy weekend everyone?
First up: SimCity drowning in its own sewage?
SimCity is down to a 67 critics rating at MetaCritic (http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/simcity/critic-reviews). It highlights one of the problems with online games. When you play a game before its release, you are seeing it in the pristine condition. You're not seeing all the laggy bits or in SimCity's case, you're not seeing the servers go down, and some of the wackiness in the code that only appears in bursts. Now there's a rumor that there's a way for griefers to go in and maliciously damage other people's cities. If that's true, and it's not quickly patched, it's game over for the series. That'd be a shame
Next In Line: The Showdown Effect, a Multiplayer SPS?
I'm hearing good things about The Showdown Effect (http://www.theshowdowneffect.com/), which just released on Steam about ten days ago... kinda interesting in that it's a 2.5D Multiplayer Shooter (what I'm calling a SPS, a Second Person Shooter), and a parody of those over the top 80's and 90's action movies that had the best one-liners ever. I'm always up for games that offer quick bursts of fun and are intentionally cheesy in all the right ways (Orcs Must Die comes to mind here). So I'll have to see how this goes.
Batting Third: Blizzard's turn for server issues?
Not exactly a smooth launch for Blizzard's second release in the Starcraft II trilogy "Heart of the Swarm", as there was some reported login server issues that prevented people from playing (that also affected their perennial cash cow, the World of Warcraft series).. again, when you make a game so closely ties in to online play, you're at the mercy of someone else's connection to play your game. Understand it's necessary, but... it's concerning.
In the Clean-Up Spot: Why is there no World Baseball Classic mode for American Baseball Games?
I'll freely admit I'm a night owl, so watching some of the late night games from Japan and Taiwan was a bonus, and I loved the atmosphere and some great games, not to mention some upsets no one saw coming (If you had the Netherlands advancing to the final round, you're either Dutch, or picking teams at random). I would love to play for the Red White and Blue, but sadly, there's no mode for that in either the MLB2K series or MLB 13 The Show. Understandable, in that both games only have MLB players, but it's something I'd love to see.
And Finally: Arcadecraft. Why didn't anyone tell me before now?
As you can probably tell, I spent way too much time in arcades when I was a youngun (in fact, I named this blog post after the mega arcade I visited while on vacation, that's still around today!).. My friend Chris T pointed me at a Xbox Indie Game that gave me flashbacks of when five dollars could last me all day, it's called Arcadecraft, and it puts you in charge of your very own virtual arcade. You buy and sell arcade machines, collect the money before the coinbox fills up, even have to deal with unruly patrons, as you try to keep folks interested in the latest and greatest games to be released to the arcades. It's a mere 240 points, so it costs less then a trip to the arcade in the old days. Check out photos here:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Arcadecraft/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550c9b
Anyway, that's the Friday Funspot. Happy weekend everyone?
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
The "We're Sony" syndrome
There's a bit of a vicious cycle in video game history. Company makes dominant product. Company begins to believe their own hype. Company believes "We're dominant now, we'll always be dominant".
Company suffers hard fall.
Way back in the old days, Atari had this happen to them. Nintendo took over with the NES/SNES generation. Playstation kicked Nintendo to the curb. Then Sony started believing their own hype.
They had ruled the roost through the Playstation generation, and the Playstation 2 generation. Then they started believing their own press.
"We'll make the biggest monster gaming system ever, leverage our video game console market into promoting our DVD standard and no matter what we price it at, people will buy it. After all, We're Sony!"
And then came that fateful press conference.
$599.
Five hundred and ninety nine dollars.
FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE DOLLARS?!?!?!?!?
They tried saying "Consider it a $399 console and a $200 blu-ray player all in one! Think of the convenience."
It didn't work. They started losing ground. Then Nintendo released a new system. Didn't even have really half of the power of the Playstation 3. A gimmick system, destined to keep Nintendo in the dust bin of video game history.
But Nintendo had figured it out. It wasn't which video game console system had the most power, the best graphics, or what have you. It was "which system was the most fun to play, and which system had the best value."
Nintendo beat Sony ragged on those categories. So did the Xbox 360, which was unthinkable previously.
Sony fell to third place in the console wars. But they stubbornly resisted the begging and pleading of investors and analysts to lower the price of the PS3.
"We're Sony. We set the market" they said.
But the market had been set for them, and it wasn't to terms of their liking.
So, now we face the PS4 release at the end of this year.. and the question is, have the powers that be at Sony realized that the phrase "We're Sony" is not enough anymore?
Who knows. The rumored price out there (which has been out for a couple weeks with no response by Sony) is $429 for a base, "Stripped Down" system, or $529 for a base regular system.
If that's the case, Sony will prove that they haven't learned a damn thing from going from first place to last place in a single generation. They'll be saying "We're Sony.." but in this case, it's going to mean "We WERE Sony".
Company suffers hard fall.
Way back in the old days, Atari had this happen to them. Nintendo took over with the NES/SNES generation. Playstation kicked Nintendo to the curb. Then Sony started believing their own hype.
They had ruled the roost through the Playstation generation, and the Playstation 2 generation. Then they started believing their own press.
"We'll make the biggest monster gaming system ever, leverage our video game console market into promoting our DVD standard and no matter what we price it at, people will buy it. After all, We're Sony!"
And then came that fateful press conference.
$599.
Five hundred and ninety nine dollars.
FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE DOLLARS?!?!?!?!?
They tried saying "Consider it a $399 console and a $200 blu-ray player all in one! Think of the convenience."
It didn't work. They started losing ground. Then Nintendo released a new system. Didn't even have really half of the power of the Playstation 3. A gimmick system, destined to keep Nintendo in the dust bin of video game history.
But Nintendo had figured it out. It wasn't which video game console system had the most power, the best graphics, or what have you. It was "which system was the most fun to play, and which system had the best value."
Nintendo beat Sony ragged on those categories. So did the Xbox 360, which was unthinkable previously.
Sony fell to third place in the console wars. But they stubbornly resisted the begging and pleading of investors and analysts to lower the price of the PS3.
"We're Sony. We set the market" they said.
But the market had been set for them, and it wasn't to terms of their liking.
So, now we face the PS4 release at the end of this year.. and the question is, have the powers that be at Sony realized that the phrase "We're Sony" is not enough anymore?
Who knows. The rumored price out there (which has been out for a couple weeks with no response by Sony) is $429 for a base, "Stripped Down" system, or $529 for a base regular system.
If that's the case, Sony will prove that they haven't learned a damn thing from going from first place to last place in a single generation. They'll be saying "We're Sony.." but in this case, it's going to mean "We WERE Sony".
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Sports Games in 2013: Stepping off the treadmill..
With the recent release of MLB: The Show 13 for the PlayStation 3, we
enter the downtime between sports games between the 2013 and 2014 "Game
Year", and it's time to look at sports games and how they're evolving,
or more accurately, how there's two camps in the sports world. Those
games who make large jumps from year to year, and those games that run
on a treadmill, seemingly going forward but all they're doing really is
running in place.
I would put The Show 13, and NBA 2K13, at the top of the "large leaps" list. They are the undoubted leaders in the sports game category, and not only do they lead the category, they seemingly work very hard to stay in their lofty spots. They have little competition (we'll deal with MLB2K13 further down the post, and as for the NBA Live series, has a game ever gotten this close to completion two years running only to be cancelled each time), and no one could really blame them for coasting.. but each year the game is more polished, and seemingly plays better each year.
Also in the large leaps category is EA Sports NHL series. EA took a fairly big risk in 2012, not only putting out a game for a sport that at the time looked like they would lose their second full year in less then a decade, but completely revamping the skating engine and making the game play very differently. Again, they have no competition, and could coast, but they took a risk and it seemingly has paid off.
Then we get into the treadmill category. Each game offers a bunch of new shiny bits from year to year, but somehow, the end effect is that they end up running in place. Or in other terms, after you play it for a while, you get the feeling that the only thing that's changed gameplay wise is the number after the main title.
That's your FIFA, That's Tiger Woods. That's ESPECIALLY Madden and NCAA Football.
You notice a trend here? This is generally because in most cases, the rights fees are so high that cautious executives aren't willing to make wholesale changes, because they have a built in audience (for all except FIFA, there's no real competition in the sport), so its simpler to coast and offer a new game with a new coat of paint (a couple new features each year), then to be daring. So each year, the games are not quite there, the same flaws appearing year after year after year.after.. well you get the point.
Hopefully the success of NHL 13 will give EA some courage to change around their other games, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
And then we get to MLB 2K13.
This is the very definition of a treadmill. No new features, no new graphics, nothing but a data update and a fresh new $60 price tag. Blatant money grab from a company that couldn't care less (they had announced that they weren't going to be releasing a baseball game this year, only to reverse course a few weeks before a release date).
Hopefully the transition to next-generation systems will force treadmill companies to take a hard look at their aging gameplay engines and decide it's time to step off the treadmill and take a long hard look at getting back to innovating.
I would put The Show 13, and NBA 2K13, at the top of the "large leaps" list. They are the undoubted leaders in the sports game category, and not only do they lead the category, they seemingly work very hard to stay in their lofty spots. They have little competition (we'll deal with MLB2K13 further down the post, and as for the NBA Live series, has a game ever gotten this close to completion two years running only to be cancelled each time), and no one could really blame them for coasting.. but each year the game is more polished, and seemingly plays better each year.
Also in the large leaps category is EA Sports NHL series. EA took a fairly big risk in 2012, not only putting out a game for a sport that at the time looked like they would lose their second full year in less then a decade, but completely revamping the skating engine and making the game play very differently. Again, they have no competition, and could coast, but they took a risk and it seemingly has paid off.
Then we get into the treadmill category. Each game offers a bunch of new shiny bits from year to year, but somehow, the end effect is that they end up running in place. Or in other terms, after you play it for a while, you get the feeling that the only thing that's changed gameplay wise is the number after the main title.
That's your FIFA, That's Tiger Woods. That's ESPECIALLY Madden and NCAA Football.
You notice a trend here? This is generally because in most cases, the rights fees are so high that cautious executives aren't willing to make wholesale changes, because they have a built in audience (for all except FIFA, there's no real competition in the sport), so its simpler to coast and offer a new game with a new coat of paint (a couple new features each year), then to be daring. So each year, the games are not quite there, the same flaws appearing year after year after year.after.. well you get the point.
Hopefully the success of NHL 13 will give EA some courage to change around their other games, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
And then we get to MLB 2K13.
This is the very definition of a treadmill. No new features, no new graphics, nothing but a data update and a fresh new $60 price tag. Blatant money grab from a company that couldn't care less (they had announced that they weren't going to be releasing a baseball game this year, only to reverse course a few weeks before a release date).
Hopefully the transition to next-generation systems will force treadmill companies to take a hard look at their aging gameplay engines and decide it's time to step off the treadmill and take a long hard look at getting back to innovating.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Is next-generation going to be the last-generation?
Well, first off, probably not. Even with the slowdown the last few years in the video games market, the numbers will probably go up at least a bit over the next year or two as the next-generation Xbox and Sony units hit the market. But I'm trying to figure out where they go from here, and I'm not really quite sure.
It's pretty obvious to me at this point, that we're not going to see the quantum leaps in technology that we saw from PS2 to PS3, or original Xbox to 360. If you look at the hype for the upcoming systems, you notice something interesting. They're getting away from giving you raw numbers such as the amount of polygons it can push, or the capacity of the drives. It's not in the hardware anymore, it's in the add on features.
The video game market lost a TON of ground to the mobile games market over the past few years. It's simple to see why.. one has games that top out at $9.99 or so, and the other's primary market is $60 and up. You may get 10 hours of enjoyment out of iOS game X, and 40 or so hours from Console GameY, but if you can buy 10 iOS/Android games for the price of one console game, it's a better value.
Starting in the tail end of the current generation PS3's and Xbox 360's and continuing into the next generation.. the big selling points is everything BUT the games it can play.
Watch Netflix on your Xbox 360!
Watch Hulu Plus on your PS3!
Watch TV networks on your Xbox 360!
Watch (major sport) on your console!
Built in video chat on the next generation Xbox!
Post live video of your PS4 game to the internet for everyone to watch
It's all about the add on features.. which leaves me a bit bemused.
If we wanted to watch TV Networks, or baseball, or Netflix, you know, there's something already there to do that.. it's called your cable box. It just seems like a lot of the stuff they're trying to sell us as great additions to the consoles.. is already available to us. It just doesn't make sense, you know?
So far, the next generation seems to be pushing everything but the games. Are video game consoles as we know it dying? Or is it just evolving to a set top box, trying to absorb the cable box to be your one stop for all your TV-activities?
Stay tuned.
It's pretty obvious to me at this point, that we're not going to see the quantum leaps in technology that we saw from PS2 to PS3, or original Xbox to 360. If you look at the hype for the upcoming systems, you notice something interesting. They're getting away from giving you raw numbers such as the amount of polygons it can push, or the capacity of the drives. It's not in the hardware anymore, it's in the add on features.
The video game market lost a TON of ground to the mobile games market over the past few years. It's simple to see why.. one has games that top out at $9.99 or so, and the other's primary market is $60 and up. You may get 10 hours of enjoyment out of iOS game X, and 40 or so hours from Console GameY, but if you can buy 10 iOS/Android games for the price of one console game, it's a better value.
Starting in the tail end of the current generation PS3's and Xbox 360's and continuing into the next generation.. the big selling points is everything BUT the games it can play.
Watch Netflix on your Xbox 360!
Watch Hulu Plus on your PS3!
Watch TV networks on your Xbox 360!
Watch (major sport) on your console!
Built in video chat on the next generation Xbox!
Post live video of your PS4 game to the internet for everyone to watch
It's all about the add on features.. which leaves me a bit bemused.
If we wanted to watch TV Networks, or baseball, or Netflix, you know, there's something already there to do that.. it's called your cable box. It just seems like a lot of the stuff they're trying to sell us as great additions to the consoles.. is already available to us. It just doesn't make sense, you know?
So far, the next generation seems to be pushing everything but the games. Are video game consoles as we know it dying? Or is it just evolving to a set top box, trying to absorb the cable box to be your one stop for all your TV-activities?
Stay tuned.
Mass Effect 3: Infinite Highs, and Infinite Lows
Well, as of this week, the last bit of new DLC for Mass Effect 3 is out, and I figured it's time for a look back.
It was no joke to say that Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated titles in recent memory. Was there concerns? Of course there was. The bar had been set impossibly high from Mass Effect 1 and 2, the final game in a trilogy has to wrap up all those plot points that you put in from the last two games, all the people that could theoretically be killed in the previous games, how do you make them a part of the final game?
Then EA/Bioware mentioned the word "multiplayer".
And the true believers cried out in rage.
The one thing that the true believers got right in their anger about multiplayer was that it stunk that you had to grind multiplayer to get the best single player ending. It locked out a good bunch of people who may not want to deal with Xbox Live and some of it's more.. affected users, let's say..; not to mention those who still don't have a reliable internet connection in this day and age.
But the multiplayer probably was one of the biggest moneymakers and time sinks Bioware had with this game. You could buy the good stuff with credits earned by grinding multiplayer missions, or earn them by performing tasks on special weekends (one of the ways that EA/Bioware kept their fans coming back later on in the life cycle). Or you could just pay to buy packs, ala Magic The Gathering. How much did I spend on packs to play MP with my friends? Let's just say that I don't want to go back and find out if I spent more on the packs then I did for the game itself.
So, the game comes out, and the fans love it. It's 30+ hours of one of the toughest, best games. The throwbacks to past games flew fast and furious. You got a feeling of your choices from past games made a difference. You saw the passing of beloved friends, (including the heroic sacrifice of a certain Gilbert & Sullivan scientist Salarian).. to give you the chance to forge the army needed to defeat the Reapers once and for all. You defeated the odds, time and time again, until finally...
(insert record scratch sound here)
It all came to a screeching halt with the ending 30 minutes.
The MacGuffin you had been chasing the whole game turned out to be an uber space AI who gave you the choice of three unsatisfying endings. Endings which didn't change much between them. All your choices, all your struggles, came down to picking a color.
It stunk.
And the true believers cried out in rage again.
And they had a damn good point.
Bioware fought a losing battle from the start, trying to insist that it was a worthy ending to the trilogy. They relented to a point, releasing an extended cut of the ending to go into more details, and adding a fourth option (refusing the other three) that basically had Shepard doom the human race by refusing to change the universe.
To be honest, the ending, even a year after Mass Effect 3's release.. taints the trilogy to a point.
But there was so much good here, through the games, and the various folks I played with (both friends and random strangers over Xbox Live), that I find myself trying very hard to remember the high points, and not let the low points break me down.
So to Bioware, thank you for a mostly great trilogy of games. To my friends on Team Leeeroy, let's find another game to do that kinda stuff in.). And here's to the Shepard's.. one and all. Let's hope they found a real ending with the romantic character of their choice, and lived to a ripe old age.
It was no joke to say that Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated titles in recent memory. Was there concerns? Of course there was. The bar had been set impossibly high from Mass Effect 1 and 2, the final game in a trilogy has to wrap up all those plot points that you put in from the last two games, all the people that could theoretically be killed in the previous games, how do you make them a part of the final game?
Then EA/Bioware mentioned the word "multiplayer".
And the true believers cried out in rage.
The one thing that the true believers got right in their anger about multiplayer was that it stunk that you had to grind multiplayer to get the best single player ending. It locked out a good bunch of people who may not want to deal with Xbox Live and some of it's more.. affected users, let's say..; not to mention those who still don't have a reliable internet connection in this day and age.
But the multiplayer probably was one of the biggest moneymakers and time sinks Bioware had with this game. You could buy the good stuff with credits earned by grinding multiplayer missions, or earn them by performing tasks on special weekends (one of the ways that EA/Bioware kept their fans coming back later on in the life cycle). Or you could just pay to buy packs, ala Magic The Gathering. How much did I spend on packs to play MP with my friends? Let's just say that I don't want to go back and find out if I spent more on the packs then I did for the game itself.
So, the game comes out, and the fans love it. It's 30+ hours of one of the toughest, best games. The throwbacks to past games flew fast and furious. You got a feeling of your choices from past games made a difference. You saw the passing of beloved friends, (including the heroic sacrifice of a certain Gilbert & Sullivan scientist Salarian).. to give you the chance to forge the army needed to defeat the Reapers once and for all. You defeated the odds, time and time again, until finally...
(insert record scratch sound here)
It all came to a screeching halt with the ending 30 minutes.
The MacGuffin you had been chasing the whole game turned out to be an uber space AI who gave you the choice of three unsatisfying endings. Endings which didn't change much between them. All your choices, all your struggles, came down to picking a color.
It stunk.
And the true believers cried out in rage again.
And they had a damn good point.
Bioware fought a losing battle from the start, trying to insist that it was a worthy ending to the trilogy. They relented to a point, releasing an extended cut of the ending to go into more details, and adding a fourth option (refusing the other three) that basically had Shepard doom the human race by refusing to change the universe.
To be honest, the ending, even a year after Mass Effect 3's release.. taints the trilogy to a point.
But there was so much good here, through the games, and the various folks I played with (both friends and random strangers over Xbox Live), that I find myself trying very hard to remember the high points, and not let the low points break me down.
So to Bioware, thank you for a mostly great trilogy of games. To my friends on Team Leeeroy, let's find another game to do that kinda stuff in.). And here's to the Shepard's.. one and all. Let's hope they found a real ending with the romantic character of their choice, and lived to a ripe old age.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Shadowrun Returns Alpha Video Footage
I will make no bones about the fact I am a big fan of the Shadowrun universe. It has a rich history, through four editions of the pen and paper RPG, (and coming soon, fifth edition), classic games for the Super Nintendo and Genesis systems.. and then a poorly thought out and worse executed team shooter game that tried to bridge PC and Xbox a few years ago.
Then last year, not one but two Shadowrun RPG computer games were pushed out. This one is aimed at single player (with an editor to share campaigns with friends), but until Friday, no one knew what the actual game play looked like. I think its safe to say the folks were a bit nervous. Would it be true to the IP in the way the first person team shooter wasn't?
Well, we got our answer, and it looks like we're going to be very, VERY happy.
Despite the gameplay being labeled as Alpha, we are not that far from a possible release date (they are currently targeting a May or June release date).. so this will definitely be one to watch for, and the price point ($15 for a base copy) is definitely encouraging folks to try it when it comes out.
Then last year, not one but two Shadowrun RPG computer games were pushed out. This one is aimed at single player (with an editor to share campaigns with friends), but until Friday, no one knew what the actual game play looked like. I think its safe to say the folks were a bit nervous. Would it be true to the IP in the way the first person team shooter wasn't?
Well, we got our answer, and it looks like we're going to be very, VERY happy.
Despite the gameplay being labeled as Alpha, we are not that far from a possible release date (they are currently targeting a May or June release date).. so this will definitely be one to watch for, and the price point ($15 for a base copy) is definitely encouraging folks to try it when it comes out.
ShamCity: The EA SimCity Disaster
One of the most well known quotes from baseball is Lou Gehrig's retirement speech. He said "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
That's the kind of feeling I have this week.
Why?
Because a certain very well known online retailer saved me $80 and a ton of frustration this week by cancelling my order for the game by accident.
I ordered SimCity's digital limited edition through this well known online retailer months ago, all filled up with nostalgia about the hours I spent playing SimCity and its sequels.
Then as the months flew by, I started to be concerned. People who participated in the beta decried the small city sizes, the "always-on" DRM connection that had players spending more time staring at a screen while the game decided whether to be playable or not then actually, you know, playing the game.
The word was out.
"Abort! Cancel your copy if you can.. this game is a godawful mess and I don't know if they can fix it."
But, I pressed on. Surely, SimCity is a concept that's simple enough that it can't be so massively screwed up, can it?
EA apparently took this as a challenge.
This is going to be a case study on how not to appeal to an audience.
A game that you cannot play for any length of time due to the servers apparently being made out of paper-maiche. A stiff breeze knocks them down (and remember, without the servers, you cannot play.. not even offline play),
A limited city size that apparently tops out somewhere around 250K. Which is fine, if you want to play Albany County, New York, instead of New York City.
Not to mention the PR fiasco that is an EA Facebook representative answering a question on why there was no servers in Asia for South Koreans (you know, because the ones in America were so laggy and crashing so much) by telling folks that they had put no servers in Asia due to the high rate of piracy there.
So to punish pirates in Asia.. you're going to deny people who actually purchased your game the right to local servers that they have to connect to actually play the game?
The mind absolutely boggles.
How bad is it?
EA has asked its affiliates to stop promoting the game while they try to fix the servers issues. That's right, we're less then a week into the game's release, and they're telling its affiliates "DON'T TELL PEOPLE TO BUY OUR GAME".
Not only that, but they announced Friday night that anyone who purchased a copy of SimCity by March 15th would get a free game from the EA catalog. So the game's so bad and so frustrating, that they have to offer a free game to get suckers, er, customers to buy the game a couple days after release.
Are you kidding me?
So, thank you nameless online retailer, for inadvertently cancelling my digital download order. I owe you one.
That's the kind of feeling I have this week.
Why?
Because a certain very well known online retailer saved me $80 and a ton of frustration this week by cancelling my order for the game by accident.
I ordered SimCity's digital limited edition through this well known online retailer months ago, all filled up with nostalgia about the hours I spent playing SimCity and its sequels.
Then as the months flew by, I started to be concerned. People who participated in the beta decried the small city sizes, the "always-on" DRM connection that had players spending more time staring at a screen while the game decided whether to be playable or not then actually, you know, playing the game.
The word was out.
"Abort! Cancel your copy if you can.. this game is a godawful mess and I don't know if they can fix it."
But, I pressed on. Surely, SimCity is a concept that's simple enough that it can't be so massively screwed up, can it?
EA apparently took this as a challenge.
This is going to be a case study on how not to appeal to an audience.
A game that you cannot play for any length of time due to the servers apparently being made out of paper-maiche. A stiff breeze knocks them down (and remember, without the servers, you cannot play.. not even offline play),
A limited city size that apparently tops out somewhere around 250K. Which is fine, if you want to play Albany County, New York, instead of New York City.
Not to mention the PR fiasco that is an EA Facebook representative answering a question on why there was no servers in Asia for South Koreans (you know, because the ones in America were so laggy and crashing so much) by telling folks that they had put no servers in Asia due to the high rate of piracy there.
So to punish pirates in Asia.. you're going to deny people who actually purchased your game the right to local servers that they have to connect to actually play the game?
The mind absolutely boggles.
How bad is it?
EA has asked its affiliates to stop promoting the game while they try to fix the servers issues. That's right, we're less then a week into the game's release, and they're telling its affiliates "DON'T TELL PEOPLE TO BUY OUR GAME".
Not only that, but they announced Friday night that anyone who purchased a copy of SimCity by March 15th would get a free game from the EA catalog. So the game's so bad and so frustrating, that they have to offer a free game to get suckers, er, customers to buy the game a couple days after release.
Are you kidding me?
So, thank you nameless online retailer, for inadvertently cancelling my digital download order. I owe you one.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Welcome to An 8 Bit Mind...
An 8 bit mind in a 64 bit world..
That just means what was old, is now new again.
And that's the kind of vibe I'm getting about where the video game industry is going.
The big names are starting to find out that it's very hard to make a Triple-A, big budget game that can make a profit in these days. There are very few Triple-A games that make a profit these days, and most of those qualify under the following:
A) Sports games (Ie, milk the engine over three-four years, adding incremental updates to the game, but otherwise, a glorified data update each year.)
B) First person shooters. (The most famous example has two separate companies working on titles under a brand name, so they don't have to release one every year, they can just alternate companies releases each year from modern to past (or near-future).
C) Something Something"World of Warcraft" (and even they're down a bit from the peak)
Making a big game is a risky venture. We're talking "Bet the Company" sized ventures here. If you're not attached to the hardware makers, or an existing franchise, you guess wrong, it's not just a black mark against the company, it's the epitaph they put on your companies tombstone.
Ask THQ. Despite having some of the games with large followings (UFC, WWE, Saints Row, etcetera), they bet big on some of their releases, they bet wrong, and now they're gone.
Ask Curt Schilling. Kingdoms of Amalur not only killed his company, it wiped out his life savings from playing baseball. And that game wasn't even that bad!
So, what brings me back to "What was old is now new again?"...
The future of gaming may not be the AAA console titles. It may be the rebirth of the PC Generation.
In the past 18 months, we've seen a wave of start ups mining the gold of our PC gaming past to kickstart the next generation of PC gaming.
There's a reason I used that word kickstart in there.
In the past year, we've seen a new Mechwarrior online game, Wasteland II, two Shadowrun games, a remake of Baldur's Gate, and now a new game from Lord British (the "We couldn't call it Ultima but it's a spiritual Ultima-clone" game named Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues), the guys at Obsidian announcing a new mega-RPG tentatively titled "Project Eternity", and a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, called Torment: Tides of Numenera. Not to mention a new crossover single/multiplayer game from Chris "Wing Commander" Roberts.
All of these games completely sidestepped the traditional developer-publisher format. Why? Well, two reasons come to mind.
A) With digital distribution systems such as Steam, GOG, Origin, etcetera, one of the primary reason for publishers (to secure limited shelf space at retail) is null and void. The developer works directly with the retailers, and keeps a bigger chunk of the change for themselves.
B) Most of these games wouldn't be greenlit by cautious publishers anyway (see above, about "Bet Wrong, you're gone"). So, they sidestepped them and went directly to the players. They said "Pay us up front, and we'll make it for you."
THAT'S a game changer. I've heard a lot of griping about Kickstarter and its brethren, that it wasn't aimed at such big projects, that it's squeezing out the little guy, plus since its the hot new thing, EVERYONE is using it to fund their campaigns.. but you know what?
It works.
It really does. Word of mouth is the best advertising possible. Not only does it allow you to sidestep the middleman, and the video game tradition of keeping everything under wraps for as long as possible, it starts the groundswell of support for your game early. People are talking about your game, long before you have to show a demo off at E3 or PAX or what have you. Early adopters/supporters are usually the most active in spreading the word of your game. Not only that, they're a golden pipelne into seeing what a large chunk of your fans want to see in such a game.
And as for the charge that its crowding out the little guy? I disagree. There's enough room in the Crowdfunding universe for Project Eternity, and FTL (a rogue like spaceship game that was funded for 200K, and was one of the top sellers on Steam over the holiday season) There's enough room for the Lord British.. Chris Roberts, and the Subset Games types. Kickstarter and Crowd-Funding in general is big enough for all projects, big and small.
And it's growing.
Here's eight of the biggest video game projects funded on Kickstarter:
Project Eternity (Obsidian) $3,986,929
Double Fine Adventure Game (Double Fine) $3,336,371
Wasteland II (InXile Entertainment) $2,933,252
Homestuck Adventure Game (MS Paint Adventures) $2,485,506
Planetary Annihilation (Uber Entertainment) $2,229,344
Torment: Tides of Numenera $2,213,447 *
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium Games) $2,134,374 **
Shadowrun Returns (Harebrained Schemes, LLC) $1,836,447
* Current kickstarter, 3 days into a 30 day kickstarter campaign)
** Star Citizen did a lot of its fundraising outside of Kickstarter
Now, none of these games are out as of yet. and to be honest, even the top game on the list, well, if you tried to make a AAA console game for $4 million, you'd be laughed out of every development house in the world, but here's the thing. You don't need AAA sales levels to make these games profitable. This is just the budget you have to work with. Any sales post Kickstarter is pure gravy to the bottom line. And through this medium, there's no guessing about what your consumers want.. THEY'LL Tell you with their wallet. Pitch a cool idea, and if folks like it, they'll fund it.
Over the next 12-24 months, this new wave of Kickstarter funded games will start to come out (Shadowrun Returns is the first game to be scheduled for release, in May or June of this year being targeted for release), but the oldest Kickstarter on that list is just one year old.
And I've gone this whole article without mentioning the king of crowd-funding games. Minecraft entered a purchase-able beta in January of 2011. Since then, it's sold 20 million copies across the various platforms it's been released on. You try to push a game with Minecraft level graphics to any development house, and they will call the men in the white coats on you. But it's sold more copies then just about anything else out there. And its developer, Mojang, is laughing all the way to the bank.
We're in an age where no matter how much glitz, how many polygons and frames per second you can push, doesn't matter as much as an ENJOYABLE experience playing a game.
So.. the future of PC gaming looks a lot better then it did a year or two ago. At a time where there are fewer releases on consoles and no one dares to take a risk, it's good to see the exact opposite on the PC side of the ledger.
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