Jonah is still plagued, though this time he’s suffering laryngitis that accompanied the flu. However, even without Dan or a Gaming Flashback, there’s a ton of news to pour over.
This week’s news items include:
- Notch earned $101M in 2012, may buy car
- Sony teases “See the Future” event on 20th February
- Rumor: PS4 hitting Europe in 2014, will have 8GB GDDR5
- Feedback leads Kawata to “slightly revise” opinions on Resident Evil
- Take-Two delays Grand Theft Auto V to September 17th
- Source Code director signs on for Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft adaptation
- Controversial torture interrogation from Splinter Cell: Black List removed
- Rumor: Halo 3 finally hitting PC – on Steam?
All that plus Reader Feedback and the Question of the Week: “What remake would you like to see done?”
We’ve mentioned this in the past, but the tough economy gives many smaller developers great opportunities for success. While big publishers struggle to look good in the eyes of the investor, tiny developers can produce quality titles for minimal cash investment and time to market. Ten years ago, smaller developers tried to compete with the big boys making larger titles, cloning successful titles or simply asking investors to put it on the line for their game. Today, developers can create a small iphone app, a cute WiiWare title or exploit the XNA efforts of Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade and actually have a chance.
Ex-Ensemble Studios Folks Form 
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@Notch earned $101M in 2012, may buy car
Good for him.
@Sony teases “See the Future” event on 20th February
It could also be some sort of TV or virtual reality device. But again, unless the announcement includes price drops, I’m not interested.
@Rumor: PS4 hitting Europe in 2014, will have 8GB GDDR5
Hmm. Dunno. Higher end PCs run on 8GB today, and a console should aim for the future. On the other hand, there isn’t too much using up RAM on a console except the game.
I agree with Jonah though, the difference in RAM speed will produce only a small bump in performance. Common bottlenecks for games are at the CPU and GPU.
@Feedback leads Kawata to “slightly revise” opinions on Resident Evil
I say blame the movies for influencing the games.
As for changing genres, anyone remembers Command & Conquer: Renegade? I loved the strategy games, I also loved Renegade. But apparently I was part of a minority.
And if you think of it, other game featuring vehicular combat released after Renegade did enjoy success.
So it seems that switching genres will impact sales, regardless of the quality of the end product. Therefore, be careful when making drastic changes. If possible, don’t make them.
@Source Code director signs on for Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft adaptation
Moon was good. Still, I foresee an action movie. Think of Prince of Persia.
@Controversial torture interrogation from Splinter Cell: Black List removed
Dunno. If I were to make a game about war, I’d make it as gritty as possible. War is like that. You’d play the game, feel awful about it.
@Rumor: Halo 3 finally hitting PC – on Steam?
Never was a Halo fan, so you know what? I hope it doesn’t sell. When you make exclusives, there’s always a gamble. Heck, Halo 4 is out for XBox, and just now Halo 3 comes up for PC?
@QOTW
Oh … this is difficult. There are plenty of NES games that I’d like to see re-made. Dunno, “Mission Impossible” I guess.
“It could also be some sort of TV or virtual reality device.”
Not with a hashtag #PlayStation2013.
@Kick it up a Notch
Quite a success story. Contemporary Bill Gates. In my opinion he deserves it. Minecraft is possibly one of the most influential games of our time. If only the gaming industry had more people like Notch, we would have more innovative games.
@Sony’s crystal ball event
What a tempting ambitious name. Although it will probably be some fancy prototypes of some Star Trek tech that won’t see the light of day for another decade. Sony needs to grab attention. But I don’t think they have anything to back it up. Otherwise we would have heard about it already. Roll on 20th of feb and let me see Sony fail to prove me wrong.
@PS4 hitting Europe in 2014
And we get it later than anyone why? If Xbox comes out in 2013, this move will be the death of PS4 in Europe.
@GTA delayed
Nintendo does it all the time. I don’t see why someone else can’t. If it’s for the best of the game then I can wait. Besides, I am yet to play GTA4. Don’t know why everyone is bashing GTA these days. You don’t like GTA 4, you make a better game and then you can talk.
@QOTW
Too many. As long as it’s a proper remake. Not a Nintendo style remake of taking on new controls and charging full price i.e. Ocarina of Time 3DS. My pick would be Final Fantasy 7. I would go for Morrowind, but since it’s a PC game it already has fan made graphic updates which make it look like Skyrim.