This week has Microsoft backing Epic against Apple, Nintendo telling people they don’t have controller drift and apologizing for controller drift, and some new games.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”
In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.
Hines stated:
“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?
“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.
“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.
Paul is not in the podcast, and will be out for the next couple of weeks as he recovers from major surgery. In the meantime, the podcast chugs on with three podcasters, as Jordan relays what he thought of the Sony Gamescom 2012 press conference.
In the meantime, the news items include:
All that plus Reader Feedback wishing Paul well (sorry, Kizer, we didn’t moderate your message til after recording), as well as this week’s Question of the Week, “When is the right time to cut the price of a console?”
Imagine that, the kids hand held grows up and is getting a Grand Theft Auto title. The game will, of course, be a sandbox-style title true to the franchise history and will feature new characters and a new game engine.
No real details came out of the announcement, just a little leak to the press so everyone can speculate on what is to come. First thing that will arrive will be nay-sayer parents telling the ESRB the game isn’t rated correctly, defines violence in today’s culture and is bad for the United States and the youth of America.
Just a guess.
The new game engine will probably be designed for compact hand helds and allow for a very touch-sensitive approach to the game. Imagine car jacking an innocent driver with the touch of a finger or beating an old lady with a bat with a swat of the stylus. Sound fun? Sounds disturbing.
The Grand Theft Auto series needs a DS game. Finally a product that shouldn’t require a billion dollar effort to produce and market yet should yield fantastic sales figures based on the DS install base.
