Industry News -

Are You An Okami Fan?Are You An Okami Fan?

July 30, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:46 am

PlayStation 2 fans may recall a little title called Okami, it’s an action adventure game developed by Clover Studios and published by Capcom. The original Okami title received fairly high reviews by many popular game sites, although there were a few flaws, the receiption seemed well received.

Clover Studios was closed after the release and all the intellectual properties went back to Capcom, the company that funded the studio, leaving Capcom responsible for future sequels.

Christian “Sven” Svensson said “I think we need a lot more people buying the current version before we seriously consider a sequel”. A harsh statement on the game’s combined sales figures, perhaps, but also probably an accurate one. (Kotaku)

This is the sound of a developer not so happy with prior performance and finding it too risky to try for a second title. Although many sequels outshine their parents there is some truth to the fact that slow selling parents will create slow selling sequels, there is something to be said about learning form past experiences.

The game had good reviews, isn’t it worth trying to make a second game based on that? Maybe people just aren’t jazzed about Japaense folklore, myths and legends as the basis for a game.

EA’s Tiberium Delayed, Big TimeEA’s Tiberium Delayed, Big Time

July 30, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:26 am

Electronic Arts is (was?) building a first-person-shooter based on the Command and Conquor series and was set to release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The original title was originally slated for 2008 and now has been pushed to EA’s fiscal year 2009 or 20010.

The game was not shown off at E3, which is a bit weird, but considering other titles that didn’t make an E3 announcement (halo) perhaps this isn’t too out of the usual. Perhaps the game design was harder to tackle than originally intended? The only thing we know is that it’s slipped a good deal of time from the original date.

The debate is still up on if we need yet another first-person-shooter title, even if it’s based on the C&C series. It seems they’re using a popular series to launch another FPS genre game, will it stand alone as an innovative title or simply be another FPS title skinned with C&C character models?

(Thanks, 1up)

Activision: Cleaning House, Losing StudiosActivision: Cleaning House, Losing Studios

July 29, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 1:15 pm

Now that Activision has merged up with Blizzard all under Vivendi it’s time to consider what to do with all the additional overhead, management, internal studios and sheer amount of people working on projects within their organization. In other words, it’s time to trim the fat and get leaned out for the long haul.

This isn’t unexpected news, the only way to grow more effective as a large company is to remove some of the access baggage that can slow you down and let your competitors take control. This is a sad job which nobody takes pride in (most normal people anyway) but it could mean the difference between rising to the top and sinking like a brick.

“We are focused on improving efficiency across the combined organization and are concentrating on businesses where we have leadership positions that are aligned with Activision Publishing’s long-term corporate objectives,” Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith said in a statement. (gamespot)

It’s important to be aggressive as a large company, just like you would be as a startup company. There is a reason startup companies grow into powerful competitors that win, grow and eventually become (or be purcahsed by) larger companies.

As part of this move some staff will be migrated to new projects, persumably reporposed into other divisions or allowed to find new jobs somewhere else. This is called “realignment” by those in the management organization, and currently those up for realignment are:

Radical Entertainment (Prototype, Crash of the Titans)
High Moon Studios (The Bourne Conspiracy, Darkwatch).
Massive Entertainment (World in Conflict, Ground Control)
Swordfish Studios (50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, Cold Winter)

These realignments along with other organizational changes will effect a few working game titles:

Brutal Legend
Ghostbusters
Wet
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
World at Conflict: Soviet Assault
50 Cent Blood on the Sand
Zombie Wranglers
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
Several Xbox Live Arcade titles

At this point we’re not sure which, if any, will continue to be developed under Activision and which will be sold off to other companies or retired. Surely, those money making titles will be sold off if Activision has no plans to finish them.

Again, it’s hard to consider this a bad decision. This is a decision of growth over having too many “Cooks in the kitchen” making soup. It’s better to have rock solid titles of epic proportions than a large pool of mediocre titles with minimal sales and bad reputations, and that’s why they spend a lot of time in the office working on this and having a type of office chair for long hours on a computer is really helpful in this area.

It’s not that the titles they’re questioning are necessarily bad, but are not the leading titles in their space and are should be either given a stronger team to work on them or retire them entirely. To build a stronger team with passion and direction it might be best to sell the franchise(s) to other organizations so they can do it right with time and attention to detail.

(Thanks, gamespot)

Xbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform GamingXbox 360 Silver Accounts, Free XBL Cross-Platform Gaming

July 29, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 12:32 pm

Microsoft has announced they’ll be giving Xbox Live silver accounts access to play some multi-player cross-platform games for free until the fall update. Recently, Microsoft announced free online play with Games for Windows titles, effectively giving PC gamers “gold accounts” to play online.

Most people agree the move to give gold subscriptions to PC gamers was done because PC gamers don’t care to play Games for Windows games online if they have to pay for it. The culture of PC gaming is much different than console gaming on XBL, gamers expect the online experience at no cost; they’re already paying an ISP for network access, paying for a match-making system with a yearly subscription is not desired.

Console gamers don’t have a choice, buying the 360 experience arrives with simple to play games (no drivers, no installs) but limited online choices: pay or go away. Now, silver members will get a little taste of network play, along side PC gamers in the cross-platform Games for Windows titles.

“Supported cross-platform titles include Universe at War, Shadowrun, and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.” (gamespot)

We question the intention here… is this as a good faith move or are they wetting people’s appitite for XBL so they’ll want to upgrade to gold in the fall? Or, maybe there are some logistical reasons to doing this in the Xbox Live infrastructure to prepare for upgrades where making it free solves a few of their internal upgrade paths and, as a side effect, gives gamers some games to play.

Of course, we’ve seen few people playing Shadowrun or Lost Planet lately. Maybe this will re-popularize a few older titles as well.

Red Steel 2 and Wii Motion PlusRed Steel 2 and Wii Motion Plus

July 28, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 3:02 pm

In an “unexpected” move, Ubisoft has opted to utilize the 1:1 accuracy of the Wii Motion Plus add-on device for the Wii remote in their next Red Steel sequel, currently called Red Steel 2. It may be most gamers consider this an unexpected move because they thought the series would be dead after the first launch title.

Red Steel was plagued with motion issues, making it a very unexceptable demonstration of the Wii control scheme. Luckily other titles arrived to show off how the controls were supposed to work; Ubisoft tried to make a hit FPS title using innovative control methods but came up a bit short.

This time, they’re hoping to redeem themselves by having the additional resolution of the new controller device, risking their reputation for a second time on Nintendo’s hardware.

“What was missing was the preciseness of the sabre,” Corre said of the first game, “and with this new device, I think it will change the experience.” (1up)

Although many gamers missed the first Red Steel experience because word about the horrid controls hit the streets quickly, this might be a chance to try the series one final time before giving up on it. In Ubisoft’s defense, the US market is very finicky about their first person shooters which helps explain higher reviews in Europe for the original title.

The games controls were tweaked after E3 2006 when people found it lack luster in performance and ability to mimick the users real moves when sword fighting. Ubisoft said it was because they received the Wii controller prototypes one month before the expo.

Will Ubisoft get the Wii Motion Plus in time to put out a highly polished game showing off Nintendo’s new hardware or will this be a second strike against the franchise? Only time will tell.

Dead Rising On Wii, Does Anyone Care?Dead Rising On Wii, Does Anyone Care?

July 20, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 9:44 am

Dead Rising is being ported to the Nintendo Wii, only two years after the original title. In Japan, they’ve changed the name to Dead Rising: Zombies Sacrifice, perhaps to make it sound like a different game.

The game, in fact, is said to have some difference from the original title. These changes are ‘upgrades’ from the original title based on feedback from consumers. Rather than simply reissuing the same game, “in addition to a revised story structure, the Wii version of Dead Rising will feature new enemies and items, as well as a behind-the-shoulder camera system modeled after Resident Evil 4” (1up)

Fixing the camera and adding some new monsters is enough to give the game the subtitle Zombies Sacrifice. They’ve included full waggle support for the controller allowing you to kill zombies with the greatest of ease, but… it’s still killing zombies…

Does anyone care?

Wii Takes US Lead In Console WarWii Takes US Lead In Console War

July 18, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 6:00 pm

Just in case people were actually thinking the Xbox 360 was going to hold out against a viral console, Nintendo is now the best selling console in the United States. Anyone really surprised?

This months sales figures for consoles broke down something like this:

Nintendo DS: 783,000
Wii: 666,700
PlayStation 3: 405,500
PSP: 337,400
Xbox 360: 219,800
PlayStation 2: 188,800

Barring the crazy hand held sales of the Nintendo DS, you can clearly see Nintendo holds top-spot yet again, but this month Sony’s PlayStation 3 followed right behind. Although there was a good 200,000 difference, Sony didn’t do so bad; imagine if Nintendo had an MGS4 killer app?

Metal Gear Solid 4 sold 871,300 copies, individually, and roughly 1-million if you include those bundled with the PlayStation 3. The question is clearly answered, MGS4 helped sell Sony’s consoles. The new question will be: Can Sony keep the 2nd place rank against Xbox 360?

Until Gears of War 2, there isn’t a killer game for the Xbox 360 and GoW2 probably won’t move any consoles, those that love the series bought their console when Gears of War arrived. The next big console mover may, in fact, be Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 as it’s no longer exclusive to Sony and the 360 is a more cost effective way to get into the game.

How does Nintendo continue to keep the pace? Perhaps because their games are still in top positions with Wii Fit in 4th place, Wii Play in 5th place and Wii Kart in 7th on the June 2008 software charts.

(Thanks, 1up)

Activision and Blizzard LayoffsActivision and Blizzard Layoffs

July 18, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 10:03 am

If you’ve ever been through an acquisition or merger you’d have expected this news to come, but for those new to the concept it’s simple: you can’t keep everyone. After a complete merger you end up with two sales departments, two IT departments, etc.

Do you really need them all? No, not really. You’ll need to keep some on board in order to “brain dump” your job onto others and hopefully stick around for the long hall. Some employees will probably be shuffled to other job responsibilities while some get packages and a thank you card.

These are some of the growing pains when working towards a successful merger, so don’t be surprised or start spreading rumors when a few people are let go. As someone who’s gone through it in two big mergers I can say that certain departments already know their fate ahead of time. Many IT and sales folk start looking for new jobs the minute the merger is announced.

MGS4 Pushes PS3 Up 300%MGS4 Pushes PS3 Up 300%

July 17, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 11:03 pm

Metal Gear Solid 4 was a solid release for the PlayStation 3, the exclusive title that gives Sony an edge over the competition. This was Sony’s Halo 3 title and it needed to be a big success in order to keep gamers confident in the Sony brand.

Sony is reporting a 300% increase in PlayStation 3 sales over last month, mainly due to the desire for people to own Metal Gear Solid 4. Remember, this isn’t an increase in game sales, this is an increase in console unit sales, providing evidence that MGS4 sold consoles.

While Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed to sell a few consoles but, overall, didn’t impact console statistics during its release, this exclusive PS3 title has done just the opposite. Perhaps because of its exclusivity? Xbox 360 consoles have been in the hands of the consumer for a few years now, most of those consumers actually purchased GTA IV (as expected and reflected in sales) but not a lot went out to purchase the console. They already had it or didn’t care to own it for a game like GTA IV.

While many people purchased Metal Gear Solid 4 because it’s “Metal Gear,” you can see from the trailers that the game looked impressive, felt complete and contained a lot of great action. You’ll get a great sales pop the first few days on a title with a huge fan base but to sustain the growth and sell consoles you’ve got to provide a well known title that doesn’t suck.

MGS4 doesn’t suck by any reviewers score; it’s not perfect, but what game is? MGS4 delivered what it was said to deliver with very few bad experiences and that’s all you can ask for a console moving title.

So, what next? Sony has promised us that MGS4 is just the first of many titles to blow our minds. Resistance 2, Little Big Planet and what of that MAG game they showed off at E3? 256 players? We won’t hold our breath for that title, but Resistance 2 and Little Big Planet, combined, may move a few more units.

It may not be about the games today that move the next round of PlayStation 3 consoles, it’s about the promise of the games tomorrow with titles like MGS4 to hold us over until then.

(more…)

Miyamoto Confirms Pikmin GameMiyamoto Confirms Pikmin Game

July 16, 2008| schommer| 0 Comment| 11:25 pm

It seems Miyamoto let it slide that there will be a Pikmin game arriving in the future, for which systems? Probably the Wii if we had to guess, but it wouldn’t be surpising to see it on both their hit product lines.

His exacty words, “We’re making Pikmain.” Nintendo has done well by their little Pikmin friends, a newer franchise with lots of growth potential and fun for the entire family. The Pikmin series was a sleeper title, looking fairly silly in presentation but full of great value in reality.

It’s not surprising to see them spinning a new Pikmin title and we’ll have to hold our breath in anticipation for the fruitful results. As always, Miyamoto isn’t giving any dates… it will be ready when he says it’s ready.

Any Pikmin fans?