[GameRatty] tag: apply

Square Enix: exclusivity war is officially over; LA studio to go DLC

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:13:17 +0000

So. Square Enix has finally set up shop in Los Angeles. I'm sure some of you are getting ideas now - wanna apply, eh? Well, whether you fancy having Square Enix US president John Yamamoto as your higher up or not, it pays to know what direction the company is charting for the future.

Going 1s and 0s. With the new LA studio in its infancy stage, the bosses want this new branch of theirs to start relatively small: downloadable titles. Speaking to an interview with GamesIndustry, John Yamamoto reveals that DLC games are the way to go (for now):

All formats - Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network - are all viable formats for us. We started the in-house development team a couple of months ago and we're starting with downloadable content because the team is still small.

Gradually, I want to expand that team, and also evaluate lots of middleware, because western middleware is much more advanced compared to Japanese middleware. So we will study and feed back information to Square Enix in Japan.

(By the way, if you are interested in sending in your resume to the LA studio, apparently, they're currently working with a skeleton crew of three members - whoa! - and that they hope to expand to as much as thirty staffers within a year.)

Doing a MySpace, only with devs. LA studio besides, it looks like Square Enix is starting to broaden its horizons. After The Last Remnant's use of the Unreal Engine 3 (a first for SE!), the company is now looking at forging stronger alliances with other devs in the west. And just recently, they got rights from Gas Powered Games to pick up Supreme Commander 2.

I think it s always good to introduce new ideas, techniques, and processes into the company in order to stay on the cutting edge. The Last Remnant was the first time we had built a game using an outside development engine, and it taught our developers to find new and creative solutions in order to achieve their objectives.

We're not only working with Gas Powered Games, we're also contacting multiple studios in England, other European countries, and the US and Canada. We're talking with other studios right now.

We are interested in studios that have their own established IP and we're also interested in creating new IP as well.

And finally we have this...

Platform-exclusivity. A dead thing. They've started with FF13... Is the time for platform exclusive officially over? According to Yamamoto, platform-exclusivity is really a thing of the past now.

I really believe so. Not so long ago the PS2 dominated the market so if we developed an exclusive game for PS2 then we could enjoy a very good profit. But that time is already over. To maximise and spread our games to as many users as possible I think we have to go to multiformat - the Xbox 360, PS3 and also the PC as well.

The Japanese market is very strong and back when we could concentrate on developing games for just one console, business was very good. But the one-console market is over

Ooh, some pretty bold statements there. I'd be quite interesting to see how Square Enix will be keep to these plans.

Square Enix: exclusivity war is officially over; LA studio to go DLC

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:13:17 +0000

We're not only working with Gas Powered Games, we're also contacting multiple studios in England, other European countries, and the US and Canada. We're talking with other studios right now.

We are interested in studios that have their own established IP and we're also interested in creating new IP as well.

The Japanese market is very strong and back when we could concentrate on developing games for just one console, business was very good. But the one-console market is over

Ooh, some pretty bold statements there. I'd be quite interesting to see how Square Enix will be keep to these plans.

Square Enix: exclusivity war is officially over; LA studio to go DLC

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:13:17 +0000

We're not only working with Gas Powered Games, we're also contacting multiple studios in England, other European countries, and the US and Canada. We're talking with other studios right now.

We are interested in studios that have their own established IP and we're also interested in creating new IP as well.

The Japanese market is very strong and back when we could concentrate on developing games for just one console, business was very good. But the one-console market is over

Ooh, some pretty bold statements there. I'd be quite interesting to see how Square Enix will be keep to these plans.

PSP firmware 5.02 released... in Japan; carries minor changes Update

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:54:06 +0000

Oh, arriving "shortly", was it? Well, the definition of time seems to be a relative thing, but it doesn't matter now: the new PSP firmware 5.02 has just been released. In Japan.

According to (Google's impeccable - hah, sarcasm - translation of) the PlayStation Japan website, PSP FW 5.02 has the following changelog:

When using the PlayStation Store and other state systems have improved the stability of the software.
(One-Seg) to update the list of channels, Niigata Prefecture - Shiga Prefecture, Takada - Koka local channels can be received properly.

Of course, the 1Seg TV tuner is only limited to Japan, so that part of the changelog doesn't apply to everyone else. Which begs the question: what's coming for other regions? Just the PS Store stability update?

We've yet to hear from SCEA; last we heard was that Eric Lempel announced it was coming in soon. With Japan's new FW rolling out now, we can expect this baby to hit US/EU in a few hours... or tomorrow... or whatever relative definition you have for "shortly".

Update Ok now that was short. Turns out we didn't have to wait too long for this FW update to roll out elsewhere. Yeah, so as PinCushion in our comments section points out, PSP FW 5.02 is now also found via the PlayStation UK site. Now we can double check on the changelog (and the translation):

New or revised features in system software version 5.02

System software stability during use of some features, including PlayStation(R)Store, has been improved.

Ah. Thought so. Basically whatever Japan's changes are, minus the 1seg update. Updates for the US release of the FW update to follow!

Eric Lempel: PSP Firmware v5.02 available shortly

MMO natural selection, and what it means to your game.

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:39:14 +0000

In the most recent SUWT podcast (always good stuff btw), the crew got off on a tangent when talking about the cultural differences between players of EVE Online and WoW. EVE players embrace scams, trickery, underhandedness, and generally resent any changes that would ‘dumb down’ EVE. In WoW that gets you quickly banned, and before that rivers swell from all the tears shed while players scream mommy.

The ‘why’ of the issue is of course multi-faceted. One major factor would be the game rules. EVE is harsh on day one, and stays that way. WoW holds your hand from 1-80, and makes sure you get a cookie regardless if you win or lose. EVE not only takes your cookie, but laughs at you for bringing one in the first place. Another factor is overall complexity. To really succeed in EVE, you have to know what you are doing and pay attention. You can’t just run a mod and become a market genius, watching the money flow in endlessly. You can read all the guides you can find, but more often than not you actually have to make a few costly mistakes before you learn something in EVE. The rewards are often more meaningful, but the path is also far more difficult.

The rules of any given MMO are, in many ways, a modified version of natural selection. EVE quickly breeds out the ‘weak’ MMO players, and only those who can survive in the ’sandbox with mines’ stay around and thrive. On the other hand, with its super low barrier of entry, WoW is accessible to anyone with enough brain cells to double click an icon. When Blizzard marketed WotLK stating “Your definition of epic will be shattered”, they might be referring to the fact that even brain-dead monkeys will shortly be decked out in ‘epic’ gear. The definition has indeed been shattered, to an all-time low. The argument that “11 million gamers can’t be wrong” holds about as much water as stating that McDonalds is as good as it gets for food, since 1 billion customers can’t be wrong…

In most games, who else is playing is generally a non-factor. I’ll enjoy Fallout 3 regardless of who else picks it up, but this same rule does not apply in an MMO. We log on and interact with the world around us, and if everyone around us is an ignorant 13 year old who still thinks its cool to be an e-thug, that seriously impacts my enjoyment. PUG groups in WoW are a perfect example of this. Outside of WoW, pickup groups are an excepted and encouraged part of an MMO, yet in WoW they are avoided like the plague. To further complicate the matter, Blizzard’s solution was to remove almost any need for a PUG until the very end, brushing the problem under the rug rather than addressing it directly.

While listening to the discussion, it got me thinking about the direction Mythic can take with Warhammer. While it’s no EVE, WAR has yet to reach even 2004 WoW, let alone the 2008 version, in terms of challenge and player accountability. It will be interesting to see whether Mythic has the patience of CCP (the makers of EVE) to grow their vision and let their game mature naturally, or if they try to go for the quick sellout and dumb everything down, trying to appeal to the zombie masses. While making money is certainly the goal of any company, it’s not always the one and only goal. At some point pride in what you do factors in, and sometimes providing a higher level of service supersedes cutting every corner to chase every last penny. Hopefully Mythic caters to the fans they have, rather then excluding them for ones they don’t.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is the name putting people off?

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:38:42 +0000

Play-Mag:

"I was slightly bemused when I first heard the title of the new MotorStorm game. Was it an expansion of the original, perhaps? Was there a specific reason why the '2' was left out of the title? There didn't seem to be, given that the game was set against an entirely different backdrop, had twice as many tracks as the first and contained monster trucks, the latter being a commercially sensible inclusion in my eyes. Still, I read the press release and moved on with my life. It was a sequel, all right, and Evolution Studios had the time to create a top quality racing title. It eventually turned out to be miles better than the first, so I gave it 93%.

This rule doesn't seem to apply in every case, though. Call of Duty: World At War just became the third fastest-selling title of all time in the UK, but that was bolstered by a heavy advertising campaign, which extended to a showing of Quantum Of Solace I attended last week. Without a strong marketing campaign to generate interest, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift appears to have suffered.

Hopefully, through future PS3 bundles and sustainable, long-term interest, it'll become as big a commercial hit as the first."

EVE Online offers free game time incentive to recruit friends

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, MMO industry, News items

It was just the other day that we noted a 21-day trial for EVE Online through Steam. CCP Games is following suit and offering their own 21-day EVE trial (a jump up from their standard 14-days). But more significant is the new incentive to bring your friends into New Eden: Active subscribers who bring their friends into the game through the Buddy Program (login required) will receive 30 days of game time for each of those trial accounts that become subscribers as well.There are some rules and conditions that apply to the Buddy Program offer, so if this is of interest to you, check out the full...

EVE Online offers free game time incentive to recruit friends originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take-Two CEO travels to future, returns with Holy Grail

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:17:28 +0000

Gaze child into my crystal ball, and witness the future of gaming. No please, ignore the fact that a new Duke Nukem game has yet to be released. Look farther, deeper into the future and you may see the great potential of DLC…and…is that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick? Yup, it seems that the CEO has foreseen the future of gaming . At the BMO Capital Markets conference this week, Zelnick gazed into the future and predicted the next great business mode for gaming, and apparently found the Holy Grail in the process.

“The Holy Grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that’s focused on packaged goods that you sell once … and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers,” he explained to the audience.

Not really a surprise there. That might work, you know, if developers came out with GOOD downloadable content. Thankfully, Zelnick believes that this model applies only to AAA titles, and that “you wouldn’t be able to apply a subscription model to mid tier titles.” Which is good. I don’t want downloadable content for Cooking Mama anyways…

P.S. I’m just kidding Nintendo, please give me new recipes!

13 Lich King Tips For World of Warcraft Newcomers

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:30:33 +0000

Want to start playing “World of Warcraft” and the new “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion, but don’t know what to do?

We’ve come up with a few things you should know about the game — both in the game and outside of it — if you’re thinking about joining the 11 million other people around the globe who’ve logged on.

Take a look at our 13 tips and see if you’re ready to begin your adventures in Azeroth…

1. Yes, you’ll need three games to enjoy “Lich King.” But it doesn’t cost as much as you think. You can purchase the “World of Warcraft” Battle Chest which includes the original game and the “Burning Crusade” expansion for $39.99; it also includes strategy guides for both (handy). Then add $39.99 for the new “Lich King” expansion. So if you want the content that everyone else has, you’ll spend around $80. It’s not cheap, but you will be getting a lot all at once.

2. Check your specs. Before you run out and buy anything, you should check to see if your computer, PC or Mac, can handle the game. Most computers can.

3. You need to have a level 55 to start playing a Death Knight. If you’ve heard about the new Hero class, which is a major feature in “Lich King,” you first have to have an existing level 55 character on the server you’re on to be able to create a brand-new Death Knight from scratch. The Death Knight will also start at level 55 in a new area specific to Death Knights.

4. It’s not as hard as you think. The interface may seem intimidating at first, but when you begin the game, you start off with only a few abilities. The menus are pretty self-explanatory, and if you need help, there’s also plenty of websites and guides dedicated to all things “WoW,” like Thottbot, Allakhazam, WoWWiki and Wowdb, to name just a few.

5. You’re not that far behind. The game has been adjusted to allow new players to level faster. Quests now give more experience points, and the experience points needed to go from level to level has been reduced. To boot, characters can now obtain mounts at level 30 instead of level 40, making questing easier and faster. Plus, if you have friends in the game, they could also start a new character with you — after all, there is power in numbers.

6. … But you don’t have to play with other people. While it helps to have a friend or two with you, or to group with other players, you don’t have to play with other people. Even though it’s a “massively multiplayer” game, some people play the game solo.

7. Try different characters. You can create multiple characters of different races and classes — up to 10 per server — and you can create characters on multiple servers. So it wouldn’t hurt to create a bunch and try everything until you find ones that you like.

8. The more you plan to play, the cheaper it will be. The game costs $14.99 a month, but if you pay for three months at a time in full, it comes out to $13.99 a month, or $12.99 for six months in full. There are also subscription cards you can purchase where you pay month-to-month ahead of time if you’re worried about paying and not playing.

9. You can always come back. If you decide to quit or just don’t want to pay for the game for a while, you can turn off your account. But when/if you decide to come back, your characters will still be there (unless you manually delete your characters). Blizzard will save your characters forever so that you can easily come back whenever you want to.

10. Learn the lingo. There are a lot of abbreviations and terms in the game — AFK (away from keyboard), LFG (looking for group), NPC (non-player character), lag (slow Internet speeds or high latency), main (main character). Usually a quick Google search will explain it, so don’t post questions in the general chat about that stuff or you’ll end up looking like a n00b.

11. Use common courtesy. Just because you’re in a virtual world doesn’t mean real-life rules don’t apply. The game is monitored and all it takes is a click of a button to report someone who’s saying or doing something unacceptable in the game.

12. Player vs. Player isn’t mandatory. When you create a character, you can either choose the Horde or Alliance faction. You don’t have to participate in PvP unless you’re on a PvP server, area or battleground, and those will be demarcated accordingly. When in those areas, which you’ll have to go into intentionally, players on the opposing faction are your enemies and from there, anything is fair game.

13. We’re not all nerds. Many “WoW” players are not socially inept basement-dwellers. In fact, a slew of celebrities play the game, including Mila Kunis, Macaulay Culkin, Felicia Day, Brandy, Corpsegrinder… And according to this forum post, there’s many more, like William Shatner, Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, Dave Chapelle, Robin Williams, Vin Diesel, Cameron Diaz, Kanye West, Ben Affleck and… Jessica Simpson? If she can play it, anyone can.

***

“WoW” veterans, got any more suggestions to add? And new players, are you going to get started this weekend?

IncrediBots!

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:01:45 +0000

The joy of Flash games is so often their simplicity. Simple concepts delivered in a quick-n-fun way, to offer a twenty minute lunchtime distraction. Not a word of this applies to IncrediBots. (Apart from “Flash”, “fun” and “a” - so okay, three words apply). This is hardcore.

It’s a remarkably complex mix of mechanics and physics, currently in beta, letting you build and play with vehicles of your own devising, to complete a series of challenges. And it’s capable of so much more than that. It’s too much for my puny brain, but I’m utterly certain that those inclined are going to love it.

(...)
Read the rest of IncrediBots! (235 words)

Posted by botherer. | No comments | Donate or subscribe to RPS | Post tags: flash, free, grubby games, incredibots, physics
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