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by Published on July 16th, 2012 18:36- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
The Lionhead team developing Fable the Journey had previously explored whether it should remove the on-rails element of the game, in response to widespread criticisms of its first E3 demonstration.
The Kinect-focused Xbox 360 project was criticised specifically for its on-rails set-up, with the camera in command of how the player moves. Though former studio boss Peter Molyneux incorrectly insisted that the game was not on-rails, at Lionhead the development team was pondering whether to scrap the feature.In a candid interview with CVG, Lionhead creative director Gary Carr said Molyneux's "on-rails rant, if we should call it that, was him trying to hit back at the criticisms saying that it wasn't on-rails".
"I think, if we had done this again, we would have just said, yeah, it's on rails. The truth is, at the time Peter was saying it wasn't on-rails, we at Lionhead were considering free body movement."
Carr claimed that the experimental 'off-rails' elements, where essentially players would lean in certain directions to move, had not worked our for the team.
"It was awful. It just wasn't fun," he said.
"The truth is, we were actually close to killing that E3 [2011] demo, but some of the team tried to revive it. We did come back from E3 with some people saying, we're doing something wrong here. We need to change course. Ultimately, the decision was, keep the faith. On-rails is actually necessary to make the game work really well."
Carr confessed that the E3 backlash had rocked the acclaimed studio's confidence.
"It destroyed them," he said.
"I think the presentation itself is partly to blame. It looked a bit like some spammy shooter, but actually we were building this big world around it. Y'know, you have about two minutes and 45 seconds to demonstrate what you're doing. I know that a main problem people have is they think we've taken the Fable series and trivialised it."
Vehement criticisms had internally cast doubts over the project, and yet a small team designing one of the game's dungeons had brought unity and focus to the group, Carr said.
"I think the turning-point was after the E3 showing, we finished up on developing our first dungeon. It's still the best one in the game. It just came together brilliantly. It has the Fable humour, it has the diversity, the combat, the puzzle-solving - it even has platform sections.
"We nailed it. I think that turned the team. People started realising that no, we were not making a shit game. We were making something that can be great. The team that put that dungeon together, which was about eight people, I think did more to lift the place than I ever could with some kind of speech on a Friday afternoon.
"The team rallied really quickly, it made us double-down on the project and worked really hard to make sure it was the best thing they could make."
Elsewhere in his interview with CVG, Carr explains how the studio wants to move on from its E3 moment, and recounts the moments of inspiration which restored Lionhead's faith in Fable The Journey.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ails-after-e3/ ...by Published on July 16th, 2012 18:35- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
THQ has announced the WWE '13 Austin 3:16 Collector's Edition
Available exclusively on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the UK through GAME and GameStation "while stocks last", it's currently scheduled to offer the following items:
- Exclusive foil packaging featuring embossed Stone Cold Steve Austin skull
- Exclusive collectible art card personally autographed by Stone Cold Steve Austin
- Exclusive Stone Cold Steve Austin in-game attire: red skull t-shirt (circa 2001)
- Exclusive Stone Cold Steve Austin in-game ATV ring entrance
- "Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time" (DVD)
- Disc #4 in series (available to PlayStation 3 system and Xbox 360 customers)
- Copy of WWE '13 videogame
- Access to WWE Hall of Famer and WWE '13 global pre-order offer Mike Tyson playable character
WWE '13 is also in development for Wii, with a scheduled UK release date of November 2.
Mike Tyson will appear as a playable character in the game.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ustin-trailer/ ...by Published on July 15th, 2012 21:33- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
Microsoft have announced for the Final Halo 4 game on the Xbox 360 a Limited Edition Xbox 360 Console bundled with Halo 4, heres a looksy at the case:
The features include:
- Exclusive Design: This is a Limited Edition, one-of-a-kind console that has been custom designed by the Halo 4 developer, 343 Industries and Xbox 360, specifically for the ultimate Halo fan.
- Two Custom Halo 4 Wireless Controllers with Blue LED lights and a rotating D-pad: These high performance wireless controllers boast a range of up to 30 feet and come with a rotating D-pad and Blue LED lights.
- Halo 4 Standard Edition Game: Enjoy the Halo experience with the Halo 4 game. Included in this bundle is the Halo 4 Standard Edition game for you begin the Halo Reclaimer saga right out of the box.
- Exclusive Sounds: This console features actual Halo 4 in-game sound effects when console is turned on and when the Eject button is pushed.
- Custom Content: Receive a code for downloadable Halo 4 content, including a unique armor skin, unique weapon skin, unique emblem, matching avatar armor, and unique avatar prop.
Heres another look at the console:
The console is to be released November the 6th this year, now who wants one
Link to console --> http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Limit...eywords=halo+4
Link to Halo 4 --> http://www.amazon.com/Halo-4-Limited...eywords=halo+4 ...by Published on July 15th, 2012 18:01- Categories:
- Android News
The creator of the Pandora explains why the Ouya could fall on its face
As the Ouya Kickstarter passes $4.2 million, people are beginning to express doubts about how revolutionary the console will truly be. Pandora co-founder Craig Rothwell has dealt with a launch when his team released their portable in 2010, four years after the initial announcement. Rothwell casts doubt on whether Ouya's creators can hit their ambitious targets.
"You simply cannot make a quality console and controller for $99, no matter how low you go in China," Rothwell told PocketGamer UK. "Even a Chinese semi-slave production line won't hit $99 at that spec, as the big name parts they are talking about are a set cost. "
"My feelings are that at that price - and remember you have to take off the Kickstarter fees, which brings the console and touchpad-equipped controller in at less than $99 - they will be making a loss on each unit sold."
The Pandora ran into a ton of delays before finally launching and Rothwell believes the same could happen to the Ouya if their numbers aren't solid.
"We worked out all costs and had quotes which we went public with, and even then everything which could go wrong did go wrong. We survived by the skin of our teeth and via some very, very kind customers and developers," said Rothwell.
"Now we have been though that baptism of fire, and know everything that is involved, it's clear that a race to the lowest possible price isn't how you succeed. That's generally how things can go majorly wrong; when trying to come to market with a rock bottom price, one error, one contractor messing up, and it's curtains," he added.
"Because Ouya is already being sold at that rock bottom price before going to production, there is no way for them to adjust for error. I hope they have a big secret pile of cash they can call on if they need it."
Rothwell expects the Ouya team to turn to alternate methods other than console sales to pull in revenue. He also wonders if developers will want to create games for another fork of Android with a small userbase.
"My guess is that you will have to pay some kind of subscription to use the console, and that is where they plan to claw back some money," he began. "What's the point in doing all that work for their comparatively tiny audience when you can get a better deal releasing on iOS or 'normal' Android via Google's popular Play Store?"
"When all the hype dies down, this machine could well be DOA, and Ouya could be looking at a giant black hole of losses."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...hole-of-losses
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:58- Categories:
- DCEmu
Innovative Leisure's Seamus Blackley on the current console cycle
Innovative Leisure's Seamus Blackley has attributed the success of recent Kickstarter projects like Ouya to gamers' need for something new.
"The consoles are old. There's not really a lot of interesting new content coming out en masse," he toldGamesBeat.
"Witness the unbelievable phenomenon today on Kickstarter, Ouya, that represents a huge amount of pent-up demand from console customers, people who want a new console. That's them voting with their money."
Blackley, who recently rounded up a team of ex-Atari game designers to make iPad and iPhone games, added that too much stock could be put in trying to follow the trends, including social gaming.
"If you look at it as a pure business proposition, you say, well, social is hot here, games that are social are going to win. It's not true. Games that are good are going to win. You can actually almost accurately track the growth and contraction in the games business according to whether or not the games we were producing were satisfying."
He said falling console sales were nothing to be concerned about. It's a natural part of the cycle, and fans weren't tiring of the big screen experience, but they were tiring when it came to the type of content that was being delivered.
"You see people willing to give millions of dollars for PC games," he said of recent Kickstarter successes.
"It doesn't indicate that the audience is looking to be entertained in new ways. It indicates that the audience is looking to be entertained in the ways that they love, and it doesn't necessarily follow the business cycle a lot of people are predicting."
Innovative Leisure launched in February with backing from THQ to create arcade style titles for iOS.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...th-their-money
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:54- Categories:
- Wii U News
Scribblenauts developer adds fuel to Wii U power speculation
5th Cell
www.5thcell.com/
Nintendo
www.nintendo-europe.com
The Wii U remains something of an enigma for the general gaming population in terms of technical ability. There has been much talk from around the development community on how exactly Nintendo hoped to beat out the current console generation with the Wii U, and it seems that more and more are affirming its power.
"[Wii U is] definitely more powerful than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3," said 5th Cell CEO Jeremiah Slaczka. "It's kind of frustrating to see the rumors and speculation of people going back and forth saying it's weaker or more powerful. It's definitely more powerful."
Slaczka's comments ring similar to other developers such as Crytek CEO Cevat Yerliand Gearbox co-founder Brian Martel. The Wii U has shown off quite a bit of games and technical features, but many are still looking to developers for answers on how powerful the console really is.
"I think we were one of the first developers to see the Wii U," added Slaczka. "Nintendo came to our studio and demoed it to us. A couple of weeks later Warner Bros. got to see it, and we said we should do this. This game was originally a Wii title but later moved to Wii U. It's been about two years in development."
Of course, not all developers are saying the same thing; an earlier interview with a source GamesIndustry International spoke with said that the console was not living up to the expectations that many developers had hoped for. Said source believes that the graphics simply are not as powerful as current offerings.
At the end of the day, the proof will be in the pudding, so to speak. As the Wii U games are released this year and next, we'll all be able to judge for ourselves.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ent-hd-systems
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:53- Categories:
- Android News
Verizon and Exent add an all-you-can-play subscription for certain Android games
Verizon Wireless has launched Exent's GameTanium, an exclusive subscription service for Android-powered devices on Verizon's network. The service will provide 100 smartphone titles and 50 tablet-enabled games, including Fruit Ninja and World of Goo, for a $5.99 fee per month.
"GameTanium provides our Android customers with unlimited access to more than 100 games at a great value," said Kristi Crum, executive director of marketing, Verizon Wireless. "Working with Exent has enabled us to immerse customers into the mobile gaming frontier and ultimately bring high-quality gaming options powered by 4G LTE."
"We are excited to bring the launch of the GameTanium smartphone and tablet service to Verizon Wireless' customer base," says Zvi Levgoren, founder and chief executive officer, Exent. "The speed and power of Verizon Wireless' network allows for a rich mobile gaming experience for Verizon Wireless customers to enjoy."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ndroid-devices
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:52- Categories:
- Android News
Few projects have seized the Kickstarter zeitgeist as effectively as Ouya - but it's destined to disappoint
This time last week, nobody had heard of Ouya; we might have guessed that it was an approximation of the sound of a polite grandmother dropping a hammer on her toe, or the carnal grunt of an Old Etonian. Seven days later, it's soared past its funding target on Kickstarter and has become one of the hottest topics in the industry. Yet it's been fascinating to speak to a variety of different people about the proposed console and gauge the reasons for their support, because doing so has revealed vast fractures in terms of what people actually expect from this console.
For most - especially those at the lower end of the pledging scale, I expect - their support is a reflection of pent-up demand for a smart TV device. An all-digital console with the same development philosophy as mobile and tablet games is seen as filling the gap which has been created, conspicuously, by years of talking about a Google, Apple or even Valve led Smart TV revolution which has thus far failed to materialise. Ouya hitches a lift on a variety of related trends in a pretty overt way - the rise of indie (and of the superstar indie developer - witness the quotes from the likes of Mojang and Jenova Chen on the Kickstarter page), the rise of crowdfunding, the sense of inevitability about mobile and tablet gaming making an impact on the TV screen.
"Ouya hitches a lift on a variety of related trends - the rise of indie, the rise of crowdfunding, the sense of inevitability about mobile and tablets making an impact on the TV screen"
Then there's the controller - a conventional joypad. No touch screen, no movement controls. Among the traditional gamers who have voiced hatred of such things for years, not a dry eye in the house. Could it be? Could this be the device that's going to reclaim these brave new worlds of gaming - F2P, mobile, tablet, digital - from the hordes of arm-waving, song-singing, touchscreen-molesting not-proper-gamers who have infested them? Shut up and take my money!
If you're detecting a hint of cynicism here - well, I think that's natural. Here we have a device which clambers atop a rickety tower of trends and waves its arms for attention. Think about it - it's an open platform, for indie developers, crowdfunded, all-digital, "disruptive" (maybe), hacker-friendly, free-to-play... It's painfully hip, like a console built after a brainstorming session consisting exclusively of words cut out from the headlines of Boing Boing posts. This console wears heavy non-prescription glasses and patterned cardigans, has a dreadful beard, drinks chai lattes outside pop-up cafes in Shoreditch and listens to the latest unreleased music demos on an old tape walkman "ironically". It couldn't have been more guaranteed the Kickstarter success it has ultimately achieved.
I don't begrudge it that. It has played to a crowd beautifully - perhaps even unconsciously - and indeed, it's a thing of beauty in many ways. Like the trends which have birthed it, the Ouya is a lovely idea. Cheap, open, hackable, filled with content from talented indie developers. It's a beautiful idea and in fact, it has the potential to become a beautiful little community - a creative incubator filled with new ideas being tested and trialled, welcoming fledgling developers to dip in and show what they can do, while giving more established developers a platform on which to trial new ideas. (Of course, PC advocates might point out that Windows and indeed OSX have been doing exactly that for years, but while there's substance to that argument, the point remains that console gaming and hence console development is intrinsically more attractive for some players, so there is theoretically room for an "open console" of sorts.)
The real problem is one of expectation. Ouya's creators asked for $950,000 and at the time that I'm writing this, they're hovering around the $4 million mark. Exceeding their target by such a margin has created immense excitement around the platform, and that's led to a lot of the fractures in terms of expectation that I alluded to earlier. Some people (outspoken Android advocates, mostly, which can't be an easy position to take and thus deserves our sympathy) view this as a final piece of the puzzle for Android, completing a platform comprising mobile, tablet and now console offerings and thus ushering in an era of dominance for their chosen OS. Others, more sanely but equally questionably, view it as a full-scale introduction of F2P mechanisms to the console space which will prove disruptive to the console business at large.
"What we've seen so far is a sliver of a fraction of a niche, not a workable market and not an indication of guaranteed success"
Those two are marginal viewpoints, certainly - but they can be found easily enough within many discussions around Ouya this week. Much more common is the viewpoint that this has just become a major battleground between "open" and "closed". Consoles are, unquestionably, "closed" ...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:51- Categories:
- Android News
Veteran journalist Chris Morris tackles the major reasons why Ouya could be a revolution or a mere footnote
Any time a start-up makes $4.5 million in four days through crowdsourcing, it's bound to raise a few eyebrows. And Ouya has certainly done that.
Enthusiasts are dreaming of a dark horse console that will bring gaming back to its roots, ending the cycle of sequel-itis and injecting some fresh new game mechanics into the industry. Skeptics, meanwhile, say those Kickstarter supporters could be throwing their money away on a product that will never find a significant audience.
Ironically, they could both be right.
Ouya will be a case study in marketing and PR in the years to come. The campaign has been orchestrated to perfection, with opinion maker- and mass media coverage of the system hitting the day the Kickstarter launched. It preached to the choir on Reddit. And it had a number of respected industry names lending their support (though some a bit less enthusiastically than it initially appeared).
It's a system that currently straddles the lines of potential greatness and historical footnote. And which way it will go is anyone's guess. Here are a few arguments for both sides:
Why Ouya could work
Magical price point: Price matters - especially when it comes to gaming systems. (Don't believe me? Ask Nintendo to tell you the story of the 3DS.) And when it comes to the sweet spot with consumers, you can't do much better than $99.
"Wii U hasn't energized the base yet... Ouya's plans to launch in the first quarter of 2013 give it a pretty clear field for at least six months"
Sub-$100 is a level where the mainstream is willing to take a chance, even if a system is unproven. If Ouya can hit its goal of a $99 console - especially one with a robust series of offerings (including the standard Netflix, Hulu, etc. applications), it could rope in people from the mainstream world, which would go a long way to achieving sustainability.
Indie love: Independent game makers rarely seek the spotlight, but that doesn't mean they don't want their work to be recognized. Ouya might be a perfect showcase for their games - and there's a growing contingent of gamers who are eager to check those titles out.
Indie games are typically niche products - and would never stand a chance when pitted against major franchises. There have, of course, been exceptions (and Ouya's eager to get them on board), but you don't have to look too far beyond Xbox Live sales numbers to see that most smaller games don't make a mint.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-next-phantom
...by Published on July 15th, 2012 17:44- Categories:
- Nintendo 3DS News
Disappointed by the lack of a second analogue stick on the upcoming 3DS XL? Well, Nintendo boss Saturo Iwata says you’ll “have to live with it”.
The inclusion of two control sticks was considered for the unit, Iwata has confessed, but the idea was ultimately rejected as it would have led to too many other compromises.
“When we looked at the design of the 3DS XL we had to look at various factors, one was battery life, one was the overall size of the unit, and we had to make some trade-offs,” Iwata told The Independent.
“The choice, if we were going to include the second analogue stick, was to reduce the size of the batters or make the unit much bigger. What we wanted to do was have a bigger screen in comparison with the overall size of the system, so had various discussions and had to make trade-offs and this is the outcome.
“Attaching a second analogue stick is possible but it would have made the system even bigger and, though it perhaps puts a burden on people that really want that second stick, it’s a call we had to make and these people will have to live with it.
“This [the lack of a second stick] isn’t my main focus when I look at the 3DS XL, it’s one point we had to cover, but for me personally I’m quite happy with the product we’re able to offer.”
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/no-se...s-iwata/099554 ...
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Catherine: Full Body’s English translation for the Vita