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by Published on September 6th, 2012 23:59- Categories:
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There are 211.5 million people playing games in the United States, a loss of 12 million players (5 percent) from 2011's numbers, the NPD reports. Not all of the gaming categories lost players, however: Mobile gamers rose 9 percentage points to take 22 percent, and digital gamers gained 4 percentage points to 16 percent. This makes mobile gamers the largest audience segment, surpassing core gamers, which held the top spot in 2011.
The remaining categories – core, family and kid, light PC, and avid PC gamers – lost 17.4 million people this year. This is a "slight decline," the NPD says.
"Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it's not surprising to see a slight decline in the core gamer segment," Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD, says. "It's the revenue contribution of the core gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry."
People buying games spent an average of $48 on physical copies and $16 on digital games from June to August. Core gamers spent the most on physical games, at $65. Almost 14 percent of all gamers purchased microtransactions or additional game content in the past three months, up from 11 percent in the same period in 2011; 27 percent of core gamers and 23 percent of digital gamers purchased in-game content.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/06/np...e-totals-down/ ...by Published on September 6th, 2012 22:30- Categories:
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Today ive scoured Youtube for new tutorials to post on DCEmu tutorials, from now on ill be adding new tutorials on a weekly basis. The site has also been given a bit of a shake up.
If you have any tutorials/guides etc that would be good for DCEmu Tutorials either reply here or Submit in our Submit News forum here --> http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/for...utorials-Forum
Check out DCEmu Tutorials here --> http://tutorials.dcemu.co.uk/ ...by Published on September 6th, 2012 20:45- Categories:
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Konami has announced that PES 2013 will be released in just two weeks time.
The game will arrive a week before EA’s rival game FIFA 13.
PES 2013 has been reclaiming ground lost to EA Sports' game this year, with positive previews from the specialist press thanks in part to the new 'PES Full Control'., which give players full manual control over every pass and shot, and new Pro Active AI.
Konami has also detailed the pre-order incentive for PES 2013 - a limited UEFA Champions League steelbook edition, which includes special DLC code to redeem the Historic UEFA Champions League Match Balls used in the competition and other official elements.
The UK will also offer a second, Manchester United-themed steelbook edition for pre-orders, boasting the club’s livery on its cover.
PES 2013 vs FIFA 13, which one are you more excited about?
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...fifa-13/029115 ...by Published on September 5th, 2012 22:40- Categories:
- DCEmu
The number of mobile gamers is up, however
The NPD Group today announced that there are about 211.5 million gamers in the US, which is down five percent compared to last year. The firm's newest report, Gamer Segmentation 2012: The New Faces of Gamers, notes that of the six gamer segments outlined, only Mobile Gamers and Digital Gamers saw increases in the number of gamers when compared to 2011, with Mobile Gamers up 9 points to 22 percent and Digital Gamers up 4 points to 16 percent.
Importantly, Mobile Gamers now represent the largest gamer segment, ahead of Core Gamers, which was the largest segment in 2011. NPD also said that the Family+Kid gamers segment experienced the most significant decline of an estimated 17.4 million gamers.
"Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it's not surprising to see a slight decline in the Core Gamer segment," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "It's the revenue contribution of the Core Gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry."
"While this study segments the gaming audience based on a number of key variables and attributes, looking across the total gaming audience we see a tremendous impact from mobile gaming, particularly on smartphones and tablets," she continued. "Because of this, our next study, which will be released later this month, takes a deeper look into the area of mobile gaming."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...cording-to-npd
...by Published on September 5th, 2012 21:03- Categories:
- DCEmu
Sony's PlayStation Vita saw a dramatic sales spike in Japan this week, more than quadrupling from 9,751 units the week prior to 46,877. The surge was driven by the release of Sega's rhythm action game Hatsune Miku Project Diva F, which shifted 158,009 units and topped the all-formats software chart.
The scale of Hatsune Miku's feat is further underscored by the sheer number of new releases this week, with the top ten almost entirely refreshed. 3DS title Devil Summoner Soul Hackers came in at number two (with a total of 73,690 units) while MAQL's Senran Kagura Burst rounds out the top three with another 3DS release - only just behind Devil Summoner with 70,569.
Other new entries included Neptune V, Gundam Age, Aqua Pazza,Sengoku Basara HD Collection and Rurouni Kenshin.
The full software top ten for the week ending September 2:
01. Hatsune Miku Project Diva F (Sega, PSV)
02. Devil Summoner Soul Hackers (Atlus, 3DS)
03. Senran Kagura Burst (MAQL, 3DS)
04. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 3DS)
05. Neptune V (Compile Hearts, PS3)
06. Gundam Age (Namco Bandai, PSP)
07. Aqua Pazza (Aqua Plus, PS3)
08. Sengoku Basara HD Collection (Capcom, PS3)
09. Pokemon Black & White 2 (Pokemon, DS)
10. Rurouni Kenshin (Namco Bandai, PSP)
Hardware sales for same period (and prior weeks figures):
Nintendo 3DS: 67,926 (64,921)
PlayStation Vita: 46,877 (9,751)
PlayStation 3: 12,846 (12,243)
PlayStation Portable: 10,918 (10,676)
Wii: 8,038 (8,476)
Xbox 360: 525 (563)
PlayStation 2: 411 (439)
Nintendo DSi: 279 (311)
http://www.edge-online.com/news/vita...uadruple-japan ...by Published on September 5th, 2012 20:56- Categories:
- DCEmu
Total War Battles: Shogun lead designer Renaud Charpentier has slammed the lack of design focus in today's developers, telling us that 70 per cent of games simply do not pass muster as a result.
Renaud's comments followed an impassioned session at Unite 2012 last month in which he and fellow The Creative Assemblycolleagues Nick Farley and Mattijs Van Delden stressed the value of prototyping early on in a project.
"When you look at the market, probably 20 to 30 per cent of the games are confident, and maybe 60 to 70 per cent are not good enough," he told us at the Amsterdam conference.
"Usually, they run. Most of them don't crash - most are competent technically. Most of them look okay or even good, but they play like shit."
It's a bold statement, borne of Charpentier's frustration with development studios' focus on technological progress over gameplay refinement. Too many developers, he believes, fail to recognise the benefit of prototyping gameplay and game ideas early enough in a project to inform other key areas of the development process.
"Their biggest risk is not on the tech, not on the art, it's on the design," he insists. "You have to front-load that: it has to drive many of the other decisions.
"Hopefully that's something we manage to do at Creative Assembly, and that we managed to do with Battles, but it's still something that I think is lacking [in the industry] and it has to change.
"We can't keep releasing games that anyone can tell are not interesting to play after 30 minutes when 20 or 30 people spent two years working on them. It doesn't make any sense.
There will always be ways to squeeze a little more performance out of hardware, find the extra memory you need or render a game object more efficiently, Charpentier asserts - even late in the day - but no developer can make a "turd into a great game to play" in the final three weeks of production. Despite calling for greater weight to be placed on design, however, he still recognises the need for the tools and efficient workflows that will make early-day prototyping productive.
"Is not about writing a 100-page document of design that is totally useless, no one will read and will be out of date by the time they do," he says. "It's about crafting the game.
"For that you need tech that is ready. I've [faced this problem] in previous teams, where I would have wanted to prototype, but the engineer tells you the animation system for combat won't be ready in four months. What do you do? You're blocked. You can't be absolutely sure that certain timings will work, certain controls."
But despite his experience from inside the industry, perhaps Charpentier biggest frustration is from the perspective of a gamer.
"As a player, I hate going through the burden of downloading a game, installing it, rebinding the controller, going through the tutorial, playing another couple of hours and then realising it's ****ing boring!"
http://www.edge-online.com/news/crea...nt-good-enough ...by Published on September 5th, 2012 20:31- Categories:
- DCEmu
President Frank Gibeau confirms he has seen new consoles
EA president Frank Gibeau has spoken about the relationship between the market and the console cycle, revealing that his company has 4-5 new IPs in the works for next generation consoles.
The lack of new IP has appalled many in the industry, who say sequelitis is the sickness unto death in a creative medium.
Gibeau, however, feels this is a natural pattern resulting from greater expectations on new IPs to bring something fresh and exciting to games.
"The time to launch an IP is at the front-end of the hardware cycle, and if you look historically the majority of new IPS are introduced within the first 24 months of each cycle of hardware platforms," Gibeau told Games Industry International.
"Right now, we're working on 3 to 5 new IPs for the next gen, and in this cycle we've been directing our innovation into existing franchises."
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...s-for-next-gen
...by Published on September 5th, 2012 00:16- Categories:
- DCEmu
The boss of global games retailer GameStop doesn’t believe that both the Xbox 720 and PS4 will launch in 2013.
"The Wii U, we expect it at holiday," CEO Paul Raines toldPolygon. "This week, I'm getting a lot of rumours that are very interesting about 2013.
“We have not been expecting two more consoles in 2013. We're expecting Wii U this holiday, another one next year, and another one in '14. These rumours change every week, but we're hearing more about next year.”
Of course, it should be reiterated that no one knows precisely when the next-gen machines will arrive.
What we do know is that Xbox 720 is further along the production line than PS4. However, we also know that elements within the Sony hierarchy are determined not to allow the Next Xbox to enjoy the same sort of head start on the market that 360 had over PS3.
MCV is of the understanding that both companies plan to launch their new hardware by the end of 2013. But, as we’ve learned, plans are always subject to change.
Raines also claimed that his company has a direct line with platform holders and is actively advising them on how best to deal with the current generation of machines which, in light of their impending successors, should in theory be in line for a price drop.
"We're constantly in dialog with them, we're certainly going to offer opinions about what we think is the right thing to do," executive marketing VP Mike Hogan added.
"We're not opposed to price cuts. There's a point in time where you'd look at a console and say, 'We support the idea of you taking a price cut, because we'll sell a lot more units.' You have to look at the whole thing as an ecosystem. You might be selling the console for less money, but you're putting it in the hands of more people, and will sell more games. I would say actually, our interests are pretty well aligned with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo when it comes to that.
"The main thing is just communication. What we want to know is when it's going to happen and let people know so they can get the right value. Obviously the person who may have paid full price two weeks ago doesn't feel good if the price cut comes right after."
Of course, don’t forget that Sony currently plans to launch a second revision of its PS3 console before Christmas that will retail for less than the current machine.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/games...n-2013/0102290 ...by Published on September 5th, 2012 00:00- Categories:
- DCEmu
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau believes that the time for new IP is at the beginning of a console generation, not towards its end.
The Electronic Arts exec reveals that the publisher is working on "three to five new IPs" for the next generation of consoles, but feels development resource is better spent on iterating existing series during the life-cycle of contemporary hardware.
"The time to launch an IP is at the front-end of the hardware cycle, and if you look historically the majority of new IPs are introduced within the first 24 months of each cycle of hardware platforms," Gibeau told Gameindustry.biz. "In this cycle we've been directing our innovation into existing franchises.
"If you look at what we're putting into Need For Speed: Most Wanted we're taking a lot of risks there, the same thing withBattlefield - you have to admit that, from Bad Company 2 toBattlefield 3, there's a huge amount of change there."
It's a depressingly conservative position but, couched in the relative safety of established series, Electronic Arts is indeed innovating - at least in an iterative sense - and Gibeau's sentiments make sense. However, in making his assertions, Gibeau is calling into question the willingness of players to take risks on new ideas, and it's less clear if it really is market conservatism, or risk-averse publishers creating the situation. Gibeau doesn't seem to think it's the latter - a position backed up to some degree by the modest sales of bold mid-tier releases such as Vanquish, Binary Domain and Inversion.
"If you look at the market dynamics, as much as there's a desire for new IP, the market doesn't reward new IP this late in the cycle," he continues. "They end up doing okay, but not really breaking through."
But as Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs' two-week run at the top of the UK charts shows, there are exceptions to every rule. And it's difficult to discount the interest around Ubisoft's Watch Dogs, which is slated for the current generation.
As console life-cycles extend (it's hard to imagine that the next generation will revert to the hitherto traditional five-year cycle), it will become increasingly difficult to justify such a rigid adherence to sequel production over the creation of new games. Gibeau admits as much, but should the ten-year cycle become the norm EA will have to change its long-running reliance on regular updates to a handful of core franchises if its seat at the summit of videogame publishing is to be retained in the years to come.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/gibe...ent-generation ...by Published on September 4th, 2012 23:44- Categories:
- DCEmu
'Too big, too slow' to spot the opportunities, says MMO maker
Traditional publisher don’t understand how to make a success of free-to-play games, says the developer behind MMO sensation World of Tanks.
Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming.net, said publishers have been slow to react to change and grasp the opportunities of free-to-play in the online space.
“The truth is that none of the traditional retail publishers, even now, know how free-to-play works. They are big guys trying to do something like Company of Heroes Online, which went nowhere,” he said, speaking to Develop in an interview.
The Belarus developer, that recently won a Develop Award for its online efforts, explained that it met with many online and retail publishers before decided that it would self-publish.
World of Tanks launched officially in April 2011 and has since attracted over 20 million players worldwide.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...d-free-to-play
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