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by Published on March 21st, 2012 10:46- Categories:
- PC News
Blizzard acknowledges the impact of Star Wars and notes that there are still no plans to go freemium
BioWare
BioWare develops high quality console, PC and online role-playing games, focused on rich stories, unforgettable...
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Blizzard
Electronic Arts
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The king of the castle in MMOs has acknowledged that EA's ambitious Star Wars: The Old Republic has made a dent in subscribers to World of Warcraft. Blizzard's latest numbers put subscribers at 10.3 million in November 2011, well under the peak of 12 million set in late 2010.
Speaking with our sister site, Eurogamer, World of Warcraft senior producer John Lagrave acknowledged that several factors are contributing to a declining player base that has been strong for just under eight years now.
"We certainly do look at [where WOW players go], and we have a very smart bunch of guys who do our analytics for us," said Lagrave.
"Of course people are trying Star Wars - our development teams are trying Star Wars! I'm one of the few people who are still playing it actually, but yeah we've seen a dip in subs. It certainly has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic, but it's also attributable to people who want to wait and get Mists of Pandaria, so it's not surprising," he continued.
"Are they going elsewhere? Yes they are. We don't have a lock on all the best games in the world - Skyrim was an amazing game."
Regardless of how affected the subscribers are, the team remains confident that new opportunities will keep the game fresh. Blizzard recently introduced a free trial for the game, allowing players to have their first 20 levels on the house. There even seems to be an indication that the 20-level cap could be moving.
"But we can absolutely say, 'Hey, why don't we make it level 40?' 'Why don't we make it level 60?', do we let you at least experience the old world? It's all possible," Lagrave noted. "Right now, no, but that's all absolutely on the table."
However, there is no real indication that WoW will make the move that many other MMOs around the world have been making, to the freemium space. The franchise has proven to be a strong one, giving no real reason to indicate that a free-to-play model would have any benefit over the current subscription-based payment method.
"Right now we're very happy with the subscription system with World of Warcraft," Lagrave stressed. "We think it works very well."
"Mike [Morhaime] talks about the value we give you for that price-point, and that's a fairly legitimate statement. Certainly a very cheap form of entertainment. So yeah, we're comfortable with the subscription system. I won't say never on that, but gosh not now and it's been seven years! You'd think we'd have gotten there before now, so I don't think so."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...cription-based
...by Published on March 21st, 2012 00:13- Categories:
- DCEmu
The Violence in Video Games Labeling Act wants to protect your children from violent video games
Virginia Representative Frank Wolf and California Representative Joe Baca have co-sponsored bill H.R. 4202, also called the Violence in Video Games Labeling Act. The bill aims to put health warnings on violent video games, not unlike the current warnings on all tobacco products. The label, which would accompany any game rated "E" for Everyone and above, would say: "'WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.''
"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families and to consumers - to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," Baca told The Hill. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility."
"Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents - and children - about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behavior. As a parent and grandparent, I think it is important people know everything they can about the extremely violent nature of some of these games," added Wolf.
Of course, this warning would come alongside the warnings that already exist on all video games, as rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Entertainment Software Association (ESA) senior vice president for communications and industry affairs Rich Taylor lashed out at the assumptions made by the bill.
"Representative Baca's facially unconstitutional bill - which has been introduced to no avail in each of six successive Congressional sessions, beginning in 2002 - needlessly concerns parents with flawed research and junk science," Taylor toldGamasutra.
"Numerous medical experts, research authorities, and courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court, exhaustively reviewed the research Representative Baca uses to base his bill and found it lacking and unpersuasive. Independent scientific researchers found no causal connection between video games and real life violence."
This isn't the first time Baca has tried to pass this bill. The original version of the Actwas sponsored in 2009, but ultimately went nowhere in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.
The U.S. Supreme Court already struck down one law attempting to ban the sales of violent video games to minors. The ESA was reimbursed for its legal fees in that battle by the state of California.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-violent-games
...by Published on March 21st, 2012 00:09- Categories:
- Playstation Vita News
The studio shares its love of the Vita with us and talks all about preparing for next-gen gaming
Ready At Dawn
http://www.readyatdawn.com/about.html
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PlayStation Vita has sold over 1.2 million unitsworldwide so far, and the key to the platform's long-term success will be software, of course. Unfortunately, Vita won't be receiving any titles from God of War PSP developer Ready at Dawn, who confirmed toGamesIndustry International recently that the chance to make a Vita God of War game was considered.
Ru Weerasuriya, co-founder and CEO of Ready at Dawn, acknowledged, "It's an idea that was floated as far as what could happen on the Vita. And especially with a platform like that, we were enticed I think by the prospect of doing something on that platform, but it just didn't align with what we wanted, so I'm hoping that they do something on that because I definitely think that they should. There's so much potential for it. But it's something we toyed with for a little while."
With Nintendo's 3DS faring quite well now, following early stumbles, and the portables market feeling the pressure overall from the smartphones and tablets sector, Sony certainly has a challenge on its hands, but Weerasuriya believes in Vita's long-term prospects.
When we asked him whether he thought Vita would do well over the long haul, he quickly responded, "I do, actually. You know, I'm really proud of the way they handled this one because I know how the development of the PSP went, and it was a great first handheld to put out there. But the one thing that they totally nailed with Vita is that it is a handheld gaming console for our time."
"We know what we feel next generation games should be like... And we have very specific goals that we want to hit that I don't think are being hit right now in the market"
Ru Weerasuriya
He continued, observing Vita's advantage over 3DS and iPhone: "I love my 3DS. I play with my 3DS. I used to play with my Game Boy a long time before. I love my Nintendo platforms, but the Nintendo platforms were almost a different kind of gaming experience. The one thing that the Vita does that I think that no other platform still can do - and I know that people argue that iPhones and iPads do - but you still cannot create the kind of content that you could create for a home console on a handheld outside Vita."
"I mean there is some stuff on there that just amazed me and made me almost want to go like, 'Wow, maybe we should have done this, maybe we should have split into two teams.' I don't know, but I think it's got a bright future. It just needs the content."
For Ready at Dawn, splitting into two teams is simply not an option. "I think one doctrine we've followed since the beginning is one game at a time... We want to get everybody's heads on the same thing," said Weerasuriya.
So now Ready at Dawn is taking its one team and applying it to work on an unannounced next-gen project. According to Weerasuriya, it's what his team has always wanted to do.
"When it came to really decide what we wanted to do next, I think most of the guys internally just wanted to do something that, in some ways, we had built this company for. It's taken us time to get there and we've wanted to do new IP, we've been working on it for a while, and we felt the time was right and it was just the perfect alignment of everything that was happening," he said.
"And I think the big thing for us was just that we took the decision early to just skip a generation. I know that most people would have jumped on the current generation... most people ask us that, how do you go from a handheld to a next generation console? I think it's the right thing to do. Sometimes you've just got to make your bets and live by them."
Ready at Dawn currently employes about 60 people, but the goal is to grow "dramatically" as the company gears up for next-gen. "We're actually talking internally about 100 people and that's not counting what we'll need probably outside as well," Weerasuriya said.
So what's the studio working on? What platforms? Needless to say, Weerasuriya wouldn't divulge any specifics, but he did tell us this: "What I can tell you is that it's going to follow the lines of the type of games we make. It's going to be an action/adventure game, single player driven mainly, and there might be other components to it, but really, our goal is to tell a story where we want to be a story telling kind of team the way we built ourselves."
He also explained Ready at Dawn's desire to be prepared for next-gen from the start.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-ready-at-dawn
...by Published on March 21st, 2012 00:08- Categories:
- PC News
Blizzard Entertainment says it is "really happy" with the monthly subscription model despite falling numbers of World Of Warcraftsubscribers amid the meteoric rise of free-to-play.
Speaking to our friends at PC Gamer, WOW producer John Lagrave insisted that Blizzard had no intention of switching its flagship MMOG to the freemium model, under which games are free-to-play and revenue comes from sales of virtual goods.
"We're very happy with the sub model," he said. "It works well for us for various reasons. You churn through a lot of content very quickly on a paid-for game, and we think we offer great value in all the content we have for the player.
"If we went [free-to-play], do you make a ton more money? Maybe. Do you burn out players? Probably. I'm not saying we're never going free-to-play - we do that with the trial right now - but we're really happy with the subscription model. We're doing really well."
The facts, however, rather contradict Lagrave's sentiment. WOWhas shed two million subscribers in the space of a year, while a slew of rival MMOGs have switched to free-to-play and reaped the rewards.
Blizzard acknowledged last year that it needed to do more to retain players. The release of the Cataclysm expansion saw subscriber numbers increase as lapsed players returned, but after blitzing through the new content on offer they left in droves.
The company has since said it is working to reduce development times in a bid to ensure a steady flow of new content. The fourth WOW expansion, Mists Of Pandaria, is due this year, and Blizzard has released four trailers showcasing its new features.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/bliz...cking-subs-wow ...by Published on March 21st, 2012 00:05- Categories:
- DCEmu
Nottingham Trent University has issued a first call for submissions ahead of this year's Interactive Technologies And Games (ITAG) conference.
The event, which runs as part of Nottingham Trent's annualGameCity festival, will focus on issues of accessibility and rehabilitation for peopel with disabilities through interactive technology and games.
Topics up for discussion include social and collaborative aspects of games, such as MMOGs, for the elderly; learning theory and instructional design in games; handheld-based learning in classrooms; and serious games.
The university is also keen on submissions concerning input devices, using contemporary controllers like Kinect or the Wii Balance Board in health and rehabilitation, and new forms of controller for players with disabilities.
Iain Simons, Nottingham Trent lecturer and director of GameCity, said: "ITAG provides a rich, vital new seam of activity and perspective to the GameCity festival, anchoring it to an academic and social agenda which amplifies the activities we already pursue.
"I'm hugely excited about the potential for audiences from both industry and the public to discover new and exciting ideas at GameCity through ITAG."
Written submissions must be no longer than 500 words; those intending to exhibit or produce a poster must submit an abstract of no more than 300 words. Submissions must be made to[email protected] by June 1; ITAG runs on October 23 and 24 at the Nottingham Conference Centre. For more, follow the source link below.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/nott...ag-submissions ...by Published on March 21st, 2012 00:01- Categories:
- Android News
A survey of over 2,000 mobile app developers has found evidence of waning interest in Google's Android OS for a fourth consecutive quarter.
Gamesindustry.biz reports that the survey, conducted by Appcelerator and analyst firm IDC every three months, polled 2,173 developers and found that 78.6 per cent expressed interest in developing for Android.
While that's a healthy figure, it's a five per cent drop from the previous quarter and the report claims it is "consistent with the trend of small but steady erosion in Android interest over the last four quarters."
Appcelerator strategist Mike King told Reuters the broad range of devices with which Android is compatible was to blame, saying: "The fragmentation of the platform, which Google seems unable to curtail, is driving this drop in interest."
By contrast, the resoundingly defragmented iOS is as popular as ever. Eighty-nine per cent of respondents said they wanted to work on iPhone, with 88 per cent keen on iPad. Just 66 per cent of those polled expressed an interest in developing for Android tablets.
One possible silver lining for Google is an apathetic response to Facebook's social graph; of the 11 biggest developer priorities on Facebook, effectively harnessing the social graph ranked a lowly eighth.
Thirty-nine per cent of respondents said Google's network of services - including YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and theGoogle+ social network - was more important to them than Facebook's social graph.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/devs...-android-study ...by Published on March 20th, 2012 23:44- Categories:
- DCEmu
Fluffeh writes with news that U.S. Congressmen Baca (D-CA) and Wolf (R-VA) have proposed a bill that would require most video games to have a warning label decrying their "potential damaging" long-term effects on children."Under the one-page Violence in Video Games Labeling Act (PDF), packaging for all video games except those rated 'EC' for Early Childhood would be required to prominently display a message reading: 'WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.' The proposed label would be required even if the video game in question is not violent."
http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/0...us-congressmen ...by Published on March 20th, 2012 23:39- Categories:
- Xbox 360 News
The BBC iPlayer is now available on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, some three years after the public broadcaster began negotiations to bring the video streaming service to the device.
It's been a long time coming but British Xbox 360 owners can now access the video-on-demand iPlayer service on their consoles. The Xbox 360 is the last console to gain iPlayer support with the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii already offering a version of the iPlayer.
Microsoft's requirement that video streaming services require an Xbox Live subscription was the deal breaker that stopped the iPlayer being made available on the console for so long.
"Given the BBC’s goal to reach its entire audience, I’m particularly excited that the BBC will be bringing iPlayer to all Xbox users at no extra cost as part of Xbox LIVE’s free membership," said BBC on-demand boss Daniel Danker.
BBC iPlayer boss Dave Price said that games consoles were no longer "just about gaming" and that they had transformed into home media hubs.
"I can tell you the fight is already happening in my home for control of the Xbox! And my wife has never been interested in Call of Duty!", Price blogged.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...box-360/028107 ...by Published on March 20th, 2012 22:50- Categories:
- Windows Phone
New data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech will be met with a mixed response from Nokia.
One the one hand it seems its switch to WP7 at the high end is paying off. Indeed, its Lumia 800 phone took 87 per cent of all sales on the Microsoft OS in the UK.
But this is countered by the dramatic fall in Symbian which, let's not forget, is still the platform of choice for its lower end handsets.
Symbian's share was 12.4 per cent one year ago compared with 2.4 per cent now.
Elsewhere Kantar Worldpanel notes that WP7 has a 2.5 per cent share across Europe, and that Apple has increased its share of the British smartphone market from 22.7 per cent a year ago to 28.7 per cent in 2012.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...n-in-uk/017457 ...by Published on March 20th, 2012 22:15- Categories:
- PC News
Users have embraced premium tablet gaming for the device's ability to offer a large screen experience – something that is of high importance to users – and strong visuals with clear graphics.
Indeed, Juniper reckons the impact of the new form factor is such that tablet games are expected to account for more than one-third of all mobile gaming revenues by 2016.
One reason for this is the rapid improvement of the devices themselves, with Apple recently showcasing the HD gaming found on its new iPad, something other vendors will likely try to replicate.
Additionally, Juniper says premium tablet games offer more detailed play with console-style buttons for players to use, which aren't feasible for the small screened smartphone versions.
Charlotte Miller, report author, says: "The tablet is the perfect device for playing mobile games – the screens are large enough for the user to see the action, no matter how big their hands are.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...by-2014/017458 ...- Search DCEmu
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