Wtf are they making

GAMING Video Games
1

AMaster control program gets a bump whenever Justin or any other contributor adds to the mainpage. Just thought I’d start a thread on where we can talk continuing game industry biz stuff in between those headlines and submissions.

So, lets start:

Rayman Legends Wii U Exclusive - This fucking annoys me. Squandered the goodwill they earned by making a unique and beautiful game on multiple platforms, then make the highly anticipated sequel exclusive to only one system for the moment. I’m still not entirely sold on Nintendo or them being able to maintain/attract good 3rd party releases consistently over the lifespan of their platform. Wii ended up being a landfill of waggle shovelware in between nostalgia milking 1st party efforts.

Diablo 3 Devs respond to original Diablo dev commentary - Fuck that loser…indeed. Current Diablo devs come off as children in that facebook thread; oblivious to the fact that the legacy Blizzard North created with Diablo’s 1 & 2 are directly responsible for the massive sales/success Diablo 3 currently enjoys.

Joystiq Outs Call of Duty QA Tester - Good job leaving that poor guy out to hang dry. It’s one thing to be a moron and snap dev pics with your cellphone and upload them to twitter. It’s another to source a guys professional resume/bio page to for those all important news scoops and pageviews. Depending on the policies implemented by Executive Producers or Associate Producers, there are rules in place for what you can and can’t list on your linkedin page, some folk like that recognition and feel pride in their work, a nugget of info your friends can see in the interim before the gameover credits roll on whatever you’ve shipped. I’ve always been paranoid to a fault about these things. Privatizing my xbox friends list and viewability, protecting current and former coworkers running valvetestapps by limiting my steam friends list there too. It’s kind of annoying but higher ups usually have a plan on dolling out info to the press. There’s always room for good gaming journalism and well thought out articles on the medium, and then there’s what I feel is garbage diving potentially ruining some poor kids career before it even got started. I have half the mind to create a fake profile online and riddle it with too good to be true leaks and see if anyone will bite.

Zynga Stocks - LOL EA going after Zynga double LOL.

Trademark lawsuits - Ranks right up there with patent trolls that hamper the android dev community. Recently Rebellion Studios going after Sins of a Solar Empire:Rebellion for using the same name. I’ve just filed a trademark for my upcoming ios rpg, renamed it The: Call; Legend; 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. So far the game will ship as a front end title screen. Then I can start rolling in the profits on any game that infringes on any aspect of my highly successful ip name. Notice I wasn’t a complete bastard and cited the rest of the alphabet, because that’s what sequels are for. I may even make those sequels built in as dlc, so when you buy it you get a new front end menu option that takes you to the newer front end. Win.

2

I don’t see Ubisoft keeping Rayman Legends asa a WiiU exclusive. I see them viewing it as a next gen title, so it will be ported to the other next gen consoles. It’s not like Rayman Origins sold extremely well on the Wii anyways, so there isn’t any reason to make Legends an exclusive.

Also, I flat out don’t see the Wii U doing that well as a platform. I remember a post on IGN where a user said “Nintendo could release a turd with a disc tray and call it the WiiPoo and Nintendo fans would buy it because Reggie told them to.”, or something along those lines. But there isn’t any real hype behind it’s release. Nintendo fans don’t seem to be going apeshit like they should, not to mention the very negative reception from their e3 presentation.

3

A[quote name=“UrchineSLICE” url=“/community/t/144594/wtf-are-they-making#post_3377410”]Also, I flat out don’t see the Wii U doing that well as a platform. I remember a post on IGN where a user said “Nintendo could release a turd with a disc tray and call it the WiiPoo and Nintendo fans would buy it because Reggie told them to.”, or something along those lines. But there isn’t any real hype behind it’s release. Nintendo fans don’t seem to be going apeshit like they should, not to mention the very negative reception from their e3 presentation.[/quote]
Remember, though, that everybody thought the Wii was stupid as fuck when it was announced, and that went on to sell sixty quadjillion units thanks to a well-handled marketing campaign that tapped a vastly broader market (at a lower price) than either of its competitors, a broad, generally solid launch lineup, and a whole shit-ton of retro console ports made available to an audience half of whom probably don’t even know what an emulator is. (And no thanks, in my opinion, to its stupid-ass gimmick hardware.) I’m not going to place any bets on it, but who’s to say that won’t happen again?

4

I’ll say it.

Nintendo tapped an amazing market, all the casual folks who DON’T play casual games on their cells/facebook/etc. All those people probably never bought a single game after playing the hell out of Wii Sports for a few weeks or months(possibly Wii Fit as well). Quality control was so piss-poor on 3rd party shovelware games that I bet a lot of those people who gave a random game a shot just stopped buying after that. I’d say that’s like half of the people who bought/were given the Wii. These people don’t care if there’s a “new improved!” Wii since the original is the first game system they’ve owned, or the first one they’ve owned in a very long time.

The other half were the hardcore(who don’t even seem that stoked for a new Nintendo system at the moment, and already own other HD consoles), and a whole lot of in-betweens who bought a few games and use the thing mostly for Netflix now.

I’d love to be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Wii-U will be a flop. I was a huge supporter of the Wii until I saw all the untouched potential, none of which will be improved by more powerful hardware. And the shovelware, my god the shovelware(most since the PS2? The NES?). Uneducated consumers were doomed buying games for the Wii. With the PS3 and 360 it’s like 50/50 you’d get a crappy game if you pulled a random one out of a hat, Wii was/is something like 80/20.

The new controller is the only thing I see going for this other than HD.

5

Thing is, the Wii’s gimmick was the controller too, which, really, to this day, I hold up as a rather elegant piece of work that was never utilized as well as it could’ve been. I long held that the system could and should’ve been a heaven for FPSs, something that playing Metroid Prime Trilogy has proven to me thousands of times over as I play through it. But the elegance was in its simplicity. Every human being with a television knows how to use a remote control, and knew instinctively how to use it to play baseball, or mime bowling, or swordfight, Hell, for younger generations, most of them did that as kids anyway. Nintendo is now trying to apply that same principle to a tablet, something that, at last count, only about 20 percent of humanity uses or is even aware of, let alone will be willing to play games on it. The WiiU’s accessibility is pretty much limited to the hardcore. Virtually none of whom have any interest in buying it.

This WILL be a clusterfuck. Mark my words.

By the by, September 13th is when we all find out how badly Nintendo’s shooting themselves in the ass with the launch date and price.

6

I actually forgot that the WiiU was supposed to be out this year. Jesus fuck, why would I need another system that’s as powerful as the systems I already have? If I didn’t already buy Arkham, why did I wait for the WiiU version? Christ, I can’t wait to see how this does this year.

In sadder news, looks like Sony Liverpool is being shuttered. Confirmed on Twitter by the devs, apparently. That’s the Wipeout dudes and they were working on a new Wipeout for PS4 and a different game, too. Whelp, guess you don’t need launch titles, right, Sony?!

7

ASeriously Sony, you’re that stupid?

My heart almost skipped a beat at reading Black Isle was back in business…sadly it appears as an in name only effort.

8

There isn’t a single misfire in that entire series. Not a one. And currently, Wipeout HD’s one of the few things I use my PS3 for that isn’t Blu Rays.

Fuck that’s sad news.

9

I think you nailed it, and it’s really sad. I see the same shovelware happening to the WiiU (The Wii Monkey Ball launch title that’s STILL clogging shelves? so broken).

I love the Wii controller, because I can have my hands in any position I want. Splayed all over the couch? Great.

10

Even sadder, they used to be called Psygnosis back in the day…this is a sad day as hell for older gamers.

11

You’re certainly being far, far more generous to both systems’ respective libraries there than I ever would be (note, that is not remotely in any way meant as a defense for the Wii’s awful, awful library). At least if we’re limiting this strictly to physical disc games here.

Don’t forget lightgun and rail shooters, for which the Wii utilized and exploited it’s gimmick for just a bit more, but nowhere NEAR enough as it should’ve all the same (its pitifully sad when your highlights in that area consist of House of the Dead and Gunblade N.Y. ports, Sin and Punishment, and some mediocre Resident Evil spinoffs, and that’s roughly about it more or less).

While we’re on the subject of utterly squandered potential for latter day Nintendo’s blatantly and increasingly desperate gimmick interface ideas here’s a question: of all consoles with weird gimmick interfaces to ever come along, how in the holy mother of fuck did the DS and its touchscreen of all things somehow manage to NOT see a tremendous resurgence of good point and click adventure titles and innovative puzzle games? I mean Jesus Christ, it doesn’t get any more flagrantly OBVIOUS than that does it? Can you imagine beefed up handheld ports of classics like Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion on the DS with THAT kind of interface? Never mind much more importantly all the possibilities for completely new and fresh point & click IP’s that could’ve come from it? Could’ve singlehandedly saved an entire goddamned genre from dying there (hey by the way while we’re on the subject: the Wiimote itself is another interface gimmick that could’ve and hasn’t accommodated/saved that particular niche).

The DS managed to wind up accumulating a pretty damned quality library all the same don’t get me wrong (the usual shovelware notwithstanding), but it was entirely IN SPITE OF its gimmick, which contributed all of jack shit to it’s games (hell it even outright spoiled and sabotaged a few).

Let’s all stop bullshitting ourselves about one thing: as far as non-handheld consoles go, Nintendo easily peaked at SNES and its been gradual and ever diminishing returns since then, in large part due to two main issues: their near complete alienation of most quality 3rd party developers and franchises from the N64 onward, and their increasing over-reliance on gimmicky interface concepts that attempt to reinvent the wheel of how games fundamentally control, and largely either completely waste it when they might just possibly be onto something, or end up falling flat on their face with it outright instead. They’ve managed to stay afloat it seems completely on the basis of two key demographics: 100% casual gamers, and nostalgia-obsessed Nintendo fanatics who are guaranteed to unquestioningly buy ANY old shit that happens to have a 1st party mascot character on the box (and make no mistake there are a LOT more of those people out there than one might think).

Post-SNES, its really been their handhelds that have been their sole saving grace for years (the GBC notwithstanding since that technically counts for a spell as post-SNES and was largely crap, so we’re really talking about the GBA and DS here). And even that may be ceasing to impress me as of late since the 3DS (thus far at least) hasn’t exactly been setting my gaming radar on fire up till now.

I hate to trot out such a beyond tired and beaten the fuck to death analogy and subject, but I’ve always found it to be incredibly apt: Nintendo in my view has for many, many years now been the gaming equivalent of George Lucas: was once a mighty wellspring of boundless creativity spawning a media empire built on a foundation of genuine classics and greatness that helped define an entire generation of geeks, but as time passed had thoroughly alienated all the collaborative entities who did a LOT to contribute to their success and quality output, and has for successive generations now become this separate, isolated, hermetic entity in its respective medium, utterly coasting by almost solely on brand recognition and past glories with only the most fanatically faithful still championing them out of pure nostalgic goodwill and nothing more, in a sad and depressing display of clinging to their fallen childhood icons.

12

Jaquio - I would mostly agree with you, but I then Nin slips out something like the first Mario Galaxy, which I would rank as one of the all time greats. Pity it was sort of a fluke, and th big N just went back to the well after that.

No way, they were what became of Psygnosis? I am bummed. Really bummed. I am bummed for Roger Dean.

How come someone hasn’t hacked Valve again? I mean, there have probably been at least a half dozen iterations of Half Life 3 that we know nothing about?!

13

I suppose this is a good place for this:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/22/l…ium=social

Samples and some info about the process behind Halo 4’s music. It’s sounding pretty good to me so far. The final product will be the ultimate test but Neil Davidge seems to be contributing in a BIG way thus far.

14

I think you may have not been paying attention. Professor Layton? Phoenix Wright? Hotel Dusk? Trace Memory? Broken Sword? Lost In Blue? Hell, IIRC, they ported Myst and Syberia to the system, just that the ports were shit.

But to answer your question, the reason the system never saw a true resurgence is because, aside from Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton, every single adventure game on the system sold like shit.

15

Not to mention several localizations of japanese adventures that would have never arrived in the West otherwise, like 999, Contact, Time Hollow and Lux pain, for example; and there were also a buttload of strategy/rpg that had visual novel/adventure elements,like both SMT: Devil Survivor SMT Strange Journey, Valkyrie profile COTP, and so on.

16

I genuinely forgot about most of those (except for Phoenix Wright, but that’s more because I’m one of like the three people on the planet who’s just not a fan of those games: I know, I’m all alone on that island), but you’re right, there were definitely some. Still nowhere near enough as there ought to have been though, as noted since its an utter waste that that use for the system never took off like it should’ve (since that’s easily the single most practical use for it). And there’s a reason I forgot about some of those: oh GOD that Myst port. Jesus. I hate you for reminding me that that happened.

17

I’m exaggerating a little bit, but at the same time I’m talking about games that are straight-up garbage. Not the mediocre “been done better elsewhere” types.

Anyways. Good post. It is a shame more adventure games didn’t make it to the Wii and DS. I bought the first Sam and Max collection on Wii and it was very broken, so I understand consumers not wanting more if that was their first exposure.
I like how Telltale blamed the hardware for that one. Give me a break, a system that can handle Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 should be able to have Sam and Max with a decent framerate and not constantly crashing.

18

ARPS’s John Walker has a great read on the PS3 Give Away/Journalistic Integrity controversy now surrounding eurogamer, Rab Florence’s article (that has since been edited), Lauren Wainright’s alleged legal threats/complaints, and a zombie-fied Geoff Keighley doused in Mountain Dews and Doritos.

Even Chud’s Justin Clark brought up his reservations on the ethical line that’s seemingly being crossed when he pointed out the fanboy-ish level of glee showed at E3 when Sony was giving away swag during their keynote presentation.

19

Both those articles are great, and Florence is bang on the money on this issue. We’ve heard so much bellyaching over the last few years from videogame ‘journalists’ about how their profession should be taken seriously, but they regularly show that they have zero idea of what it entails. Obviously, most aren’t intentionally agreeing to do publishers’ PR work but their blatant lack of understanding that flaunting expensive freebies and the hashtag business simply don’t look good in a professional sense is inexcusable.

It’s pretty spineless of Eurogamer to edit the article, too. Wainright didn’t have a leg to stand on, legally speaking; Florence only quoted what she put out in public herself, and legally covered himself and the site with the phrase ‘I’m sure she isn’t’ regarding her making herself look like she might be getting paid off by Squeenix. Apparently Florence has pulled out of his column gig at EG, and I can’t blame him for it. This kind of sqeamishness is exactly why the public are finding it increasingly difficult to trust the press.

Granted, you get corrupt journos everywhere and it is depressingly common in the entertainment field. However, even in areas such as music or film writing there’s still a basic understanding of the press/company relationship and how delicate the public’s perception of it is. I mean, Harry Knowles was utterly crucified for the whole ‘pwessies’ bullshit, and while that was cringeworthy at least the guy’s always identified himself as an enthusiast over any pretentions to journalism. Gaming writers as a whole just don’t seem to get this as a base principle; you just have to look at the reaction to Florence’s article to see that they don’t have the foggiest idea that this kind of behaviour blurs lines that need to be well-defined, and makes completely the worst impression of the profession they’re so hell-bent on being recognized for.

But then again, given the generally shocking standard of writing in the gaming press are we expecting too much from them to think of this stuff?

20

AThe one thing that bugs me now is the outpouring of douchebags harassing the girl. In the same boneheaded fashion anonymous losers went after Bioware’s female writer and that kickstarter girl Sarkeesian. There could have been legitimate discussion about what should be expected of game journos instead of the narrative being steered to misogyny. It just wasn’t Lauren Wainright who was caught red handed, there were plenty of other folk at that event vying for playstations.

It only seems like yesterday that this happened:

[VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN2KUJgOPBs[/VIDEO]

For those who haven’t seen this, this was Joystiq’s former writer Justin McElroy flipping out when he got his copy of Skyrim, which later scored 5 Stars out of 5.