When Square Enix took over Eidos Interactive earlier this year, I don't think anyone batted an eye. We assumed that Square's mega-bucks would save a somewhat diminishing Eidos Interactive, which has a large stake in UK video game development. Sadly, news filtered through this week that Square would be 'restructuring' Eidos' subsidiary; Beautiful Game Studios, which has been responsible for games such as Championship Manager. By 'restructuring' they mean what we all fear; cutting jobs here and moving them far-east. 80% of staff at BGS will face the pink slip, it's unknown if they'll actually be offered to move over to Shanghai where their jobs will most certainly be headed.
It's uncertain if more UK-based jobs will soon vanish in the near future. I'm betting: yes. Happy Christmas from Square Enix.
Today was the release of the long-awaited Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty). The game was released following a huge advertising campaign encompassing prime-time TV spots, huge billboards and the creation of an American Soldier Rehabilitation charity by Activision. It was also the day which war broke out on the high street, with retailers battling one-another to get the lowest price for Modern Warfare 2.
Estimated Retail Price
The ERP or ERRP (Estimated Recommended Retail Price) is a term which companies use to define what the average price of a game should be sold at for retailers to make a significant enough profit to warrant stocking the product in the first place. Off the shelf, gamers were expecting to look at a £49.99 (at a £59.99 ERRP) in the United Kingdom. This caused upset with many, myself included. Many saw the price as an effort on Activison's side to forcibly raise the industry-wide accepted £49.99 ERRP price. This price is usually dropped by about 10% by retailers.
Valve fans will be happy to know that new content for the Left 4 Dead series is headed their way very soon. The new Left 4 Dead Downloadable Content; Crash Course, which takes place shortly after the events of the Left 4 Dead Campaign: No Mercy, takes players up until the events of Death Toll. The content will be released next week on the 29th September 2009. The content will be pay-for on consoles, but free on PC. This factor has enraged some fans, who are still hoping to spawn as a Tank to take revenge in the lead-up to the release. Still, 560 Microsoft Points could have been a LOT worse. It could have been a lot better as well.
Meanwhile, an even more abrasive subject to discuss with Left 4 Dead fans; Left 4 Dead 2 will have a demo all ready for playing next month, starting from October 27th, fans will have a chance to play the up-coming zombie-survival horror game. Although released just a mere year after the release of the original title, Valve insists that there is enough content in Left 4 Dead 2 to satisfy fans and worth the full price-tag. I, personally think there will be, but doesn't help Valve's money-grabbing image over this matter at all. Hopefully this demo will put all fears to bed.
[Source: Kotaku]
SEGA has released a short teaser trailer which informs Sonic fans, old and new alike, that a new 2D Sonic game is on it's way. However, it seems that the trailer may be misleading into what it's actually about to present. Shortly after the trailer hit the internet, the Cycle of Sonic was activated. However, eagle-eyed Kotaku poster; Gravekeeper quickly realised that the silhouette logo in the teaser trailer matched exactly with the original Sonic 1 title logo (picture above).
SEGA hasn't had an excellent time with creating decent video games in general, lately. Sure, SEGA has pushed out some genuinely good games like Valkyria Chronicles, but I'll be honest when I say the bulk of what SEGA has produced in the last 5 years has been utter crap. Sonic being the forerunner of all things crap. Anyone unfortunate enough to play Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) should know this. You can see what I thought of Sonic Unleashed here. (Bonus: Read the "Related Articles" to see how I got caught up in the Sonic Cycle. Damn it, SEGA.)
Being brought up on the blue spiky-one, I can give a first hand account to how Sonic has slid from greatness to worthless shovelware. However, trying to appeal to old-school fans who enjoyed the Megadrive titles by trying to just remake the game in High Definition is probably not going to please many. Especially since SEGA re-releases Sonic 1 (Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)) every couple of years on some half-baked compilation of Sonic or SEGA titles and then again on the Xbox Live Arcade and Virtual Console. Do we really need this game released again with added modern-SEGA half-heartedness and a dollop of cost-cutting at every corner? Why couldn't this energy be placed into making a proper new, old-school-like Sonic game? Capcom pulled it off with Megaman 9.
Well, at least you're trying, SEGA. I suppose it's better than Sonic Unleashed 2. Of course, the second you announce Sonic Unleashed 2, I will implode from nerd-rage.
The tentatively titled; Needlemouse Project, which is a throw-back to a conceptual title for Sonic the Hedgehog's character and the literal translation of "Hedgehog" from Japanese, has not yet been confirmed to appear on any platforms so far, however "High Definition" may give you a hint as to which platforms it will appear on. The game is apparently coming in 2010, once again, no specifics. We'll all play the guessing game and spin the Circle of Sonic until then.
[Source: Uh... Kotaku?] (Why not. You can see the trailer from Gamespot here without having to go to Gamespot!)
09/09: Pigs fly at PAX
The situation regarding Swine Flu in the UK is slightly different. Those who contract the virus are advised to stay home and isolated from others, call your GP and have friends or family collect any medication prescribed to you. More information can be found here.
[Source: Twitter]
10/08: Six days in the limelight
Early this year, Konami and Atomic Games announced a new military 3rd person shooter game; Six Days in Fallujah. A game which many knew at the time was an important milestone for the video games industry. For the longest of periods now, video games have been seen as 'kids toys' or 'murder simulators', often getting bad reputation by being associated with tragic events such as school shootings and youth violence. Sometimes when video games actually haven't been involved at all. But why was Six Days in Fallujah so important? Because the nature of the game itself.
Six Days [in Fallujah] revolved around the events at the start of the Iraq conflict in the city of Fallujah which saw some of the heaviest resistance from insurgent fighters against American troops. It's a delicate subject matter as casualties on both sides of the conflict were high. Atomic Games hoped to create an interactive documentary of the events in Fallujah, the developer had spoken at great length to American soldiers who fought in the battle and rumour has it they even spoke to Insurgent fighters. Six Days was the first game daring enough to put together a modern warfare game based around real events.
Konami and Atomic Games announced the game with some fanfare in April this year, but it wasn't long before a media backlash against the game riled up public disgust towards the mere notion. Disgust which I'm fairly confident in saying, wouldn't have been so large if Six Days was being made into a film. The game had already questionable release prospects in Europe, however soon Konami, who was publishing the game, pulled out of the title after the negativity towards the title. This came as a bit of a surprise to Atomic Games, who had a good relationship with Konami.
Konami's knee-jerk reaction to the negative press was essentially all the nails in the title's coffin at once. No publisher wanted to touch the game and now it seems that even Atomic Games is no longer a viable developer, with the entire company "pretty much dead", according to an insider from the company. Was Konami right to pull out of the title? Well, that's entirely up for debate. It's clear that Konami was probably a little naive when it came to the controversy of the title, especially when they pulled away from it so quickly. Perhaps they did know there would be resistance, but didn't realise how much of a massive PR disaster it could have been.
More importantly, however, it says a lot about the state of the video games industry. The industry is still a second-rate citizen in the media world. A glorified 'toy' which can't so much as dare to move away from fantasy or distant history. The closest we're going to come to any sort of modern war scenarios will be entirely fictional or so entirely stupid it's unreal.
While many will still detest the thought of shelling out another £40 this November for another, fairly short, yet pretty awesome zombie-massacre funfair; (Left 4 Dead 2) many may be a little more upset about shelling out 540 MS Points for the new original Left 4 Dead Downloadable Content for the Xbox 360 version of the game. PC gamers and their already cheaper version of the game will be able to play the DLC for absolutely nothing come this September, while console gamers will be forced to pay for it. I open on this statement mostly because it will make those not willing to dabble in Microsoft Points lose interest without all the build-up and hype. It's a public service, you know.
The new expansion, "Crash Course" is set between the first and second chapters of Left 4 Dead; "No Mercy" and "Death Toll" respectively. The expansion comes complete with co-op game map variants for Versus and Survival. The Press Release itself was quite about any potential new weapons which the DLC might bring to the game, however the poster which was distributed for the game does show off a scoped automatic rifle. The poster also shows Zoey as she is infected by Uma Thurman.
Not sure who's to blame for the DLC charge. Burnout Paradise had a bunch of free updates on the 360, so I don't see why Left 4 Dead would be any different apart from the whole exclusive-to-Microsoft-platforms thing. Either way, I wont be splashing out for a single campaign and some multiplayer maps I'll use once and a while.
[Source: Press Release, Via Joystiq]
You'll also find some version of The Sims 3 World Adventure on the iPhone early next year. No word on pricing here either...
[Source: Press Release]
Uhm... Well, this was unexpected. I mean, I did think about Rooster Teeth's PAX Red Vs Blue 'Anime' teaser (Which seemed cool, but hasn't gone anywhere since) a few days ago... But this is taking Halo-themed animation to a whole other level. Microsoft, and their Halo Division going under the name 343 Industries, has assembled a crack team of big-eyed, high-pitched-voice producing machines which include talent from Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C, and Toei Animation... If any of those meant anything to you, then I'm pleased I copy and pasted that over from the source.
Named 'Halo Legends', the series will include seven short films set in the Halo universe. The films will be distributed by Warner Bros. starting early next year. It may be a further attempt to try and get the Asian region more interested in the Halo franchise, after a nation-wide Halo tournament didn't really capture their imaginations. The announcement comes around Comic Con, a San Diego-based event where fans of comics, anime and games (and more, probably) gather to check out up-coming products, see some cool memorabilia and dress up as assorted fictional characters. Think of it like E3 of comics and anime... Only with more dress up... And it's open to the public. And the organisers aren't idiots. And the industry isn't crappy towards it's fans. I could go on...
[Source: LA Times, via: Kotaku]
The Japanese Club Nintendo website has updated, offering gamers who are registered with Club Nintendo and have registered their games' Club Nintendo points some very cool goodies in exchange for those points that come with official Nintendo titles and hardware. Nintendo may have tempted you, if you were in Japan, with a Kirby Frisbii for 350 points, Animal Crossing Magnet Clips for 300 points, a Zelda poster/sticker set for 250 points, an Animal Crossing box for 250 points, a 'original pen case' with an awesome lining (and even better zip) for 200 points, a Mario & Luigi RPG music CD containing lots of music from different games for 250 points that come with the game and another 400 normal points, a snazzy white/beige, white/navy, white/orange DSi case for 200 points and a 18 slot DS game card holder in the shape of a standard EU-sized game box for 150 points. (See all at a glance here.)
If only Nintendo Europe's Star Catalogue was anywhere near as amusing or cool as this. The only thing I've ever found Stars, the EU equivalent of Club Nintendo Points (even though it's called Club Nintendo now...), useful for was trading them in for Nintendo Points. I still want that Kirby Frisbii though.
[Via: Dengeki Online]
