General Game News

[Space version 2.0]

So, this is a thing that is happening

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QyqUpS9zZAk?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/QyqUpS9zZAk?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

[Compound]

Probably the most important game news of the year...

What dances the Wow Pandaren will be doing.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4UbuYfTiIYo?version=3" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/4UbuYfTiIYo?version=3</a>

What? Some folks choose what race to play because of this.

[Compound]

Okay, more interesting news.

A few years ago, after yet another attempted relaunch of X-Com crashed and burned, some indiefolks decided to do a "sorta" remake of it. Then Firaxis came along and actually did a remake. (Still enroute on Sept 1. The shooter version is new year now. Awww.) Anyway, they've been in Alpha for a while (and been over on Desura) but they've now announced that they, like many other places, are doing the Kickstart thing in an effort to get it finished sooner.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts

The good news? With 30+ days to go, they're 2/3 of the way to funding. And they've got a demo. So, hey. $20 for a X-Com ish game.

[Henry88]

Casual gamers are to blame for a significant fall in Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions, according to EA.

Subscribers to the BioWare-developed MMO dropped from 1.7 million in February to 1.3 million last month.

EA Games label boss Frank Gibeau told investors last night that the 400,000 drop was due to casual gamers, perhaps enticed in by the Star Wars brand, neglecting to subscribe after the game passed through a billing cycle.

Those left were core MMO users, resulting in a solid user base, he argued.

"So the percentage of paying subscribers from our peak until now has actually gone up, and the folks that we have are as engaged as they were when they first bought the product."

"Make no mistake, BioWare intends to grow subscribers," he added.

EA boss John Riccitiello agreed, and claimed The Old Republic's numbers were "very much in line with our original assumptions".

"So it's a business contributor, [and] while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity, but it's more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf," he said.

"So while I understand there's an enormous amount of interest, I don't know that it warrants as much as what we're seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we're going to grow the franchise and just like we want to see Tiger Woods Golf grow or SSX grow, or Madden for that matter, we're going to drive this one for growth."

Neither man was worried about competition from upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2 or impending World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria.

"We are cognizant of competitors coming, but none of them quite fit in the same competitive category as Star Wars," said Gibeau.

"They're just different fantasies. They're not the Star Wars fantasy. And as you know with MMOs, every day you're in operation to get better and better and better. You continually perfect the experience. You continually improve the acquisition component.

"And so building from a base that we're at right now, we feel very confident that this business is going to continue to stay competitive throughout the remainder of the year."

Planned expansion content which focused on "elder" gameplay as well as a continuation of BioWare's free-to-play weekends and buddy key promotions were some of the ways the company hoped to keep current subscribers engaged while attracting new ones.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/6889498/EA-blames-casual-gamers-for-drop-off

[Smith Dr John Smith]

Casual gamers are to blame for a significant fall in Star Wars: The Old Republic subscriptions, according to EA.

Subscribers to the BioWare-developed MMO dropped from 1.7 million in February to 1.3 million last month.

EA Games label boss Frank Gibeau told investors last night that the 400,000 drop was due to casual gamers, perhaps enticed in by the Star Wars brand, neglecting to subscribe after the game passed through a billing cycle.

Those left were core MMO users, resulting in a solid user base, he argued.

"So the percentage of paying subscribers from our peak until now has actually gone up, and the folks that we have are as engaged as they were when they first bought the product."

"Make no mistake, BioWare intends to grow subscribers," he added.

EA boss John Riccitiello agreed, and claimed The Old Republic's numbers were "very much in line with our original assumptions".

"So it's a business contributor, [and] while important, is not as important as Medal of Honor or Battlefield or FIFA or Madden or The Sims or SimCity, but it's more important than Tiger Woods PGA Golf," he said.

"So while I understand there's an enormous amount of interest, I don't know that it warrants as much as what we're seeing right now. But we love the franchise, we're going to grow the franchise and just like we want to see Tiger Woods Golf grow or SSX grow, or Madden for that matter, we're going to drive this one for growth."

Neither man was worried about competition from upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2 or impending World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria.

"We are cognizant of competitors coming, but none of them quite fit in the same competitive category as Star Wars," said Gibeau.

"They're just different fantasies. They're not the Star Wars fantasy. And as you know with MMOs, every day you're in operation to get better and better and better. You continually perfect the experience. You continually improve the acquisition component.

"And so building from a base that we're at right now, we feel very confident that this business is going to continue to stay competitive throughout the remainder of the year."

Planned expansion content which focused on "elder" gameplay as well as a continuation of BioWare's free-to-play weekends and buddy key promotions were some of the ways the company hoped to keep current subscribers engaged while attracting new ones.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/6889498/EA-blames-casual-gamers-for-drop-off

It could also have something to do with the fact that everyone I have talked to has said that it is not as good as other MMOs and it is full of bugs that have not been fixed yet.  It seems some of the testers have complained that their list of bugs they found in the game was completely ignored by Bioware,I bet that doesn't help.  It seems to me if you are going to ask people to pay $15 every month to play a game you have to deliver a quality product that they want to keep playing and from what I have heard TOR was not that.

Sadly it seems Bioware's new model is all about hitting release dates no matter what and in the age of the internet word gets around,I am afraid that if they don't star focusing on quality control this could be the end of them.  With how much games cost these days there is no excuse for releasing one that is full of bugs and it seems a lot of people agree with me.  I really hope Bioware gets their act together and doesn't go down the tubes:(

[Invader_quirk]

My thoughts exactly, Doc.

[Henry88]

one day a phoenix will rise and take Biowares place as top RPG maker

[Smith Dr John Smith]

My thoughts exactly, Doc.

Yeah I have been playing some games in the last few years and it seems that they are more and more buggy.  It's like the companies think they have a right to our $60 and if they patch the game latter that means they are going beyond the call of duty.  When it should be the other way around,for $60 a game should work out of the box.  I know that there will always be bugs that slip through the cracks and I am fine with that but lately I feel like for $60-$80 we are all just beta testers.  If video games sale start to slide I think it will be because of three things.  1)The games today get released with bugs because hitting the release date in more important 2)Games seem to be getting shorter and yet they cost more and 3)at between $60-$100 a piece a games cost a lot compared to other form of entertainment.  Those are all reasons that I have heard people give for not gaming as much as they used to and I think as long as the gaming companies turn a blind eye to this they risk their sales.  I mean take this for an example for what I spent on ME3 I could have gotten all four seasons of Burn Notice.  That is the sort of thing a lot of people think about when buying games and when it gets to the point where you are not even sure the game will work completely out of the box you can't tell me that does not hurt sales.  I mean for that same $15 for TOR you can get out two Blu Rays at a time on Netflix. I think the cost of games is going up while the quality goes down.

[Invader_quirk]

I think that's why Nintendo largely doesn't have a way to patch things. They want developers to FINISH making their games before releasing them. If they can patch it later, they can release a shoddy product.

Now, I think game consoles NEED patch-ability (because even the best teams can miss obscure glitches), and Nintendo's actually moving towards that, but I respect the level of quality they expected from their developers.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

I think that's why Nintendo largely doesn't have a way to patch things. They want developers to FINISH making their games before releasing them. If they can patch it later, they can release a shoddy product.

Now, I think game consoles NEED patch-ability (because even the best teams can miss obscure glitches), and Nintendo's actually moving towards that, but I respect the level of quality they expected from their developers.

Yeah as I said I don't mind patches for little things that they could not see coming but when it's something big like face import that gives me the impression that they didn't care about finishing the game.  That is one thing I like about Nintendo and think every company could learn from them,sure there have been Nintendo developed games I didn't like but I have never thought a Nintendo make game was released unfinished with bugs that they knew about.  I think the fact that they are willing to delay games is one of the keys to them being so popular for so long.  Heck a few years ago my NES started giving me trouble and I contacted them just to see if there was something they could do and they sent me a cleaning kit.  We are talking them sending a kit to keep a system from 1986 working in 2009 or 2010,now that is the kind of company I trust when I buy a game and gets my money over and over again.

[Raefire]

So, this is happening now: http://kotaku.com/5910028/steam-codes-are-now-officially-coming-to-gamestop

[Compound]

Well, crap.

38 Studios and Big Huge Games Shutting Down [UPDATE]

Reports are circulating that Kingdoms of Amalur creators 38 Studios has shut down Big Huge Games, the developers who helped build the hit action RPG that came out earlier this year. If this is true, the shuttering of an entire studio would be the biggest bit of fallout yet from the 38 Studios/Rhode Island financial imbroglio.

Big Huge Games dodged death once before two years ago after they were acquired by 38 Studios, which was started by all-star Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was the first game in a planned multiplatform universe and the first glimpses of 38's in-development online game Copernicus surfaced rececently, even as the outcry surrounding the controversial loans Rhode Island issued to the company swells. The Maryland-based developer also made the Rise of Nations games and the Settlers of Catan adaptation for Xbox Live.

Kotaku has reached out to 38 Studios for comment and will update this story once we hear back.

Update
Further reports indicate that it's not just Big Huge Games that's shutting down but all of 38 Studios. An anonymous source formerly employed at 38 sent Kotaku the following details:

    38 Studios just laid off its entire staff, both Providence and BHG studios are being shuttered.

    We have not received a paycheck since April 30th.

    On May 15th, we found out we were not getting paid when our checks did not hit our accounts.

    Our medical insurance runs out tonight at midnight.

    We found this out when an employee's pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week.

    The company has not communicated anything concrete to the team throughout this process, leaving team members to figure out insurance stop-gaps (where people could afford it), etc. on their own.

We'll keep updating this story as we hear more details.

Update 2
Gamasutra got a copy of the layoff letter that was sent to all employees. It says:

    The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

    These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.

    This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

As mentioned above, Big Huge Games was the creator of the Rise of Nations/Legends series, which was a great RTS/Civ-ish game created by Brian Reynolds, who was a mover and shaker behind Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as well. I loved all three of those titles.  Shoot.

[Smith Dr John Smith]

Well, crap.

38 Studios and Big Huge Games Shutting Down [UPDATE]

Reports are circulating that Kingdoms of Amalur creators 38 Studios has shut down Big Huge Games, the developers who helped build the hit action RPG that came out earlier this year. If this is true, the shuttering of an entire studio would be the biggest bit of fallout yet from the 38 Studios/Rhode Island financial imbroglio.

Big Huge Games dodged death once before two years ago after they were acquired by 38 Studios, which was started by all-star Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was the first game in a planned multiplatform universe and the first glimpses of 38's in-development online game Copernicus surfaced rececently, even as the outcry surrounding the controversial loans Rhode Island issued to the company swells. The Maryland-based developer also made the Rise of Nations games and the Settlers of Catan adaptation for Xbox Live.

Kotaku has reached out to 38 Studios for comment and will update this story once we hear back.

Update
Further reports indicate that it's not just Big Huge Games that's shutting down but all of 38 Studios. An anonymous source formerly employed at 38 sent Kotaku the following details:

    38 Studios just laid off its entire staff, both Providence and BHG studios are being shuttered.

    We have not received a paycheck since April 30th.

    On May 15th, we found out we were not getting paid when our checks did not hit our accounts.

    Our medical insurance runs out tonight at midnight.

    We found this out when an employee's pregnant wife was told by her doctor, this was on Tuesday 22nd May this week.

    The company has not communicated anything concrete to the team throughout this process, leaving team members to figure out insurance stop-gaps (where people could afford it), etc. on their own.

We'll keep updating this story as we hear more details.

Update 2
Gamasutra got a copy of the layoff letter that was sent to all employees. It says:

    The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary.

    These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.

    This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

As mentioned above, Big Huge Games was the creator of the Rise of Nations/Legends series, which was a great RTS/Civ-ish game created by Brian Reynolds, who was a mover and shaker behind Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as well. I loved all three of those titles.  Shoot.

That is just wrong,I love Rise of Nations.

[Compound]

Oh, in brighter news- Guess what's free to play this weekend?



And it's 75% off too. Come on. Play. The expansion set arrives next month. (Play me, the game says, play me.)

[Smith Dr John Smith]

If I had highspeed I would go for it.  I am kind of afraid that when PC gaming dies it will take RTSes,TBSes,and FPSes with keyboard and mouse controls with it:(