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Archived News:
Following reports of Eidos' disappointment in sales of Tomb Raider
Underworld comes an unconfirmed report on
Kotaku
that 30 employees were laid off at Underworld developer Crystal Dynamics this
morning. They attribute the story to a "reliable source," and from the tone of this
comment, it sounds like management: "The cuts were made across the board, we're
told, to eliminate redundancy and give the studio tighter focus moving forward."
The
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Interview on Strategy Informer is the
promised full conversation with Jonny Ebbert, lead designer on Relic's upcoming
RTS sequel. When asked about plans for downloadable content, he describes plans
to reward players with free DLC instead of burdening them with digital rights
management: "We want to give out steady doses of free downloadable content
because we believe in rewarding people who buy the game and the reason we don’t
like DRM solutions is because they punish the innocent and they have to jump
through all these hoops. We don’t want to do that so we’re going with the
approach that Valve pioneered to just reward the people who actually bought the
game with cool stuff. Free downloadable, regularly accessible stuff that
enhances the game and then that’s an incentive for the people who didn’t buy the
game to buy it. So we’ve got a really bold, robust strategy for that and we’re
going to be revealing more details in about a month, but I think players are
going to like it. And everybody wins you know? The people who paid for the game
don’t have to go through any fuss and they’re constantly getting new stuff,
which keeps the game fresh." On a related note, there's also a new "Tyranids"
trailer from the game on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
MyGameTrailers.
New demos for Depths of Peril are now available, updated to the same
version 1.013 as the recent patches for the full game. The updated
Windows demo for Soldak Entertainment's action/RPG can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell; while the new Mac demo is available on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
A teaser site for X-Men Origins: Wolverine
is online, offering a preliminary home to the game tie-in with the upcoming
superhero prequel movie. The site currently offers a 3D screenshot and
discussion forums, with the promise we'll be able to sink our claws into the
full site soon. In the meantime, you can test the Flash logo's regenerative
powers by slashing it up.
A new in-house video interview with Amer Ajami from C&C TV's Battlecast
PrimeTime is now available, adding some detail to the just
announced Uprising for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. The clip is done in
the manner of a news update, and the influence of the signature over-the-top
cutscenes of the series evident. The movie is posted on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
GamesIndustry.biz - Fit To Print
"The problem is already apparent from the short lists above. Almost every
single major videogames media outlet already belongs to a company which also
owns either a game publisher, a game developer or a range of intellectual
property commonly used in videogames. IGN, for instance, is part of a
corporation which also holds the rights to franchises ranging from Alien and
Predator to The Simpsons - not to mention videogame movies such as Max
Payne."
Crispy Gamer - The Word: Some Thoughts on EGM
"While these challenges seem impossible to overcome, print magazines can and
will survive. Better management, a more refined focus on content that cannot
be found on the internet, interesting personalities and credibility are all
important keys to future success."
GameZone -
The Rise and Fall of MMOs in 2008
"What leads to that conclusion? Well, three new triple-A games were released
in 2008 (not thinking about the expansions to existing franchises – which
did fare well), and all three were greeted with open arms and now have
serious fallout in terms of declining subscription numbers … check that –
two have serious declining numbers; the third, Tabula Rasa, is already
slated to close in February of 2009. (Hellgate: London, which opened in
October of 2007 – and featured both solo and multiplayer elements – has
announced it will close its online servers at the end of January.)"
AtomicGamer -
Where Prince of Persia Faltered
"But does this game deserve all the hate? I don't think so, and I'm going to
dive into what I feel are the successes and failures of Ubisoft Montreal's
latest action game."
A new trailer from Watchmen: The End is Nigh offers a look at Deadline
Games' upcoming episodic game tie-in with the movie based on the beloved
Watchmen comic series. The clip shows off the fighting prowess of Night Owl and
Rorschach, as much as is kicked and many names are taken. You can find the clip
on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell. The game doesn't have an exact release schedule yet, but the
movie debuts in March.
A teaser on the
PlayStation.Blog for Qore Episode 08 teases a demo for F.E.A.R. 2:
Project Origin, saying: "As for downloadable goodies, don’t miss a new,
Qore-exclusive Killzone 2 theme and Qore-only early access to the F.E.A.R. 2
demo (Expected Availability: Mid-January)." The excited discussion of this on
the
F.E.A.R. 2- Project Origin Forums prompted
a post from Monolith community manager Yurei clarifying that the demo will
be available for all three platforms around the same time: "I can't give
specifics on the release of the demo because of "marketing/pr strategy" but both
consoles and pc will be getting a demo all around the same time. I'll release
more specifics when I'm able. I've played the demo and it's a ton of fun. I
can't wait for the Community to get their hands on it." Thanks Dave. On a
related note, there's a
F.E.A.R. 2 Q&A on PCGH discussing the engine in the shooter sequel with
Monolith software engineer John O'Rorke.
The
World of Warcraft Forums announces that the restrictions for creating a
Death Knight character in World of Warcraft have eased (as promised), and
they are now allowing players who have level 55 or higher toons to create a
Death Knight on any realm in their region, rather than restricting this to the
realm of the level 55 character. There are still restrictions, however: "Please
keep in mind that restrictions still apply to new, non-transfer realms such that
death knights cannot be created on those realms until you level a character to
level 55 on that realm or until transfer restrictions are removed. For any
players considering creating a new death knight, we wanted to give an early
heads-up, in case you wished to create a new death knight on a realm other than
the one where your characters currently reside." Further details are in their
Death Knight Creation FAQ. Thanks
WorldofWar.Net.
Sports Interactive and SEGA Europe announce that Football Manager Live
is, well, live, offering a persistent-world installment in the Football Manager
series of football/soccer simulations. The game is currently available for
download from the
Football Manager Live Website, where the client is free, but play requires a
paid subscription. A boxed edition is due in stores on January 23, which
includes a subscription. Here's word on pricing in British currency: "Football
Manager Live operates on a subscription service, with the initial retail boxed
copy retailing at £29.99 including a four month subscription to the game, with
online subscriptions costing £22.99 to play the game for three months, £43.99
for six months and £72.99 for a full year, which equates to less than 20p per
day." Here's a bit on gameplay: “Football Manager Live is a very different
game to Football Manager – imagine, if you can, a cross between Football
Manager, fantasy football, an auction website and some social networking, and
you’ll be just about there,” said Miles Jacobson, Studio Director at Sports
Interactive. “Football Manager Live is the best way to prove your football
management prowess to the world, and with a new development model dubbed as
“constant development”, there will be new features being added to the game every
few months, with a lot of these features being based directly on consumer
feedback and what the people playing Football Manager Live want to see in the
game.”
“Football Manager Live is an exciting step forward for the Football Manager
brand, and with Sports Interactive being behind the helm of the very first live
football MMO, it couldn’t be in better hands,” said Gary Knight, Marketing
Director of SEGA Europe Ltd.
Football Manager Live lets you create and manage your very own football club,
choosing your team name, colours, badge, home ground, and also deciding which
players to sign from Sports Interactive’s famous database of over 330,000 real
world footballers.
Eidos lowers forecasts following slow Tomb Raider sales has word that
Tomb Raider: Underworld generated approximately 1.5 million sales through
the end of last year, which would be a runaway success for many titles, but not
for a franchise with such lofty expectations. Eidos indicates much of the
shortfall from their internal projections is in North America, and while the
game's reviews are fairly lukewarm, they blame this on the economy: "In a
difficult North American economy we have seen retailers restricting inventory
levels and triple-A products being price discounted above our expectation." As a
result, Eidos has lowered its financial expectations for the year, and indicate
this may force them to tap their line of credit: "We have passed our peak net
debt position and we retain sufficient headroom within our committed banking
facility but given revised profit expectations we may need to enter into
discussions with our lending bank regarding our June 2009 covenants." A
follow-up story indicates that Eidos stock values plunged 25% to 12.25 pence
on the news.
Battlefront.com now offers a new playable demo for Combat Mission Shock
Force. The new version 1.11 demo includes a sample the original game, as
well as the newer separate Marines add-on. The new demo includes three
scenarios playable as either the US or Syria, and a fourth demo training
scenario for the US side, full multiplayer support, and access to the game
editor (though you cannot save scenarios in the demo). Also included is the full
game manual in Adobe Acrobat format. The demo is English, but they also outline a
convoluted process to support other languages. Downloads of the demo are
mirrored on
FileFront and Gamer's
Hell. Also, while the version 1.11 patch for the full game came
out last month, this was for the Battlefront edition of the game, and now the
patches are also now available for the Paradox Interactive edition on
FileFront and
Gamer's Hell; and for the GamersGate edition on
FileFront and
Gamer's Hell.
Strategy Informer has excerpted a tidbit from an interview with Relic's
Jonny Ebbert they will be publishing in its entirety soon. The lead designer on
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II says their support of the original Dawn of War
"wasn't up to snuff," saying they cause this problem themselves with a process
that took months to get patches created and distributed, making it impossible to
react quickly, which he says, "sucked because we couldn’t react quickly enough
to developments in the community, you know problems and things breaking the
game, so our new patching pipeline allows us to respond very quickly which is
huge." He also says the multiplayer experience is improved by the use of Games
For Windows matchmaking, as it provides them with more robustness in dealing
with firewall negotiation, matchmaking, and server load: "I think the player is
going to get a lot more exciting multiplayer experience."
Worlds In Motion has details on Planet Calypso, a new MMORPG using
what is now called the Entropia Universe Platform. Planet Calypso is being
created by a new subsidiary of MindArk called First Planet that's headed up by
MindArk vet Marco Behrmann, and while there aren't many details, a story on
CNET clarifies
that First Planet was spun off to focus on the functional gaming side of Project
Entropia, while MindArk will remain focused on promoting the platform for other
MMO endeavors. Thanks
Massively.
The Mytheon Preview
on 1UP talks with designer Pat Pannullo and producer Geoff Bent from
Petroglyph about Mytheon, their upcoming subscription-free online
action/strategy/RPG. They discuss how the game's RTS elements will operate, the
setting that's modeled after ancient Greece, how there will not be separate PvP
servers, and their philosophy on microtransactions: "Microtransactions should
sell convenience or cool visuals -- 'bling' -- not advantages."
The
Making of… Prince of Persia on Edge Online is a look back at the creation of
Prince of Persia. No, it's not too early to have perspective on this, as
they are talking about the original side-scroller from 1989, not the recent
iteration of the series with the same name. The extensive article relies heavily
on designer Jordan Mechner to outline the thinking behind the game (which was
heavily inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the process of getting
it created.
Ten Ton Hammer -
Cryptic, Champions and the Console MMOG
"Will Champions Online set the stage for a more console-friendly MMOG
future?"
ACM Queue - Scaling
in Games & Virtual Worlds (thanks Ant and
Slashdot)
"Online games and virtual worlds have familiar scaling requirements, but
don't be fooled: Everything you know is wrong." By Jim Waldo, Sun
Microsystems.
Devicer recently sent me a link for some " 3M
Performance Plus 8979N Nuclear Grade 48-Millimeter-by-54.8-Meter Duct Tape,
Slate Blue," which I figured he thought I'd like because of the color (which
I do; I already have some blue duct tape). On further examination, though, this
is a treasure trove of wackiness, though sadly, the note saying the original
price was $500.00 seems to be gone. There's still some funs stuff: Like the
combo suggestion of a Rubik's Cube and the brilliant customer reviews, but the
best part for me is how the "Nuclear Grade" part seems literal, as the product
description says this tape is: "Ideal for applications in the shipbuilding,
nuclear power plant and stainless steel industries." We live near a nuclear power
plant, and reading that is not reassuring.
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