The
EA Forums have a confirmation of
widespread suspicions that
Battlefield 3 will not be sold through Valve's
Steam platform (thanks
Planet Battlefield). As was theorized, there is a terms of service conflict at the root of this because DICE's military shooter will include the ability to purchase DLC from within the game:
Gamers can pre-order Battlefield 3 at Origin.com as well as over 100 digital retailers worldwide. EA offers games to all major download services. Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. No other download service has adopted these practices.
We are intent on providing Battlefield 3 players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers. We hope to work out an agreement where Steam can carry Battlefield 3; meanwhile, gamers can pick from the more than 100 digital retailers listed at http://www.battlefield.com/digitaldownload, or go to http://www.origin.com.
The Word of Notch has word from the creator of
Minecraft (which people dig so much it just enjoyed its
three millionth sale) that in spite of his optimism when he was
contacted by Bethesda's lawyers, Mojang is now being sued by Bethesda over
their plans to title their upcoming game
Scrolls based on the belief it infringes on
The Elder Scrolls. Expressing his ongoing love for Bethesda and his continuing suspicion this "nonsense is partly just their lawyers being lawyers," he discusses his views on the situation, and here's a bit:
The implication that you could own the right to all individual words within a trademark is also a bit scary. We looked things up and realized they didn’t have much of a case, but we still took it seriously. Nothing about Scrolls is meant to in any way derive from or allude to their games. We suggested a compromise where we’d agree to never put any words in front of “Scrolls”, and instead call sequels and other things something along the lines of “Scrolls - The Banana Expansion”. I’m not sure if they ever got back to us with a reply to this.
Today, I got a 15 page letter from some Swedish lawyer firm, saying they demand us to stop using the name Scrolls, that they will sue us (and have already paid the fee to the Swedish court), and that they demand a pile of money up front before the legal process has even started.
I assume this is all some more or less automated response to us applying for the trademark. I sincerely hope Bethesda isn’t pulling a Tim Langdell.
A post on
Computer and Video Games centers on
a comment in
John Lowrie's Twitter Stream about voice work his wife
Ellen McLain is doing for Valve, saying the voice of GlaDOS was "going in Tuesday for a new game and more Portal work." The "new game" part has inspired a lot of speculation for what may or may not really represent an unannounced game from Valve, but it's not even clear if both sessions are for the same company or if this is actually for a game that hasn't yet been announced, so take this as you will. Thanks Sepharo/Ant/nin/etc.
Battleblog #5 on the Battlefield Blog talks about the unlocks and rewards in
Battlefield 3, saying there are "years worth" of such perks to be earned in DICE's upcoming military shooter sequel. Here's a bit:
Back in 2005, Battlefield 2 was one of the first shooters to introduce a deep persistence system to add that extra layer of tasty rewards and unlocks to keep players returning to the battlefield for hundreds of hours. With Battlefield 3, we are pulling all the stops. Compared to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3 will have more than 10 times the hardware unlocks spread over weapons, weapons attachments, gadgets, and a huge unlock tree for vehicles alone.
Skill and dedication equal rewards
On top of these ingame hardware items, players will also be richly rewarded with medals, ribbons and service stars displaying their skill, commitment, and teamplay prowess. You will be rewarded handsomely in Battlefield 3 for exemplary skill, such as capturing X amount of bases in one round. Excellent teamplayers who keep the team’s vehicles in mint condition and revive fallen comrades will not go unnoticed either. These type of skill-driven rewards are typically handed out in the form of ribbons, and good players can often get more than one ribbon in a single round.
An interview on GameShark chats with Brain Candy's Alexandre Avenard about
Fray, their upcoming strategy game. The conversation provides a clarity on their plans for simultaneous turn-based gameplay, and their happiness that
Frozen Synapse is a success using such a mechanic: "When we began the development on Fray, simultaneous turn-based was something very new to us as a game design choice, and researching the genre showed that very few games using this mechanic had been developed. Playing with our prototype, we knew we were onto something very fun, that could really please players, but we had no idea of how this type of game would be received. When Mode7 released their game, it was a relief, Frozen Synapse proved that players were still interested in turn based combat, and more importantly to us, the simultaneous aspect has been receiving very high praise. Frozen Synapse has proven that gamers are hungry for new gameplay, and it has definitely boosted our confidence in our game design choices."
Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Going by that grim date, today is the 66th birthday for the nuclear age.
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