RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS THREAD!

[Morgoth]

Ex-baseball star, addicted to MMOs, gets to make his own game with government money, squanders it all and walks away with a smile? Sounds like he's living The American Dream.

[Monte Carlo]

Ex-baseball star, addicted to MMOs, gets to make his own game with government money, squanders it all and walks away with a smile? Sounds like he's living The American Dream.

 

Aye. You can't teach that.

[Hurlshort]

I wonder how close/far from the mark the NPD sales figures were. 330000 sold copies (for pc and consoles combined) doesn't sound like a lot for the level of ambition and investment put into the game..

 

Yep. The sad thing is that is a fairly reasonable number for a new IP, especially in the RPG genre. That basically should have been their expectation, but it looks like they were banking on a million plus in sales. A new studio with a new IP shouldn't expect to sell Bethesda/Bioware numbers out of the gate.

[Malcador]

23 minutes of Planetside 2

 

[Gorgon]

Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands ?

[vault_overseer]

Ex-baseball star, addicted to MMOs, gets to make his own game with government money, squanders it all and walks away with a smile? Sounds like he's living The American Dream.

 

Don't forget the part where he's a vocal Tea Party supporter and huge opponent of Obama and bailouts and government money.

[entrerix]

kingdoms of amalur just wasn't very good... so i guess it makes sense thinking that the developer had a love for MMO's

[WorstUsernameEver]

Reckoning had nothing to do with the loan, to be honest, Big Huge Games is set in Maryland, and the game is basically their THQ action-RPG which was canceled with the Amalur lore tacked on. NPD talked about 410,000 too, which summed with digital sales and rest of the world, could easily rank up to a million. If they lost money with that, then eh... mismanagement?

 

That said, I absolutely have no idea how Rhode Island could possibly think such a big loan was a good idea, especially considering how risky Schilling's venture was. The MMO was a doomed prospect from the beginning, and, if I remember the articles I've read recently correctly, even analysts pointed out to them that it was extremely risky. Tax payers have all the right to be angry.

[C2B]

Reckoning had nothing to do with the loan, to be honest, Big Huge Games is set in Maryland, and the game is basically their THQ action-RPG which was canceled with the Amalur lore tacked on. NPD talked about 410,000 too, which summed with digital sales and rest of the world, could easily rank up to a million. If they lost money with that, then eh... mismanagement?

 

North America seems like the biggest market for that title so I really doubt it would add up to a million. Not to mention that Reckoning doesn't seem like a cheap game. It's really big, third person and had close to 100 people working on it.

 

If people were arguing that 820'000 for a cheaply produced game as DSIII was merely "ok" or even "bad" then Kingdoms of Amalur certainly didn't have great sales.

Edited May 18, 2012 by C2B

[WorstUsernameEver]

North America seems like the biggest market for that title so I really doubt it would add up to a million. Not to mention that Reckoning doesn't seem like a cheap game. It's really big, third person and had close to 100 people working on it.

 

If people were arguing that 820'000 for a cheaply produced game as DSIII was merely "ok" or even "bad" then Kingdoms of Amalur certainly didn't have great sales.

 

DSIII was shipped though, not sold. And I'm not sure if I agree that North America is the biggest market for this kind of game. Either way, Reckoning really can't be the reason they're tanking, it's pretty much a title that had nothing to do with the loan. And honestly, 100 people on it? What were they working on? The game has some pretty cheap assets, 90% of the quests are of the fetch variety, and the loot is random generated for the most part. Seriously, I.. I don't understand.

[C2B]

North America seems like the biggest market for that title so I really doubt it would add up to a million. Not to mention that Reckoning doesn't seem like a cheap game. It's really big, third person and had close to 100 people working on it.

 

If people were arguing that 820'000 for a cheaply produced game as DSIII was merely "ok" or even "bad" then Kingdoms of Amalur certainly didn't have great sales.

 

DSIII was shipped though, not sold. And I'm not sure if I agree that North America is the biggest market for this kind of game. Either way, Reckoning really can't be the reason they're tanking, it's pretty much a title that had nothing to do with the loan. And honestly, 100 people on it? What were they working on? The game has some pretty cheap assets, 90% of the quests are of the fetch variety, and the loot is random generated for the most part. Seriously, I.. I don't understand.

 

 

They're tanking because they worked over five years on an MMO and the main reason they bought Big Huge and made Amalur is to get some money into their pockets. Which it didn't. So, true mismanagment. Heavily.

 

And someone still has to do all that stuff even if they are fetch quests.

Edited May 18, 2012 by C2B

[Zoraptor]

A million seems a reasonable estimate for KoA. But even if EA weren't distributing it and taking a cut that would be in the ballpark (ohoho) of $20 million in revenue. Fine, except apparently they're burning through 4 mill a month in expenses. Given that EA was the distributor their cut might be only half that.

 

It does look rather like mismanagement and if the MMO is really still a full year away there was no way KoA could have saved them unless it sold in the ~5 million range, which would be hopelessly optimistic for a new IP from a relatively unknown studio.

[Monte Carlo]

kingdoms of amalur just wasn't very good... so i guess it makes sense thinking that the developer had a love for MMO's

 

I only played the demo but from that I concur. It wasn't that it was bad. It just wasn't that great either. The general style of it reminded me of Rift (how's that doing, btw?) and the whole episode smacks of folks who see what looks like a goldmine (MMOs) and get stuck in without the requisite experience.

 

Mr. Salvatore's involvement also goes to show that just because you can write, it doesn't mean you can write for games and it isn't a key metric for making the whole piece stand out.

[Oner]

Mr. Salvatore's involvement also goes to show that just because you can write, it doesn't mean you can write for games and it isn't a key metric for making the whole piece stand out.

He was writing background lore, not the actual game.

[Nepenthe]

Mr. Salvatore's involvement also goes to show that just because you can write, it doesn't mean you can write for games and it isn't a key metric for making the whole piece stand out.

He was writing background lore, not the actual game.

Also, the jury's still out on Salvatore's ability to write.

[Hurlshort]

 

I only played the demo but from that I concur. It wasn't that it was bad. It just wasn't that great either. The general style of it reminded me of Rift (how's that doing, btw?) and the whole episode smacks of folks who see what looks like a goldmine (MMOs) and get stuck in without the requisite experience.

 

 

Rift and Trion Worlds seems to be doing quite well. They can join Turbine on the list of developers who figured out how to make an MMO without breaking the bank.

[Morgoth]

PC version of Max Payne 3 to ship on 4 DVDs.

 

This game will have glorious textures. Also, it's really about time to get Blu-Ray Discs standardized for PC retail games. That should be pretty much inevitable once the Next-Gen consoles ship.

[greylord]

What DRM is shipping with MP3? IS it going to be one of those stupid "I bought the game on Disk but now have to download the rest of it off the internet?" type deals.

 

Better to ship it with 10 disks than d/l that much. It won't affect me, but if it's still 35 GB and the compression isn't outstanding, that could mean a 15-20 GB download off the net...such giant D/L's could kill some of those who have monthly limits on d/l's

[Humanoid]

I recall more than a few games coming with both CDs and a DVD in the same box in the late 90s - Tex Murphy Overseer certainly did - but not sure publishers would bother going to the extra expense nowadays unless they had a vested interest in the BD format being adopted. An important difference I suppose is that now, even if a PC game came on several DVDs, it would still only be for installation, whereas in those heady "multimedia gaming" days, disc swapping was more akin to what consoles do today.

[Morgoth]

What DRM is shipping with MP3? IS it going to be one of those stupid "I bought the game on Disk but now have to download the rest of it off the internet?" type deals.

 

Better to ship it with 10 disks than d/l that much. It won't affect me, but if it's still 35 GB and the compression isn't outstanding, that could mean a 15-20 GB download off the net...such giant D/L's could kill some of those who have monthly limits on d/l's

 

Gameshield. Rockstar Social Pass for Multiplayer.

 

No Steam. No SecuROM. No Origin. No GFWL.

Edited May 19, 2012 by Morgoth

[Nepenthe]

PC version of Max Payne 3 to ship on 4 DVDs.

 

This game will have glorious textures. Also, it's really about time to get Blu-Ray Discs standardized for PC retail games. That should be pretty much inevitable once the Next-Gen consoles ship.

As long as the Microsoft company line is that blu-ray is obsolete and will be replaced in the near future fully by digital downloads, I don't see it happening. I assume their R&D staff are from the Nordic countries, or some other equally civilised place with no bandwidth limits.

[pmp10]

PC version of Max Payne 3 to ship on 4 DVDs.

 

This game will have glorious textures. Also, it's really about time to get Blu-Ray Discs standardized for PC retail games. That should be pretty much inevitable once the Next-Gen consoles ship.

As long as the Microsoft company line is that blu-ray is obsolete and will be replaced in the near future fully by digital downloads, I don't see it happening. I assume their R&D staff are from the Nordic countries, or some other equally civilised place with no bandwidth limits.

That attitude may change soon.

They will need some kind of drive for their new xbox.

[Nepenthe]

They will need some kind of drive for their new xbox.

Or won't, depending on their level of delusion.

 

Meanwhile, EA's trying to be the good guys now that acti's in the doghouse for a change. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-18-ea-to-waive-origin-distribution-fees-for-all-kickstarter-games

[Morgoth]

I find EA's policy still more toxic to the whole game industry than Acti.

 

At least Acti just keeps to CoD.

 

EA however wants to keep changing the whole industry for the worse.

[Nepenthe]

Heh, Acti keeps to CoD because they ran all their other franchises to ground with the same approach. But it seems to be working for them, for the moment at least.