Gaming News

Gunmonkey

I do hope SEGA win that, they have put out a fair few games I loved this generation.

And funny how just a month ago Gearbox and RP were spouting how they weren't part of the marketing and shouldn't be fined, it was all SEGA's doing.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2014/08/01/gearbox-aliens/1

Gearbox never belonged in this lawsuit. Gearbox is a video game software developer. It was neither the publisher nor seller of the video game at issue.' the company told the court in its filing. 'For more than a year, Gearbox has quietly abided the plaintiffs' claims so that Sega, the game's publisher and the party responsible for the game's marketing and sale, could assume the defence of this lawsuit. Gearbox has honoured its publisher's request in spite of plaintiffs' highly-publicised-and highly-misplaced-claims against Gearbox. At this point, however, Gearbox is obligated to pursue its rightful departure from this case.

gizmo

Gunmonkey wrote: »

I do hope SEGA win that, they have put out a fair few games I loved this generation.

And funny how just a month ago Gearbox and RP were spouting how they weren't part of the marketing and shouldn't be fined, it was all SEGA's doing.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2014/08/01/gearbox-aliens/1

Conversely, I hope they get hammered. If you read some more of their responses, you can see not only that they've basically lied about certain points but also an interesting view of the typical publisher/developer relationship in these cases. With respect to the marketing part, you'll see SEGA had "absolute discretion" on the marketing side and while Gearbox had to be consulted on it, that first clause would mean they could still just do whatever they had planned. Gearbox are most definitely responsible for the technical failures of the marketing side, the biggest culprit being the failure to reach the benchmark set by the E3 demo but SEGA's attempts at trying to wiggle their way out of the blame is amusing to say the least.

The filing also refutes Gearbox's earlier claims that they never received any payments tied to the sales of Aliens. According to the filing, Sega paid Gearbox millions of dollars in advance royalties in the form of milestone payments. These were payments tied to the timed completion of things like a demo.

"If and when Sega recoups the royalties advanced to Gearbox in the form of milestone payments, Gearbox will receive a percentage of the net receipts for each sale of ACM," according to the motion.

I'd be amazed if the judge doesn't lambaste them for that twisting of the truth too.

Zero-Cool

Assassins Creed Movie news:

Assassin’s Creed’ to take place in 15th century Spain; Co-producer and film lead, Michael Fassbender, to take on dual roles

http://www.vcpost.com/articles/26148/20140904/assassin-s-creed-take-place-15th-century-spain-co-producer-michael-fassbender-dual-roles.htm

Genghiz Cohen

sheehy83 wrote: »

Assassins Creed Movie news:

Assassin’s Creed’ to take place in 15th century Spain; Co-producer and film lead, Michael Fassbender, to take on dual roles

http://www.vcpost.com/articles/26148/20140904/assassin-s-creed-take-place-15th-century-spain-co-producer-michael-fassbender-dual-roles.htm

I heard rumours that there will be a new one every year. And if you order your tickets in advance you get free pants.

humanji

In other game/movie news, Andrés Muschietti will be directing a movie based of Shadow Of The Colossus. It's always a worry when someone who's directed one or two movies is asked to work on a film based on an existing IP, as it gives the impression that it'll be the studio who decides everything and they need a director who isn't established to go their own way.

Seth Lochhead, who wrote Hanna is working on the screenplay.

http://www.movies.ie/movie%20news/MAMA_Helmer_Directing_SHADOW_OF_THE_COLOSSUS_Movie

tok9

Ya I read about that yesterday.

I'm just concerned regarding a movie about SOTC

mmmcake

Think of the positives, if the SOTC film is a success it will light a fire under the makers of the last guardian.
We might get to see it sometime before 2020.

degrassinoel

Apparently Blizzard have shítcanned project TITAN - their next gen mmo which has been in development for 7 or 8 years

Shame really

Nody

degrassinoel wrote: »

Shame really

I'd see it the other way; I'm happy they had the courage to cancel it.

We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."

"The discipline of knowing when to quit is important," Metzen said. "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."

"We took a step back and realized that it had some cool hooks. It definitely had some merit as a big, broad idea, but it didn't come together. It did not distill. The music did not flow.

Which all leads up to this quote which is what makes Blizzard so damn good at what they do.

"That's for sure, that we'd rather cut out a game we put a lot of time and resources into than put out something that might..."

Metzen finished Morhaime's sentence: "Damage the relationship. Smash the trust."

The game simply did not work; did not meet their standards and got canned. Not the first one; not the last one and they canned completed games before that they felt were not up to snuff so if they say it was not good enough I believe 'em and I'll buy their next one instead :P

degrassinoel

Seven years of work and nothing to show for it though, that is a shame. I'm not so sure about flatout buying their next product myself unless it's another D3 expansion or similar arpg. If they shít out another mmo, i dont think i'll be buying it, not with how wow has evolved over the last 3 or so years. man, everything after LK was terrible, and lazy too imo

BlitzKrieg

Ghost is still coming right?

AlmightyCushion

degrassinoel wrote: »

Seven years of work and nothing to show for it though, that is a shame. I'm not so sure about flatout buying their next product myself unless it's another D3 expansion or similar arpg. If they shít out another mmo, i dont think i'll be buying it, not with how wow has evolved over the last 3 or so years. man, everything after LK was terrible, and lazy too imo

They could still use some of the code/art design/ideas for other projects so it's not all lost. Plus, better to can it now than to spend even more developing and releasing it and potentially losing a lot more.

BloodBath

My guess is that wow is still such a huge cash cow for them that their shareholders and investors don't see the point in putting hundreds of millions into developing and marketing a rival mmo especially when failure rates for mmos are so high.

Nobody has managed to come close to wows success or even take much of their market share. Why would they compete with their own product?

I wish wow would die already though otherwise we will never see warcraft 4.

ShadowHearth

BloodBath wrote: »

My guess is that wow is still such a huge cash cow for them that their shareholders and investors don't see the point in putting hundreds of millions into developing and marketing a rival mmo especially when failure rates for mmos are so high.

Nobody has managed to come close to wows success or even take much of their market share. Why would they compete with their own product?

I wish wow would die already though otherwise we will never see warcraft 4.

I am pretty sure Hearthstone is bigger Cash cow then wow right now. Plus they are going with that Moba game too. They are just way too focused on free to play market. I bet that in blizzard they go to meetings laughing: "OMFG I cant believe they are still paying subscription!"

Generic Dreadhead

"Money Fight" :pac:

VinLieger

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I am pretty sure Hearthstone is bigger Cash cow then wow right now. Plus they are going with that Moba game too. They are just way too focused on free to play market. I bet that in blizzard they go to meetings laughing: "OMFG I cant believe they are still paying subscription!"

I find it hard to believe Hearthstone brings in more than 100 million a year cus that's about where WoW is currently and its gonna get a bump when Warlords of Draenor comes out as per the usual trend of people going back for a bit.

But I do agree id say they laugh at the johnny come lately MMO's who keep trying to make subscriptions work and the eejits who still pay for WoW

Kiith

VinLieger wrote: »

But I do agree id say they laugh at the johnny come lately MMO's who keep trying to make subscriptions work and the eejits who still pay for WoW

As much as it pains me to say it, WoW is still the best MMO out there. That's why people still pay for it.

Skerries

which of the free to play ones are actually any use?

Reekwind

VinLieger wrote: »

I find it hard to believe Hearthstone brings in more than 100 million a year cus that's about where WoW is currently and its gonna get a bump when Warlords of Draenor comes out as per the usual trend of people going back for a bit.

The key phrase being "for a bit". WoW is shedding subscribers fast and currently has about half the number as it had during its 2011 peak. The last two expansions have failed to arrest this slide, with looks to be terminal.

That doesn't mean that WoW is going anywhere soon but if Blizzard want to line up a successor MMO then it needs to be ready for launch in the next year or two.

Interested Observer

VinLieger wrote: »

I find it hard to believe Hearthstone brings in more than 100 million a year cus that's about where WoW is currently and its gonna get a bump when Warlords of Draenor comes out as per the usual trend of people going back for a bit.

But I do agree id say they laugh at the johnny come lately MMO's who keep trying to make subscriptions work and the eejits who still pay for WoW

If we're purely talking about revenue then WoW takes in way more than that a year surely? They have about 7 million active accounts. Would bring in nearly $100m a month at that rate.

BloodBath

I think most of the subscribers are Chinese who have a different payment model. Blizzard sold out. Mists of Pandaria only came about because the majority of players are now Chinese.

They have nowhere left to go with the storyline without creating new lore which should be left to an actual warcraft rts game imo.

I guess we'll see at least 2 more ****e wow expansions, the third starcraft installment and heroes of the storm before then.

Their main goal now though is making money, not good games. The merger with Activision ruined the company.

Xenji

Skerries wrote: »

which of the free to play ones are actually any use?

I have been playing Guild Wars for years, Guild Wars 2 is free, but you have to buy the game first, it is a great MMO and actually has a free trial week starting tomorrow.

BloodBath

I wouldn't go as far as calling it great to be honest. I think the reviews were generous if anything.

If you're going to get into an mmo wow is still by far the best one. ESO a distant second.

Zero-Cool

2 Days late and news already confirmed last year but at least it's something.

Mr. Hawk posted this with caption:

"A romantic poem for your Valentine's Day. Also - we are working on a new THPS to be released this year. Love, Tony"

Generic Dreadhead

Re-release 2 you say? Well why don't we just pi$$ over ALL my childhood :mad:
Series jumped the shark with THUG 1, THUG 2 and the one after it were awful.

Zero-Cool

I'd say it's more blue rhymes with 2 Not sure if I'd like proper physics or just a new EA Skate game instead.

Stone Deaf 4evr

sheehy83 wrote: »

I'd say it's more blue rhymes with 2 Not sure if I'd like proper physics or just a new EA Skate game instead.

2 was the one I'll always have the fondest memories of as it was my first one, (sega dreamcast ftw, yo!) the introduction of the revert move in 3 was cool, but I didnt enjoy the maps as much as in 2.

kunst nugget

Article about gaming addiction on Cracked:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-we-need-to-take-video-game-addiction-seriously/

Generic Dreadhead

kunst nugget wrote: »

Article about gaming addiction on Cracked:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-we-need-to-take-video-game-addiction-seriously/

5 Ways Video Game Addiction is Ruining Gaming

Fallen at the 1st hurdle cracked. So sick of this

Dave_The_Sheep

BloodBath wrote: »

I wouldn't go as far as calling it great to be honest. I think the reviews were generous if anything.

If you're going to get into an mmo wow is still by far the best one. ESO a distant second.

If you're looking for gear treadmill, then yeah. I hear WoW is still best. I personally haven't played it, but there are plenty of people I've talked to about it who still go back time and again. It's doing something right alright.

If you're looking for WoW 2.0, then Guild Wars 2 isn't for you. It's not about gear progression and hours long raids and ever increasing numbers. And I think that's why GW2 has survived without getting mauled like Wildstar and ESO. It's not trying to be WoW.

It also has the happy function of not being sub based. So you can dip in and out at will. It's not without it's problems, that's for sure, but comparing it to WoW doesn't help either game.