Gaming News

Gunmonkey

Would love to see the Overwatch percentages. How in the hell, when I have only 15/60 items for each character, can I get minimum 2 duplicates in each box.

humanji

At some point in the past I signed up for the Egosoft newsletter and then forgot about it as it always went into my spam folder. Reading one that arrived earlier, I saw saw them talk about a new X game.

I loved the X3 games (never played X1 & X2) and the complexity of trying to get a company up and running (I always failed). I was all excited for X:Rebirth, only to find it an incredibly dumbed down game with all the fun sucked out of it. Egosoft have been steadily releasing updates to make it more in line with what the fans wanted, but couldn't get back to the style of game that X3 was.

So below is the bit from the newsletter:

There is, however, also another project that we are working on and which is equally exciting to us: X4. It is still too early to talk about many details of this, and it doesn't even have a full name yet, but we are making good progress and I wanted to share a few words with you about what we have been doing in the last couple of years.

When we worked on X Rebirth we needed to make a lot of simplifications. We removed some features in order to be able to concentrate on others. But when X Rebirth was released, many fans expected it to be an "X4"; a game with most of the key features of the X3 games and then some. Since then, we have worked hard to make X Rebirth a better game, incorporating player feedback, continuing to develop the engine it is based on, and releasing many updates and expansions. However we also realise that there are still many unfulfilled wishes, some of which would require extensive changes that couldn't be implemented in the existing game. Many of these are things we would also like to see in a space game and these, along with the foundations laid by all the work and feedback that went into X Rebirth, have been the basis for the big project that we have been working on for the last few years: a real X4.

While I cannot say much about its features yet, what I can tell you about it so far is that it will allow you to fly many different ships, it will give you an all-new interface to manage large fleets, and it will give you full freedom when building stations from individual modules.

Please be patient with this and we promise to show some really cool things later in 2017!

It does sound like they realise that Rebirth was the wrong direction, and hopefully it'll be more in line with the previous games. It's still a ways off, but worth keeping an eye out for.

Kiith

I didn't try Rebirth after all the negative reports about it, but i'd love them to get back to the original formula and am really interested to see what they can do.

Robert ninja

https://twitter.com/nichegamer/status/809584133706055680

gizmo

Wait, UMG flagged it? Is it because of the Stand By Me cover being played in the game at the end of the video?

dunworth1

gizmo wrote: »

the Stand By Me cover

love that cover

Varik

Waiting to get FF for the PSN sale, actually looking forward to pushing a car.

Polish government seem to have given CD Project Red 7 million in grants http://www.gamezone.com/news/cd-projekt-red-just-got-7-million-in-government-funding-to-research-seamless-multiplayer-and-city-creation-presumably-for-cyberpunk-2077-3446552 :eek:

Small change in games development maybe but in their hands ???? Hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 just got a steroid injection

Mickeroo

Deleted User wrote: »

Polish government seem to have given CD Project Red 7 million in grants http://www.gamezone.com/news/cd-projekt-red-just-got-7-million-in-government-funding-to-research-seamless-multiplayer-and-city-creation-presumably-for-cyberpunk-2077-3446552 :eek:

Small change in games development maybe but in their hands ???? Hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 just got a steroid injection

Not surprising, the Polish PM gave Obama a copy of Witcher 2 when he visited a few years ago

Stone Deaf 4evr

Mickeroo wrote: »

Not surprising, the Polish PM gave Obama a copy of Witcher 2 when he visited a few years ago

I wonder did he pick Iorveth or Vernon Roche? :pac:

Retr0gamer

Jeremy Parish is stepping down as Editor for USgamer and leaving the site to pursue his own projects. It's a pity but I have noticed a decline in the number of articles he's published lately so hopefully this means more retronauts and Gameboy world articles.

Sieghardt

Atlus are announcing a new RPG project on the 23rd, hopefully it's something cool

http://gematsu.com/2016/12/atlus-announce-brand-new-fantasy-rpg-project-december-23

Shougeki

Deleted User wrote: »

Small change in games development maybe but in their hands ???? Hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 just got a steroid injection

Also a leaked potential release date:
http://fraghero.com/cyberpunk-2077-release-date-leaked/

Release Sept 2017. For purchase next Feb

johnny_ultimate

Both Kotaku and Eurogamer reporting that Scalebound has been cancelled: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-09-sources-microsoft-and-platinum-part-ways-on-scalebound-development-ceased

Shame if indeed that is the case. The game never majorly grabbed me from what I'd seen, but Kamiya is a bloody great so would have liked to see what he had cooking. Also the sort of exclusive Microsoft needs more of.

ERG89

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Both Kotaku and Eurogamer reporting that Scalebound has been cancelled: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-09-sources-microsoft-and-platinum-part-ways-on-scalebound-development-ceased

Shame if indeed that is the case. The game never majorly grabbed me from what I'd seen, but Kamiya is a bloody great so would have liked to see what he had cooking. Also the sort of exclusive Microsoft needs more of.

IGN hinted at this heavily on a recent podcast. Like they knew what we didn't.
Platinum are hard to call lately, I enjoyed the Nier demo (Bayonetta, Vanquish & Revengeance were great) but they have put out a fair bit of muck too in recent years in particular that Turtles game was incredibly bad.

Sephiroth_dude

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Both Kotaku and Eurogamer reporting that Scalebound has been cancelled: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-09-sources-microsoft-and-platinum-part-ways-on-scalebound-development-ceased

Shame if indeed that is the case. The game never majorly grabbed me from what I'd seen, but Kamiya is a bloody great so would have liked to see what he had cooking. Also the sort of exclusive Microsoft needs more of.

Very disappointed by that.

johnny_ultimate

Confirmed now

ERG89 wrote: »

IGN hinted at this heavily on a recent podcast. Like they knew what we didn't.
Platinum are hard to call lately, I enjoyed the Nier demo (Bayonetta, Vanquish & Revengeance were great) but they have put out a fair bit of muck too in recent years in particular that Turtles game was incredibly bad.

It's a strange one, I get the impression of a studio basically just about surviving from project to project, with the cheapo commercial efforts (TMNT, Transformers etc all of varying quality) helping sustain their 'auteur' projects.

On the plus side, Nier is indeed a solid demo with Platinum fingerprints all over it. It feels like every subsequent great Platinum game is one we're and indeed they're very lucky to get these days.

Platinum are a hit and miss outfit , for every great game they make they also make a bad one. Was looking forward to scalebound, MS plulled the plug on it from what I gather and they've history doing that on games but who knows what the scalebound issues were, likely needed more money and time spent on it than ms were willing to cough up but how close to completion was it ? Wasn't it due for release this year?

Related to this is that some of platinum games were delisted on the xbox store over the last few days including the TMNT one.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Platinum fold after this, be a big loss.

Stone Deaf 4evr

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Platinum are a hit and miss outfit , for every great game they make they also make a bad one. Was looking forward to scalebound, MS plulled the plug on it form what I gather and they've history doing that on games but who knows what the scalebound issues were, likely need more money and time spent on it than ms were willing to cough up but how close to completion was it ? Wasn't due for release this year?

Related to this is that some of platinum games were delisted on the xbox store over the last few days including the TMNT one.

They've more misses than hits imo, with vanquish and bayonetta being the highlights. I don't think I know anyone who was honestly excited for scalebound,

Stone Deaf 4evr

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

They've more misses than hits imo, with vanquish and bayonetta being the highlights. I don't think I know anyone who was honestly excited for scalebound,

AH I was, but I've seen some conspiracy theories in recent time that MS wanted the co-op in the game and for it to have monster hunter style elements and MS also have history in this regard and that Platinum were pushing back but who knows. Cuphead would be a recent example of a game being delayed a long time because of demands from MS.

Makes me question Crackdown 3 now , we've seen even less of that than we have of Scalebound.

Retr0gamer

I think MS might have been pushing Scalebound to be a Monster Hunter game for the japanese market and cut ties now they realise the japanese market is never going to get on board the Xbox One.

Real pity, was looking forward to the PC port of the game and it had that cocky, self aware stupidity that Platinum and Kamiya does so well in the likes of Resi 4, Bayonetta and Revengeance.

I remember Bayonetta was widely dismissed as well before release. I guess now we will never know.

Penn

I nearly can't imagine how Platinum won't fold because of this. I mean, it was due for release this year after years of development. To be cancelled at this stage is insane.

I know it was an Xbox exclusive but if MS have pulled the plug on it, can Platinum finish it and ship it elsewhere (PS/Steam)? Or would MS hold all the rights to it?

Would be a shame if Platinum folded. I really enjoyed what they did on Metal Gear Rising which, for all its flaws, was a hell of a fun game to play.

super_furry

Platinum seemed to have spread themselves very thin of late and as a result the quality of their games has really been suffering. Since Bayonetta 2 it's all been downhill and nothing they've released since that has come even close to it's standards.

It'd be interesting to see just who is working on what there and I wouldn't be surprised if they were going in heavy on Nier with other games suffering.

gizmo

Penn wrote: »

I nearly can't imagine how Platinum won't fold because of this. I mean, it was due for release this year after years of development. To be cancelled at this stage is insane.

I know it was an Xbox exclusive but if MS have pulled the plug on it, can Platinum finish it and ship it elsewhere (PS/Steam)? Or would MS hold all the rights to it?

Would be a shame if Platinum folded. I really enjoyed what they did on Metal Gear Rising which, for all its flaws, was a hell of a fun game to play.

They're a work for hire studio so they would have been paid up until the last milestone at the end of the year. The situation they're in right now isn't massively different than the one they'd be in at the end of the Scalebound project. The main difference being, it's happened earlier than planned and possibly before they have their next major project lined up so, with the exception of some layoffs that may happen, they'll probably start working on pitch and prototype work for whatever next project they're going to push for.

As for whether they can shop it around, I *highly* doubt their contract with MS would allow it.

super_furry wrote: »

Platinum seemed to have spread themselves very thin of late and as a result the quality of their games has really been suffering. Since Bayonetta 2 it's all been downhill and nothing they've released since that has come even close to it's standards.

On a related note, the entire point of expanding the studio and taking on licence work was that it would give them some breathing room from the traditional approach many similar studios go for of putting all of their eggs in one basket. That project goes and all they're left with is no money coming in and a ticking clock. When it comes to their post-Bayonetta 2 output, with the exception of Star Fox, the only things they've released have been the licenced titles from Activision, a publisher not exactly known for opening their wallets when it comes to investment in non-core titles. Unfortunately, even if the quality of the teams across Platinum was on a level consistent with those working on their more high profile titles, there's only so much any team can do on a budget that limited.

What'd I'd find potentially more worrying in all of this is the info in the Eurogamer article which said that senior staff on the team had been forced to take a month away because of the pressure on the project. To go from that, to a cancelled project and then straight into a stressful pitch/prototype phase wouldn't be good for anyone's health.

Xenji

Platinums next two projects will be done in conjunction with Cygames, the first will be a PS4 RPG developed in association with Cygames Osaka and the second is a mobile game.

Square Enix still holds the IP for Nier and approached Platinum to develop the game, so it is hard to know how much they will make on it financially.

Retr0gamer

It will be a big blow financially to platinum. The milestone payments usually aren't enough to cover Dev costs and they are working towards the end project pay out and royalties to cover them. They've probably made a significant loss on the project. I just hope they can recover.

Penn

gizmo wrote: »

They're a work for hire studio so they would have been paid up until the last milestone at the end of the year. The situation they're in right now isn't massively different than the one they'd be in at the end of the Scalebound project. The main difference being, it's happened earlier than planned and possibly before they have their next major project lined up so, with the exception of some layoffs that may happen, they'll probably start working on pitch and prototype work for whatever next project they're going to push for.

As for whether they can shop it around, I *highly* doubt their contract with MS would allow it.

My thinking was that in terms of cashflow, could they go on to work on something new or finish some of the stuff they're currently working on if Scalebound isn't released and they don't make any profit on it. I get that they'll be paid (or have been paid) for the work done to date, but cancelling the game at this stage will surely have a huge impact on their finances through the knock-on effect.

Some sites reporting that Kamiya took a step back for a while due to mental health reasons. Pinch of salt with that but I'm sure he was under serious pressure.

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It will be a big blow financially to platinum. The milestone payments usually aren't enough to cover Dev costs and they are working towards the end project pay out and royalties to cover them. They've probably made a significant loss on the project. I just hope they can recover.

That's generally not how these kinds of contracts work. There'll be completion bonuses in some cases, as there will be ones based on critical reception (remember that horrid Fallout New Vegas example?) but most of the time the milestone payments will cover the on-going dev costs plus an amount on top required for the studio to function and/or build up small amounts of reserves. Royalties are an even greyer area. Look at it like this, despite the Gears of War series selling over 22m copies and generating over $1b in revenue as of January 2014, Tim Sweeney still credits the engine side of their business as the thing that kept them afloat.

Penn wrote: »

My thinking was that in terms of cashflow, could they go on to work on something new or finish some of the stuff they're currently working on if Scalebound isn't released and they don't make any profit on it. I get that they'll be paid (or have been paid) for the work done to date, but cancelling the game at this stage will surely have a huge impact on their finances through the knock-on effect.

That's where we have to hope the licenced work, on top of anything they've kept from the previous larger releases, has enabled them to build up enough cash reserves to avoid any significant layoffs or worse in the meantime.

Sonics2k

Sonics2k wrote: »

Finally following up from this one.
Blizzard sadly have stated they would not be discussing anything to do with a Legacy server at Blizzcon, and have by all accounts, not contacted the team at Nostalrius at all since they went to Blizzard HQ. A few members of the press have directly asked Blizzard questions about it, to which they have been dismissed.

However, it seems that Nostalrius is not letting go.

https://twitter.com/NostalBegins/status/795294897695784964

A bit of gaming news that has since kept on going since it's announcement.

Nost did not reopen, however another group called Elysium was able to take the server information and re-open the servers, allowing people to keep their servers.

That's not the big news though. On the 7th of January Elysium opted to open a brand new server, which was reported by the likes of Unilad, but also EuroGamer and Kotaku, as well as other mainstream outlets.

On the launch day the queues peaked at approximately 25,000 people in queue whilst 10,000 were on just the new server playing it.

Taking into account all three servers, a conservative estimate of it's playerbase is in the region of 45,000 active players.
Astonishing to think Blizzard have gone silent since their meeting with the Nost team back in the summer.