Today on Headline
RePLAY: Subscriptions for Star Wars: The
Old Republic may be on the decline, videogame consoles are electric
vampires and Dragon’s Crown gets
another publisher.
When a report was
released alleging that Star Wars: The Old
Republic was not performing as well as EA expected, analysts are now suggesting
that player subscriptions for the MMO are starting to decline.
According to an
estimate by analyst group Cowen and Company, subscriber numbers peaked at 1.7
million in February, but they predict that by the end of the fiscal year in
March 2013 subscriptions will drop to around 1.25 million based on server
statistics from TorStatus.net.
“We believe that the
apparent decline in subscribers is most likely due to a lack of ‘end-game’
content for the title, meaning that players who hit the level cap have few
compelling options in terms of ongoing game play,” explained Cowen analyst Doug
Creutz. “While the game got off to a good start, the relatively light amount of
end-game content does appear to be taking a toll.
“We believe EA is
attempting to address the end-game content issue, including a recent major game
update,” he added, “but momentum appears to have stalled and we believe it is
prudent to adopt a more conservative forecast on subscribers at this time.”
|Source: Gamasutra
There were reasons why
our parents always harped on us about leaving the gaming console on when we weren’t
playing them, expensive reasons. In
2010, idle consoles consumed 10.8 TWh of energy, the equivalent of $1.24
billion in electricity costs, according to a Carnegie Mellon University study.
The research found
that a total 1 percent of U.S. residential energy consumption in 2010 was spent
just on consoles, an almost 50 percent increase from three years ago.
To counter increasing
energy costs, the study also includes power-saving suggestions to console
developers. “We demonstrate that the most effective energy-saving modification
is incorporation of a default auto power down feature, which could reduce electricity
consumption of game consoles by 75 percent (10 TWh reduction of electricity in
2010),” the study recommends, “saving consumers over $1 billion annually in electricity
bills.”
However, some
developers are already one step ahead with features like the Xbox 360’s
auto-standby, which puts the console on standby if it’s left idle for more than
one hour. Sony’s PlayStation 3 has power-management software, but it’s off by
default and users have to manually update it.
|Source: CNET
News on Dragon’s Crown continues to trickle in
and the latest development is a big one: Atlus is taking over publishing duties
in Japan and North America.
Details are scarce,
but according to PlayStation Blog, members of Atlus’ internal development team
is now involved with the project as producer(s), particularly people that
worked on the Persona series.
Sadly, the change in
publishers means that Dragon’s Crown’s
release has been delayed to 2013.
|Source: PlayStation Blog
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