Showing posts with label Next-gen consoles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Next-gen consoles. Show all posts

Headline RePLAY – 7.23.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Ubisoft feels penalized by the lack of new consoles, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is like Final Fantasy V and the status on Kojima Productions’ Fox Engine.


Following Square-Enix’s lead, Ubisoft agrees that the current console generation was too long and publishers are consequently “penalized.”  

“We have been penalized by the lack of new consoles on the market,” Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot told Gamasutra. “I understand the manufacturers don’t want them too often because it’s expensive, but it’s important for the entire industry to have new consoles because it helps creativity.”

Guillemot argues that new consoles allow publishers to explore new IPs and products, but the end of a cycle doesn’t allow that luxury despite consumer demand for “new stuff.”

“It’s a lot less risky for us to create new IPs and new products when we’re in the beginning of a new generation,” he explained. “Our customers are very open to new things. Our customers are reopening their minds—and they are really going after what’s best… At the end of a console generation, they want new stuff, but they don’t buy new stuff as much. They know their friends will play Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed so they go for that. So the end of a cycle is very difficult.

“If you can’t take risks because people don’t but, you don’t innovate. And if you don’t innovate, customers get bored.”

|Source: Gamasutra


New details released by Dengeki Online reveals that Bravely Default’s gameplay is close to another Square-Enix title, specifically Final Fantasy V.

Bravely Default’s job system is identical to FFV’s by utilizing a Job Commands and Support Commands setup. Job Commands are abilities that characters use during battle while Support Abilities are automatic status effects like +10% HP or a Knight’s ability to cover party members.

Characters can even equip other Job Commands and Support Abilities learned from other jobs—with a cost. Each ability comes with a numerical “cost” value, and the amount of abilities that a character can equip is limited by their cost.  

The 3DS RPG even includes party skits, which are reminiscent of Namco Bandai’s Tales RPG series.

|Source: Andriasang


In an interview with PlayStation.Blog, Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima revealed that the new Fox Engine is “nearly finished” and a demonstration will be held on August 30th in Japan.  

“The Fox Engine is nearly finished,” Kojima told PlayStation.Blog, “but the only way to be sure it works is to create a game at the same time and improve the engine with our tools as we go along.”

Kojima noted that they were originally going to use Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for the project, but that was before Platinum Games picked up the title.  

“Production studios in Japan are nearly extinct,” he said, “a fact that we have recognized for nearly 10 years, and although the Fox Engine is not finished we are ready to show what it can do… on August 30th in Japan to be more specific.”

E3 2012 RePLAY – 6.7.12


Today on E3 2012 RePLAY: Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime stays mum on Retro Studio’s mysterious project, gameplay details on Final Fantasy Dimensions and Sony isn’t worried about the Wii U’s head start.


If Retro Studios is not working on a Star Fox and Metroid crossover, what are they working on? IGN had the opportunity to ask Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime at E3 and—he is decidedly mum about it, but wanted to assure fans that the developer is “hard at work.”

“If I disclosed what Retro is doing, I would have the president of Retro literally calling me right now saying, ‘Reggie, what are you doing?’” Fils-Aime told IGN. “We love that people are interested. We love surprising people. I remember getting the questions before we announced Donkey Kong Country Returns. And I loved unveiling that. So… Rest assured, the team is hard at work. But I’m not gonna tell you what they’re working on.”

When asked about any upcoming news, Fils-Aime said, “Likely not.”

|Source: IGN


A throwback to the 16-bit glory days of yore, Final Fantasy Dimensions embraces everything that made the SNES iterations great: charming sprites, a classic story, the return of the Final Fantasy V job system and random battles! Maybe not so much on the random battles, in retrospect.

Made by Final Fantasy IV designer Takashi Tokita, Final Fantasy Dimensions covers the story of the Light and Dark Warriors, who can fulfill different roles in battle via the job system. The Warriors can switch to classic jobs like the Knight, White/Black/Red Mages, Thief and Monk. Due to the episodic nature of the game, however, advanced classes like the Dancer, Bard, and Magus are unlocked in later episodes.  

While Dimensions has the classic Final Fantasy flair to it, the title is solely controlled by touch screen or virtual D-pad.

|Source: IGN


The Wii U is way ahead of its competition in the next-gen console race with its holiday 2012 release, but Sony isn’t concerned about Nintendo’s head start.

“Not at all. That’s the simple answer,” SCEA senior VP of product development and Worldwide Studios Scott Rohde told Joystiq.

“We have a very strong vision in what we believe we’re gonna do for the next generation,” he said. “And we’re not talking about it at all yet.”

But when will Sony start talking about its next-generation game plan? “The reality is let’s build a great machine. And we’ll talk about it then.”

Fair enough.

|Source: Joystiq

Headline RePLAY – 4.2.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Yet more rumors about the next Xbox, Sony wants first dibs on marketing their next-gen console and Capcom responds to Better Business Bureau complaints about Street Fighter X Tekken.


Not to be outdone by the wave of PlayStation 4 (a.k.a. the “Orbis”) news, new but contradictory details about the next Xbox have emerged:

In contradiction to recent reports that Microsoft’s next-gen console is going digital, VG247 claims that it will have a Blu-ray drive. Despite the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, however, the console will require a constant internet connection.

According to VG247, the specs of the machine include two GPUs. One of VG247’s sources said, “It’s like two PCs taped together.”

Additionally, it will have “four or six” cores to its CPU: one reserved for the built-in Kinect and another for the console’s OS.

*Source: VG247


Hot off the heels of all the PlayStation 4 coverage last week, rumors suggest that Sony is seeking to beat Microsoft to the punch in marketing the next-gen console.

“Sony [is] completely in the belief that they have the jump on Microsoft this time,” sources told VG247. “You should be watching the timing of next year’s E3 keynotes, and who’s going to go first.”

One such source tells VG247 that Sony is “confident” that it “will have the console at market ahead of the next generation Xbox next Christmas.”

*Source: VG247


The Street Fighter X Tekken on-disc DLC drama continues: after receiving complaints from consumers via the Better Business Bureau, Capcom responds that they see little difference in the medium that DLC is delivered.

Capcom recites their official stance that the company believes on-disc DLC provides “more flexible” and “efficient gameplay” for the game’s lifecycle. However, the kicker comes in when Capcom observes there is no distinction between on-disc DLC and DLC delivered later as a download:

“There is effectively no distinction between the DLC being “locked” behind the disc and available for unlocking at a later date, or being available through a full download at a later date, other than delivery mechanism.”

Apparently, to Capcom, completed content that is on disc is equivalent to content released post-launch received through a server, which begs the question: what is legitimate DLC and what was content cut from games to be released at a later date?

*Source: Gaming BLEND

Headline RePLAY – 3.9.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Microsoft’s next gen-console could be disc-less, Capcom misspells its own name and scrapped Super Mario Land 3D ideas are revealed.  


It looks like the next Xbox console is going digital, if MCV’s anonymous source that is under the “strictest NDA” is to be believed.

According to the source, Microsoft has been telling partners that the next Xbox will not include a disc drive. It will, however, provide compatibility via some sort of “interchangeable solid-state card storage.”

MCV has also confirmed that the console will launch in 2013, but it remains unknown when Microsoft intends to unveil the hardware or release date.

Microsoft’s response to the rumor is a curious one. The obligatory “we do not comment on rumors or speculation” is there, but preceding it they said, “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention.”

If Microsoft is intending to go with the digital model, the effects on videogame retailers that rely on selling hard copies could be a negative one.  

*Source: MCV


Apparently, Capcom needs to take remedial spelling lessons, or at least heed spellcheck. After misspelling “Revelations” on the spine of Resident Evil: Revelations and “challenges” on the back of Asura’s Wrath, Capcom is caught botching their own name in a trailer for Steel Battalion.

At the end of the trailer Capcom is typed out as “Capcpom.” How embarrassing!

*Source: ScrewAttack


Nintendo’s ideas for Super Mario Land 3D were quite strange in the early brainstorming stages, Nintendo EAD’s Koichi Hayashida revealed at GDC 2012.

While speaking at GDC yesterday, Hayashida brought a number of crude post-it note sketches that he saved from pre-production to illustrate what sort of ideas were floating around. One of them had a giant Mario where only the plumber’s legs were seen and a stretched Mario with freaky long limbs.

Other ideas included “Pro Skater Mario” where the plumber is riding a Koopa shell down a half pipe, enemy cockroaches to be squashed via slamming the 3DS shut and replacing Princess Peach’s face with a friend’s.

Hayashida emphasized that not all of the ideas shown were seriously considered, but added how important brainstorming was in making games.  

“It reminds me of something important. We must always consider ideas outside the normal range from what people expect from a Mario game,” stressed Hayashida. “We must make others laugh with strange new ideas. We have to keep a feeling of joy in the development process.”

*Source: Eurogamer