Headline RePLAY – 3.5.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: A scandal at the Pokémon Videogame Championships, Capcom responds to the Street Fighter X Tekken DLC controversy and rumors about the return of the Darkstalkers!

While the Pokémon Videogame Championships were underway in Birmingham, UK, a Spanish Team was busy with having a drunken “poo” fight in a hotel corridor. It is exactly unsavory as it sounds: human feces were involved.

PokéChamp21, a competitor, detailed the incident on the Pokémon World forums: “After 30 - 40 min. in my room relaxing with a quick snooze I awoke to the sound of banging coming from down the hall from where the 'Spanish Team' were staying in. It seems that at some point after they had turned up and when we went to Wether Spoons the Spaniards had decided to have a 'Poo' fight in the corridor and this had upset the staff and several guests (naturally) at the hotel enough to call the Police and have them leave.”

The report has been verified by other sources in attendance at the tournament.

*Source: Nintendo Life

When an enterprising hacker discovered that downloadable content already exists on Street Fighter X Tekken’s game disc, a bloc of fans were outraged. In response, Capcom issued a statement to explain the matter:

“The character information and files were intentionally included on retail versions of the PS3 and Xbox 360 game to save hard drive space and to ensure for a smooth transition when the DLC is available, allowing players who choose not to purchase the content the ability to play against players that did,” said Capcom.

“As a reminder, the retail version of the game will be the only disc-based version consumers will need to own and all future upgrades will come from post-launch DLC.”

Capcom Community Manager Brett Elston elaborates: “By including these 12 characters on the disc, the idea was to ensure easy compatibility between players who do and do not choose to download the characters when they arrive as DLC.”

“This move also furthers our desire to avoid a "Super" version of the game down the road,” said Elston. “Everything you need to enjoy this game for months (and years) to come will be accessed by the retail disc available this week.”

“I understand the reaction, but SFxT is a damn fun game with a ton of content right out of the gate and more stuff - all designed to keep this fresh - to come.”

*Source: Capcom-Unity

Rumor has it that Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono, whose credentials include Street Fighter IV and Street Fights X Tekken, is working on a long awaited Darkstalkers 4.

According to a reliable VentureBeat source, the new Darkstalkers game has been in the works since last year and will be operating under a modified version of the Street Fighter X Tekken engine.

Recently, it looks like Capcom has been trying to resurrect Darkstalkers in the public eye by releasing the original Darkstalkers on PSN last year and a recent ESRB rating on Darkstalkers 3 for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. 

Darkstalkers makes vampires, werewolves and even a trigger-happy Little Red Riding Hood look good, but is often eclipsed by Capcom’s Street Fighter. Darkstalkers first made its debut in arcades in 1994 and had its last major release with Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower in 2004.

*Source: VentureBeat

Headline RePLAY – 2.27.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: the latest entry in the Pokémon series is announced, good intentions may be illegal for winners of an early copy of Mass Effect 3 and Facebook’s gaming market could be on the decline.

Junichi Masuda, the director of Pokémon Black and White, surprised fans last weekend on the TV show “Pokémon Smash” by announcing the first numbered sequel to the Pokémon series— Pokémon Black and White 2. It was rumored the new Pokémon entry would’ve been a “Pokémon Gray”, which would’ve followed GameFreak’s M.O. of releasing two versions and a “combined” version a year or two later.

This is relatively unknown territory on whether the numbered distinction carries gameplay changes or if it’s just an update of the originals. Anything is possible as we hear more news in the coming months all the way up to Pokémon Black and White 2’s North American fall release.

*Source: Pokémon

In what could only be described as an inevitable result in contests like EA’s Mass Effect 3 space giveaway, two men that won an early copy may be in legal trouble by the state of Nevada for trying to raffle the game away.

Michael Davis and Miguel Droz discovered one of the Mass Effect 3 copies that were launched into space via weather balloons in the Arizona desert. On Sunday the pair organized a lottery where interested parties could pay $5 for a ticket and a chance to get the winning number. Davis and Droz planned on sending 30 percent of the proceeds to Child’s Play, a charity organization, and the remainder to a video game company they wanted to open.

Except, in the state of Nevada where the Davis and Droz are based, lotteries are only legal if all funds go to charity. It is also a federal issue, since the pair was accepting entries across state lines, attorney Mark Methenitis said.  

“You can pretty much never rely on a charitable gaming exemption unless 100 percent of the money goes to a charity (though you can often use part of the funds to cover event costs, i.e. dealers at a charity casino night),” Methenitis told Kotaku. “Diverting the funds here is about as clear cut as you can get; they're using the funds for personal gain.”

“In short, they're running an illegal lottery which subjects them to potential criminal penalties,” Methenitis continued. "I would imagine that Child's Play, if they knew what was going on, would not want to be involved. I won't even get into the issues with the IRS that could come up here.”

“It's often a felony, which usually means something like 1-10 years in prison and/or a fine (usually in the thousands to tens of thousands range).”

Since then, Droz notified Kotaku that they were cancelling the lottery after initially trying to give all the donations to Child’s Play. “So as of now we are officially cancelling this entire thing, and refunding everyone’s money through PayPal,” said Droz in a statement.  

“Sorry about that, we should have done our homework first, but in the rush to get this done, hopefully do something cool for charity and get ourselves a kickstart to start our company, we just didn’t do due diligence. Again, we super apologize for wasting anyone’s time.”

*Source: Kotaku

Analysts and pundits have long predicted that social media games were the way of the future, but a new study from analyst firm IHS suggests that the gaming market on Facebook may be on the decline.

According to the report via Gamasutra, the number of users playing games has “stagnated” over the last several months due to “increased competition” making it more difficult for developers to attract new users despite the dramatic growth during 2009 and 2010. No hard numbers were presented in the report, but the percentage of users playing games on Facebook dropped to 25 percent in 2011, down from 50 percent at the end of 2010.

In light of the decline, IHS recommends that Facebook developers “need to be more cautious” in the upcoming months and they should focus on games that encourage “long-term engagement” (i.e. skill or commitment) from their audiences.  

*Source: Gamasutra

Headline RePLAY – 2.24.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Sony explains why the west won’t be seeing the UMD Passport Program, a tree wins a Mass Effect 3 copy and news of a new Pokémon game!

Earlier this month Sony said the PS Vita UMD Passport Program, used to transfer PSP UMDs to the PS Vita, wasn’t coming to the west. Sony Senior V.P Shuhei Yoshida tells Wired the reason boils down to simple economics: demand and pricing.

“The system has been introduced in Japan, where there is a much larger demand for PSP games,” said Yoshida, also noting that new PSP titles are still being released and announced in Japan. “Lots of people who are interested in trying Vita are also interested in playing PSP games that they might purchase before Vita comes out, and will not necessarily choose the digital version.”

“The other point is that when you look at PSP titles sold digitally in the States or Europe, games are sold for a really reasonable price,” he said, citing Final Fantasy Tactics for $10. “That is a great price. There are many, many games that are sold at an affordable price.”

In comparison, Japanese gamers will have to pay a nominal fee of $5 and $10 in addition to possessing the UMD itself to receive a digital copy, which ultimately adds up to a higher cost, Yoshida explained.

Ultimately, the “combination of new titles available, or the lack of, and the price difference” attributed to Sony’s decision to why we won’t see a similar system here in the west.

*Source: Wired

10 copies of Mass Effect 3 were to fly straight into the stratosphere via weather balloons and descend back to Earth into the arms of waiting fans— except one apparently forgot the memo about landing to fans and instead ended up on a 150-foot tree in the San Francisco area.

At daybreak, there were 10 fans onsite attempting to get it down with a rope. When that failed an attempt was made using a baseball tied to a rope and when that was unsuccessful the group is now resorting to use a slingshot armed with marbles.

I cannot imagine this ending well.

*Source: Mass Effect Facebook

Are you excited about the next Pokémon game? Junichi Masuda, the director of Pokémon Black and White, sure is and ready to make “a very important announcement” as soon as this Sunday.

Masuda is making an appearance on TV TOKYO’s “Pokémon Smash!” for the big news. “And, for those of you who can’t watch television on live, I will announce the same information right after the show via Twitter,” he assured. “Everyone, I hope you all enjoy the show!”

Rumors suggest the new title is titled Pokémon Gray, but we’ll see if Masuda surprises us instead!

*Source: GameFreak

Headline RePLAY – 2.20.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: BioWare’s Jennifer Hepler is under attack, Valve and hardware development and a Pokémon scam on Apple’s App Store.

Hell hath no fury like the internet, whether justified or not as BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler learned quickly when a post on Reddit accused her as the “cancer that is killing BioWare.”  

The post contained a heavily edited interview from October 2006 where Hepler was asked about the least favorite thing about working in the videogame industry. Her answer: “Playing the games.” The Reddit post completely ignored the context of her answer where Helper was expecting a child and had little time to play as a result.

“And with a baby on the way in a few months, my minimal free time (which makes it impossible for me to finish a big RPG in less than six months already), will disappear entirely,” said Hepler during the interview.

Her comment about a “fast-forward button” to let players skip combat in games only added fuel to the controversy. “Gamers almost always include a way to “button through” dialogue without paying attention,” she said, “because they understand that some players don’t enjoy listening to dialogue and they don’t want to stop their fun.”

“In a game with sufficient story to be interesting without the fighting, there is no reason on earth that you can’t have a little button at the corner of the screen that you can click to skip to the end of the fighting.”

According to Reddit’s “ohemeffgee”, ever since the post went up Hepler has been harassed with phone calls and e-mails.

And when Hepler decided to join Twitter a few days ago she was relentlessly attacked on her writing ability and physical appearance. In response, she Tweeted: “I just figure they’re jealous that I have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can’t get either.”

BioWare’s Studio GM Aaryn Flynn joining the fray in Hepler’s defense with a blunt and not PR-friendly response just made matters worse: protestors are now accusing BioWare of treating customers disrespectfully.

Since the writing of this article, Hepler’s Twitter account has been deleted.

Agree or disagree with her comments, like or dislike her writing, Hepler doesn’t deserve these attacks on her character.

*Source: Kotaku, Destructoid, Killer Betties

In the name of innovation, Valve’s Gabe Newell told Penny Arcade Report that he wants wearable computers and to consider hardware development. More on hardware development and less on wearable computers, but Valve exploring such a venue is definitely turning heads.

When asked about a future where Valve sells hardware, Newell responded, “If we have to sell hardware we will. We have no reason to believe we’re any good at it, it’s more we think that we need to continue to have innovation and if the only way to get these kind of projects started is by us going and developing and selling the hardware directly that’s what we’ll do.”

Newell added he rather leave the hardware to the experts though, but said it was “important enough that if that’s what we end up having to do then that’s what we end up having to do.”

For more on Valve’s long term projects, wearable computers and answer to fans about Half-Life 3 check out the full interview at the source link below!

*Source: The Penny Arcade Report

Remember how Apple was removing counterfeit App Store games like Angry Ninja Birds that somehow made it past their strict approval process and reached the top of the App Store chart? It looks like Apple might need to re-evaluate their system: a bogus Pokémon app has appeared in the App Store from an unknown company dubbed as the House of Anime and it has already reached the top two slot in the Paid Apps chart.  

Cheated consumers are out en masse protesting on the reviews page about how the app doesn’t even work or open.

A closer look reveals that the app is not endorsed by GameFreak or Nintendo and the House of Anime is even offering products like Digimon+ and YuGiOh+, both copyrighted to Bandai and Konami respectively.

Ultimately, it looks like Apple needs another clean sweep of its App Store.

*Source: App Store 

Headline RePLAY – 1.12.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Dark Souls for the PC petitioners attracted Namco Bandai’s attention, release date and details are revealed on Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition, and Minecraft creator encourages “pirate now, pay later.”

Namco Bandai wanted to see the “demand” for a PC version of Dark Souls? They got it: 64,000 signatures worth.  

Now the company is saying they’re indeed paying attention to fans.

“My boss(es) even came to talk to me about this, after it explodes all around the world," said Namco Bandai forum admin “Shoupinou”. “If you wanted to have the attention of Namco Bandai Games, now you have it. The future is in your hands, and I hope you will keep supporting this.”

“I can't say it's going to happen (I wish I had this power ^^), but I can assure management of the company will know about it, and I think that already a good achievement and a good step forward,” he posted.

*Source: Destructoid

The Pokémon and Nobunaga’s Ambition crossover that no one saw coming is slated for release in Japan on March 17 at ¥5,800 or U.S. $75.

Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is an interesting (or bizarre) 3DS game involving our favorite pocket monsters, samurai generals and the ultimate goal of uniting 17 kingdoms.

Andriasang reports that the game is a SRPG involving Pokémon armies. Abilities are accorded to the Pokémon’s type and generals have exclusive “busho powers” to utilize in battle (i.e. healing your units); one power per general, however.  

Like most SRPGs, players are able to recruit wild Pokémon for their army and enlist new generals. Players can even strengthen their army within their very own castle town!

Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition is a collaboration between Nintendo and Tecmo Koei.

*Source: Andriasang

In a twist on the videogame industry vs. piracy paradigm, Minecraft creator Markus “notch” Persson told a fan if he can’t afford Minecraft, just pirate it.

“Just pirate it,” Tweeted notch. “If you still like it when you can afford it in the future, buy it then. Also don’t forget to feel bad.”

Notably, this isn’t the first time that notch suggested piracy. At the Game Developers Conference last year, he said that piracy isn’t “theft” and pirates should be looked at as potential customers.  

*Source: Gameranx