Headline RePLAY – 3.16.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: BioWare is listening to fans on Mass Effect 3’s ending, Nintendo’s Koichi Hayashida clarifies statements about ideas for Super Mario Land 3D and Diablo III’s release date was predicted by math.

While Casey Hudson, Mass Effect 3’s director, defended the game’s controversial endings, BioWare recently told its community that the studio is listening to feedback from its fans and will respond once more people complete the game.

“We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening,” said BioWare’s Chris Priestly. “Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can. Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game.

“We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game. We are listening to all of your feedback.”

Of course, whether BioWare’s response will quell the controversy or birth new ones is another matter entirely.

*Source: BioWare Forums

When Nintendo’s Koichi Hayashida revealed that ideas like “Giant Mario” or “Pro Skater Mario” were considered as ideas for Super Mario Land 3D he apparently meant them as a joke and part of his speaking style.

“Just for this presentation I decided to turn my hilarity meter up to maximum for an American audience,” Hayashida told Joystiq. “If I was addressing a Japanese audience, of course, I would be much more subdued. I think if I tried to give that same presentation for a Japanese audience, they might not even be able to follow it.”

Exemplifying his point, Hayashida was surprised when the GDC crowd applauded for his “D. Mario” option that was on every multiple-choice question he offered during his presentation. “I was really surprised, because that's the sort of thing that Japanese audiences might have just sat there not clapping for.”

*Source: Joystiq

Math can divine many things like… Diablo III’s release date, for example. Extrapolated by Reddit user SweenWSweens, an equation nailed the recently announced release date exactly to May 15— and it was posted two months ago.

When asked about calculating the release date for Half-Life 3, SweenWSweens noted that would require “a division by zero.”

*Source: Reddit via Kotaku

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

Headline RePLAY – 1.31.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Nintendo hints at paid DLC for Super Mario Land 3D and iOS marketing is expensive. 

Nintendo has never charged DLC for their games, but President Satoru Iwata has hinted at an investor Q&A last week that may be changing— starting with Super Mario Land 3D and Mario Kart 7.

Iwata explained to investors that software, such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7, can produce “substantial profit” for years. 

However, in order to optimize “public attention” to the games, extend longevity, and increase revenue, Iwata proposed paid DLC content.

“Having said that, what if we could provide add-on content through the network? As I referred to before, for example, this is the idea of supplying new stages to Super Mario users who want to play the game more but have completed the game and lost interest in the existing stages,” said Iwata.

“This will not only give us new profits but will lengthen the life of a product, in that it will never be out of fashion and can keep attracting public attention as long as many people play it,” concluded Iwata.

Nintendo announced the “Nintendo Network” last week, a new digital platform not unlike PSN and Xbox Live that allows Wii and 3DS users to communicate with each other and access digital content.

*Source: Nintendo via Eurogamer

Nobody really thinks of the advertising costs behind iOS apps, but marketing firm Fiksu does, and they found that the average cost of marketing per loyal user in the U.S. reached an all-time high last year. 

In the report, Fiksu defines a “loyal user” of an app as users who open the app three times or more.  By this standard, the firm calculated that the average cost of marketing per loyal user reached $1.81 in December 2011. 

It’s a $0.38 increase, up from the $1.43 per loyal user index of November 2011. And considering how many users that subscribe to the top 10 apps, the cost to developers per user can reach exponential heights. 

According to Fiksu, the cost hike is attributed to the “extreme marketing” in the Christmas holiday season. The idea was to push games up the store rankings before the top lists were locked for four days during the Christmas period to maximize coverage.  

When you add in the fact that Fiksu also reported that the average number of iOS app downloads also reached an all-time high in December, the marketing blitz makes sense considering it amounted to a whopping 6.04 downloads during December alone.

*Source: Gamasutra