Headline RePLAY – 5.14.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Steam vouchers are officially on sale at GameStop, Blizzard is hiring to make Diablo III for consoles a reality and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has struck gold in sales.

Contrary to rumor, Steam vouchers have officially gone on sale at GameStop stores today, as the retailer announced its partnership with Valve to provide “more options to customers.”

Called “Steam Wallets,” the voucher comes in $20 and $50 denominations, which allows consumers another avenue to purchase Steam’s 1,800 plus titles.

|Source: Joystiq

Even with Diablo III launching tomorrow, director Jay Wilson revealed to Gamasutra that Blizzard is not “experimenting” with a console release but is advertising as such to hire “better people” in order to increase chances to actually make one.

“That’s why we haven’t kept it super secret,” Wilson explained, “but we also haven’t confirmed it, because we’re not sure yet whether we think it will work, and whether we think we have the resources to do it.”

|Source: Gamasutra

Shortly after its release on Xbox LIVE Arcade, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has already achieved more than one million in sales and players have mined millions of hours into its single and multiplayer modes.

PlayXBLA has released a slew of numbers on the amount of time spent in Mojang’s addictive title: 5.2 million hours spent mining, 4 million total multiplayer sessions played and more than 2.4 million multiplayer gaming hours played.  

And that is a lot of mining.

|Source: PlayXBLA

Headline RePLAY – 5.3.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: ‘notch’ slams EA for its ‘indie bundle,’ The Elder Scrolls series goes MMO and the creator of Firefall proclaims that consoles are “dead.”

Markus ‘notch’ Persson, the man behind Mojang and Minecraft, blasted EA today over its release of the ‘indie bundle’ on Steam, claiming that the publisher is “methodically destroying” gaming.

“EA releases an ‘indie bundle’? That’s not how that works, EA,” Tweeted Persson at the news. “Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.”

Persson went on to define what constitutes as ‘indie’ while downplaying his own studio’s status as one. “I don’t even call Mojang indie any more. Vlambeer is indie. Polytron is indie. Stephen, Ed, Terry, Derek, Tommy and Chris are indie.

“Indies are saving gaming. EA is methodically destroying it.”

|Source: Develop

Many have demanded it, and Bethesda is delivering it: The Elder Scrolls series next installment is a MMO aptly called The Elder Scrolls Online.

“It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years,” said Matt Firor, the game’s director and MMO veteran whose resume includes Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot. “The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made—and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.”

The Elder Scrolls Online is set a millennium before the events of Skyrim and players will be thrust into the machinations of the daedric prince Molag Bal as he tries to pull the world of Tamriel into his demonic realm.  

Developed by Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online is scheduled for a 2013 release on PC and Macintosh.

|Source: Game Informer

If it’s not someone prophesizing the doom of handhelds, it’s someone predicting the death of video game consoles. Mark Kern, the creator of the upcoming MMO Firefall, explains why the publisher-led model is “broken” and free-to-play titles are the future of the video game industry.

“The model is transitioning away from these big boxed games where you’re pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a title, to these sorts of games that don’t count on the distributor,” Kern explained to Eurogamer.

The former World of Warcraft lead argued that free-to-play titles can risk “middle ground innovation” while AAA titles have to continually play it safe with “rehashed” gameplay when “hundreds of millions of dollars” of investment are on the line.  

“I think the model is broken,” Kern continued. “You keep making these bigger and bigger bets and what that forces you to do is play it safer and safer. And if you play it safer and safer with your gameplay, people will get tired of the crap you’re serving. When that happens, they get bored and they will leave. And you haven’t fostered any of the middle ground innovation and new ideas that you need to tap into next.

“So something has to change. Consoles, I believe, are dead.”

|Source: Eurogamer

Headline RePLAY – 3.26.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Yet another new Xbox rumor, Mojang’s Minecraft makes bank and Namco-Bandai releases a baffling teaser site.

Another week, another Xbox rumor from yet another anonymous source: this time from Reddit user “MSnerd” who claims that the next Xbox is not a next-gen console but rather a basic system that plays Arcade-style games and media apps with the Kinect.

According to MSnerd, the new Xbox will be an “ARM-based platform” that is “price competitive” with Apple TV. Like other sources, MSnerd predicts the system will be released in late 2013.

MSnerd notes that there is a successor to the 360 in the works, but details are “very hazy” beyond the fact that it will cater towards “core-audiences” and be able to play the same Kinect media apps.

*Source: reddit via Joystiq

Rovio’s Angry Birds may have a 700 million download head start, but Mojang’s Minecraft is catching up financially with $80 million in earnings since October 2010; in contrast to Rovio’s $100 million in revenues last year.

Minecraft is still nowhere close to Angry Birds’ massive downloads, but the financial reports prove that Mojang’s flagship title has a bright future ahead.

*Source: Financial Times 

Namco-Bandai has opened up yet another teaser site that leaves much to the imagination: it’s a giant, pulsing black X behind a black background.

…wait, what? 

It’s currently unknown if this site has any relation to the Sega and Capcom collaboration or if it’s a new title entirely.

Namco-Bandai continues to troll the internet with these sites that only tells us that they’re working on… something.

*Source: Bandai Games

Headline RePLAY – 3.2.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Commentary on alleged DOOM 4 screenshots, Mojang employees receive a hefty bonus and Mass Effect 3 PC pre-orders are available for pre-loading!

Rumors about DOOM 4 being axed can be waved away by PR, but the alleged screenshots that came with them this week weren’t so easily dismissed. id Software has stepped up to the stage to respond:

“Those images have nothing to do with what you’re gonna see in DOOM 4,” said id’s Matthew Hooper via Twitter. “When we officially show things, you’ll see awesome.”

While Hooper’s statement is not a direct denial, he does assure fans that id Software is striving to meet their expectations.

“When we officially show things,” added Hooper, “fans will be happy.”

*Source: VideoGamer

Before tax, Mojang head honcho Markus “notch” Persson received $3 million in dividends—all of which he decided to distribute to his employees.  

“Before tax, my dividends from Mojang for 2011 was about three million dollars,” notch Tweeted. “I chose to distribute that to other employees.”

Many a Mojang employee went on Twitter to express their elation about the decision. Lydia Winters, Mojang’s Director of Fun, expressed how she was “happy for everyone @ Mojang” while business developer Daniel Kaplan was shedding tears in “shock and happiness.”

Congratulations to the hard workers of Mojang!

*Source: @notch, @LydiaWinters, @Kappische via Joystiq

Mass Effect 3 is just around the corner, but other than stockpiling on food and excommunicating the outside world for a week, what more can you do to prepare for the war with the Reapers? For PC owners that pre-ordered the title and don’t want to spend time watching a download and installation bar, EA is offering the option to pre-load the game via its Origin online service.

All PC-owners have to do is to launch the Origin client, sign in, navigate to their Game Library and click on the “Ready to Download” button on Mass Effect 3 and voila!

Mass Effect 3 is coming out next week on March 6th.

*Source: EA