Today on
Headline RePLAY: Another industry insider predicts the decline of console
gaming, the first details of The Elder
Scrolls Online and Shigeru Miyamoto’s opinion on the PS Vita.
Former EA
executive John Schappert. joins the increasing list of industry insiders that believes
that “traditional” console gaming is on its way out.
“Traditional
gaming is under a little bit of pressure,” said Schappert. “If those businesses
are not ready and want to live in the traditional world, they can. It’s just
there’s only going to be a few big games a year. If you’re one of those games,
more power to you. If you’re not, it’s going to be tough.”
Schappert reiterates
a common theme amongst critics of the publisher-led console model: skyrocketing
budgets and the high cost of failure. “Big console games take years to make. They
need massive budgets and you have to hope the bet you started three years ago
pays out. If it doesn’t, it’s a game changer for you. And not in a good way.”
He acknowledged
that there still is a market for big budget console titles, but noted that it
only targets core audiences at the expense of casual players. “Traditional
games have become more core. They require an expensive console, use a
controller which laymen are afraid of, and their interfaces are not always the
easiest to use.
“People
are buying fewer games and playing them longer. A lot of players are stretched
for time—they don’t have two hours, they have fifteen minutes and don’t want to
spend money.”
|Source:
MCV
Early
details on The Elder Scrolls Online have
been released, and by all accounts it sounds like it will be a traditional
fantasy MMO with some differences to reflect its source material.
Here is a
list of highlights based on information gathered by NeoGAF:
- A third-person perspective vs. the series’ traditional first-person.
- Combat:
- Uses a hotbar to activate skills.
- Not real-time due to latency.
- Only a limited number of skills can be used at any given time, but can be switched out.
- Stamina bar to sprint, block, interrupt and break stun effects.
- Like Guild Wars 2 abilities can be comboed together by allied players (i.e. a rogue covers the ground in oil and a mage sets it on fire)
- Graphics run on the Hero Engine, which is used by MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic and RIFT.
- No player housing, NPC romances or marriage.
- Inclusion of public dungeons that can accommodate players from the entire server.
- Three factions:
- Ebonheart Pact: The Nords, Dunmer, and Argonians.
- Aldmeri Dominion: Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajit.
- Daggerfall Covenant: Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs.
- Three faction PvP to take over and hold the Imperial City.
- Can have up to 100 vs. 100 player battles.
- The most accomplished PvP player in the player’s faction becomes emperor when the capitol is captured.
For more information,
check out the NeoGAF forums via the source link below.
|Source:
NeoGAF
Nintendo’s
legendary developer, Shigeru Miyamoto, couldn’t help but jab at Sony’s PS Vita for
its scarce lineup of games despite praising the handheld on its technical
merits.
“It’s
obviously a high-spec machine, and you can do lots of things with it,” Miyamoto
told Edge. “But I don’t really see the combination of software and hardware
that really makes a very strong product.”
Miyamoto
admits the Nintendo 3DS suffered at launch for similar reasons. “When we launched
the 3DS hardware we didn’t have Super Mario 3D Land,
we didn’t have Mario Kart 7, we
didn’t have Kid Icarus: Uprising.
We were striving to have all of these ready for the launch, but we weren’t able
to deliver them at that time.
“We were
kind of hoping that people would, nevertheless, buy into the product, find the
3DS hardware promising, but looking back we have to say we realize the key
software was missing when we launched the hardware.”
After the
3DS’ unprecedented price cut last August and many game releases later,
Nintendo’s new handheld has been Japan’s best-selling hardware every single
week.
