Headline RePLAY – 2.8.12

Today on HeadlineRePLAY: Nintendo appoints a “spokesdog”, Ilum strikes back in Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Smithsonian's connection to videogames.

Adorable, energetic and 100% canine, meet Uggie, a Jack Russell terrier that co-starred in The Artist, is being enlisted by Nintendo of America to be its new “spokesdog” for nintendogs + cats for the Nintendo 3DS.  

“Uggie didn’t have to sit up and beg for his role as Nintendo’s spokesdog,” said Nintendo of America’s Scott Moffitt. “It’s truly our pleasure to work with a star of Uggie’s magnitude, especially to help animal lovers and portable gaming fans discover the fun of nintendogs + cats.”

For February only and in celebration of Responsible Pet Owners Month, Uggie will be showing pet owners how nintendogs + cats can provide “valuable tips on how people can maintain happy, healthy relationships” with their pets in real life.

There isn’t a “spokescat” at this time.

*Source: BusinessWire

Ilum strikes back against Star War: The Old Republic players as kills made on the PvP planet are not being credited towards its daily and weekly missions. Players evacuated to the official forums carrying complaints only to find that BioWare is aware of the issue and plans on fixing it tomorrow:

“I wanted to let you know that we will be deploying a patch tomorrow (details coming very soon) with the following resolutions: Killing players on Ilum will now consistently grant Valor and mission credit as intended. Once again, thanks for your patience,” said Joveth Gonzalez, BioWare’s Associate Online Community Manager.

With any luck there won’t be a “Return of Ilum” edition when the next patch rolls around.

*Source: Darth Hater

When you think of the Smithsonian, videogames are probably not what comes to mind. The Art of Video Games exhibit that is opening on March 16, however, may change your mind.

After inviting the public last year to vote on games based on a variety of criteria, like visual effects and creative use of new technologies, the exhibit is almost ready to go live. The Art of Video Games will include video interviews with developers and artists, large screenshot prints, and historic game consoles.

The curator of the exhibit is Chris Melissinos, founder of Past Pixels. 

“The Art of Video Games is one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. It features some of the most influential artists and designers during five eras of game technology, from early pioneers to contemporary designers.

“The exhibition focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for twenty gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. Eighty games, selected with the help of the public, demonstrate the evolution of the medium.”

*Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Headline RePLAY – 2.7.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: North American PS Vita owners will miss out on the UMD Passport program, the Kinect Star Wars Bundle has a release date and Mass Effect: Infiltrator for the iOS is announced!

Possibly a deal-breaker for many PSP-owners planning on transitioning to the PS Vita, Sony has told Kotaku there won’t be a North American equivalent of the UMD Passport program, which would’ve allowed PS Vita owners to transfer their PSP games over.

Sony announced the program back in November, which Japanese PSP owners could opt to register their games onto PSN accounts, pay a small fee and re-download the games on the PS Vita. No alternatives were provided at this time.

Déjà vu. Reminds me of the situation with the PSPgo two years ago, which almost guaranteed the handheld’s doom.

Sony has yet to provide an explanation for the exclusion.

*Source: Kotaku

Overhauled for 2012 in the form of a Xbox 360 and controller, R2-D2 and C-3PO will finally be in the hands of Star Wars fans and gamers alike in the Kinect Star Wars Bundle, which is slated for release on April 3^rd.

Price is set at $449 for the 320GB system and it comes with the droid-themed console and controller, a white Kinect sensor and a copy of Star Wars Kinect Adventures.

*Source: Engadget

In what could be the first mobile tie-in to Mass Effect 3, BioWare announced Mass Effect: Infiltrator was coming to the iOS.

The title was announced at a press event in New York today, where it was described as a “fully featured iOS third-party shooter” with “stunning graphics and authentic weapons and powers from the Mass Effect series.”

It isn’t a Mass Effect title without story, and BioWare doesn’t disappoint here: the narrative will involve freeing prisoners from a hostile Cerberus base and collecting evidence of the organization’s crimes.

Players will “receive rewards” for gathering evidence and increase Galactic Readiness. “Every completed rescue and intelligence discovery in Infiltrator will increase a players’ Galactic Readiness rating directly through the ‘Galaxy at War’ system in Mass Effect 3,” said EA.

As icing on the cake, actions taken in Infiltrator can affect the Mass Effect 3 storyline and weapons unlocked in the mobile title can be used in Mass Effect 3 too.

*Source: Kotaku

Headline RePLAY – 2.6.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Final Fantasy XIII-2’s ending explained, BioWare responds to the Mass Effect: Deception controversy and Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color is released to the world.

 

WARNING: INCOMING SPOILER!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 ends with the most infamous words that can ever be put into a videogame: “To Be Continued.” Many interpreted it as a hint for Final Fantasy XIII-3 while others assumed that DLC will conclude what XIII-2 started. At the Taipei Game Show yesterday, Director Motomu Toriyama went on record to explain XIII-2’s ambiguous ending.

According to Impress Watch, translated by Andriasang, Toriyama explained the “To Be Continued” screen was to encourage players to search out the number of Paradox Endings hidden away in the game. Additionally, the intent was to continually expand XIII-2’s world via DLC like the upcoming Lightning Episode.

It’s not an outright denial of a XIII-3 in the future, but it’s not exactly a hint either.

                                                                                                                                                                                             

*Source: Andriasang and Impress Watch

Remember Mass Effect: Deception, the tie-in novel to BioWare’s flagship franchise that was so littered with lore inconsistences that fans protested with a public Google Doc documenting it all out? BioWare isn’t exactly pleased with the novel either:

“The teams at Del Rey and BioWare would like to extend our sincerest apologies to the Mass Effect fans for any errors and oversights made in the recent novel Mass Effect: Deception,” said Chris Priestly, BioWare’s community leader. “We are currently working on a number of changes that will appear in future editions of the novel.”

“We would like to thank all Mass Effect fans for their passion and dedication to this ever-growing world, and assure them that we are listening and taking this matter very seriously.”

It’s a victory to fans and credit to BioWare that errors like these get addressed. Mass Effect: Deception was the first novel in the Mass Effect universe to be written by another author other than Drew Karpyshyn.

*Source: Eurogamer

 

Capcom enjoys reminding us that the original Resident Evil exists by re-releasing multiple versions of it, but did you know that there was one being developed for the Game Boy Color? Capcom canned the title late into development due to quality issues, but it lives on in the ownership of an unknown third party.

The unknown owner has acquired two prototype carts of the unreleased game and was willing to upload the ROMs for a price: $2000.

A fundraiser was set up to meet the $2000 goal and was met way before the February 29^th deadline, meaning the carts have been released to the public.

For more details and screens, check out the forum thread at ASSEMbler!

*Source: ASSEMbler

Headline RePLAY – 2.3.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: 100-yr. old grandmother stays sharp with her Nintendo DS, Sony joins the ranks of struggling companies and Capcom’s typo “revelaition.”

Meet Kathleen Kit Connell: she’s 100-years old, an independent grandmother, and she spends two hours a day playing on her Nintendo DS to stay sharp.

“And I don’t feel a day over 80,” she said in a YouTube interview. “I try to keep my brain active by playing on my Nintendo. It’s absolutely super. I don’t know what to do without it.”

Kit starts her Nintendo sessions with a cup of tea and her catalog of games includes a lot of board/brain titles like Scrabble, Art Academy and My Word Coach.

She ends the interview by suggesting that school children should have a Nintendo DS for math and spelling because of how much the handheld helped her.

“I can’t speak highly enough of this Nintendo. It helped keep my brain active as possible at my old age.”

*Source: YouTube 

In what is becoming a troubling trend, Sony is the latest company to report heavy financial losses— a sum of $2.1 billion for the holiday quarter with an expected $2.9 billion for the year.

Reuters attributed the losses to a strong yen, the flooding in Thailand that disrupted supplies, and a weak economy.

Although incoming CEO Kazuo Hirai is replacing Howard Stringer under challenging circumstances in April, the Sony-veteran is recognized for “reviving” PlayStation gaming operations through difficult decisions and expressed his willingness for such at a news conference.

“I have a very strong sense of crisis about the environment surrounding us,” said Hirai. “We cannot be afraid to make painful choices for the future of Sony. Our rivals and the operating environment won't wait for us.”

*Source: Reuters

In what is sure to become a source of internet memes and bizarre collectibles, Capcom made a printing error on the spine of the Resident Evil: Revelations box spelling out “Revelaitions” instead of “Revelations.”

The misspelled copies were already in reviewers’ hands, but the situation was made worse when they were also delivered to retailers in advance of Tuesday’s release. Capcom was quick to respond to the embarrassing typo and provided the following statement to Joystiq:

“The initial shipment of Resident Evil Revelations had been sent to retailers in North America with the spelling error. Subsequent shipments of the title are being repackaged and will have the corrected spelling. Customers who have been affected by the misspelling on the Resident Evil Revelations packaging can contact Capcom Customer Service at 650-350-6700 or accounts@capcom.com and a new insert for the front of box will be sent.”

*Source: Joystiq

Headline RePLAY – 2.2.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: It’s all about numbers as Star Wars: The Old Republic shows its strength in the Force, Capcom reports heavy losses and Mass Effect 3 is hitting the mobile and handheld market!

The Force is strong with BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic as EA reported the MMO now has 1.7 million active subscribers.

Active subscribers were defined as players already paying or still in their trial period. EA’s chief financial officer Eric Brown told Market Watch that EA netted more subscribers than originally expected.

Since the game launched late last December, it has sold over 2 million copies.  

*Source: Market Watch

Joining the ranks of Nintendo in the “Start 2012 with Losses” club, Capcom reported a 29% loss in net sales over the last 9 months of the fiscal year. As a result, the company’s operating income fell by a massive 47.2%.

However, there was some silver lining in the report: Monster Hunter 3(Tri) G sold over one million copies and titles like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record sold well overseas.

Additionally, Capcom’s recent success with mobile games has mitigated some of the financial damage.

*Source: Capcom

Mass Effect 3 is coming for handhelds and mobile devices! But it’s not going to be on the 3DS or PS Vita or even be a game! …wait, what?

“There will be "handheld/mobile" products tied to Mass Effect 3, as noted in our past few earnings announcements. They are part of the Galaxy at War system. We will have more details to share soon,” an EA rep told Kotaku.

Galaxy of War is a system in Mass Effect 3 where players can accumulate “Galactic Readiness” points by playing in the single-player campaign or multiplayer. The points are then spent to obtain the better endings in the game.

Other than EA stating that it would involve the Galaxy of War system, whether the mobile/handheld tie-in will be a game or an app is anyone’ s guess.

*Source: Kotaku 

Headline RePLAY – 2.1.12

Today on Headline RePLAY: Mass Effect fans catalogue novel errors, THQ layoffs and Zynga’s response to copycat allegations.

When it comes to videogame tie-in novels, you would think an author would’ve done their homework on the source material. Apparently this wasn’t the case with the recently released Mass Effect: Deception, as fans opened up a public Google Doc to list the extensive lore and continuity issues the novel is plagued with.

“This includes a character ‘growing up’ from being autistic, turning Mass Effect’s only gay male character straight and then killing him, and being literally impossible to reconcile with the timeline made by the games, comics and other books,” the document noted.  

Videogame novels are infamous for these sorts of errors, but Mass Effect: Deception seems to have reached an entirely new level. The title currently has one star on Amazon.com filled with negative reviews.

*Source: Destructoid

A lot of finger pointing and three infographics later, Zynga responded to allegations by NimbleBit and Buffalo Studios by throwing the accusations right back at them.

Zynga countered that Buffalo Studios copied off them with BINGO Blitz, launched in March 2010, looked awfully similar to Zynga’s Poker Blitz released later that year.  

“It was a little ironic to look at BINGO Blitz. Pull that lens back. Look at our game Poker Blitz, and then BINGO Blitz, you see striking similarities in those pictures,” Zynga’s Chief Executive Mark Pincus told VentureBeat.

“You should be careful not to throw stones when you live in glass towers,” said Pincus. “When you pull the lens back, you saw that their tower game looked similar to five other tower games going all the way back to SimTower in the early 1990s.”

Brian Reynolds, Zynga’s game design chief, wondered what the big deal was, “So when I put it in perspective, with having been around the game industry a long time, I’m not exactly sure why it’s considered such a big deal right now, or why someone thinks there’s anything really surprising going on.”

“At Zynga, of course, I feel like we’ve got lots of innovation going on, so I certainly want to talk about that,” Reynolds told Gamasutra. “But I was there in the '90s when Doom came out and then everybody made a shooter, and I was there when Warcraft and Command & Conquer came out in 1997, and then like 50 different [real-time strategy] games launched, and it was the year of the RTS.”

Is it “innovation” to expound on another’s ideas or is it “theft?” Does it really matter where the idea came from?

And can 42 be used to answer these questions?

*Sources: VentureBeat and Gamasutra  

When it rains, it pours, as an industry insider revealed today that THQ has plans to dismiss as many as 240 employees in addition to implementing an executive pay cut. Since last week THQ was plagued by rumors of its 2014 lineup being cancelled and warned that it’ll be de-listed from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

“This is probably going to break in the morning, I have sat on it for a week or so. The culling at THQ was 170+ souls including Mark DeLoura [VP Technology at THQ],” Tweeted Kevin Dent, an independent industry suit.

To confirm Dent’s report, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late today detailed the number of employees fired and the executive pay cut.

*Source: Eurogamer, MCV and Kotaku

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