Last night’s episode featured the clip you see above, wherein the “principles of success” for free-to-play games are outlined. The video hits the nail on the end, and is pretty funny to watch.
“Everyone is doing it. It’s the way things are going!” a character exclaims at the end.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with the free-to-play business model. But some examples or less-than-excellent execution have left a bad taste in some players’ mouths.
What do you think about free-to-play? Let us know in the comments below!
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BlizzCon 2014 doesn’t kick off until tomorrow, but someone is already in line for the two-day show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. As you might expect, this person–Brendan “Tibs” Thibodeau–is supremely dedicated to Blizzard Entertainment games, so much so that he has an incredible 29 level 90 World of Warcraft characters, he tells WoW Insider today.
This is the sixth BlizzCon that Thibodeau has attended. Out of the six shows he’s been to, he says he’s been first in line four times. He’s a 15-year Navy veteran whose been playing World of Warcraft since December 2005.
“World of Warcraft was my second home,” Thibodeau told WoW Insider, saying he spent some of his time while overseas in the Navy playing World of Warcraft as well as when he returned home. “It was getting on and meeting other people from all over the world and having those connections.”
Thibodeau went on to say that he just recently earned a degree in game production and hopes to work for Blizzard one day. If he’s hoping to work on the World of Warcraft team, he’s probably happy to learn that Blizzard has plans to keep the game around until at least 2024.
BlizzCon officially begins tomorrow, November 8, and runs through Saturday evening, when Metallica will close out the show with a concert. Some of Blizzard’s suprises for BlizzCon may have emerged ahead of schedule, as trademarks for unannounced Blizzard projects called Eye of Azshara and Overwatch were recently discovered.
While BlizzCon is entirely sold out for physical tickets, you can still buy virtual tickets for $40 through Blizzard’s website today. GameSpot will have editors on the ground from BlizzCon bringing you news, interviews, and analysis of the show.
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Ahead of the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11, series developer 343 Industries has now announced the Halo Championship Series. The HCS, as it will be known, is an official esports leagued dedicated exclusively to the popular sci-fi shooter franchise.
According to the announcement post on Halo’s website, the HCS was created to serve as a platform for professional Halo players, enthusiasts, and spectators. It will operate as the single sanctioning body for Halo, Microsoft explained. The company is getting help from Twitch, the ESL, and “various tournament organizers” as it rolls out various Halo tournaments.
The first season of the HCS will begin just after the release of The Master Chief Collection and run through March 2015. Per rules published on the Halo website, teams of four Spartans will compete in a “structured series” of online and in-person Halo 2: Anniversary tournaments.
The top teams from these tournaments will be awarded HCS points, and at the end of each season, teams with the highest point totals will be invited to play in the season finals in March 2015.
More information about the HCS is available at its official website. In the coming weeks, 343 Industries will release the official HCS rules handbook, and begin to accept registrations for teams looking to compete in the first season.
With the release of Xbox One game Halo: The Master Chief Collection now just days away, Microsoft has released a launch trailer for the game, which highlights everything included in the package.
The trailer doesn’t shy away from boasting about Halo, either, as you might imagine. Microsoft says Halo is “the series that changed gaming forever,” adding that Halo’s story “defined a generation.”
The Master Chief Collection launches on November 11 exclusively for Xbox One. In addition to remastered versions of Halo 1-4 and multiplayer support for every game, the package includes access to Ridley Scott’s Halo: Nightfall, as well as a beta key for December’s Halo 5: Guardians beta.
Although Nintendo’s first wave of Amiibo toys have yet to hit retail, Nintendo is already teasing that future forms of the NFC-powered toys could extend beyond Mario, Peach, and Zelda figures.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained during a recent Q&A session with analysts that not only is the company planning to make more games compatible with Amiibo, but that the Japanese firm has a bolder vision for how the GamePad’s NFC functionality could work someday.
“We are thinking about making many more games compatible with Amiibo from next year,” Iwata said during the presentation. “We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure, either. We believe that Amiibo could take a variety of different forms.”
Iwata revealed that Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is already working on “multiple ways” to use the GamePad and the NFC functionality “more aggressively.” It could be as early as next year that we get to see what Miyamoto has been cooking up, Iwata teased.
“We do not think Amiibo always needs to take the form of a figure” — Satoru Iwata
“Some of our products in 2015 might be a result of this new focus,” he said.
Miyamoto also spoke during the presentation, saying that Nintendo’s goal for the Amiibo toy line–and whatever comes next–is to make gamers feel a “sense of wonder.” He explained that in order to differentiate the Wii U and 3DS from the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, Nintendo needs to make the gaming experience feel like the user is playing with a new toy.
He also revealed that the Amiibo product range will eventually include cards.
“For example, when Amiibo become cards, we can create a game which can be played only by passing several cards over the NFC reader/writer, and the results will be stored in the Amiibo card,” he said. “I cannot discuss any of the details today, but Amiibo has the potential to propose new ways to play card games.”
Some of Nintendo’s other future Amiibo plans, Miyamoto said, involve launching “smaller and even more affordable” figures so that the toy line can appeal to a wide variety of users. He said he’s even thinking about how Amiibo can be used for Animal Crossing games in the future.
“Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet” — Shigeru Miyamoto
Meanwhile, Miyamoto admitted that Nintendo focused too much on the dual-screen nature of the Wii U (i.e. the GamePad/TV functionality), instead of showing gamers the unique capabilities that the GamePad’s built-in NFC could provide.
“Wii U has so many attractive features, and we have not been able to communicate all of its charms yet,” he said. “We are still making efforts to demonstrate the potential of Wii U even today, we have to admit that we might have focused too much on the unique uses of the two screens. We should have put more effort into using the NFC functionality much earlier, but we are now moving forward with projects that make use of NFC in a variety of unique ways.”
The first game to support Amiibo toys is Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which launches on November 21. Mario, Link, Samus, Fox, Donkey Kong, and Pikachu are among the figures featured in the first wave of figures, though more are coming in December.
Amiibo toys will only work on Wii U right away, though Nintendo plans to release an adapter for 3DS later. In addition, the New 3DS–available only in Japan right now–features built-in NFC functionality.
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Even better news is that the update is now available to download now if you’ve preordered a digital copy of the game, according to 343 Industries producer Dan Ayoub.
Good news gang! Day One TU for MCC is up! If you haven’t enabled auto download, go get it now!! #HaloMCC
The gargantuan day-one update for The Master Chief Collection was confirmed in October. You won’t need to install the update to play the campaigns for Halo 1-4, though it will be required to take advantage of all matchmaking features.
Addressing the sheer size of the day-one update, Halo boss Frank O’Connor said previously that shipping on two discs “would completely wreck the functionality and experience of the unified interface.” He also said at the time that he understands some people will be frustrated. “For some folks it will be straight up annoying and I both apologize unreservedly for the irritance, and hope that the package and the way it works more than makes up for it,” he said.
The Master Chief Collection launches on November 11 exclusively for Xbox One. In addition to remastered versions of Halo 1-4 and multiplayer support for every game, the package includes access to Ridley Scott’s Halo: Nightfall, as well as a beta key for December’s Halo 5: Guardians beta.
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Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix today announced financial results for the six-month period ended September 30, and they were strong. Overall, the Japanese publisher posted revenue of ¥73.1 billion ($637.6 million), compared to ¥61.6 billion ($537.5 million) last year. Meanwhile, profit more than doubled, rising from ¥2.6 billion ($22.7 million) last year to ¥5.7 billion ($49.7 million) this year.
Square Enix said its games for smartphones and PC, such as Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light, Schoolgirls Strikers, and Sengoku IXA “continued to post favorable results.” Meanwhile, console game sales increased year-over-year, and back catalog sales were particularly “strong” in the Western market, Square Enix said. On top of those, the publisher said its MMO Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X have been making “favorable progress.”
Square Enix is not just a video game company, as the publisher also operates Amusement, Publication, and Merchandising divisions. However, the company’s game unit–called Digital Entertainment–was the breadwinner of the bunch, posting more revenue and profit than the other three units combined.
For the period ended September 30, net sales in Square Enix’s game division totaled ¥43.7 billion ($381.4 million), an increase of 42.8 percent. Operating income was ¥7.9 billion ($68.9 million), up from ¥3.4 billion ($29.7 million) last year.
Looking ahead, Square Enix has boosted its earnings projections for the fiscal year ending March 2015. The company now expects to haul between ¥150 billion-¥160 billion ($1.3 billion-$1.4 billion), up from the previous forecast of ¥140 billion-¥150 billion ($1.2 billion-$1.3 billion). Square Enix has also revised its profit projection, now expecting to make between ¥7 billion-¥10.5 billion ($61 million-$91 million) for the year, compared to its previous estimation of between ¥3.5-¥6.5 billion ($30.5 million-$56.7 million).
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Far Cry 4 has set a new world record, but it’s not for a marathon session or related to any in-game feat. Ubisoft announced today that contest winner Will Cruz played the open-world game in the Himalayan mountain range recently, at an elevation of 18,569 feet above sea level–that’s more than three miles high. The publisher says this sets a Guinness World Record for “Highest Altitude Video Game Console Session.”
Cruz, a 23-year-old from Provo, Utah, was chosen to fly to Nepal and participate in the expedition as part of the nationwide contest that was announced during San Diego Comic-Con in July. According to Ubisoft, Cruz–a “hiking enthusiast”–had never traveled outside of the United States before his trip to Nepal–he also visited Kathmandu, Khumjung Monastery, and the Khumbu Glacier as part of it.
For the Far Cry 4 competition, Cruz traveled to Mt. Everest Base Camp and hiked to the summit of Kala Patthar, one of the mountains in the same range as Everest. He hiked to the peak with a team of 15 people, including sherpas, a video crew, and a caravan of yaks that were responsible for carrying the TV, generator, and gaming equipment needed to play Far Cry 4.
Cruz reached the peak of Kala Patthar on October 11, and played Far Cry 4 on PlayStation 4 for 79 minutes. During his playtime, he faced wind gusts of up to 25mph, temperatures that reached as low as 17 degrees Fahrenheit, and of course the reduced oxygen levels of such a height.
Check out some images of Cruz’s world record attempt in the gallery below.
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If you’d like to see a future Call of Duty game return to World War II, you’re not alone. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare developer Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey would also like to play a game set during that time period, he says in a new interview.
“I think a next generation game with the latest production values and robustness in a World War II setting like Band of Brothers would be amazing,” he said in an interview with Metro.
Though he’s on-board with the concept, Condrey said returning to that era could be tricky, given the new movement abilities introduced to the series with Advanced Warfare’s exosuit.
“Now, how would it play and how would the multiplayer work after the new movement set in Advanced Warfare? That’s a tougher question than I’ve had to tackle yet,” he explained.
The Call of Duty series is now on a three-year, three-studio development cycle, meaning there are (at least) two other Call of Duty games in development right now at Infinity Ward and Treyarch. The most recent Call of Duty game set entirely in World War II was 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War.
Also in the interview, Condrey said part of what makes the Call of Duty franchise so popular and powerful is that its stories are often “ripped from the headlines.” But one headline that Condrey said he wouldn’t want to make a game out of is the current conversation around extremist group ISIS.
“I think the tragedies going on around the world in the areas of genocide and ISIS would be hard to make a game out of,” he said. “But again, that’s just my personal opinion. I wouldn’t be confident making a game out of it.”
The marquee offering is E.T, the failed video game tie-in for Steven Spielberg’s 1982 theatrical hit. eBay listings for E.T. are already seeing asking prices as high as $500 or more. Should you win an auction for E.T., or any of the other excavated games, you’ll receive a certificate of authenticity and a property tag. You’ll also get a pamphlet with photos from 1983 and the dig earlier this year.
Following the initial auction wave, an additional 70 copies of E.T. will be sold through future eBay auctions. “Then that is it. This will never occur again,” the city writes.
Head over to this eBay page to see everything up for auction from the Atari dig.
In addition to the auction, Alamogordo is giving away copies of the excavated games to museums around the world. A deeper dive into the Atari landfill dig will be chronicled in upcoming documentary Atari: Game Over, which was produced by Xbox and will debut on November 20.
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