Henroid

The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

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Elsewhere on the net I talk about the goingons in video games that aren't about the games themselves. Y'know, like layoffs companies hand out, or moments like Electronic Arts commenting of Zynga's recent counter-suit filing, "This is a predictable subterfuge aimed at diverting attention from Zynga’s persistent plagiarism of other artists and studios. Zynga would be better served trying to hold onto the shrinking number of employees they’ve got, rather than suing to acquire more." That sorta thing.

Looking around here on Idle Thumbs I can see that this sorta stuff comes up as side-discussion, but no single incident necessarily warrants a thread of their own (besides, there'd be lots). So I want to give it a shot and see how a sort of catch-all topic would run around these parts. From what I see, this community is pretty kickass at avoiding console war type nonsense, but just to be safe: no console warry antics.

I guess I'm making that emphasis because the first thing I have to talk about is Sony's press conference thinger they had leading up to the Tokyo Game Show starting off. Among the things talked about were a new slimmer PS3 and a price-drop on the PSP. Now, the latter doesn't surprise me one way or the other, but along with the price drop, they're putting out new color models of the PSP. Those aren't two typos in a row; the PSV has no new hardware or pricedrop. It all has me confused because it kinda seems like Sony is marketing against itself, since the PSV is ailing in sales (its biggest week in Japan was like two / three weeks ago when one of those Vocaloid games came out).

Speaking of Zynga earlier, they have more important departures from the company, hot on the heels of them buying yet another company into their fold. That company has been a sinking ship this year. I feel bad for those dudes.

Last odd news: Microsoft filed a patent for implanted controls. Look at this crazy shit:
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Important departure from Zynga? His job titles were "Advertising Monetization & Business Development" and "Chief Revenue Officer". And he wasn't even employed at omgpop/zynga for 3 years.

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Good idea for a topic, Henroid.

I sympathize with the people working at Zynga, but not with the company strategy or the rather loathsome, leaked comments of its brass. That company basically stands for everything wrong in games: copying content willy-nilly, pushing competitors out of business with unchecked aggression, exploiting systems, putting customers, including kids, into a treadmill where they're milked for money, ugh. It works, absolutely, and the people there are probably talented and deserving of success, but as a company what they do is not laudable.

Microsoft sensor implants are cool though. Are we talking sensual sensor implants?

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I guess I'm making that emphasis because the first thing I have to talk about is Sony's press conference thinger they had leading up to the Tokyo Game Show starting off. Among the things talked about were a new slimmer PS3 and a price-drop on the PSP. Now, the latter doesn't surprise me one way or the other, but along with the price drop, they're putting out new color models of the PSP. Those aren't two typos in a row; the PSV has no new hardware or pricedrop. It all has me confused because it kinda seems like Sony is marketing against itself, since the PSV is ailing in sales (its biggest week in Japan was like two / three weeks ago when one of those Vocaloid games came out).

The Vita is a mystery to me, too. Well, the business strategy surrounding it is a mystery to me. As far as I can tell, they've put too much fancy tech into the Vita to sell it at a discount without a large enough game catalog for it to play loss-leader for, like the first few years of current-gen consoles, but so long as the handheld remains unpopular, the game catalog will remain small. It's like the archetypal model of how a console fails. The only way Sony could save it is by dumping huge amounts of money into the development community and slashing prices, gambling on a late-onset renaissance of consumer interest, but I think they know deep down that the iPhone market is too strong for that to work, so they'll just let the Vita suffocate under its own over-sophistication.

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And that while Nintendo gave a clear signal that the only way they could make the 3DS work was by cutting off their own leg and slash the price by a third. Of course, I've said it before, the only thing that makes or breaks a handheld (or console for that matter) is having great games. The first year of any new hardware is generally going to be shit. The 3DS has really picked up over the last half year, maybe the Vita will do so too. That Media Molecule game is coming, that should be good.

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Important departure from Zynga? His job titles were "Advertising Monetization & Business Development" and "Chief Revenue Officer". And he wasn't even employed at omgpop/zynga for 3 years.

Well again, on the business side, he was probably more important than of us could figure.

And that while Nintendo gave a clear signal that the only way they could make the 3DS work was by cutting off their own leg and slash the price by a third. Of course, I've said it before, the only thing that makes or breaks a handheld (or console for that matter) is having great games. The first year of any new hardware is generally going to be shit. The 3DS has really picked up over the last half year, maybe the Vita will do so too. That Media Molecule game is coming, that should be good.

Reggie commented on the 3DS this week actually and its price cut, saying it was counter-culture to how Nintendo operates. He cited the Wii's pricetag sticking for years before finally getting a drop for consumers, and mentioned how they absolutely did not like the idea of price-cutting the 3DS so soon. If I remember right the Nintendo execs, Iwata included, took personal pay cuts when they dropped the 3DS price. But yeah, it's all worked out for Nintendo. As for the Vita, I'm not sure the pricing is its problem.

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Reggie commented on the 3DS this week actually and its price cut, saying it was counter-culture to how Nintendo operates. He cited the Wii's pricetag sticking for years before finally getting a drop for consumers, and mentioned how they absolutely did not like the idea of price-cutting the 3DS so soon. If I remember right the Nintendo execs, Iwata included, took personal pay cuts when they dropped the 3DS price. But yeah, it's all worked out for Nintendo. As for the Vita, I'm not sure the pricing is its problem.

Do you mean that people just don't want a handheld from Sony after the whole PSP thing? The few people, professional and otherwise, who own Vitas seem pretty taken with them, however unsure they are of the value proposition.

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Do you mean that people just don't want a handheld from Sony after the whole PSP thing? The few people, professional and otherwise, who own Vitas seem pretty taken with them, however unsure they are of the value proposition.

I really wish I had an answer. I only have guesses. I've encountered few people who own a PSP or Vita and dislike it, so the system itself isn't bad. The only guess I can take is that Sony is doing a bad job of getting people on board. The Vita definitely had a tough fight ahead of it because of the overall "meh" reaction around the PSP. I remember the PSP's early marketing being built around it being more than "just a gaming device," and it also didn't help that they tried to make that line in the sand of how it was for grownup, badass games. And all the additional features it was promoting basically got smashed to pieces by Apple and its mobile devices. Not to mention UMD film didn't take off.

Marketing and library. Those are the keys.

Just as anecdotal, I held off on a PSP for the longest time because no games really jumped at me as must-have. And the ones that did were remakes or ports (which gained additional features, like Disgaea).

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The newer, slimmer PS3 comes in two versions: 250GB for $270 and 500GB for $300. The old PS3 models, 160GB for $250 and 320GB for $300, will not see their prices drop, even though they now have price-point competition from the same brand. This is all because of consumer demand for quality content, says John Koller, Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles.

"There's no price drop formally, but the thing that's been happening in the market over the last year or so is that there's been so many retail price promotions, and so many different gift card offers and all those things, being done by all of us [Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony], that we've heard from our consumer, 'Enough with all these weird price moves. What we really want is content and games and value,'" Koller tells Engadget.

To quote a friend, "Bullshit." To quote a teacher, "Not-speaking is a skill." I dunno why they feel they have to justify the lack of price drop. Just refuse to comment because any elaboration is going to be silly.

Oof, this is why too Sony focused so far.

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To quote a friend, "Bullshit." To quote a teacher, "Not-speaking is a skill." I dunno why they feel they have to justify the lack of price drop. Just refuse to comment because any elaboration is going to be silly.

Oof, this is why too Sony focused so far.

Well, people accuse Sony of nearsightedness, so they've become pretty eager to show that they do have a plan, even if it's a Battlestar Galactica-style plan-that-is-not-a-plan.

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Well this is worrisome. Playtesting of Dishonored discovered that people were unable to comprehend some of the content / navigate the game. Link.

One of the other games that’s not Borderlands that has my head spinning is Arkane Studios open-ended stealthy dystopian steampunk adventure, Dishonored. In my own time with the game at Gamescom, I was tremendously impressed at the many, many, many options available to complete just a single mission. In the Lady Boyle mission, I found that that at least one solution was practically handed to you – something that surprised me. Turns out it was for a reason.

In playtesting, Arkane found that people just weren’t all that able to go about finishing the mission using their own heads. without at least some sort of clue, people would just wander about aimlessly, hoping for the mission to complete itself.

“People would just walk around. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t even go upstairs because a guard told them they couldn’t. They’d say ‘Okay, I can’t go upstairs.’ They wouldn’t do anything,” explained Arkane’s Julien Roby to Games.On.net

As a result, you might find a few solutions pretty much handed to you on a silver platter – but fear not, those needn’t be the best solution. Often, the least obvious route is the most rewarding, and there will still be numerous angles from which to tackle any given scenario.

“We try not to lead the player by the nose, but at some point we found that if we don’t give a little information, people just get lost and don’t know what to do. It’s just overwhelming,” he said. “So we tried to add this element that gave just a hint, to help a little. But we try to do it as little as possible.”

Maybe there's a reason why the industry leans toward linear content.

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At least all the options are on the table. I would be more worried if they took possibilities away, but it doesn't seem to be the case judging from the text of what you posted.

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http://tinycartridge.com/post/32293893769/latest-3ds-update-manages-to-block-almost-all-existing

So hey, Nintendo put out a firmware update that blocked any and all use of flash carts for the 3DS. A manufacturer of the flashcarts is commenting that the update was so effective that they have to start from the ground up if they want to get around it. As in new hardware. Usually circumvention of this sorta thing doesn't get that sort of reaction, it's usually shrugged off (from what I see, at any rate).

This isn't strictly industry news but Bioware is putting out a Mass Effect bundle for the PS3 this holiday season. November is apparently the 5 year mark following the first game's release which likely is the end point of Microsoft's exclusive hold on the first game (since they published it, I guess?). I'm not sure how Bioware got roped into offering the bundle for one system only.

And there's a full launch title list for the Wii U:

Call of Duty Black Ops 2

Skylanders Giants

Transformers Prime

Wipeout 3

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two

EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition

New Super Mario Bros. U

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge

Nintendo Land

Sing Party

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper

Darksiders 2

Assassin's Creed 3

ESPN Sports Connection

Just Dance 4

Rabbids Land

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013

ZombiU

Scribblenauts Unlimited

Game Party Champions

Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition

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Hey uh.

Cliffy B has left Epic Games. Says he needs a big break from an industry he grew up in.

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I was quite surprised by the news. To me, CliffyB has kind of always been the embodiment of Epic games, i can't imagine the two things being apart. He's been deeply involved with every one of their games since the first Unreal, and even before then his stuff was still some of the best output from that studio. He's been responsible for some really phenomenal games over the years, and i feel like there's no way this won't fundamentally change Epic games.

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Yeah that's a big surprise.

Well Gears of War is just about my favourite thing on the 360, and Epic is a pretty amazing studio all over. Kudos to this guy for going out on top! Assuming he doesn't just get a new job somewhere else, which would be an even bigger surprise.

Seems like a great guy! Actually he seems like a really corny PR guy, but the games are awesome so whatever.

Epic's just about done with Gears of War, Unreal 4's on the horizon and Fortnite's about to be a thing, so Epic Games is about to be a slightly different company in everyone's eyes regardless.

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The timing also comes across a little odd, he did an AMA on Reddit a few weeks ago and was talking about wanting to do an open-world Unreal, wanting to recapture the sense of exploration from the first game. He generally seemed to have a lot of plans for Epic's future.

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http://tinycartridge.com/post/32293893769/latest-3ds-update-manages-to-block-almost-all-existing

So hey, Nintendo put out a firmware update that blocked any and all use of flash carts for the 3DS. A manufacturer of the flashcarts is commenting that the update was so effective that they have to start from the ground up if they want to get around it. As in new hardware. Usually circumvention of this sorta thing doesn't get that sort of reaction, it's usually shrugged off (from what I see, at any rate).

I'm actually pretty glad they're so successful. It's not fun for the homebrew community, but homebrew was never the aim for Nintendo; they want a closed-off platform where they monopolize the content. The R4 flash card put some serious hurt on the DS, no matter how successful it was. R4 was (part of) the reason Capcom didn't bother with translating Edgeworth 2. I have no love for it whatsoever and am glad to see it irrefutably combated and blocked.

Cliffy B is a cool, high-profile dude who has done a ton of good communicating the value of games to a broad public. Underneath his hip facade are a lot of genuine, careful ideas on video games and I will speak few bad words about him.

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Paul and David Brettner have left Zynga, joining other leadership that have left the company this past season. (via Joystiq)

Also, Zynga's stock from the last six months. (It's a chart; I tried to imbue it as an image but it wasn't allowed)

I'm not particularly concerned with Zynga's crash and burn over the last year. The company's business strategy has been like a hyperbolic version of Activision (kill creativity for the sake of money) and hasn't really brought the industry any good, aside from displaying social media is a platform for game development. Problem is, you can't half-ass it like Zynga does, nor can you try to rapidly expand overnight like they have (in buying competitors and such).

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Holy smokes, big news. Newscorp is selling IGN. Or more specifically, they've been trying to sell it, and now have it up for auction.

They're asking for $100 million, starting. They acquired IGN back in 2006 for $650 million. Not exactly a great investment return.

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Speaking of great investment returns, RockPaperShotgun just posted an article detailing Star Wars: the Old Republic's looming free-to-play model, which looks horrendous. True, all story content up to level fifty is totally free, but everything else -- instances, PvP, space battles, revives, rare items -- is heavily restricted and runs on an as-of-yet undefined token system. Even full access to chat channels and the ability to sprint require player expenditure.

Reading through the official announcement page, it looks like EA really is determined to reinvent the F2P wheel. Either that, or they imagine themselves in a possession of a wildly popular MMO, the players of which just can't spend enough on it, instead of a middling title quietly dying from a starvation diet.

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