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

[darthbator]

I saw it earlier. I think kill screen daily or maybe giant bomb. It's being reported. I think the verge was carrying the story as well.,

[Lu]

I saw it on RPS who saw it on Eurogamer.

[Henroid]

Well a few people saying they were hacked could likely be malware obtained by circumstance.

Anyway, the new Animal Crossing launched in Japan and smashed the shit out of the sales numbers last week. It sold out. 600k+ physical copies and then another 200k digital (which is never included in sources for sales, so that's according to Nintendo). For comparison Halo 4 did like 39k. And this week they had to do a double shipment of the game to meet demand. So it's like the new Monster Hunter or some shit, it's on fire.

Wonder what it'll be like when it launches in NA next year.

[Justin Leego]

800k combined, would that make it the best opening week this year for a 3DS game in Japan? New Super Mario Bros 2 was around 400k retail copies for example.

[Sno]

The thought of being able to have a download version of Animal Crossing sitting on my 3DS just always ready to go is incredibly enticing.

[Henroid]

It doesn't beat Call of Duty selling like over a million at Gamestop alone, but it's certainly huge.

So in a more human part of the business, Zynga:

I just read a Wall Street Journal piece that an Apple exec (or whoever) who attended a meeting at Zynga regarding how to turn the falling company around said that the Zynga CEO was near tears during the meeting. So, because I have empathy, I'm having some shock regarding possibly being wrong about the dude. As in, maybe he isn't some emotionless body just trying to harvest us for dollars. Maybe he's an honest dude who had good ideas but was lead astray or just made mistakes. I decided to reserve judgment until we see how Zynga plans to turn around; doubling-down on the stupid, or turning to be honest and fair to consumers and developers alike.

[Gwardinen]

I'm certainly not trying to be a prick and I rarely want to discourage empathy, but I don't think someone having emotions is the same as being a good and stand-up person. He's the head of a company that's failing, I'd be surprised if he wasn't upset. It doesn't mean that he has ever given a crap about his customers. Just because you have empathy doesn't mean he does.

[Henroid]

A friend elsewhere brought me back to my senses, pointing out Pincus' earnings despite the company's fall.

[jeremywc]

A CEO being on the verge of tears during a meeting like that gives me the opposite emotion: rage. You have thousands of employees who are counting on you to run the business so they can continue to make a living and take care of themselves and their families. Sure, they can probably find other jobs, but you still have a responsibility to them. Man up and lead.

[Henroid]

Along with the Wii U launch comes this news. The short of it is that developers on the eShop set their own prices and sales, and the price of dev patching is gone. That's a big step up for how console patching has been working out for developers until now.

[Roderick]

CVG has a fantastic article on the making of the Wii, a bit of a retrospective with really good insights: http://www.computerandvideo games.com/378029/features/revolution-the-story-of-wii/

[Henroid]

There's no article on this yet because it's a breaking event, but MCV posted an article about the new Hitman saying that it's received all positive reviews. Meanwhile, even looking at Metacritic, no it hasn't. The article ignores sourcing the bigger websites critical of the game. The person that wrote the article has professional ties to the developer.

Rather than being gracious about it, MCV is denying any wrongdoing on any level and the head editor (though I haven't seen it personally, yet) was even getting mouthy at people who were pointing out the missed negative reviews and the writer's conflict of interest. Keep in mind MCV has made no comments about Doritosgate.

I guess that's a body we can consider to be an advertisement firm moreso than a journalism one.

[Nachimir]

Original headline: "Critics delighted with Agent 47's return in Hitman: Absolution". Article with subsequent chain of edits: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/critics-delighted-with-agent-47-s-return-in-hitman-absolution/0106621 (also posted by toblix in the thread for the game).

It was hilarious both before and after the edits. Before them, John Walker drew a bunch of attention to it on Twitter, and now they're linking every bad review except RPS. Kieron Gillen: "It's almost as if they hold a grudge from John publicly humiliating them."

[Henroid]

Incidentally a friend of mine working at RPS is the one who brought this all to my attention right when it was going down. The reason why all of this is such news is because of MCV's response at every layer. Anyway, Rob Florence definitely made this tweet, presumably about the "grumpy Eurogamer" "odd one out" bit:

I might get my boss to ring MCV to give them hell and hint at legal action for them being a worthless PR shill rag.

Sometimes I feel like such an ass for loving it when the gloves come off like this.

[Nachimir]

Also, they run the GMAs.

Technically, the headline was true: Some critics were delighted. The blatant, obvious lack of any research going into the piece was stupefying though. Uncomfortable for MCV, because it implies they're either in Square-Enix' pocket, or that they're incompetent and lazy enough to write a story like that and let it slip through the editorial net.

More horrific games press related things are going to keep happening. The entire chunk of it based around behaviour like Doritosgate doesn't really know what to do, and in the interim seem to be resorting to furious denial. Resorting to "Pssh, it's just Twitter!" is going to stop working really fast.

[Henroid]

So the aftermath of this is pretty incredible in its own right. First, MCV's defense via Twitter is that their target audience is retailers and not consumers. Which is a load because why are they selling the magazine to consumers? And then the guy running the twitter account for MCV decided to have some sort of melt down. And lastly, apparently this past Friday MCV fired Wainwright.

[Nachimir]

MCV accidentally this tweet:

http://pool.cream.org/pics/choad.jpg

When I saw them bring out the "We're a trade publication!" defense, my first thought was that if I were a retailer, I would never trust such an obviously flimsy piece. Paid for or not, there is is absolutely nothing useful to a trade or consumer audience in that kind of marketing puff.

It's worth remembering that the job of many modern publications is to sell an audience to advertisers. I think that gets especially weird with videogames, due to friendships between journalists and publishers.

[Henroid]

Well it's because the content of review publications and sites is also the ad revenue generating material. When I listen to the radio and they do a spot ad for a film or Call of Duty or whatever, it doesn't grate me because the content of the radio show I'm listening to isn't grounded in that stuff. But if I was listening to a radio show that's all about film and all of their sponsors are for films / film makers, suddenly I'd have to be wary as shit of the content I'm hearing.

But then we reach the odd spot with video games where it's like, okay, Mountain Dew and Doritios. Oh wait, those are travesties.

We can't win.

[Henroid]

Two big pieces of news, for once not about journalism shit or Sony or Nintendo. The first, in fact, is rumors about MS and their next console gen play:

Microsoft is building an Xbox set-top box. Multiple sources familiar with Redmond's plans have confirmed to The Verge that the company plans to introduce a low-cost alternative to its Xbox console, designed to provide access to core entertainment services. The move will allow Microsoft to further increase its presence in the living room, providing consumers with a choice between a set-top box or a full next-generation Xbox console.

We're told that the set-top box is part of a two-SKU strategy for Microsoft's next-generation of Xbox hardware that will be unveiled in 2013, with a release date ahead of the holiday shopping season. The device will run on the core components of Windows 8 and support casual gaming titles rather than full Xbox games typically found on a dedicated console. Although hardware specifications aren't fully locked down, we understand Microsoft will use a chipset to enable an "always on" device that boots quickly and resumes to provide near-instant access to TV and entertainment services.

Microsoft's Xbox set-top box work is said to be part of a broader effort to ensure its core architecture for the next-generation Xbox is scalable enough to be put together to run on a number of devices. We understand that the company could opt to combine its core system for the next Xbox with a phone stack to deliver a phone capable of running a full version of Microsoft's Xbox Live services. It has also investigated providing this functionality to TV OEMs, who could include the core services as part of a licensed Xbox television set.

I'll just carry over my response to this from elsewhere:

One of two things is happening:

1) All of the multi-media support that MS has been building on the XBox has reached a point where they can strip it away as a separate device to sell, and the XBox will revert to being merely a video game piece of hardware.

2) Same thing as above, except the multi-media device will have a premium version in which the premium function is video games. Which will either make video games glamorous or hamper them.

And the next news piece is about... Telltale Games!

Telltale Games is looking to move out of its current space and into an office nearly double in size. Currently employing 125, the company is looking to up its headcount toward 160 individuals, starting in March or April of 2013. Back in October, Telltale signed a five-year lease for a new 22,000 square-foot space in San Rafael, the town Telltale Games has called home since its formation in 2004.

According to the North Bay Business Journal, Telltale CEO and co-founder Dan Connors pegged the company's success on its ability to employ "digital distribution and episodic production to take advantage of licenses." Telltale launched a Jurassic Park game to lukewarm critical reception last year, but also has strong licenses like Back to the Future and an upcoming game based on the comic book series, Fables.

Telltale Games is working on the second season of The Walking Dead, the first season of which concludes this week with the launch of "No Time Left."

It's great to read news of a company growing for once in this industry rather than "Here, layoffs." And it's doubly great that it's this company in particular because it's pretty well-earned. Congrats to them (and by extension Jake and Sean!).

[I_smell]

Oh, sure, write down that Jurrassic Park had a luke warm reception and then gloss over The Walking Dead

Also I laughed at the notion that Microsoft will make Video games glamorous in 2013.

[brkl]

Isn't that Sony's shtick?

[Roderick]

I'll just wait patiently for the unveil next E3. Not interested in the box set, but am in the actual console. I will most likely not buy the thing right away, so it'll be at least 2,5 years before I'll get it in my house.

[Henroid]

Isn't that Sony's shtick?

Sony's lead era in video games was pretty much, "We have all the video games ever."

[brkl]

I was thinking more about the horrid PS3 ads they used to show in theaters.

[Henroid]

Man that just goes to show how much I'm not in theaters because I didn't see any of that. Or were they the same ads as the ones on TV? "IT ONLY DOES EVERYTHING."