Archive for January, 2010
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 11:30:00 PM
GameStop's chief operating officer says the retailer must educate customers on the benefits of downloadable content for retail games. Speaking on a panel at the Game Business Law
conference, J. Paul Raines said GameStop must embrace the growing trend of DLC if it hopes to survive in the category. "Downloadable content is a good thing because it enhances and extends games," he told the panel. While the company doesn't have a direct line to console customers seeking additional content, it does offer retail releases of
some high-profile DLC.
Raines believes that the biggest challenge for the downloadable market is customer understanding of DLC's availability and how to access the content. "That business could grow medium double digits today," he told the panel at Southern Methodist University. "Customer acquisition continues to be a huge part of the spend in this business." It is this view that has the company set on informing its customers of new content available for the games it sells.
While it may appear that the sky is falling in the GameStop camp, following
cut profit forecasts and
share drops during the holiday season, Raines isn't rushing for the closest bomb-shelter. "Rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated," he countered. "We'll release financials in a few weeks, so you'll see if we're still in business."
GameStop COO proclaims need for educating customers about DLC originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 10:30:00 PM
Considering the extent to which
Farmville has enraptured the hearts and minds of 95 percent of the Facebook-using populace, we're not surprised that Natsume has decided to bring yet another installment in the
Harvest Moon franchise to the States.
According to Siliconera, American store shelves will play host to
Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley for the PSP in April.
The game will task you with staving off the expansion of The Funland Corporation's chain of amusement parks into your home town of Leaf Valley. You'll do so in the most logical manner imaginable: By repeatedly performing various agricultural chores. Yeah, that'll show 'em!
Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley coming stateside in April originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 10:13:00 PM
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 09:30:00 PM
Beginning February 3, the first issue of the four-part comic series
Mass Effect: Redemption will be available on the iTunes App Store. To celebrate its release, Dark Horse and EA have announced the issue will be free for a limited time. How limited is the "free digital comic" window? One day
only. After February 3, the digital release is bumped up to
99 cents. Of course, if you're a
Mass Effect 2 fanatic you probably own the collectors' edition, which included a mini-version of the first issue. But, if you love moving pictures, a free digital comic is a hard thing to ignore.
First issue of Mass Effect iPhone comic free on launch day originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 08:30:00 PM
Hang on a sec, are you trying to tell us that you weren't at the Paradox Interactive Convention in Stockholm, Sweden last week when the publisher showed off its upcoming game,
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West? Lucky for you then that Paradox Interactive
recently released a mélange of screenshots and a developer interview to help assuage your fear of
totally missing out. Developed by Swedish company Fatshark,
Lead and Gold is a third-person multiplayer-focused shooter set in the Old West.
As described by executive producer Martin Wahlund in the video after the break, the game features a a variety of different competitive multiplayer modes (variations on the traditional "team deathmatch" and "capture the flag," among others) to be played by the game's four classes. Set for release in "Q2 2010," we have to imagine we'll be getting some face time with the game (and news on which consoles it's coming to) in the not too distant future.
Continue reading Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West previewed, screenshotted
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West previewed, screenshotted originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 07:30:00 PM
We love Nobuo Uematsu's work on the musical accompaniment for the
Final Fantasy franchise, but we often find ourselves wishing those games' scores were infused with a
touch of Jay-Z. Maybe a
light smattering of Outkast. The
faintest hint of Ghostface Killah.
The mixologists from Team Teamwork (creators of the
similarly-spliced Ocarina of Rhyme album) have once again worked their magic on a classic video game soundtrack. This time around, it's the score from
Final Fantasy VII, which has been mashed together with tracks from over a dozen hip-hop artists, as well as Tom Waits, which is just
weird. You can pay whatever you want to download
the cleverly-titled Vinyl Fantasy 7 -- though we're betting you'll probably settle on
zero dollars.
[Thanks, Mike!]
Vinyl Fantasy 7 is the freshest thing you'll hear today originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 06:30:00 PM
As confirmed by parent company Koch Media to
Develop,
Cursed Mountain developer Deep Silver Vienna has apparently been closed. Citing "the overall economic situation" and noting "this decision is not easy for us," the 20-person staff was recently cut and told they would receive pay through the end of March. Develop posits that the studio's other game --
Ride to Hell -- will likely remain unaffected by the shutdown, as UK dev house
Eutechnyx is handling development and Koch Media's Munich offices will oversee the game's management.
Deep Silver Vienna was formed in the wake of Rockstar Vienna's closing back in 2006, and originally called itself Games That Matter. Ex-Rockstar Vienna heads Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber launched the studio, and it is said that Siefert has moved on to a position at Square Enix Europe as a creative director. As with every case like this, we'd like to wish those affected the best of luck.
Cursed Mountain dev Deep Silver Vienna shuttered originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 05:30:00 PM
Blizzard recently released
yet another batch of gameplay screenshots from
Diablo III, showing off some of the game's arid environments. They're attractive as all-get-out, but we've become extremely distracted by their subject matter. For instance, we see some sand, and then we see some blood on that sand, and then we think of how awesome it would be if Blizzard did a top-down RPG version of
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and then that's
all we think about for the rest of the day. Curse you, overactive imagination!
New Diablo III screens have derailed our train of thought originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 04:30:00 PM
Sure, you could take Bungie's latest foray into Mythbusters territory as full on confirmation of
Halo: Reach not having
Project Natal support, or you could be like us and remain skeptical of the developers still-not-straightforward wording. In a recent post on
Bungie.net, the company attempted to answer a mess of "myths" about its upcoming
Halo game, including "Myth:
Reach is being built for Natal!" In answering, the post states, "
Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind."
That said, rather than outright saying, "No, there's no support for Project Natal in
Halo: Reach," Bungie instead chose to loosely word the answer. It certainly doesn't help the situation that multiple Bungie employees have
expressed interest in seeing Natal incorporated into the
Halo series, with Bungie prez Harold Ryan even saying he could "
absolutely" see
Reach specifically incorporate Natal. So, about that myth ...
Halo: Reach 'not a Natal title,' being made with a controller in mind originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
Posted on Jan 31, 2010 03:30:00 PM
We've been wondering why it's taken Square Enix so long to churn out another installment in the core
Final Fantasy franchise, seeing as how the last game came out approximately
forever ago. The answer recently came in the latest Dutch issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, which contains a revealing interview with Squeenix's Yoshinori Kitase. According to
a fan translation of the interview, Kitase said "
Final Fantasy XIII was originally meant to be a PS2 title, but we had to switch systems due to the arrival of the PS3. That cost us about one and a half years and was constantly a case of trial and error."
Considering it took Square Enix roughly "one and a half years" to develop and release
Final Fantasy IX, that's a pretty substantial amount of time lost. Hopefully the developer will have an easier time when working on the next current-gen
Fantasy.
[Via
VG247]
FFXIII development started on PS2, delayed launch by a year and a half originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read |
Permalink |
Email this |
Comments
