Tag Archives | Gaming

Rock On: Guitar Hero Not Dead Yet

Posted by Jared Newman on April 12, 2011 at 3:56 pm

Activision gave the wrong impression when it announced in February that it would disband the Guitar Hero development team and stop working on a Guitar Hero game for 2011.

Most of the press (myself included) assumed that this meant Guitar Hero was finished, but now Activision is clearing the air. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Activision’s Dan Winters clarified that the series is on “hiatus.”

“We’re releasing products out of the vault – we’ll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won’t go away. We’re just not making a new one for next year, that’s all,” Winters said.

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Unpleasant Horse is Too Nasty for Apple

Posted by Jared Newman on April 8, 2011 at 9:15 am

Apple’s iOS App Store policies have claimed another high-profile victim.

This time, it’s Unpleasant Horse, the first game by Popcap’s experimental 4th and Battery publishing label. Popcap is best-known for the Bejeweled series and Plants vs. Zombies, the latter of which was among the most popular paid iPhone apps of 2010.

Popcap spun off 4th and Battery to experiment with games that aren’t warm and fuzzy enough for the Popcap label. Unpleasant Horse looks cute and cuddly, but it’s actually quite sinister. From the game’s description: “Your idea of a good time is bouncing from cloud to cloud and on to the backs of other, cuter flying ponies, who will thus be sent plummeting to a gruesome, bone-chewing demise, thanks to an unfortunately placed series of meat grinders on the ground below.”

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Atari Finally Sets Up Shop in the iPhone App Store

Posted by Jared Newman on April 6, 2011 at 5:30 pm

You may now count Atari among the classic video game systems to find a home in the iOS App Store.

Atari Greatest Hits should be available for the iPhone and iPad sometime this evening for U.S. users. The app includes Pong for free, and includes 99 games from the Atari 2600 and arcade system for purchase. Games are sold in bundles of three or four for $1 each, or $15 for the entire collection. A handful of games include local multiplayer over Bluetooth.

Some of the classics include Yars’ Revenge, Super Breakout, Centipede and Missile Command. I’m saddened but not surprised that Activision’s Atari games, such as Pitfall and River Raid, aren’t on the list. No Pac-Man or E.T., either, but that’s probably for the best.

This isn’t Atari’s first endeavor in the iPhone App Store. The publisher has previously launched modern-looking versions of Centipede, Missile Command and Super Breakout, but the games in Greatest Hits are the actual old-school versions. It’s also Atari’s first store within a store, joining Commodore 64 and VH1 Classic Presents: Intellivision in the iPhone’s roster of classic video game emulators.

I wouldn’t expect to see an Android version. As we learned from the Kongregate debacle, in which Google temporarily removed a Flash game portal from the Android Market, stores within stores are one way to run afoul of Market policy. But that shouldn’t be a problem for Android users, who are free to purchase a third-party Atari emulator and play the console’s entire catalog without paying a dime to Atari. Makes sense to me.

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GameStop Mulls a Tablet, Will Soon Buy Yours

Posted by Jared Newman on April 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm

When a brick-and-mortar retailer decides to go digital, one possible strategy goes something like this: Buy a smaller digital company or two, and hope to make them big.

That’s what GameStop did last week when it acquired Stardock’s Impulse game download service and Spawn Labs, whose claim to fame is a device that acts like SlingBox for video games.

But in an interview with Gamasutra’s Chris Morris, Gamestop revealed a more fascinating wrinkle in its digital strategy. Later this year, it’ll start accepting tablets for trade-in, and it eventually wants Impulse’s download service and Spawn Labs’ streaming tech to be a part of other manufacturer’s tablets. If that doesn’t happen, Gamestop may build a tablet of its own.

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Warner Bros. May Join the Fight Against Used Games With Mortal Kombat

Posted by Jared Newman on March 30, 2011 at 5:07 pm

Warner Bros. may be the next video game publisher to show its disdain for used games by punishing the people who buy them.

A memo from Warner to retailers, leaked to Joystiq, says Mortal Kombat will require an online pass to play over Xbox Live or the Playstation Network when the game launches on April 19. The pass is included with new copies of the game, but owners of used copies will have to purchase passes for $10, the memo says. Warner may also require an online pass for F.E.A.R. 3 and Batman: Arkham City, which launch in May and October, respectively.

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PS3’s Free Realms is the First Free-to-Play Console MMORPG

Posted by Jared Newman on March 29, 2011 at 6:59 pm

Strange, but true: Five years into the Playstation Network’s existence (and eight years after the birth of Xbox Live), Free Realms for Playstation 3 has become the first free-to-play massive multiplayer console game.

The kid-centric game, which first launched on PCs in April 2009, gives players an open world filled with minigames such as kart racing, fighting and cooking and fishing. Players’ experience levels are capped in the free version; the premium version costs $5 per month, $13 for three months, $24.50 for six months, $30 for a year and $35 for life. Virtual goods are also available for purchase.

I’m only half-surprised it took this long. On one hand, free-to-play MMORPGs are a lucrative market. DFC Intelligence, a market research firm, estimated last August that free-to-play games, which earned $250 million in 2009, could become a $2 billion industry by 2015. On the other hand, console makers spend years losing money on every system sold in hopes of making that money back on software. Giving the software away could be an unpalatable risk.

But the Playstation 3 is more than four years old, and now’s the time to experiment. Free Realms is another example of Sony’s kitchen sink approach, which to date has included Blu-ray movies, the Playstation Move motion controller, 3D and an expanding streaming video selection.

Free Realms itself isn’t my cup of tea — and actually, I haven’t been able to try the PS3 version at all due to server problems — but I hope the experiment goes well for Sony. Free-to-play MMOs have belonged exclusively to PCs for too long.

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GameFly Still Seeking Postal Service Bailout

Posted by Jared Newman on March 28, 2011 at 4:30 pm

GameFly is making some scary claims about the amount of money it spends on shipping.

In a distressed letter to the U.S. Postal Service, obtained by Ars Technica, the mail-order game rental service says it pays such higher shipping rates than Netflix to mail physical media that the cost difference alone is higher than GameFly’s net monthly income. If I’m understanding correctly, that doesn’t mean GameFly is losing money — net earnings would be the amount the company earns after expenses, including shipping — it just means the Postal Service is making an awful lot from the arrangement.

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Nintendo 3DS Launches, Haunted by Smartphones

Posted by Jared Newman on March 27, 2011 at 9:55 am

The Nintendo 3DS goes on sale in North America today, and while my experience is limited to previews at trade shows and a public demo over the weekend, my sentiment is similar to that of full reviews: The tech is impressive, even if the first batch of games aren’t. (For more thorough analyses of the 3DS’s strengths and weaknesses, check out the reviews from Chris Kohler at Wired and Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica.)

But most reviews don’t offer a direct comparison between the 3DS and smartphones, which represent the handheld’s biggest threat. So allow me to share an anecdote:

Over the weekend, Nintendo showed off the 3DS at a kiosk on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. Public demos like this are a big part of Nintendo’s strategy, because advertisements can’t really convey the feeling of glasses-free 3D. I stopped by the kiosk with my father, who’s in town for the weekend.

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Once More for Old Time’s Sake, Duke Nukem Forever Delayed

Posted by Jared Newman on March 24, 2011 at 7:43 pm

I’m still kind of hoping Duke Nukem Forever never gets released, but that’s not going to happen.

However, the first-person shooter will relive its vaporware days one last time, with 2K Games announcing what it calls the “shortest delay in the history of Duke Nukem Forever.” Once scheduled for May 3, the game has been pushed back to June 10 internationally and June 14 in North America.

The folks at 2K are taking it in stride. “We thank Duke’s fans for their continued patience – I promise this won’t take another 15 years,” 2K Games President Christoph Hartmann said in a statement.

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People Are Still Buying Horse Armor

Posted by Jared Newman on March 17, 2011 at 3:58 pm

To the layman, the phrase “horse armor” may not carry any special meaning, but to gamers, it’s synonymous with being snookered. It refers to a downloadable horse costume for Bethesda’s 2006 hit The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and it served no strategic purpose. Horse armor only made your steed look fancier.

The costume’s uselessness became a source of outrage for Oblivion players, but in a new interview with Official Xbox Magazine UK, Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines said that even now, horse armor is a money maker.

“I swear to you I don’t have the report in front of me, but multiple people bought horse armor yesterday!” Hines said.

There’s a bigger point to be made here. Hines was talking about the success of downloadable content for Bethesda, and said that “so long as it’s good value, people will like it and buy it.” Apparently a lot of people thought a plate of false protection for a horse was worth $2.

In a way it’s not much different from the avatar costumes for which Xbox 360 owners and Playstation Home users happily pony up. They don’t serve any purpose but to make the player look good, but that’s something people value. Bethesda figured that out a long time ago.

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