Robot (also known as Enthiran) is India’s most expensive film ever and it’s easy to see why. While it borrows lightly from some obvious sources, there aren’t words in the human language to properly describe some of the crazy action scenes.
Facebook has always looked for ways to increase their promoted content on the site, and they’ve found a unique way to do so with people’s updates. Now when people update or mention a particular place or brand, it will be highlighted.
Sony has announced the successor to the PSP, which is not called PSP2 but next generation portable (or NGP) for now. The system will have both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity and is planned to launch in 2011.
The system will have a 5-inch organic light emitting display, high-performance CPU / GPU, and a multi-touch pad on the rear. The unit has an ovular shape designed to be more comfortable, along with dual analogs, a camera in the front and rear, as well as three motion sensors.
Retail games will come on a flash memory based card, along with available downloadable titles that will include Android content. Online options will include LiveArea for sharing gameplay experiences and Near which lets users see what their friends are playing.
RPGs made in Japan have been roundly criticized of late by many in the West and many think changes need to be made in order to achieve worldwide success. A prominent developer has come out and agreed with this sentiment: Final Fantasy creator Hinorobu Sakaguchi.
Speaking with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata and Xenoblade director Tetsuya Takahashi, Sakaguchi said that the use of conventions that have been around for decades holds JRPGs back on the world stage. “Because of this, RPGs need a change,” he said.
However, Sakaguchi did note that JRPGs are good at expressing feelings and detail, something that he says needs to be retained. Sakaguchi’s latest game, The Last Story, is releasing January 27 in Japan but is not confirmed for release outside that country.
Source: Official Nintendo Magazine
Reports have surfaced that there is a bug in the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 that, after certain events, freezes the game and corrupts the save profile. BioWare has since confirmed the existence of said bug.
“Just to make it clear, we are aware of this issue and are working to understand what is occurring and how we can fix it, wrote community chief of the BioWare forum Chris Priestly. “If you are encountering this issue, please provide details about your PS3 and your playthrough.”
Other posts indicate that the error often (but not always) occurs during the middle of the Lair of the Shadow Broker mission; other people report numerous other crashes while others have finished the game without any significant issues. Anyone experiencing this error should report when and how it happened on the BioWare forums so that they can expedite a patch.
UPDATE: BioWare has announced that they are working on a patch that fixes the freezing issues that leads to corrupted saves, along with a series of smaller issues. They have sent the patch on to Sony for verification and distribution, which will likely be released next week.
Mad Catz has announced that will be producing a line up of Gears of War 3 accessories later this year. While no specifics were announced, the Xbox 360 peripherals will include controllers and headphones.
“We are delighted to extend our relationship with Epic Games and look forward to creating a distinctive range of accessories for the next release of one of the most successful franchises in the industry’s history,” said Darren Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mad Catz. Our Gears of War agreement is consistent with our strategies to align Mad Catz with the industry’s most popular and anticipated game titles and to develop and globally distribute high-value products that enhance the gaming experience. Gears of War is a marquee relationship for Mad Catz and helps us further grow and diversify our industry-leading portfolio of branded videogame accessories.”
Gears of War 3 is set to release this holiday season.
After much drama, Kongregate has relaunched their app on the Android Market. This version downloads and plays the games using the web browser instead of directly to the phone, which was the issue that Google had with the app.
We told them that (the games ran in a browser), and they circled back up internally and said that despite the fact it was in a browser they felt it was still over the line, Kongregate CEO Jim Greer said. It s their terms of service, so there wasn’t much point in continuing to argue with that.
Source: VentureBeat
The Apple’s iOS devices are gaining traction as a gaming platform all the time, and recently reached the 10 billion download mark from the App Store. Despite this, Charlie Scibetta, Sr. Director of Corp. Comm. for Nintendo of America, doesn’t think that Apple’s success has taken away from their own.
“When it comes to the overall threat from Apple or our competition, there’s a couple of things I can tell you on that. The first is that our primary competition is time. There’s only a certain amount of time people have in every day to do the things they have to do, such as work and sleep and eat. Then you have discretionary time. Our job is to make experiences so compelling that we get the biggest portion of that discretionary time possible. A lot of people want to paint the scenario that in order for the App Store for Apple or any other competitor, for them to enjoy any momentum, it has to be at our expense. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that.
Currently, along with the slew of free games, there are an increasing number of high quality titles for $6 on the App Store; 3DS games look like they will clock in at between $40 – $50 apiece. Nintendo believes, however, they provide better gameplay experiences and high quality IP, along with a market for digital titles on the eShop.
“We’ll have smaller games on the Nintendo eShop. We’re also going to have the experiences that you’re seeing here today, these thirty-plus launch games. I’ll put these games up against anything that’s out there. You put your best out there, and we’ll put our best out there. I like our chances,” said Scibetta. “Take a look at Pro Evo Soccer for example. You have the ability to pass to different players on your team using the touchpad and dual screens. When developers get their hands around all the different options you can do with this system now, you get an experience that you can’t get anywhere else. No matter what the cost, people will pay for quality. If we put out good quality, and I think we have and are going to continue to, I think that people are going to respond because it’s a gaming experience you can’t get anywhere else.”
Source: IndustryGamers
MMORPGs are becoming increasingly common, but subscription-based MMOs are becoming increasingly rare. Standing out can be hard in a crowded online universe… but being the first MMO on PS3 and using a worldwide famous comic property in DC always helps. We spoke with Debysue Wolfcale, director of global brand marketing for Sony Online Entertainment, about the anticipated MMO, DC Universe Online.
The answer is yes, not just because there’s two platforms and because there’s no other game that has [what we offer], but it’s that several trends have come together [at the same time]. One is the growth of the MMO genre; we see a proliferation of those types of games with lots of players online, particularly since the introduction of World of Warcraft. The other is the continued popularity of console action games. So introducing an MMO but with console action components, we were looking to bring together those who liked online games and action games and offer it on both platforms. It’s a unique and smart opportunity for the PS3 market.
For us, (DCUO) was conceived to be a PS3 game. We knew we wanted it to come to both platforms. We weren’t like, ‘Lets build it and port it to the PS3.’ It was an MMO with an action game mechanic to appeal to both platforms. It was a pretty big challenge, but we saw the metrics for MMO players getting on board, and we saw a hurdle in getting console players interested. We saw games like Modern Warfare 2 being successful and people liked the multiplayer. So we decided to take all the features that people like of MMOs and online multiplayer into one game.
To make it work on the PS3, we had to work within constrains we hadn’t had before. We had to be aware of bandwidth and the particular tech, whereas a PC can be more forgiving in some places; it brought in a new set of challenges. We are Sony, so we developed a close relationship with SCE and we were able to identify and address all of those challenges pretty early on.
In marketing, there were things we needed to do differently too. We had three priority target markets: we had the MMO gamer, who had a relationship with online games and SOE as a real leader in the MMO space. We also targeted the console action gamers and, of course, we were targeting fans of comics! Jim Lee was the executive creator and vital in bringing this forward-thinking philosophy to all aspects of the game.
We saw there were three different groups of people that all want something slightly different we needed to know how to target all of these people without building a [separate] campaign for all three, so we built a campaign that catered out to those three segments.
We’ve done a ton of live events with this game. We’ve done no less than eight live demo events, like Comic Con and SOE Fan Faire. We had both PC and PS3 demo stations and had separate key commands and we set up our booths to accommodate all the target markets. We attended different events, again, because we were targeting three markets.
We saw people who would say, ‘We love the opening event in the game! It was awesome to see Superman fight next beside you.’ Others said, ‘The first fight in the game is awesome, being attacked by giant robots at the beginning, I think it was called Brainiac!’ For the MMO gamers, by contrast, it was all about creating the character; you could see all this feedback reflected throughout the beta.
We tailored the opening of the game to bring you into the gameplay mechanics and the user interface. It’s also reflected in our opening movie: the game opens with the cinematic that shows why the world is in turmoil and ultimately it’s either going to be ruled over or taken back. From that point, it feels like you’re dropped into the Brainiac ship. The whole fiction of the game is what’s being giving in the beginning. We’ve felt like letting players feel like they are the hero and that’s the important part. It’s a very story driven experience, and that’s important for DC comics, whether it’s the comics, animated series or movies.
The initial encounter also gives players opportunities to know who Brainiac is and what he is. It didn’t feel like a tutorial and it worked out really well.
For me, I’d have to say it’s Mark Hamil; it’s the experience of meeting him. Such a wonderful man, but his voice and characterization of the Joker are unmatched!
All the actors we got, we knew that we wanted this to reach out to the broader gamer who might not be as involved with the DC franchise as others. We wanted them to be comfortable in this world, with these characters that you know make the experience better and we wanted to leverage the incredible depths of the IP. We built cut-scenes to be a really compelling way to convey information on these characters. So the cut-scenes at the end of the boss fights help [the players] feel more engaged, to find out more about the world.
That was another target market; there’s always been a strong composition of women in MMO games, because women are good at socializing and organizing, and they play a larger role in the guilds. At the events, I was amazed at the number of women dressed in these uniforms. I’d see girls dressed up as Zantana and they would know their personal background and everything! It’s amazing how many strong females there are in the DC universe. One of the media from IGN, she’s been playing a lot and tweeting, and it’s awesome to hear her talk about.
In the TV spots, we had three goals. I would say everything we have done on this game, the continual focus on speaking to these three markets in ways that’s exciting to them, it was really challenging. We wanted to convey to them that you’re stepping into the DC universe (key to the comic fan) and we wanted to say you’re crafting your own character and that speaks to the MMO gamer. And we wanted to convey that you’re going to have these powers and pick up stuff in the environment that you can throw, which console gamers like. It’s hard to convey all of this in 15- and 30-second spots, that it has all those gameplay features, weaving them together with editing and music. And everything is gameplay other than the part with our pre-rendered opening.
I’m amazed . . . I don’t want to jinx it, but the feedback has been incredibly positive! I feel like I’ve been in a dream since it launched. People are embracing the game, and we feel very lucky. It took a long time, a lot of tuning and a lot of long nights, so it’s nice to have people embrace it.
It was different in a few key areas. Firstly, you’re talking to a very different market. Action console gamers are very different than the comic book fans. The different conversations we had needed to deal with three different points of view! It was so much more variety from the way people play games and what they were looking for in the game. In terms of communication, it was talking about the graphics, the art, the text even; it’s about not alienating anyone. Bringing forward those things that people liked and that didn’t attract people before.
With the community, we’re establishing a relationship that grows over time. They have a relationship with us and with each other, and that’s a huge responsibility and a huge opportunity! It’s a lot of what we do with social media marketing. We wanted to go to C2E2 in Chicago with DC Comics, but we were so busy with development we couldn’t go, so we had a virtual fan event through our Facebook page. So that was the first of many virtual events with the fans.
They’ve been instrumental, I don’t even know where to begin! They’ve been so forthcoming and supportive! The relationships we’ve built with them have been great; Jim Lee was a big positive with us. He’s so talented as an artist, but he’s also a gamer! So not only does he ‘get’ DC comics, but he ‘gets’ games. It was important for him to be on board.
Geoff Johns and Marv Wolfman, incredibly talented guys, also helped. Geoff is the Creative Officer for DC and they’re both the leaders in that company and we got to work with them,. I think it’s given us incredible dividends. Jim made suggestions, he sat down at our desk and talked about what the box and brand key-art should look like.
We’ve put our cinematic on WB releases, and All-Star Superman will carry our trailer. A lot of DC comics will run ads and DC direct is coming out with action figures based around DCUO. From Sony to DC to Warner Bros., you couldn’t ask for better partners.
We couldn’t have launched this game if we didn’t have the depth of experience with MMO games. Launching these games is a challenge. This game has so many firsts for SOE launched a game on the PS3, in five languages in 22 countries at the same time. That was a pretty daunting task, and I think we did it with a high degree of quality, so we couldn’t have pulled that off without the depth of this company. The founders of this company developed EverQuest and we have so many other great people, whether they worked on EverQuest or God of War, that are just incredible. There are so many people here who have put in hours and hours; one way or another, the whole company has supported this game.
We worked very hard with the dev guys on that – it was one of the more exciting marketing products on the project. The back-story of this game was written by Geoff Johns. Lee said he wanted this great back story, because MMOs have these great back stories. When I read it, I couldn’t believe how drawn in I was. It was so visceral and compelling and I said, ‘We’ve got to make a cinematic out of this!’ The story was crafted to answer ‘Why are all these heroes popping up ‘ and it conveys the message of ‘The next legend is you.’ It had so much potential we just wanted to show it through as a movie.
The video is an alternate future that you’re trying to avoid; you’re going outside the lines of where the heroes normally are because it’s a separate universe, which doesn’t hurt the synergy of the IP. That story really became the way to convey the value proposition of the game. It was important to convey that you’re the hero, you’re the villain and you’re going to carry the story of the game and the game is growing and evolving. It was written quite some time ago by Geoff Johns and it shows how lucky we are to work with both him and Jim Lee on the story of the game. It wasn’t really about shock value, though; it was about different opportunities to introduce these characters. You’re not playing as Superman or Batman – you’re going to be the hero or villain fighting for or against them.
Absolutely! It’s key to the value proposition that we’re constantly adding content. We’re letting our players know what is unique about MMO games by constantly adding new events with new things to see and do because it’s an evolving world. In this game, as you’re continuing to play, we continue to grow the game. We wanted to accommodate where we see what’s popular and build more of that to make sure that people have the most fun with it. That’s something we’re hopefully going to find out about and adapt our plan to the players’ preferences.
With most games, you put it in a box and you’re done. Launching an online game is the beginning and not the end! We don’t know where this will lead us. There is an end game which is unique in an MMO, but there’ll be more after that!
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While there’s been quite a bit of complaining about the multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops (especially for the PS3 version) it’s still the hottest multiplayer game on the planet. Coming to the Xbox 360 on February 1 are five new maps in Kowloon, Discovery, Berlin Wall and Stadium, and Ascension, the last of which has zombies.
