Walking Dead Shambles To 1 Million Sales

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Telltale Games has announced that The Walking Dead first episode has topped the sales charts of XBLA, PSN and Steam. The first of many episodes in the series has been downloaded over 1 million times.

“Premiering The Walking Dead game series to record numbers across so many diverse platforms is a tremendous achievement that shows the value of bringing strong storytelling and game play together,” said Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games, Inc. “The tailored narrative design puts gamers in control of their own story within the universe of The Walking Dead in a way that appeals equally to hardcore gamers and to more casual gamers who are fans of the franchise.”

“The most exciting aspect of getting off to such a great start is that this is just the beginning of the five episode series,” added Connors. “The Walking Dead fans are going to experience some really great moments in the months ahead that are uniquely influenced by the choices they make throughout the season.”

BioWare Reaches Out To Fans For Dragon Age Feedback

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Recently, Dragon Age Executive Producer Mark Darrah confirmed that there will be no more digital content for Dragon Age II and that the company reached out to the fans. At PAX East, a panel about the franchise was held, and now the company is looking for more open dialog on the issue “ to foster the spirit of community.”

“Beginning today, we’ll do a series of questions and discussions around Dragon Age,” wrote Jessica Merizan, BioWare community head. “Consider this a conversation between fans, the community team, and the developers. Everyone at BioWare is incredibly excited about the future of the franchise but we’re interested in what you have to say. Every month, we will discuss a topic or question about Dragon Age and game development. You will have one week to post your thoughts, desires, and hopes before we close the thread for review. Moderators and developers will pop into the thread to chat every now and again, so keep an eye out.”

She noted that this discussion extends beyond the context of future games. Other Dragon Age products could include anything from novels and comics to animated features and pen and paper RPGs.

“However, it’s worth reminding that we’re not making promises, we’re talking about ideas. We won’t guarantee that things we discuss will materialize and we’re not showing anything until we’re ready. And as a last bit of housekeeping, the purpose of these exercises isn’t crowd sourcing or soliciting your game dev concepts (keep those close in case you want to make a game someday!). This should remain a discussion between BioWare and fans about what you loved about Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2—what this franchise means to you,” noted Merizan. “BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has mentioned that we’d like to open up more in future Dragon Age titles, so now we turn to you: What kinds of things would you like to learn more about Antivan weddings Orlesian balls The remnants of the Tevinter empire Burial customs among the Chaisind What kinds of things would you like to discover and learn about the Dragon Age world ”

To give feedback on what you want out of Dragon Age, post a comment in the BioWare forum.

Source: blog.bioware.com

Dust 514 Beta Registration Now Open

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CCP Games has announced that it has opened beta registration for Dust 514. Those interested in entering the beta for the PS3 title can register at www.dust514.com/beta.

“Dust 514 is one of the most anticipated titles of 2012, and CCP is ready to accept sign ups from fans and gamers eagerly awaiting their chance to try out the revolutionary shooter,” read the announcement by CCP. “If accepted, beta registrants will be notified with an email invitation and instructions on how to access the beta. Thousands of players have already been able to experience DUST 514 during its closed beta, and CCP is beginning to let limited numbers of players join the action. Select players from CCP’s MMO EVE Online will gain entry into the Dust 514 beta this week, as well as all those who attended the EVE Fanfest convention in Iceland this past March. The beta will continue to expand throughout the summer, and CCP will discuss more details at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).”

Vostok Games Explains Why Free-To-Play Made More Sense

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Vostok Games has many of the same developers that worked at GSC Game World on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. When asked why Survarium is a free-to-play title instead of another retail product, project manager Ruslan Didenko explained that it came down to economics.

“Those games take a long time, cost a lot, and leave a lot of revenue in the pockets of publishers,” said project manager Ruslan Didenko.

“It was a tough decision to make. After the shutdown of GSC, our team had a choice: whether to scatter around other companies or stick together and try to attract funding to keep the development going,” added Didenko. “What we realized is that while we had been preoccupied with delivering single player titles one by one, the world changed, and we have to change too. Therefore, we decided to take a dramatic step and switch to online.”

Source: Gamasutra

Google Introduces Knowledge Graph

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For a long time, Internet search has been about keywords and finding the sites that best match the queries. Google is looking to change the way we surf with Knowledge Graph.

“Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To a search engine the words [taj mahal] have been just that—two words,” wrote Amit Singhal, SVP, Engineering. “But we all know that [taj mahal] has a much richer meaning. You might think of one of the world’s most beautiful monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian restaurant. It’s why we’ve been working on an intelligent model—in geek-speak, a ‘graph’—that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.”

“The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query,” he added. “This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.”

Users can now see particular slices of a search and see more results. It can also give more details and reveal unexpected results by showing more connections to the topic you’re searching for.

“We hope this added intelligence will give you a more complete picture of your interest, provide smarter search results, and pique your curiosity on new topics,” wrote Singhal. “We’re proud of our first baby step—the Knowledge Graph—which will enable us to make search more intelligent, moving us closer to the “Star Trek computer” that I’ve always dreamt of building. Enjoy your lifelong journey of discovery, made easier by Google Search, so you can spend less time searching and more time doing what you love.”

Source: googleblog.blogspot.com

Japan Bans ‘Complete Gacha’ Mechanics

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Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has formalized the ban on ‘complete gacha’ mechanics in video games. The mechanic had players try and accrue random items by lottery, a set of which would grant another rare item.

Because of the micro-transaction costs, and the controversy of young gamers racking up high bills, the randomized nature was essentially ruled as gambling. While companies like Gree and Mobage have benefited from such systems in the past, they’ve taken measures to remove the elements after the Agency telegraphed its move a week ago.

Source: Andriasang

Six To Start Got Pre-Orders For IOS Games

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Six To Start recently launched a Kickstarter to fund their iOS game Zombies, Run! While Apple normally has a limitation on the number of promo codes for a game, they allowed the developer to set up pre-orders.

“After our Kickstarter campaign finished there was still plenty of demand for Zombies, Run!, so we set up a [store] where people could continue to pre-order the game,” the company said on the Six To Start blog. “Apple were also fine with this although they made very clear that we should shut down the store once the game was on sale – which we were planning to do anyway.”

Source: Six to Start

The Last Of Us – The Truck Ambush

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Civilization has ended in The Last of Us, and there are infected monsters lurking everywhere as deadly foes. However, Joel and Ellie learn that some of the monsters are just regular humans in this biting trailer featuring the song Alone and Forsaken by Hank Williams.

 

The Amazing Spider-Man — 4 Minute Preview

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Avengers has been the comic movie set up for years that people are anticipating . . . but there’s another prominent Marvel hero getting a feature film this year. The Amazing Spider-Man is a new take on the franchise – can it win people over that loved the original trilogy of movies

Sadako 3D In Harajuku On A Truck

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In order to promote the new horror movie Sadako 3D (which is the Japanese version of the Ring series) a Sadako ghost/monster thing on the back of a truck was used. The promotional vehicle was driving in Tokyo, Japan and no doubt scared tailgaters.