Microsoft Reorganizes, Julie Larson-Green Heads Xbox Unit

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the long-rumored reorganization of Microsoft today in a memo to employees.

“As the times change, so must our company,” Ballmer said in the memo.  “We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies,” he said, adding that the changes “will enable us to execute even better on our strategy to deliver a family of devices and services that best empower people for the activities they value most and the enterprise extensions and services that are most valuable to business.”

The changes eliminate all of the company’s many unit president titles, changing them to executive vice presidents. Organization will be by function: Engineering, Marketing, Business Development and Evangelism, Advanced Strategy and Research, Finance, HR, Legal, and COO.  For the game business, that means falling under Engineering, which has been organized into four units: Operating Systems, Applications and Services, Cloud and Enterprise, and Devices and Studios. The Devices and Studios unit, where the Xbox lives, will be headed by former Windows co-head Julie Larson-Green.

Ballmer stressed that this restructuring should lead to greater collaboration inside the company leading it to build better products faster and drive customer and shareholder value. What this specifically means for the Xbox business and games isn’t yet clear. There will probably be a new financial reporting structure which may give us less knowledge about exactly how well the Xbox and games are doing, though such changes may require regulatory approval.

Source: AllThingsD

 

Nintendo Push For ‘Shin Megami Tensei’

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Nintendo has announced an effort to boost interest in Shin Megami Tensei RPG titles, a franchise where it has partnered with game publisher Atlus on games for Wii U and 3DS.  Nintendo has launched a promotion to drive sales for Shin Megami Tensei IV , which comes to the 3DS in North America later this month, and generate buzz for the recently announced crossover game Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, which is headed to Wii U.  The company has said that if users register both a copy of Shin Megami Tensei IV and the other popular 3DS title in the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening, on Club Nintendo, they will receive $30 of credit applicable to any purchases through Nintendo eShop.

Fire Emblem: Awakening has already sold around 950,000 units, which lends credence to Nintendo’s strategy to draw heat from that title to generate immediate interest for the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei IV, and fan the flames for the franchise as it heads to Wii U sometime next year.

Source: CVG

Sim City May Add Offline Mode

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After a rocky launch and some unpopular policies, EA and Maxis may be looking into adding an offline mode to Sim City in a possible future update. A survey has surfaced on Reddit that gauges interest in the addition of various features to the game, and offline mode has been one of the most requested additions.

The change would come in the form of “Classic Mode,” allowing users to play in either online or offline mode as well as play a single city instead of a region. EA is also looking into adding farms, overpasses, larger cities and terraforming to the game, and it showed a possible new expansion pack that would add new SuperScrapers that would increase density.

All in all, it looks like some big changes are coming to Sim City in the future, and considering EA is tapping into what gamers want most, it should help expand the game’s appeal.

Source: Gamespot

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Why Users Won’t Like Your Facebook Page

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Recently Facebook app developer Woobox illustrated the most common reasons users don’t embrace certain brand pages. What’s not to like about brands’ Facebook pages Apparently plenty that may not even be apparent to even the most seasoned of marketers.

Woobox found that only 34 percent of brands actually ask what types of content Facebook users are looking for. Other issues include clutter, a reluctance to be contacted, privacy concerns, and irrelevance. Readers: What are your reasons for not liking Facebook pages

Source: All Facebook

Final Fantasy XIV Not On Xbox

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One of Square Enix’s biggest games this year comes in the form of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. However, the game will only be coming to PC, PS3 and PS4, bypassing Microsoft’s Xbox One. The game’s director Naoki Yoshida stated on RPGsite that they will not be releasing the game on either Xbox 360 or Xbox One. He cited the reason as Microsoft requiring that the game have its own server, which would not support cross-platform play with other systems.

“The main reason from our side is that I don’t want the community to be divided; to be split into two or more,” stated Yoshida. “For example, one player might be on the PC version, another might be on the PS4 version, and I’m playing the Xbox version – but we’re not able to join the same game servers.”

Yoshida continued, “I would love for as many players as possible to enjoy the game worldwide, so from a business point of view it could make sense to have it on the Xbox platforms. But as I mentioned earlier, that would bring about the tragedy that somebody might have to give up their existing character.”

Source: IGN

Xbox One At ComicCon

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San Diego Comic Con draws more than 100,000 people annually to the San Diego Convention Center. This year, those who are attending will have a chance to get hands-on time with Xbox One. According to Microsoft, games announced for the next-gen system such as Ryse: Son of Rome, Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3 will be playable. This marks the first publicly playable appearance of the Xbox One since Microsoft announced it in May and debuted it to a trade-only audience at E3 last month.

Microsoft will set up a Xbox Gaming Lounge at the Grand Hyatt hotel near the Comic Con conventoin center, where in addition to Xbox One, there will be Xbox 360 games on hand as well as the Windows Mobile game Halo: Spartan Assault. Microsoft is also planning to present two panels on July 18, “Through The Looking Glass: Halo Worlds and Wonders, Past, Present and Future” and “Bringing the Roman Empire to Life on Xbox One: The Creation of Ryse: Son of Rome.”

Microsoft is trying to get momentum back from Sony’s great showing at E3 for PS4 by allowing key influencers among the general public (the type of people likely to attend ComicCon) to get hands-on with Xbox One. It’s worth noting how Nintendo had good results by letting the public play upcoming Wii U games at Best Buy stores at the same time industry professionals were getting to do so at E3. We will likely see more such hands-on experiences at upcoming consumer shows such as GameStop Expo and PAX Prime.

Source: CVG

TenCent’s WeChat Appo To Start Game Publishing

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While TenCent may not be a huge name in the United States, it’s a $72 billion dollar chat and networking giant in China that makes a major part of its revenue from games. Tencent’s WeChat platform has grown to 400 million users in two years, and the company has now started testing a mobile gaming platform to be used on WeChat.

The platform’s incredible popularity in China has made it an appealing target for developers looking to get their game to a large audience. Chat has been a major driver of game distribution in South Korea through that country’s KakaoTalk app, which publishes 15 of the top highest-grossing Android apps. Line has had similar success in Japan.

Tencet feels WeChat has potential to move beyond the China market, and the company has good reason to think that way – the app already has 70 million users outside of China. With TenCent looking to expand the app to many countries, its popularity may explode in the near future. The first game being tested on the platform is WE-LINK by a Tencent team, and 10 more games are slated to see release on the platform later this year.

Source: TechCrunch

Apple Drops Lawsuit Against Amazon

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Apple has abandoned its lawsuit against Amazon over use of the term ‘App Store.’ Apple is the originator of the App Store moniker, which Amazon used for its own store selling Android apps. The suit, filed back in 2011 to prevent Amazon from using the name, was ended on Tuesday by Apple.

In addition to dropping the suit, Apple also gave a covenant to Amazon, promising that they wouldn’t sue them over this issue again at any point in the future. This show of goodwill from Apple may be because indications were that the court was on Amazon’s side in these proceedings, and Apple wanted to gain goodwill instead of losing a case. Ultimately, it was a very weak, generic term that would be difficult to defend as a trademark.

Source: Engadget

Suda 51’s Killer Is Dead As Insane As You’d Expect

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Suda 51 is known for making stylish, wacky, and often times simply insane video games such as Killer 7, No More Heroes and last year’s Lollipop Chainsaw. This year’s offering, Killer Is Dead, looks to be no exception. With cel-shaded graphics and over-the-top gory combat, the game does exactly what Suda 51 does best: Make a crazy fun game with crazy characters.