DRM is not an improvement.

Phil Fish is a dick.

Electronic Arts reveals the reason why the upcoming Dead Space 3 has more action and co-op multiplayer is due to previous play testers for the series "were too scared to play the games alone."

In an interview with MVC, the boss of EA's marketing branch, Laura Miele, stated the decision for co-op in Dead Space 3 was due to previous play testers felt too scared to play the games alone. These play testers suggested for future games the ability for co-op to be included as a way to ease tension of playing the game due to its horror focus.

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/231710-header.jpg
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-thinks...r-231710.phtml
http://www.screwattack.com/news/ea-s...ing-play-alone
______________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) According to sources from Kotaku, Final Fantasy Versus 13 is rumored to have been cancelled in favor of Square-Enix to put all their focus on developing Final Fantasy 15. The game had been in development for 6 years with very little ever revealed while costing the company millions of dollars in development.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/rumo...sy-versus-xiii
http://kotaku.com/5927645/rumor-fina...s-xiii-is-dead

2) Update to Fez staying "broken" on Xbox Live Arcade as Microsoft rejects any responsibility over Polytron's decision to cancel work on a new patch who claimed the high fees were higher than the studio could afford.
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/micros...problems/4288/

3) Nintendo is currently rumored to be in negotiations with Microsoft for the main reason of buying Rare back in order to gain the rights to the Banjo Kazooie franchise which is also rumored to be in early development by Retro Studio for the Wii U.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/rumo...ooie-franchise

That Dead Space 3 bit is the stupid fucking excuse I ever read for making a game more accessible to the masses. This is, by the way, third second or third completely different reason for changing their never-actually-scary series into just another space shooter. I always said Dead Space never had any vision of its own, this sells it. It's a shit 'franchise' that added nothing unique nor did it do any one thing well. The design was utterly Western and boring, the gameplay oh so focus tested approved.

Games that lack vision are subject to changes like this, following the dollar. That's fine in the end, some decent games were whatever concepts. But fuck Dead Space. I said it sense day 1 and now its own company is pretty much saying it.

Sad story about Versus 13, but I had a feeling.

If Microsoft doesn't wanna be the big bad wolf, they could reveal how much it actually cost to get a patch uploaded, or they can reduce the cost for this case. If it's gonna do neither, they can't avoid backlash. Merely saying 'it's not us' doesn't cut it, when the developer was very detailed in their reasoning.

Banjo Kazooie on WiiU may be interesting. Just give all of Rare's old gems to Retro Studio, they're the new Rareware.

Nintendo trying to get their hands on Rareware again? That's good to hear. Maybe they can put together another good shooter.

Unlikely. A lot of Rare's old team left to do other things. The Goldeneye/Perfect Dark team went on to do Time Splitters and such.

Better to take some old franchises and give them to a capable team, as Retro and Donkey Kong proves.

Apparently rumors are starting to fly that FFv13 is just going to become FF15.

That is what they will say to cover up the fact that they are scrapping it. There will be no way to know since barely any footage of FF vs 13 has been released.

Final Fantasy versus XIII is really just a fighting game between all the Final Fantasy characters and the dude from the comic book-style Gamecube game XIII anyway.

Why would they rebrand it if they're scrapping it?

I think it's out and out canceled. No rebrand, no anything.

To save face from saying that they are cancelling a game that had in development for six years and was supposed to be revolutionary. Just say it got integrated into FF15

I thought that was Dissidia?

In an interview with GameIndustry, former EA boss Bing Gordon stated due to the increased competition from the mobile market, Nintendo will be the first to drop out from the "Big 3" console hardware makers.

He stated they are already on track with the Wii U being the start due to the tablet and mobile market itself and not due to their own business decisions. In order to stand a chance in the future as a hardware maker, Nintendo would have to form a partnership with Apple.

His reasoning to why Nintendo would drop out included comparisons to Sega when they were a hardware maker and the "pinch" from the huge competition mobile devices are creating against their handhelds which is seen as their main stronghold. He did admit that Nintendo hasn't really committed the same level of huge mistakes that Sega did which lead to their demise from the hardware market.

He did feel Miyamoto is the wild card for Nintendo's future since he;s seen as the one who has ensured Nintendo survived all the challenges its faced so far but Nintendo's biggest challenge ever will occur once he's gone.

In terms of the other hardware makers, he felt Microsoft has nothing to fear due to the Xbox 360 being their "consumer miracle" console while Sony's future is tougher to predict due to their multiple divisions all impacting each other.

http://www.screwattack.com/sites/def...er_2335416.jpg
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ds-bing-gordon
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...any-like-sega/
http://www.screwattack.com/news/form...software-maker
____________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) Hideo Kojima announces the official debut of the brand new Fox Engine will occur on August 30 which is being used for the next metal Gear Solid game, Project Orge which probably will be shown, and a new Zone of the Enders game.
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/hideo-...ugust-30/4290/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-on-august-30/

2) Vatra Games, developer of Silent Hill Downpour and Rush'n Attack Ex-Patriot, has the strong possibility of shutting down after they revealed their parent company, Kuju, has placed the studio under "strategic review" as part of an overall restructuring process.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/sile...e-it-out-alive
http://www.destructoid.com/silent-hi...e-231838.phtml

Didn't Patcher also say Nintendo was going software only? Pretty sure that proves it wrong.

Kinda tired of 'industry analysis predictions' in general. They'll super-bias and pretentious and I actually cannot remember the last time somebody was on the money.

But that's the thing, they speak in such a future tense that by the time their words are bullshit, who's gonna dive into web article #175 from 2008 to say "Remember this, asshole?"

Where do these people come from?

Hell, we have guys right here in this forum that can call shit ahead of time and be mostly on the money. Fuck these analyst.

"Prime Factors."
 

"bias" of course meaning "doesn't say things I like." Since even Kal has latched on to this sort of thing before (and made his own predictions).

But speaking of bias, most market predictions are super safe and don't rock the boat. This is why you tend to only remember the really wrong ones. It's called confirmation bias, a more valid form of bias than the one you're talking.

I'm pretty sure there has been an industry outlier predicting the end of Nintendo since Super Mario 2 (US version). There always will be one, pretty much, long as there is a Nintendo. And should they become right, they will display their own confirmation bias in emphasising the one time they were right over the million they were wrong.

Actually no, I've never been particularly attached to that sort of 'news'. Feel free to show otherwise.

Though of course I've taken predictions from myself seriously, aside from the fact that's it's me saying it, my stuff doesn't go vapor. And I don't play it safe, either. If I'm wrong I'm spectacularly wrong, and that's fine. When I'm right, fuckin-A. Moving on.

So yeah, fuck off, nice chatting with ya.

Some good news for once in regards to THQ as the company announces they prevented being delisted from NASDAQ and managed to slow down their bleeding of funds.

THQ was able to be removed from NASDAQ's watch list after their stock value managed to stay at or above the $1 limit for 10 days in a row. The decision to create a reverse stock split weeks ago was claimed as the main reason for success since it reduced the 70 million shares spread all over the place to a more manageable and stronger 7 million shares.

NASDAQ, who claimed a delisting would have been the "kiss of death", was happy at the results since a delisting would have made investors bail out faster than before and the stock worthless to own.

Under the new president of the company, Jason Rubin (former co-founder of Naughty Dog), the company revealed they managed to slow down the bleeding of company revenues. Several divisions and properties were shut down as part of the new plan to focus on fewer but stronger so-called "hardcore" IPs to provide the main sources of revenue in the future. The first test of the new plan will be once both Darksiders II and WWE 13 are released since the company is expecting both to be huge revenue providers.

http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net...2/07/00123.jpg
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/thq-ma...elisting/4293/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-market-value/
____________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) Update to rumors from Kotaku about Final Fantasy Versus 13 being cancelled ended up being debunked by the CEO of Square-Enix who claims the game is still in development and regular staff meetings are still occurring for the game.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/fina...dead-after-all
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/square...snt-dead/4292/

2) The voice actor for Mario, Charles Martinet, thinks Nintendo should make a sequel to Super Mario Sunshine in the near future with the reason being Sunshine was his favorite Mario game he's been involved with at Nintendo.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-get-a-sequel/
http://mynintendonews.com/2012/07/24...ario-sunshine/

Sony's summer promotion for PSN called "PSN Play 2012" starts today and lasts until August 27.

The 4 games their their debut dates revealed as the main showcase games for the promotion are:
* The Expendables 2 Videogame - July 21
* Sound Shapes - August 7
* Papo & Yo - August 14
* Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - August 21

Similar to other special sales on PSN and other digital service providers, this promotion also has special incentives for people who buy multiple games. Buying 2 games will provide $3 as a gift back, 3 games provides $6 as a gift, and all four games provides $10 as a gift.

Sony also revealed pre-ordering the games will provide an exclusive XMB theme while Playstation Plus members get an extra 20% discount on all the games available.

http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net...ab5f4d41_z.jpg
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...ion-kicks-off/
_____________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) According to Destroid's preview for Dead Space 3, some new details regarding the dungeon levels in the game include optional dungeons which do not impact the story, each dungeon ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes to finish, and some are restricted to co-op only for exploration.
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-d...--231870.phtml

2) Nintendo reveals the 3DS has managed to become profitable since the price cut late last year and while they did post a $220 million loss in fiscal first quarter for 2012 (April - June), it is a lot lower than last year's mega loss which was partially blamed due to the 3DS early struggles.
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/ninten...ofitable/4295/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-to-the-wii-u/

Square-Enix officially debuts the newly redesigned Final Fantasy XIV MMO game which will be called "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn."

Last year Square-Enix had announced they were disappointed with the original game's sales and reception whch lead to the vow of redesigning and fixing the game as part of a second reboot for the MMO game.

Some of the new changes include the game being rebuilt from the ground up, gameplay being completely rehauled, a brand new world and storyline, and the graphics itself has been completely redesigned.

While no release date was revealed, the game will be arriving on PC and PS3.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1vVkGkQWHuw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://www.screwattack.com/news/squa...v-realm-reborn
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...debut-trailer/
___________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) While official beta signups are closed, some of the changes revealed for the annual Microsoft dashboard update include the new web browser using Internet Explorer, additional and enhanced search abilities, and the ability to personalize the dashboard's display.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/xbox...istration-open
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/want-t...ashboard/4297/

2) Gamestop responds to growing criticisms by gaming companies about used games "killing" the industry by stating only about 4% of new releases are actually sold as pre-owened games within the first 2 months (main period of sales generation) and that Gamestop has been giving back a percentage to publishers for years (currently 17%) from used games sales.
http://gamasutra.com/view/feature/17...elped_the_.php

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/49OQHEJ5Y7c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Bunch of supposed Half-Life 3 concept art was leaked recently. Was going to post it, but honestly, who cares at this point?

Give me some Portal 3 or Left 4 Dead 3 info, and I'll get excited. Tired of waiting for valve's "flagship".

You are not a true fan.

Don't really care, guy.

I don't care for anything Valve does outside of L4D but I kinda agree with Figgy in a general sense... it's why I lost interest in FFv13. When a game is announced there's a grace period where I expect news, tidbits, even those little clues and hints frustrating as they can be, and after 2yrs show me the money.

Very few games are worth waiting for over two years, and in the extreme case of nearly an entire console generation passing by without so much as a demo - I stop caring. Don't tweet, don't reassure, I'm done with whatever it is you're doing. I'll care when you show me you care. I won't wait for you, plenty of games out there.

I was a Duke Nukem fan. I followed any and all pieces talking about Forever but after about a decade of my life, when real news came I didn't have the power to care. The dev was delayed, mismanaged, whatever. Plenty of games out there. Hell, I'm getting to that point with Star Wars Battlefront 3, and Battlefront 2 is my favorite Star Wars game.

Show me you care, otherwise I won't.

Sounds good. Because they haven't done that. They haven't released ANY news, tidbits, or hints really. They haven't tweeted, they haven't reassured. They've just been working. Quietly. But when they do release some info I'm glad you'll be there because I'm sure it will be a game worthy of the wait.

Even though THQ proclaimed the Darksiders series was one of their "core" and important franchises they will focus on, the company announced recently they have placed an ultimatum for the series future.

If Darksiders 2 doesn't sell 4-5 million copies during a period THQ favors, the future for a Darksiders III could be in doubt with the possibility of the series being cancelled or more likely pushed aside for a while. Either scenario would have Virgil Games shift over to a new project in order to create a new mega-selling series THQ needs for financial purposes.

Even if Darksiders 2 does sell very well, it was also hinted a potential Darksiders 3 would be a lot smaller in scale and size in favor of a more polished game according to the new president of the company.

To put the numbers in perspective, the original Darksiders sold about a third to half of what THQ is expecting the sequel to sell with the majority of the sales coming from the first month (1.2 million).

http://i.neoseeker.com/n/7/darksiders_2.jpg
http://www.destructoid.com/if-you-bu...i-232057.phtml
http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/da...ve_detail.html
________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) Update to EA rumored to be having a new CEO as the chairman and board decided to let the current CEO, John Riccitiello, keep his job even though the company itself is worried about the sharp decline in stock value and revenues since the middle of last year.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...lo-is-staying/

2) Update to the Ouya Android console news as OnLive has signed a deal to provide their services, games, and even a controller for the console when it is released next year.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/onli...ere-controller
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...eal-with-ouya/

3) Gamestop announces they are investing and researching certain technologies currently in development that would enable digital content to be resold multiple times as a way to expand their used game business which would include both games and their DLC content.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...ble-dlc-games/
http://www.destructoid.com/gamestop-...t-232051.phtml

THQ aren't being realistic.

Yeah pretty much that. They've been quiet about it, but everyone knows they have to have been working on something. Kinda makes me feel better that Valve isn't a company that has to build hype before they're ready. :heart: Valve. One of the few companies I will gladly fanboy for because I love their style/direction. They'll let the game do the talking when it's ready and not before because they know it's going to be huge.

Capcom announces Dragon's Dogma will now become a series made by the company after the huge sales success of the first game helped contribute to a 290% profit increase for the fiscal quarter.

The news comes from two announcements made by the company with the director of the game wanting a sequel to be made while Capcom themselves state its "setting the stage for creating a series of titles."

Previously Capcom had teased a series could be possible if the game sold well leading up to the game's retail release as a possible new mega franchise or even a yearly one from the company.

According to the fiscal report released by Capcom, Dragon's Dogma has sold over a million copies with the biggest surprise being the huge sales from Japan which Capcom wasn't expecting. The sales of this game combined with Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City sales and strong sales from their mobile market helped generate the $16.9 net profit for the company in the quarter.

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/2321...gons-dogma.jpg
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/capcom...ns-dogma/4303/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...se-in-profits/
________________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) The official financial losses for the defunct 38 Studios was revealed to be around $133 million with about $118 million used up before Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was released and another $28 million from EA to help fund the game's project. In order to pay back the money owed to EA alone, the game needed to sell over 2 million copies which it didn't (1.3 million sold).
http://www.destructoid.com/38-studio...g-232190.phtml

2) Square-Enix confirms the first gameplay videos for the reboot of Final Fantasy XIV will occur at Gamescom while also revealing which gameplay features and items will no longer be playable once the next patch is released for the game.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...escom-line-up/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...moved-content/

3) More rumors about the next Xbox console have been leaked with the supposed development kit being leaked for Project Durango along with several sources and developers confirming the pictures of the kit and GUI screens are real.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...ages-are-real/
http://www.destructoid.com/pictures-...e-232209.phtml

Haven't heard from Schilling in a while.

Never trust a man with bloody socks.

I'd appreciate it if any of you guys would support this :y:, a buddy is working on it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...other-brothers

It would seem one day soon me and my guys will have to avail Kickstarter for... one of our projects. It looks like it's really changing the game. For everyone and every genre.

It definitely seems the way to go with the price of game development increasing by the year.
If your game has potential then go for it!

Facebook and casual gaming company Zynga has been officially hit with their first lawsuit involving allegations of the executive team of the company had insider trading knowledge regarding last week's massive stock dumping.

The lawsuit is the first of five expected for the company due to five different law firms investing claims with the rest expected to be officially filed in the near future.

In regards to the first lawsuit, the allegations revolve around Zygna having inside knowledge of their stock value dropping. They are also being alleged of withholding the true value of the stock and other data from investors in order to have prevented them from cashing out and tanking the stocks value before the company itself had a chance to cash out first to the tune of $500 million.

The company is also under investigation for not allowing their own employees to cash out who were concerned about a potential stock value drop while putting no restrictions on top-level employees who knew of the imminent drop.

The stock valve ended up plummeting from a valve of $12 per share in April to the current value of $3 a share with last week's stock dumping by the company occurring when the valve was roughly $6 a share.

http://www.screwattack.com/sites/def...er_2400691.jpg
http://www.screwattack.com/news/zyng...ding-knowledge
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/first-...g-claims/4306/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...uits-incoming/
__________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) Bioware announces the plans to make Star Wars The Old Republic MMO game as a free-to-play game has changed a bit with the original goal of a level cap set at 15 now being set to 50 for free members along with a price drop to the game itself to a new $14.99 starting this August.
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/star-w...his-fall/4307/
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...-fall-says-ea/

2) Activision and developers Robomodo hint Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD might be getting a sequel announced soon based on the huge day one sales of Tony Hawk HD on XBLA.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/tony...own-way-sequel
http://www.destructoid.com/robomodo-...y-232248.phtml

3) Another God of War collection set is rumored to be in the making called "God of War Saga Collection" which include the PSP God of War HD set, the PS3 God of War 1&2 HD set, and God of War 3 along with a rumored release date of late 2012.
http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...playstation-3/

I'm getting close to lvl 50 in my game in a matter of weeks. They better boost the level cap and add the new stuff asap.

Valve joins EA, Sony, and others who have changed their EULA terms which prevent the ability to file a class action lawsuit against the company.

Last year Sony had changed their terms which disallowed class-action lawsuits unless they allowed it while EA followed shortly later with their own changes.

Recent changes to Steam's EULA terms by Valve now restrict access to Steam unless you agree to the new terms involving not being allowed to file class action lawsuits. Unlike Sony there is no opt-out clause nor time deadline to accept or deny the new terms.

However, the terms do allow lawsuits to be filed by individual persons and Valve will help cover the costs to bring the case to a small claims court and will pay a small amount even if they win the case. They also do require an arbitrator to be involved solely to ensure the amount being claimed is reasonable and doesn't fall into a class-action range.

The official reason by Valve was to prevent erroneous and "bad" lawsuits from being filed like with patent troll lawsuits.

http://www.rich-g.co.uk/wp-content/u...1/11/Steam.png
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/valve-...lawsuits/4308/
Valve's entire official statement: http://store.steampowered.com/news/8523/
___________________________________________________________
Daily Recap:
1) According to Japanese magazine Famitsu, Square-Enix will debut a new Final Fantasy XIII game during the 25th Anniversary event on August 31 with the actual announcement occurring September 1st.
http://www.destructoid.com/a-new-fin...t-232336.phtml
http://andriasang.com/con23o/ffxiii_title_announcement/

2) The developers of Arma II, Bohemia Interactive Studio, announce they are working on a standalone version of the DayZ mod due to the huge sales success from the recent Steam Summer Sale event. A release date is being targeted before Christmas this year.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/dayz...ome-standalone
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/31/dayz...nique-players/

Another Final Fantasy XIII game? Jesuscrist

There was only two.

That's enough.