Welcome to October. The Fall season is officially upon us, along with baseball playoffs, cooler temperatures, great games, and planning in earnest for your Halloween costume. I’ve got mine designed, it’s just time to start coalescing the parts into a whole costume. I need one more element, a championship belt, to complete the costume. It’s only an accessory, not required, but it will save me from explanations to the non-geek crowd. Anway, let’s talk video games. Assassin’s Creed III is only four weeks away after all.
Just Add Water has finally confirmed a remake we’ve been expecting for some time. But, it won’t just be called OddWorld: Abe’s Odysee. A contest was held to rename the title, and it will now be known as New ‘n’ Tasty. We still have a while to wait yet, as release is scheduled for late next year on XBLA and PSN (for PS3 and Vita).
Konami fans now have two special editions to preorder. The limited edition version of Zone of the Enders HD Collection will include both games (Zone of the Enders and the European special edition of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner), a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance demo, remix soundtrack, and a 100 page art book from Yoji Shinkawa. It all comes in a metallic gold package and will be available at the end of this month, October 30th.
Speaking of that demo, that’s Konami’s other special edition announcement. The limited Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance bundle comes with the game official soundtrack, two-sided steelbook, and an “exclusive high-frequency katana blade plasma lamp.” What?!? It comes with a lamp? That is awesome. This one’s coming February 19, 2013.
If you recall, there are two games coming in the refreshed XCOM franchise. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the strategy title coming very soon and it’s been previewed extensively enough that we can rest assured it will be a good game if you enjoy the genre. Less is known about the upcoming first-person shooter, simply called XCOM. In fact, if a recent survey from 2K is any indication, it may not even be a first-person title. 2K is not commenting on the marketing survey, other than the standard “We have not made any new announcements regarding the XCOM title currently in development at 2K Marin, and it is our policy not to comment on rumors or speculation.” However, if reports of this survey are correct, it may now be a squad-based third-person shooter. And it also may be shifting from a full priced disc at retail, to a high-end downloadable game ($30 range). I’m not sold, though this wouldn’t be the first time a game shifted focus and scope in the middle of development. My own theory is that the franchise has plenty of legs and can fit in many different categories. Could it be that the FPS is still coming, but a third game is also in development?
Remember that Mass Effect Trilogy package I mentioned on Friday? Apparently there will be some console-specific DLC included. The PS3 content hasn’t been revealed, but XBox 360’s has. It will come with the Cerberus Network for ME2 (Normandy Crash Site, Zaeed – The Price of Revenge, Cerberus Weapon and Armor, Arc Projector, and Firewalker Pack), and the online pass for ME3‘s multiplayer. None of the DLC for the first game will be included. Nor will you find Lair of the Shadow Broker, Overlord and Kasumi for ME2; and ME3’s Leviathan, and Omega. All of the unincluded content will presumably still be available for purchase. The bundle is coming November 6th, just in tmie for N7 Day.
In the news without the news category today we have some unearthed “cover art” for a new game apparently coming to XBLA. The Star Wars First Assault name was trademarked in August, but we’ve heard literally nothing about the game. We have no release date, no concept art, not even a genre. But, apparently we do have a cover. Frankly, when it comes to Star Wars and video games, that’s enough to get me excited. As long as I choose to forget about Star Wars Kinect anyway.
Halo 4 is definitely one of the biggest releases on the immediate horizon, and Microsoft is promoting the hell out of it. These promotions come along with partners at Mountain Dew, Doritos, and… the presidential election? I don’t comment on promotions too much, but that last one is weird enough I’ll cover all three. For the food promos, first register at DEWXP and/or DORITOSXP. Then, pick specially marked packages of Mountain Dew and Doritos. These items will come with special codes that let you push double XP matches to your gamertag. Eat and drink enough of these stereotypical gamer foods and you’ll be levelling through the game with your friends at a record pace. For the presidential promotion, simply watch at least 30 minutes each of three of the four presidential debates via Xbox Live’s Election 2012 channel. Your reward for doing this simple, civic duty? A Halo 4 Warrior avatar. The debates are October 3rd, 11th, 16th, and 22nd at 9PM Eastern, 6PM Pacific. The U.S. general election will be November 6th.
Financials make for boring news, but Sony has some significant reports that actually look a little interesting. According to Jack Buser, SCEA’s senior director of PlayStation digital platforms, says “membership sales in PS Plus almost doubled” during the week of E3. The suits are crediting the announcement of the Instant Game Collection with the boost. I would guess it’s more related to the free month of membership they gave away to the press conference attendees. I would be more curious to know how many of those new subscribers are still around. That’s not to denigrate their achievement. They’re obviously doing well, as April-June was their best quarter yet for “transactional sales” on PlayStation Store. And how do you keep the numbers moving? Offer a promotion $20 credit in November if you spend $100 in October, of course. Yeah, that’s happening. Buy $100 worth of PSN content, which won’t be hard with multiple day one releases dropping this month, and you’ll get $20 store credit back next month.
But the boon isn’t just in the digital space. The recent release of the Super Slim PS3 has helped their numbers in the physical space as well; the newly designed console boosted PS3 sales by 138% last week. The new version was 37% of those sales, though it was only available for two of the seven days.
All of which has given the Sony UK managing director, Fergal Gara, an idea. He’s bouncing around the idea of PS3+Vita bundle, possibly in time for this Christmas. His proposition would be both systems, with titles that utilize the cross-buy or cross-play features, and a PS+ subscription to provide bonus content for both devices. Price is important for a package like that; it needs to be cheap enough to attract someone with no current Sony platforms, yet priced to insure a profit margin for the company. I can see this happening more on the retail level. I can see Wal-Mart offering $50 PSN card and a $50 Wal-Mart gift card with the purchase of a new PS3 Super Slim and PS Vita. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a games and PS+ package without the hardware, for players who have the devices but aren’t using them efficiently.
What do you think of these potential packages? Do you have Sony platforms already? Would you still buy a package to update your machines? Have you been wanting to get in on Sony gaming and like the idea? Or do you simply not care? Let us know. There’s that comments section thingy below.