After a short break for Comic Con and summer Zombietron is back with some news to fill your ear and eye holes. Triscut takes the day off to battle corporate America giving Tom a chance to cover what he likes, fighting games, PC and of course some Comic Con and FGC news!

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Kevin Knocke from Blizzard details the new multi-player patch for Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The patch is releasing very soon, and adds some great functionality to custom interfaces and observer modes. Please note that because of the nature of the patch any replay video saved before the patch will have to be viewed in the older versions of the game. Patch notes will be detailed here and any updates of course will be found at that link as well.

Where is my summer going? It’s the end of July already!!!

A few details have emerged regarding the PlayStation 4‘s 8GB of RAM and how much will actually be usable for games. An anonymous developer for the console released some stats from an internal Sony memo that indicates the operating system will require almost half of the RAM, cutting game RAM to 4.5GB. However, 1GB is apparently being considered flexible memory, which could be leveraged by the games if needed. This flexible memory is expected to only be used by first party developers for the early wave of games, while third parties will learn to use it over time. In contrast, Microsoft’s XBox One is reported to need only 3GB of RAM for its operating system. I’m no math whiz, but I think that means XB1 will utilize more RAM for games in general, but that PS4 has the potential for an extra half-gig in the right hands. Once again, it’s all down to developers and I don’t think the RAM issue will be where the two consoles stand apart.

If you needed more information about PS4‘s community functions and peripherals you have it now. Sony has a released a few details:

• You can add up to 2,000 friends on PSN
• PS Plus is needed for retail multiplayer; not needed for party chat, entertainment apps, and free-to-play games.
• DualShock 3 is not compatible, but your PS3 Move is.
• PS Vita can be used as a controller with some games.

The next gen consoles may both be coming with blu-ray drives, but that media is not the future according to Sony and Panasonic. The two technology giants reportedly have plans to release a 300GB disc format (blu-ray is approximately 50GB) by the end of 2015. From the Sony press release:

Optical discs have excellent properties to protect them against the environment, such as dust-resistance and water-resistance, and can also withstand changes in temperature and humidity when stored.

They also allow inter-generational compatibility between different formats, ensuring that data can continue to be read even as formats evolve. This makes them a robust medium for long-term storage of content.

Both companies have previously developed products based on the Blu-ray format, leveraging the strengths of optical discs. However, both Sony and Panasonic recognized that optical discs will need to accommodate much larger volumes of storage in years to come given the expected future growth in the archive market, and responded by formulating this agreement.

This may surprise some readers, as many believe physical media will be dying off soon. With such a large format media coming, will consumers hang on to discs a while longer? Or will they simply move away from such massive data caches?

Despite being refused classification again in Australia (drugs this time, not a dildo gun), Saints’ Row IV is clearly looking to take the ludicrous factor as far as they can – while poking a little fun at the gaming industry in the process. The number of Game of the Year editions in the PS3/360 era seems to far outweigh the actual number of years the generation has existed. Deep Silver and Volition clearly don’t want their game getting lost in that glut, which is why they’re releasing Emperor Zinyak’s Game of the Generation edition, limited to 5,000 pieces. This special package will include a 12″ Dub Step Replica Gun with lights and sound, Johnny Gat Memorial Statue, Dubstep Doomsday button, a light up rotating display case with individually numbered plaque, Top Shelf protective pouch for the display case, and the Commander in Chief edition of the game. That whole package will run you $130. Too much? You can also take a step down to the Super Dangerous Wub Wub Edition for $100. That’s got everything except the rotating display case and protective pouch. In case you’re curious, the Commander in Chief edition of the game is the standard retail copy with some pre-order bonuses: alternate box art, ‘Merica weapon, Uncle Sam suit, and Screaming Eagle jet. whichever edition you get, this releases August 20th and is open for pre-order now.

If you’ve seen Indie Game: The Movie, you’re likely familiar with Phil Fish. If you haven’t, you may still know of Phil through Fez and by reputation for being outspoken (and whiney), often having control issues in public forums like Twitter. That petulance has struck again, leading Fish to cancel Fez II and apparently quit the game industry forever. The proverbial camel breaking straw was something said by Marcus “Annoyed Gamer” Beer on the Invisible Walls podcast. Beer called Fish a few names because Fish had refused to comment on Microsoft’s recent decision to allow the self-publishing of indie games. This turned into another one of Fish’s famed Twitter fights, ending with Fish saying “I’m getting out of games because I choose not to put up with this abuse anymore.” In hopes of clarifying, he later stated “I’m not cancelling Fez II because some boorish fuck said something stupid, I’m doing it to get out of games.” The Polytron Twitter account later confirmed, “It’s with a heavy heart that we announce that Fez II has been cancelled and is no longer in development.” The original Fez reportedly did quite well financially, and if Phil wants to “take the money and run” I support him wholeheartedly. I’ve always said that if I were a professional athlete I would never work beyond my first contract. Give me a few million dollars and I’ll go live humble and happy out of the spotlight. The problem I have with the way Fish handled the situation is that he’s acting like petulant child that takes his ball and jacks and goes home. Worse yet, he’s not taking the money to live humbly ever after. He clearly wants to take the spotlight with him and pretend he doesn’t like its brightness. We are in an age where video games are beginning to be accepted as art, and the behind the scenes artists are becoming a type of celebrity, like Spielberg has done for film or Rick Rubin for music. It sets the entire industry back if gaming celebrities behave like this. So, frankly, I’m glad to see Fish go, provided he stays gone. To read more about what our contributing ‘bots think of the situation, check out Zombietron’s article on the subject. For those that are really interested, Cliffy B has posted an open letter to Fish on his own blog begging him to come back. Congratulations Cliffy, you fell right into his egoism.

Yoshinori Ono, producer of Street Fighter, says he doesn’t want to see the numbered series end with Street Fighter IV. Fans of the series concur. So what does the future hold for the longtime fighting franchise? According to Ono, that could be determined by the success of Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: Core Fighters and Tekken Revolution. Both of those games are experimenting with free to play models. Ono says “Going with a free-to-play model would lower the initial cost, which is one of the main positives about it.” But there’s a drawback as well, “On the other hand, whether we could guarantee that we’d recoup development costs is something I don’t currently have an answer for.” Ono will be following these free to play experiments closely as he makes his next-gen plans. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. I’m not generally a fan of free to play, as I have concerns that it is actually more expensive in the long run. However, I don’t play Street Fighter games mostly because the retail investment isn’t worth the enjoyment I get out of the game. If I could the base game for free and buy Ryu and Ken, the only characters I use, for $2 each then I might give them some money.

Media Molecule has delayed their upcoming Tearaway by about a month. The Vita title needs “a little more time than [they] anticipated to finish the game; to tie all of the mechanics, story and amazing visuals together into the adventure that [they] want you to play.” Fair enough. October was getting a little crowded anyway so I expect this will actually do a little better on November 22nd. It still looks novel and enjoyable. And it comes from the minds behind Littlebigplanet so I’m definitely playing it whenever it comes.

Longtime Bioshock fans should be interested in the upcoming DLC for Bioshock Infinite. The first add-on will be “Clash in the Clouds,” and is available starting today. The two-part follow-up, “Burial at Sea,” will take you to a familiar location, the underwater city of Rapture. You’ll be visiting Rapture during its high times, before everything went crazy in the aquatic utopia. All three chapters are included in the Season Pass but will also be available separately. Trailers for both stories are available here, courtesy of Zombietron.

That’s all for this week’s early edition. But, that’s also it for this week (and next week) from me. I’ll be taking a vacation to the Pacific coast, visiting most of the Oregon beach, a nice chunk of the California Redwoods, and Sonoma’s wine country. I’ll be toting my Vita and a laptop, but I don’t expect to get much writing in. Stay tuned though, as Zombietron and the rest of our gaming crew will still be covering the top stories.

Gamestop is going to be given away promotional Legendary Pokemon starting August 19, 2013 you can walk your DS into any Gamestop and receive a free gift! The schedule for release of the shiny legendaries is as follows.

• August 19-Sept 8: Dailga
• Sept 9-Sept 29: Palkia
• Sept 30-Oct 20: Giratina

Should you wish to pre pay for a copy of Pokemon you can, of course do so while you’re snagging your epic loots. I plan to pre buy my copy on Amazon and am hoping their wireless signal extends far enough to keep me out of the store.

Announced this morning the Clash in the Clouds DLC is rolling out today for all consoles. It is available on Xbox Live right now and should be hitting PSN and Steam later today. The endurance style battle grounds with new medals and achievements looks like a lot of fun. I’m not one for challenge maps, so I think my first pick up is going to be the Burial at Sea expansion, but this is still something to keep your Bioshock fresh. Trailer here.

The trailer for Burial at Sea was also released by Irrational Games via twitter this morning. Burial at Sea is part of the Season Pass for Bioshock Infinite, sending you back to Rapture to meet what seems to be a different version of Booker and Elizabeth. I better find some Steam credit right away.

With Shonen Jump’s 45th anniversary on the way Namco is making a Jump character themed fighting game.

The current line up is

– Goku (Dragon Ball Z)

– Luffy (One Piece)

– Ichigo (Bleach)

– Naruto

– Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)

– Toriko

– Gintama

– Kochikame

With possibly more on the way. All I wanna know is what a brother gotta do to get some some yusuke urameshi DLC!

No word on any release dates outside of Japan. I’ll be posting updates as they come.

The Microsoft Store released pricing for the Xbox One peripherials today. Controllers will run a staggering $59.99 and headsets will run $24.99, you can also bundle your controller with the play and charge kit for $74.99. It’s not a huge increase controllers are one of the more expensive add-ons in gaming now. But maybe Microsoft would cut us a break, that’ll never happen.

Controller Bundle	Controller	Headset

In an argument on twitter Phil Fish owner of Polytron studios cancelled their new game Fez II to “Get out of games”. The argument was spawned when a podcaster by the name of Marcus Beer blasted Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow for not responding with a comment about Microsoft’s change to it’s Indie publishing rules. Describing Fish and Blow as “wankers” and “tosspots” the video was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back. After some intense tweets back and forth he announced the cancellation of the game, and the official Polytron Site has this blog post to back it up.

Before his twitter went private Fish did state that he, “Isn’t cancelling Fez II because some boorish F@*! said something stupid, it’s to get out of games.”

This seems to be a good example of going too far. Claims that the “Indie Kings” owed the press a statement about the policy are absolutely ridiculous. I’m sure there is a lot more to the story than what we’re seeing, but the end result is the same: no Fez II and another wall of gamer rage.

Despite being one of the top-selling sports games worldwide, I rarely mention EA’s FIFA franchise in VGQH. This week’s news about FIFA 14 is a little different though, as it could have strong implications for other titles. This is one of the few titles this year that EA will be releasing on both the current and next generation consoles. However, because the release date for the game (september 27th) comes before the new consoles (November-ish), hardcore fans have some decisions to make. Do they wait and buy for One/PS4? Do they buy right away and worry about next gen next year? Or do they buy it, then lose all of their Ultimate Team progress when they upgrade? EA’s making the decision easier, since you won’t actually lose that progress. Your Ultimate Team data will transfer from 360 and PS3 to XBox One and PS4, respectively. Also, the Ultimate Team Auction Houses will not be separated by generations (though Microsoft and Sony platforms will be separated from one another, of course). That means you can buy and trade players with next gen users, even if you haven’t bought the new console yet. Many of you may not care about these features in this particular game, but what does it mean for cross-generational franchises like inFamous or Mass Effect? Will we be able to transfer our data from Commander Shepard’s tale onto the new boxes and have our decisions set up the next game? This had been discussed earlier, but at the time it sounded like no one was sure how this would work, if at all. Early reports from Microsoft and Sony indicated direct data transfer wouldn’t be possible.

Nonetheless, Bioware has stopped short of confirming that they’re doing something similar for Dragon Age III: Inquisition, but they’ve certainly implied it. Producer Cameron Lee says previous decisions (but not necessarily data) “will absolutely come across.” Writer Patrick Weeks confirmed “the goal is that you can have an equally rich experience no matter which platform you’re playing on.” But neither of those statements say exactly that your save data will get moved. A prologue comic, similar to what we’ve seen in the last two Mass Effect titles could accomplish the same goals. It’s interesting to note that in both of these examples the games are published by EA. Could the mega-publisher have its own tricks they haven’t disclosed? Possibly using Origin? Inquisition is coming to next-gen this Fall, presumably at or near the console launches.

Deep Silver and Volition have revealed the details on the Saints’ Row IV Season Pass. It will include two extra mission packs and the Rectifier weapon, an anal probe to “get the ‘inside’ information from your enemies as you save Earth from a dangerous alien infestation.” One of the mission packs has been confirmed as the “Enter the Dominatrix” DLC originally planned for the third game. It’s said to be a playable, behind the scenes mockumentary. Which sounds bizarre, but also awesome. The game release August 20, 2013; the first DLC is coming in September, and the second piece will be “late 2013.” Both the game and Season Pass are available for pre-order now.

Speaking of Season Passes, all of the planned DLC included in the bundle for Borderlands 2 has released. But they’re still planning more add-on content. This has led to speculation that we would see another pass for the continued support. That will not be the case. The continued DLC will be sold on an individual basis, with no bundling discount currently planned. According to a representative at Gearbox, “Through the course of our grand experiment, we’ve also learned that fans are happy with an a la cart menu for DLC because they can pick and choose the content that they most want to buy and really customize their Borderlands 2 experience.” Despite that statement, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a discount bundle once they’ve moved on from the game.

Microsoft is continuing to hear and react to criticism of their policies. The latest change will be to allow for self-publishing indie games on XBox One. Previously, Microsoft required all games to be published by themselves or approved third parties. This led to a few famous breakdowns in publishing and marketing in the 360 era, and prompted Oddowrld’s creator, Lorne Lanning, to say he wouldn’t be taking games to Microsoft because of the hurdle. Microsoft’s Marc Whitten has confirmed the policy change and promises details soon: “Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox Live. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox Live. We’ll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.”

Despite reversing course on self-publishing and numerous other concepts for the XBox One, Microsoft has confirmed they are not planning to release a lower-priced console without the Kinect. Despite multiple stories from reliable sources, including one of our own, Microsoft told Kotaku they “have no plans to introduce an Xbox One without Kinect. [They] believe in Kinect and the value it brings to both games and entertainment, and believe $499 is a great value for what consumers receive with their Xbox One.” It’s hard not to believe they may still change their minds. Microsoft isn’t exactly standing firm on too many things these days. As I mentioned in Zombietron’s article, I’m inclined to side with Microsoft on this one, despite having little interest in the Kinect.

What’s the one word you would never use to describe Activision Blizzard as a publisher? “Indie,” of course. Maybe not. No, they aren’t suddenly publishing games developed in garages by small teams. But they are now, technically, independent. An $8.2 billion deal was made this week, resulting in the company buying itself from Vivendi. A group of investors bought 439 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion. Another 172 million shares are being purchased by insiders, led by CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly, for $2.34 billion. Kotick and Kelly also pitched in $100 million of personal funds. Independence is not complete, however; Vivendi retains 12% of the company’s shares. Of the deal, Kotick said “The transactions… will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability.” Congratulations on being filthy rich.

In addition to the previously announced Deathstroke DLC, GameStop will have an exclusive pre-order bonus for Batman: Arkham Origins. The bonus will include two new challenge maps that take place within Black Mask’s facility. Unlike the Deathstroke DLC, and similar add-ons from previous games in the series, this will not add Black Mask as a playable character. The game releases October 25th, but you can pre-order now to get your bonus levels.

A launch title for the XBox One has been delayed into 2014. According to Microsoft, Rare needs a little extra time to polish Kinect Sports Rivals. What was that? Did you say “meh?” Of course you did, it’s the generic but mandatory “sports” game with spotty motion controls. I’m afraid Rare and Microsoft just lost about half their sales. The only reason most people would have bought this is because it would be one of the few titles available at launch.

With the release of Martian Manhunter next week, the Season Pass for Injustice: Gods Among Us will be complete. But that doesn’t mean the DLC is ending. According to Ed Boon, more fighters are on the way and the “Next one is a big fan favorite request.” So who’s it going to be? I’m hoping for Krypto.

How many people actually buy strategy guides anymore? With the accessibility of online guides it seems like only collectors would have any real interest. Which may be why Brady Games is offering a pre-order bonus for their Grand Theft Auto V Strategy Guide. The guide will come in two different variations. The Signature edition is what you expect: paperback, mission details, plenty of pictures, collectible locations, etc. The Limited edition has all of the same content but it’s also hardback and has an extra lithograph print and approximately 30 pages of additional illustrations. The pre-order bonus for either edition is another lithograph print showing the three playable characters suiting up for a job. The guides will be available when the game launches, September 17, 2013.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your last weekend in July.

The Examiner is reporting that Collin Sebastian an analyst for Baird predicted the Xbox will outsell the PS4 3 to 1. That statement isn’t the wildest part of the report though, Sebastian is quoted as saying

Microsoft is “working with channel partners to lessen the [price] gap.”

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Many are now speculating that even a $50.00 price drop could help move the console. But removing the Kinect is mentioned as being able to drop the price up to $150.00, and the blame for requiring Kinect integration is purportedly being placed squarely on the shoulders of Don Mattrick, who has now left Microsoft. Would a cheaper console help your credit card slide out of that sticky wallet?