I didn’t realize this was an issue, but I’m also not that into Halo so I wouldn’t have noticed if there was a problem. Apparently there has been some concern expressed over the XBox One game that debuted at E3. Is this part of the Reclaimer Trilogy, or is it a second-rate loner in the franchise? The answer to both is a half-hearted “no.” Phil Spencer, Microsoft Game Studios corporate VP, says it is a “legitimate” title. He says they’ll talk later about the story arc and where it fits. Presumably it’s not part of the planned trilogy, but it is part of the saga. Apparently the Reclaimer story may be too big for just three games according to Spencer, “While we originally said trilogy, we’ve actually expanded this to more of a saga, so we don’t want to limit the Reclaimer story within a trilogy.” Curious. They’ll want to clear any questions about this franchise up as quickly as possible. Microsoft has reversed course on some controversial decisions since E3, but if your longtime fans have concerns about your flagship franchise you’re going to find recovering from early missteps to be much more difficult.
With Tekken Revolution now free-to-play on PS3, players are already questioning whether it can come to Vita. Series’ creator Katsuhiro Harada says it’s certainly possible. He just asks that “the number of downloads of PS3 becomes large.” So he’s saying that if the game is successful, he’ll make more of it. Why am I reporting this in a news column again?
I mentioned last week that Amazon had the XBox One listed for release on November 27, 2013. Microsoft has officially denied that date, saying it is just a placeholder for the mega-retailer. A Microsoft spokesperson has said they “have not informed… retail partners about a specific launch date for the Xbox One. It is commonplace for retailers to put placeholders dates and prices into our system until they are given a specific date and price. We are excited to release the Xbox One in November 2013.” So, nothing official on either console yet, but I’m still thinking we have the right ball park.
Microsoft is now accepting beta sign ups for Project Spark. The exact nature of this project is still unclear, but we do know that it’s cross-platform on PC, Windows 8 tablets, XBox 360, and XBox One. You can sign up for the beta here. If you get in, let us know. We’d love to hear more about it.
Things were looking up for Australia when ratings board added the new R18+ classification for games last year. Previously, any games not fit for people aged 17 and under simply couldn’t be sold in the country. Under the new classification, adult games are a whole new market. But it’s not all peaches for the land down under. Saints’ Row IV has been refused even the adult classification, effectively banning the game. This is the first game to earn the dubious honor under the new classification; seventeen games have been granted the rating. According to the Australian Classification Board, the game “includes interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context. In addition, the game includes elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards. Such depictions are prohibited by the computer games guidelines.” Developer Volition says they are looking at “removing the content which could cause offense without reducing the outlandish gameplay that Saints Row fans know and love.” In the meantime, the M-rated US edition is scheduled for release August 20, 2013.
On a related note, Design Director Scott Phillips apparently expects the Saints’ Row IV to end the saga. The story has featured quite an arc, starting as a low man gang member peddling drugs and killing rivals while gradually working your way to being President Superhero battling aliens in a virtual reality. I guess if you can’t go anywhere from here, you just stop moving. Which is fine. They’ve had a good run and are now under new ownership (after the THQ collapse), so it should be interesting to see what new projects they find.
Being a gamer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a techie with a deep knowledgeable of hardware and advantages or disadvantages thereof. That’s certainly the case with me. So you may be wondering what the big deal is about Microsoft’s cloud-based processing for XBox One (which has just seen Microsoft spending $700 million on the infrastructure). Respawn Entertainment, the brains behind the upcoming Titanfall have decided to put it in simple terms for those like me. It seems one of the biggest benefits is that you don’t have one player hosting online matches. Those matches are hosted by the cloud. This means the match doesn’t crash if the hosting player leaves, and the host doesn’t have any extra advantages. Other benefits include: more CPU on your dedicated servers for dozens of AI and autopilot titans, guaranteed bandwidth for the servers, all available CPU and memory on the player machines go to visuals and audio, no Hacked-host cheating, and faster matchmaking. Check out Respawn’s article for more details.
That’s all for this week’s early edition. Check back Friday for more news from the week.