The late edition this week is definitely a potpourri of stories. It’s a little heavy on back end corporate stuff and light on actual game news. An interesting change of pace I guess.
After many years of making successful games like inFAMOUS and the Sly Cooper franchise Sucker Punch has officially joined the Sony Computer Entertainment family. Like a couple that’s been living together for years, the two companies are finally getting married. More like a plural marriage though, as Sucker Punch is the 16th company to officially join SCE as a first-party developer. What will this mean for future games together? We’ll have to wait and see, but hopefully it means Sucker Punch will get the chance to work on some new IPs. I’ve liked everything I’ve seen from them so far.
If you’re a fan of Lord of the Rings and action-RPGs (I’m one, but not the other) you’re probably looking forward to LotR: War in the North. Until now, you’ve just been looking forward, because you haven’t known when it was coming. Now you do. The game is set to join the holiday crowd in November, but a specific date hasn’t been locked down. The game features up to three player co-op and will likely be rated M for lots of blood, which is a little unusual for the franchise. Because the game is not tied to the main story through characters or plot, just the world, this actually looks to be a good game for fans of the genre who may not actually care for the franchise (like myself).
You may have noticed a new offering from EA on your console’s store earlier this week. But, if you don’t know what the EA Season Ticket entails, here’s the rundown. There are currently five participating titles (Madden NFL, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods PGA, NHL, and FIFA), with EA softly saying more titles may be included later (but don’t count on it). For $24.99 or 2000 MS Points, you’ll be able to download and play all five games three days before their retail release for free. If you want to continue playing the games after release, you’ll need to buy the disc, but your save game and trophy/achievement progress will port over to the disc version. You’ll also receive a 20% discount on related DLC, free web content (currently just an add-on for FIFA‘s Creation Center), and “membership badge” that will show up in online gaming and your EA.com profile. EA has also specified that this not a part of the EA Sports ID they still have planned. I certainly won’t be buying this offer, but if you play all, or even most, of these titles it may be worth it.
I mentioned Tuesday that there were rumors spreading of Gearbox showing off Borderlands 2 at Gamescom. This is no longer rumor. Gearbox Software and 2K will have the game in Germany this month, with a showing at PAX Prime in Seattle to follow. It’s also the cover story for September’s Game Informer magazine. The game will once again feature loot-heavy, four player co-op, FPS RPG gameplay. There are four new characters to play and you’ll be exploring whole new areas of Pandora.
Speaking of Gamescom, Ubisoft has announced their lineup of games for the show, and it’s no surprise that Assassin’s Creed Revelations is at the top of the list. Driver: San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Rayman Origins, Ghost Recon, From Dust, and Just Dance 3 (multi-console for the first time) will also be shown. They seem to have all their bases covered with hardcore, family, and downloadable games.
Capcom has also announced their relatively small batch that will be on show for Gamescom. They’ll have Asura’s Wrath, Dragon’s Dogma, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Street Fighter x Tekken. By “small batch” I clearly mean the number of games, not the hype level. You may not have heard much about Asura’s Wrath and Dragon’s Dogma, but keep an eye on these two. They could be surprise hits. The other two will get plenty of coverage based solely on franchise recognition.
If you’re somehow not burned out on FPS gameplay and, to a lesser extent, zombies, then you’ll be thrilled to hear the new “Rezurrection” DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops is coming August 23rd on XBLA (and probably a month later on PSN). Four of the five new maps being were actually included in the Hardened and Prestige editions of the game. Buyers of those versions will be getting this DLC free instead of the standard price of $15. The fifth map is The Moon, where “the rules of engagement will apparently be changing.” No details on what that means. But it is the moon, so you can probably make a few educated guesses.
Sony has yet to attach a release date to the PS Vita, but industry talk has had it rumored for late 2011, just in time for the holidays. According to Kaz Hirai, Executive Vice President of Sony, that is not the case. It is possible the new handheld will see release in Japan before the end of the year, but Europe and the United States won’t be seeing it until 2012. Hirai indicated that the company wants to insure they have a solid stable of games for the unit before selling it. It seems they saw what happened with the 3DS for Nintendo. They’re also not going to follow Nintendo into a price cut, as Hirai stated clearly: “We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable. There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price.”
Not long ago, I mentioned a new game based on the Child’s Play horror franchise was in development. What’s the deal with ’80s movies getting new games? I have to ask because Reef Entertainment just announced they have a Rambo game in development they plan to release next year on XBox 360, PS3, and PC. Is it based on a particular film in the franchise? An as yet untold story of John Rambo? They haven’t said yet. But the company does have the rights to make several games from the franchise. Reef Entertainment is hardly in the top tier of developer talent, but they aren’t on the bottom either. What they really need to sell this game is voice talent. As in, get Sly or don’t bother.
EA is continuing the slowly ongoing release of the roster for the SSX reboot. The two new additions this week are Alex Moreau – snowboarder, fashion model, assassin – and Ty Thorsen – laid back Norwegian snowboarding prodigy. That brings us to ten announced characters. I originally thought the game would have 16, but they’re running out of stereotypes. I’m thinking one more announcement featuring two characters, at least one of them new. After that they’ll start announcing the classic characters and guest stars that will be available as DLC (allow me to predict Jacob Taylor).
Speaking of EA, they’re shuffling their staff in a big way. COO John Schappert recently left the company to join Zynga, now a direct competitor of EA in light of their recent acquisition of PopCap. That vacancy is being filled by Peter Moore, leaving a hole in the head honcho position of EA Sports. But, as Corporate America does, that position is now being packaged into a new role, making Frank Gibeau (President, EA Games) the new President of EA Labels. This will have him overseeing BioWare, EA Games, EA Play and, EA Sports. This leaves EA Mobile, Hasbro, Playfish, Pogo, and PopCap in the hands of Executive Vice President of EA Interactive, Barry Cottle. CEO John Riccitiello’s position is not changing, which is the true telltale in this situation since it means nothing is really changing. Regarding the changes (which go into effect Monday) Riccitiello wrote:
Not all of it was easy but looking back, it was exactly the right structure and priorities for the challenges we faced. The changes included hundreds of job cuts. Now, we are switching from defense to offense. We’re focusing on building our intellectual properties/franchises into year-round business. We’ve established our own platform, Origin, and we continue to grow our digital business.
How about one more story about gaming jobs to close out this edition? This time it’s not corporate politics though, it’s a couple of job listings found on Criterion’s website. In an ad for an AI Programmer, they say “Our current ambition requires an innovative programmer to deliver killer entertainment experiences with believable, open world AI Racing Drivers.” [Emphasis added] An additional ad for a Lead Software Engineer wants the applicant to “help create a new extension to the existing Criterion team focusing on developing on new platforms.” [Emphasis added again] So what’s the big story here? Is it that Criterion is working on a open world racer – possibly a new Need for Speed or Burnout game? Or is it that they’re looking to develop on new platforms? That could mean WiiU, or they could already be discussing the next generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles. Those two companies have denied a new console is coming anytime soon, but we all know they’re working on them. Considering the development times needed for a top tier game, if they’re discussing this as a launch title, I wouldn’t expect the next generation until late 2013 at the earliest. But, that’s a lot of “if”s and supposition on my part.
So, what do you think about a new console? Too soon? Or too late? Are you jumping onto the WiiU as the next generation, or is it just Nintendo’s attempt to catch up? Personally I feel like the Move and Kinect were the new platforms their respective companies said they were. But those were just attempts to catch up to Nintendo on the motion control front. Both of them are currently failures in my eyes as well, based solely on available software and its quality. Not to mention the Move isn’t even much of a step up from the EyeToy I had on PS2 years ago. So it only seems fair that Nintendo is now trying to catch up graphically. What will the next gen be, and will all of the big three go in the same direction? How much will motion control be a part of the experience? Will the “console as multimedia center” trend continue, or will it step back to a bare bones gaming device? Only time will tell, but let’s hear your predictions.