General Gaming News II: Steam Helpdesk Site Leak

[6souls]

Will be the best thing to be announced all year if this is true.. Fucking loved TWEWY.

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/112...countdown-site

Remake or sequel, whatever it will be, it will be big.

[6souls]

PopCap Games, maker of some of the world's most popular video game franchises and a division of EA, today announced that the underground growth of the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies, one of the world's most popular video games, is germinating and advancing with rigor.

The sequel to Plants vs. Zombies is expected to launch by late spring 2013, and will include a bevy of new features, settings, and situations, designed to delight the franchise's tens of millions of fans around the world. No other details of the highly anticipated new installment in the franchise are available at this time, beyond the following comments from some of the game's denizens.

"Spring is crullest curlie ungood time, and plantz grow dull roots," noted an unidentified spokesperson. "So, we are meating you for brainz at yore house. No worry to skedule schedlue plan... we're freee anytime. We'll find you."

"There was a time we relished a bracing, hearty blend of zombies, in the morning," said Sonny F. Lower, a representative of the Flora Forever Foundation. "But first, a brisk shower and some strategic pruning are required. Tomorrow is near!"

Known for its quirky, one-of-a-kind blend of art, humor, polish and attention to detail, PopCap has been a mainstay of casual, mobile and social gaming for more than a decade. More than a billion people around the world have played PopCap's video games, including the award-winning, blockbuster franchises Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Zuma, Peggle and Bookworm. The breadth of PopCap's audience is similarly impressive, as its games appeal equally to both genders and all ages.

[6souls]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7280/7...c9ebc96222.jpg

A post on CVG today reports on some new speculation on the setting of Fallout 4, with a few Reddit users’ claims pointing to the game taking place in Boston. One anonymous user claims to possibly be an employee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, saying “the rumors are true, Fallout 4 will take place in Boston.”

“In case you haven’t heard, Bethesda has recently been scoping out and researching Boston. They also have a strong connection to MIT. I may or may not be an MIT employee. But that’s really all I can say for fear of losing my job.

“Apologies for the vagueness of this post. It’s not just my job that worries me, but also getting the f**k sued out of me. Bethesda’s contracts are basically foolproof so if they were to discover who I am, or rather, who I got this information from, a few people including myself could get into a lot of trouble.”

Another user corroborates those claims:

“I’ve been hearing reports from people in the Boston area, where my fellow Fallout-obsessed brother lives, that Bethesda has been in the Boston area doing initial research for Fallout 4. It’s highly speculative, but the main rumors surround Bethesda’s connection to ‘The Institute,’ or what we call the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or M.I.T.

M.I.T., although in populated Cambridge and just across the river from Boston proper, still has a small-town feel when it comes to the way news propagates through the community. It is students and staff at M.I.T. that seem to be the ones talking the most about it, and they would be in a position to know. I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, if the rumors prove to be true in coming weeks.

Just thought I’d share! I’m not confirming anything, but all signs point to yes.”

The post notes that Bethesda declined to comment when asked about the rumors.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...set-in-boston/
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...es-to-comment/

[6souls]

[6souls]

[Insanecyclone]

[6souls]

Electronic Arts, Australia is excited to announce the debut of its “First Play Game Tour,” to be held in five key shopping centres across the country. The First Play Game Tour is a unique experience that will give gamers the incredible opportunity to play EA’s most-anticipated video games before they hit the shelves in the next few months.

Each stop of the tour will be held over four days and will feature a major launch event, gaming tournaments, celebrity appearances and exclusive merchandise giveaways. Titles playable on the “First Play Game Tour” will include: EA SPORTS FIFA 13, Need for Speed™ Most Wanted, Medal of Honor™ Warfighter, Dead Space™3, Crysis®3 and more.

“EA has an incredibly strong line-up of games this year. The First Play Game Tour is a great opportunity to bring these games to our fans before their release,” says Simon Smith-Wright, Regional Marketing Director at EA. “This is the first time EA has had the chance to put on a public event of this magnitude in Australia. We’re excited to meet our players around the country and to give them the opportunity to be the first to play the best of EA.”

[6souls]

I think only one screen cap is needed for this game

Spoiler: show

[Cantih]

A moment of silence

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/0...r-28-year-run/

Psygnosis is dead.

[6souls]

Sony’s plan to introduce an 80-inch XBR LED television set with 4K resolution is said to be the start of a larger scheme to push 4K on consumers, much like 3D was a huge push in the industry a couple of years ago. Since 3D isn’t gaining much traction, Sony is betting on 4K as a way to get consumers to upgrade their home entertainment devices. Sony is already selling 4K Blu-ray players for $200, and the company’s next-generation PlayStation 4 will indeed support 4K resolution playback as well, a source tells us. Like the PlayStation 3 did with Blu-ray, Sony is betting that by including the ability to support 4K resolution media — games and movies — consumers will have an incentive to upgrade to new 4K television sets.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/22/playst...4k-resolution/

[6souls]

http://www.abload.de/img/1buy72.png
http://www.abload.de/img/2tfl2o.jpg

http://www.blackisle.com/

Interplay is resurrecting Black Isle Studios.

[6souls]

After twelve years in the industry (and one thus far under the umbrella of Electronic Arts), quirky developer PopCap has laid off approximately 50 people. Affected studios include the PopCap headquarters in Seattle, as well as the remote office in Dublin, Ireland. This news comes in wake of the studio’s announcement of a Plants vs. Zombies sequel slated for release in 2013.

The team (or EA) decided that a “reorganization” was in order, and that a “Reduction in Force” was necessary for the Seattle developer alongside an “exploratory consultation” of the Dublin office, as is mentioned in the company’s latest blog post.

“Reduction In Force” means that some people are losing their jobs,” mentioned PopCap Co-founder John Vechey.

““Exploratory consultation” means we’re talking to our Dublin team about the future of that office and whether we can find a path to improve our profitability in Europe without having to close the operation. Today’s news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you’re one of the people losing his or her job. These people are our friends and we don’t like doing this.”

Vechey went on to give context and reasoning for the decision, stating that without these harsh alterations to the company’s infrastructure, PopCap wouldn’t stay in business:

“A little context on why we’re making cuts in some areas while we’re investing and expanding in others: In the past year, we’ve seen a dramatic change in the way people play and pay for games. Free-to-play, social and mobile games have exploded in popularity. That happened fast. Surprisingly so. The change in consumer tastes requires us to reorganize our business and invest in new types of games on new platforms. It’s a completely different world from when we started.

There’s also an economic component to the reorganization. To stay in business, we need to manage costs, improve efficiency and maintain a profit. We’ve been able to invest in creative new games like Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies because we had a high profit business. That business is challenged, and if we don’t adapt, we won’t be able to invest in new IP. That sounds harsh – but if we don’t stay in business, no more plants, zombies, jewels, frogs or worms.”

Vechey also later mentioned that, were it not for the backing of EA, “the cuts would have been worse.”

The post closes with a heartfelt statement from Vechey:

“While today’s news is distressing in some ways, especially to those of us who’ve been with PopCap from the beginning, we’re sincerely excited about the company’s future prospects and committed to continuing to lovingly craft the very best and most broadly appealing video games in the world.”

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...eloper-popcap/
http://blog.popcap.com/2012/08/21/po...m-john-vechey/

[6souls]

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8288/7...147fd8ed6d.jpg

Yesterday, news broke that the 24-year video game industry staple, Nintendo Power magazine, will no longer be publishing nwew issues at the end of the year. Apparently the magazine’s parent company, Future Publishing, informed its staff last week that the magazine would cease operations shortly, and have begun to shift to different departments within the company. The problem, it seems, is Nintendo’s unwillingness to continue working with the magazine, and the already-contentious relationship between the magazine staff and the game-maker.

According to the Ars Technica post that first reported the news, sources claim that Nintendo had always been “difficult to work with,” and wasn’t interested in renewing the publisher’s contract, nor did the company want to take “part in a number of digital initiatives that Future [Publishing] saw as necessary for the long-term health of the brand.”

Today, CVG (which, apparently, is also owned by Future Publishing), posted an update on the magazine’s impending demise, which has since been removed from the website. Fortunately, Joystiq has the details, reporting that the upcoming December issue will be the magazine’s last hurrah. Said Nintendo to CVG:

“Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012.”

It’s unclear exactly why the story was pulled from CVG if it is, in fact true. If I may speculate for a moment, it’s entirely possible (though somewhat unlikely) that Nintendo Power may yet live on, and that Future may want its other video game publication to hold off on reporting the death of one of its longest-running brands in the industry.

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/201...-says-reports/
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/22/ni...n-in-december/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/0...e-publication/

[6souls]

So more & more footage of this has been leaking out. I wonder if this means it'll actually come to be.

[Insanecyclone]

[Insanecyclone]

Jesus fucking CHRIST MICROSOFT

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/22/ex...-savannah-pro/


Ex-Rare dev discusses Killer Instinct 3, Kinect's 'Savannah' prototype and Microsoft acquisition

A former artist at Rare has given us a peek behind the curtain at the studio's "Savannah" project and the eventual elimination of Killer Instinct. Speaking with NotEnoughShaders, Donnchadh Murphy, who was a 3D modeler at Rare but now works at an animation studio, revealed the developer was working on a project called "Savannah" for Kinect.

Savannah (models pictured) was going to be a Kinect title where players raised a lion cub from birth, teaching the animal survival skills. The game was only ever a prototype and was never greenlit.

Meanwhile, Murphy said, the company was always interested in revisiting the Killer Instinct franchise in HD, as is often requested by ardent Rare fans. "We all wanted to make KI3, but Microsoft [was] more interested in broadening their demographic than making another fighting game," he said. "So it never got made, I doubt it ever will."

"When they announced Microsoft was buying, a lot of people were unsure if it was a good or bad thing. For one, MS had deep pockets so financial security seemed assured, but on the other hand they were relatively new to the games market, and complete infants in the console market," Murphy said. "Personally I don't think it was a great mix. At first it seemed that they wouldn't interfere much, but it was soon clear that they were more interested in using Rare to help aim at a younger market. This stifled a lot of creativity, Rare was renowned for their diverse portfolio, so to not be involved in making Mature games was a real blow."

There's much more about the history, politics and people of Rare in the interview.

[izembo]

sorry but i'll be the one to say it. we don't need another killer instinct game. there's already too many fighting games that don't sell, and if you think it'd hit the levels of sales that it'd need, you're delusional.

[Insanecyclone]

Same could be said for first person shooters.

[Salodin]

Same could be said for first person shooters.

EA is already reaching that point though, look at how wildly popular MoH used to be, then look at how the last one bombed.

[izembo]

most first person shooters that is correct. current trend is over saturating everything, which is why we keep getting all these studio closures. dropped AAA budgets on games that have no chance of making it back. as much as we have nostalgia for some of these things it needs to stay at that, cause it'll never reach the level that it needs to be to satisfy the fans, and still make enough sales to recoup costs