State of Decay developer Undead Labs has some good news and some bad news. I know you like your dessert first, so there’s this tidbit in today’s blog update announcing that they’ve passed a half million copies downloaded.
We’re working on a pure sandbox mode for State of Decay, in large part because you asked for it.
State of Decay is already an open-world game with scads of freedom, but it’s got particular story beats that might get old after, say, a second play-through. But it’s also got more than enough gameplay to sustain a completely wide-open unscripted sandbox experience, and I’m delighted Undead Labs will see it through. I just hope we can name our own characters, because I already have my share of baggage with the existing characters.
Now I’m going to give you the damn veggies. It looks like the first patch will download but it won’t install. There’s some confusion about how and even whether this actually happened. But if you were like me and holding off for that handful of fixes before continuing your game, you might want to hold off a little longer. Which will get you that much closer to the sandbox mode.
Since all of your Xbox One game licenses are tied to your account, what happens if you get banned from your account as part of a disciplinary action? Losing multiplayer access is punishment enough, but losing access to all the games tied to your account would be a bit much. It’s no surprise that Microsoft doesn’t seem to know what happens any more than the average gamer yet. Recently, the official Xbox Support on Twitter gave an alarming reply to someone that asked about the effects of an account ban.
If your account is banned, you also forfeit the licenses to any games that have licenses tied to it as listed in the ToU.
It’s not the answer we wanted to see, but at least it’s a clear answer. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Major Nelson, answered the same question quite differently when asked during E3 in this Reddit interview.
Chloe Dykstra: “If someone is banned, whether their fault or not, will they lose access to the games they purchased?”
Major Nelson: “Absolutely not. You will always have access to the games you’ve purchased. Absolutely not.”
Chloe Dykstra: “Yay!”
Major Nelson: “Yay? Really? Come on! You had to expect that.”
Major Nelson is right. You should expect that, but as we’ve seen in the past with other companies, account bans with game licenses tied to them can sometimes lead to all sorts of unintended consequences.
Salem: The crafting MMO, developed by Seatribe will need to look for a new publisher. Paradox Interactive has cut the game loose from their publishing schedule and the game will need to find its own way. Paradox posted the news in the official forums, letting players know that they will have nothing more to do with the game after July 8th.
As we approach the 2,5 year anniversary of the announcement of the game and after nearly a year in Beta, Seatribe and Paradox have taken stock and evaluated both where we are today and what we think the future has in store. Our conclusion is that the game is active and much potential still lies in the game and its community, but that the concept still needs time and development to mature. To ensure longevity of this title and to have a set up that will allow Seatribe to work with this game for many months/years to come we have therefore decided to take some steps to optimize how the game is managed today and the costs of running it.
Effective from July 8, Seatribe will assume full support management and development ownership of Salem: The Crafting MMO. Any decisions taken from that point on will be taken by and communicated through Seatribe to you – the community. Paradox Interactive will start phasing out their involvement in the project from today and on July 8 the game for all intents and purposes will be Seatribe’s to run.
Seatribe plans to continue development of the game while they look for a new publishing path. Salem beta players will receive a 50% discount coupon for the Paradox store and some in-game cash for their trouble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-4x6_b0Hs
There are a couple of reasons I’m predisposed to follow World of Diving, an underwater exploration game from an independent Dutch studio crowdsourcing its development (Indiegogo link here and Steam Greenlight link here).
The first is that I’m an erstwhile diver myself (if you haven’t actually been in the water in the last, say, two years, you can’t call yourself a diver in the present tense; scuba diving is as unnatural as space exploration and it takes acclimation, no matter how much experience you have). So I love the idea of a moderately serious simulation in a procedurally generated underwater world. In the above video, I was sold when the divers gave each other the “okay” sign rather than talking over mysterious microphones in their mouthpieces.
But the main reason I’ll be following this game is that there are too few like it. Nintendo’s Endless Ocean games for the Wii were a bit too gamey, as befits games published by Nintendo. Most of you have never even heard of the golden standard for this tiny genre. Aquanaut’s Holiday, for the original Playstion, came out in 1995. It was a simultaneously confounding and relaxing game, from a time when there was no such thing as a first-person open-world sandbox. As I should have guessed from the title, Aquanaut’s Holiday had no game structure: no quests, no goals, no danger. I swam around in vain searching for something like a shark or a giant squid. What sort of underwater videogame doesn’t have a shark or a giant squid? I’m not sure I ever figured out that the only thing that passed for gameplay was a coral reef endgame in which you built a home for fish. The developer of Aquanaut’s Holiday went on to make another confounding and relaxing game called Tail of the Sun, which is arguably a precursor to games like Minecraft and Don’t Starve.
Unfortunately, World of Diving is also an online game. Here’s where the promise of procedurally generated underwater exploration starts to look like something else:
Starting out in the Caribbean, World of Diving recreates and brings to life the world of wonder and discovery that is at the bottom of the ocean, where you will be hang out with friends — whether you have met them in or outside of the game — and can dive with the sea turtles, hunt for the great white shark, and party on your own luxury yachts.
tank lfg 4 GWS quest
Military troops are just like civilians. They use videogames to relax and compete with each other while overseas or on active deployment. In the few days since Microsoft clarified some of their restrictive policies for the Xbox One, some military personnel have made their thoughts clear on the matter. They don’t like it. Because the Xbox One must phone home at least once every 24 hours, or any time a game needs to be authenticated, it’s going to be difficult to use while deployed to areas with unreliable internet connections, like some barracks or on ships. Additionally, the Xbox One is restricted for use in only the areas of the world listed in the officially supported countries leaving out whole military bases.
The Army Times asked Microsoft about workarounds to these policies for service members, but the response was unhelpful.
“I don’t have additional details to share and can’t speculate on workarounds at this time,” wrote Xbox rep Danica Stickel in an emailed response to questions, repeating the suggestion that troops could just use the 360 instead.
“Although we’re very excited about Xbox One, we remain dedicated to Xbox 360 now and for years to come. In fact, we are expecting some of the greatest blockbusters of 2013 and 2014 to come out on Xbox 360.”
Stickel advised The Army Times that there is good news for the troops. Since their Xbox One content is tied to their Live account, as long as they activate a game in their home country, they’ll be able to play it anywhere afterwards. Of course, this presumes that the player can connect the Xbox One to the internet every 24 hours after activating the content.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt from CD Projekt Red was one of the games shown on Microsoft’s stage during their pre-E3 presentation. It’s a next-gen open-world extravaganza of witching, so it made sense that it was one of the games touted as being extra awesome on the Xbox One thanks to Kinect-enabled voice commands and the “power of the cloud.”
What struck a few fans as odd was just the fact that a famously anti-DRM developer like CD Projekt Red would even strike up a deal with Microsoft for their notoriously restrictive Xbox One console. CDP co-founder Marcin Iwiński told Eurogamer right after the conference that they didn’t have full details of the console DRM policy.
“We have not received anything from Microsoft until today on this one and, before we form any definite opinions here, we would like to have this process explained in details by the platform holder.
“From our side, we will be of course looking for the most gamer friendly solution.”
Iwiński later clarified that they didn’t want to “punish” Xbox One gamers and that ultimately “it’s the clients who make the final decision.”
Another puzzling aspect to the relationship is the fact that the Xbox One will not actually work in CDP’s native Poland at launch according to an official list of supported countries. Iwiński told Game Informer that he was taken by surprise by the console not working in his country.
“I was just in a restaurant and saw the list,” Iwinski told us. “I was surprised, and I really hope that it isn’t final. I think Polish gamers will speak out loud. From my perspective, it’s a sad situation.”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be available DRM-free to PC gamers at GOG.com in 2014.
Gaming sure seems to have its fair share of legal disputes. This time, it’s Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms filing a lawsuit against Gearbox over $2 million in unpaid royalties and advances for Duke Nukem Forever. Evidence cited in the Texas court filing include emails sent to 3D Realms’ George Broussard and Scott Miller from Gearbox president Randy Pitchford allegedly agreeing to the terms of the deal.
“Even in the worst case, I am prepared to make sure that debt is repaid in exchange for the opportunity to drive the brand forward and generate profit through the development of the big ticket Duke Nukem video games for many years to come.”
Although Gearbox has not formally filed a response, they did supply Kotaku with a statement.
“Ironically, Scott Miller himself provided the best response when he wrote: ‘… filed lawsuits are entirely one-sided statements, based on knee-deep BS and with more spin than a top.'”
One of the things that Microsoft got right with their Xbox 360 system is the little popup and sound of getting an Achievement. Love them or hate them, that indicator is a direct ping to the human need for immediate positive feedback. The Xbox One will change the Achievement system a bit. Major Nelson and Cierra McDonald, the Xbox Live Achievement Service Program Director, explained some of the details.
The new system will have Achievements and Challenges. Achievements will work much like they do now. Games will come with a list of goals that you can complete in-game to get the Pavlovian ding and some points added to your Gamerscore. You can attempt to fulfill an Achievement at any time because they don’t officially expire. (Ha! Just try to get those multiplayer Achievements for Perfect Dark Zero now!) The new wrinkle is that Xbox One programs outside of games, like music and video apps, can also have Achievements. App-based Achievements will not have Gamerscore points.
Challenges are new. They are time-limited. Developers and publishers can add or subtract them at will, like a weekend event challenge, or a themed goal based on a hot new internet meme. Challenges can’t have Gamerscore, but they can unlock other rewards.
– Challenges are time based.
– Challenges do not give out Gamerscore.
– Challenges may cross titles, but achievements cannot.
– Challenges can be unlocked by the community.
An Achievement activity feed will also be a part of the Xbox One Dashboard to keep you up to date on what your friends are accomplishing and what new Challenges are being offered.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead game was a hit with the zombie point & click adventure game crowd, and the folks that like making emotional attachments to various flawed characters and seeing them die. The upcoming 400 Days DLC promises to continue presenting those difficult choices that players love to hate.
The DLC will take place in and around a truck stop near the events of Season 1, but will feature five separate characters’ stories in their own mini-episodes. Telltale says “this is not Lee or Clem’s story.” 400 days promises to make decisions meaningful for players.
400 Days will check to see if you have a Season 1 save file. The decisions you made in Season 1 will have an effect on your 400 Days experience. And yes…choices made in 400 Days will resonate in
Season 2.
400 Days will launch in July for XBLA, PSN, Steam, and iOS for $5. The PS Vita version will be bundled with all of Season 1 in a new package.
Microsoft’s Xbox One has a built-in DRM feature that makes freely lending or reselling games impossible at this point. You need to go through some kind of verification system and you can only resell your used disc-based games through participating retailers. Sony’s PS4 maintains the status quo of this generation’s rules. As illustrated in a tongue-in-cheek instructional video, you own the game so do what you want with it. Sony representatives did clarify that third-party publishers will be able to set up whatever rules they want – just like they can currently.
Electronic Arts is one of the publishers faced with these different rules and according to chief operating officer Peter Moore, they don’t yet know what they will do. Moore spoke to Polygon about the internal debates they are having.
“We’re focused at this point in time in new games and our official position is, ‘I’ll get back to you’. Sony have announced what they are going to do which is, y’know, business as usual, and then Microsoft are looking at allowing a publisher to opt-in, should they choose to do so. But if we opt in, do [Microsoft] charge a fee, and if so, how much? We have not internally even begun to sit down and answer those questions.
We will figure out what we need to do. I’m not trying to back-pedal but this thing just happened and we need to reconvene and hear what people think and talk to our retail partners and our first party partners. We had no idea what Sony was going to announce. We’ll reconvene next week and figure it all out.”
On the subject of whether or not EA had pressured Sony or Microsoft to build DRM features into their next-gen consoles, Moore denied the rumor. He also reiterated that the Online Pass program was cancelled because consumers made it clear they didn’t like it.
Microsoft may not have DRM-free disc-based gaming on the Xbox One, but they do have an “exclusive achievement” available for people that order the Xbox One Day One Edition package. They’ll also print “DAY ONE 2013” on the commemorative controller. That’s got to be worth something, right?
Sony released the specifications for the PS4 system early this morning and some of the details should please PlayStation fans. As previously revealed by Jack Tretton during the Sony pre-E3 stage presentation, the basic hardware will cost $399 in the US. A mono headset, HDMI cable, and a wireless controller are included in the box. An additional wireless controller will be available for $59. The optional PlayStation Camera will also be available for $59.
The launch unit will come with a 500GB internal drive and users can replace the drive themselves with a standard 2.5 inch hard drive. Always a nice touch when you’re installing multiple games from Blu-ray discs and need to cheaply expand storage.
In related news, Sony representatives verified that there will be no region-lock on the PS4. They also used Twitter to confirm that gamers without PS Plus subscriptions will not be able to participate in multiplayer gaming on the PS4, but that singleplayer games and media streaming will be permitted.
Nintendo didn’t have an E3 stage show this year. Instead, Nintendo decided to to just have a short 40 minute video presentation to communicate to their fans. The Nintendo Direct show was hosted by an uncomfortable-looking Satoru Iwata.
Games shown included Pokemon X and Y, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Art Academy, Sonic Lost World, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, Project X, and a new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and the 3DS. Nintendo also showed about 20 seconds of some AAA third-party titles in a montage, once again illustrating how important AAA third-party relationships are to them.
Wii U eShop games were also previewed with a quick snippet of footage. Mutant Mudds Deluxe, Oddworld: New & Tasty, Shovel Knight, and A World of Kelfings were included. Most of Nintendo’s upcoming first-party games will be available as direct eShop downloads as well.
Fans can go to select Best Buy locations and check out some of Nintendo’s E3 games for themselves. (Thanks, Locker K!)
Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House closed out the Playstation 4 presentation with the following line:
Concepts like true consumer ownership and consumer trust are central to everything we do.
These words sum up how Sony cashed in on Microsoft’s ungainly fumbling as they tried to finesse various announcements about policies hostile to consumers. The words are a carefully crafted emollient that could only be made by listening to consumers, by being nimble enough to react, and by making specific and difficult decisions about whether Sony’s priorities are with consumers or with publishers. They chose consumers. By singling out the contributions of independent developers, by focusing on games over shoehorned transmedia and unnecessary proprietary interfaces, and most importantly by continuing the status quo on used games and DRM — two issues that go hand-in-hand — Sony has effectively won E3 before the doors of the show floor even opened.
The $100 cheaper price point is just gravy.
That’s the PS4 pictured above. Drink it in. Sony had their E3 presentation as today, closing out the E3 stage demo rodeo, and they finally unveiled the PS4 hardware.
Before they got to good stuff, Sony showed off the PS Vita and the PS3, just to remind everyone that both still existed and would continue to be supported into the near future. The PS Vita will get The Walking Dead with the upcoming 400 Days chapter, and the PS3 will get a scary digital Willem Dafoe in Beyond: Two Souls.
Because Sony didn’t have a pre-E3 event to talk about media streaming, they got to waste some time on that. Did you know Sony publishes music and movies? They do! The PS4 will have all sorts of ways to consume (and pay) for media.
Sony finally moved on to the PS4 by showing off the sexy hardware. PS4 games previewed included The Order: 1886, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Drive Club, Infamous: Second Son, Knack, The Dark Sorcerer, Assassin’s Creed 4, Watch Dogs, NBA 2K14, Mad Max, and Destiny. Square Enix showed a trailer for a game containing fops. We need more fop-based games. SE also teased Kingdom Hearts III. Dumbledore narrated a new Elder Scrolls Online trailer.
Indie games got a special shout-out. The Witness, Transistor, Don’t Starve, Mercenary Kings, Ocotodad, Secret Ponchos, Outlast, Oddworld Inhabitants, and Galak-Z were shown together to show off Sony’s commitment to the indie developers. This is an area that Microsoft has been criticized for in recent days.
Jack Tretton made sure to fire some shots at a competitor. The PS4 will support lending and resale of used disc-based games with no restrictions. The PS4 will not require periodic online checks either. I wonder who they were directing that towards? You’d think they had it in the bag, but then Jack slipped a quick change-up into his presentation. Multiplayer access on the PS4 will be locked behind PS+. Boo!
Just to rub it in Microsoft’s face, the PS4 is launching at $399. Someone’s been listening to gamers talk the past few weeks.
