There will be no trading in Destiny. Bungie confirmed that their big-budget hybrid MMO shooter will not support the trading of loot between players in their latest weekly update. Gamers will be able to swap items between characters on the same account, but if they see a shiny piece of kit on a friend, they’ll just have to be content with looking until they find it for themselves. That nice set of armor you find in the loot chest is for you only.
As for swapping irons in the Tower? Nope. We want you to earn ’em. You should be able to tell a badass story for every sweet jewel in your arsenal.
In the same update, Bungie noted that the orbital loading screen will not be skippable when traveling to a mission location. Destiny launches on September 9th for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
Amazon has purchased Twitch. The deal ends weeks of speculation that the streaming service was being heavily courted by Google, with many media outlets incorrectly reporting that the deal was finalized. Fans of the video streaming service were stunned earlier in the month when new rules regarding copyrighted material appeared to mimic the heavy-handed ContentID system employed by YouTube. It was speculated by many that Twitch was cleaning up their copyright dispute issues to demonstrate to potential buyers that they had systems in place to deal with potential lawsuits. Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch, believes the partnership will benefit gamers.
“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming. Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.”
The price tag for Twitch was $970 million in cash. Amazon probably should’ve waited for Twitch to show up in a Lightning Deal.
http://youtu.be/GBU_D4FVYmY
We’re probably only a game or two away from the Age of Empires franchise having more bad games than good. Microsoft has just announced another game that will probably contribute to the negative side of the scale. Age of Empires: Castle Siege is a free-to-play touch-control game exclusive to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. In Age of Empires tradition, developer Smoking Gun Interactive has added an historical wrinkle to the Clash of Clans gameplay.
Recruit The Greatest Heroes: when times get tough, it’s time to call up heroes. From Richard the Lionheart to Charlemagne, Castle Siege will allow you to deploy them to turn the battle in your favor.
Age of Empires: Castle Siege launches this September.
Electronic Arts is taking steps to halt cheating and selling of in-game currency in FIFA. With FIFA 15 coming on September 23rd, EA Sports took a moment to remind players that cheating and violations of the terms of service in the FIFA Ultimate Team portion of the game will not be tolerated. Most of EA’s attention is focused on the people that use bots to farm for in-game coins to sell on outside websites. In fact, the FUT Web App was deactivated on May 9th due to the volume of bot farming.
Our data shows that these bots generate four times as many Transfer Market searches than all human FUT players combined.
Since February, the publisher has banned hundreds of thousands of FIFA 14 accounts for cheating, and they will step up their policing when FIFA 15 launches. Violators may find themselves on the receiving end of a FIFA online ban, with coin-sellers going straight to a “red card” and getting an account-wide online ban for all EA games.
Microsoft has abruptly pulled free-to-play action roleplaying game Ascend: Hand of Kul from the Xbox 360 marketplace. The listing still exists on the web store, but gamers cannot download it or any of the associated DLC. What happened? Your guess is as good anyone’s. Even the developer claims to be caught unawares. According to Signal Studios, they only found out about the shutdown when players contacted them for help.
“Signal Studios must regretfully announce that despite our best efforts and the games success, Microsoft has discontinued support for Ascend: Hand of Kul on the Xbox 360 and removed the game from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This surfaced to us while investigating various issues players have been experiencing over the weekend.”
The lack of communication between Signal Studios and Microsoft is surprising considering their close association and success with the developer’s previous Xbox Arcade games. Toy Soldiers and the sequel, Toy Soldiers: Cold War were both heavily marketed by Microsoft when they launched on the console. Luckily, there is a beta Steam version of the game for players that must have their fix.
One of the constant reminders that you’re playing a modernized interpretation of a classic shooter in Wolfenstein: The New Order is the need to manually pick up ammunition with a button press. What the heck, Blazkowicz? Why wouldn’t you want to pick up every available bit of ammo? The gameplay after each battle was dominated by meticulously Hoovering up every clip left by the Nazis that you could carry. Yes, I want those bullets! Thank you very much. MachineGames executive producer Jerk Gustafsson revealed to Gamasutra that the developer came to that mechanic through their internal testing of the loot and dual-wield weapon system. In short, they didn’t want to confuse players with automatic pickups of dual-wielded weapons. They wanted players to retain control over whether or not to dual-wield, and because the ammo was tied to the weapon spawns, the only way to easily accomplish this was to require manual pick up.
“With all this said, I must admit I personally find it appealing that players actually have to perform an action to pick something up just like in real life.”
The key to defeating alternate-timeline Nazis is dual-wielding laser machineguns. That’s just science.
In honor of the anniversary of H.P. Lovecraft’s birthday in 1890, Eldritch, the blocky oh-so-cute survival game has added Steam achievements, leaderboards, and another free mini-expansion. The Asylum update gives horror fans the opportunity to visit the lovely halls of insanity, where I’m sure nothing bad can possibly happen to them.
Eldritch also happens to be the Steam Daily Deal! It’s as if the stars are aligning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DL0W9AUCuY
By now you’ve probably seen the bonkers YouTube advertisement for Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL 15. If you haven’t, check it out because it’s three minutes of absolute crazy. It starts with Kevin Hart and Dave Franco’s Madden rivalry and before it ends, there are DJ bears, Conway warbling in a silver dress, and a house fire. While it may appear to be nothing but a self-indulgent mess, EA Sports VP of marketing Anthony Stevenson tells GamesIndustry that they have a plan and it will keep the 26-year-old Madden brand strong. Through polls, data gathering, and trend-watching the money men in marketing have come up with this strategy to reinvent how EA Sports communicates to the younger generation. It’s all about YouTube.
“You’re not going to attract a new audience with a feature. You’re going to attract a new audience by catering to what they’re passionate about, which in this case is football, competition, and the celebrity talent they like that are in the creative… The goal with TV and digital is we want to get a new audience who’s not going to be attracted by ‘Hey, we’ve got a brand new way to do playcalling.’ That’s not going to appeal to them. What we’re trying to do is make them reconsider Madden, as, ‘Hey, Madden’s a cool brand. They get it. I love to compete, so this might be something for me.'”
Science kids! It’s important. Plus, you get to see Kevin Hart slap Dave Franco.
Hellgate, the infamously divisive 2007 action roleplaying game from now-defunct Flagship Studios, may be coming back in a new incarnation. After publisher Namco pulled the plug on the game in 2009, they sold the rights to South Korea’s Hanbitsoft which made a free-to-play version for Asian markets called Hellgate: Resurrection. Westerners could play the game, but it wasn’t marketed to them as the previous retail release was considered a toxic brand by many. That may soon end. Redbana Corporation, Hanbitsoft, and T3 have posted a Steam Greenlight listing for Hellgate Global which will include everything from Hellgate: Resurrection and a new Tokyo update.
Hellgate Tokyo continues the story of the London Resurrection. Heroes start in Tokyo Base, and continue on to different locations as they progress through the story. Tokyo is composed of 24 new levels, with new named monsters and boss monsters.
The update will also include two new horde modes, with one intriguingly named “Cow Room” for fans of old Blizzard in-jokes. Has it been long enough that gamers can forgive the sins of the original game? Judging by the images posted by the publisher, not much has changed in demon-infested London. Clunky effects, stiff character models, and groan-inducing repetitive assets still abound. Perhaps Tokyo will offer more?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0p5KRk_iW8
All you really need to know to be excited by Conflicks, an upcoming real time strategy game for the PC, is that it’s from the guys who made the superlative Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves. But if that’s not enough, check out the above video for a brief history lesson on stuff that I don’t remember learning in school. Developer Artifice Studio will reveal information about the gameplay at a later date, but if they manage in the gameplay even a tenth of the humor and originality from that trailer, count me in.
Viva la cluck!
Star Citizen, the galactic fund-raising machine, has surpassed the $50 million mark. In fact, the total money pledged so far stands at $51,123,228.00 and shows no sign of slowing. The jaw-dropping budget milestone for Cloud Imperium Games’ ambitious space MMO development came as the developer opened the Constellation model of starship for sale. These larger ships can be crewed by multiple players and start at $150.00 for the “back-to-basics” Taurus. If you just can’t choose which to get, the Connie Super-Pack offers all four ships and a 10-inch physical model for only $1,000.00!
The generous revenue for Star Citizen hasn’t just been used for snazzy marketing materials for starship sales. Cloud Imperium Games revealed that racing will be added to version 0.9 allowing players to compete for the 2944 Murray Cup by zipping through space-lanes. The developer also released a teaser for the planned first-person combat mode.
Gwent is a card game in the fictional world of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. According to lore, it was invented by dwarves and is played in taverns across the lands. Players of The Witcher 3 will be able to sample Gwent in-game, but only buyers of the Xbox One Collector’s Edition will get a physical set of cards to play the game in real life. Distributor Bandai Namco and developer CD Projekt RED announced the Xbox One exclusive also includes a physical cloth map. CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwinski explained that the physical version of the card game was made a reality with Microsoft’s help.
“Now we’ve got Gwent in every copy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as an in-game experience for free on every platform, and a physical version in the Xbox One CE, how awesome is that?”
The Collecter’s Edition content that will be shared across platforms are the game itself, a medallion, an art book, a steel case, and a statue of Geralt of Rivia making best friends with a griffon. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launches on Xbox One, PS4 and PC in early 2015.
Allen Murray, co-founder of AtomJack, has been working in video games for ten years. During that time, he worked on Plants vs. Zombies 2, multiple Halo games, Marathon: Durandal, and helped make the Xbox Live Arcade ecosystem. Part of that early work on Xbox included the bane of gamers – advertising. In fact, as Murray recollects, he’s the main guy responsible for those dreaded banner ads on your console home screen. His tale begins with his innocent suggestion to Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb that there should be a way for the team to promote Arcade content to gamers.
“Wait, banner ads? Like on websites?”
“Sort of, but these aren’t like ads for Mt. Dew or anything, these are just…”
“No way.”
“What?”
“Gamers are gonna hate ads. No way.”
Despite the initial thumbs down from Major Nelson, Murray felt they really needed a way to highlight game releases on the Xbox 360. Through persistence, Murray was able to get the Banner of the Day concept off the ground. Ten short years later, and the Xbox interface is a bewildering chock-a-block of advertising! Let this be a lesson to do-gooders. The road to Hell and all that.
Starbreeze Studios and developer Overkill have revealed they are working on a game based on The Walking Dead. Coming in 2016, Overkill’s The Walking Dead will combine the co-op first person shooter elements the developer has made (in)famous in Payday 2 with the hordes of zombies Walking Dead fans love to hate. In the announcement video, series creator Robert Kirkman gives the project his thumbs up and extends a free gift to current players of Payday 2. From some of the details, players can expect further associations between the two games.
Payday 2 and Overkill’s The Walking Dead are two separate games – but, in true Overkill spirit, we’ll make some unprecedented crossovers. When Washington falls, what will Dallas do? If you own Payday 2, you can answer this question in Overkill’s The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead’s popularity knows no bounds!
Electronic Arts and BioWare Austin have announced Shadow Realms, a multiplayer game with persistent roleplaying elements. Players will take the role of either four customized adventurers with special powers fighting for the forces of goodness, or the evil Shadowlord as part of the highly original-sounding Shadow Legion. Characters will build experience and progress over the course of the episodic narrative. Jeff Hickman, general manager of BioWare Austin, likened the game’s 4v1 structure to old-school roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons.
“This game brings us back to our roots in the realm of classic Pen and Paper RPG, but also delivers something that’s completely new and innovative for our fans.”
The Shadowlord player controls creatures, sets traps, and will cast spells to antagonize the hero characters. While it’s not a full “dungeon master” experience since BioWare ultimately controls the storyline, it may offer more opportunity for bad guy roleplaying than Mass Effect.
