Join Tom Chick, Nick Diamon, and Jason McMaster for a discussion of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo 5, the Steam controller, D-Day Battle at Peleliu, Broforce, and Sorcerer King. Also take our Skylanders quiz! And discover the startling solution to The Mystery of the Missing Prison Architect Podcast!
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Two high-profile sets of gaming numbers will no longer be reported. Microsoft will no longer divulge Xbox hardware sales numbers, and Activision Blizzard will no longer give out World of Warcraft subscriber data.
Microsoft announced that they will no longer be sharing Xbox One hardware sales in their investor reports. In their latest earnings release, Microsoft folded Xbox One sales under More Personal Computing and stated only that gaming revenue grew 6%, and that Xbox Live transactions were healthy. When pressed on the change in reporting, Microsoft told GameInformer that they feel Xbox Live engagements are more relevant to the business. No doubt Microsoft would be crowing about hardware sales if the gap between sales of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One weren’t so far apart and getting worse all the time.
Activision Blizzard’s executives told investors listening to the company’s latest quarterly conference call that World of Warcraft current subscribers hit 5.5 million, and that it would be the last time they reported that data. According to them, subscriber numbers do not adequately tell the story. “There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance.” Surely, the fact that 5.5 million subscribers represents a 100,000 loss of players since the last quarter, and makes this a nine-year low for the MMO had nothing to do with that decision? To Activision’s credit, the news about their impending acquisition of Candy Crush developers King Digital had more impact.
99 cents for five lives? $1.99 for a bomb cooler? That’s nothing. Nothing! Activision Blizzard is spending $5.9 billion (that’s with a “B”) on Candy Crush Saga. Activision announced the purchase of King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the free-to-play mobile title. The deal is subject to approval in Ireland, where King is based, but the acquisition is expected to go through by early 2016. Since the publisher already owns some of the largest gaming franchises on the planet, why do they need Candy Crush? CEO Bobby Kotick explained the purchase to investors.
The combined revenues and profits solidify our position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment. With a combined global network of more than half a billion monthly active users, our potential to reach audiences around the world on the device of their choosing enables us to deliver great games to even bigger audiences than ever before.
Current King CEO Riccardo Zacconi will be staying with the company under the terms of the deal, as will CCO Sebastian Knutsson and COO Stephane Kurgan. King’s shareholders will receive $18.00 in cash per share when the deal is completed.
I need some iridium so I can put finance calculators on the tidal power stations I had to build for all my new synthcell incubators.
That word soup, which makes complete sense to me, is Anno 2205 in a nutshell. A chain of interconnected sci-fi gobbledygook that you must link together: iridium, finance calculators, tidal power stations, synthcell incubators. Not “you must” in the sense of “the player must blah blah blah” as a tedious description of a game. “You must reach the end of the level in Super Mario Bros” or “You must repair the water filter in Fallout” or “You must gather ten bear hides in World of Warcraft”. But “you must” in the sense that you are driven to do it. You feel a need to do it. It has a pull on you. It is incumbent upon you. You must do it in the same way you must do the bidding of some mysterious master when you’re in his thrall. You must link together an interconnected chain of sci-fi gobbledygook. And you must do it for hours on end. Beware the allure of Ubisoft’s Anno series, more powerful than ever in Anno 2205.
After the jump, you have been warned. Proceed at your own risk. Continue reading →
Warner Bros. Interactive is again offering the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight for sale, but they are also offering unconditional refunds to disgruntled owners. After Warner Bros. launched the PC version of the game in June to widespread criticism regarding bugs and poor performance, the publisher pulled it from sale, vowing to not return it to digital shelves until the game was improved to an acceptable standard. Apparently, that standard is low enough that the current build of Arkham Knight still has streaming issues, recommends 12GB of computer memory, and does not have full weather effects enabled. In their newest notice, the publisher admits that this may not be up to their customers’ level of tolerance.
We are very sorry that many of our customers continue to be unhappy with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. We worked hard to get the game to live up to the standard you deserve but understand that many of you are still experiencing issues.
Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry did an analysis of the relaunched Batman: Arkham Knight, and found that there was little noticeable change from a September patch. The PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is available on Steam.
This week we watch Tom Hanks negotiate another Steven Spielberg movie. At the 1:19 mark, we revisit a previous 3×3 by discussing nonsense movie titles.
Next week: Spectre
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Rockstar has added a Halloween event to Grand Theft Auto V’s online game. The Halloween Surprise adds a spooky hearse and a monstrous hot rod to the vehicles available for purchase, new holiday-appropriate masks and makeup, and an eight-player Slasher adversary mode.
Run, hide, and fight to survive in the darkness as the player designated as the Slasher stalks their prey with a Shotgun. Use your new Flashlight to navigate if you dare, but be careful not to reveal your position or you’ll quickly become prey. Survive for 3 minutes and you’ll get the chance to return the favor with a Shotgun of your own.
Shotgun? In a slasher? Hey, Rockstar! You have a survival knife, hatchet, and machete in your GTA Online weapons list. You could’ve gone with any of those.
That’s 25,000 Swarovski crystals glued to a life-size replica of Master Chief’s helmet. Xbox Taiwan has an auction up right now for it. They hired cosplayer Hsu Chia-Hao and designer Jenny Manik Mercian to create this piece of wearable art and you can own it, if you’re willing to outbid everyone else by November 6th when the auction ends. The current high bid is $3,350.00. Pimp cups are old hat (pun intended) when set against this ode to excess. The upside is that all proceeds from the sale will go the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Imagine the looks you’ll get at the next gaming event with this on your noggin!
Larian Studios made good on their promise to release an Enhanced Edition of Divinity: Original Sin on Tuesday. People that already owned the original Original Sin got the newer version added to their Steam libraries for free. What was a great RPG romp last year is now a terrifically polished experience. Besides full controller support, the enhanced edition adds voice work for all the dialogue in the game, revamped combat encounters, more cinematics, split-screen co-op, and a bevy of fixes. (Check the changes here.) Matching the humor in the game, the developers pulled a fast one in the EULA – that thing you mindlessly agreed to so you could start the game. Buried in it was this gem:
16. Special Consideration. A special consideration in material or immaterial form may be awarded to the first 100 authorized licensees to actually read this section of the EULA and contact LARIAN STUDIOS at [email protected]. This offer can be withdrawn by LARIAN STUDIOS at any time.
Larian says their lawyers feel good that they got the requested 100 responses. Kudos to the sharp-eyed legal eagles that actually scrolled through the wall of text! There’s no word yet on what form the “special consideration” will take.
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Custom matches with mutators are coming to Rocket League. Psyonix announced that a free update in November for their multiplayer car arena sports title will add game-changing modes in the style of Unreal Tournament’s infamous mutators. Options shown in the video include replacing the normal ball with a square one, a low gravity setting, and a slow-motion mode.
Unfortunately, since these cool modes will only be available in custom matches or a separate playlist, it means almost no one will play with the new options enabled. Sad, really. Multiplayer games that only award XP in vanilla ranked matches incentivize the audience to never play in the most interesting battles.
Along with the November update, Psyonix left a little teaser at the end of the video for the December update. Hockey!
Far be it from me to second guess what Arenanet is doing. 99% of the time, I just sit back and let them work their fabulous magic. But then there’s the other 1% of the time. Now is that 1% of the time.
After the jump, what’s going on with the release of Heart of Thorns? Continue reading →
In my review of Spintires, the game of survival horror in which mud tries to kill various real-world driverless Soviet trucks, I wrote the following:
You as a driver, as a person, as a foot on a gas pedal and a pair of hands, dont exist. Whether its because [developer] Oovee didnt want to fuss with character models or because its an intentional effort to focus on the element of machines vs nature without mere humanity in the middle to muck it all up, the world of Spintires is like Maximum Overdrive, that dopey horror movie where trucks come alive and drive themselves around. Not for the cheese factor, of course. You wont find Emilio Estevez servicing a semi with a carnival mask on its grill. Its Maximum Overdrive for the basic vibe of trucks having to rely on themselves. These trucks are on their own. They have no drivers. You cannot angle the camera to look into the cab and see an expressionless character model with his hands perched fingerlessly on the wheel. You will never see a person in this game. People simply dont exist anymore, or theyve gone far away. These wildernesses are as empty and still as a crashed server.
Today, a year and a half later, my review is obsoleted with this news:
The biggest update to the game so far that…finally shows the driver behind the wheel. An animated physical driver [is introduced for] all vehicles. You can watch him turning the steering wheel, changing gears, operating hand-brake and reacting to the forces affecting the truck.
Thanks, Spintires. Just what I didn’t want. But the update, available now, also adds five new trucks. Now you can drive the B-66, the B-131, the C-4310, the D-537, and even the K-700. I don’t know what those are either.
David Cage’s Quantic Dream studio has built their reputation on movie-like experiences with a bit of gameplay mixed in. Depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls were groundbreaking works, or frustratingly non-interactive stories. Today, Quantic Dream announced Detroit, another game that seems to have its feet firmly planted in cinematic tropes. In futuristic Detroit, androids are everywhere, doing everything humans don’t want to do. Into this cliche-ridden world, enters Kara, a synthetic humanoid that escapes her factory to explore what it means to be human. The story sounds like well-trod sci-fi ground, but just as recognizable is the game’s protagonist. Kara starred in a PlayStation 3 tech demo back in 2012.
Detroit will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4.
Sony announced Driveclub Bikes, an expansion to the superb PlayStation 4 Driveclub. The superbike title from Evolution Studios, features twelve two-wheelers with their own campaign, customizations, and multiplayer racing. The surprise reveal came during Sony’s Paris Games Week briefing and brings good news for trophy addicts.
There’s a lot to play for and there’s even a second Platinum Trophy to chase down, which means that Driveclub now features more Trophies to unlock than any other PlayStation game in history!
The Driveclub Bikes expansion can be purchased as a standalone for $19.99, or as DLC if you already own Driveclub for $14.99.
This week we see Vin Diesel in the opposite of an origins story. At the 1:20 mark, you know what day it is? It’s the day to do a 3×3 about calendars!
Next week: Bridge of Spies
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