The Gaming News Thread

[Mailman653]

SEGA Unveils Mega Drive Ultimate Collection

[TevashSzat]

Fallout 3 ships 4.7 million in first week

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bethesda proclaims that postapocalyptic role-playing game for 360, PS3, PC topped $300 million in sales at launch.

Last week's launch of Bethesda Softworks' after-the-bomb role-playing game Fallout 3 was, appropriately enough, explosive. The publisher took a victory lap today by announcing some early statistics for the game. Bethesda said that it shipped roughly 4.7 million copies of Fallout 3 around the world last week. Sales of that massive stockpile surpassed the $300 million mark.

Both of those figures stack up reasonably well with last year's release of Halo 3. Microsoft's heavily hyped first-person shooter posted sales of $300 million in its first week on analyst-estimated shipments of 4.2 million. It's worth noting that Halo 3 was an Xbox 360 exclusive, whereas Fallout 3 is available on the 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and the installed user bases of those platforms have increased significantly in the intervening year.

Fallout 3 was released on October 28 in North America and October 31 in Europe. It may receive another sales boost in the near future, given that Bethesda has planned a Japanese launch for the game on December 4.

Okay, that is just crazy......I guess this means that Fallout 4 will come out sooner or later if there isn't an expansion or something like that

[Mailman653]

Ubisoft Acquires Massive Entertainment

[Kekvit Irae]

Epic Games President Michael Capps says that Gears of War II is not coming to the PC because of piracy and, surprise surprise, used game sales.

Q: Do you see an enemy in this equation? Is it the retailer, or the purchaser of second-hand games?

Michael Capps: I'd hate to say my players are my enemies - that doesn't make any sense! But we certainly have a rule at Epic that we don't buy any used games - sure as hell you're not going to be recognised as an Epic artist going in and buying used videogames - because this is how we make our money and how all our friends in the industry make money.

I think a little bit of it is education so people realise that the reason there's no PC market right now is piracy. I mean, Crytek just put out some numbers saying the ratio was 20:1 on Crysis, for pirated to non-pirated use. So guess what? That's why there's no Gears of War 2 on PC, because there's no market, because copying killed it - and that's gruesome to a company like ours that's been in the PC market for so long.

We're trying to fix it, there's a new alliance of companies trying to make PC gaming work again. But if people are playing games without buying them, then the games aren't going to keep coming.

[Martok]

Yeesh.


I think it was just yesterday I read about a scheme to eliminate used games being resold: Someone with another developer (Frontier?) recently proposed a business model in which games could be rented for $50.00, while a "permanent" copy could be purchased for a mere $160.00. (I'll see if I can find the actual article in a bit here.)

I don't know what that guy's smoking, but I want some.

[Xiahou]

So, Crysis sold over 1 million copies- that means over 20 million people pirated it? Pardon me for doubting his numbers...

Regardless, I guess what Michael here is saying is that he'd rather throw away 1 million additional sales on the PC than risk having people who probably wouldn't have bought it anyway pirate it? Add to this his suggestion that he thinks those who play his game are the "enemy" and it's not hard to see what's wrong with his business model.

I do sympathize with him on the used game market though. Should people be able to trade and swap games? Absolutely. But what EBGames/Gamestop are doing is despicable, imo. They rip people off, paying people a fraction of what they bought their games for and rip you off even more if you don't agree to take store credit instead of cash (thereby forcing you to give them back the money they gave you). Next, they sell the same games back to rubes for as little as a couple bucks off the "new" price. Gamestop pockets all the money and the people who actually make the game, the developers, get nothing. Really sleazy, imo.

The game publishers should demand to get a cut of used game sales, or just stop selling Gamestop new copies of games.

[Martok]

Aha! I found the article I mentioned earlier:

David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, is plenty upset. He joins the ranks of the likes of EA and other high profile developer/publishers that are mounting the beginnings of a massive offensive towards “retailers that buy used games”. Mr. Braben threatens that because of this practice the single player experience may be seeing its last days. Multiplayer only or multiplayer heavy games seem to be immune to this dastardly deed. The crime? Gamers play the short-lived single player game and then wish to trade it in for credit towards another game – imagine that!

Developers don’t get a dime when a game gets traded. The end result, retail outlets make a good penny for marking up old games while developers see nothing. In truth, being that the margins are so low in initial sales it would be impossible to run a business with the low returns on brand new games. In short, there is no profit in selling new games at retail stores and the used game market exists to fill a need.

We’ve all heard this story before, developers and publishers want a piece of the action. Solution? Give folks downloadable content to entice them to keep the games longer. Whether or not this solution has improved the situation has yet to be determined. Games like GTA IV, although selling well in its initial release phase, have seen massive returns to game retailers for store credit in part due to lackluster game play, even though downloadable content looms over the horizon.

Braben’s solution is a bit more radical. He suggests offering a two tier price entry: a not for resale version of the game and a rental version. The not for resale copies would be priced at roughly $160 dollars, and the rental version at around $50. The idea? Gamers won’t trade a game they spent their life savings on.

Be vigilant gamers! Game publishers and developers produce fun products; however they are in business to make money. There is no such thing as a compassionate, loving and caring conglomerate. Keep your wits about you and while you have fun playing, don’t lose your rights, or your wallets. Corporate greed is corporate greed and their insatiable appetite for your dollars may not only do away with the single player game, but games as a whole. Sadly the industry is maturing and the days of “doing it for the love” are gone.

[Kekvit Irae]

If there's anything that will encourage people to pirate, it's 160 dollar games.

[Martok]

Piracy? Hell, there would be almost no games left to pirate. If titles become that expensive, the gaming industry would all but disappear.

[Tratorix]

Braben’s solution is a bit more radical. He suggests offering a two tier price entry: a not for resale version of the game and a rental version. The not for resale copies would be priced at roughly $160 dollars, and the rental version at around $50. The idea? Gamers won’t trade a game they spent their life savings on.

That is one of the stupidest things i've ever heard. His idea to increase sales is to raise prices? Does he not realize high prices are one of the main reasons people buy used games?

[TinCow]

The hillarious aspect is that as consoles become more advanced, they also utilize more direct computer components. This makes it far easier to hack them or otherwise make them capable of playing pirated discs. The devs are in for a rude awakening when piracy makes the full-scale jump to consoles in the near future. We'll see what excuses they can come up with then.

[Kekvit Irae]

The hillarious aspect is that as consoles become more advanced, they also utilize more direct computer components. This makes it far easier to hack them or otherwise make them capable of playing pirated discs. The devs are in for a rude awakening when piracy makes the full-scale jump to consoles in the near future. We'll see what excuses they can come up with then.

The problem is that piracy of console games does exist. However, it's curbed by the fact that not everyone has a DVD or a Blu-Ray burner, or ownership of a modded console.

[TinCow]

The problem is that piracy of console games does exist. However, it's curbed by the fact that not everyone has a DVD or a Blu-Ray burner, or ownership of a modded console.

Yep, but indications are that the next-gen consoles will allow for direct download of software via platforms similar to Steam. Once games are distributed to consoles via soft-copy alone, the ease of console piracy will increase significantly.

[TevashSzat]

The hillarious aspect is that as consoles become more advanced, they also utilize more direct computer components. This makes it far easier to hack them or otherwise make them capable of playing pirated discs. The devs are in for a rude awakening when piracy makes the full-scale jump to consoles in the near future. We'll see what excuses they can come up with then.

Well the only reason that console pirating hasn't gone crazy already is because you need to mod your console and not everyone is competent enough to do so without breaking something important.

If you do have a modded console, piracy is just as rampant. In fact, almost every major console release (especially for 360) was released by pirates a week or so before the actual release date. Thats because the companies are so focused on computer piracy that they're being more lax with security features to stop their console games from falling into pirate hands early

[Mailman653]

Blizzard: We're Not Milking StarCraft II

[TevashSzat]

Garriott exits NCsoft as profits plunge

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Space tourist and Tabula Rasa creator wipes slate clean by resigning position at MMOG studio to pursue "new interests"; publisher reports net income down 50 percent year over year.

Whether it was a spiritual experience or alien abduction, something happened to Richard Garriott in outer space. Less than a month after returning from a 12-day, $30 million stay aboard the International Space Station, the legendary game designer has abruptly resigned his position at NCsoft.

"Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space," he mused in an open letter on the Tabula Rasa Web site. "Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests." He then apologized and thanked the game's developers, support staff, and subscribers.

Garriott had been involved with the Korean publisher since 2001, when, after leaving EA-owned Origin Systems, his startup Destination Games was bought and renamed NC Interactive. There, as CEO, he presided over development of the sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tabula Rasa, which launched in late 2007 to decent reviews--and widespread technical problems. "I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch," he said in his sign-off.

Garriott's move is the latest chapter in a decades-long career, which began with his creation of the single-player role-playing series Ultima in the 1980s and into the 1990s with his first MMORPG, Ultima Online. While sudden, his exit from NCsoft was not totally unexpected. Despite six years of costly development, Tabula Rasa failed to achieve critical mass, selling just over 61,000 copies at US retailers as of September 30, 2008, reports the NPD Group.

According to an earnings report released today, Tabula Rasa accounted for only 2 percent of NCsoft's revenue, or 1.76 billion Korean won ($1.3 million) last quarter. For the July-September period, NCsoft saw profits fall 50 percent to 5.0 billion won ($3.7 million) on sales of 78.3 billion won ($58.0 million).

Curiously, Tabula Rasa's monthly subscriber figures were omitted from NCsoft's report, which included figures for most members of the MMORPG specialist's portfolio: Lineage (881,979), Lineage II (857,531), and City of Heroes/Villains (124,939). To date, 5.59 million people have activated accounts for the Seoul-based publisher's free-to-play MMORPG Guild Wars.

Square Enix orders Supreme Commander 2

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Japanese role-playing publisher partners with Gas Powered Games on sequel to epic-scale real-time strategy game.

Last month, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada appeared on a Tokyo Game Show panel about the waning influence of Japanese game makers. He said Japan was no longer the leader in the worldwide gaming industry, having lost too much ground to rising markets in the US and Europe.

If Wada can't lead them, he'll apparently join them. Square Enix today announced a strategic partnership with Gas Powered Games that will see the creation of a sequel to the Redmond, Washington-based studio's large-scale real-time strategy game Supreme Commander. Square Enix didn't specify what its role in the game's creation would be, nor did it reveal any details on platforms, release windows, or gameplay features.

Square Enix did say that the collaboration is a step toward the goal of boosting its Western development for global audiences. This also appears to be just one of numerous upcoming partnerships, as Square Enix described such collaborations as "a new cornerstone of its strategy to create games targeted primarily at consumers in Europe and North America.

Wow that is really wierd.....Never pictured the Final Fantasy makers go into RTS....

[TevashSzat]

October Sales Defy Market Plunge

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

US gaming industry sees 18 percent year-over-year growth to $1.31 billion; Fable II tops software, Wii retains hardware crown.

Remember when January 1, 2008, rolled around and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was hanging around 13,000? Yeah, that was nice. And then, after months of steady decline, October arrived, and stock markets around the world walked hand-in-hand off a cliff.

So how did US gamers react to having the value of their 401(k)s noisily deflate like an unknotted balloon? Surprisingly, they barely batted a lash, according to the NPD Group's measure of October gaming hardware, software, and accessory sales. In sharp contrast to September's negative growth, the NPD reported today that the gaming industry pulled in $1.31 billion in October.

While that figure represents an 18 percent climb from a year ago, NPD analyst Anita Frazier notes that not all segments experienced the boon equally. "The sales results are mixed this month, however," noted Frazier. "The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26 percent across hardware, software and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14 percent. Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7 percent."

As for those hardware sales, the console and handheld segments brought in $495 million for the month, a 5 percent year over year increase. Nintendo, to the surprise of no one, retained its seat atop both the console and handheld markets. Not wasting any time ramping up to holiday-level sales figures, the Wii made its way into 804,000 more living rooms in October, a tally Frazier said represents the single best month for the console outside of November-December 2007. The Nintendo DS put up respectable numbers of its own, logging 491,000 units sold for the month.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 continued to see a sales bump in relation to price cuts made in September, with the console selling 371,000 units across its three SKUs. "The price reduction on the Xbox 360 is paying dividends at retail as the platform realized a 7 percent unit sales increase over September," said Frazier. "Keeping in mind that September was a five-week month while October had four, the sales pace increased 33 percent."

While it didn't achieve sales on par with its archrival, Sony's PlayStation 3 experienced a win of its own, as unit sales grew 57 percent over October 2007's results. In total, Sony moved 190,000 units of its flagship console, just 3,000 shy of the PSP's 193,000 systems last month. PlayStation 2 sales rounded out the pack with 136,000 units.

The single largest contributor to October's $1.31 billion total haul was software, which landed at the top-end of analysts' estimates at $698 million, a 35 percent increase. Microsoft and Lionhead Studios' Xbox 360-exclusive role-playing game Fable II topped a list of mostly new entrants, selling 790,000 units despite launching toward the end of the month. The critically acclaimed title nearly doubled Nintendo's returning kingpin Wii Fit, which slotted into second place this month with 487,000 units sold.

Of the 4.7 million units shipped worldwide for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3 sold 375,000 on Microsoft's console in the US, securing it third place in October's charts. Bethesda's postapocalyptic RPG was followed by the the remaining two titles to chart in both September and October, Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii (290,000 units sold) and Wii Play (282,000 units sold).

THQ may be going through a bout of upheaval, but the internally developed Saints Row 2 is doing its part to keep the publisher upright. The Xbox 360 edition of the game secured the sixth spot in October's retail results, selling 270,000 units. Two PS3 exclusives ran neck-and-neck for the seventh and eighth slots, with Slant Six's online-only multiplayer shooter SOCOM: US Navy SEALS Confrontation outselling Media Molecule's user-generated content paradise Little Big Planet 231,000-to-215,000.

Take-Two's NBA 2K9 was the only basketball sim to chart in October, selling 202,000 units on the Xbox 360 and earning it the ninth slot on the list. EA's all-new survival horror shooter Dead Space snuck into the final spot in October's top 10, thanks to the 193,000 units sold for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Conspicuously absent from the NPD's October recounting was the seemingly unstoppable rhythm game genre. Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero World Tour failed to place on the top 10 at all, even if it was available in 12 different SKUs. For comparison, when Guitar Hero III went on sale in September 2007, bundles for the game landed in second, third, fourth, and eighth place, with all selling more than 230,000 copies apiece. Also absent were Nintendo's Wii Music, which went on sale October 21, and MTV Games' Rock Band 2, which arrived first on the Xbox 360 in September and followed on the PS3 last month.

Other notable absences include Sony's MotoStorm: Pacific Rift, Take-Two's Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and Ubisoft's Far Cry 2. Of the latter, the publisher said earlier this month that the game had achieved 1 million in sales worldwide.

US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - OCTOBER 2008
Software: $697M (+35%)
Hardware: $495M (+5%)
Accessories: $120M (-8%)
Total Games: $1.31B (18%)

TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - OCTOBER 2008
Wii--803,000
Nintendo DS--491,000
Xbox 360--371,000
PlayStation Portable--193,000
PlayStation 3--190,000
PlayStation 2--136,000

TOP-SELLING SOFTWARE - OCTOBER 2008
Title / Publisher / Units*
1) Fable II (Xbox 360) / Microsoft / 790,000
2) Wii Fit w/ Balance Board (WII) / Nintendo / 487,000
3) Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) / Bethesda Softworks / 375,000
4) Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (WII) / Nintendo / 290,000
5) Wii Play w/ Remote (WII) / Nintendo / 282,000
6) Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360) / THQ / 270,000
7) SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation (PS3) / Sony / 231,000
8) Little Big Planet (PS3) / Sony / 215,000
9) NBA 2K9 (360) / Take-Two Interactive / 202,000
10) Dead Space (360) / Electronic Arts / 193,000

* Figures include Collector's Editions and non-hardware bundles.

Some fairly interesting stuff here. It seems like the console gaming market is at least somewhat recession proof. It seems as if the PC market wsan't accounted by the figures here, but I'm not too confident of how high they would be.

[Praxil]

Epic Games President Michael Capps says that Gears of War II is not coming to the PC because of piracy and, surprise surprise, used game sales.

I think that it will come out eventually on this so "far much much better platform" everybody are shouting , it is only a matter of time. The answers to "when" is Microsoft, the franchise owner and publisher.

[TevashSzat]

ESRB Adds Game Summaries to Ratings

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The ESRB has added more detailed summaries of games to its content descriptors on the ESRB Web site (via a report from Joystiq). For example, Wrath of the Lich King -- which launches today -- is described in detail this way:

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game set in the imaginary world of Azeroth. Players complete quests to 'level up' their customized characters, while gaining powers and better equipment along the way. Quest objectives sometimes involve using magic and hand-to-hand combat to defeat various creatures, enemy soldiers, and occasionally other characters such as innocent villagers. Some attacks can result in splashes of red blood, while collateral damage also includes bursts of flesh and bone falling to the ground. Certain quests require the player to drink alcohol, resulting in the character's impaired vision (blurry screen, pink elephants) and movement. Players can interact with scantily clad characters, listen to provocative dialogue (e.g., "Is that a mana wyrm in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"), or view sexually suggestive dance routines performed by elves and other player-characters.

This is bound to lead to some game leaks or misunderstandings due to lack of context, but this should go a long way towards alleviating concerns over the ESRB's supposed lack of effectiveness. With such detailed descriptions, there can really be no excuse for parents not to know exactly what content is in the games their kids are playing.

Senator Hillary Clinton, who has historically been outspoken against the ESRB, has already spoken up in support of the move according to a report on the MTV Multiplayer blog.

"This new supplement to the ratings is a real gift for parents as we head into this holiday season," she said. "Parents need all the information they can get to make more informed decisions about what's appropriate for their children. These new rating summaries offer more helpful information than ever before to help parents get involved and get informed." Now, we just have to wait and see if parents really do use the tools available to them to get informed and involved. Otherwise, the criticism against the ESRB will come back, deserved or not.

I really love how there may be really huge spoilers within the description which they don't tell you at all....

Valve Steams $99 Complete Pack

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stumbling across even one zombie is probably enough for any normal, healthy human being to have an intense and immediate reaction. But really, when is it ever going to be just one zombie?

With Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead going gold yesterday, Valve is honoring the occasion with a combo deal to rival last year's Orange Box. Dubbed the Valve Complete Pack, the package contains 22 titles in all, spanning the breadth of Valve's 12-year development history.

In addition to the aforementioned zombie shooter, the Valve Complete Pack includes all of the game maker's premiere titles, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, its first two expansions, Portal, and Team Fortress. Also packed in are a number of Source engine-powered spin-offs, including Counter-Strike, Half-Life: Blue Shift, the original Team Fortress, and Day of Defeat, to name a few. For good measure, PopCap's Peggle Extreme is also party to the proceedings.

The Valve Complete Pack is available through the game maker's online distribution service Steam for $99.99. By Valve's tally, that's a $134.82 savings over buying each of the products individually.

Wow, that is really a great deal. 22 games for the price of two brand new games...... I'd probably get it if I didn't have the Half Life 2 and its episodes already since I get really nauseous while trying to play the original Half Life

[Xiahou]

doh!

[Xiahou]

ESRB Adds Game Summaries to Ratings

I guess that "mild violence, suggestive themes, and use of alcohol" isn't good enough any more? If parents didn't pay attention to the ratings and those descriptors, I don't see them reading lengthy descriptions either....

[Kekvit Irae]

Not gaming related, but amusing none-the-less for us gamers:

Turkish inmate escapes via cardboard box. The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo are not amused.

[Martok]

Stardock Talks Star Control, Master of Orion Sequels.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Brad Wardell of Stardock tells Gamasutra that his company would be interested in making follow-ups to Master of Orion and Star Control:

"I actually pitched Atari on a whole idea for a true successor to Star Control," CEO Brad Wardell tells Gamasutra, noting that the game would follow original series developer Toys for Bob's Star Control II rather than the Legend Entertainment-developed Star Control 3 ("We just pretend that never happened," the CEO says of that release).

The exploration-driven space strategy game is said to have influenced Stardock's Galactic Civilizations series as well as Ironclad Games' Sins of a Solar Empire, also published by Stardock.

Novato, California-based Toys for Bob has actually floated the idea of making its own Star Control II sequel, with co-creator Paul Reiche III indicating he has tossed potential design ideas around, but with the company now owned by publisher Activision the proposal seems to be stuck in limbo.

Wardell also mentioned Simtex's Master of Orion as a franchise he would like to see Stardock continue. Like Star Control, its third entry was developed by a different studio -- in this case, Quicksilver Software -- and was not as well-regarded as the original games.

"We'd like to do a Master of Orion 4," said Wardell, noting that those rights are owned by Atari as well. "It would be an updated Master of Orion 2. There would be more to it, but that would be the basis of it."

I'm not sure it qualifies as news per se, but it's certainly intriguing....

[Praxil]

Surprise!

I was able to forge this deal with the [Pro Football Hall of Fame] that provides them with 400K per year (which is significantly below market rate) in exchange for the HOF player rights. EA owes me a huge favor because of that threat was enough to persuade Take Two to back off its plans, leaving EA as the only professional football videogame manufacturer out there.



...The per player price for most of these guys was tens of thousands of dollars less than what they were guaranteed by Take Two Interactive so it’s a real coup that we were able to pull this off so cheaply. You have to remember that EA’s total cost is only $200,000 per year. We know that Take Two offered six figure deals to several former NFL players so the total cost is millions below market prices...

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/11/...adden-monopoly

Muahaha, EA is THE baller in this industry!

[Veho Nex]

YAY EA IS DIEING!!! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF THE LEMUR!!

[Veho Nex]

DNF still alive? One might hope


So reading through the most recent issue of game informer, I saw that DNF(Duke Nukem Forever) might still be alive. When you complete all the achievements and challenges for Duke 3D you unlock two new screens for DNF

[Martok]

Stardock Talks Star Control, Master of Orion Sequels.

It turns out that wasn't the whole article, by the way. My bad.


Brad actually had quite a few interesting things to say:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stardock's recently-announced Elemental: War of Magic is the developer's own internal creation -- but it's no secret that the Michigan-based company originally intended to secure the sequel rights to Microprose's 1995 game Master of Magic.

As it turns out, that's not the only lapsed property the Stardock team dreams of getting its hands on -- and not the only one currently owned by Atari, for that matter.

"I actually pitched Atari on a whole idea for a true successor to Star Control," CEO Brad Wardell tells Gamasutra, noting that the game would follow original series developer Toys for Bob's Star Control II rather than the Legend Entertainment-developed Star Control 3 ("We just pretend that never happened," the CEO says of that release).

The exploration-driven space strategy game is said to have influenced Stardock's Galactic Civilizations series as well as Ironclad Games' Sins of a Solar Empire, also published by Stardock.

Novato, California-based Toys for Bob has actually floated the idea of making its own Star Control II sequel, with co-creator Paul Reiche III indicating he has tossed potential design ideas around, but with the company now owned by publisher Activision the proposal seems to be stuck in limbo.

Wardell also mentioned Simtex's Master of Orion as a franchise he would like to see Stardock continue. Like Star Control, its third entry was developed by a different studio -- in this case, Quicksilver Software -- and was not as well-regarded as the original games.

"We'd like to do a Master of Orion 4," said Wardell, noting that those rights are owned by Atari as well. "It would be an updated Master of Orion 2. There would be more to it, but that would be the basis of it."

He took the opportunity to deliver some stern words to those entrusted with a series they did not create: "If you're making a game that ends with '3,' or Something: The Sequel, it should be similar to the original game," he claimed.

Wardell noted: "Don't go off and say, 'I have my own artistic vision.' Okay, good -- so call it something else. Don't ride the coattails of the people who came before you to launch your own artistic vision."

And Elemental, influenced by Master of Magic but not officially based on it, is not the first time Stardock has developed its own property inspired by a best-case hypothetical scenario.

"I would never have done those Galactic Civilizations games in the first place if someone had made a Civilization-in-space game," Wardell laughed. "If [Sid Meier's] Alpha Centauri had been in space [rather than on another] planet, I never would have made it."

The CEO told Gamasutra that Stardock is building up a second full internal development team, and is tossing around various project ideas. "We'd like to do a roleplaying game too," he said, pointing to BioWare classics like Baldur's Gate II and Knights of the Old Republic as examples of the route he would like to take.

It would be "the same style of isometric gameplay -- not first person -- where I have a party that I'm interacting with," he explained, even calling out a specific Baldur's Gate II character.

"I think there are a lot of people who want that. They want to have a party again. They want to have a Minsc-type character in there. You can't have that interesting banter if it's just one guy running around."

"Someone's going to have to do it," he said, tossing out the idea of Demigod collaborator Gas Powered Games as a theoretical example. "If it's not another studio, it's got to be Stardock."

I love the part highlighted in bold. Take that, Quicksilver and Legend Entertainment!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Or Bethesda, for that matter.

I really liked the open-source version of Star Control 2. Stardock seems to be a good choice to make a sequel.

[TevashSzat]

National Geographic Charts Game Division

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Media company follows up Namco Bandai Panda game partnership with full-fledged publishing and development label.

Considering the amount of horse, monkey, and kitten games flooding the handheld market, it wasn't all that surprising when Namco Bandai announced in April that it would be developing a Nintendogs-esque Nintendo DS title devoted to pandas. What was surprising, however, was that the venerable anthropological media company National Geographic Society would be funding the game.

As Namco Bandai's Panda game lumbers onto retails shelves this month, National Geographic Ventures is ready to make game development a full-time gig. The entertainment arm of the National Geographic Society announced today the formation of National Geographic Games, a division created to develop and publish games on all gaming consoles and handhelds, as well as online and mobile platforms.

Current NGV senior vice president Paul Levine will head up the company's game label. National Geographic has tapped former Take-Two and Bethesda Softworks exec Chris Mate to serve as the label's general manager, overseeing the daily operations at the studio.

In its first order of business, NGG said today that it has partnered with Namco Bandai and Sony Computer Entertainment to publish and distribute games for the Wii, DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network, PC, and mobile devices. The Namco Bandai partnership presumably entails the aforementioned National Geographic: Panda. NGG's Sony collaboration will begin with National Geographic: Africa, due out for unspecified platforms this month.

NGG also announced Herod's Lost Tomb, a cross-promotional title that ties in to the December 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine as well as a feature broadcast on the National Geographic Channel. The game will be available this month for the PC, Mac, and iPhone. A free Flash version can be had through the media company's Web site.

As the last order of business, NGG also provided a brief look at its upcoming slate. The gamemaker expects to publish Sudoku Traveler: China in December, with Rainforests, Green City, and From the Bottom Up all expected to arrive sometime in 2009 for unspecified platforms.

Not too excited about any games that may come out of them.....If your company isn't based off partially in gaming and you don't have a ton of money to invest in it, please don't try and save some face...

[TevashSzat]

Lich King Claims 2.8M souls in 24 hours

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Second World of Warcraft expansion officially fastest-selling PC title of all time following beyond-brisk day-one sales.

As only the second expansion to an 11 million-player massively multiplayer game, there was little doubt that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King would sell well. Today, developer-publisher Blizzard Entertainment told the world exactly how well, announcing the add-on had sold a staggering 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours on the market. GameStop reported that the expansion is already their top-selling PC title of 2008.

Wrath of the Lich King's launch was heralded by 15,000 midnight launch events worldwide. Whether they were in the US, UK, or Australia, all events were mobbed by fans whipped into a frenzy by a steady drumbeat of hype. The fact that it has been nearly two years since the first WOW expansion, The Burning Crusade, also played a large part. That game, too, shattered records when it sold 2.4 million copies in the 24 hours after its launch on January 17, 2007, back when WOW only had 8 million subscribers.

Surprise surprise......WOW expansion beats other WOW expansion for #1 selling PC title....

Grand Theft Auto IV DLC Due Feb 17

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rockstar delays, dates, and details 360-exclusive "Lost and Damned" add-on to crime-action blockbuster, which will follow all-new biker-gang protagonist.

The bad news: Rockstar Games has officially confirmed that the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion will not arrive in 2008. The downloadable add-on, which will be exclusive to the Xbox 360, is now set to launch on Xbox Live worldwide on February 17, the same day as Street Fighter IV in the US. No price has been set, but the expansion will require the original game to play and will presumably share the same hard M for Mature rating.

Now, the good news. The expansion won't be a smallish bit of DLC, like Mass Effect's single-mission Bring Down the Sky. Titled "The Lost and Damned," the add-on will leave Niko Bellic behind in the Manhattan doppelganger of Algonquin and focus on an all-new protagonist. According to USA Today, Liberty City's newest antihero will be Johnny Klebitz, member of the biker gang known as The Lost. Based in the New Jersey clone of Alderney, the Sons of Anarchy-esque motorcycle club had some run-ins with Bellic--who will make a cameo appearance--in the middle section of GTAIV.

"Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background," Rockstar vice president of creative development Dan Houser told USA Today. "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

In addition to the new storyline, The Lost and Damned will also sport new weapons, vehicles, and multiplayer modes that have yet to be detailed. In an official press release, Rockstar said the add-on will also feature a whole new soundtrack, with new types of music being added to GTAIV's myriad radio stations.

Last but not least, the expansion will be the first of two 360-exclusive episodes Rockstar North is making for GTAIV. "Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways," said Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser, brother of Dan, in a statement. "We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode." No details on the second episode have been announced.

I hope that this content will at least get to the PC sooner or later...