This data comes from a survey done by gaming social network “Pixwoo”. 2000 people who identified themselves as “gamers” were questioned, and they’re all from the UK:

– Average gamer in the UK is married
– They play, on average, for about 2.5 hours a day, five days a week
– Average age is 35
– They stay up until (on average) 10:58PM playing games
– The data stays relatively consistent from male the female gamers

– Average gamer owns two consoles, 18 games
– Takes around a month to complete each game
– Most of them argue more than twice a week with their partner about gaming (not sure if this means about games themselves or gaming habits)
– About 5% say gaming is a “constant cause” of arguments
– 15% have broken up with someone due to their love of gaming

– Average gamer has about 5 online friends
– 29% say they’ve met at least one of their online friends face-to-face
– 33% play multiplayer games locally
– 25% play online
– 20% play with their online friends consistently
– 44% will purchase an Xbox One, PS4, or gaming PC in the next 12 months
– Most popular console was Wii, followed by PS3, then Xbox 360

Via CVG

“The Atlus brand and consumer business will continue” amidst parent company bankruptcy, according to official statements

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, DS, General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

“From hereafter also, the development and sales of the Atlus brand as well as the consumer business will continue. Other retail and download titles that are currently on sale will continue to be sold as they are currently.”

– Official Statement from Atlus

As a big fan of Atlus’ work myself, this is great news. What will happen to the parent company (and where Atlus may end up after their rough patch) is still up in the air, but with any luck things will maintain their current scheduling at the developer themselves.

Via Kotaku

Mega Man Legends 3 is getting a fan-made 8bit “demake” with help from two ex ‘Legends’ staffers

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, General Gaming, News | 1 Comment

Despite the fact that Capcom canned the project, some hardcore fans of the now-unreleased Mega Man Legends 3 have decided to go ahead and make their own version of the game in 8bit, classic Mega Man style. That’s not all though: They’re also getting help from two former Capcom employees that worked on the Legends series, Hideki Ishikawa and Makoto Tomozawa. Ishikawa was the character designer for the series and Tomozawa composed the music. Both will be helping out by contributing box art and music to the game.

Via Destructoid

Ubisoft creative director argues that “closed loop” games without endings are a good thing, says he hasn’t finished many games he loves

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories | 2 Comments

“Games are loops, and if you want to leave yours closed, you will be in good company. No one has ever ‘finished’ poker, or football. There are a ton of games that don’t even have endings. Most arcade-style games and most MMOs don’t have real endings. The Sims doesn’t have an ending. Poker? Chess? Football? In fact, a broad majority of the world’s long-standing favorite games are specifically designed to never be finished. One game of Sudoku leads to another, which leads to another.”
“The ability for players to stop playing whenever they feel like it is inherent in the form. This is not a bad thing; this is a good thing. It is part of the game-design landscape. And if you learn to worry less about insisting that everyone who starts finishes, and put your attention on the advantages this fact of gaming gives you, you will not find a more personally liberating moment in game design than in designing your end.”

“Putting down the controller somewhere before the final climactic scene in a video game is not a sin. It is an intrinsic part of our art form. I never finished the first BioShock, yet it remains a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Grim Fandango? Never finished it. But I sure as hell use it as an example in design discussions! I have never finished a single Z, but, man, they are fun (usually).”

– Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe

I’m not sure I entirely agree with VandenBerghe. Like it or not, a game is a piece of art just as any other media experience is, and as a piece of art if you want to judge it you should first experience everything the game pushes you to experience. Single player campaigns are part of this, but so are things like multiplayer modes or side-content, and judging it without fully experiencing (to the degree the game wants you to) those things isn’t necessarily fair.

Via VG247

[Feature] Justifying the existence of the Wii U Gamepad, and why the device already speaks for itself

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Gaming, General Nintendo, Wii U | 22 Comments

“I don’t see a device that’s failing to meet its potential– I see a tool whose potential is being mislabeled.”

Author: Austin

Coming out of the vacuum that was the E3 show-floor, the last thing I expected to hear out of the gaming press was that Nintendo needed to “justify the existence of the Gamepad”. But alas, that is indeed what I heard! Writers weren’t terribly coy with their impression that we’ve yet to see a truly exceptional experience on the Wii U that couldn’t even remotely be done anywhere else, and they– by their count– certainly didn’t see anything like that at E3 this year.

Neglecting experiences like ZombiU or Nintendo Land (which is an understandable and deliberate oversight), they might be right: We haven’t yet seen a game that both uses the Gamepad in a truly creative way and manages to pass the level of critical acclaim that many people are looking for. But here’s my question “why is that what the Gamepad needs?”

Multiple ‘Shaq Fu’-related trademarks discovered

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments

You heard that right: The greatest fighting-game franchise ever to grace consoles just might be returning, despite being dead for nearly 20 years. Siliconera was doing some digging around and discovered four trademarks for “Shaq Fu” registered by the same folks (“Mine O’Mine”) who registered “Shaqfighter” back in May.

Could this mean the return of Shaq to gaming? Or perhaps we’ll see a 20-year anniversary edition of the game?

Via Siliconera

Konami pre-E3 show 2013 about to begin

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

Update: Looks like there was a whole lot of nothing! No new announcements as far as I can tell…

I can’t find any embeddable streams at present, but Konami’s pre-E3 show 2013 is about to kick off. The presentation will begin at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT.

I won’t lie: there’s a good chance that Konami won’t have anything Nintendo-related to show. You can, however, look forward to the latest on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, PES 2014, and “key announcements”. Hopefully at least one Nintendo system is included in the latter.

Konami will be hosting a stream on its website here.

Tekken producer Harada gone missing?

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, Rumors | 1 Comment

Update: Brought to the top of the page. Here’s the latest…

*This is TEKKEN Project support team*There appear to be some news articles worrying for Harada-san’s safety (cont…
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) June 5, 2013

…cont)However, we were able to confirm he has been logged into Steam daily, so we believe he is OK, but just has not shown up for work.
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) June 5, 2013

So just some kind of promotional thing on Harada’s part? He doesn’t appear to be missing at this point…

Something strange is going on with Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada. A tweet from Harada’s official Twitter account, published by the “Tekken project support team”, states that he “has been missing from office since a week ago.” The tweet continues: “We are still searching for him.”

*This is TEKKEN Project support team*Mr.Harada has been missing from office since a week ago. We are still searching for him. Thanks.
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) June 5, 2013

So what’s going on here? Is something truly up with Harada? His last tweet was on May 26 – quite a long time ago.

I’m assuming that this isn’t a joke of some sort, but you never know. I just hope Harada is alright!

Source

A look at the Tokyo Game Show 2013 main visual

Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments

The Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association gave a look at the Tokyo Game Show 2013 main visual today.

This year’s main theme is “Games: Limitless Evolution”. The character above, “She”, represents this.

“She” is a futuristic woman who can transform herself into something “beyond the reach of imagination.”

Ippei Gyoubu created the Tokyo Game Show 2013 visual this year. Gyoubu has been on board with the expo since 2010.

Gyoubu commented:

“Games make a change entering a new phase that games themselves cannot imagine due to a never ending evolution. Games that continue to evolve unlimitedly have been represented. While character is the core of games, scattered parts are tools for games to evolve. The condition in which character combines with parts and transform itself depending on the needs of the age is truly the ‘infinite possibilities’ that games have.”

Source

Capcom says they’d be willing to do more “retro remakes” a la DuckTales, hint at Aliens vs. Predator (1994) possibility

Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments

In an interview with Polygon, Capcom’s senior product manager revealed that the company would absolutely be willing to continue looking to the past for old franchises or games that could use modern remakes, similar to what they’re doing with DuckTales later this year. They’re unable to talk about exactly what games might be getting the treatment, but they did hint that Aliens vs. Predator (the 1994 side-scroller) is the one that fans have been requesting most.

We’ll let you know if they announce anything else for a remake.

Via Nintendo Life