The back of the rumored Assassin’s Creed IV poster shows a map of Cuba
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories, Rumors, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
While most had guessed by this point that the upcoming reveal of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag would be pirate-related, this new discovery (from the same tipster that brought Kotaku the original promotional poster image) cements it. As you can see, the image is a map of Cuba and the surrounding islands as well as a full-view version in the bottom left corner that says “The Coastlands of Florida”.
Whether this is the only location in the game is anyone’s guess, but it will most certainly end up being one of them.
Nintendo outlines desire for stricter piracy prevention, sends recommendations to U.S. Trade Representative
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
It’s no surprise to anyone that Nintendo doesn’t like folks pirating their games, but in recent years it has come to the attention of the general public that piracy doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on game sales as far as the big picture is concerned– after all, both the gaming industry (Nintendo included) and Hollywood have seen profits skyrocket over the last five or ten years, despite the fact that piracy is more prevalent than ever before– but that doesn’t mean companies like the Big N are going to stop trying to fight piracy in whatever ways they can. This time around, they’re asking the U.S. to target countries like Brazil and China with raids to make examples of folks who share pirated material.
– Nintendo statement
Even Nintendo isn’t immune to silly lapses in logic at times! Not to say piracy isn’t an issue at all– just that they’re doing more than fine (well, save for Wii U sales) even with piracy more rampant than ever. Isn’t that good enough!?
Goodbye Galaxy Games: We want Homebrew games without the potential for piracy
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Homebrew has always been a thorn in Nintendo’s side from their perspective, but a lot of people use the “hack”– including myself at one point– to run goofy indie games, fun applications, and to expand the functionality of their console. One of the lesser-used features of homebrew is open game development. A lot of people can’t get 3DS dev kits for various reasons, so they resort to hacking the console, making “homebrew” games, and releasing them to the homebrew community. The inevitable consequence of this is that people mis-use the hacks and pirate games that people worked hard on.
Goodbye Galaxy Games is working on a potential fix, however, that lets you create and test your homebrew games with nothing more than free PC software and a small 3DS app– all without having to hack the console, and they say that the games can exist without the piracy.
– Goodbye Galaxy Games lead Hugo Smits
The real question for them is whether Nintendo would allow them to release this piracy-free development software on the eShop like they’d like to. I would doubt it, but maybe the Big N is feeling humbled considering the sales of Wii U lately!
G4 to become ‘Esquire Network’ on April 22nd
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
We’ve reported on this before, but now we finally have an official date: Starting April 22nd, anyone who currently gets G4TV via their cable or satellite provider will awaken to a brand new channel to replace to dying-brand that was G4. The new name will be the “Esquire Network” and will feature programming similar to ‘Bravo’ but “for men”. It is, as they say, for “the modern man, what being a man today is all about”.
Which mostly sounds like a bunch of vaguely sexist baloney to me, but I guess they think people will watch it! With any luck this will be the last that you hear of the network, since they will feature no gaming related programming whatsoever.
Former Microsoft employee says the company almost bought SEGA, instead came out with Xbox to combat Sony
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
Well here’s something I didn’t know: Back in the early 2000s, Microsoft was strongly considering purchasing SEGA and using them to make a game console to combat Sony! I guess it makes sense if you think about it, and it would have been significantly cheaper to buy SEGA and use their resources for game console development as opposed to starting from scratch on your own. So why didn’t the deal work out?
“But for Bill [Gates] this wasn’t enough, he didn’t think that SEGA had enough muscle to eventually stop Sony so we did our own Xbox thing.”
– Former Microsoft Employee Joachim Kempin
Man, wouldn’t it be weird if SEGA was still in the business of making consoles!? Especially if they were owned by Microsoft! I’m not sure that things would have gone better for both companies in the long run though, considering how successful the Xbox brand has been worldwide.
Crytek likely won’t continue the ‘Darksiders’ franchise after hiring core Vigil staffers
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
When THQ was forced to sell all of their assets, one of the teams that didn’t sell in their entirety was Darksiders developer ‘Vigil Games’. The folks over at Crytek ended up hiring a good group of the core members of Vigil and forming a brand new branch of Crytek in Austin, Texas, but apparently the new team won’t be continuing on with Darksiders 3:
“We had chosen Austin as the destination for [our U.S. branch], and we needed a lean and core team of experts to run the studio. At the same time, we didn’t want to continue with Darksiders 3, since that doesn’t fit with our strategy. So when I heard that [THQ laid off everyone at Vigil], I decided on Saturday morning to fly out to meet with them to see if the team would be interested to join our mission, which is significantly different than what this team has done before.” – Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli
Apparently Crytek is giving the new studio plenty of breathing room as far as the exact type of game they want to create, so long as they follow the main internal Crytek goal.
“The team identifies as what they want to do. Right now, they just know what the strategy of Crytek is and the framework we need to satisfy, but none of that drives what the game is about.” – Cervat Yerli
Square Enix says the world-wide console market is growing increasingly difficult to thrive in
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
Ah yes, more financial briefing news from various companies’ third quarter meetings. Today’s quotes? From Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider publisher Square Enix, who says that they had to operate at a loss this past quarter due to how hard it is to make money in an “increasingly difficult” console market:
“During the nine-month period ended December 31, 2012, the Company has not recovered the operating loss posted in the six-month period ended September 30, 2012, primarily due to the increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market, under which the Group is struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment.” – Square Enix statement
Well, I see many developers and publishers making quite a bit of money on this industry. I think the real problem here is that Square Enix is putting out games that are good, but not quite up the alley of most consumers in most regions right now. You’ve gotta read the markets, and the markets aren’t asking for mediocre Final Fantasy games, Square!
Axl Rose is set to lose his lawsuit against Activision
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
A few years ago, Axl Rose (frontman of Guns N’ Roses) sued Activision for apparently breaching contract and using “Welcome to the Jungle” fraudulently in Guitar Hero 3. He also said that the game shouldn’t have been allowed to use the Slash character model, because Activision supposedly said there would be no in-game references to Slash or his band “Velvet Revolver”.
I can’t comment on the validity of any of these claims, but the judge in the case dismissed it pretty early on– setting a court date for this month– and apparently things aren’t looking that much better for the former GNR frontman this time around.
Atari approved for bankruptcy financing, should continue to operate
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News | 0 comments
I don’t know much about the technical talk going on here, but from what I understand Atari has secured “debtor-in-possession” financing, which will allow it to continue operating through its recently filed bankruptcy. The total amount they obtained was $5 million, with stipulations of the funds being that they would be under advisement by a firm who would help them decide how and where to sell their assets.
Well… I guess we’ll see how long it takes before someone else takes over the Atari name and tries to revive it!
Masahiro Sakurai dealing with bad RSI, says he should use his hands less
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories | 0 comments
RSI– also known as “repetitive strain injury”– is a painful muscle/joint/bone/something condition that can be brought on by extensive and strenuous use of a particular muscle in the human body. The latest victim of this relatively common condition is Smash Bros. director and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakura, who says many years of programming and testing has left his hands in pain too often to do excessive work:
“Using a mouse, keyboard or gamepad make my arm tired, so I can’t use them in a continual manner. The only device I can use for an extended period of time is a joystick. It’s posing problems when I’m test-playing something in progress.”
“I figure that if I cut down on writing emails and other things, try not to type in so much data myself, and start giving more verbal directions, that’ll reduce the amount of keyboard-oriented work I have to do. But if I’m going to be supervising other people’s work, there’s no way to cut down the amount of mouse usage I need to perform. I’m trying to work it with my left hand in order to give the right one some rest, but that definitely cuts down on my work efficiency…”
So what’s a prolific game designer to do!? Sakurai says he’s going to try using a trackball mouse instead of a traditional one. Best of luck to him! I hope it helps him regain the efficiency he desires.
