Well its been in interesting week. Not just in the gaming news region. Look at the North Korea stuff. On a lighter note, hope you had a good “Pie Day“. What was I meant to be talking about? Oh yes, gaming news! Might as well start with the big news.
LucasArts Is No More;
You may have heard near the end of last year that Disney gave Mr George Lucas a lot of money and bought the “Star Wars” brand and everything associated, including LucasArts and LucasFilm. Disney said in a statement;
“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”
Some may remember the day when LucasArts was one of the big names in game development, back when they released series’ like “Monkey Island” and “Grim Fandango”. But the company as it is now is less like it was back in the day. “Grim Fandango” creator Tim Shafer has his own game company like many of the old team and most of the “Star Wars” games are made by 3rd parties now and LucasArts only signs off on the licence. “Star Wars: The Old Republic” was made by Bioware and LucasArts only published it.
Most are not that surprised with this. It is sad that they are now gone but that where the brand, from the video game perspective, is heading. Less is made in-house. And not much was made in-house to start with. But 150 people are now looking for work and that’s always sad. Hope goes out to them from this player of games.
Aliens: Colonial Marines: The Deathly Vengeance;
Some of you would be aware of the controversy that revolved around “Aliens: Colonial Marines” when it was released in February. If not, here is the jest. Creator Gearbox showed a shiny gameplay trailer. That had nothing to do with the game. As it wasn’t in the game. The game was actually terrible. It didn’t stop it from selling in the opening days but has since plummeted. There was going to be a Wii U port of the game [ported by Demiurge Studios] but the games publisher, Sega, has said “Sega can confirm that the Wii U sku of Aliens: Colonial Marines is no longer in development.” With scores in the 40% bracket on “Metacritic” no one is really surprised.
The Worst Company In America;
Last year EA beat the likes of BP, Ticketmaster and Bank Of America to be crowned “The Consumerist’s Worst Company In America.” EA did sort of deserve it last year, and it looks like that they might win it again this year. To try to convince people to not vote for them, COO Peter Moore has released a statement saying “The tallest trees catch most wind.” He goes on to say “Like the Yankees, Lakers and Manchester United, EA is one of those organizations that is defined by both a legacy of success, and a legion of critics (especially me regarding all three of those teams).” He then list’s the things EA is getting voted for. Some can’t be explained away that easily, “Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period.” And some are just groups making a bad guy because of politics or religion, “In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.” We can all agree that EA is not a very nice company, that is assured. But worst? Last year most of the blame of the games fell on EA and wouldn’t wash off. Now all the dirt is spread out. (GearBox, you know we are talking about you and “Aliens”.) EA is bad but not the worst. You can make up your own mind on that.
Now Here’s Some Bioshock;
“Bioshock Infinite” as the game of the moment. There are lots of videos and things going up. Hopefully soon one of mine… In that steed, here are a lady, going by “leagueofshadows” who sells Jewellery from the game. Enjoy.
NEW GAME NEWS:
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Everyone thought it was a joke. It was publicized on 1st April after all. But turns out that it may just be real. Don’t expect the “Far Cry 3” experience. This is very 80’s and retro if the site is to be believed. Can easily tell because its set in “the future of 2007”. It seems ok and fun. If this turns out to be real, if may be worth a buy.
Dead Island: Riptide
Deep Silver, the game’s developers have tried to work out a good way to publicize the release of the game. Fist was this. And idea not that well thought out. Now that have a new idea. A zombie themed wedding! Yeah, not another well thought out idea. But people applied for it and a couple have been selected. The wedding will now have make up, and Riptide pick-up truck to bring the bride. Doesn’t sound that appealing but they are fans of the series and like the horror genre. And they get a paid honeymoon to the Caribbean. Will certainly make the day memorable.
That’s NGN for now. Now some other news.
Has He Blown It On Twitter?;
Here is an agument that happened on twitter. One is the creative director at Microsoft Studios, the other is a designer for Bioware. He may not be speaking for Microsoft/XBox but what if his opinion has impacted what the next XBox will be like?
Well this went up late. It wasn’t me, it was my internet. And this is shorter then usual because some got lost in the ‘no connection’ blackness. So any news that you think is deserving, put it in the comments! If not, its not long till Wednesday. See you then.
Wil.