Gamer’s Roundup – Week Three, December 2009
EA CEO turning Pirates into business
You gotta hand it to John Riccitiello, head of Electronic Arts: he gets pirating and how to work with it.
Rather than flat out shun those who pirate EA games, Riccitiello is acknowledging it happens and trying to incorporate that into his business plan, all via post-release downloadable content (DLC).
“They can steal the disc, but they can’t steal the DLC,” he said. “There’s a sizable pirate market…and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace.”
Games that include bonus retail purchase DLC include Sims 3, which offers a new town, or recent game The Saboteur, which gives you the chance to see CGI breasts.
From top: Massive EA logo, Riccitiello.
EA has also highlighted post-release DLC purchases of Dragon Age: Origins hit over one million downloads its first week of availability.
“The consumer wants more, and when you give them more or sell them more it seems to be extremely well received,” Riccitiello said.
He continued by stating the music industry had made the mistake of “demonizing” its consumers rather than attempting to work them into their business models. He believes that EA can embrace pirates by making it enticing for people to play games legitimately, through services like EA Sports’ community hub or the BioWare social site that links into Dragon Age.
I’m interested in reader comments on this story: were you recently part of the Xbox 360 ban wave? Were or are you a game Pirate, but a big-spender when it came to DLC? Has Microsoft’s banhammer wave discouraged you from gaming, or turned you legit? What about PC users? Let us know!
Get your English Gran Turismo 5 fix soonish
Ah, localisation – I hate you! It’s your fault that the Japanese will get games like Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5 so early, and we English folk so late.
If you’ve got a PS3 and you don’t speak Japanese, you can look (very far) forward to a North American (and I’d assume PAL as well) release around June 2010.
Star Trek geeks destined to buy 15 copies of Star Trek Online
See this pretty ship? It's not an exclusive pre-order bonus. Yet.
Pre-orders bonuses. Would you like a liberated Borg (read: a blonde hottie in a catsuit, perhaps?) on your Star Trek MMO bridge? How about the Constitution class U.S.S. Enterprise? That’s two copies you’ll need to buy, right there.
In what is becoming common practice, major retailers are competing for your Star Trek Online purchase by using exclusive pre-order content; as a result, you ultimately lose out.
Pre-order bonuses (granted, mostly in North America) include:
- GameStop: Exclusive ship: The classic U.S.S. Enterprise
- Best Buy: Pet Tribble or Targ (based on faction)
- Amazon: “Liberated Borg” Bridge Officer with “unique nanotechnology augmentations”
- Direct2Drive: Multi-Spatial Personal Shield (regenerates itself and player health)
- Wal-mart: Bonus Skill Points (bestows additional skill points)
- Target: TR-116 ground weapon (micro-transporter beams projectiles to target, no line of sight required)
- Steam: Chromodynamic Armor, improves critical hits and damage of energy weapons
Kinda makes you reminiscent of the old days, when you actually got a FULL game when you bought it, eh?
More kinda-cool, kinda-lame Alien vs. Predator news
The kinda-cool bits? Lance Henriksen is reprising his role as Bishop in Rebellion’s Alien vs. Predator game. Says Henriksen about his inclusion, “I might score from this game!”
The kinda-lame bits? It’s not the awesome, milky-blood spewing android Bishop from Aliens (and, technically, Alien3), but the lame, quasi-canon co-founder of the Weland-Yutani corporation, Charles Bishop Weyland. Or his descendant. Or something. It was all in the AVP series of films.
Human Bishop, in all his...glory.
Australia doesn’t get the game anyway. Pardon me while I go pout some more.
Screen Actors’ Guild versus video game makers
This week saw SAG reject a voice acting contract with major video game publishers (over 70 of ‘em, in fact) largely due to what’s been classified as “atmospheric” work.
The new work classification, “atmospheric voices,” means that one voice actor could be responsible for up to 20 incidental characters – all for a fee of $800 for 4 hours.
The SAG, largely due to union vote, shot down the new contract over fears that actors would have far greater “vocal stress.” The potential stress is due actors being required to come up with so many different voices in such a short period of time.
The Los Angeles Times has a full story on this issue, which you can read here.
At the moment, members of SAG account for 25 percent of all video game voice acting.
Spike VGA winners…and losers
It’s hard to take the VGAs seriously; I mean, they made special categories, “Best Performance by a Human Male” and “Human Female” in some weird attempt to try to lure celebrities to their function. I wasn’t aware that those poor SAG voice actors weren’t considered human unless they had appeared in a feature film like Hugh Jackman or Megan Fox. Even then, Jack Black was still lumped with the common voice actors and not the big famous movie-makers…he must be crying into his big piles of cash right now.
Nonetheless, the big winners of the VGAs were as follows:
- Game of the Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios
- Best Independent Game: Flower
- Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
- Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- Best PC Game: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Handheld Game: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
- Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin’s Creed II
- Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
- Best Team Sports Game: NHL 10
- Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
- Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
- Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
- Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
- Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Game Based On A Movie/TV Show: South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!
- Best Performance By A Human Female: Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
- Best Performance By A Human Male: Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
- Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Best Voice: Jack Black (Brütal Legend)
- Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
- Best DLC: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
- Most Anticipated Game of 2010: God of War III
Game reveals at the VGAs
We had some good ones, folks! Why talk about them when their trailers can do so much more?
Halo: Reach (Xbox 360)
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Tron: Evolution (Xbox 360, PS3)
True Crime: Hong Kong (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
This week’s notable new releases
- MX vs. ATV Reflex (PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
- Tekken 6 (PSP)
The fine print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire week’s news. All stories are chosen for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important, chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
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