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All future Disney+ original series will be released on a Wednesday
Disney+ has moved its original series' release day from Friday to Wednesday.
EA CEO: Publisher may skip a year between future UFC games
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson recently contemplated a bi-annual release schedule for future MMA games that follow EA Sports UFC, which is slated to launch on Xbox One and PS4 this year. In an interview with CNN's Fortune Tech, Wilson described the frequency of some games and the "appetite" players have for them, noting that the UFC brand "feels like it's in that every-other-year mix" without committing to that release schedule as a guaranteed development plan. "We get a new GTA game every four or five years, but there is an immense appetite. What we're looking at right now is how long is it going to take us to build a truly innovative game in that genre, and when do we think gamers are going to be ready for that next one," Wilson said. EA announced the acquisition of the UFC license at E3 2012 following the demise of THQ, which published three UFC games. THQ's crack at the series began with annual releases in UFC 2009: Undisputed and UFC Undisputed 2010 prior to a two-year absence in the series. THQ's final game, UFC Undisputed 3, reportedly failed to "break even" at two million units sold as of June 2012. "Do I think that UFC would be an every year game? I don't know," Wilson said. "It feels like it's in that every-other-year mix, but in all honesty we haven't made that decision yet. That really comes down to how long it's going to take to make a great game and when do we think the audience is ready." EA Canada's Fight Night team is behind EA Sports UFC's development, led by creative director and Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion gameplay designer Brian Hayes. Wilson previously noted that the Fight Night series is "on hold" while the developer works on EA Sports UFC. [Image: EA Sports]
Ubuntu 13.04's final release slated for April, alpha to arrive in December
Quantal Quetzal won't properly launch until October 18th, but a tentative timeline for Ubuntu 13.04 has already appeared on the horizon. Come December 1st, the as-of-yet unnamed version will hit its first alpha and transition into its second testing stage on February 7th. After touching the beta milestone on March 7th, the release is just a small stretch away from its proposed April 25th launch. If the wait feels entirely too long, you can spend time perusing potential pseudonyms for the OS at the more coverage link below.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition launching with then-available DLC characters unlocked
When the special feature-laden Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 eventually comes out at some unknown point in the future, any DLC characters and/or stages that have already been released on the PS3 and 360 versions will automatically be available, series producer Katsuhiro Harada said during a private Namco Bandai event this week.Though the Wii U version includes unique gameplay modes and costumes, Harada feels that it is important for all versions of the game to be in parity with one another when it comes to character availability. He also stressed that the DLC content recently discovered on the Xbox 360 version's disc does not represent the game's entire DLC road map, and that "not all of the content that we've planned for the PS3 and 360 has been revealed yet, so there's still some stuff left."
Peep this European 3DS release schedule
The 3DS is banging on all cylinders these days. While this morning's most intriguing development is still clouded in mystery, there's still quite a bit on the immediate horizon for people to be excited about, especially for our friends across the pond.Planning is essential when confronted with a lengthy list of potentially cash-worthy releases, so it's a good thing Nintendo has released an updated European 3DS release schedule, which you can check out after the break.
The Daily Grind: What's the ideal pace for expansion releases?
It's hard to miss one of the major news announcements for the MMO world -- a release date for Cataclysm, the latest expansion for World of Warcraft. More than a few fans are intensely pleased that the date has been given, but it comes as the prior expansion is getting quite long in the tooth, and there's a general sense that this comes far later than it should. On the other hand, some people prefer the slower pace of releases, either because it takes them a while to move through all the content of a given expansion or because they just happen to like the setting. For all that World of Warcraft is a trendsetter in the MMO world, its expansions come out almost glacially compared even to older games such as EverQuest. How quickly do you want expansions to come out for your game? Do you prefer large content updates marketed as expansions, or a boxed expansion every year? Every other year? Have you ever felt a game was launching them too quickly for the changes to be felt before the next one came along, or too slowly to keep player interest high? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Microsoft exec discusses merits of releasing games outside Q4
Microsoft's Euro marketing exec for Xbox, David Gosen, is joining the chorus of suits starting to question the industry's overly Q4-focused release schedule. Speaking with MCV, Gosen points out that about 200 titles were released within three to four weeks last holiday -- with the third week of November (Thanksgiving in the States) being "crazy."Gosen points to the success of Resident Evil 5 in March as a way of "de-seasonalizing" the industry. He admits that Christmas is "still the key selling period," but if more publishers get on board with this new thinking, it'll create "second or third release windows." GTA IV did gang-busters (gang-organizers?) last May -- Street Fighter IV also had surprising February sales this year.Obviously, we -- by that, we mean our wallets -- are huge fans of this full-calendar approach. Top-tier sequels will likely do well whenever they release, but new IPs with potential need a little space to breathe. [Image]
EA exec: 'Industry' slowly discovering rest of calendar
Glen Schofield, general manager of EA's Redwood Shores, seems to think publishers are slowly having epiphanies about the illogical decision to cram every major release into the last quarter of the calendar year. Speaking with GI.biz, he states the "the industry" is finally recognizing that it could launch blockbusters during the summer and, if the title is good, it could still do well. The comment comes after EA's Mirror's Edge and Dead Space failed to meet sales projections. Both titles were new IPs dropped into the madness of the holiday season.Gamers and the game press have been screaming for years that the overall release schedule needs to change. BioShock's solid August launch -- and significant press coverage -- is currently the go-to example of stepping outside the Q4 circus for a new game. Even high-profile franchises like GTA IV (April '08) and Resident Evil 5 (March) avoided the holiday mess. Times are slowly changing, but don't expect the holiday overdrive to be gone just yet. [Image]
Capcom reveals Q1 releases for Europe, North America
Capcom Europe revealed today -- and reiterated in a few cases -- the release schedule for its titles in the first quarter of 2009. February TBA - Flock (XBLA/PSN) February 20 - Street Fighter IV (X360/PS3) February 27- Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii) February 27- Neopets Puzzle Adventure (Wii/DS/PC) March 13 - Resident Evil 5 (X360/PS3) March TBA - MotoGP (Wii) Q1-2 TBA - Bionic Commando (X360/PS3) All these dates are believed to be official European release dates. We're currently awaiting Capcom US to release its own list of dates (if it even plans to do so). We'll update if anything changes. Update: Added Capcom's North American information after the break. Update 2: Bionic Commando will not be hitting Europe in March. The timetable is the same as the US: in the first half of '09.
ZOMG! No Android phones till Q4 2008... right on schedule!
There's a lot of hoopla today over a Wall Street Journal piece stating that Google's first Android device has been pushed back to late 2008 for release -- yet the article fails to mention that this is right inline with what Google has been saying for quite awhile now. Admittedly, the fresh-faced mobile competitor probably is finding itself somewhat mired in carrier demands, which doesn't seem unexpected given the broad swath of partners it's collaborating with and the open source nature of the project, but as phone release schedules go, it hasn't veered off the path much. The breakdown is something like this: from what we've been told, you can expect an Android-powered handset before the new year (i.e., HTC's Dream driven by Google's OS), followed by a crop of higher profile phones showing up in early 2009 (as previously stated by companies like LG and Samsung). So... feel free to switch off the alarms anytime you like.[Via GigaOM]
