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Ubisoft analyst examines League of Legends' alleged business model flaws
Despite League of Legends' mind-boggling 67 million players and $624 million in revenue through 2013, it's not doing as well as it should be, at least according to Ubisoft Blue Byte's Teut Weidemann, who has been studying the game first-hand in conjunction with behind-the-scenes data. Weidemann argues that League of Legends' model has three major flaws: It gives too much away for free, it keeps releasing overpowered champions that are nerfed later after purchase, and it has a terrible 3.75% conversion rate from free to paying customers. Why is 3.75% bad? Weidemann explains: "Usually, conversion rates for client-based games is between 15 and 25 percent. World of Tanks has 30 percent. It could afford to have one-third of the customer base and have the same amount of money as League of Legends." He believes the only reason Riot is staying afloat is through the studio's extensive playerbase, and as such smaller games should steer clear of the same model.
Cult-favorite sim franchise Anno to build empires on iPad
The next entry in Ubisoft's long-running, empire building Anno franchise is titled Anno: Build An Empire and instead of following in line with its PC predecessors, it's coming to the iPad. "... Anno: Build an Empire requires strategic planning to ensure players are weighing the options and consequences of their city planning in order to create powerful, successful islands," reads Ubisoft's official description. "Taverns must be built to keep citizens happy and stress-free, churches will need to be built to satisfy the need for religion and homes will need to be built to keep citizens safe." So far that seems pretty typical of the series, though Ubisoft notes that the game has been built from the ground up for the iPad's touchscreen interface. Unfortunately lacking from Ubisoft's announcement is any word on when Anno: Build An Empire might debut, beyond the claim that it should be available "soon." There's likewise no price tag associated with this release, though we've attempted to contact Ubisoft for further clarification and will report back when and if we hear anything. [Image: Ubisoft]
Enter At Your Own Rift: The big takeaways from GDC
After dining on enough beef brisket to feed an army of hungry cowboys, I returned from Austin's GDC Online to chip away at the Ashes of History world event quests. RIFT had a nice showing at the GDC Online Awards ceremony, walking away with awards for Best Online Technology and Best New Online Game. In addition, Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman gave a talk about RIFT's pre-launch preparations and post-launch plans. GDC was dominated by a handful of common topics, like free-to-play, metrics, monetization, and technology. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, we'll take a look at a few of these to see how they apply to RIFT, and then we'll look at the big takeaways from GDC overall.
Ubisoft announces Fit in Six for Wii and PS3
Already outed by the ESRB, Ubisoft has officially announced its upcoming fitness title, Fit in Six. Slated to arrive on Wii and PS3 this March, Fit in Six focuses on six different areas of fitness: core body, upper body, lower body, cardio, balance and flexibility. The PS3 version utilizes PlayStation Move, while the Wii version -- like the Wii's Your Shape -- will require a special USB camera. The camera will be bundled with the game, or if you happen to have one already, standalone copies will be available as well. The PS3 version includes a few extra features, notably support for DLC and the ability to import your own music for use in workouts. Fit in Six even includes a system to analyze a user's music, choosing the most appropriate tracks for each workout. Stretch that index finger and click past the break for a trailer.%Gallery-114598%
