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Nintendo's next hit console could be the SNES Mini
Nintendo's decision to retire the NES Classic left many fans disgruntled. The system, a reimagined version of the iconic 80s console, was a hit last Christmas -- for those that could find one, that is. Stock problems meant it was notoriously difficult to acquire, and rather than solve these supply issues, Nintendo simply killed the product completely. While frustrating, there could be a silver lining: Eurogamer reports that a SNES Mini is in the works. Citing anonymous sources, it says the new hardware is scheduled to launch this holiday season, and that development is already underway.
Report: Nintendo NX is a tablet with detachable controllers
Remember those early reports that described Nintendo's next game console as a TV / portable hybrid device? According to Eurogamer, they were right on the nose. Eurogamer sources claim that the Nintendo NX is a handheld game console with detachable controllers, a TV base station and NVIDIA Tegra graphics. In other words, it sounds like a standalone Wii U gamepad dialed up to 11.
Hearthstone is not coming to consoles any time soon
Despite player interest, Blizzard has now officially said that a console version of the popular Hearthstone strategy card game is not in the works at the moment as the development team is focusing on the upcoming expansion and the game's Android version. "It's not something we're actually looking at right now," production director Jason Chayes told Eurogamer in a recent interview. "We feel like we have our hands full in the short term with getting onto Android as soon as we can, which is kind of one of the big priorities we're looking at right now." A spectator mode is also a possibility for a future patch after the game's wild popularity livestreaming on Twitch.tv. "Twitch has been great, all the streamer support has been awesome, and it's something that's really kind of surprised us a little bit," Chayes added. Hearthstone is currently available for the PC, Mac, and iPad with an Android version coming soon.
UK's Eurogamer Expo renamed EGX London, dated for 2014
The Eurogamer Network is bringing together its two major UK expos under the blanket name of EGX, starting next year. So, the Eurogamer Expo becomes EGX London, while the PC and indie-orientated showcase Rezzed is EGX Rezzed now. Names are all good and well, but we're sure you're more interested in the confirmed dates for what's been the UK's premier expo over the last few years. EGX London runs across September 25 to 28, 2014, at the Earl's Court venue once more, with tickets going on sale starting April 1. Meanwhile, EGX Rezzed comes to the NEC in Birmingham on March 28-30, and tickets are on sale now.
Ubisoft has no plans to bring Sony-exclusive AC4 DLC to other platforms
Though Sony's PlayStation 4 promotional video may have plainly stated otherwise (pictured), Ubisoft claims it has no intention of bringing the Sony-exclusive Assassin's Creed 4 DLC to other consoles. The addition focuses on Aveline, heroine of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, and is said to add an hour of play time to Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. While it was initially announced as exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and PS4, the aforementioned promotional video stated that the exclusivity agreement between Ubisoft and Sony was only valid for six months. A Eurogamer report today stated Ubisoft had confirmed the DLC would never appear on systems outside of the Sony umbrella. We reached out to Ubisoft for comment, and the company explained that the DLC could potentially reach other platforms in the future, but that currently the publisher had no plans to do so. "I can confirm that at the current stage the PS exclusive DLC isn't planned for Xbox 360/Xbox One," Ubisoft told Joystiq. The key word here is "current." Ubisoft appears to be keeping its options open for the future, while also adhering to the spirit (if not the letter) of its agreement with Sony. This addition may appear on other consoles at some point, or it may not - either way these PR vagueries absolve Ubisoft of having to commit to anything.
Are developers afraid of the MMO label?
MMOs are dead! Long live MMOs! In a recent editorial at Eurogamer, several top MMO developers chime in on the fate of our beloved genre. "I don't see the traditional MMO having much of a chance in the future, but games that bring tons of people together -- they're definitely going to exist," says Ragnar Tornquist who recently left Funcom to concentrate on a continuation of his The Longest Journey game series that was successfully Kickstarterted in March. Even the rare successful MMO companies are voicing a bit of concern. "Definitely the landscape of the industry is changing," says ArenaNet's MIke Zadorojny. But the editorial goes on to point out that it's not so much the genre that's changing, it's the label. Games are still massively, online, and multiplayer, but not in the traditional sense. Five years ago, everyone and their grandmother were making an MMO version of top IPs, but now, developers are actually distancing themselves from the three-letter buzzword. Ubisoft's The Division, Bungie's Destiny, and even the highly anticipated Elder Scrolls Online have all stated that their games are not traditional MMOs. So where are we headed, and how do you feel about the changes? Check out the full article for more and let us know what you think in the comments.
New Hotline Miami content will more likely be 'like a sequel, kind of'
Hotline Miami's creators Jonatan "Cactus" Söderström and Dennis Wedin have shared some insight on where the game might be headed next in an interview with Eurogamer, and Söderström says it'll probably be "quite a big project." Instead of smaller pieces of downloadable content, it sounds like the team is aiming for a full followup release. "It will be like a sequel, kind of," says Söderström, "but building on the story."He adds that this possible new game "will probably have more playable characters than the first game did. And a couple of different stories and angles." And Wedin says it might have a map editor as well: "We're looking at if it's possible to do that. I think it would be really cool to let people do their own stages."The first game, says Söderström, took quite a while to develop. But with an engine already built, a new release would primarily focus on adding new content, he says, so the process should be shortened. "We hope it would take no longer than four or five months to make the sequel, but we're not sure at this point." That's fine, Cactus. We'll just don our finest creepy pig mask and wait here patiently for more news.
Ask Massively: Missives from the Massively yacht
So here we are, lounging on the deck of our yacht, sipping cool drinks out of fake coconuts while lifeguard cosplayers -- they're cosplayers, right guys? -- gently wave palm leaves at us. Later, of course, we'll dock somewhere and whip out our laptops and dash off some posts about video games before we get back to enjoying the titillating payoffs we earn as members of the gaming journalism front lines. Hopefully you've guessed that Massively doesn't have a yacht. We don't even have an office. The Massively yacht is a mythical destination, a running joke that's only mildly funny and then only to the people who work here, since only we know what we're paid, how insanely strict the Joystiq network is about accepting items on the spectrum between gifts and bribes, and how that strictness both hurts and helps us and you. That's something worth talking about in light of the Eurogamer debacle.
CCP shares EVE's social calendar
It's the busy season for conventions and expos. There are events running all 'round the world, and now you can know which ones CCP is taking part in. Flip open your calendar and ring up your travel agent if you've got your heart set on meeting your favorite EVE Online devs. The EVE DUST Summerfest runs this weekend, September 14th-16th, in Loutraki, Greece. It's followed shortly by the Tokyo Game Show on the 20th-23rd. The player-organized VETO EVE event is in London on the 29th, so if you're in town for the Eurogamer Expo, which runs from the 27th-30th, you might as well check it out. After that, the party moves to Igromir in Moscow, Russia before winding up in the Las Vegas for EVE Vegas. Check out the EVE blog for full details and hit up the official forums for word of more player meetups.
EVE Evolved: Building stronger communities
When I first started playing EVE Online at the start of 2004, only 40,000 players inhabited the game's 5,000 assorted solar systems. Despite having a peak concurrent user record of under 10,000 players, the game somehow didn't feel empty and desolate. Players built communities all across the map, and the purpose of the game became all about interacting with other players. I've played a lot of MMOs since then, but none has drawn me into its community as deeply as EVE has. I think that's because most MMOs today are aimed more at casual and solo play, and most guilds are glorified chat channels with shared bank space. There's plenty of room for solo players in EVE, but most of the gameplay is aimed at groups with purpose and ambitions larger than any individual can reasonably accomplish on his own. Holding territory and building supercapitals are jobs for large alliances, PvP is rarely a solo affair, and even grinding ISK is more fun in a group. This focus on group activities is usually seen as the driving force behind EVE's cohesive communities, but I think there's more to it. In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look at what drives EVE to create stronger in-game communities than you typically find in other MMOs.
Red 5 Studios CEO denounces consoles and publishers
"Who needs publishers any more? I certainly don't. I couldn't care less about them at this stage," said Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Kern ripped into both consoles and publisher-led models as relics on their way out the door. Kern said that the pressure that publishers put on studios are death to the industry, resulting in either "an indie game or... a massive AAA, IP-backed sequel with derivative gameplay." He thinks that there's no middle ground, and it disturbs him how many studios fire staff right after a game launches. Instead, the man behind Firefall believes that the free-to-play model puts the power back in the hands of the developers who then can concentrate on making games without having to kowtow to the publishers and distributors. "Look at Riot Games and League of Legends. They have more users than World of Warcraft does. That's crazy. And they don't have a publisher," Kern said. Citing the expense and sluggish reaction of console development, Kern also predicts that mobile and PC gaming are on their way to take over the field. "Something has to change," he concludes. "Consoles, I believe, are dead."
James Ohlen hits back against critics, defends SWTOR's innovation
Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Director James Ohlen isn't surprised that the game's received the flak it has from a segment of reviews and fans. In a candid interview with Eurogamer, Ohlen addresses both the issues of being a "big target" for critics and the claims that SWTOR's lacking innovation. For the most part, players and critics have praised the game, Ohlen shares, and BioWare is seeing an "exceptionally high" desire among its playerbase for continued subscriptions. But was BioWare prepared for the backlash as well? Ohlen says it was: "We knew that there was going to be people who wanted us to fail. But that's just the nature of the game. If you're going to build a huge game and try to go out to a lot of people, you're going to have people who just react poorly." He does push back hard against claims that SWTOR failed on the innovation front, stating, "We wanted to take the lessons that have been developed in that genre over years and years and years and basically refine them, much like other companies do with other genres. So, I don't know, it's just the way it is, but I don't see us as not being innovative. We're actually a lot more innovative within the MMO space than comparable games in other spaces like the first-person genre, the action genre -- games like that."
Richard Garriott: 'Exceptionally unusual pressures' helped tank Tabula Rasa
What truly happened with the sad tale of Tabula Rasa, the scifi MMO that had the full backing of Richard Garriott and NCsoft -- and yet lasted only 15 months before being shuttered? For the full scoop, it's good to go right to the source: General British himself. Garriott sat down with Eurogamer for a candid dissection of what went wrong with Tabula Rasa. Ultimately, he feels that he did not do enough to make the game the best it could've been. Initially, Garriott's team brought on several Asian developers to help shape the title to be appealing to the Eastern market. The partnership didn't work out, and after two years the team basically started over. By then, Tabula Rasa was already struggling. "So Tabula Rasa started its two-year late restart under exceptionally unusual pressures and with understandable corporate discontent, which made it very difficult to finish," he said. Garriott then acknowledges that the MMO's failure has caused players to be wary about his future projects: "Since Ultima Online was a fair time back and Tabula Rasa had its troubles, it makes perfect sense that people would go, 'I'm cautious as to what my expectations are.'"
Scott Hartsman: RIFT going F2P would be a 'large net negative' for the game
With so many former subscription-only MMOs turning to free-to-play/hybrid business models these days, one might assume that Trion Worlds feels the pressure to do the same with RIFT -- but that is far from the case. Speaking with Eurogamer, Scott Hartsman confirmed that Trion has "absolutely no plans whatsoever" to transition RIFT to a F2P model. He cited strong business and a growing game as reasons why the company is happy where it's at. Embracing F2P, in Hartsman's opinion, would end up hurting more than helping in this situation: "One of the assumptions people make is you can just take a game and throw a switch and change the model. For starters, you'd have to decide that that would be a good thing, and I do not think it would be -- that would be a fairly large net negative for RIFT and the RIFT community." While Hartsman confirms that F2P attracts large amounts of users, he also says that it fundamentally changes how an MMO studio approaches the game itself. "Take a free-to-play game or a social game, where the business is all about -- the social games' word for it is, 'going whaling,'" he said. "The idea is you have a paying player subsidising the play of, potentially, dozens or hundreds of other users. And so you have to be willing to create a game that has the ability to make huge sums of money from relatively small numbers of people. Once you decide that you are going to enter the whaling business, it's a different mindset and a different set of goals you're designing for entirely."
Chris Metzen talks about heroes
Eurogamer.net recently sat down with Blizzard Senior Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen. They talked about the story for all three of Blizzard's big franchises and the ins and outs of creating stories and heroes for each one. On Warcraft, Metzen waxed philosophical on creating a meaningful story for 11 million fans who are each carving out their own individual stories on their own characters, and on translating that story culturally as well linguistically between all the different cultures of the people who play WoW. As Metzen observed, a story that goes over well in North America may fall flat in China. He also talked about making lore decisions and balancing the needs and wants of the players and the writers. Sometimes the players want you to go right when you want to go left, and it is a challenge, he says, to decide which way to go.
Guild Wars 2 wins Eurogamer's Game of the Show
Not many games can claim that they stood up to Batman and prevailed, but Guild Wars 2 fought off the Dark Knight and more to win the Editors' Game of the Show at this past weekend's Eurogamer Expo. Competing against such high-profile titles like Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City, Guild Wars 2 came out as the clear favorite of the editorial staff at Eurogamer. Guild Wars 2 was picked from a field of 10 nominees for its scope and ideas. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell handed out the high praise: "It was almost impossible to choose between some of this year's nominees, but Guild Wars 2 eventually won us over with its incredible depth and intelligent new approach to MMO design." Eurogamer Expo 2011 attracted over 34,500 attendees, who made up what the show runners claim is the largest audience for the convention yet. [Source: Eurogamer Network press release]
End of Nations not launching in 2011, aiming for 2012
If the end of the world happens in 2012, then End of Nations might be the cause. Or effect. Or just an innocent bystander. In any case, Trion Worlds' MMORTS has moved its projected release window from late 2011 to sometime next year. The news came at this past weekend's Eurogamer Expo 2011, where Trion demoed the game live to an excited crowd. The studio also showed off some of the in-game store options that players have to pick from, including unit colors and skins. End of Nations will be free-to-play with these optional microtransactions, but Trion promises that there will be no way for players to "pay to win." Trion was mum when asked about End of Nations' beta at the expo. The studio announced last month that the title would be going free-to-play from the get-go, a move that it hopes will draw in prospective armchair generals by the droves.
MMOs may be on the horizon for OnLive
The OnLive gaming platform officially launched in the US last year, bringing a new on-demand gaming service to homes with broadband internet connections. OnLive hosts and renders games on a computing cloud and delivers the resulting video feed over the internet. The potentially revolutionary system lets people play high-end games on low-end computers, but has a minimum bandwidth requirement of 2Mbit. OnLive celebrated its UK release this week during Eurogamer Expo in London, and we were on the floor to ask the OnLive staff some questions about the service. Representatives were able to confirm that there are plans to bring MMOs to the OnLive service in the future but no solid deals had been made. The only thing keeping MMOs out of the game catalogue is the fact that no deals have been signed with MMO publishers. OnLive representatives stated that it would be unlikely to see Activision-Blizzard's games like World of Warcraft on OnLive, but that Star Wars: The Old Republic and other MMOs could eventually be licensed to both the PC client and the home console. Talks are already underway with Electronic Arts, which released its first game on the system this week to coincide with the UK launch. When asked about latency issues, staff explained that the service already supports a large number of multiplayer titles with similar connectivity requirements to MMOs and latency is not a problem in those games.
MMO subscription dollars in decline for the first time since 2002
With all of the free-to-play MMOs coming onto the market and the F2P conversion of formerly subscription-only titles, it should come as no surprise that the subscription model is losing its grip on the industry. Eurogamer reports that starting in 2010, the money brought in from MMO subscriptions has actually gone into decline for the first time ever since analysts began tracking it in 2002. 2010's subscription revenue added up to $1.58 billion, a respectable amount but still 5% less than 2009. 2009 saw a 10% bump in subscriptions, and 2008 witnessed 21.6% growth. Connect the dots, and subscription revenue has most likely peaked and begun a downhill slide. Analysts predict that by 2015, revenue from subs will be as low as $1.33 billion. However, with the popularity of RIFT this year and the coming storm of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the subscription model may see a resurgence. On the flip side, microtransactions from F2P models are rising exponentially, jumping 24% from 2009 to 2010 to account for $1.13 billion. With the two models combined, the industry saw a very modest 5% increase last year in revenue. Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls sees the writing on the wall: "The focus of many PC game operators has clearly shifted to micro-transaction‐based models -- in part due to competition in the subscription market especially in the high‐end MMOG segment, but also because of the flexibility micro-transactions offer operators in monetising gamers."
BioWare: The Old Republic will be 'one of the biggest launches ever in the history of gaming'
While Star Wars: The Old Republic looks to be on track for a holiday release, BioWare's Dr. Greg Zeschuk admits to being "daunted" by the size and scope of the project. "This game's launch is going to be one of the biggest launches ever in the history of gaming," he said. When talking with Eurogamer, Zeschuk said that the studio is trying to make sure that everything is "solid" enough before it pulls the trigger and releases the game, but it is also trying to get the game out the doors as fast as it can. Currently, the game is being tested by thousands of players daily, a number that is expected to increase dramatically once September's expanded testing cycle hits. "It's literally live right now," he said. Whether The Old Republic will stand or fall, it won't be for a lack of preparation on BioWare's behalf. Zeschuk paints a picture of the hectic work being done behind the scenes: "It's one thing to get the game done, another to ensure you can login thousands of people a minute. It's a different sort of requirement. The things you need to get done to ship this are very different from a standard game. A standard game, this is like five of them, right? Our job is really simple: making sure it's great when it comes out."
