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Joystiq Weekly: Sony financials, Destiny review, Minecraft sale and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. What would you do with $2.5 billion? Sure, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson isn't pocketing the entire sum from Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, but something tells us he'll uh, be okay for a few years. Unless you're keen on buying small nations and playing a real-world game of Risk, it's tough to imagine spending your share of a massive buyout like that. There was loads more to this week than business deals involving yacht-sized bags of money, though. There's hope for a playable taste of Final Fantasy 15 in 2015, reviews for Destiny, Hyrule Warriors, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, a full timeline of Minecraft's progress from day one and loads more, all awaiting you after the break!
Need for Speed Rivals 'Complete Edition' revs up for October
The "Complete Edition" of Need for Speed Rivals will launch on October 21. The special edition package includes all of the game's previously-issued DLC, six packs in total. NFS Rivals' Complete Edition will arrive on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and will launch three days afterwards in Europe on October 24. The Complete Edition does not appear to include the game's Ultimate Racer Pack, which is only available on PC and Xbox platforms, the game's official site noted. The standard version of NFS Rivals launched in November alongside the latest home consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The racing game was added to the EA Access vault earlier this month, allowing subscribers to play the full game at will. EA did not list a price for the Complete Edition, though pre-orders are expected to be available shortly. The game-and-DLC bundle will replace a new entry in the series this year, the first time in 13 years that EA has gone without a brand new Need for Speed game. The next entry will arrive in 2015. [Image: EA]
Need for Speed Rivals burns rubber on EA Access soon
EA Access members will soon have another game to add to their collection: Need for Speed Rivals. The racing game will be added to the Xbox One program's "Vault" in the coming weeks, so players will be able dig in to single and multiplayer races at any time, for as long as they so desire. The service will also be rolling out to 19 more countries later this month, including Brazil and the Netherlands. EA announced its subscription service in late July, giving Xbox One players access to select games for $5 per month (or $30 for an entire year). The program also grants players early access to some games as well, such as Madden NFL 15, though only for six hours. EA says players put in 245,000 hours with the game before its release, meaning at least 40,833 players checked the game out. The publisher said it will offer six-hour trials of two more upcoming sports games: NHL 15 and FIFA 15, each available five days before their respective launches. [Image: EA]
Need for Speed Rivals, Garden Warfare nab Deals With Gold price drops
Xbox console owners with a jonesing for velocity -- a hankering for going fast, if you will -- will want to check out this week's Deals With Gold lineup, which spotlights EA's Need for Speed Rivals among other featured price drops. This week's Xbox One deals include a 60-percent discount on the Killer Instinct add-on character Sabrewulf and 33-percent-off sales on Need for Speed Rivals DLC. Xbox 360 highlights include price drops for Shadow Complex, Crysis 3, Watch Dogs, Guacamelee, and Fallout: New Vegas. The Xbox Binge Watch and Play Sale also kicks off this week with deep discounts for dozens of featured games, including Rayman Legends, The Walking Dead: Season Two, Murdered: Soul Suspect, and Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare. Sale prices are effective through next week. [Image: EA]
Need for Speed takes a break, returning in 2015
After 13 years of annual releases, EA has decided to take a more restrained approach to the next Need for Speed, a game that CEO Andrew Wilson believes will debut in 2015. Wilson broke the news during an EA conference call earlier today. "Ghost Games in Gothenburg is working on an innovative new chapter of this storied franchise," Wilson said. "We've planned an extended development window to ensure we're delivering a high-quality experience for Need for Speed players next year." Though Wilson offers no specific reason for this change of development pace, Need for Speed Rivals developer Ghost Games suffered a round of layoffs only three months ago, affecting both long-time Ghost Games employees, and those who EA shifted to the studio from former Burnout and Need for Speed developer Criterion Games. At that time, Ghost Games is said to have canceled development on an unnamed Need for Speed sequel, though no further information on that project has emerged since our earlier report. [Image: EA]
Xbox Live Gold members get deals on NBA 2K14, NFS Rivals this week
Xbox Live Gold members can save some cash on NBA 2K14 and Need for Speed Rivals this week thanks to a series subscriber-exclusive price drops on Games on Demand downloads and associated add-on content. The Xbox One version of NBA 2K14 is $10 off this week, while the Xbox 360 edition gets a steeper discount, dropping it to $29.99. NBA 2K14's add-on content on the Xbox 360 is also half-off, discounting the Platinum Jewelry, Blue Diamond Jewelry, Gold Jewelry, and Spanish Commentary packs through the end of the week. Xbox 360 owners have another chance to pick up the Games on Demand version of Need for Speed: Rivals for $29.99, matching a digital price drop from earlier this year. This week's sale prices are effective through April 29. [Image: 2K Games]
'The fastest car ever built' burns rubber in Need for Speed: Rivals
The Koenigsegg Agera One:1 is a car as fast as its name is difficult to pronounce. Thankfully, you'll have better things - like evading the cops or catching racer punks - to worry about should you choose to give it a spin in Need for Speed: Rivals. The car is now available to download for free, and comes in both racer and police variants. According to the Need for Speed blog, the real-life Agera, "possibly the fastest car ever built," packs 1340 BHP (or brake horsepower, which is to say horsepower that doesn't factor in an engine's natural loss in power) and weighs 1340 kilograms. That's one BHP per kilogram, a 1:1 ratio! Oh. Ohhhhhhhh. Hold up. Nevermind. We just got it. [Image: EA]
Ferrari, Jaguar car packs pull into the Need for Speed: Rivals garage
EA has unveiled two new car packs representing Jaguar and Ferrari for its hit arcade racer Need for Speed: Rivals, though arguably more intriguing is what the publisher isn't telling us. The Ferrari pack (highlighted in the trailer above) features the 1987 edition of the Ferrari F40 alongside 1995's F50. The Jaguar pack also includes two cars, the Jaguar XJ220 supercar and the C-X75 prototype, a hybrid-electric coupe that Jaguar describes as "the ultimate expression of the brand's design and engineering innovation." Both of these car packs feature a $6 price tag. Immediately following the above reveal, EA dropped a not so subtle hint that these may not be the only new cars joining the racing game this month. "[T]hese aren't the only new cars that will be hitting the streets of Redview County in the coming weeks," the publisher's announcement states, before urging players to keep an eye on the official Need for Speed: Rivals Facebook account. [Image: EA]
See the Need for Speed ad you missed by skipping the Super Bowl
Those of you who didn't spend yesterday hovering around a glowing picture box, while giant sports guys from Seattle trounced giant sports guys from Denver, missed the above teaser for the live-action Need for Speed movie. Aside from pretty cars crashing and Aaron Paul's sole line of dialogue, you didn't miss much. [Image: Dreamworks]
Need for Speed Rivals, FIFA 14 headline Xbox Live EA Publisher sale
Electronic Arts rolls out a series of discounts on Xbox Live this week, dropping prices for the Xbox 360 Games on Demand versions of Need for Speed Rivals, Crysis 3, FIFA 14 and other standout games in its digital catalog. Rivals, FIFA, and NHL 14 are currently available for $29.99 each, while Crysis 3 is up for grabs at $14.79. Other featured games include Mirror's Edge ($4.94), Dead Space ($7.49), Shank 2 ($2.49), and Alice: Madness Returns ($7.39). This week also brings a collection of exclusive price drops for Xbox Live Gold members, discounting niche XBLA releases like Moon Diver, Blood Knights, and Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds by 50 percent. This week's deals are valid through February 3.
Best of the Rest: Ludwig's picks of 2013
Team Joystiq has concluded its selection of last year's best games. Click here to see the complete assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs - until next year! The Wonderful 101 The boundless, ALL-CAPS exuberance of The Wonderful 101 may have been misread by its intended audience. Overseen by Mr. Devil May Cry himself, Hideki Kimaya, this vibrant action game conveys cuteness in its army of stout superheroes, but poses creative and razor-sharp challenges without taking a breath. The game's cartoonish antics and enormous bosses are beyond ridiculous, dwarfing the mechanical cleverness that lies beneath it all. The real novelty lies in drawing shapes and having your heroes congeal into corresponding mega-swords and huge hammers (also: puddings). It becomes a practiced analogue shorthand, not unlike your maneuvers in a fighting game, and the hard-earned rewards satisfy in much the same way.
Criterion co-founders leave EA to form new studio
Vice president Alex Ward and studio director Fiona Sperry have both left Criterion Games, a development house best known for the Burnout series of arcade-style racing games. "Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry have decided to leave EA," a spokesperson for the publisher told Polygon. "We appreciate their many contributions through the years and wish them well in their future endeavours." These departures come less than four months after Criterion was hit by downsizing, an EA decision that moved many Criterion employees to UK-based Need for Speed: Rivals developer Ghost Games. Following this forced exodus, Criterion was reportedly down to "about 20" employees, though EA claims that the developer remains hard at work on a new, as yet unannounced project aimed at next-generation consoles. "The incredibly creative and talented team at Criterion are hard at work on a new project for next-gen consoles as new IP continues to be a major priority across EA," the publisher stated. Following his announcement, Ward took to Twitter, saying, "The news breaks. Along with @FionaSperry I have left @CriterionGames. Welcome to the REAL #tothefuture." In a later tweet Ward explains that he and Sperry plan to create a new development studio, though further details on their plans have yet to appear. This marks the second time in as many days that we've received word of a shakeup at one of EA's development studios. Only yesterday we learned that PopCap Games CEO David Roberts would be departing the company, and that John Vechey, the sole PopCap founder remaining at the studio's Seattle headquarters, would assume the role. Edit: The original version of the above article included a sentence stating that Matt Webster is a senior vice president at EA, when in fact he is only leading the development of Criterion's next project. We apologize for any confusion.
GameStop post-Christmas sale hacks $10 off select next-gen games, more
That money grandma tucked into your card this year? GameStop wants it, and is holding a post-Christmas winter sale to get it. The retailer's deals end on December 29 and take $10 off the following Xbox One and PS4 games: Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, Need For Speed: Rivals, Madden 25 and NBA Live 14. Each game is $10 cheaper on their respective current-gen platforms as well. Additionally, Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag and Battlefield 4 are discounted to $39.99 on their other respective platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC), though the former isn't on sale for PS4 or Xbox One. GameStop's sale page features a number of items that aren't discounted at all, including listings for available Xbox One and Wii U consoles. Among the other games and accessories on sale are Tearaway ($19.99), Grand Theft Auto 5 ($39.99), NBA 2K14 for Xbox 360 and PS3 ($39.99), Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix ($24.99) and Gran Turismo 6 ($39.99).
Need for Speed Rivals offers you the keys to a 2015 Mustang
It won't hit dealerships until next year, but thanks to Need for Speed Rivals you can drive the 2015 Ford Mustang as early as today. Thanks to a free title update which should be applied the next time you fire up the game, Rivals now features a brand-new, not-yet-released Ford sports car. This new Mustang should not be confused with the 2014 edition of the vehicle previously released as promotion for the upcoming Need for Speed film, nor its tricked-out police variation. This 2015 Mustang is its own car, and as you can see from the above trailer, it flies down the track like a thematically-apropos bald eagle. Like the recently-revealed BMW M5 Coupé from Gran Turismo 6, Need for Speed's new Mustang resulted from the development team being granted early access to the car during production. "We worked closely with the development team at EA to provide them with engineering data for the new Mustang, several months before we showed it to the rest of the world," stated Mark Bentley, Ford product licensing manager. As a result, the in-game 2015 Mustang should perform similarly to its eventual real-world counterpart, only with fewer cops and exotic supercars chasing you through the streets.
EA: 140 million gameplay minutes logged on PS4 in five days
140 million gameplay minutes were logged on Electronic Arts-published PlayStation 4 games, the publisher revealed via Twitter yesterday. The data is spread across five days of EA's PS4 games being on store shelves. Across the same period of time, the publisher said that over five million online gaming sessions were logged as well. Likewise, EA president Peter Moore recently estimated that one in every three PS4 games sold are EA-branded products. EA's data comes from its five PS4 launch games: Battlefield 4, Need for Speed: Rivals, NBA Live 14, Madden NFL 25 and FIFA 14. Battlefield 4 has suffered a number of issues since its next-gen launch, including game crashes and loss of save files for the game's campaign. Given that the Xbox One launches tomorrow, the number of online games and minutes logged by players will certainly grow.
PSN Tuesday: Need for Speed Rivals, NBA Live 14, Contrast
This week's PlayStation Network offerings are marked by NBA Live 14's arrival on PS4, the only game to launch on PS4 through PSN for the week. Additionally, the PS Vita's lone addition is The Amazing Spider Man. Need for Speed: Rivals headlines the list of new, digitally distributed PS3 games – though it already launched on PS4 – and it's joined by a number of other PS3 games: Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know, Air Conflicts: Vietnam, AquaPazza, Arcania The Complete Tale, Blood Knights, Contrast, Dynasty Warriors 6, Farming Simulator, SoulCalibur 2 HD Online, Stick It to the Man and Young Justice: Legacy. Like Need for Speed: Rivals, Contrast also previously launched on PS4 in addition to Xbox 360 and PC, the PS4 version being free for PlayStation Plus subscribers. As we noted yesterday, said PS Plus members can download Binary Domain and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD for free and Worms 2: Armageddon for $4.50 this week. Sony also opened up pre-orders on PSN for The Last of Us' single-player Left Behind DLC, which will launch in early 2014.
Joystiq Streams: Need for Speed Rivals (PS4) [Watch the replay!]
Update: The live stream has ended. Watch the live stream replay above. Need for Speed: Rivals, EA's reckless (but not wreck-free) open-world racer, is officially en route. In the meantime, join us as we hurtle down the highways in an Aston Martin – well, once we unlock it. You have to get the Aston first, right?
Need for Speed: Rivals trailers peel out on PS4, Xbox One
Keen to see how Need for Speed: Rivals will run on your next-gen console of choice? Look no further - well, unless you want to see some cop-based gameplay. EA chose to highlight the lawless side of things in these two clips.
Need for Speed can 'learn a lot' from EA Sports
When Andrew Wilson became CEO of Electronic Arts in September, he named Patrick Soderlund as his replacement as head of EA Sports. The company immediately made structural changes in how it handles its EA Labels, shuffling its games under the EA Studios brand. Along with that change, the Need for Speed series became part of EA Sports, a decision that Soderlund thinks will have a positive impact on the racing property. "I think that we can learn a lot from the sports games and what they've done," Soderlund told Polygon. "When you play a sports game, the controller in your hand will dictate how good the game is. It's all about player control and input and how it feels. It's a feeling, right? I think that focus on pure gameplay, is something that can benefit the Need for Speed brand in a very positive way." EA Sports-branded games have shared assets and design philosophies over the years, such as the NHL team at EA Canada adapting FIFA's Player Impact physics engine to bolster collisions between players in NHL 14. Soderlund noted that the change doesn't necessarily indicate a sudden move away from the sandbox-style action seen in Need For Speed Rivals. "It's a way for us to push innovation and push a different creative brain or mindset onto Need for Speed," Soderlund said. Need for Speed Rivals is now a launch game for PS4, and will arrive on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 19, launching with the Xbox One on November 22.
Need for Speed Rivals now a PlayStation 4 launch title in North America
Electronic Arts announced today that the PlayStation 4 version of Need for Speed Rivals will hit store shelves on November 15 as part of the console's launch lineup in North America. Developer Ghost Games initially planned for a simultaneous launch on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on November 22, but has since bumped up the PS4 version's release to coincide with the platform's debut stateside. The Xbox One version of Rivals is still slated for release on November 22, accompanying the console's 13-market launch. Ports for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms are due on November 19.
