name-change
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Gone Home developer rebrands as 'Fullbright,' just Fullbright
The Fullbright Company, development studio of Gone Home fame, is nixing the "company" part of its name and is now simply called "Fullbright." The developer released a new logo to mark the occasion – we feel a strange thirst for root beer for some reason. Fullbright also announced that it's hiring. After Johnnemann Nordhagen left in June to form his own studio, Dim Bulb Games, the group requires a replacement programmer. Fullbright is also seeking a character animator. It would seem that, unlike Gone Home, future projects from the team will feature moving characters. The multiple changes don't mean a shift in attitude, though. In the announcement post revealing the news, it's stated that the company ... er, group ... will continue to focus on "creating immersive, unforgettable story exploration video games." We're okay with this. [Image: Fullbright]
Frozen Endzone now Frozen Cortex, original name 'a bit rubbish'
Mode 7's upcoming turn-based strategy game is now Frozen Cortex and no longer Frozen Endzone, after the developer admitted a rebrand was necessary. In a frank blog post, the Frozen Synapse creator revealed its reasons for the change, one being "the original name was a bit rubbish and we got bored of it." Mode 7 also introduced Mac and Linux versions this week in an update to the Steam Early Access release, as well as "significant" aesthetic changes. The studio added it believes the game looks better in its new guise, and that the original name was tied to perception of a "Madden game with robots."
Tecmo Koei now Koei Tecmo in West, Marvelous Inc. drops AQL
2014 is the year of corporate name reversals, it seems. After Namco Bandai became Bandai Namco, Tecmo Koei and MarvelousAQL have decided to get in on the act. Or, as we should say now, Koei Tecmo and Marvelous Inc. It might seem odd, but there is some sense to the moves. When Tecmo and Koei merged in 2009 the resultant company was called Koei Tecmo in Japan, while Western Branches were named Tecmo Koei. Tecmo was the bigger name in the West with the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive series among others, so putting the Tecmo name first was a smart move. Five years on, the company wants to move forward under a common name globally, and now we have Koei Tecmo Europe and Koei Tecmo America.
Splash Damage's Extraction reverts title to Dirty Bomb
Naming things you love is hard. We face a fresh dose of indecisiveness at the sight of every in-game character naming screen, and there are plenty of deleted, re-entered and deleted-again ideas that eventually get scrapped in favor of the default suggestion. Brink developer Splash Damage must be dealing with a similar style of indecision, because this week it switched the name of its shooter, Extraction, back to Dirty Bomb, the title it was originally revealed under. The related press release explains that switching the name back to Dirty Bomb was done to "better fit the game's unique personality." That's sort of fair if you consider that its firefights take place in a post-disaster London, rife with Private Military Companies fighting over the radioactive area's abandoned goods. Dirty Bomb is currently in closed beta on PC, but you can apply to get in on that if your interest is piqued. A release window for the public version has yet to be offered, but when Dirty Bomb does invite everyone to battle over territory and riches, it will offer dedicated servers in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. [Image: Splash Damage]
PixelJunk Inc is now Nom Nom Galaxy, chomping on Steam next week
Q-Games' PixelJunk Inc has long been in development, and will see an alpha version launch on Steam's Early Access service on March 13. The game, which was originally codenamed "PixelJunk 1-6" in November 2012, will also undergo a name change and be known as Nom Nom Galaxy from here on out. Q-Games originally planned to launch Nom Nom Galaxy on Steam last year, and now has a quirky Early Access trailer to make up for lost time. In the trailer, Q-Games serves up the game's new name and places items like a PS3 and a copy of StarFox Command in a giant pot of soup. Given that players use lasers to destroy the environment in the 2D platformer and in turn build their soup empire, we guess boiling a game console in a video makes sense on some level. [Image: Q-Games]
Namco Bandai turns into Bandai Namco on April 1
Namco Bandai officially announced plans to change its name to Bandai Namco. The change, which spans the company's many regional subsidiaries, will go into effect on April 1. Yes, that's April Fool's Day. No, we're pretty sure Namco Ban – sorry, Bandai Namco is serious here. The publisher was the result of a merger between Namco and Bandai in September 2005. The umbrella company's logo, seen above, will be used for all of the publisher's products going forward. Up until this point, Namco Bandai used its traditional, individual Namco and Bandai logos on some of its games. For instance, Tales of Xillia sported a Namco logo, while Dark Souls featured the Namco Bandai one. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Blizzard's MOBA now known as 'Heroes of the Storm'
Blizzard changed the name of its multiplayer online battle arena game, Blizzard All-Stars, to Heroes of the Storm. The publisher crafted a comical trailer to announce the (latest) name change. This is the second change in the game's title, as it was originally known as Blizzard DOTA prior to Blizzard's settlement of a lawsuit with Valve in May 2012 over the use of the trademarked term DOTA. The term stands for "Defense of the Ancients," a fan-made map for Blizzard's Warcraft 3. The settlement stipulated that Valve could continue using "DOTA" commercially in selling games such as DOTA 2, and forced Blizzard to change its MOBA game to Blizzard All-Stars. Blizzard filed a trademark application for Heroes of the Storm just a few weeks ago, so the publisher certainly won't be changing the game's title again, unless it does so out of boredom.
50% off character services in the EU this week
Several people have tweeted WoW Insider this morning to alert us to the fact that there is a fairly hefty discount on character services this week, and Blizzard has since confirmed it with a blog. A short look through the EU battle.net shop shows that server transfers, faction transfers, race changes, appearance changes and name changes are all 50% off. WoW Insider will keep this post updated with the sale's emergence in the US, which is fairly likely to occur later today. Update: And that just happened, all character services are now 50% off in the US. So if you're looking to try out a new home, a new race, a new look, a new name, or a new enemy, now's the time to get involved. It's really easy to do, just head over to battle.net, log in, and you'll be presented with your accounts, head through to the right one, select the service you require and you will see if your character is eligible. From personal, and very recent (darn it) experience, if you're looking to realm transfer you'll also need to empty your mailbox and make sure you're not in charge of any arena teams. Either that, or log in and out an awful lot! What's more, it messes with your addons quite a bit, as the profile your character's using will reflect its new home. The same will happen with name changes, so ensure that you have addons with profiles wherever possible to avoid yourself a lot of reconfiguration. Enjoy your new perspective!
Why we're thankful for the Name Change service
The Name Change service is old news but I continue to be thankful for it every time I log into my hunter. He has a noble name that sounds very elf-like without being something silly like Lolegolas or McBlasty. But that wasn't always the case. I didn't think I'd enjoy playing a hunter and I had no expectation that he'd make it long. I rolled a night elf (I thought 'Dark Elf' at the time), realized he could use two weapons, and named him... Drizzsst. You know. Like Do'Urden. He may have had a Tauren lover that I also rolled named Cattlebree. We had a guild named Underdim. Don't judge me, man, I was only going to play them a little while. But it turned out that I really liked my hunter (including a bat named Bruce) and I played him bunches. And he quickly became my favorite character, even gaining the Lieutenant rank in the old battlegrounds. And I played on a RP server. So you can see the problem. Awesome character, horrible name. The Name Change service fixed all that for me. What about you? What horrible character decisions did you come to regret later in life? Was it a bad name? Or, perhaps, a beard that seemed noble on the dwarf, until you realize it stuck oddly through every helmet and chestpiece you would ever own. Share your painful, irony stories in the comments!
Ascend: New Gods renamed to Ascend: Hand of Kul
Signal Studios' free-to-play asynchronous multiplayer XBLA strategy game Ascend: New Gods has had its name changed to Ascend: Hand of Kul. "A year has passed since our big unveil at E3 2012, and the New Gods are no longer 'new,'" as Signal Studios representative explains in a lighthearted update on PlayXBLA. "It was a tough decision, but during their board meeting in The Sanctum a couple of weeks ago, the New Gods decided to step down from power." Aside from the fact that Hand of Kul is a "more story-centric name," no further explanation was given for the change. Well, no further real explanation. At any rate, please adjust your complicated, all-encompassing video game databases accordingly. Y'all have those too, right? It's not just us?
Name change unlock coming to SWTOR
The customization options continue to grow in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Producer Cory Butler told The Old Republic Roleplay that besides the appearance designer and Cathar coming in Update 2.1, players will also be able to change their characters' names. Finally, Darth LordSnuffleFluff can change his name to Darth LordMegaSnuffleFluff like he always wanted. Butler explains that the name-change option will be available on the Cartel Market as an unlock. However, since it is an unlock and not a service through the official website, that means some players will be able to change names with in-game credits via the Galactic Trade Network. Congratulations, SWTOR players, you will now be able to change everything about your character except class and gender when GU 2.1 releases.
Brownie Brown changes its name to 1-Up Studio
Nintendo subsidiary Brownie Brown is changing its name to 1-Up Studio, the company recently announced on its soon-to-be defunct site.The developer is known for its hand in crafting games such as Mother 3 and Super Mario 3D Land, as well as its help with Level-5's Professor Layton and the Last Specter. Along with the name change, the studio also announced a new Mother game for North America... oh, it didn't? Well that's too bad.
Netgear passes On through FCC with new router, name
What's in a name? Well, from the looks of this FCC filing, it could be something quite significant for everyone who knows the Netgear appellation. This N300R router has emerged from the commission's Washington enclave bearing On Networks branding, along with a spiffy new logo and less boxy look. We found that the new handle was trademarked by the company back in February, so maybe we'll see a corporate rebranding or this is the genesis of a new marque. As far as we're concerned, it can call itself whatever it pleases, as long as it still lets us roam free.
Apple's iPad WiFi + 4G renamed 'iPad WiFi + Cellular' across many of its stores
Remember Apple's new iPad WiFi + 4G? Well, forget that moniker, as this variant of the company's latest slate has been quietly re-dubbed as the iPad WiFi + Cellular. As noticed by 9to5Mac, the change occurred within the last "24-48 hours" across many of Apple's region-specific webstores (update: and retail locations), including (but not limited to) those for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and various countries in Asia. If you'll recall, in many regions the best you'll get out of the slate is HSPA-connectivity, even though it's also equipped for LTE -- something that Apple itself had considered good enough to market it as 4G despite offering refunds to customers in Australia who (like many others) couldn't officially partake in its LTE. Interestingly, 9to5Mac also notes that a similar change hasn't made its way over to the iPad 2, which still has its cellular-equipped variant named, iPad 2 WiFi + 3G. We've reached out to Apple for comment, but the meantime, feel free to hit up the source links below for more insight.
Breakfast Topic: Is that you?
As is often the case with Breakfast Topics, I write about what interests me, asking commenters questions that I genuinely want to know the answers to. So it should be no surprise that I read the comments pretty religiously, and often they will spark ideas that lead to more Breakfast Topics. You've only yourselves to blame for being such interesting folk. On a recent BT about gender in WoW, two commenters got my attention. Dez and Nagaina, thanks for replying! The parts that caught my eye from their comments were as follows: Dez wrote: I know some players consider their toons to be extensions of themselves (1st-person narrative), but personally I see them more as other people whose adventures I am following (3rd-person narrative). Nagaina wrote: I'm principally a roleplayer. When I create a character, I'm usually doing so for storyline related reasons not representing myself in game related ones. I personally consider my characters to be extensions of myself. When I refer to them, mentally I'm thinking, "I'm over here," "I'm getting my face chewed off by a murloc," or "I'm going to get myself a kickass new cloak." When I'm talking in game, I do much the same. The idea of the character as a third person fascinates me. I suppose it might be reflected in games like The Sims where you control the life of a character in a different way or maybe in FPS games where you're controlling a character with a predefined story. Or perhaps it's something that is a big part of roleplaying, creating a story for a character that is (maybe by definition) not your own story. I freely admit to knowing barely anything about roleplaying, so of course there is the strong possibility that all that might be utter nonsense! What do you think? Are your characters extensions of yourself? Are you representing yourself in game? Or, like Dez and Nagaina, are you following a third person? And why?
Say goodbye to Symbian, say hello to Nokia Belle
Symbian is already on its last legs as a mobile OS, now Nokia is giving it a bit of a kick while its down by ditching the name it grew up with and rebranding the latest version simply Nokia Belle. That's right, the Symbian title we've all come to know and love is being retired by Nokia, and with very little fanfare. In fact, the switch is relegated to a parenthetical aside in an update on the status of Belle at the official blog of the Finnish manufacturer. Here's the announcement in its entirety: "The all new Nokia Belle (previously Symbian Belle)..." That's it! Of course, functionally, swapping Symbian for Nokia makes little difference, but its still sad to see one of the last vestiges of this long lived platform disappear. We'd say to check out the source for more details, but that's all she wrote.
Blizzard extends new guild services to additional realms
As promised, Blizzard's been slowing rolling out its new guild services to new realms. It's now added the Whirlwind and Emberstorm battlegroups and will continue to add more realms in the coming weeks. Guild services include realm transfer, name change, and faction change, among other things. You can read the complete FAQ at our original announcement post, and after the break, find a list of both the previously available realms and a list of the newly added realms.
Wurm Online's studio changes its moniker
It may be a new name, but it's the same old team. The makers of Wurm Online have changed their studio name from Onetoofree to the more alliterative Code Club. According to the website, the name Onetoofree was always intended to be a temporary one and was too annoying to relay to people vocally (as you'd always have to spell it out). The old title also gave no strong impression as to what the studio was like or did. Code Club fits the team's visions and is aiming to be identified as an "exotic-style" company. After all, according to its site the company serves "hot coffee and cold drinks in our spacious jungle lounge." Because the name change hurts the company's Google rankings, the studio asked that everyone in the world -- or at least dedicated fans -- start Googling "Code Club" instead.
Zombie Cow becomes Size Five Games
Let's face it: Zombies have become oppressively mainstream during these past few years. Let's also face the fact that cows have equally over-saturated civilization ever since somebody figured out that the milk they produce tastes totally awesome. We assume that these two undeniable truths are the major reasons behind Ben There, Dan That and Privates developer Zombie Cow's recent decision to change its name to the much less predictable Size Five Games. "I've always hated the name Zombie Cow," founder Dan Marshall explained in a blog post. "You only get one life, and there's no point going through it unhappy with something if it's well within your capability to change it," he added. "So I'm changing it." That's ... that's inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that it's leading us to our very own name change. That's right -- we're rebranding ourselves as "Joystick." We've been too proud for years now to admit that we spelled it wrong, but we just can't hide behind the lie anymore.
Nokia slams door on Ovi label, rebranding everything to Nokia Services
Nokia's Ovi Store, Ovi Maps, and Ovi everything else will soon be getting a name change. The Finnish company has announced that it's "evolving" its software brand identity by renaming its service offerings to Nokia services, starting with new devices in July and August. This transition is expected to last into 2012 and was pretty much inevitable in the wake of Nokia's hookup with Microsoft earlier this year. Part of that agreement was for Nokia software, Maps in particular, to be made available in other Windows Phone devices and across Microsoft's range of services, so it makes sense for Nokia to literally put its name on its wares. Nothing structural will be changing about software roadmaps or plans up in Finland, this will be just a new nameplate atop the same strategy as outlined previously.
