olivier-comte
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Wakfu lands on Steam, nixes subs
The unique tactical MMO Wakfu is getting sort of a re-launch today with a debut on Steam. This "new and revamped" version of the game will feature a new beginner experience and completely eliminate subscriptions. The studio is selling booster packs as one of the ways to make ends meet. Ankama COO Olivier Comte celebrated the release: "We are proud to bring Wakfu on Steam and give the opportunity to more and more players to discover this universe. We are starting with English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Thai players, but more will follow soon." [Source: Ankama press release]
Wakfu relaunch moves into open beta
Wakfu's continuing with its "relaunch" strategy by fine-tuning its free-to-play offerings and now announcing the start of its open beta program. As of today, anyone can jump into the game to see how the MMO's improved with its new format. Ankama Managing Director and COO Olivier Comte makes the pitch that Wakfu is definitely worth checking out: "As we open the updated world of Wakfu to an even broader set of fans, we will continue to focus on the core and essence of our gameplay –- the players. In addition to a broad range of classes to suit varying tastes, colorful environments and our well-known sense of humor, Wakfu gives players a chance to impact the entire game world through their strategic and even political decisions." [Source: Ankama press release]
Namco executive: F2P titles 'can't be high quality'
Just when we thought every game development firm on the planet had jumped on the free-to-play bandwagon, along comes Namco-Bandai and executive Olivier Comte. The senior vice president recently spoke at the Cloud Gaming Europe conference, and he had some pretty harsh words for the industry's new business model darling. "Free-to-play games can't be high quality," Comte said. "The business model for smaller, easier titles is making an expectation to consumers that is whittling away at AAA development." He went on to stress that larger companies have to think long-term, and he opined that the proliferation of cheap games is going to be problematic for the industry if the trend continues.
Namco Bandai Partners supports 'always on' DRM, for now
Namco Bandai Partners, the former Atari Europe operation acquired by Namco Bandai last year, is a bit more supportive of Ubisoft's "always on" DRM for PC games than Blizzard -- but only a bit. Speaking to CVG, Namco Bandai Partners VP Olivier Comte called the technology "a good [approach] for one reason: I have no alternative today." He added that it's "certainly not" the best option, and "if I can make something else I'll do it, but it's better to do something than not do something." It seems likely, then, that the same kind of DRM that has beset the PC versions of Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers 7 will be present in Namco Bandai's Test Drive Unlimited 2 and The Witcher 2, at least in Europe. Despite his reluctant adoption of DRM, Comte lamented the futility of such attempts to curb piracy. "I'm convinced that whatever system you put in place you can be sure that two hours before putting it out it'll be cracked in Russia," he said. "I think that the combat against piracy is very complicated because it's very complicated to explain to a 12-year-old that drag and dropping a file on a PC is piracy -- he was born with this." [Via Big Download]
