Q-Entertainment
Latest
Lumines changes hands, returning on iOS and Android
Mobcast acquired the Lumines and Meteos properties from Q Entertainment, the Japanese smartphone game developer announced this week, as translated by Gematsu. Additionally, a new Lumines game is on the way for iOS and Android, and will be a collaboration with the colorful puzzle series' creator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Mizuguchi will work on the latest Lumines at his new California-based studio, Enhance Games. The Rez and Space Channel 5 creator co-founded Q Entertainment in 2003 following his departure from Sega. Mizuguchi left the developer in March. The last Lumines game to launch was 2012's Lumines: Electronic Symphony (seen above). [Image: Q Entertainment]
Report: Rez developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi departs Q Entertainment
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, most famous for developing trippy shooters Child of Eden and Rez, has departed Q Entertainment, according to an unnamed employee who reportedly contacted CVG to relay the news. Though Mizuguchi founded Q Entertainment in 2003 after leaving Sega, CVG's anonymous source claims the developer departed the company at an unspecified point in 2013. The move remained a secret until now, though its not entirely clear why neither Q Entertainment nor Mizuguchi made this news available to the public. As for Mizuguchi's motivations, the source cites the acquisition of Q Entertainment by Japanese company Sanyo Chemical Industries. That may be the case, but Mizuguchi had long ago stepped away from having an active hand in the development of Q Entertainment's products. As we reported in 2012, Mizuguchi made a public decision to move into a spokesman role at the company, and had focused his development efforts on more academic pursuits. [Image: Ubisoft]
Destiny of Spirits global beta starts October 24
Q Entertainment's monster-collecting Vita game Destiny of Spirits will enter a beta test phase on October 24. The free-to-play RPG has players engaging in turn-based combat with their upgradable minions, which players can trade or lend to others. The game encourages players to bring their Vitas with them while traveling, as the system's location-tracking tech is used to unlock spirits with every trip. The global beta program, which allows players to collect every spirit and access every location in the Destiny of Spirits, will end November 1.
Free-to-play RPG Destiny of Spirits hits Vita this year
SCE Japan Studio and Lumines developer Q Entertainment are teaming up to deliver the free-to-play RPG Destiny of Spirits to PS Vita owners later this year. In Destiny of Spirits, players command an army of upgradable creatures in a series of turn-based battles. Spirit types are assigned elemental strengths and weaknesses, and players must build their teams strategically in order to penetrate enemy defenses. It's all a bit Pokemon-ish, in other words, though gameplay seems to focus exclusively on combat. Destiny of Spirits also lets players trade spirits with friends, and daily "blessings" can boost the power of certain unit types in battle. Destiny of Spirits will hit the PlayStation Network in 2013. %Gallery-191362%
Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi joins Keio University
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, former head of Q? Entertainment and creator of games like Rez, Lumines, Space Channel 5 and Child of Eden, has taken a position at Keio University as a "project professor." He remains at Q as a "spokesperson."Keio's announcement notes that his position in the Graduate School of Media Design will allow him to "continue to produce games and further expand his expertise in the field of media design and innovative content production." So he's still working on games, but no longer in a commercial environment.Considering he's best known for games about shooting corrupted files out of the computerized memory of a virtual teenager, and using your dancing-slash-journalism skills to defeat TV-faced aliens, we're intensely curious about what Mizuguchi does when freed from commercial concerns.
Rez and Child of Eden creator Mizuguchi steps away from game development
Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man behind Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden, isn't currently developing games at Q Entertainment. Company director Nobuhiko Shimizu told Eurogamer that Mizuguchi is taking on a "spokesperson" role, having become more involved with "academic work."Mizuguchi's game development career began at Sega in 1990. There he created Sega Rally, Space Channel 5, and Rez, before moving to Q Entertainment in 2003. At Q he designed Lumines, Ninety-Nine Nights, and most recently Child of Eden. While Mizuguchi didn't oversee Q Entertainment's latest game, Lumines Electric Symphony, he was heavily involved with its development.
Lumines Electronic Symphony asks you to spam Ubisoft for classic DLC
Q Entertainment, the developer of the Lumines franchise, would love to launch a DLC pack including an HD remake of the classic PSP level "Shinin'" for Vita's Lumines Electronic Symphony. Ubisoft, however, controls Electronic Symphony's content – so Q Entertainment is asking fans to tell the publisher they want some DLC. This is what your mom was talking about when she said the "good" kind of peer pressure."Who wants some DLC?" Q Entertainment writes on the Electronic Symphony Facebook wall. "To be clear: This is not something that's planned at the moment, but if enough people say 'yeah!' maybe Electronic Symphony's publisher, Ubisoft, will greenlight a high-def Vitafied recreation of 'Shinin''? Dare to dream."Almost 100 people have said they "Like" the idea of Vita DLC, and others have added variations of "Yeah!" to the post's comments. Q Entertainment knows we can't all get what we want – unless we all want it, that is.[Thanks, Mike J.]
James Mielke leaves Q? Entertainment to join Q-Games
Seemingly in an effort to have the most confusing career path possible, former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor in chief James Mielke has left his post as a producer at Q? Entertainment (where he headed development of the excellent Lumines Electronic Symphony) and joined Q-Games , thus making those two companies even easier to mix up. "To be clear, Q and I are parting company on the best of terms," Mielke told CVG, referring to Q? Entertainment. "For a lot of reasons I won't bore you with the time felt right to shift gears and move forward." If his first project at Q-Games is called "Pixeljunk Luminous" or is a Pixeljunk Eden spinoff for children, we quit.
Lumines Electronic Symphony review: Three-part harmony
This is going to sound incredibly entitled, I know, but reviewing video games can be very stressful work -- especially in the case of a new console launch, where you're given more games than you'd normally play in a year and asked to absorb them all in a week.Under conditions like those, it's easy for panic to set in; playing games can feel like work, and you're constantly worried that you're not playing when you're writing, and not writing when you're playing.The PlayStation Vita launch game Lumines: Electronic Symphony, despite technically being part of this hectic situation, has had nothing but a restorative effect on my mood. My time playing Lumines has been the only time in the last week during which I wasn't panicking. I come out of a 45-minute session feeling rested and kind of euphoric. How's that for an endorsement?%Gallery-147435%
Lumines Electronic Symphony's 34 tracks revealed
Ask any musician and they'll tell you the set list is crucial; it's a diverse collection of tunes meant to elicit specific emotions from the audience. The track list for PlayStation Vita launch game Lumines Electronic Symphony is no different.Electronica fans (electronicistas?) will notice some great acts like LCD Soundsystem, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Goldfrapp and Mark Ronson & The Business.In addition to the track list, the PlayStation Blog also has a brief Q&A with some of the musicians in the game. If you want some insight into their songs and why they were chosen for the game, hit up the source link below.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony includes bonus MP3s at Amazon
Though it's totally convenient to buy all your Vita games on PSN, there is sometimes an advantage to buying them retail. In the case of Lumines: Electronic Symphony, when ordered from Amazon, that advantage entails three exclusive MP3 downloads.Purchases of the puzzler from Amazon will come with three MP3s by composer Makoto Asai, from the game's "secret unlockable stages." Amazon has the release date listed as February 14, in time for the early First Edition Bundle.Aside from the Q? produced tracks, artists with music in Electronic Symphony include "Kaskade, LCD Soundsystem, Chemical Brothers, Bebel Gilberto, Goldfrapp, Josh Wink, Safri Duo, Amon Tobin," and more.
The MMO Report: This is why we can't have nice things edition
This week on The MMO Report, Casey explains that the leaked Guild Wars 2 Mesmer reveal is exactly why we can't have nice things. He highlights Lord of the Rings Online's first major update since the Rise of Isengard expansion, discusses the newly revealed Egyptian-themed zone in Funcom's upcoming The Secret World, and suggests that fan feedback -- "very loud fan feedback" -- is responsible for the fan-pandering of EVE Online's recent Crucible expansion. He also pokes a bit of fun at Q Entertainment's on-the-nose Ninety-Nine Nights Online, a "2-D PC action mmo [that] will most likely play exactly how you expect it to, with lots of clicks and clacks and plenty of hacks and slashes." Finally, Casey dips into Uncle Casey's Mailbag to read an email from a fan who believes Casey is a dead-ringer for Christopher Eccleston (of Doctor Who fame), which gave The Beard an opportunity to plug next week's special edition MMO Report, in which the crew will dish out some insider info on the inbound Doctor Who MMO. The full video is tucked behind the break.
Q? Entertainment reveals Ninety-Nine Nights Online
It's been a busy year for games, but something is missing. Batman, Assasssin's Creed, Skyrim, sure, those are all great, but what about Ninety-Nine Nights? Q? Entertainment has got you covered, unveiling the 2D PC action MMO we've all been dying to play. Ninety-Nine Nights Online is being developed by UserJoy Technology, and the trailer reveals that it contains both hacking and slashing. We'd say this one probably won't see a release outside Asia. If you feel like braving lots of Japanese text, however, Siliconera reports that you can sign up for a preview version over at the official site.
Grab a Kinect (with Child of Eden!) for $120 at Amazon (update: $100 through buy.com)
We were a bit discouraged when we checked Amazon's game deal of the day and saw that it was a paltry $10 discount on the PC version of Fable 3. But there are more exciting deals to be found this week (in addition to that great Halloween sale). One of the retailer's "Deals of the Week" knocks 20% off the retail price of Kinect, allowing you to get the sensor, Kinect Adventures, and a download of Child of Eden for $119.99. You can also get the previous bundle, without Child of Eden, for the same price, if you really think you or the lucky recipient of this gift is going to hate Child of Eden that much. Other week-long deals include Rift for $9, and (easy participant of the Halloween deal) FEAR 3 on PS3 or Xbox 360 for $28. Update: Dealzon pointed out that it's currently $107.24 at buy.com -- and, if you go through Buy's eBay site, it's $99.99.]
Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos explains what happened to Rock Band Japan
After announcing intentions to bring its Rock Band franchise to the Japanese market way back in the summer of 2008, Harmonix and co-developer Q Entertainment quietly walked away from the project. "Never say never," Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said of the project in a group interview session this week at Tokyo Game Show, answering a question asked by Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft. "We were very much interested in bringing that experience in some form to the Japanese market," he explained. "There were a couple of significant challenges." Beyond the whole "manufacturing and shipping hundreds of thousands more plastic peripherals to an island country" ... thing, Rigopulos lamented issues with licensing Japanese music for the game, which he characterized as "very difficult in Japan, relative to other countries." He also pointed to a rather obvious concern: space limitations in Japanese households. "Even for people who have the space, Japanese families tend to not make a lot of noise in their homes. They generally have a quieter lifestyle at home 'cause they're living in closer quarters, and also Japanese families don't entertain in their homes as much." Given the original inspiration for Harmonix' franchises Guitar Hero and Rock Band was the arcade-born Guitar/Drum Freaks franchise, I wondered if Harmonix had looked at Japanese arcades as an option instead of a home console release. "That's something we considered," he admitted. "One of the challenges is that arcades are very, very noisy, and so if you're trying to make something that's really a musical experience and you've got 37 other arcade machines all turned up to full volume, it kind of impairs the musicality of the experience." Again, Rigopulos said Harmonix has yet to give up on the concept of Rock Band in Japan, but from the sound of things, it's not exactly at the top of his priority list. [Image credit: ShonenKnife.com]
Ubisoft has no plans to offer downloadable Child of Eden, holding out hope it'll still catch on
Perhaps one of the saddest stories this year was the lack of commercial success for Child of Eden. The game was very well received critically -- our own review called it a "momentary masterpiece." And at a Kinect event being held at Ubisoft's San Francisco headquarters today, I once again cornered senior VP of sales and marketing, Tony Key, to talk about Miziguchi's latest. "Can you tell we like Kinect?" Tony joked at the outset of our interview. "Child of Eden went to retail, it got great reviews," he said, as I steered us back onto the subject at hand, "it's a great product, but we didn't sell as many copies as we hoped, obviously. And that's a shame, because the game is great and deserves recognition. I just think your more mainstream consumer -- a lot of the Kinect people are -- haven't quite figured out what that experience is, so we continue to get great reviews and not a lot of sales at retail, but Microsoft saw that as an opportunity, took it and put it in with Kinect." But that brings up an interesting question: the copy of Child of Eden included in the limited quantity Kinect bundle is a downloadable version, accessed via a code in the box. Could we see a downloadable version of Child of Eden offered via Xbox Live to all consumers? "Potentially," Tony said. "We don't use that model right now for any of our games -- we sell new retail games. It's not something we have in the plan at the moment, but if that model is coming, I don't see why Child of Eden couldn't fit in there." As for more Child of Eden games, don't hold your breath. While Tony says Ubisoft is "still holding out hope this game will find its audience," the potential for other games right now is hopeful at best. "We think the renewed interest generated from this new bundle could be a tipping point for Child of Eden to become a bigger brand for us. We would love to have that happen."
Child of Eden is $10 at Best Buy, and you'd best buy it [update: sold out!]
If you've been waiting for the most insane discount ever before buying Child of Eden, here you go. The Xbox 360 version is on sale for just $9.99. That's basically a rental price. If you're even a little bit interested in rail-shooting your way through surreal imagery to the "Heavenly" tunes of the Genki Rockets -- and you're not already picking it up in a Kinect bundle, for free -- you should just go ahead and pull the trigger (to the beat of your favorite electronic music). Just make a sandwich at home one night instead of ordering a pizza, and you've recouped the cost of that experiment! No harm done. Update: We hope you all got in on that deal, because Best Buy is out of stock now. It's ... possible the store will restock it at that price, but we're guessing that's not what will happen.
Child of Eden dated, priced for PS3
Ubisoft's Child of Eden will flow through swirling colors and into retail reality on PS3 this September. IGN confirmed with Ubisoft that the game will retail for $49.99 in the States when it launches on September 20. It'll be out in Europe on September 23. Edge reports the Euro price has been cut by half for the PS3 version, which could also carry over to the Xbox 360 version by the time September rolls around. Child of Eden was criminally overlooked in June by US consumers, selling a mere 34,000 units in its debut month despite earning a coveted 5/5 review from video game kingmaker Joystiq.com.
Zelda sold well in June, Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned did not
Three major Japanese-developed games came out in North America in June: one of which performed really well, the other two ... not so much. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D showed up at #5 on the software top ten chart yesterday. Nintendo subsequently announced that it sold "more than 283,000 units," making it the second best-selling game on a single platform, right behind Infamous 2. It's the first 3DS exclusive to chart on the top ten. Meanwhile, two games weirder than Zelda attracted far more exclusive audiences. Child of Eden, the NPD told Joystiq, sold approximately 34,000 units in its debut month, ranking at number 83. At the same time, Shadows of the Damned managed to sell 24,000 copies, combined, on PS3 and Xbox 360. Damn.
Child of Eden down to $35 at Amazon (you're running out of excuses!)
Our five-star review of Child of Eden praised just about everything the game had to offer, short of its diminutive length. "You can beat it in a single sitting (or, as the case may be, standing), with the game's five chapters clocking in at a scant 90 minutes," our own Griffin McElroy wrote. "It ends with a swell, and leaves you with a despondent, unanswered wish for more." While this Amazon deal won't deliver any more Child of Eden, it can help deliver some Child of Eden to those of you still positioned squarely on the fence. At $35, a 30% savings from its usual $50 asking price, Child of Eden may be a no-brainer for some of you; for others, nothing short of $20 will do. We're not judging you ... but you're cheap. [Thanks, Andrew.]
