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Indie Royale's next bundle available for pre-order, and we have no idea what it is
Indie Royale, the new indie bundle that allows you to pay anything above a minimum (which changes depending on what other people pay), is launching a "New Year's Bundle" of PC and Mac games, which you can pre-order now at a minimum price of $3.99. The trick is that you won't know what you're pre-ordering. It's a "blind pre-order," with only descriptions of the available games given. The identity of the games will be revealed sometime later this week. "We first started the blind pre-order for Indie Royale for two reasons," Indie Royale co-founder Simon Carless told Joystiq. "Firstly, we did it because the popularity of Indie Royale was crushing our website when we launched, thanks to the 'ascending price' model - although we've improved our systems a lot since then! And secondly, because the price is variable for the bundle, we found our users were stressed about being in front of a computer when the bundle launched." Also, Carless added, "We find that some people have fun guessing the games in the bundle! More power to them!"
Joystiq Podcast Roundtable - Blizzavision ... Actiblizzard?
The Joystiq Podcast Roundtable returns to dissect the latest megatons in the video game industry. This installment we're talking about the new corporate entity of Activision Blizzard ... err, Blizzavision ... err, Actiblizzard? Whatever you call it, it's complicated. To make sense of the deal, and its ramifications, we've assembled an all star panel. Seated at the roundtable are James Brightman, Lead Business Editor for Game Daily BIZ; Simon Carless, Editorial Director of the CMP Game Group (think Game Developer Magazine and Gamasutra.com); and lastly the alphabetically prejudiced Michael Zenke, Editor at Slashdot Games, blogger at Joystiq's own Massively.com, as well as blogger at his own MMOGNation.com. Topics discussed include Blizzard's independence, Activision's gains, Sierra's status, the possibility of console games from Blizz, the possibility of MMOs from Activision, and whether or not EA needs some new drawers, so give it a listen. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [Digg] Like the show? Digg it. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly
April Fool's Alert #6: Chinese WoW players hunt real Chinese people
Simon Carless over at GameSetWatch is one cheeky Brit. Unlike the Chinese WoW Coca-Cola bottles you see pictured, which are absolutely real, there aren't a group of wealthy Chinese WoW players setting up "WOW Hunting Park" to pursue their fellow man for sport. That's a whole new level of cosplay that we don't even think the Chinese have attained. In Carless' story a wealthy man by the name of Boss Wu owns a mine and discovered, "We pay miners 30-50,000 RMB a year, and 50-100,000 RMB when they get killed. Why not offer them 250,000 RMB to let us hunt them down in our WOW Park? If they can survive the day without being killed we pay them the money, and if we catch them we pay their families."Mine Boss Wu is the leader of a guild called Kuangzhu, which consists of 15 other Shanxi mine owners and the idea for the real-life cosplay WoW hunt came up at one of their monthly meetings. If Carless had gone the extra step and created a fake source for this story, we could've seen this being picked up by the mainstream media as real. Seriously, the MSM would love a story of men hunting men for sport.
Sony recruits journalists for "semi official" blog [update 1]
If you can't beat the blogosphere, then you might as well join it, secretly, and pick up a few established writers along the way. That's what Sony is doing with website ThreeSpeech.com. The website states: "Three Speech isn't part of PlayStation, but it does get to speak to PlayStation. You could say we're 'semi official.'" Yeah, you could say you're a semiofficial advertisement. Respected games journalist Simon Carless points out that something is rotten in the state of ThreeSpeech, citing an exclusive interview with Sony's Phil Harrison that first appeared on ThreeSpeech and then on GamesIndustry.biz. The technical quote from GI.biz, "Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz' Rob Fahey as part of an interview being serialised on semi-official Sony blog Three Speech." To boil this down to its simplest form: When you're good to mama, mama's good to you.Yes, Major Nelson is the Microsoft equivalent to ThreeSpeech, but typically "journalists" aren't involved in his glorified press releases. Everyone involved knows what Major Nelson is and who he represents. Sony is sneaking into the blogosphere and pocketing some writers with promises of "exclusives" to promote their agenda -- and their bottom line.[Update 1: Apparently there is confusion regarding Major Nelson -- added link]
