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SiN preloading on Steam; retail drops 5/9
The first installment of SiN Episodes, Emergence, is now available for pre-loading now on Valve's digital distribution network, Steam. Though the official May 9th release date is still over a month away, you'll be able to save 10% off of the $19.95 purchase price, and get instant access to the original SiN via Steam for a grand total of $17.95. Don't have broadband and/or think Steam is the debil's bidness? Similar to their arrangement to distribute Valve's Half-Life 2, EA will be handling the retail distribution of SiN Episodes: Emergence. Both the retail version and the downloadable version will be available on May 9th.If you're nervous about the episodic playing length and the gameplay-to-hard-earned-money ratio, you'll have to wait to read the reviews ... then again, you'll miss out on the discount and the freebie. Sneaky buggers.[Thanks to everyone that tipped us off]
A SiN-terview with Ritual Entertainment
FiringSquad has an interview with some members of Ritual Entertainment, the team bringing us the Steam-distributed SiN Episodes any day now...Following the big Sony announcement at GDC, Nintendo's plans to offer downloadable games on the Revolution, and Microsoft's own prospering Xbox Live Marketplace, it's now crystal clear that digital distribution is the biggest thing since sliced bread 4x anti-aliasing. The guys from Ritual make a couple really cogent points; their Dickens analogy is particularly apt, discussing how the 19th century benefits of serial distribution are no different than many of the benefits the model aims to offer today's gaming audience. Some choice quotes: "I believe we are going to see more and more high-quality game content being released digitally via services like Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace. That is not to say that the traditional retail channel is going away, digital distribution is merely another avenue for developers to get their games out there...." "As a developer, making a game under the episodic model has been MUCH easier. This paradigm forces us to encapsulate our efforts into more manageable pieces, and to compartmentalize our development cycles." "We’re in talks with Microsoft about getting SiN Episodes on Xbox Live Marketplace, which is a really great outlet for the game. We’ll have more on that at a later time." But what about the hard drive, man?
Friends beta now available in the Steam client
According to Eurogamer, the "Friends" feature of Steam is "'nearing the end of its beta phase' and will soon be available."In an update made to the Steam client and noted on Steam News this afternoon, you can now also "join the Friends Beta via the Friends button inside of Steam."Great to hear about the progress, but Xbox owners might take some pride in Live's functioning Friends list on the console side over this prominent PC-based service (third-party friends apps notwithstanding, of course).[Via Eurogamer]
Ritual raps SiN, episodic, and Xbox 360
GameDaily talked with Ritual Entertainment's Tom Mustaine and Levelord (not his birthname... we think) about SiN Episodes, episodic content, and even their Xbox 360 plans. They have some valuable insights into episodic distribution, equating it to the popular shareware format, explaining, "Finally, let's remember the shareware model used by game developers not so long ago. It was actually an episodic delivery paradigm. With shareware, we would release the first episode, usually before the completed game was finished. Then the full game would be released, which usually was the second and third episodes. These would then, if the game was successful, be followed by a series of add-on packs, each of which to be called another episode."Episodic delivery is gaining a lot of "Steam" in the industry thanks to games like SiN Episodes, Telltale's adventure game offerings like Bone and the upcoming Sam & Max, and the 800lb. gorilla in the gaming room, Half-Life 2. Figuring out how to offer episodic content over Xbox Live is something we're very eager to hear about. Ritual's Mustaine says, "[Microsoft does] have limitations on Marketplace download sizes. Since we are still in discussions with Microsoft about the 360 version, details about that product should appear in the near future." Titles distributed via XBLM are expected to fit onto the Memory Unit, which is obviously out of the question for a game like SiN. Unfortunately, the hard drive, with only 13GB free, is another limiting factor. What's the solution: larger hard drive sizes? Streaming content? Or direct-mail episodes on DVDs? If anyone wants to drop specifics, send us a tip!
SiN Episodes: Emergence trailer
Ritual has posted the official trailer for their upcoming title, SiN Episodes: Emergence. The Source engine looks great, as is to be expected, and while the characters and setting are typical FPS-generic, the distribution method is what distinguishes this puppy from the litter. Six hours of gameplay for $20 is what we're hearing; not a bad deal considering there are plenty of games that last only marginally longer for the full $50. The trailer is available in both HD (1280x720) and itty-bitty (640x360). More on SiN Episodes: EmergenceSiN Episodes coming "early-ish March"SiN Episodes Xbox 360 bound?New Year's resolution: SiNRitual reveals episode based SiN sequel[Via CVG]
SiN Episodes coming "early-ish March"
A Shacknews user going by the name "sicko" claims to have gotten a whole bunch of hands on time with the upcoming episodic title, SiN Episodes: Emergence. How did he get this opportunity? Easy, the poster happens to be buddies with Ritual Entertainment's Tom Mustaine. What did he have to say about the experience? He says bluntly, "I really think this is the most exciting thing happening in gaming." Some of the juicier bits:-"I know SiN: Episodes multiplayer won't be immediately available... but it is something they hope to release before Episode 2."-"Early-ish March is the target right now I was told. It looks good, so I can't imagine they would miss that date. I am pretty stoked."-"$20 for 6ish hours of gameplay supposedly."-On the dynamic difficulty, "You won't be able to force the difficulty. I was actually feeling pretty skeptical about that at first though, but the way they do it is far more advanced than just adding more enemies, higher hitpoints, etc. Nobody has ever done it like this before... It is kind of staggering how much data they are tracking... It adjusts it every 2 minutes, so the game will be very dynamic and won't hang onto a particular setting very long if it isn't working."In summary, we're talking about a $20 game with about 6 hours of gameplay and, using technology from the future, won't be too easy or too hard... and you'll probably get some multiplayer thrown in at some point.
