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Uncharted Vita postmortem details Sony Bend's struggles with writing a female lead
Writer and Director John Garvin of Sony Bend recently discussed the development of Uncharted: Golden Abyss in a postmortem on Gamasutra. One of the topics covered by Garvin was the distaste focus testers had for the game's lead female character, Marisa Chase."The problem, we discovered, was the writing. In the script, Chase's character was a bit of a smart ass and a little sarcastic," Garvin wrote. The focus group determined that Chase was a "wimp," and that her character upheld a number of gender stereotypes."For gameplay reasons, we constantly put Chase into situations where Drake needed to take action. Call it lazy if you want, but we ended up with a few 'Princess Peach' scenarios," Garvin said. "It seemed that poor Chase was constantly being choked, shot at, knocked out, dragged around and kidnapped. We fixed that, as well as we could, by changing the scenarios to make Chase less of a victim."In the second round of focus testing, Garvin was prompted to consider another change to the character. "What's that old adage? If a man acts forceful he's 'take-charge and aggressive, a real leader' but if a woman acts that way, she's being 'pushy and a bitch' -- an unfair gender stereotype, but one we had to deal with," he wrote. "How? By making her less aggressive and critical."The rest of the postmortem on Uncharted: Golden Abyss is an interesting read, and includes notes about the game's environments and how further focus testing impacted its story and ending.
Uncharted is a 'pillar franchise,' nothing to say about its future just yet
"This show is about Naughty Dog and The Last of Us. So we're not talking about Uncharted for the future," Sony VP of product development and worldwide studios Scott Rohde told Joystiq in an interview this week. That doesn't mean there aren't things happening with the Uncharted franchise elsewhere at Sony, of course. "It's a Sony IP, but it's just not something we're talking about. Of course it's one of our pillar franchises," Rohde said.The latest entry in the Uncharted franchise was the Vita's Uncharted: Golden Abyss – the series' first title not developed by Naughty Dog. Its production was instead handled by Sony's internal Bend studio, with Naughty Dog overseeing development. Rohde added that "it'd be ridiculous to say that we're not always thinking about [Uncharted], but we're just not talking about it right now."
Vita sales hit 1.2 million worldwide, software surpasses 2 million units
Sony announced this morning that sales of the PlayStation Vita have reached 1.2 million globally, boosted by the recent launch in Americas, Europe and PAL territories. According to the company, sales of the hardware have "exceeded expectations," with software sales for the new handheld surpassing 2 million units."The market has responded and there is clear demand for a mobile device capable of providing a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context," said Sony Computer Entertainment prez Andrew House. "To sustain momentum, we're working closely with third party developers and publishers to ensure the best games and franchises possible will be available on PS Vita, and our software line up for the remainder of 2012 will have something for everyone across the globe."Check out our updated launch guide for the latest on the system.
Vita launch pushes software in UK, Syndicate debuts in top ten
The Vita's launch in the UK saw 23 games hit the shelves for the handheld, but only two titles accounted for 50 percent of sales. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was at the top of the Chart-Track UK charts this past week, representing 31 percent of week one Vita software sales. FIFA Football took second with 18 percent of first week sales.Syndicate was the biggest non-Vita launch of the week, hacking into the charts in seventh place. Mistwalker's The Last Story premiered at number 15; it was announced last week the game will make its way to North America this summer.Check out the UK top ten after the break.
Tretton hoping for half-million PS Vita sales in first three weeks of US launch
Sony's backing the Vita's US launch with a $50 million marketing campaign. The company is, as you would expect, bullish on the system's future here, with CEO Jack Tretton estimating a big impact in terms of launch window sales.Speaking with Reuters, Tretton said he would "be very pleased" if the PlayStation Vita moved half a million units in the United States in the next three weeks. Even though the Vita moved 321,000 units in its first two days on sale, it took over a month for the Vita to hit 500,000 in Japan. The cheaper PSP is still popular in that region and moves thousands of units each week. North America, however, is a much larger market.Instead, launch sales of the PSP in the US may be more indicative of what the PS Vita will do. The PSP launched here on March 24, 2005, for $249 and sold 500,000 in its first two days.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss TV spot runs for its life
We don't think Uncharted: Golden Abyss is quite this immersive, but you get the idea.
Uncharted Golden Abyss review: Grave rubber
Presenting Uncharted: Golden Abyss as one of Nathan Drake's earlier adventures is a masterstroke. For one thing, it explains why people are still hiring him to hunt down relics. At this point, they just haven't heard of the handsome, half-tucked grave robber who breaks everything he climbs across, shoots everyone he sees, and goes through an awful lot of trouble for treasure that's invariably cursed, deadly or not really treasure at all.But we're not interested in the chest full of MacGuffins at the end. We're in it for the hero's hazardous journey over crumbling handholds and vertiginous chasms. We like to see an ancient civilization lurch back into life with the aid of an unbelievably convoluted, one-use mechanism. And we want to spot that spark between the characters who get themselves into one mess after another, and yet another. If that's what Uncharted is to you, then you'll find very little has been lost in the transition to PlayStation Vita.
Playable Vita demo units now at Gamestop
If you're just dying to get your hot little hands on a PlayStation Vita, you may want to hit up your local GameStop. Keep in mind that said unit will be securely bolted down, because its a demo unit, of course!The retailer has announced that it now has demo units at over 3,300 of it's locations, allowing customers to try out several games, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Little Deviants, Modnation Racers: Road Trip, WipeOut: 2048 and more.Just remember: Wash your hands. It's flu season, after all.
PS Vita game downloads cheaper than boxed copies in US
Sony is offering a discount for game-starved shut-ins with PlayStation Vitas, Shacknews has confirmed. It shouldn't come as a surprise, since Sony has been talking about doing such a thing for months now, and has followed a similar pricing scheme -- favoring downloads -- in Japan.There's no exact indication of how much you'll save downloading through PSN compared to purchasing boxed copies, but a NeoGAF thread of supposed Best Buy SKUs suggests it'll be a ten percent discount.
CAG giving away PlayStation Vita bundles in Child's Play raffle
CAG has been propositioning patrons for donations to its Child's Play fundraiser, and the addition of three PlayStation Vita bundles certainly has us eyeing our credit card. There are only 10 days left to donate to CAG if you want the chance to own a Vita without dropping hundreds of extra dollars on Play-Asia. In addition to the PlayStation Vita unit from Japan, CAG is tossing in an 8GB memory card, a PSN card worth ￥5,000, a copy of Uncharted: Golden Abyss ... and Japanese Chicken Pox. We're pretty sure that last one is a joke. At least, we hope it is.
Sony bringing 12 first party Vita launch titles to Europe, including Uncharted and Wipeout
Sony kinda has a thing for Europe, as evidenced by today's PlayStation Vita event in London. SCEE worldwide studios SVP Michael Denny took to the stage to reveal the February 22, 2012 first party launch lineup for the PlayStation Vita, which includes titles like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Wipeout 2048. The list of 12 games adds to the two from Namco we already expected by February 22 -- namely Ridge Racer and Touch My Katamari -- and reveals a cadre of "in development" titles, even outing a couple we'd yet to hear about. Presumably the EU's first party launch lineup isn't far off from North America's, but we'll assuredly find out more definitively in the near future.
More Vita games priced in Japan, cheaper on PSN than retail
Famitsu revealed the Japanese launch price for the PlayStation Vita's Uncharted: Golden Abyss, offering evidence that Vita games in general will follow the same pricing structure seen with Army Corps of Hell (and with the PSP), in which PSN versions are a bit cheaper than retail. The card version will sell for ¥5,980 ($78), with the downloadable version at ¥4,900 ($64). Namco Bandai will temporarily widen the gap between PSN and retail prices with promotional discounts on the downloadable versions of Ridge Racer and Katamari Damacy no Vita. Katamari is priced at ¥4,980 ($65) in stores and ¥4,480 ($58) on PSN, but will be ¥3,980 ($52) on PSN through March 31. Ridge Racer will be ¥2,980 ($39) on PSN for the same time period, going up to its normal PSN price of ¥3,580 ($47) afterward; retail is set for ¥3,980 ($52).
Take a run through the enflamed Uncharted: Golden Abyss TGS demo
Whether you're curious about how the Vita's inputs will be utilized in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, or wondering what perilous malarkey protagonist Nathan Drake will get into this time around, the TGS demo walkthrough video posted above should satisfy your curiosity.
PlayStation Vita media roundup: New trailers for Uncharted: Golden Abyss and 11 others
Sony always makes a big splash at Gamescom and this year is no exception. In addition to a newer, cheaper PSP and a cheaper, if not newer, PS3, Sony is also ready with plenty of PlayStation Vita materials. You want a dozen trailers showing off what the device is capable of? After the break you'll find video of everything from Uncharted: Golden Abyss to LittleBigPlanet Vita to augmented reality app Tag. We've also got some screens for the newly titled Resistance: Burning Skies and the newly announced Smart As.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss trailer introduces the dangling participants
Sony Bend's portable Uncharted adventure exhibits all the elements fans have come to expect from the franchise: vibrant graphics, treacherous environments, and cocky fortune hunters. Nice Meryl haircut, lady.
There's an Uncharted: Golden Abyss video at the end of this short post
The Uncharted series wowed us on two fronts this evening. After the break, courtesy of a kind stream-capturing YouTuber, check out the tinier of the two prongs, Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PlayStation Vita.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss preview: Drake me out to the small game
There's no better showcase of what the NGP is all about than Uncharted: Golden Abyss. With the NGP, Sony has created something of an uber-machine, so tricked out with bells and whistles, it would be an immense feat of creativity to simply use them all in one game; now, using them with purpose, that's a whole other thing. Before kicking off a demonstration of Golden Abyss in Los Angeles last month, Sony Bend creative director John Garvin wanted to make one thing clear. "Golden Abyss is a brand new Uncharted game," he said. "It's not a port." In case the lack of Naughty Dog involvement makes you nervous, Garvin says, "We've been collaborating and working closely with Amy Hennig, the creative director at Naughty Dog, to make sure that our characters and story are authentic." As far as characters go, we've got series' star Nathan Drake making a return, the role being reprised by omnipresent voiceover artist Nolan North. To capture that performance, Sony Bend is using the same mo-cap and sound studios that Naughty Dog uses for its Uncharted titles and, in the short cinematic I saw, it showed. If there was one area that made it clear that the main Uncharted series still belongs to Naughty Dog, it may be the lack of a number on that title. "It's a standalone story that takes place before Drake's Fortune," Garvin explained. "It's not a prequel, but a standalone story." In other words, it's self-contained.%Gallery-125163%
Feast your eyes on a menagerie of new NGP game images
We may not know much about Sony's NGP (or is it PlayStation Vita?) just yet, but we do have a whole mess of new images from its game lineup. After the break, you'll find eight (eight!) galleries of brand new screens, pulled from Uncharted, Wipeout, Little Deviants, and many more.
Uncharted NGP takes place before Drake's Fortune, more details coming June 2
Though Sony Bend is tasked with developing Uncharted for Sony's next handheld system, the franchise creators at Naughty Dog aren't above answering a few questions about Nathan Drake's NGP outing. In an interview with French site GameBlog.fr, Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra placed the new game's setting between the first and second Uncharted games, but was later corrected by Sony. "It is an all-new story set before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune," Sony told us. The correction is notable as Sony won't actually confirm any of the other details revealed by Balestra, telling us, "New information on Uncharted NGP (working title) will be released on June 2." The other details, however, are similarly intriguing: potential interaction between the NGP title and Uncharted 3 on PlayStation 3, and a focus on exploration over gunfights. Let's hope we learn much more on June 2. [Thanks, Elena]
