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Destiny hotfixes out a loot cave, players uncover more DLC areas
Destiny has a bit of an issue with caves, particularly those that allow players to stand around and shoot until candy comes out. An upcoming fix will adjust auto-rifle damage, boost scout rifles, and also cut off another loot cave from the players. The development team is also working on fixes to under-performing Exotics and tweaking overall class balance. Meanwhile, the game's players have managed to uncover another DLC area in the video past the break, uncovering unpopulated regions on the Moon that tie into an unknown portion of the game's expansion content. Analyst Michael Pachter weighed in briefly on the game when he predicted that game sales for September 2014 would be in a slump compared to September 2013, stating that Destiny's ubiquitous media presence would provide an overall figure around 2.75 million, a bit below Bungie's stated 3.2 million daily logins.
Red 5's Mark Kern discusses wasted space in MMO development
A recent article by Mark Kern of Red 5 Studios is all about the idea that most of an MMO is wasted space. Not travel space that doesn't need to be there; no, Kern is talking about the huge amount of low-level content that gets played and discarded at a dizzying pace as players move past it. According to Kern, anywhere between 80-90% of the content in a given MMO is both expensive to craft and more or less irrelevant to the game after six months. Kern stresses that the primary problem is that the cost of developing an MMO is raising while the time spent on content doesn't change, resulting in a neverending rush to produce more high-level content at a rate that's simply not realistic. He advocates more dynamic content, more scaling, and more flexibility in progression to help make development costs feel less like money flung into a pit for low-level content. If you're interested in the industry as a whole, it's worth a read. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Shroud of the Avatar team adds Starr Long to the mix
Fans of the Ultima series should be happy to hear that Shroud of the Avatar has added Starr Long to its roster as executive producer. Don't recognize the name? You should; according to Richard Garriott, Starr Long is the reason that Ultima Online existed in the first place. As Garriott puts it, while there had been discussions about doing an online installment of the series, Long was the one who was insistent that Ultima Online needed to happen. He was so much the driving force behind it that Garriott points to him as the push that kept him working on the game. A formal announcement will be made on Saturday at RTX 2013 alongside a special demonstration of Shroud of the Avatar, which will be available via livestream. If you've been hoping to see some of the key players behind UO back together, it looks as if you're in luck. [Source: Portalarium press release]
Rumor: EA putting itself up for sale
Electronic Arts, long known for assimilating numerous studios under its label, may be putting itself up for sale in return. The New York Post reports that EA is looking into such a deal with various interested firms, such as KKR and Providence Equity Partners. One of the Post's sources said that EA would be willing to sell to such a firm at $20 a share, even though the company's share value is currently just north of $13. Its stock fell from $25.20 nine months ago, although industry analyst Michael Pachter predicts that EA's stock should double within a year. EA isn't the only company looking to shore up its future, as the videogame market is slumping worldwide since last year. One bright spot is its digital sales, which are up over 2011's numbers and resulted in a $324 million revenue in the first quarter of 2012. EA refused to comment on the rumor, as did KKR and Providence Equity.
February's gaming sales a mixed bag: up for the month, down for the year
At this point, every time NPD releases its numbers, the video game industry collectively holds its breath. The last couple of months have not been kind, as hardware sales continued to drop. But, in February there was finally some good news -- console sales were 87 percent over January. More impressively, that jump only falls to 62 percent if you exclude the Vita. Still, after so many disappointing months, even that stratospheric jump left sales 18 percent lower than the same period last year. Even when taking software into account sales were down 20 percent -- with the industry as a whole raking in just $1.06 billion last month, down from the $1.33 billion the previous February. Individually there was good news for companies, though. Nintendo saw Super Mario Galaxy cross the five million mark, while all of its consoles (the DS, 3DS and Wii) all saw more than 50 percent spikes in their sales compared to January. Meanwhile, Microsoft held on to its number one slot by moving 426,000 Xbox 360s. Hit up the various source links for more info.
SOE's fifth annual G.I.R.L. competition beckons to future game designers
Ladies and gentlemen, start your essay-writing engines! Sony Online Entertainment is sounding the call for this year's G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition and is now accepting applicants looking to win a $10,000 scholarship and a 10-week internship at SOE. The program, which is in its fifth year, is designed to promote and inspire female involvement in video game development by helping a talented student through undergraduate studies. Applicants have to currently be enrolled in a gaming-related program, have a 3.0 or higher GPA, be a resident of the US, and be 18 years old or older. If you meet all those standards and have a hankering to apply, you'll need to submit two pieces of original concept art "inspired by" PlanetSide 2 or EverQuest II, captions to go with the art, and a 500-word essay about women in the gaming industry. Applications are due by March 29th. SOE Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Laura Naviaux hopes that this will be the biggest year ever for the scholarship: "Over the last few years, we have been nothing short of impressed with the hundreds of amazing submissions from talented students nationwide. Now in our fifth year, we can't wait to see the creativity that comes out of the G.I.R.L. program."
The Lawbringer: The odd future of bill S. 978
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? The machinima and streaming communities built around World of Warcraft are filled with some of the most talented and creative people in gaming, from awesome musicians to dedicated streamcasters. The first time I ever got to experience the WoW beta back in 2004, I was watching someone stream footage of their human warlock messing up mobs in (if I remember correctly) Westfall. Streaming is beneficial to gaming, MMOs, and e-sports because of video games' competitive nature and spectator-oriented design. You've probably heard of Senate bill S.978 already, most likely from many video game blogs and news outlets or YouTube campaigns fighting against the passage of this bill. Bill S.978 aims to institute a "10 strikes" policy, making the unauthorized streaming of content a felony, resulting in potential jail time. The main purpose of the bill is to strengthen the law and punishments available to organizations such as the MPAA and other content conglomerates to stop illegal streaming of millions upon millions of dollars in stolen entertainment. As is the way of things, gamers might be caught in the crossfire. Some of you fine readers sent me a few messages on Twitter asking me to weigh in on the 10 strikes streaming bill and maybe give a basic analysis of the thing, so I shall oblige. Lawbringer this week is all about the odd future of bill S. 978 and what it could mean for MMOs and WoW.
NPD: Wii reclaims lead in US sales, but console gaming market shrinks by a fifth
The NPD has released its US video game industry figures for October, which reveal that total monthly revenue from hardware, software and accessories among all manufacturers fell to $1.07 billion, constituting a 19 percent drop from what the American gamer spent over the same period last year. After being toppled from its chart-leading ways in September by a price cut-boosted PS3, the Wii has regained its sales throne by chopping $50 off its own entry fee, making itself buoyant in the US, if not the world. The PS3's own sales have suffered a slump after the September euphoria, while the 360 is still wearing the dunce cap in third place. Microsoft's response has been to keep banging that drum about being the only console to show year-to-date growth, but when you're selling less than half as many consoles as Nintendo, you have to grasp at whatever straws are nearby. Speaking of Nintendo, its DS sales so far this year have continued at such a rate as to threaten its own 2008 hardware sales record -- set by the Wii -- with ten million units sold. So there you have it: Sony fails to maintain its September lead, Nintendo keeps churning, and Microsoft keeps hoping for better times ahead. Full list of figures after the break.
Eyonix enjoys his WoW
Eyonix, Blue extraordinaire, and let players know that he has spent a decent amount of time playing the game he works on. Exactly how much? Well, his /played comes to 290 days since the game's launch, which some have figured out to be on average about 6.5 hours a day. Honestly, considering the workload he's under (he says he works at least 45 hours a week) that's a surprising amount of time spent on a game you also work on.Some people in this industry claim that once you actually start working on video games, you will stop playing them. I've met plenty of people over the course of the last year that actually tried to talk me out of living my dream using this exact premise. But here I am, six months in, still enjoying the games I write about. Now I realize that writing about a game and dealing with its quality assurance and testing, its customer service and forum management, these are two very different things. But it looks as if Eyonix still enjoys WoW, so perhaps the jading of one's soul depends on how you perceive the game you work on. Or could it be that WoW is just that much fun?
The best video game blunders of 2006
Have you been wondering what the biggest screwups in the video game industry were in 2006? Well, you can quit worrying and start reading. This is the sort of stuff we'd like to see covered at things like the Video Game Awards. For an industry that is so good at congratulating itself, they sure don't like to admit their mistakes. So, it's up to someone else to do it for them.Check out this list of the top ten video game blunders, boners, mistakes and gaffes of 2006 from next-gen.biz, and laugh along at some of the highlights from the past year. The Gizmondo story should have totally been number one, though, as Stefan Eriksson has become the official poster-boy for video game idiocy in action after single-handedly killing a company. And a gorgeous Ferrari.[Thanks, Joe]
