Video Game News and Miscellany
- Thread starter figmentPez
- Start date
Considering that's where all the talent went, I'd be 1000% okay with this.
Mistwalker seems to be busy sucking the dick of iOS right now, sort of like Square Enix is. This seems to be an endemic problem in Japan right now.
Angry Birds is a bona-fied franchise now. It has toys, snacks, sequels, and a cartoon coming this year. It's not going anywhere.
It's also probably the only one going to stick around. Some iOS games are good, but 99% of it is crap and that's the same problem the '83 crash had. The only thing that might keep it from happening is that fact that iOS games are cheap as hell.
It's also probably the only one going to stick around. Some iOS games are good, but 99% of it is crap and that's the same problem the '83 crash had. The only thing that might keep it from happening is that fact that iOS games are cheap as hell.
Getting you to spam people you know to unlock more levels, or just pay 99 cents for more. Of course they don't tell you how many more levels you get for 99 cents (you can see that there's over 300). Man, that level is super hard, oh you can buy 5 more turns for 3.99. It's like almost 100 bucks just for the 3 lives and the two power ups in the store.
It's no wonder the UK is investigating it for marketing to kids the way it does directly.
It's no wonder the UK is investigating it for marketing to kids the way it does directly.
Yep and for every success there are tons of apps out there that fail hard. Granted they're not all publisher made, but I know there's got to be some major losses going on out there or Zynga wouldn't have gone through that restructure. If the biggest name in Mobile is having trouble, there's got to be problems out there.
As for Candy Crush and any other flavor of the month apps, sure they get super popular (Like Draw Something was) for a short period of time, but in the mobile world people get bored fast.
I can't imagine we'll see big buyouts in games either, after the Draw Something flop.
In a F2P market that really doesn't matter. Game development just doesn't work in the same way. F2P development is about avoiding risk by creating minimum viable products that can then be tailored to the audiences that end up engaging with them, so the cost of development is crazy low. As long as the long-tail of F2P is viable (and that's not changing any time soon), mobile is going to continue to grow in a big way. The only difference is that churn rate of companies is going to eventually start kicking the crap out of the bottom of the funnel. But that's also fine, because no one sees the bottom of the funnel anyway.
Zynga isn't the biggest name in mobile by a long shot. They're a giant in social, and the problems they're having are tied to social, plus being ludicrously over-valued when they made their IPO.
Zynga has definitely made some bank on mobile with Poker and With Friends, but they're small-fry compared to some of the folks out there on mobile like Rovio, Popcap, Pocket Gems, Supercell, GungHo, DeNA, Gameloft, Big Fish, and Kabam (and Mojang, sort of, at least on tablet).
While this is definitely true, Candy Crush or something similar by the same company is not going anywhere. King.com has been making Saga games for years, and they have it down to a fine science. They're actually part of the reason why Zynga is failing, because King managed to come up with a variant of social gaming that people prefer to endless -'Ville iterations. Zynga is only still #1 because they have *a lot* of social games in the top 10-15.[DOUBLEPOST=1366169871][/DOUBLEPOST]
Actually, my guess we'll see Asian mobile companies buying (or trying to buy) some Western mobile successes. Probably not Supercell or Rovio-level successes, but possibly Kabam or Pocket Gems.
King is like the true successor to Zynga, copying other people's games, rebranding them with some sickeningly sweet coating and tossing them out there.
Even more insidious than that. They've tweaked the timing in their games so that the most people play just enough to get a game in, but not enough to fill satisfied, so they keep playing more games. They monetize every single possible unlock or power-up that the game is tweaked to basically require you to need if you want to max your score, and on the Facebook version of the game they pull you into their games-for-cash-prizes business.
It's both brilliant and kind of sickening.
Funny thing is, I've talked to a lot of devs who say that if you design a game with buyable power-ups/upgrades right, the top people on the leaderboards are not the ones spending the most money. They usually are spending money, to be clear, but definitely not the most, and the key is to balance the game such that the marginal benefit of power-ups doesn't outpace the aggregate skill level of the playerbase.
Another way of doing that is to make sure that a free player who chooses to spend the time always be able to buy those same items with in-game currency they've gathered just from playing and learning the game.
Obviously, Zynga and King don't do that, but it's not as scary a concept as you might imagine.
Another way of doing that is to make sure that a free player who chooses to spend the time always be able to buy those same items with in-game currency they've gathered just from playing and learning the game.
Obviously, Zynga and King don't do that, but it's not as scary a concept as you might imagine.
Earthbound on North America Virtual Console. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I don't have Wiiiiiii ...
Not enough for me to buy a new Wii (or WiiU) but if I got one otherwise, I'd buy the fuck out of that.
Side-note: It feels like the Club Nintendo stuff for the Wii VC is way better than what's offered for 3DS. Example, this month the Wii owners can download Super Metroid and Super Mario 64. 3DS Kirby's Pinball and some stupid shovelware title. I'm tempted to spend my coins just in case I end up getting a WiiU in the future so I can have Super Metroid and Super Mario 64 game codes to redeem.
I see from that Nintendo Direct that Wii VC is getting GBA games. Um, why the hell isn't the 3DS VC? Bunch of ass.
Not enough for me to buy a new Wii (or WiiU) but if I got one otherwise, I'd buy the fuck out of that.
Side-note: It feels like the Club Nintendo stuff for the Wii VC is way better than what's offered for 3DS. Example, this month the Wii owners can download Super Metroid and Super Mario 64. 3DS Kirby's Pinball and some stupid shovelware title. I'm tempted to spend my coins just in case I end up getting a WiiU in the future so I can have Super Metroid and Super Mario 64 game codes to redeem.
I see from that Nintendo Direct that Wii VC is getting GBA games. Um, why the hell isn't the 3DS VC? Bunch of ass.
HOLY SHIT THEY'RE GOING TO RELEASE BRAVELY DEFAULT
Are you sure you want to get excited by a Squenix game?
It wasn't developed by SE, just published. People compare it to FFV in terms of gameplay (job system/combat, etc). So yes. I'm okay with this.
How gutted will it be? The music is a huge reason why it had never been rereleased since it's original run.
They definitely need to do something, both the 360 and PS3 each sold about six times as many consoles in March as the Wii-U (which sold less than even the Wii). Thus far, the Wii-U is a complete disaster.
More Zelda News:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04...-oracle-of-ages-and-oracle-of-seasons-hit-3ds
Also, it's been revealed that the Wii U Zelda that's coming is a sequel to Link To The Past, easily one of my all time favorite Zeldas.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04...-oracle-of-ages-and-oracle-of-seasons-hit-3ds
Also, it's been revealed that the Wii U Zelda that's coming is a sequel to Link To The Past, easily one of my all time favorite Zeldas.
I think you're referring to the 3DS Zelda coming out this year. That one is going to be a sequel to Link to the Past. There have been little details regarding the WiiU Zelda in 2014 except that it's going to be the largest adventure yet. As it should be.
Oooooh, excellent, I loved the Oracle games.
GasBandit
Staff member
Capcom circling the drain...
So long Capcom, you were good in the 80s and early 90s...
There goes Dead Rising 3. That's all of Inafune's children dead.
AKA the last Capcom game anyone gave a shit about.