Gaming Thread 8/3/2014

I've got another feature length article but with work and the fantastic weather we've been having, I haven't been able to finish writing part 1.

Which kinda sucks as there isn't much to talk about this week:

Not surprising they're the first ones but EA is taking a shot at Games as a Service on the console front without it being attached to an MMO (like how SOE has been doing it on the PC). Which prompted Sony to stick their foot in their mouth on the basis of it being FOR THE CHILDREN!!! err...#4theGamers.

Our Ghosts of Gaming Future continues sucking up platform market share in Japan with pulling in $5.1 Billion over the $4 billion console/handheld market.

There really isn't anything coming out this week

So...on Tuesday, EA announced something called EA Access for the XBox One. It's basically an overhaul to their Sportspass thing that they've been running for a few years now on the 360 and PS3. Of course with this expansion, they in essence took a leap off the cliff into the great unknown of a straight up "Games as a Service" model on a publisher level. What it amounts to $5 a month or $30 a year sub gets you some of last year's games (Madden, FIFA, Battlefield 4 and Peggle 2), 10% discount on non-sale EA items and early access to games "up to 5 days in advance" (which frankly they're kinda flaky on). Even though this is a right step in where I wouldn't mind seeing some experimentation, this isn't exactly what I want. What I wouldn't mind seeing is say an optional $15 a month or so sub that gets you all the base games day and date on release for "free" and a discount on DLC/expansion packs/micro-transactions. Of course this will probably lead down a rabbit hole that many may not want but I'm personally always up for experimentation and disrupting the marketplace. And of course this does lead to if it works out, which other pubs would join in which honestly comes down to Ubisoft, Activison and maybe Take Two (though they could use the constant cash, they don't exactly release enough games to get away with it and it wouldn't make business sense to say give away something like GTA). All in all, this really just shakes out as an interesting experiment which you can expect other Pubs to be looking at this with extreme interest.

And then of course you get Sony's reply which is one of the dumber PR responses in a long time.

“We evaluated the EA Access subscription offering and decided that it does not bring the kind of value PlayStation customers have come to expect,” a Sony representative told us via email. “PlayStation Plus memberships are up more than 200% since the launch of PlayStation 4, which shows that gamers are looking for memberships that offer a multitude of services, across various devices, for one low price. We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value to the PlayStation gamer.”

Now, we're not really in the era of consoles being Dreamcast'ed or the early goings of the OG Xbox as EA needs the consoles to sell their games in a shrinking market but this isn't the headache you needed to create for yourselves. And it's not like Microsoft isn't making money off this as they're running the billing so giving up for the most part, free money and giving denying gamers an option just seems like an asinine IMO.

Our future, Japanese mobile gaming market has rolled up $5.1 billion in 2013 while dedicated hardware's market shrank to $4 billion. Not bad for a market that was only worth $370 million in 2011.

And GungHo is leading that charge pulling in $432 million in revenue ($243 million in profit) last quarter which brings them up to $918 million for two quarters ($523 million in profit). It's above my paygrade to check but I do believe that projections based on their financial history would make them be in the Top 5 of Publishers on that merit. And I don't believe that those numbers also include what ever SuperCell (Clash of Clans) is pulling in either after their majority share acquisition though that presumption is all me as I haven't been able to find anything that says either way. Would be quite interesting if they themselves could make inroads into the Western market (Puzzles & Dragons isn't coming close to a wet fart in the West compared to Japan).

• On one hand, Nintendo moved just over 2.8 million units of Mario Kart. And on the other, every other number is awful with a about a 10 Billion ($97 million or so) loss for the quarter. That 80% approval rating for Iwata as CEO continues to be working out well for them.

• Sony's gaming unit is in the black with a $43 million profit on the back of a 3.5 million shipment number of PS3s and PS4s. First time that's happened in awhile. Sony overall is still in the dumps though papered over due to selling off buildings and their layoffs to the tune of a $261 million profit. That being said, it's still nice to see a stock I still own in the black in God's knows how long even if it ends up being fleeting (which is what my money is on)

• Even though it looks like another PMC bashfest (which annoys me), this campaign trailer for Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is looking good

• Well, at least Infinity Ward's Call of Duty entries might have a decent story now? They snagged two people from Naughty Dog's shakeup.

• I seriously don't see the point of this but Season 1 of Killer Instinct is getting a physical release with an added bonus of free TJ Combo. I could see a point in releasing a collection of seasons 1 & 2 but this, nope, can't see why.

• Valve dropping viewer stats on The International 2014. 20 Million total viewers and 2 million concurrent viewers watching a horrible Grand Finals.

• Okay, this is pretty cool, Diablo 3 on the PS3 and PS4 is getting armor appearances based on Shadow of The Colossus.

• Goodbye Vigil (Darksiders) and Free Radical. Crytek sold the Homefront IP to Deep Silver after their big showing at E3 (with one of Deep Silver's dev houses picking up dev duties). And what was once Vigil is now no longer working on the totally not a ripoff of Hunter the Reckoning, Hunt as it's been moved to Crytek itself.

posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 03:06 PM

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