The Pillars of Gaming

I've got family in town this week so it's another short post. Sorry

The big news this week is that there apparently was a power struggle at Konami between Hideo Kojima and the rest of the board members. Kojima lost that battle. Not only did he get stripped of his board member role, Konami is going whole hog and removing anything that has his name on it. Kojima Studios is now Konami LA and everyone that is leading the development of Phantom Pain is now on as contractor till December.

And of course, Konami is also now staffing up for a new Metal Gear Solid game after Phantom Pain.

As sad as it is to say, Kojima is their only asset as a publisher as they've failed in mobile and everyone good from the first few Silent Hill games is no more. You can count the games that they actually release on one hand and have fingers left over as they're basically down to their NBL baseball game, Winning Eleven and the occasional MGS game. If they had some success in mobile, I could see the thought process into a lighter and sleeker setup but as is, it's a total loss of control. Sure, the MGS games are expensive to make and we're in an era where the AAA market is crap but it's their really only selling game.

And without Kojima attached to the pub, they're not that great of an acquisition target even with their awesome IP catalog (which includes Hudson Soft, something they've done nothing with).

As for Kojima, I could see him going to Sony and maybe Microsoft but there really isn't many options for him to go with considering the state of the AAA market and costs associated with him. And if he goes to one of the console owners, he'll move units but I don't see the ROI on his investment being in the black.

• Not 100% sure but I think this might tie the fastest pulled online support for a sports game as Sony is shutting down The Show 14 servers. To be fair though, the online didn't work in the first place so it's not that big of a loss but still.

• So Sony announced that God of War 3 is getting the "remaster" treatment for the PS4 this July. Kinda curious if this is prelude to God of War 4 (Ascension? Never heard of it) being one of their fall games

• Close your eyes and let your mind think of what a new IP from the people behind Senran Kagura and the dude behind Maken-Ki would be. Got your fantasy on lock down? Yep, Takaki's new IP is about yuri (lesbians) schoolgirls who turn into swords It's what everyone wanted out of Soul Eater. I like Takaki's new job title, depending on translation, it's either Exploding Breasts Producer or Enormous Breasts Producer. It's a trans-media "event" with 2 games (one being mobile), anime (which has a trailer which is just a wee bit NSFW) and of course the typical merchandizing like figures. I'm very curious in how they're going to work in a rubbing mechanic into the games.

• So Atari is finally going after Jeff Minter and his Temptest game, TxK. Don't know why it's taken this long for them to go after him as it's like his 500th unlicensed Temptest game that he's made though this one is more on the nose than the others.

• So EA finally has someone new to slap on their PGA game after the Tiger Woods fallout. I like Rory McIlroy but he's quite vanilla in getting people excited in golf. Then again, outside of Golden Tee, somewhat realistic golf games are dead (till someone brings back Links)

• I totally forgot to mention this last week but remember the ex-SSI guys who were trying to bring back the Gold Box style RPGs? They're kickstarter launched awhile ago. Eh, if they make their funding goal, it's going to be very close.

• I really want to play this new Kamen Rider arcade game

• Stern showed off their new table, Whoa Nellie and it looks like it could be quite a bit of fun

Bloodbourne (PS4) - So a year after the release of Dark Souls 2, we get a fourth entry in the Souls series. Though it doesn't contain the lighting system that was in the Dark Souls 2 alpha footage, the game looks great and it being actually from Hidetaka Miyazaki, it should make up for the slight misstep of Dark Souls 2 (which he wasn't part of). Personally, this is really the first exclusive on the PS4 that I actually want. That being said, it's the fourth game in 6 years and as much as I like it, the gameplay really doesn't suit the release schedule that the Souls series has taken. Will be interesting in seeing how this one sells, as much as the series has been talked about, it's not exactly a chart burner with Dark Souls 2 (the biggest seller) only pulling in 3 million-ish copies on 3 platforms with 160m unit base (obviously not including PC as who knows on that number).

Pillars of Eternity (PC) - Obsidan was broke and decided to use people's nostalgia to fund a new Infinity Engine style cRPG, something we haven't seen since Icewind Dale 2 over 12 years ago. From the backers, the game is supposed to be GOTY material which fills a nice niche with a good ruleset (it's not D&D based). I personally didn't back this game but as soon as the reviews start hitting and people fuss out the bugs, I've got my $45 all ready earmarked to buy the game. Really want this as the Infinity games were a good part of my highschool gaming days.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (360 & PS4) It's a collection of Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel with all it's dlc. For the price, it's a decent deal for a ton of loot whoring content. Though it wouldn't have fit with the Handsome Jack theme, I would have liked seeing the first Borderlands game included if nothing more than for the package to include a second decent game. Can't say I've been a big fan of the series (like Torchlight, everything feels hollow) but if you want to lootwhore, there really isn't many decent options out there on consoles.

Infinite Crisis (PC) - So Turbine's DC Universe MOBA is finally coming out of it's long beta stage. Frankly the only thing is worth noting is that it's the DC universe as the last time I played it, the game was still really bad as it felt like you're playing underwater and frankly, the characters didn't fit with the MOBA concept with the specials being very hit or miss. Monolith didn't make this but it shares a lot of the same problems that the Lord of the Rings MOBA had. It's Free to Play so you can download it and check it out too see what you think this week.

OOTP Baseball 16 (PC) I talked about it last week but this week the game is out for people who didn't pre-order it. With family in town, I haven't been able to get much time in it. Still, if you want a sports management game, this is one of the two to care about IMO.

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

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