The Select and Start News Report 12.15.08

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 12.15.2008

Ubisoft puts gamers to piracy test, Spore breaks the piracy record, EA taking a financial beating, and my thoughts of the Survivor: Gabon finale as it happened. Did the pro gamer Kenny Hoang win? All that and more.



If you don't like this week's news report, please don't start throwing shoes at me.

Big News

PRINCE OF PERSIA FOR PC HAS NO DRM; UBISOFT STILL THINKS YOU'LL STEAL IT [credit: The Escapist, Ars Technica, TorrentFreak, GamePolitics]

Ubisoft isn't exactly a fan of PC gaming, what with their games getting pirated so much that they think releasing PC games is a money waster. Many people will cite DRM protection as the reason they decide to pirate games. Ubisoft is going to test if that theory is true by releasing the new Prince of Persia game for the PC, with NO DRM PROTECTION! (Copies purchased via Steam will still make use of Steam's validation system.) Community Developer Chris "UbiRazz" Easton explains on the Ubisoft forums:

"You're right when you say that when people want to pirate the game they will, but DRM is there to make it as difficult as possible for pirates to make copies of our games A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as PoP PC has no DRM we'll see how truthful people actually are. Not very, I imagine...I'm fairly skeptical as [DRM] is an easy answer given by a lot of people why they pirate games, but if you're going to buy this game instead of pirating purely because of no DRM in the store version then if I ever meet you in real life I'll happily shake your hand and buy you a drink."

Usually we see companies put even worse DRM in their games as the saga of PC pirating continues, but this time Ubisoft is actually going another route to see if DRM really is the problem. Despite the problems Ubisoft had created with their PC games (such as releasing a patch for Rainbox 6: Vegas 2 that turned out to be a no-CD crack from a warez group), I have to commend them for giving the 'No DRM Protection' a shot.

Speaking of DRM protection...

SPORE BECOMES THE MOST PIRATED GAME OF 2008 [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot]

TorrentFreak, a weblog dedicated to aggregating news for the BitTorrent P2P protocol, reports that Spore has had 1.7 million file-sharing downloads, making it the most pirated game of 2008. Earlier this year Spore was part of a big controversy when EA decided to use the much hated SecuROM for it's DRM protection, causing gamers to go in an uproar and Amazon bomb the game. EA's other Will Wright game, The Sims 2, was the 2nd most pirated game at 1.15 million copies downloaded.

Spore is given way too much protection and it becomes the most pirated game of 2008, and no matter what EA says about how the copy protection would only affect a small amount of gamers, so many people have bashed them for this. Is it really DRM that's causing consumers to put on the bandana and eye patch and take these games for free? We'll see when the sales numbers for Prince of Persia come in.

SUDDENLY, WE NOW KNOW WHY EA KEEPS RELEASING THE SAME OLD CRAP [credit: GameSpot, GameDaily, Gamasutra]

Things have not gone well for EA recently. Job layoffs, lowering expectations of profits, greater losses, stocks falling, games underperforming...times have been tough for the big publisher. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter believes that estimates that EA will see a 16% year-over-year decline in revenue, thanks to poor showings of the new property Mirror's Edge (selling 300,000 units for the month), Need for Speed Undercover (350,000 units), and Rock Band 2 (350,000 units). Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Group believes that the poor showings will result in layoffs and cancellations.

Turns out Sebastian was right. EA said it's expecting its net revenue and earnings per share for the full 2009 fiscal year to end up below the company's previously issued guidance, along with pursuing cost saving initiatives that may wind up as layoffs and studio closures. EA has also decided to back down from making a new game development studio in Vancouver due to the "hard" economic times. EA still has it's other two studios in Vancouver: Black Box, which creates Need for Speed, and EA Canada, which creates FIFA soccer and NBA Live.

When asked why certain EA games failed to meet standards despite getting good reviews, EA boss John Riccitiello had this to say:

"We're very pleased with a lot of our new franchises this year. We think Spore has established a strong base for being an ongoing franchise. We think the same of MySims. Dead Space looks like a long-term big winner for us...Warhammer will continue to perform very well. Mirror's Edge was very strongly reviewed...we'll be looking at some issues around the design to make sure that strong IP is married with strong business... Many times, what happens with new IP is the first edition doesn't generate the units that subsequent editions could generate. In this particular year, the consumer might have been more reticent to take risks than they might otherwise be, and it was a very crowded holiday."

EA starts doing good work and suddenly they take losses because of it. That's the risk of trying something new. However, considering that EA is one of the biggest game companies in America, they're still going to do pretty good for themselves. I mean it isn't like they're going to flop any second like Midway is.

Tidbit News

-Here's what Time Magazine listed as the best 10 games of 2008:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Braid
3. Little Big Planet
4. Rock Band 2
5. Gears of War 2
6. Dead Space
7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
8. Hunted Forever
9. Fieldrunners
10. Spore
[credit: GameSpot]

-Valve released a server-side fix for its Left 4 Dead Xbox 360 servers shortly after reports of users hacking the game's console version and harassing other players began to spread. Oh online gamers: Is there any game you won't fuck up? [credit: Gamasutra]

-NCSoft has decided not to renew their membership with the ESA stating "we have decided to wait to see how related industry events and organizations further develop before rejoining." Other game companies that had left the ESA in 2008 have included Activision, Id Software, Codemasters, Crave Entertainment, and LucasArts. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-Gears of War 2 has now reached the 3 million mark in number of copies sold. It reached that number in just four weeks, more than twice as fast as it took the original to reach the same number. [credit: GameSpot]

-Atari parent company Infogrames announced that they have fully acquired City of Heroes/Villains Cryptic Studios, including all of its proprietary IP, tools, technology and work-in-progress. The transaction is valued at $28 million and Infogrames also laid out up to $20 million in sales-related incentives. Cryptic is currently working on three MMO games, with Champions Online due to be completed in 2009, Star Trek Online in 2010 and a third unannounced title. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]

-Wal-Mart is claiming that "tens of thousands" units in Wii stock online and that they plan to keep restocking the console throughout the holiday season. Good thing too, or else we would have another death by shoppers on our hands. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-Double Fine Productions announced the signing of a publishing agreement with EA to publish Brutal Legend, a project dropped by Vivendi during the realignment resulting from the Activision Blizzard merger. Brutal Legend will launch on PS3 and Xbox 360 in Fall 2009. [credit: GameDaily]

-Square-Enix announced that Dragon Quest X is going to be released exclusively for the Wii, making it the first major Dragon Quest game on a Nintendo home console since Dragon Quest VI released for the SNES in 1995. Meanwhile, the release date for DQ9 exclusively for the DS is March 28, 2009 in Japan. No info on a US date yet. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]

-After working for Midway for five years, marketing VP Mona Hamilton has left the company to take the same role at Capcom. As the VP of Marketing, Hamilton will oversee all elements of marketing for Capcom in North America, including product marketing, creative services and communications. At least someone from Midway will still have a job. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-The Fallout 3 level editor is now available for download through Bethesda's website. The level editor gives players access to the full slate of Fallout 3 data files, allowing for the creation of custom buildings, locations, dialogue, weapons, and creatures. Levels can then be shared online for others to play through. [credit: GameSpot]

-Nintendo has signed a deal with book publisher HarperCollins to bring digital books to the DS, including the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters. The 100 Classic Book Collection will be released on December 26, initially only in Britain, for £26. [credit: GameDaily]

-According to UBS analyst Ben Schachter, over 1.7 million Guitar Hero games were sold in the US during November 2008, a 25.3 percent decrease from the nearly 2.3 million the year prior. All Rock Band games, by contrast, sold fewer units by comparison--just 628,452--but saw a massive 64.7 percent increase in sales from the year before. [credit: GameSpot]

-Activision announced that they will be offering track packs from various European groups. The three-song offerings will come from groups like Germany's Sportfreunde Stiller, France's BB Brunes and Spain's Fito Y Fitipaldis. The two track packs will retail for $5.49 each on PS3 and Xbox 360, with each individual track will be available for $1.99 on PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. [credit: GameDaily]

-With the No Doubt pack now released for Rock Band, the game has now hit the 500 mark for songs available for download. [credit: GameDaily]

-And speaking of Rock Band downloads, Harmonix announced that users downloaded over 28 million songs from its Rock Band in-game store and XBLA/PSN stores since the first Rock Band game released in November 2007. [credit: Gamasutra]

Gaming Calendar

December 16th - Rise of the Argonauts (PC, PS3, X360)

December 22nd - -Rock Band 2 ported to PS2 and Wii

January 6th, 2009 - Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)

January 13th, 2009 - Lord of the Rings: Conquest (X360, PS3, PC, DS)

January 21st, 2009 - Skate 2 (X360, PS3)

February 3rd, 2009 - Rygar: The Battle of Argus (Wii)

February 17th, 2009:
-Street Fighter IV (X360, PS3)
-Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
-Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (X360)

February 28th, 2009 - Tabula Rasa to be shut down

March 3rd, 2009 - Star Ocean: The Last Hope (X360)

March 13th, 2009 - Resident Evil 5 (X360)

March 17th, 2009 - Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS)

Videos of the Day

This guy plays a modded version of Mega Man 2, which despite the ridiculous difficulty, is still easier than Mega Man 9:


Guys who don't copy the floppy

News Reports:

Derek Robbins' B3yond The Report

Theo Fraser's Nintendophiles

Chris Vicari's PC Spotlight

Joe Roche's The Full Circle 360

Columns:

Tommy Coloma checks out the latest games to be released worldwide in The Release List

Dragon's Lair for the Sega CD? Who would ever like that game? Mark Salmela would in his brand new column.

John De Large takes over Working Title this week with RPGs that made him a gamer and why he hates Microsoft's Point System.

How is the global economy affecting the video game industry? Rod Oracheski explains.

Reviews:

Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) by John Curry

FIFA 09 (Xbox 360) by Sean Garmer

Silent Hill: Homecoming (PC) by Derek Robbins

Vigilante 8: Arcade (XBLA) by Dan Hirsch

That's all for this week. Continue on if you want to see my live thoughts of Survivor: Gabon.

---

Survivor: Gabon Finale Thoughts

-These are the thoughts I'm typing out as I'm watching the Gabon Finale to see if Kenny turns out to be the winner.

-First of all, screw CBS for not keeping the shows to their schedule. If I wasn't watching the show live my DVR recordings would have been screwed up. Also, is it me or does Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes look like a wooden puppet?

-I've noticed that they go from calling Kenny the Video Gamer to Kenny the Manipulator. Is "video gamer" a forbidden word or something? Man I hope Kenny wins. If not him, at least Bob or Sugar.

-With Fang losing so many times I thought Kenny would last halfway through, but as it turns out, the original Fang was lasting longer then everyone else thanks to blindsides and alliances.

-I think Sugar had more power then a lot of other people during the show.

-Bob is all around awesome, which I find amazing considering his age.

-Ken is sort of an asshole with the way he manipulates people, but in the end, that's what you need to do in order to win. Randy was just an all-around asshole period, and I'm so glad he's not winning.

-OH LORD do I hate the Target commercials with the kids play.

-Sony revealed that they will be cutting 8,000 members of their global workforce by April 2010. This number equates to roughly 5% of the Japanese corporation's global workforce. The majority of the job losses will come from Sony's electronics business, which is considered separate from Sony Computer Entertainment. This is part of a cost reduction initiative aimed at saving $1.1 billion a year. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-Kenny, give it up! Everyone is getting on to you about your manipulation!

-Sugar and Matt now look like they'll be going to the final three definitely. You better win this challenge Kenny.

-They dress up as warriors to do a challenge involving puzzles pieces?

-The pin-up model is the last person through the gate. That has to be ironic.

-Bob is actually struggling a bit, but I bet he solves the puzzle in like 5 seconds.

-Once again, Bob proves just why he all-around awesome. Unforunately, I think this means Kenny is going to go.

-Well at least for this one Susie is going out first. But man, I have more and more of a feeling that Kenny is not going to win.

-Crystal is actually sitting next to Randy? Amazing.

-Kenny got owned. If only Survivor took place at Final Destination.

-Susie just voted for Kenny. I think this is it...

-OUCH. After blindsiding everyone else, Kenny is the one who gets blindsided. Honestly, Kenny did a lot better then I hoped he could, and he took the lost nicely unlike Randy. Now it's a matter of who Kenny will vote for to ultimately win the game.

-Paying respects to the 14 fallen huh? Well I know at least 13 of them deserve respect.

-I don't remember a thing about Paloma.

-If Ace wasn't blindsided, he probably would still be here.

-Wow. Did Randy actually say something nice? I might have to take everything back I said about him.

-I like how they call Kenny the Mastermind. He proved to be one of the smartest, sneakiest guys on the show.

-Three people at the final council? Isn't it supposed to be final two?

-So it all ends with a giant house of cards.

-I don't think even Bob could pull off the ten foot of cards within the allotted time.

-Bob is actually doing worse then everybody else. Wow.

-Susie looked like she almost blew it. Don't do anything Susie!

-So if Susie isn't going next, I think this means Bob is next to leave.

-I wonder if the others will feel such pity for Bob that they vote for someone else?

-Well there goes the pity vote for Bob. But man, really, if Bob is going to be voted out, do you think he wants to be talked to about this?

-OH SNAP, Sugar is betraying Matty! Hey Sugar, this is why Kenny was a manipulator. He wouldn't have any problem voting for he needed to.

-It always the hardest to vote when it reaches the end doesn't it?

-Considering that Sugar lost her father shortly before she came to Survivor, calling Bob a father-figure is probably why she really doesn't want to vote for Bob.

-A tie-breaking fire-making challenge! This is getting really excited.

-If either of these two have to be voted out, I'm glad it's through a challenge like this.

-As always, Bob is all-around awesome and he wins. Matt was nowhere even close to starting a fire.

-Based on how people seem to have got along with each other, I think Bob really might win this. Everyone likes the guy and the only person I could think of who would not like to vote for him would be Randy for that fake idol trick.

-Kenny, Bob IS honorable. He's just not STUPID!

-We only heard from three of the jury members. I guess those three (Kenny, Randy, and Corinne) are going to be the major swing voters or talkers.

-Bob's name really was never written down once. Did I mention how much awesome he really is?

-SIDENOTE: The Mentalist looks like it'll finally do something to not make itself look like a Psych clone.

-Way to plead your case Sugar.

-Didn't Sugar vote for Crystal because she wanted to win over Kenny and Crystal? Once again I think Sugar is screwing herself.

-Kenny will just not let it go with Bob will he? I almost feel glad Kenny didn't win now.

-Corinne has officially topped Randy as the biggest asshole out of everyone here.

-A lot of people don't seem to like Sugar. I can understand Randy, but Corinne was really such a bitch.

-Of the final three, I would be voting for Bob.

-Matty votes for Susie! Guess what Bob said to the deserving question really got to him. (Matty asked Bob why he thought Susie and Sugar would be more deserving and Bob said they weren't.)

-Fuck it, Randy is still an asshole period.

-Voting for Bob is the only good thing Corinne has done.

-We now go live to CBS Studios for to find out the winner.

-Susie has three votes. She definitely has the best chance now.

-It's down to Bob and Susie...

-YES! BOB WINS! BOB WINS! WAY TO GO BOB!!!

-Here's another question they can find out: Is Randy still such an asshole?

Next up is the reunion special, but I'm going to end it right here. Even though I wanted Kenny to win because he was the pro gamer, in the end I'm glad Bob won because he proved to be the most deserving out of everybody else. Congratulations to Bob for winning, congratulations to Kenny for making so far, and screw Randy and Corinne for being such assholes.