I actually missed the first part of this story since I was travelling: fan favourite pinata Jack Emmert has become Cryptic’s new CEO after John Needham chose “to depart the company to pursue other opportunities within the games industry”. Said opportunities are becoming the CEO of Gazillion. An interesting move, and one that leaves Gazillion … Continue reading
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Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #5 BioWare Doesn’t Do Great Game Mechanics
It was announced recently that Eric Brown, EA’s CFO, finds that blogs about the cost of Star Wars: The Old Republic “bring a chuckle” to his day. Glad to bring a smile to your face, Eric – here’s hoping the following brings some belly laughs. Back when I started this series, I said there were … Continue reading
An Open Letter To WBIE re. Mortal Kombat
Dear Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, I have noted with interest your reactions to the recent news that Mortal Kombat has been refused classification in Australia. It probably wasn’t a surprise to you in the slightest; there was a pretty high potential for a game with slo-mo bone breaking and a focus on brutal finishing moves … Continue reading
RIFT vs DCUO: The Little Things
I noted a while back that DC Universe Online’s uninstaller program didn’t work properly for some users and now, interestingly enough, it turns out that RIFT’s uninstaller program “may delete more files than it should“. This is a Bad Thing. What’s interesting is how both companies handled it. Sony Online Entertainment originally came back with … Continue reading
Marvel Universe Online: A Gazillion to One Shot?
In my previous post on Gazillion’s Marvel Universe Online, I ended with the comment “… if it comes out.” In my opinion, there is still a strong chance MUO isn’t going to appear for the fourth time, with the one reason being Disney and the other reason being Gazillion. My Superpower is Cynicism As a … Continue reading
DCUO: Untested Love
DC Universe Online’s first full content patch is due out very soon. In some ways it typifies Sony Online Entertainment’s issues with DCUO: It was originally scheduled for February 15 2011 and was marketed as such. But then it was delayed, with the explanation that “a date was put on a trailer that shouldn’t have … Continue reading
Great Moments in Game Advertising, Part 2
Thinking back to early internet advertising techniques, the second most hated method (after the blink tags) were pop-up ads. You load up a page and then along comes one, two, three etc extra windows showing ads. It certainly grabbed viewer attention, but that attention was mixed with stabby rage as people went to close the … Continue reading
Dead Island: Where Creative and Design Clash
A wonderful trailer for the long-in-gestation zombie title Dead Island was released a few days ago – it manages to portray the terror of zombie invasion in a very artful way. It’s a bit gory, but it is a very well crafted trailer that shifts the focus away from how awesome zombie killing is to … Continue reading
The Blue Water for Marvel Universe Online
The superhero MMO category is made up of City of Heroes / Villains, Champions Online and now DC Universe Online. Where should the next proposed contender (Super Hero Squad Online is aiming for a very different crowd), Marvel Universe Online, be looking for in terms of untapped spaces a.k.a. blue water? To do this let’s … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have In Q4 2010?
NCsoft’s Q4 2010 results are out and the result isn’t great for City of Heroes / Villains. As I discussed a few days ago, CoH/V saw a big Q3 2010 release with Going Rogue, its second paid box expansion (City of Villains being the first, back in 2005). GoRo saw a large jump in revenue … Continue reading
World Class Villains 