So what’s the future business model for games? It depends on the individual company and the product they’re producing. A single-player RPG seems like fixed price is the right model, but considering the popularity of online multiplayer, we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them. As time goes on, the purely single-player experience may fall by the wayside—already, we’re seeing more games implement multiplayer modes in previously single-player ga
February is a bit of a dry month when it comes to video game releases, which makes it a great time to look back on the biggest hits of 2013. It was an exciting year in gaming, not only due to the launch of two major new consoles, but also because of the high quality of storytelling and gameplay in the titles that were relea
We’ll be interested to see if Wales Interactive releases the game during the fall, when we expect many major titles to launch, or if the developer will opt for a release date when things are a little quie
Enter free-to-play games. Though free-to-play isn’t an entirely new business model—in fact, it originated in early MMOs often targeted towards children and casual gamers, such as Neopets and MapleStory —its implementation is spreading. Rather than asking for an expensive sum upfront, as the traditional sales model does, free-to-play games are free but include advertisements, microtransactions, or in-game purchases that expand the players‘ experience, such as League of Legends ‚ additional champions or Hearthstone ’s card pa
BAFTA announced the nominees today, and somewhat unsurprisingly The Last of Us is top dog once again with an impressive ten nominations. These include a Best Performer nomination apiece for Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, as well as nominations for Artistic Achievement, Action and Adventure, Audio Achievement, Original Music, Multiplayer, Story, Game Design and – the big one – Best Game. Naughty Dog may well end up needing a wheelbarrow to carry home those golden ma
On a slightly cheerier note, Galactic Cafe’s funny and cerebral indie title The Stanley Parable also scored four nominations, as did the dystopian bureaucracy simulator Papers, Please , which is up for a Best Game award. Other nominees for Best Game include Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Super Mario 3D World . Tomb Raider has three nominations, as does mobile title BADLAND and Beyond: Two Sou
H1Z1 ’s developers aren’t the only ones pursuing this avenue. Peter Moore, COO of EA, told Kotaku that he believes that microtransactions will one day be a part of every game , and that this shift is a difficult time for both developers and gamers alike. „We’re just picking our way through and nobody is any way trying to gouge anybody,“ Moore s
The match-up between the University of Kentucky and Université Laval would be considered evenly matched — they are the number 3 and 2 seed respectively — but looking at the display shown, you wouldn’t be able to tell due to Laval’s dominant p
Even if microtransactions might be backed by good intentions, that doesn’t change the way they feel to gamers. EA’s own Mass Effect 3 ’s day-one DLC had many fans up in arms —if the DLC was ready at launch, why wasn’t it included in game, especially since it contained a character many long-time fans of the series were dying to see? It’s easy to be cynical; EA knew players wanted to know more about the mysterious Protheans and knew they’d be willing to pay money for it, so it’s possible they changed their business model for more profit. That, coupled with the introduction of war resources that required multiplayer grinding for the best ending, microtransactions to get better weapons and characters in multiplayer, and the controversial ending, left fans of the series feeling exploited and skeptical for the fut
In the next update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection , developer 343 Industries will be addressing a handful of issues with the MOBA Game tips, including improvements to multiplayer ranking. Ranks will be available for additional playlists, and the team is also said to be working on new penalties for quitting and betray
It’s hard not to get teary-eyed watching Tyrael descend from the sky voluntarily even out of context, but when the trailer arrives just at the right point in the game’s story, there’s no denying its impact. Although Diablo 3 is incredibly replayable, the game’s story does matter and it’s hard not to become attached to its characters in between long sessions of looting. We dare players to make it through the game without getting invested in this st
This has been a great week for Resident Evil fans. Digital games research company SuperData let the cat out of the bag about the next Resident Evil game , which according to them is set to release this fall. At the same time, the research firm also inadvertently confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops
Considering the game is only six months old, we would expect a Game of the Year edition to surface sometime in the fall, or possibly next Spring, given the plethora of new games planned for later this year. Whenever it’s released, though, we have no doubt Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year edition will sell well among gam