Microsoft acted as patron for games such as this until it became easier to just throw moneyhats at Activision for timed-exclusivity of CoD map packs!

Sony Follows Microsoft to the Bottom in the Exclusive Content Racket

The fifteenth day of the eleventh month has come and gone, and with its passing has ushered in the beginning of a new console generation [no, we do not count the Wii U]. With a new console generation comes new console strategies – Microsoft has already revealed their hand with a reliance on television and NFL licenses, and now the pieces of Sony’s console strategy are also starting to come together, and the results are not entirely to one’s liking.

In order to effectively differentiate a new piece of hardware the vendor thereof must be able to depict it as being capable of functioning in ways that competing devices cannot, and the easiest way to do this is to secure some exclusive content that cannot be accessed on any other platform. Throughout the last generation Sony appeared to favour utilising company resources in order to secure wholly exclusive titles for the PS3, while Microsoft for their part quickly dispensed with acquiring entire titles outright in favour of purchasing exclusivity [or timed-exclusivity] of select chunks of content. The effect that this approach has is to effectively compromise the gaming experience that owners of the competing platform are able to have with the titles that they paid sixty dollars for, while at the same time doing very little to positively differentiate the character of one’s own gaming platform. Sony also did this last generation, but only [seemingly] as an afterthought.

This time around Sony appears to have gone after exclusive content in a very concerted fashion. The PS4 version of Assassin’s Creed 4 is set to feature sixty minutes of platform exclusive gameplay, with Ubisoft’s Watchdogs also in line to receive some manner of unspecified exclusive content. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is also set to receive an exclusive mission which will see players take on the role of the PS1 iteration of Solid Snake in all his low resolution polygonal glory, while the PS4 release of Diablo III will see the introduction of all new mechanics. Meanwhile, PS4 owners will be granted first access to beta testing for both The Elder Scrolls: Online and Bungie’s Destiny. In all there are twenty publishers/developers who have signed on to deliver exclusive content to the PS4.

While one finds it morally indefensible to deprive someone who has paid full price of the content that is due them, that alone is not reason enough for consternation [they are Xbots after all]. Rather, it is because this approach only subtracts value for a competitor, rather than creating anything of positive value for one’s self – in short, it involves spending money in a way which will not produce anything of value for gaming.

A more regular roster of Japanese releases may ease the burden of the JRT.

Sony Supports the Localisation of Japanese Content

Sony are currently standing at the dawn of a whole new console generation with the launch of their PS4, while at the same time also supporting a hendheld system that is not doing so well in the sales department. On top of that their PS3 is still a going concern at a time when Sony will be looking to transfer the bulk of their support to the PS4. All of these platforms require content and bribing publishers for exclusive mission packs does not look to be capable of picking up all the slack, which is why it is most important that Sony be able to fully leverage the content that already exists for their platforms.

It is with this in mind that Sony established what they refer to as the third-party production team, a group dedicated to maximising the amount of regional content that is able to be localised into foreign markets. When individual gamers harangue Sony staff with their release-begging it is often intuitive to think that their wishes are being consigned to the waste paper basket of no fucks given, yet according to Sony’s Adam Boyes third-party productions director, Giovanni Corsi, has been monitoring social media and Sony blogs in order to compile a list of Japanese content that Western gamers would like to see given a local release – a list that is topped by the PSP releases of Final Fantasy Type-0 and the newest Suikoden title, along with the PS3 release of Yakuza 5, and a possible port of the Dreamcast’s Shenmue games.

“When we started the third-party production team, it was born out of necessity. We had a lot of publishers and a lot of content that had come out for various platforms and various territories that weren’t necessarily coming to our territory, platforms we’d love to see them on.

The key is to bring people that are fans of certain content great stuff. So if people are fans of Japanese content, you can imagine that’s a place we’re putting a lot of effort into. People who are fans of the Vita, you can imagine we’re putting lots of effort into that.”

The obvious candidate for Sony’s localisation efforts is Final Fantasy: Type-0, as the series already has a fanbase which numbers in the millions. The Vita may not be doing so well right now, but a PSN release of Final Fantasy: Type-0 might well provide the push that many PS4 owners need to pick up a Vita for subsequent use in remote play. It would make a lot of sense for this to be one of the titles that the third-party production team is working on, especially considering that Shuhei Yoshida tacitly suggested earlier in the year that something was being done on this front. At any rate, one considers a team dedicated to the localisation of Japanese content to be a thoroughly worthwhile endeavour, and something which stands to positively differentiate Sony from their rivals.

BAN THIS SICK FILTH!

Australia Requires a Molyneux Set of Ratings Guidlines

Upon the implementation of Australia’s very first R18+ rating for video games the celebrations were decidedly short-lived, as it quickly became evident that the misogyny-obsessed and utterly incompetent Gillard government had implemented some utterly arcane and borderline unworkable guidelines when it came to the depiction of female sexuality. Until now one of the most absurd casualties of these heavy-handed guidelines was Atelier Totori Plus, an anime-based game that had been determined appropriate for children under the previous ratings regime, yet earned an R18+ rating for sexual violence under the new botched legislation. Well, as it turns out Fable: Anniversary [the HD remake of Fable] is the newest game to be added to this absurd list.

While one finds it utterly delightful that Fable has been determined as being unsuitable for children of any age, it has nevertheless been designated as such on the most appallingly nonsensical grounds. One curio present in the Australian ratings system with respect to depictions of fornication and drug use, is that they are held to be many times more disagreeable in instances where their occurrence results in a reward for the player. Thus, if a Grand Theft Auto player avails themselves of the services of women of negotiable affections, only to have their health replenished, then this is something that is frowned on by Australia’s dour ratings guidelines.

It is the Grand Theft Auto scenario which appears to have been applied to Fable, only the sex in question consists in its entirety of the screen fading to black, while the player reward is nothing more than the birth of an in-game heir! Yes, that is right, Julia Gillard and her hopeless, bumbling thralls have succeeded in classifying the actual biological purpose of engaging in sexual intercourse as being objectionable contraband – to the extent that a more gratuitous sex scene could have been included in the game while incurring less of a ratings-penalty, provided that the game did not reward the player with the biological fruit of his loins. The original Australian rating of Fable was ‘M’ [the equivalent of America's 'T' rating], the HD re-release of Fable: Anniversary has been rated R18+ for “Sexual activity related to incentives and rewards” because idiocy. Sometimes one truly despairs.

“Prease look forward to more shitty social games”

People Only Fail Upwards at Square Enix

The above statement is a sentiment regarding Yoichi Wada that is in ready supply on the internet, but one which is also inaccurate, if ever so marginally. More accurate to say that the man has failed sideways and [possibly] ever so slightly downward, or at least that is one’s best guess at interpreting Square Enix’s [seemingly deliberately vague] corporate descriptions. It is actually very difficult to definitively put an answer to whether or not Wada now holds more or less seniority than he did previously.

When Yoichi Wada was initially stripped of his presidency in the wake of some abysmally poor performance on the part of Square Enix, it was subsequently promised that he would not be re-appointed to the board of directors – but then a lot of things were promised in the wake of that announcement, not least of which was the company’s return to a focus on core gaming; and everyone and their mother knows how that particular pledge turned out. This week it has come to light that Yoichi Wada has been appointed as chairman of the board of directors for SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.; making his replacement, Yosuke Matsuda, directly answerable to him in the running of the company. This has led to many news sources reporting on this as a demotion which is really a promotion, but that is not necessarily the case.

Yoichi Wada has been named as chairman of the board of SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD., but Yosuke Matsuda is the president of SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. This seems to indicate that Matsuda is responsible for the day-to-day running of Square Enix’s entire media empire, while Wada is responsible for setting the strategy for one portion thereof. In all likelihood this probably just means that Wada has been given dominion over Square Enix’s in-house gaming division, though it is anyone’s guess as to whether this also includes Eidos and Taito. At any rate, it is very difficult to pinpoint Wada’s seniority, as he is square Enix’s only listed corporate officer to hold the title of chairman of the board – thus it is neigh-on impossible to discern whether any of his fellows hold equal or greater seniority within the company.

In other Square Enix news for the week, Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV, stated that there really was not much use in developing HD games at this juncture:

“Sales on the current HD game consoles aren’t even that good. Especially looking at the Japanese market, honestly there is no business merit to making HD games now.”

Lucky then that Square Enix has not squandered the last couple of years developing a next generation console engine and having Visual Works render assets for it!

“Who fucked the new ratings legislation?”

Australia, You Had One Job…

Australia, long the butt of the civilised gaming world for its archaic and arcane video game ratings system, was thought to have come of age with the introduction of an R18+ classification, yet the evidence continues to mount that Australia’s bungling and incompetant ALP government has` managed to get this legislation terribly wrong. Gamers first knew something was amiss when earlier in the year Atelier Totori Plus for the Vita received an R18+ rating for sexual violence, despite the fact that the earlier PS3 release of the same game resulted in a child-appropriate PG rating. This week not one, but two games were refused classification for release in Australia – making them illegal to sell.

The first title was the XBL zombie survival title, State of Decay, for using narcotics as medication [heaven forefend!], while the latter title was the high profile Saints Row IV for “interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context” ['won't somebody think of the children?!']. One is quite uncertain as to what ‘justified sexual violence’ might look like, though it seems likely that it is the sort of sexual violence which occurs exclusively to men. The ‘sexual violence’ which the Australian Classification Board references in this instance entailed a large, purple dildo weapon which the protagonist may insert into an enemy’s backside and discharge in order to fire them into the air – surely that hilarity is all the context that such amusing diversions require?

At any rate, it is thoroughly unsurprising that any censorship legislation drawn up by the gender-obsessed former Gillard-government would prove itself to be utterly incompatible with any form of entertainment which does not happen to be as sexless as Julia Gillard herself. This is but one small drop in an ocean of bad policy that the nation will struggle to slowly unwind over the coming years and decades. That is the unhappy Gillard legacy.

I’d wager that this is not how Persona fans wished to see auction house implementation

The Last Gasps of Atlus?

This week the venerated JRPG development team of Atlus look to be making one final roll of the dice for survival after their parent company, Index Holdings, filed for bankruptcy. Index has made it clear that they see Atlus as a viable concern, and as such are looking for a buyer – yet this task has been made exponentially more difficult by Index’s relatively recent decision to roll the entity of Atlus into the operations of Index Digital Media, Inc. This means that Atlus is no longer a readily purchasable discreet development house, but rather a brand-name within a larger development ecosystem – making Atlus a less attractive prospect to potential suitors, who may not wish to take-on Index Holdings’ large stable of mobile/social gaming developers. For instance, Nintendo and Sony, the two potential white-knight saviours most frequently invoked within forums, have little need to take on infrastructure and employees who’s proficiency lies in the production of cheap smartphone games. Perhaps the two companies for whom this purchase would create the most synergy are Gung Ho and Square Enix [owing to their respective stakes in the sphere of mobile gaming]. Of these two companies, Gung Ho is probably the more likely suitor, owing to its stronger balance sheet.

In all likelihood Atlus IP will probably end up at auction – especially if Index creditors feel that there is more money to be made from carving up the beast – and so it should be no surprise to see properties like Shin Megami Tensei and Etrian Odyssey end up being developed by other development studios. Atlus IPs going to auction certainly does not preclude a white knight like Nintendo from swooping in at the eleventh hour, snapping up Shin Megami Tensei along with the Atlus brand itself, and then establishing an internal studio staffed by key Atlus talent – but then there are also a good number of companies like Square Enix, Konami, and Capcom who would be quite happy to simply buy the IP, and give it to one of their own internal [most likely mobile/social] development teams to work on.

Atlus president, Naoto Hiraoka, has pledged that Shin Megami Tensei IV and Dragon’s Crown [tough luck, feminists!] will still be releasing in America on July 16 and August 6 respectively, though whether the Dragon’s Crown online multiplayer and Shin Megami Tensei IV‘s planned DLC can be supported into the future will remain to be seen.

[Stretch goal]: Post bail for Ken McCulloch

[Breaking]: Former Silicon Knights Employee / Precursor Games Co-Founder Arrested Over Child Pornography Charges.

No, it was not Dyack – this time. Rather, it was Dennis Dyack’s protege, confidant, and close personal friend, Ken McCulloch, 42, who was discovered to be a dirty big rock spider. McCulloch was a twenty year veteran of Silicon Knights where he served as director of content [basically he has been the senior designer and co-writer for every big game that Silicon Knights has ever released; including Eternal Darkness and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain], before sloughing off the Silicon Knights brand-name in order to dodge the money owing to Epic Games. After co-founding Precursor Games McCulloch’s job description became: “Lore Keeper, World Builder, and Dream Merchant“, though those dreams quickly ran to nightmare when his studio’s first project, Shadow of the Eternals, was broadly dismissed by the gaming community, before this week being arrested by the Niagara Regional Police on counts of “Possession of Child Pornography, Making Child Pornography Available, and Accessing Child Pornography“.

Predictably, Precursor Games CEO, Paul Caporicci, was as quick to sever all ties with McCulloch as he was with Silicon Knights, immediately pulling his employee profile and denying any remaining connections that McCulloch may have had to Shadow of the Eternals:

“Having just learned of these disturbing charges today and based on the serious nature of them, Ken McCulloch is no longer affiliated in any way with Precursor Games.”

Precursor Games’ prospects of being funded by Kickstarter are now even deader than when they were forced to pull their abortive campaign. It will never get up now – time to resell their assets to themselves? At any rate, Pedophiles usually operate within networks, so if only the Canadian police knew of a like-minded assemblage of persons to help them get their investigation rolling. Hmmmmm…

Leadership Style:

Leadership style is an integral component to any enterprise, as the executive’s drive and ambition is able to impress upon the organization a narrative of sorts, conveying a sense of who they are, where they are going and what qualities they stand for. Yoichi Wada could best be described as risk averse, he is highly prone to focus testing in lieu of creative decision making, which is why the current Square Enix line-up resembles nothing so much as the gaming equivalent of insipid sludge. Julia Gillard is averse to risk, her initiatives resemble nothing so much as the policy equivalent of insipid sludge, owing towards her proclivity towards focus testing.

Verdict: Draw

Presentability:

Actually, this isn't a bundle of cocks ...

In any successful enterprise presentation is king, as the impressions that your leadership team are able to instil in their professional sphere can directly effect your perceived stature in the eyes of would-be partners, and their confidence in engaging you in any mutually beneficial undertaking. Like every Australian Julia Gillard is possessed of a robust and lustrous moustache along with all the power and dignity that confers, Yoichi Wada by comparison is appallingly BARREN. Moreover, while Julia Gillard is decidedly low-born, she has nevertheless engaged the services of a voice coach in an effort to sound less like a wretched commoner, meanwhile Wada is perfectly content to continue speaking gibberish, completely indifferent to the proper locution of the Queen’s English.

Verdict: Advantage Gillard

Background:

A person’s background can make or break their success as a human being, and we all know that the lesser races are nothing but trouble. Inherent attributes shape who we are as people, the professions we are able to perform and the value we offer to society. Let us not guild the lilly here, Yoichi Wada is a JAPANESE DEVIL, shamefully so. In most instances this fact alone would be most debilitating to his prospects, but not in this instance, not considering the competition. Julia Gillard is a WELSH, GINGER FEMALE Prime Minister.

Verdict: Advantage Plus Wada

Accidental Attrition:

Final Fantasy XIII’s programming kills consoles, Gillard Government programs kill people. Scores of people have committed their vocal plaints to the interwebs regaling us with tales of Motomu Toriyama’s epic disaster combusting their PS3s, scores more however castigated the Gillard Government’s lack of bureaucratic regulation over their home insulation program for killing a number of people. A number of morons to be precise, unskilled, unqualified tradesmen seized on the government program as a way to make a fast buck, and found themselves stapled to electrical conduits in Australian roofspace for their effort. FFXIII on the other hand bricked consoles.

Verdict: Advantage Gillard

Charitable good deeds:

Organizational structures are essentially soulless entities bent on attaining ever more power for themselves, which is why it is all important that their leadership is seen to engage in acts of charitable kindness, so as to erect a facade over the yawning chasm of black despair that is their moral footprint. The Gillard Government generously bequeathed to their subjects murderous subsidised insulation bats, paid for in their entirety by the Australian tax payer. GENEROSITY! By contrast Square Enix under the kindly guidance of Yoichi Wada set about making a free MMO. Final Fantasy XIV is free to play in the truest sense of the word, Square Enix have not set out to gouge their players with micro-transactions, the only people making money are the gold farmers.

Verdict: Advantage Wada

Ambition:

Final Fantasy XIV: Only the gold farmers make money!

It is the hallmark of any good leader that they must be willing to take on the world to further the interests of their stakeholders. Moreover they must continue expanding their holdings by magnitudes so that the competition knows that they mean business. Yoichi Wada as head of Square Enix has taken to expansion as only the Japanese know how, pillaging every company from Taito to Eidos, and even bringing Call of Duty to Japan. Julia Gillard by contrast has made no territorial gains for Australia.

Verdict: Advantage Wada

Productivity:

In terms of leadership there are few things more important than productivity. A good understanding of employees can see competent management maximise human resources and boost output several times over. Cloistered away in the corridors of power, the Gillard government has experienced a decline in productivity over all areas save for the growing pile of abandoned policies in Julia Gillard’s out tray. In stark contrast to this Yoichi Wada has quadrupled the number of Square Enix releases over the course of a decade, once again proving himself to be a man of INDUSTRY!

Verdict: Advantage Wada

The Fosters test:

Australians are an affable lot, as many of societies injustices are frequently forgiven ‘neath the sway of the omnipresent amber haze. When mother’s milk is legally required to contain 3/4 tepid ale, and the mediocre suds of Fosters flow freely from every tap, you will find a people apt to forgive most anything within reason. I can get drunk and forget about the shitty job that Julia Gillard is doing governing our country, I cannot get drunk and forget about Yoichi Wada destroying the Final Fantasy series, and the legacy of Squaresoft in general.

Verdict: Advantage Gillard

Conclusion:

The evidence is clear, not only is Yoichi Wada competent enough to head the Australian Government, but he is likely to perform much better in the job than our current Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Now, I hear what you are all saying; this empirical analysis does little to answer the burning question of Obama VS Donkey Kong, and to that I say furnish me with your reckons in the comment box below.