More victims of Japan’s dreaded JRT…

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and Mario 3D World Are Off to a Sluggish Start in Japan

When Final Fantasy XIII-2‘s release saw a sharp decline in first week sales, one was initially quite interested to see whether the decline signified a one-time drop-off as series fans who rejected the polarising Final Fantasy XIII‘s take on the series formula broke away from the XIII series fanbase, or whether subsequent entries would be met with a compounding accrual of series fatigue. One personally expected to see a similar decline in sales performance for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and it appears that one was correct – at least in Japan – and it appears that one is not alone in this regard, as Square Enix shipped far fewer copies of the game to retailers for this week’s Japanese release.

The launch of Lightning Returns has seen the final chapter of the Final Fantasy XIII series secure top place in Japan’s weekly sales chart, yet it only managed to sell 277,082 copies to Final Fantasy XIII-2‘s 524,217 and Final Fantasy XIII‘s 1.5 million in first week sales. Lightning Returns does however appear to have sold to expectations, selling through 71.98% of the 385,000 copies of the game that were shipped to Japanese retailers. By contrast Final Fantasy XIII-2 only managed to sell through 62.06% of the 845,000 copies that were shipped to retailers. It does however appear that Square Enix need not have bothered releasing the Xbox 360 version of the game in Japan, as it only managed to sell a mere 4000 copies in contrast to the 10,000 copies of Final Fantasy XIII-2 that were sold on that platform.

It is anyone’s guess as to what is to blame for Final Fantasy XIII‘s decreasing commerciality, though over-familiarity might be a good bet; then again, perhaps series fans caught wind of the game’s gloriously awful ending. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how the game performs when it is released to Western markets on the eleventh of February, as overexposure is usually a recipe for increased sales in the West, rather than the diminishing returns that Lightning Returns has thus far encountered.

The other eye opening franchise debut on the Japanese charts this week was Super Mario 3D World, a debut that managed to sell a mere 99,588 copies, which is only a shade above the first week numbers for Pikmin 3, a game which months later has still not been able to crack 200,000 units in sales. This marks the lowest first week sales for the series in the Japanese market, dramatically undershooting the 166,572 copies sold that New Super Mario Bros. U saw in its launch week, perhaps indicating that Japanese Wii U owners have begun forgetting about their systems. At any rate, it goes without saying that Super Mario 3D World has done very little to boost the weekly sales of the Wii U in Japan.

“I’ll never allow somebody to buy the win of the game” ~ Phil Spencer

Xbone News Round-Up

This week Microsoft has kindly offered a free digital copy of one of the four Microsoft-published Xbone launch titles to anyone experiencing the Xbone disc-grind failure that has been so widely reported on. The advantage to this that is being touted by Microsoft is that since player accounts and saves can be accessed from any Xbone console, then individuals who are sent a loaner Xbone through Microsoft’s ‘advance exchange program’ while their faulty console is away being repaired will be able to start playing their game immediately. One pertinent detail about Microsoft’s supposed largesse that is not being touted by the company is the fact that in order to receive one of these loaner Xbone units individuals must pay a bond of $500. Still, a free game is at least something.

Microsoft’s launch releases have come under heavy criticism following the release of the console, after it became apparent that they are all packed to the brim with microtransactions – the worst culprit among them has been singled out as Ryse, which takes the liberty of transferring players directly to the Xbone store if they attempt to purchase a skill while lacking sufficient in-game gold to make the transaction. As far as shameless gouging goes, this is clearly a cut above the in-game salesmanship exhibited by Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 3. In response to this negative press Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has spoken out to allay fears, and in true Microsoft fashion has come off as sounding monumentally out of touch, as Spencer is all about crafting better experiences for gamers by locking play options behind paywalls.

“I want to be able to learn from what we put in, so let’s make sure we are crafting the game and the analytics so we can see what the consumers — the gamers — like and don’t — if you assume buying habits are a reflection of what people like. So that we can craft the experience better for the gamer.

It’s easy to say something like, ‘I’ll never allow somebody to buy the win of the game, I won’t let them buy victory,’ but that’s kind of a trite answer. I’d say, ‘Yeah, I guess I have that line, that [we wouldn't have] “Pay five bucks and get 1000 achievements” or something stupid like that.’ I’m always pushing against that. But, in reality, that’s not what the gamers are looking for. They’re usually looking for customization and their gameplay style opening up.”

This week it was also revealed that the materials cost of the Xbone console is $471, which is $90 more expensive than the PS4. This puts the console materials cost at $29 less than its RRP, though it may still end up selling at a slight loss after labour, distribution, advertising, and retail margins are taken into account. Interestingly, the Xbone’s APU costs $110, which is $10 more expensive than the vastly more powerful APU used in the PS4, and is largely attributable to the 32mb of eSRAM that the Xbone uses as a crutch to compensate for its slow DDR3 system RAM. Meanwhile, Kinect 2.0 accounts for $75 of the overall materials expense of the Xbone, saddling Xboners with an unwelcome and expensive albatross.

Xboners who value their ability to Skype [as accessed through the purchase of a Gold account] will want to refrain from saying any naughty words in the videos they upload to Microsoft’s Upload Studio, as any use of profanity will see users stripped of “some or all” of the privileges they have purchased with their XBL Gold account. What this means in practical terms is that invective-prone users have found themselves not only banned form uploading videos, but also from making Skype calls with friends. Thanks, Obama!

Finally, Last week Lusipurr.com reported on the fact that Europe was factored in as an afterthought with respect to the Xbone’s much touted ability to play TV after it became clear that the Xbone’s program guide did not work with Sky, the UKs largest cable TV operator. This week however it has become apparent that Europe is not even an afterthought, as the 60hz Xbone is not able to properly convert the 50hz television signal utilised throughout the PAL territories, which encompasses all of Europe along with New Zealand and Australia. This results in severe judder as the Xbone attempts to display the 50hz signal at a 60hz framerate.

Could iconic Sega imagery find its way into the world of Persona?

Possible Benefits of Sega’s Buy-Out of Atlus

Up until now one has been very down on the possibilities inherent in Sega’s purchase of Atlus, most of which center around Sega’s terrible track record when it comes to localising and marketing their own games, yet this week Sega Sammy’s director of operations, Naoya Tsurumi, has raised the prospect that this union may actually carry some potential benefits as well. Tsurumi has stated that Atlus now has Sega’s blessing to utilise any of Sega’s dormant IPs in the manner of their choosing.

“Everything will remain the same. The people of Index will continue working thoroughly, and Sega have no plans to undertake any of their work. However, we’re at a point where Sega is offering Index to freely make use of any resources they may have, that Index does not. Index will be keeping many of their fine qualities, such as Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei IP, and many others.

While we have no intention of forcing this, we’d definitely love to have them utilize any of Sega’s dormant IPs.”

Sega has a vast catalog of brilliant IPs, yet in recent years have shown themselves unable to utilise them in a compelling fashion. The mind boggles with the possibilities of what might occur with a JRPG developer of the caliber of Atlus being put in charge of a potential Skies of Arcadia 2, Panzer Dragoon Saga 2, Shenmue 3 [the internets would explode], Shining Force, Valkyria Chronicles 4, or Phantasy Star 5. It is even exciting to think of some of the more mundane possibilities, such as Atlus being able to utilise Sega’s iconic IPs within the context of existing Atlus franchises [provided that Lusipurr's Sonic predictions do not hold true]. That being said, it is far from certain to what degree Atlus was able to survive Index’s insolvency and subsequent purchase by Sega. All the IP in the world will matter little if Atlus is no longer the same solid developer responsible for some of the most consistently good JRPGs in gaming. Fans of both Atlus and Sega would do well to temper their expectations as to what may come from this opportunity, yet it is hard not to be a little excited.

Edges sharpened for ease of use.

Next Generation News: Microsoft

Earlier this year Lusipurr.com reported on a rumour which suggested that the APU powering Microsoft’s Xbone console had both yield and overheating problems. Rhetorically speaking, one certainly hopes that these rumours were false, as this week Microsoft have announced that the Xbone CPU has been overclocked by 150MHZ, a boost of 9.375 percent – this comes on top of their August announcement that the system’s GPU will also be overclocked by 53MHZ. If the system were already struggling with overheating issues, then this could easily see a return to the hardware mortality rate which has plagued the Xbox 360′s time at retail. This need not necessarily be the case however, owing to the Xbone featuring a fan that is abnormally large by console standards. The oversized fan was originally chosen for the fact that it was able to run much slower than the PS4′s fan, achieving whisper quiet operation. It is wholly possible that in recent weeks the Xbox division has simply said ‘fuck the noise’ and have ratcheted up fan-speed in order to facilitate performance gains in the hope of narrowing the performance gap between the Xbone and the PS4. It is anyone’s guess whether this CPU performance gain will prove to be more potent than the PS4′s GPGPU features that were facilitated by its support of hUMA technology, but this may be the Xbone’s first narrow technical victory over the PS4.

Should consumers happen to suffer from a burned-out Xbone at launch however, then they appear to be in luck according to Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, as there will allegedly be more than enough Xbone units available at launch for them to simply walk into a store and buy another one. Apparently good guy Microsoft is deliberately holding back preorders so that uninformed and unprepared consumers will be able to walk into their local retailer on day bone and find one sitting on a shelf:

“You want people to be able to walk in the store and buy one on day one, so you’re trying to manage the inventory that isn’t pre-sold. It’s not a yield problem, it’s us trying to manage the hardware side. I want parents who don’t think about pre-ordering electronics to be able to walk in and have a chance to find a box. There might be a line, but I don’t want it to be that if you didn’t pre-order in September, you can’t get one. That doesn’t feel like a great consumer experience.”

Of course what this really means is that the PS4 is currently outselling the Xbone by an estimated factor of between 3:1 and 4:1 throughout North America, so there is bound to be plenty of unclaimed Xbones on day one.

This week also saw the announcement of the Xbone’s launch date – the 22nd of November – releasing precisely one week after the PS4′s American release on the 15th, and precisely one week before the PS4′s European release on the 29th. In celebration of this happy Xbone news, Microsoft have released their first legitimate Xbone advert , and it will surprise precisely nobody to find that it did not feature anything even tangentially related to the pursuit of gaming – just a bunch of American football being consumed by an assortment of goblins hailing from every shade of the focus-tested PC rainbow. After the Xbone’s initial calamitous unveiling it pleased Microsoft to pretend [through a succession of flip-flops] that their high-handed dismissal of gamers was an aberration, and they were very nearly convincing, yet at their first major test of loyalty they have opted to return to form, and in so doing have made it clear that the Xbone is only intended for people who treat gaming as an afterthought.

It shares games, not spam.

Next Generation News: Sony

This week Raptr CEO, Dennis Fong, has come out and slammed Sony for being “closed, almost to the point of ignorance“, while praising Microsoft for being “progressive and open” with regard to the policies of their next generation consoles:

“It seems like it would be a no-brainer, but you just never know with big companies, especially big companies that are going through massive upheaval, which I think both PlayStation and Xbox to some extent are going through that right now.

PlayStation on the other hand, has been very, very closed, almost to the point of ignorance, in terms of trying to control every little thing that goes through PlayStation and what their users see, so getting them to release any kind of data, user profile data and such, has been a lot like pulling teeth.”

These cutting words might have been quite damning for Sony were they uttered by a party whose services were not entirely noxious. Raptr is a service which aggregates user data across XBL, PSN, and Steam – allowing users to pollute social media like Twitter and Facebook with their ‘achievement’ spam, along with creating gamer-score cards that they are able to embed in forum posts. If Sony sees fit to spare the internet from even a small portion of unnecessary and obnoxious epeen masturbation, then one is entirely amenable to their position.

In other news, Sony has this week announced two headline-grabbing ‘me too’ features set to make their way to the PS4. The first feature is the ability for the PS4 camera to process voice commands, essentially pilfering the Xbone Kinect gimmick that very few gamers seem to actually want. The second feature is Sony’s plans for the PS4 to support VR headsets. As of now Sony has their own functioning headset prototypes which they plan to produce for retail. It is currently unknown whether the console will also support Oculus Rift, and it is anyone’s guess as to whether Sony will be able to manufacture the headsets at a price deemed affordable by the mass consumer market. In order to come out ahead of the curve companies have to necessarily put their eggs in many baskets, yet one fully expects PS4 voice commands to be worse than useless, and for VR to catch on in the same way as 3D did for Nintendo [read: not at all].

In retrospect, not the best promotional picture given GROSS INCOMPETENCE!

Schafer Doubles Down on Poor Management

When Tim Schafer announced back in July that his Kickstarted adventure game Broken Age had run out of funds long ago, and that to remedy this misfortune Broken Age was set to become Broken Game by being snapped in half and sold piecemeal on Steam Early Access, one thought at the time that there was no further incompetence that Tim Schafer could visit upon the world of gaming that had the capacity to offer any further shock or surprise – how truly naive. This week Schafer has revealed that the reason that Double Fine blew through the 3.3 million dollars so quickly was because they hired Hollywood star, Jack Black, and Jennifer ‘FemShep’ Hale to provide the game with character voiceovers!

Let that sink in. This is the same jackass who had the gall to publicly shame a backer on Twitter for wanting to be reimbursed on the grounds of mismanagement of funds. To an insufferable Schafer such a move amounted to trolling, as the game was certainly entitled to Hollywood acting talent, and it was not his fault if the money ran out [backers should have been more generous]. To the real world however, such a move speaks to gross incompetence. Once again Double Fine blunders highlight the folly of launching a Kickstarter before even drafting the most rudimentary of design documents. If a budget had been prepared for Broken Game, then perhaps Schafer may have realised that 3.3 million dollars was not enough money for him to hire multimillion dollar Hollywood voice talent!

The price cut will save us!

Wonderful 101 Bomba Hints at New Lows for Nintendo’s Wii U

For someone madly attempting to resuscitate a flatlining console, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime has found the time to talk an awful lot of shit this week. Both the PS4 and Xbone launch line-ups look to tread a middle-ground when it comes to compelling content. Both console’s libraries include [forgetting PC for the moment] definitive versions of highly popular third party titles, along with a couple of appreciable, if non-essential, exclusive titles [Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous: Second Son, Knack, Forza 5, Dead Rising 3]. The launch of these next generation consoles will not set the world on fire, but it will provide plenty of compelling content for console gamers to play on their significantly more powerful new machines. By contrast the Wii U launched with an inundation of late and overpriced seventh generation multiplatform titles that were only ever going to be of any allure to people who never owned a PS3 or 360. Now, many months later, the Wii U line-up is home to only an emaciated smattering of first-party Nintendo titles, all of which seem heavily derived from previous installments of Nintendo franchises. A wiser man than Fils-Aime might have though to hold their tongue considering the Wii U’s own emphatic glass jaw, yet the giddily oblivious Reggie’s body was ready to direct a very public “meh” in the direction of consoles with actual honest-to-goodness games on them:

The Wonderful 101 copies sold.

“It’s all about the games. The competitive systems have announced their launch lineups. I’m allowed to say ‘Meh.’ I look at our lineup of titles and I feel good about our lineup. We’ve got Zelda. We’ve got Mario. We’ve got Donkey Kong. In addition to great titles like Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101, I feel very good about our lineup, and I feel very good about the value proposition we’re putting out there for the consumer.

Systems that generate pretty pictures by themselves aren’t selling propositions, and all you need to do is look at the last generation to see the evidence. And that’s true whether you look at the home console space or the handheld space. It’s not about the graphics by itself. It’s about the entire experience.

I don’t think consumers buy hardware just because it’s sexy and new. I think consumers buy hardware because of the experiences they can have on them. That’s why, for us, having a strong holiday line-up is so critically important.”

Over the coming months the Wii U will indeed play host in a quantitative sense to all the franchises mentioned, yet the games in question are all either reheats of prior interpretations of Nintendo franchises as seen on other Nintendo systems [Wii, 3DS, GameCube], or, in the case of Wind Waker HD, a simple HD port. Saying “We’ve got Zelda” does not really tell the whole story when the game in question is a ten year old port of a GameCube title.

The only wholly Original title that Fils-Aime mentioned was Platinum Game’s The Wonderful 101, and it is fitting that he did, because while Reggie was busy saying “meh” to the launch catalogs of the PS4 and Xbone, Europe and Japan were saying “meh” to The Wonderful 101. The Wonderful 101‘s UK debut saw the game place at a paltry #22 on the top-forty all-formats chart, while only managing to sell a humiliating 5,258 copies during its first two days on sale in Japan. Nintendo appears to have given The Wonderful 101 the very worst possible start in life, scheduling its release for the same month as Pikmin 3 [which has sold 400,000 copies world-wide], while failing to promote the game outside of Nintendo direct – essentially sending it out to die. Given the scale of the production and the amount that Platinum Games has riding on it, it is a genuine tragedy that such a colourful and original game is having such a difficult time at market, yet, sadly for Platinum, pushy Nintendo fanboys are making it increasingly hard for one to feel sympathetic toward the game’s prospects.

Not to be confused with the Nintendo Wii console.

Nintendo: Wii U Name Not to Blame for Console’s Woes

The Wii U has been performing horribly at retail, shifting just 160,000 units during the previous quarter – but according to Mr. Reggie Fils-Aime that has absolutely nothing to do with the system’s name:

“The challenges we’re facing with Wii U are not issues of the name. The issue is the lack of a steady rate of software launches to motivate the consumer to drive buzz and engagement and to highlight the wide variety of uses of the GamePad. That’s the issue.

And that’s why experiences like Pikmin 3, like Wonderful 101, like Zelda Wind Waker HD, with the off-TV play, experiences like Super Mario 3D World – that’s why it’s critical that we launch those, have consumers experience them in malls across the country, which we’ll be doing. It’s critical that the consumer see for themselves the range and breadth of compelling software for the system.”

Reggie is quite right to point out that consumer awareness of Nintendo’s Wii U console has nothing to do with the system’s poor sales, after all, he did personally send out an email to Wii owners to inform them that it was time to buy the new system – and we all know that Wii owners have never been known to disconnect their consoles from the television [especially not during the the Wii's busy release schedule over the past two years]. Thus, we can be reasonably certain that almost one-hundred million consumers received the message that the Wii U is a completely new console, and not an add-on for the Wii. No, the problem is the desire of consumers for access to compelling content at an affordable price, to which end Nintendo has this week done the bare [and arguably insufficient] minimum.

Nintendo has this week knocked fifty dollars from the price of the Wii U, and has announced a new bundle featuring the deluxe system and The Wind Waker HD – download code only, because Nintendo is fucking classy like that – which the company has pinned the Wii U’s retail hopes to. In the past one has repeatedly opined that the bare minimum that Nintendo had to do in order to achieve some measure of success this holiday season was to offer a 32GB model of the Wii U for $250 [or a $300 bundle including Super Mario 3D World, and maybe another lesser game on top of that] – One is of the opinion that a frugal and threadbare Nintendo has failed in this task. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a fine game to be sure, but a ten year old port is not going to excite consumers in the same way as a brand new Super Mario pack-in game would.

On a related note, one is bitterly disappointed that Nintendo have decided to delay the physical release of The Wind Waker HD by two weeks in relation to the digital version, in order to increase profit by maximising sales through their own digital storefront [one assumes]. Wii U owners have suffered through enough of Nintendo’s shit without having to be inconvenienced in this way too – and this approach is doubly unforgivable on account of the pathetic amount of storage available in Wii U units.

It’s a bit hard to formulate fixed policies when Microsoft don’t even know where they are going.

Microsoft: Xbone Is Worth $100 More than PS4

Microsoft has heard recent criticisms regarding the exorbitant pricing of their Xbone console, yet the organisation is very happy with the value that this presents to consumers – or at least this is the position put forward by Microsoft’s Phil Spencer:

“Price is important, there’s no doubt about that, especially in today’s economy.

And then Skype and communication, and the camera that’s in the Kinect sensor that allows you to Skype and communicate with all of your friends wherever you go. It’s interesting, when you think about all that Xbox One is capable of.”

Yup – one hundred dollars is a small price to pay for Skype, a camera, and a more convoluted way to access TV [for the small additional price of a Gold subscription]. All in one! Xbox’s senior director of product planning and management, Albert Penello, goes one step further, outlining precisely why Xbone is worth that extra hundred dollars:

“It’s up to us to prove that it’s worth $100 more. I think it is.

$100, when you’re talking $400 vs. $500 [shrugs shoulders]. I don’t believe it’s going to be the deal-killer.”

If wishes were horses then Microsoft would have a nag on hand to pull themselves out from this mire they have created for themselves. Xbone is worth more because of TV, and all games are better with Kinect – everyone knows that, right?

By contrast Sony are actually offering real value with their PS4, especially in Europe where for the price of an Xbone consumers can purchase a Killzone: Shadow Fall bundle, which includes the system, the game, two DualShock 4 controllers, and the Playstation 4 camera. There is no confirmation as yet of the bundle making its way to the US, though one should be very surprised if it remains a European exclusive.

In other Xbone news for the week, it would seem that Microsoft’s recent decision to decouple the Kinect requirement from Xbone usage may have had nothing at all to do with NSA/Prisim concerns or plans to lower the system price by offering a stand-alone unit. Rather, it would seem that Microsoft is so far behind the 8-ball that Kinect voice commands will not be compatible with all [or even most] launch regions upon release. Voice commands will be compatible for US, UK, Canadian, French, and German users, yet will not be compatible with with the languages and accents present in the Xbone’s eight other launch regions. It would seem that the Austranglish and New Zealandese languages are just too exotic for Kinect to be able to decipher – that is a really smart camera that Microsoft have built for themselves.

When Microsoft recently cut launch regions from twenty-one to thirteen, they were keen to stress that the reason for it was due to Kinect localisation issues rather than supply constraints – this recent move appears to give lie to that assertion.

While it is never advisable to buy wholeheartedly into unproven ‘special sauce’ technologies, this may at least prove useful to GPGPU processing.

[Rumour]: PS4 To Have a Good Sense of hUMA

As another week draws to a close, the PS4′s technical lead over the Xbone looks to have have widened even further. AMD’s Senior Product Marketing Manager, Marc Diana, has this week confirmed to Germany’s second-most widely read IT publication, C’t, that Sony’s PS4 will support AMD’s forthcoming hUMA [heterogeneous unified memory architecture] memory management technology, while Microsoft’s Xbone will not.

The way that a gaming device’s CPU and GPU have traditionally used RAM is to either utilise separate pools of RAM for each processor, or to utilise a unified pool of RAM which is separately partitioned for use by these components. The latter method is far more efficient for communication between the CPU and GPU, yet both methods incur a degree of latency as the information present in one area of memory must be copied over to the other. AMD’s hUMA technology allows for both the CPU and GPU to have concurrent access to an entire pool of unified RAM, eliminating the need for information to be copied from one location to the other – something that is likely to greatly assist GPGPU functions, as both processors are able to see the same information.

It would make a lot of sense that this were the case, given both console’s different memory architectures. The Xbone would likely be effectively incompatible with hUMA given its complex memory architecture, as the 32mb of ESRAM embedded in its GPU effectively means that system RAM, while mostly residing in one common pool, is not truly unified. Basically, most of what enters and exits the Xbone GPU is thought to travel through that embedded ESRAM. The PS4 on the other hand does not make use of embedded RAM besides that located in processor caches, which can be easily bypassed. Moreover, Sony has joined the AMD co-founded HSA [Heterogeneous System Architecture] foundation, while Microsoft has not.

Following Diana’s initial comments, some significant doubt was placed upon their accuracy, as AMD released the following statement:

“During a recent Gamescom 2013 interview, an AMD spokesperson made inaccurate statements regarding the details of our semi-custom APU architectures. AMD will not comment on the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PS4 memory architectures and will not speak for Microsoft, Sony or other AMD customers.”

While this looked to pour cold water onto excited conjecture, AMD later confirmed that they were actually full of shit. The above official comment led one publication running the story that Sony’s PS4 would not support hUMA technology, which led to AMD contacting the author in order to undermine their previous assertions:

“AMD contacted me again to make another comment. Essentially, they said that the correction statement to the original statement claiming hUMA was part PS4 was “inaccurrate” but that this correction does NOT mean the opposite claim is true. Even when pressed for a more specific and debate-ending comment, AMD wouldn’t give us any more information.”

What this all amounts to is that the PS4 probably supports AMD’s hUMA technology – that said, this may not ultimately manifest itself in any meaningful way outside of Sony first party titles, as the PS4 already has the raw power advantage to brute force its way past the Xbone without utilisation of emerging memory management technologies. On the other hand, if hUMA takes off on the PC as GPGPU best practice, then it is still possible that we might see its widespread use on the PS4.

Ouya is the sound one makes when they vomit.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwya

The ailing Ouya console has once again made headlines for entirely the wrong reasons. Ouya management [in their infinite wisdom] decided this week to upload to the official Ouya Youtube account an advert full of violence, horror, and revulsion. The advert in question features a slob gamer replete with stained Y-fronts, weeping at his decision to purchase a game for $60. The gamer then proceeds to vomit until he is wading in the stuff up to his knees, after which he grabs his tongue and yanks out his spinal cord which he uses to club himself unto a bloody pulp.

Disgust aside, the irony of the advert is that it invites gamers to contrast the $60 game console business model directly with the Ouya – a comparison which the Ouya still ends up losing despite all of its games having a free trial mode. Only 27 percent of Ouya owners have even bothered to purchase a game, which is really all the indication one needs as to the quality of the Ouya’s library.

Beyond this, it is quite perplexing as to who Ouya thinks it is going to attract by using such base stereotypes as gamers being greasy, hairy, troglodytes who spend their days on glued to the couch wallowing and snorting in their Y-fronts – that is the sort of stereotyping which confirms the depiction of the typical Ouya owner [and management] as fart-sniffing elitist fucks who are green with envy at other consoles having games.

Perhaps the silliest aspect of the entire advert however, is Ouya’s implicit claim that game developers do not deserve to be paid for their work. That may be an apt message considering that 99.9 percent of their customers have bought an Ouya in order to emulate SNES games, but it will do absolutely nothing to attract gamemakers to Ouya.

Ouya later tried to contend that their video was just an experiment:

“We are experimenting with animated content and posted this video briefly to get feedback from our community. Stay tuned for our official video!”

But given that any official video is only ever likely to be uploaded to their official Youtube account anyway, no one seems to be particularly inclined to believe their feeble lies. This advert just goes to show that the only people likely to be vomiting with sorrow and regret are the unhappy dupes who donated to Ouya’s Kickstarter campaign.

Sony at their absolute best.

Microsoft Takes the Bait

If one were pressed for an answer as to the single most enjoyable aspect of the impending next generation console cycle, it would have to be the emergence of Sony’s A-grade trolling abilities as they attempt to go about selling a console purely on the strength of their not being Microsoft. From their brutal onstage dismemberment of Microsoft at E3 2013 to their instructional video on how to share PS4 games – everything has been exceptional, and Sony’s snide antics this week were no exception. Sony’s Andrew House made a very pointed reference to Microsoft’s recent backflips and turmoil in his Gamescom speech, when he bluntly stated:

“While others have shifted their message and changed their story, we were consistent in maintaining a message that is fair and in tune with consumer desires.”

Fortunately for Sony Microsoft decided to bite, with Phil Spencer accusing Sony of trying to portray their backflips as “a bad thing“. He then went on to spout some rambling nonsense about how listening to users was one of Microsoft’s key strengths [with a straight face no less].

“The thing I love about the space we’re in is you’re always going to get feedback, whether it’s on your Twitter feed, whether it’s in NeoGAF, whether it’s in Eurogamer, people are going to tell you in comment threads how they feel about decisions.

Other people will do and say what they’re going to say. Fine. We’re running our program. That’s a strength of who we are.”

If Microsoft listened to gamers then they never would have opted to unveil the Xbone in the way they elected to, whereas when gamers reached out to key Sony staff to request a DRM-free PS4, Sony listened without need for a Mulligan. Phil Spencer talking about the importance of listening to consumers is only apt to remind people of this piece of recent history. At any rate, Sony have once again forced Microsoft onto the back foot as they attempt to justify the missteps which saw Don Mattrick exit the company – this can only speak ill of the Xbone’s prospects just months out from launch.

Xbone: melting to a home near you!

The Xbone Is Betrayed As So Much Snake Oil

This week Microsoft, in all their dreadful hubris, have maintained that core gamers will buy anything, including the awful company’s nonsense PR spin. Microsoft shill, Phil Spencer, has indicated that his employer takes the custom of core gamers for granted, stating:

“We believe that if all you want is gaming, you’ll still pick us, at the end of the day. The super core guys, they will buy everything. They will buy all devices, but most people really only do buy one device, and if you’re going to think about what that one device is, we believe an all-in-one system that does the best games and TV and entertainment will be something that’s really unique.

We’re going to continue to innovate, continue to add new experiences, and make it better every single year. Right now we’re eight years into this platform — we didn’t have a single music video [at launch], we didn’t have any entertainment, and now we’re seeing half our usage globally driven from entertainment apps. And so we think the story will evolve and continue to get better over time.”

Goodness knows how Xbox customers ever got on with no access to music videos on their Xbox 360s. Perhaps they played games instead? The idea that what core gamers really need is the exact same content that is required by casual and bro gamers appears to have pervaded all levels of the company, with Microsoft’s own Carl Ledbetter [creative designer of the Xbone] flatly stating that:

“Xbox has always had something to say. It’s always been bold with a strong personality. Xbox One needs to serve our most loyal gaming fans and deliver unique entertainment experiences, so its design has to make an appropriate statement that reflects its capability as an all-in-one entertainment system.”

Given the muddled focus of the console, it is perhaps of little surprise that Microsoft are looking into debasing the currency of their XBL gamerscore by awarding achievements for the passive act of simply watching television through their glorified [and superfluous] cable box. And that is precisely what the console looks like: a cable box. Microsoft’s own Xbone propaganda has gone on to clarify the visual design philosophy behind the console: “The console and Kinect sensor are liquid black so they melt into the background when being used, allowing the content on your TV to dominate the living room.” This is a statement which bodes ill for console owners, given the Xbox 360s notoriously poor hardware durability issues. Xbone certainly manages to completely avoid attracting attention in terms of attractive visual design, so mission accomplished in that respect. The Xbox team really seem to be betting big that potential console owners actually wish for the line between gaming console and DVR device to become blurred, and yearn for console gaming to just “melt into the background“.

This is not to say that Microsoft are doing nothing in the console space however, as Phil Spencer has this week revealed that Microsoft have invested roughly one billion dollars into the development of exclusive games, along with securing exclusive third party DLC and timed third party exclusives. Given the relative paucity of Microsoft’s own internal development resources, one can probably conclude that they have likely spent more money on the latter than the former. It is kind of sad to see so much money being spent without actually contributing anything of positive value to the gaming market. Instead Microsoft are spending their money with a view to impairing the capacity for PS4 owners to be able to enjoy third party software on their console.

[Pictured]: Good guy Kaz Hirai.

Things Looking Up For PS4 Following NeoGAF Twitter campaign

Earlier in the week things were looking decidedly sketchy for Sony’s upcoming PS4 on the DRM front. The state of their console had seemed dubious for a while now as the result of Sony remaining evasive on the question of used games, yet it was Geoff Keighley’s confirmation that Sony did in fact have a used game blocking solution up and running on the PS4 that spurred much of the gaming community into action on the matter. According to Keighley Sony were playing coy whilst evaluating the degree of blow-back that Microsoft received from gamers for the choking DRM regime they are attempting to foist on Xbone owners [with the internal consensus seeming to favour ditching the proposed DRM measures] – which led NeoGAF to formulate a logical response in the form of a respectful Twitter campaign informing key Sony personnel of the gaming community’s strong aversion to anti-consumer DRM.

The Twitter campaign sought to draw attention to the issue by utilising the hashtags: #PS4NoDRM and #PS4USEDGAMES, and experienced much in the way of early success, with the targeted Sony execs expressing their appreciation for the enthusiasm of Playstation fans. Gamer hopes were then further buoyed by the fact that several of the Sony executives started to joke about the DRM issue on Twitter by accompanying Tweets regarding Death Ray Manta‘s release on Vita with the hashtag: #DRMonVita. If key figures within Sony feel confident in joking about the matter, then it would seem likely the DRM issue has probably been decided to the negative. One final favourable piece of confirmation came in the form of a NeoGAF post by a Playstation insider, which simply stated:

“I do want to warn that these decisions do flipflop (as evidenced by what i posted earlier this week vs now). I’m not 100% on this. The people I know aren’t 100% on this. Some suit can come in and fuck the entire thing up. So I wouldn’t go running around screaming “HAHA SONY ISN’T DOING IT!” I just wanted people to know that as of now Sony has flipped their position in response to the shitstorm microsoft got hit with.

So don’t let the “just be quiet until E3″ people sway you. If you don’t like something, say something. Twitter is amazing for being able to talk to people in these corporations. YOSP will even respond if it’s about something he can talk about (he is currently not responding to ANY questions about Used game… but you can bet your ass he is reading them).”

Who would trust this man to watch over their baby?

Kickstarter Doubles Down On Fineness

This week the outward manifestation of Tim Schafer’s ego cum development studio, Double Fine, has taken the sadly precedented step of launching what will be their second Kickstarted project before their first Kickstarted project has even made it to market. This places Double Fine in line with inXile, who managed to secure near-record levels of funding for their projects: Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera. With rumours now rife that Double Fine’s first Kickstarted project, Broken Age, has run out of development funds, Lusipurr.com’s own Lusipurr is right to point out that this move bares all the hallmarks of taking out a new credit card to pay off an existing credit card.

The increasingly troubling aspect to this latest move by Double Fine, is the sense Kickstarter is fast becoming the de jure preferred funding model for any independent game developer with a celebrity game designer working under their roof. The original rationale that companies like Double Fine were capitalising upon was the dubious folk wisdom that it is “impossible” for “games like these” to be made anymore, on account of publishers being unwilling to fund them. This just does not seem to ring true for Double Fine’s follow-up, Massive Chalic, on account of strategy games still being able to secure publisher backing, as evidenced by the recent release of Double Fine’s own Iron Brigade [a game that was directed by Massive Chalice's project lead, Brad Muir]. That does not seem to matter anymore though, as these companies have begun to regard fan funding as an entitlement.

On a more positive note, it would appear that Shadow of the Eternals, the Dyack-led reformation of Silicon Knights under the banner of Precursor Games, is all but dead this week – with the studio confirming that they have no likely alternate funding arrangements for pursuing the project. In order for Shadow of the Eternals to reach its ludicrous funding goal of 1.5 million dollars, the Kickstarter page would have to generate more money for each remaining day than has previously been generated on any day outside of that game’s launch, so, while it is disappointing to see so many people donate money to these frauds, it would seem that Kickstarter dupes are at little risk of being materially harmed by these clowns. When asked in a Reddit Q&A session about whether the game would still go ahead if it failed to reach its funding goal, Precursor Games COO, Shawn Jackson, responded:

“Since we do not have any other source of funding, it is unlikely.

We will entertain all options to make this game a reality because we believe in this project. However, we can’t be sure a publisher will share our vision for interacting with the community during development or this would work in the traditional model.”

When asked about Precursor Games’ astoundingly poor decision to not only hire Denis Dyack, but to also have him serve as the clear focus of the game’s Kickstarter campaign, Jackson replied:

“(a) We hired him because he’s a valuable asset to the team. (b) We intend to show people the real Denis Dyack through his interactions on the forums and videos. Denis has made many successful games and ran independent studio for over 20 years. (c) We didn’t anticipate a backlash because we actually know Denis as the person he is.”

An asset is only valuable if it contributes positively to the well-being of the company as a whole. Denis Dyack is toxic, and has obliterated any chance that Precursor Games had of reaching their unlikely funding goal. At any rate, it looks as though one can look forward to more stories about “the real Denis Dyack” before this doomed Kickstarter has run its course.