Nintendo does not compete with cell phones, EA did not make Hits in ‘08 & Midway wants to sell off Mortal Kombat – Welcome to the column that does intend to play something besides Lego Star Wars in the near future known as Dare to Play the Game.
So, I did say I was going to be done with Lego Star Wars last week. Well I was right and I was wrong. I did finally put it away this week. However, I accumulated some of the more difficult achievements first. All the red bricks, check; max out stud counter, check; all the mini-kits, check; all the gold bricks (yes all 160 of them), check!! After a mass onslaught from the last column until Sunday I was getting every nook and cranny of the game. 820 achievement points. 4 miscellaneous achievements and in-famous 100% is all that is left.
I’m actually quite proud of myself. I’ve gotten better at playing games to completion (like I did with Fable II). But I’m also glad I put it down. A special thank you goes out to my Sarah who played with me to finish up some of the holes in my gold bricks (Bounty Hunter missions and those crazy Lego City/New Town levels) and mini-kits. I also thank her brother Alex who pointed out from a casual eye some places I missed in my mini-kit search.
More cosplay, this is an Asian elf girl donned in purple regalia. Elves can be from the Far East, right? Does anybody care? I mean, really when a girl with pointy ears, black raven hair, pouting lips and a nice set of….err….shoulderpads, are you really going to try and confirm the authenticity of her nationality? I don’t think so.
Nintendo
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata wants you all to know something: despite throwing music playback and a digital camera into the latest DSi, Nintendo have no intention of “directly competing with existing products”.
That’s right, after years and years of shying away from multimedia convergence like it was a steaming hot nothankyou.jpg sandwich, Nintendo have embraced the idea on the DSi, including features that we’ve never seen included directly on a Nintendo console before.
The casual observer (and hardcore observer, really) would think this was nothing but an attempt to push the DS on from being “just” a games player and into a bigger market, one currently occupied by do-it-all success stories like the iPhone. This bringing the DSi into, you know. Competition with such devices. Competition for consumer dollars and awareness.
But it’s not!
No, Iwata would like you to ignore all notions of competition in the marketplace, and instead believe Nintendo are simply into pleasing people:
That’s right. Nintendo doesn’t have any intention of directly competing with existing products, but the mass media has a tendency to portray everything as a rivalry between opposing companies. It seems some people have the impression that we want to compete with cell phones or the iPod, that putting cameras or music players in our devices is out of character for us. I hope those who have such an impression will take an interest in what Nintendo can make when it dedicates itself to pleasing as many people as possible who pick up a DS, and I hope they’ll actually pick one up themselves.
The new DSi is a pretty DS, makes me think about buying a DS again for about the 47th time. (my girlfriend wishes I would hurry up and do so, I’m sure) It includes some cool things for sure, among them mp3 playback and a digital camera. Heck the DSi is a full entertainment unit. It even waxes your eyebrows and gives you a full tan. Okay, I made that part up. What it does do despite Iwata’s thoughts is put in direct competition with the IPod as a complete entertainment solution. One could argue easily that it is not the same as the IPhone but could you not see Nintendo go all N-Gage and partner with a Sprint, AT&T or T-Mobile and start the 2-year contracts. I’d change from my crappy phone to a DSi if Nintendo added phone support and partnered with T-Mobile or some competitor. In a heartbeat.
Electronic Arts
Remember EA boasted that last year it put out 15 games getting 80 or better on Metacritic? Guess that’s no longer an operative statement. A senior exec told investors “We didn’t make hits” last year.
John Pleasants, EA’s chief operating officer, told a Goldman Sachs conference last week the company’s plans for success last year were built on assumptions that games like Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge would be blockbusters. They weren’t.
“The biggest thing was that we didn’t make hits,” Pleasants said, although many of its games were profitable (including those two.) The way to make hits? Marketing, not development, apparently.
Marketing is “one line item on our P&L that’s increasing. We’re reducing on other items, but we have titles that we want to have hit,” Pleasants said. Looking back at the past three years, they figured they weren’t spending enough, or spending at the right times, to get good games into hit status.
“The game-development process has evolved, so the marketing should as well,” Pleasants said, meaning more focus on Web marketing. “It’s less about ‘We have an idea, we go away for 24 months and spend $30 million working on a game, then put a little buzz out there and hope it works.’ We need to have a dialogue with the audience, take a longer lead time and make sure we have the right mix of digital and traditional.”
You can look at this two ways. One, is that EA is lying to themselves to make them like every other company in the world. It is no longer vogue to say that you are successful, you must say that you are struggling. That way you can get government hand-outs and lay people off with everybody just dismissing it per business as usual. The other way to look at it is that EA is playing a word game. Rather than say we had a bunch of hits and will continue to deliver more, they are saying they had okay games and made them into successes with their branding and marketing. It’s the old story of turning straw into gold. “Look at me, I’m EA, I can take a marginally successful game like Dead Space and turn it into a blockbuster.” In reality the game had it all along, it just needed a little push.
Midway
Things continue to look down for the publisher
Midway is trying to sell off what is probably their most popular franchise, Mortal Kombat, in an attempt to rake in some extra income.
Midway has set aside $3.75 million to provide incentives to employees able to secure a deal to sell Mortal Kombat or submit a plan that will allow Midway to either reorganize and continue as a business or do into liquidation.
I think I made reference to this about 6 months ago. At some point, Midway was going to look to sell the Mortal Kombat license (and any other trademark that was worth 2 cents) to the highest bidder. It’s a fantastic license, to the right buyer. The game could go to a company that doesn’t really have a good fighter. Like EA (Def Jam doesn’t count and Fight Night is a boxing game). More importantly it could go to a company like Namco or Capcom. Crossovers. Tell me you haven’t thought of Tekken vs Mortal Kombat or potentially the biggest game ever: Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. I’d buy it first day. And I didn’t buy Street Fighter IV nor Mortal Kombat vs DC on the first day. Both of those are wonderful games but the sheer amazement of seeing Scorpion vs Ryu or Sub-Zero vs Guile would bring my gamer eyes to a single tear. Hey as long as I get to execute a fatality on Dan from SF (preferably with somebody like Baraka), that would make me happy enough.
Watchmen is coming to theaters this Friday. There is a fine deal going on over at Best Buy right now where you can buy any Xbox Live product (think 1600 point cards) or the console itself and get a package that includes 2 tickets & some extra Watchmen DLC from Live for free. That’s how I’m going. Anyhow in the spirit of marketing, the XBLA game comes out right before the movie. You play as Rorschach or Nite Owl in this beat-em-up as you take to the city streets to take on the Underboss. Six stages and it includes multi-player options. One problem. The price tag. 1600 points, $20 for downloadable content. Insane. I don’t think I am far from thinking the movie is going to be some fine viewing (especially in IMAX), but a way overpriced Live Arcade game? I don’t think so.
This is from the people at Gammick Entertainment, can we say we thought the word gimmick was too hokey? Anyhow, this is an interactive board game for up to 8 people. The goal is to complete a series of challenges and be first doing so. There are single challenges as well as team and versus challenges. It for all of your friends and family as the name implies from your grandpa to your 4 year old brother. The problem is if you get your father to play, he might just send you to bed without supper if he has to sit through this shovelware.
Finally, we get something decent on the downloadable content this week. This rare cart pits you as the leader of a band of rebels who have fought to preserve their honor and dignity in treacherous times. You must defeat the Empire with your rebel army which includes hundreds of characters, magic items, weapons and even some Tarot cards. The neat thing about this game was that it was essentially a real time strategy game combined with the character development of a role playing game. It was quite immense and I did at a point have a chance to buy the limited PS1 version (this is the SNES version but it’s the same game), but decided at the time it was too expensive. Don’t make the same mistake, 800 points is well worth it.
PS2
Major League Baseball 2k9
MLB 09: The Show
Tomb Raider Underworld
Spongebob: Happy Squared Pack
King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match
PSP
SBK: Superbike World Championship
Phantasy Star Portable
MLB 09: The Show
PS3
Major League Baseball 2k9
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.
MLB 09: The Show
SBK: Superbike World Championship
SkiDoo Snowmobile Challenge
Xbox 360
Halo Wars
SBK: Superbike World Championship
Major League Baseball 2k9
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.
Wii
We Ski & Snowboard
Sonic and the Black Knight
Major League Baseball 2k9
Grey’s Anatomy
Six Flags Fun Pack
DS
Spongebob vs the Big One: Beach Party Cook-Off
MLB 2k9 Fantasy All-Stars
Littlest Pet Shop: Spring
Grey’s Anatomy
Imagine: Ice Champions
Halo Wars is the attraction this week. We get to see if the world of Halo Wars can adapt to real time strategy and see if it can string out a good truckload of sales. I do like when genres branch out, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Major League Baseball makes its yearly release as I have to admit that I haven’t played a baseball game since the MLB Slugfest 2006 and before that, MLB 2001. Each time, I’m left disappointed and missing games like RBI Baseball or Baseball Stars. Nostalgia FTW. The most questionable release this week has to be Grey’s Anatomy. This is almost as bad as that Friends Trivia game that popped up a few years ago. I guess the goal is make it a medical game of some sort where you have to save patients. I’m told it will be like a cross between Trauma Surgeon and an adventure game. Please tell me you don’t have to go into a dungeon to find a scalpel and some gauze. I swear I’m going to have to slap somebody.
As you might be wondering, I did start playing another Xbox 360 game this week, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. One of the best $30 you can spend on a new game. It definitely takes me back to a simpler time where you played games for fun and had a hard time putting them down. So many games these days seem to be let’s pick them up, beat them and then put it back down. This is the kind of game that I’ll pick up now and then pick up later in between other releases. Or if I’m just killing time on the couch until dinner is ready. I have grabbed five achievements so far (Sonic, Golden Axe, Sonic Spinball, Alex Kidd & Altered Beast) and hopefully can grab a few more. Some of the games are much harder than I remember (Columns is a great example) but I’m having lots of fun. If you ever played a Sega Genesis game and enjoyed yourself, you should buy this game. I plan to have a review by the end of the week and will have more details by then. Have fun kiddoes, stay retro and keep playing.
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
03/04/2009 @ 3:29 pm
Glad you finally got into the Ultimate Genesis Collection! I’m beginning to think the addition of “Sonic” to the title was a very misleading decision for those not “in the know”.
1000 points can be yours, if you bear down on this one. 🙂