Industry News

Roll Call: The Next Generation?

Wow. Even though my excitement about the next generation has been restrained—I mean, come on, we all know that launch lineups are traditionally lame—my enthusiasm has hit a sudden peak in the last day or so, due to the launch of the PlayStation 4 this week, and the Xbox One later this month.

I haven’t been a day-one participant in a console launch since the Nintendo Wii, back in 2006, and the PlayStation 2 before it back in 2000. It’s crazy to think that I haven’t had this experience in 7 years (almost to the day), but here it is, just a sunsets away. And while I was just semi-pumped before, paying off my system last night and seeing all the deals from places like Target and Amazon are getting the fire stoked anew.

Basically, I can’t wait for the next generation. And it’s about to be here.

So my question for you guys today is this: who’s jumping in right away? What are you getting? PS4? Xbox One? What games are you getting? Let’s do a bit of a roll call. Go!

GamerSushi Asks: Resurrecting IPs?

In a pretty astonishing move yesterday, Square Enix announced Collective, a new crowdfunding platform that allows indie developers to pitch and create games for some of their old, dormant IPs. With Collective, Square Enix is basically allowing indie developers to rouse some of their sleeping properties, with Anachronox, Fear Effect and Gex going up for grabs. Developers that create games for these will receive a majority of their profits if Square helps publish, and all of the profits if Square does not.

To me, this is an inspiring, fascinating idea, and one that makes total sense. If you’re a developer with a huge backcatalog of IPs, some of which you know for sure you don’t have the resources or interest in resurrecting, why not hand them over to the community to see what comes out of it? It’s incredibly forward thinking of Square Enix, and I’m dying to see if other companies follow suit. In particular, I can’t wait to see what folks do with Anachronox, an often-overlooked cyberpunk noir RPG that had a rich atmosphere, ripe with potential.

So my question for you all on this Friday of Asking Things is this: if you had a chance to resurrect an old, long unvisited property, what would it be? What are some old games that you’d love to see more of, and would you change anything about how they’re presented? Let’s call this an impromptu game jam. Go!

Source – Gamasutra. Image by Alex Chin Yu Chu

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 76: Much Doge Delay

We’re back with an on-topic cast as the crew gather to talk all the video game news that’s fit to print…or talk about. Whichever.

Leading off, Eddy gets sad about Watch_Dog’s delay (much disappointment), Anthony bemoans the current direction of Final Fantasy, I talk about Ryse: Son of Rome’s crunch, Jeff soliloquizes about The Wolf Among Us and we close with some Grand Theft Auto 5. So, it’s a pretty full cast.

Listen, rate the podcast (it’s very important that you do this since we lost all our previous ratings) and enjoy life. We’ll be back soon with another episode.

0:00 – 2:48 Intro
2:49 – 12:24 Watch_Dogs Delay
12:25 – 21:03 The Death of Final Fantasy
21:04 – 33:14 #RyseFacts Crunch Tweet
33:15 – 43:06 The Wolf Among Us
43:07 – 1:05:48 Grand Theft Auto 5
1:05:49 – 1:09:34 Outro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

#RyseFacts Tweet About Crunches Backfires

Ryse: Son of Rome is an upcoming Xbox One third-person action title being worked on by Crytek, makers of Crysis, Far Cry and hopefully at some point in the future a Y: The Last Man video game because that fits with their motif.

Since the game has been in development for several years and changed direction a few times, it stands to reason that the team would have been through a crunch or two. According to the Ryse Twitter account, the team has been served some 11,500 crunch-time dinners during the game’s development.

Besides being a rather large number, it’s also an odd thing for a game’s Twitter account to bring up. Sure, crunch happens, but I don’t think it’s a stat the public needs to know about. People who are much better at math than me totaled that up to about 58 days of crunch during the game’s development time (assuming the Crytek team is about 200 people). Continue reading #RyseFacts Tweet About Crunches Backfires

Sad News: Watch Dogs Delayed Until 2014

Ugh. In what I’d call more of a gut punch than actual news, Ubisoft announced via its blog yesterday that Watch Dogs, slated for a release this fall, will be pushed back until Spring 2014.

The reason? They want to make the game better, and to deliver more of a truly next gen experience. From Gary Steinman, Ubisoft’s community manager:

Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.”

So, yeah. This is pretty disappointing for me, as Watch Dogs was the one game I really wanted play on my PlayStation 4 this fall. Now, the thing may just be a paperweight until February, when InFamous comes out. Unless I *shudder* decide to play Assassin’s Creed 4 instead.

Who else is bummed by this? What games will you be playing this fall? Go!

Source – UbiBlog

Pixel Count: Games without Release Dates?

The eve of a new generation is a strange time for gamers. We’re so used to having our calendars planned out at least a year in advance, knowing all of the big blockbuster releases that we intend to snatch up day one. But when a new generation dawns, all bets are off, and release dates become a nebulous, free-form sort of thing, hidden in shadow.

Which kind of sucks.

At the moment, this seems to be exactly the case for 2014, with tons of titles announced, but no clear idea on when we’ll really be able to play them, beyond vague “quarter” references meant primarily for stockholders. But none of that really means anything to gamers, especially when it comes to us saving money and figuring out what we’d like to buy. Even though I can’t wait for my PlayStation 4, I’m admittedly a bit bummed that I have no real idea when I’ll be playing some truly spectacular next generation games once we move over to 2014.

With all that in mind, I put together a list of the most anticipated games that don’t have true release dates yet, and wanted to see which ones you guys were most excited about. Go!

Loading ...

Valve Unveils Steam OS, Steam Machine and One Other Thing

Oh Gabe Newell, I doff my proverbial cap to you. Not content to just have the largest digital distribution network for PC games, Valve is expanding the Steam Universe with an OS, machines and…something else.

Valve kicked off the announcements this week by showing off SteamOS, the Linux-based operating system that will guide your magical journey through living-room centered PC gaming wonderfulness. It sounds like you can dual-boot the SteamOS on an existing PC or stream games from your current gaming PC to a Steam Machine running SteamOS and play your games that way.

Continue reading Valve Unveils Steam OS, Steam Machine and One Other Thing

GamerSushi Asks: What Are You Playing?

Sushians! The dreaded fall abyss approaches.

You know, the one that we’re all going to disappear into while we’re busy playing games. The first harbinger of doom comes in the form of one Grand Theft Auto V, which somehow is only a few days away. I’m not really sure how that happened, but I’m not complaining about it. After that, we’ll have games like Watch Dogs, Batman: Arkham Origins, AC IV, Battlefield 4 and then some.

But before all that, what are you guys playing right now? To prepare myself for battle at the moment, I’ve been diving into Saint’s Row IV, trying to finish it in a mad dash just in time for GTA V. I’m also trying to wrap up Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and hope to knock out Call of Juarez: Gunslinger sometime in the near future as well… but my eyes are often bigger than my stomach when it comes to gaming.

So what about you guys? What are you playing while you await the inevitable fall madness? Go!

Pixel Count: How Do You TV?

From Netflix to Apple to Amazon to your local cable provider, sometimes it seems like every company in the world is at war — and your TV is the battleground. While Microsoft is certainly unleashing its own bombardment with the TV capabilities of the Xbox One, Sony surprised the entertainment world today with their own announcement of PS Vita TV, a set-top box similar to the Apple TV.

When it hits Japan, the PS Vita TV will be able to stream services like Hulu, will be priced similarly to Apple TV, and will also allow gamers to play PS Vita games on their TV by way of a Vita slot in the back of the console. It’s an interesting idea, one with some intriguing possibilities — if there’s a similar content lineup when this thing hits North America, there’s no telling how big of a presence Sony could have in the TV streaming realm.

In light of this news, I’ve been wondering how you guys TV. There are so many options these days, and so many relate to gaming systems, I thought I’d throw it out there. Vote and hit us up in the comments!

Loading ...

GamerSushi Asks: Next Gen Plans?

We’ve been in this current console generation for so long that I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to anticipate the release of a new system — the way I eagerly latch on to any news about release dates, original IPs, sequels and features. Something about it takes me back to when I was a kid, playing a Nintendo 64 for the first time in a mom-and-pop (or really just an old nerdy dude) video game shop, marveling at the flying cap and my first glimpse at 3D done the way it was always meant to be. I felt like an extension of the controller. Like I could do anything in Mario’s shoes. Continue reading GamerSushi Asks: Next Gen Plans?

A Retrospective on Square’s Final Fantasy Roots

And we’re back. Over the next week or so, you’ll see us returning to our old form and regular posting schedule. So let’s get to chatting about cool video game stuff.

Many of you know of my love for the Final Fantasy series. Although it’s not quite as intense as a certain other GamerSushi contributor, I do consider the series formational as a part of my youth, and really helped me explore my love of story, characters and all things fantastic.

That’s why I was excited to see a new documentary focusing entirely on the beginning of the Final Fantasy series, and Square’s roots as a company. It’s a really interesting look at gaming as it was a few decades back, and how RPGs first entered the scene. Even if you don’t love FF, I’d definitely recommend a look at some of its founders.

Rockstar Reveals GTA Online

Damn you, Rockstar.

My hatred of Grand Theft Auto IV has not been exaggerated or underreported in the slightest over the last few years. While Liberty City was gorgeous to look at through Niko’s eyes, I found it to be a dull, tedious place that I hardly cared about, or cared to be a part of.

But dang, does Grand Theft Auto V look different. In addition to a campaign that looks to mix up the formula with three protagonists, Rockstar’s newest iteration of the popular series is taking the multiplayer in a different direction than ever before by way of Grand Theft Auto Online, a persistent world where you and up to 15 others can heist, race, deathmatch, build and generally unleash havoc together. I’ll let the video do the rest of the gushing.

Grand Theft Auto Online releases on October 1, and is free with every retail version of GTA V. What do you guys think? Am I jumping too far into the hype train? Have I been burned too many times to take another chance?

Phil Fish Cancels Fez 2 After Twitter Argument

Indie game maker, head of Polytron and creator of the charming platformer Fez Phil Fish is known around the Internets as kind of a hot head, and there’s no better way to get juicy quotes out of these kinds of folks than poking them with a proverbial stick.

Unfortunately for gamers, this latest attempt at provoking Phil Fish backfired, leading to the abrupt cancellation of Fez 2. Marcus Beer, also known as “Annoyed Gamer”, during a section of Game Trailer’s Invisible Walls went on a rant about Phil Fish and fellow indie game developer Johnathan Blow, calling them several rude things and basically trashing their reputation as independent developers. This resulted in Beer and Fish having a nasty back and forth on Twitter with the end result of Fish announcing the sudden cancellation of Fez 2 and his departure from the games industry. Continue reading Phil Fish Cancels Fez 2 After Twitter Argument

Broken Age Gets Broken in Half to Ensure Completion

Tim Schafer, a luminary figure in the gaming industry who holds a position akin to everyone’s favorite uncle, might have burned up some of his good will earlier this week.

In a letter to Kickstarter backers, Tim Shafer announced that Broken Age is getting split in half in order to make sure that the game can be completed in full.

According to the letter, Broken Age got pretty large; so large in fact that internal predictions at Double Fine put the game’s release in July of 2014 with a significant amount of content being cut. Instead of releasing a smaller game at a later date than promised, Double Fine will be selling the first half of Broken Age through Steam Early Access in January of 2014 to fund the rest of the game.

Backers will still get their full game as promised; what the Steam Early Access will do is open the game up to people who didn’t back the game on Kickstarter and will hopefully create the revenue Double Fine needs to finish it off. Double Fine thought it would be improper to get money from an actual publisher or go back to Kickstarter.

So what do you guys think? If you’re a backer, what’s your take on this?

Source – Gamasutra

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 72: E3 2013

gamersushi show e3 2013

It’s the Season Finale of The GamerSushi Show! At the end of this season of the podcast, we talk about E3 2013: the press conferences, the games, and how we felt about the whole thing!

All five of us assembled like some sort of giant robot or mighty super-hero team, so it’s a pretty great cast. Unfortunately I had to duck out early thanks to work things coming up, but the guys brought it home in grand style.

So, you know the deal. Listen, rate, and eagerly await our return in September (or August, if Saint’s Row 4 has anything to say about it).

0:00 – 5:02 Intro
5:03 – 30:59 Microsoft’s press conference
31:00 – 54:21 Sony’s press conference
54:22 – 1:04:05 Nintendo’s….presence at E3
1:04:06 – 1:12:53 E3 wrap up thoughts
1:12:54 – 1:17:20 Outro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Sony E3 2013 Press Conference Highlights

Now that Microsoft has sounded off this morning, it’s time for Sony to jump in with their own version of what the next generation of video gaming should look like. As these things tend to go, the conference had its share of highs, lows, hyperbole, hype and exciting moments. But most of all, some shots fired at Microsoft.

Many people said that this year was Sony’s to lose. So how did they do? Continue reading Sony E3 2013 Press Conference Highlights

Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference Highlights

Well gents and ladies, E3 is here, which of course means one thing: time for press conferences! The big gaming show is about the only time of the year that I get excited to listen to executives throw a bunch of scripted marketing speak at me, since it (sometimes) means I’ll get to look at some new games — and, if it’s a really good year, maybe some new tech and a few new IPs as well.

So how did Microsoft deliver after all the hubbub they’ve caused in recent weeks with the reveal of the XBox One? Let’s find out. Continue reading Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference Highlights

Sonic: Lost World Trailer is a Little Sonic, a Little Mario Galaxy

I’m not entirely sure how to feel about Sonic the Hedgehog anymore. While SEGA has made some decent efforts in the past to revitalize their old mascot’s image, for every step they take forward it seems like they take two back. Sonic Colors was good, but it was only on the Wii, so a lot of people didn’t play it. Sonic Generations was, by and large, a really fun Sonic game, but every couple of levels the developers seemed to forget what kind of Sonic game they were making and shoved in some clumsy platforming sections. That said, the new Wii U and 3DS exclusive Sonic game Lost Worlds looks like Sonic Team has been bitten by the Mario Galaxy bug, and that isn’t a bad thing at all. Watch the trailer below!

Besides the Galaxy influence, I’m detecting some Sonic Extreme in there as well, which is good news for people who waited for that game back in the mid ’90s only to have it cancelled. So what do you guys think of Sonic: Lost World? Are you on board?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 71: All for Xbox One

gamersushi show ep 71 xbox one

It might come as no surprise that the majority of this week’s cast is dedicated to the Xbox One reveal. We talk about our thoughts on the device, everything from the announcement itself to whether or not people actually need a console that can do all this stuff when they already have three or four more gadgets that can do the same thing.

After we wax philosophical about the Xbox One, we make a couple E3 predictions and those are always fun. In case you missed it during the cast proper, this will be our last cast for a couple of weeks until E3, which is when we’ll do our “Season Finale” E3 wrap-up.

You know what to do. Listen, rate, all that good stuff. See you after E3!

0:00 – 8:20 Intro
8:21 – 46:21 Xbox One
46:22 – 1:05:55 E3 Predictions
1:05:56 – 1:06:59 Outro

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

“That was really entertaining guys. I hope you’re able to keep it up this...” Peter O'Neill + (@Petyr92) on The GamerSushi Show, Ep 95: Super Sushian Odyssey 80 days 11 hours ago

“Yeah, I thought I was ready for this cast, but I wasn’t. ;w; TOO SOON” dapurplesharpie on The GamerSushi Show, Ep 95: Super Sushian Odyssey 82 days 5 hours ago

“One thing I regretted not mentioned on the cast (even though I had the perfect opportunity at one...” Mitch on The GamerSushi Show, Ep 95: Super Sushian Odyssey 82 days 10 hours ago

“Hot damn boys. Exciting times 🙂” Julez Michaud on The GamerSushi Show, Ep 95: Super Sushian Odyssey 82 days 21 hours ago

“I didn’t enjoy the game either. A lot of the main quest NPCs just keep talking and...” Shane Steinhauser on GamerSushi Asks: Why Do You Like The Witcher 3? 497 days 14 hours ago