Saving us some cash this weekend, Steam is offering a 75% discount on an "Indie Games Pack", which includes AudioSurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Gish, Mr. Robot, The Path and World of Goo. A 5-game pack is also available at a 66% discount. The sale runs from now until Sunday, August 9th. So if you dig indie games, you won't want to miss this! :D
Giving us a peek behind the scenes tonight, EA Los Angeles have released a short "Director's Cut" trailer for their upcoming strategy title, Command & Conquer 4. Running just over four minutes long, the video walks us through the debut trailer that was released a couple weeks ago, pointing out some stuff you may have missed and discussing the creation process. Pretty neat stuff! Check it out:
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Thanks to GameTrailers for the above stream. The video is also available for download at GamersHell.
Command & Conquer 4 is scheduled for release in 2010.
Canada at least is in a bit of a state of flux regarding its copyright laws. For example, currently it's technically illegal to record television programming for later viewing, and yet the sale of personal video recorders (PVRs) is perfectly legal. Odd, no?
With notions like this in mind, the federal government met with artists, tech companies, educators and many other kinds of organizations in public consultations which began July 20. The government, which has been typically known for progressive-mindedness when it comes to these matters (excepting a few slimy political types, of course), stated its goal is to achieve a balance between the interests of copyright holders and users of copyrighted material. The consensus among groups was in tune with this, though they have many different ideas as to what should be included in the updated laws. Naturally, some of these ideas conflict strongly with each other, though most seem to have the best interests of the people in mind.
Seven organizations were present, representing everything from TV, radio, actors, and puppeteers to librarians, video games, technology and hardware, to consumers themselves; we'll highlight the most notable suggestions from each.
First we have the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, who put forth an idea we fully support: imposing a levy (an extra fee) on digital recorders are music players. This worked very well back when everyone was pirating music and burning it to CDs, and it seems overdue to these fellows for it to applied to the more popular technology nowadays. Assuming you shop around and research, you can get a great music player for cheap these days, so a minor extra fee shouldn't be a big deal, and most won't even notice the change, particularly with prices fluctuating as fast as they do in the industry. This allows artists, labels and the like to not lose as much money from pirated copies of records, films, etc.
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers, meanwhile, calls for ISPs to be less intrusive when it comes to pirated content, that is, not to require them to take it down, or cut off service of their customers for acquiring it. Chairman Tom Copeland says, "I don't think Canadians want their ISPs to become agents of law enforcement," adding traditionally they would pass on notices of violation from the rights holder, but that's it. He added that traditionally, ISPs have passed on notices of copyright violation from the rights holder, but that is where their obligations ended.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers is apparently in support of digital lockbreaking, at least under conditions of "fair dealing and use" (which the Canadian Library Association, or CLA, need to be clarified); they're also in favour of Canadian copyright law taking precedent over individual product law, and most interestingly, reduce the amount of time a copyright is in effect for. As it stands, an author's work is protected for his lifetime plus 50 years, which seems a bit unreasonable, really.
The CLA has the interests of the disabled in mind, too. For them, permissions are allowed so materials can be converted, for say, the deaf or blind, however other disabilities are not covered, and this needs remedying. Further, they'd prefer if such materials were allowed freely to cross between Canada and the US before the ban in 2004.
On the topic of video games, which is likely what you're most interested in, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada isn't so progressive. In fact, they directly oppose pretty well all the above mentioned suggestions, and push for protection of protection (i.e. make it illegal to crack disk checks, mod your console, break parental locks, etc.), albeit "supporting some exceptions" like allowing the visually impaired to make copies of a game manual, for instance. On the piracy front, their stance is ISPs should be required to remove illegal content following a notice from the rights holder, though the poster of the content could appeal. At present, an ISP is free to ignore these notices, and a court injunction is necessary to see its removal. Under the previous and dreaded C-61 bill (more information in the link posted at top), ISPs had to pass on the notice, but no further action was required. The suggestions largely stem from "zero day piracy", or piracy which occurs before a street date, or shortly thereafter, when a game makes its strongest sales.
Second last is the Information Technology Association of Canada, who we're fully behind as well. These guys have three main points: let research break digital locks (necessary for advancing security), focus punishment on those who profit directly from violating copyrights instead of pirates, and allow more freedom with technology purchases (e.g. usage on multiple devices or networks, allow "tinkering" for compatibility purposes with networks, older software, etc.).
Lastly is the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), which as you may guess, has you specifically in mind. They support most of the stuff already mentioned -- breaking of digital locks, more flexibility in fair dealing (i.e. remixing music), and more flexibility in media usage too, like legalizing recording of broadcasts, conversion of content to other media (i.e. making a digital copy of a book), and moving of content to other media (i.e. ripping a CD and putting the MP3s on your music player).
As for the results, we'll just have to wait and see, but right now, things sound quite reasonable; even the worst of it isn't so bad compared to what some rights vendors communicated at the Federal Trade Commission's town hall meeting (i.e. "buy the game again if your activations expire").
To end this off, here's a quote from the PIAC's counselman John Lawford we can surely all agree upon:
"I don't think you need to have protection of the protection."
The Internet is packed with PC F2P (free to play) MMOs, and MMORPGs. But hey, there is room for one more right?
At the Games Convention Online today (a big...game convention), a fantasy themed MMO called Project S was unveiled today. The game looks action based, and somewhat like many other fantasy MMOs you are familiar with. Yes folks, it looks like we have another YAMFRIES game on our hands (Yet Another MMO Featuring Rangers, Imps, Elves and Sorcerors).
A trailer was released for the game today. You'll be able to choose to play as one of three incredibly creative classes: either a warrior, ranger or a mage.
Although this game is drenched in creative juices, apparently the company behind it, gamigo AG, is having a hard time coming up with a name for the game. So they are throwing a little contest. If you think you can come up with a better name for the game than Project S, email ProjectS@gamigo-mail.de with your idea. If your name is chosen, you'll gain access to the limited closed beta, and you'll be credit with a €1000 worth of credits to pimp out your character in the game.
If you are at a loss for coming up with a name, I've made a little cheat sheet for you. It's called the GENERICA FANTASOMATIC NAMING MACHINE. All you have to do is pick one word from each column, and they will be scientifically combine into an awesome name for a fantasy MMO:
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
Dragon Knight Online
Elf Castle Realms
Legend of Sword Empire
Dark Treasure Quest
Nightmare Adventure Worlds
Epic Forever Kingdom
Warrior Dungeon Wars
Tales of Victory Island
Death Voyages Craft
Breaking out the eyecandy tonight, NCsoft has released 14 (!) new screenshots from their upcoming massively multiplayer online RPG, Aion: The Tower of Eternity. These latest screenies give us a sneak peek at the Sorcerer class in action. Pretty hot stuff! Enjoy:
Aion is scheduled for release in North America on September 22nd and Europe on September 25th.
Getting us geared up for the weekend, Valve has announced that all Dawn of War 1/2 and Company of Heroes titles are 50% off on Steam from now until Sunday, August 2nd. The list of titles on sale include:
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II ($24.99)Company of Heroes ($9.99)Company of Heroes: Gold ($14.99)Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor 213b($14.99)Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts ($9.99)Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade ($9.99)Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - Soulstorm ($14.99)Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - Gold Edition ($9.99)Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War - Platinum Edition ($14.99)Relic Super Pack ($24.99)Don't miss out on the savings! :D
Publishing and developing giant Ubisoft has today revealed its Q1 2009 financial results, the long and short of it being a 51% decline in overall sales revenue from the same period last year, leading to four delays.
The company comes in at €83 million ($118m USD) this quarter; last year's figures brought the company to an impressive $240m. The numbers were below Q4 projected estimates by 12.6%, or about $135m.
Ubisoft attributes the new figures to a slowdown in DS software sales old and new in the US and Europe ("more pronounced than expected"), much lower back-catalogue sales on the PS3 and Xbox 360 than the same period last year, and worse than expected industry conditions.
On the bright side, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Anno performed as anticipated, with the latter receiving great ratings across all platforms; a growth in share on the Wii is also noted.
As a result of the drops, a 54% decrease on the previously projected $185m outlook set for Q2 is set; 2009-10 total targets are revised to $1.48 billion, compared to previous guidance of about $1.57 billion; based on the "very warm response" of Asassin's Creed II at E3 this year, sales for Q2 are expected to be stronger.
Q3 and Q4 will be affected as well, with Splinter Cell Conviction, Red Steel 2, Ghost Recon and I Am Alive all receiving delays. The former two were both set for Q3, and will now be pushed back to the following quarter; the latter two were set for Q4 and will be moved to sometime in fiscal 2010-2011.
Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, stated: "We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated. This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing. Against this backdrop, the solid performance of our Wii titles combined with the successful launches of Anno and Call of Juarez are points of satisfaction and demonstrate that good products are continuing to sell well. We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft. Lastly, we are having to adjust our full-year targets to take into account the fall in business over the first half. The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year."
Guillemot has elaborated in interviews, as well, stating piracy on the DS -- in America, as opposed to Europe -- is a lot of the reason for their misfortune this time around. Rather than "cracking down" though, Ubisoft will be taking a cue from Atlus:
"Piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the boxes that will change that in the future," said Guillemot, later continuing, "We see when we put other things with the product (people) go and buy the game. We need to make sure that the value is better when they buy the box then when they download (the game) from the Internet."
In our opinion, this is definitely the smart way to go, so Ubisoft, you have our respect.
PC piracy is also noted to be "quite a lot", something the CEO implies they are working on internally, saying, "We are working on a tool that would allow us to decrease that on the PC starting next year and probably one game this year." Whatever could it be? With any luck, it will be good news for legitimate customers, as an internally developed form of DRM is likely to be less inconvenient than an externally developed one, it being less familiar and therefore harder to implement properly.
That's all for this quarter -- see you next time.
