In today’s game media we have a bunch of different outlits that feel it is their job to give a broken game an 8/10 or above. Part of this is that PR wings of dev houses contact game reviewers to inform them that they have given their game a “harsh” review. In doing so they make it harder and harder for the game reviewer to give the actual score he/she wanted to give the game, not to mention the fact that if a company does not like the review you gave their game they can also complain to the company you work for and give less advertising dollars as punishment. What the hell?! In some cases, depending on how harsh the review, the reviewer can be fired but is this how the movie industry treats the critics?

Game reviews today are more complicated and convoluted than they were ever meant to be. Two games that are great examples for this point are BF2142 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. First, take BF2142 an moderately fun game by many people’s standards but possibly the buggiest game I have ever purchased. Now considering what I just said what would you expect me to give it? You would expect me to give it an F and it deserves to have an F but many game review sites like Gamespot and others gave it over an 8/10…check GameRankings.com if you do not believe me. Second, take Dark Messiah, a game which on most computers, hardly runs. If you consider 3-15 FPS on even today’s best machines good then by all means give it an A but what it deserves, once again, is an F.

Even if a company fixes a game down the line, it is still DOWN THE LINE. If a movie house put out a movie that was unplayable would it get great reviews? No, but for some reason the gaming industry feels broken games deserve great reviews. This is one of the most fundamental flaws in ethics but is considered acceptable in an industry that is trying to get people to take it seriously…seeing it this way, no one should.

- Justin Lowe

Digg it

Owning IP is crucial to survival, says Free Radical boss // GamesIndustry.biz:

Free Radical Design’s David Doak has told GamesIndustry.biz that if the developer didn’t own it’s own intellectual property, it would have gone bust. And he warned other independent developers that without holding a stake in a property they risk having a project taken off them if a publisher isn’t happy with the development process.

Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - Denis Dyack Talks Console Wars:

Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack said in an interview that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are “equal in power” and added that he won’t be missing the glitzy version of E3.

Earlier today EA released a patch to the EA Downloader which effectively uninstalled EA Downloader and then installed the new “EA Downloader” which is called EA Link. Due to the uninstall it deleted all of the information associated with the cdkey of the game you purchased making the BF2142 that you had installed useless. By useless I mean whenever ANYONE connects to a server they are greeted with the message “Invalid CDKey”. If you are one of the lucky ones to manage to be able to connect to a server eventually 2-3 minutes down the line you will be kicked from the server by Punkbuster telling you that you have a “duplicate key”.

If you did not know of this situation by now it is most likely because you do not own BF2142, which I would have to say at this point, good for you and do not get it. There remains no solution to the problem at this moment as EA has yet to respond 10+ hours later but you can at least join in the fun on the EA message boards and tell them how much you hate them here.

In the end I would like to thank EA for proving to everyone why no one should buy your games…yet again.

- Justin Lowe

Digg it

Uh-oh! Sony part of DoJ’s inquiry into SRAM sales - Joystiq:

Apparently Sony is part of an industry-wide inquiry into sales of SRAM. According to a Sony spokesman, even though they don’t manufacture the SRAM themselves, they sold $27.7 million worth of it in 2005. Sony responded to the inquiry simply, stating, “Sony intends to cooperate fully with the DoJ in what appears to be an industry-wide inquiry.” How else could this be ugly?

360 Dashboard Update ‘Bricking’ Modded Consoles news from 1UP.com:

But hackers have already found a usable workaround.

PS3 delay will give MS an advantage, says Ubi exec // GamesIndustry.biz:

Ubisoft executive Alain Corre has said he believes Microsoft is set to reap the benefits of the European PS3 delay this Christmas in the form of extra hardware and software sales.

Xboxic » New maps included in PDZ Platinum:

Coming November, MS are releasing the “Classics” range that offers big selling games at a bargain price. Perfect Dark Zero is included in the launch of this range, and it comes with some nice bonuses. Included in the game are six maps, for free.

Halo 2: Four Billion (Games) Served news from 1UP.com:

Bungie now almost 4% of the way to catching McDonald’s!

Slashdot | The Tax Man Comes To Virtual Australia:

shadrach_au writes to mention that what was being considered in the states is now apparently policy down under: your virtual assets can be taxed. The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is warning citizens to consider whether their gaming ‘is a hobby or a business’ and act accordingly.

Halo movie post-pwned by Microsoft and Jackson - Joystiq:

“As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.”

From Rayman!

Nintendo showed of the Wii to a seniors convention. One of the people there said, “This is amazing my grandson has played lots of video games and I haven’t seen anything like this.” Also there is a video of one of the people playing Wii Sports bowling.

read more | digg story

With reports that the Microsoft will eventually drop the price of the Xbox 360 comes a couple questions that remain unanswered. The most prevalent of which is “When is the appropriate time to drop the console price?” Many people have thought that Microsoft might pull something out of the hat in November just in time for the holidays with a price drop but there is no reason for Microsoft to do so for the holiday season. The fact remains that there will be a huge demand for the 360 in the holiday season due to Gears of War and the rest of the games that will be coming out during the time. If the holiday season is not the appropriate time for a price drop then when is the appropriate time?

Logic states that dropping a price right before the holiday season would create such fervor for the console that demand would outstrip supply due to it but why drop the price when there is already demand? The fact is there is no reason to. When Anthony, Brian, and I discussed this same point we came up with the same conclusion – drop the price in a lull period like summer. Taking that point of view dropping the price of the system during a lull would create demand for a product in a period where there usually is only a small demand. Another thing to consider when it comes to the price drop is what is coming out during the summer months or near it – Halo 3, Forza 2, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, Lost Planet, and Blue Dragon to name a few would also boost preemptive sales to get ready for a holiday season that is sure to be huge for the 360.

The other thing to consider is how much of a price drop. Traditionally we have seen $30 to $50 first run price drops, the first price drop is usually the biggest one due to percentages associated with the new price. For instance if the PS3 dropped its price $50 from the $600 unit is an 8.3% drop in price and if the 360 dropped its price $50 from the $400 unit it is a 12.5% price drop. Considering that the PS3 would have to lower the price more to get to the same amount percentage wise. Thinking of it in percentages $30 seems like a more appropriate number for a price drop for the 360 premium. However whenever a company does a price drop they have to make sure that the supply is always less than the demand for a product because you want to keep the demand up in the long run.

Due to the way the market is you do not want to go so low that your product is looked at as cheap. No one making a console or any product wants to have their product considered cheap because that affects demand, simple supply and demand economics. The other issue is Microsoft is still 90+ million dollars in the red for this year alone that eventually they have to make back, so dropping the price below what it costs to make the console, would once again, put them even more in the red. Hardware becomes cheaper to manufacture over time but it does still take TIME and many generations of console hardware evolution during a console’s life. There are many factors that have to be considered before dropping the price and the ones I have mentioned are only a few but consider what I have said next time you want a price drop “NOW!”.

- Justin Lowe

Digg it

Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News - ESA Raises $800K for the Kids:

The Entertainment Software Association’s charity arm raised over $800K at last week’s “Nite to Unite for Kids” dinner and auction.