Archive for February, 2009
New God Of War III Trailer
Posted by Tosh in God of War 3 on February 13th, 2009
Wow, very intense. All real time too, and no loading time either. Looks fun 
IGN: Large-scale puzzle sequences could get people lost because of the scale of the game. How do you keep people focused?
Stig: I’ve never seen anyone else work on this kind of scale. Because of that, we don’t have anything to refer to. We don’t plan on something where you go to a marker and get a hint. We want to design it so that it has a flow, and we won’t have to drop hints. We also do extensive play testing. Working on these Titans is tough. When we first started we realized we’re doing something we’ve never done before. When you’re on these titans, it doesn’t change how Kratos handles –he can still pull cranks and ride Cyclopes and fight bosses.
G4: When you’re on the titan, how does his movement affect gameplay. Will that affect gameplay?
Stig: Perhaps. [laughter]
God of War III! Press Event Q&A and New Trailer
Side note:
Who else thinks the “Only on PlayStation 3″ part of the trailer should replace the current animation before PS3 games start? 
Killzone 2 Undocumented Ribbons?
Posted by Blackstaffer in Killzone 2 on February 13th, 2009
I think there are more ribbons in the game than were shown in that progression chart that was making the rounds a little while back. At the very end of this video you can see ribbons being handed out for the match. Killing Specialist, Assassination Defend, and Body Count are all missing from the progression chart. I wonder what these ribbons give you?
Edit: Okay okay. Maybe this was just new to me.
Here’s the video:
January 2009 Hardware Sales
Posted by Darrin in Sales Data, Uncategorized on February 12th, 2009
The PS3 really should be doing better based on the strength of their recent software launches, but not too bad. They’ve got a string of great software hitting in early 2009, so hopefully these numbers pick up.
Games Night #6 Redux
Posted by Blackstaffer in Game Night on February 12th, 2009
Last night we had our sixth games night. First we met up in Home. I hadn’t realized how similarly our avatars were configured until HELLACHEAP joined us, who looked much different. Nice outfit, dude. Then Tosh caught flies for a bit before four of us launched into Warhawk. Let’s see. There was me (Blackstaffer), Tosh (xBerserker), Trieloth, and Sinlock. (I think. Since turning 40 my memory has mushed.) Tosh’s connection is much better than mine I guess because he can set up 24 player matches and I can only set up 8 player matches.
The most disappointing thing about the evening is that we kept getting placed on opposite teams. I understand why in the first game, because there were the four of us plus two strangers (playing splitscreen – what a great option). So we had to be split up for that game. But for the rest of the games we had plenty of players, yet we were always split up two to a team.
The first game also game me audio problems. Audio was terrible and all static-like. All audio, not just voice chat. I tried disabling voice chat, but that didn’t help. So when that game finished I tried to quit and re-enter, but it didn’t give me the option of just quitting the game. I had to go to Home first, so I decided just to reset my PS3 because that was faster. (Home takes way too long to load.) After I’d reset my PS3 things were much better.
It didn’t seem like anybody was using a headset. I didn’t hear a peep all evening. So I might as well have been playing a bunch of bots. To be honest, I didn’t have much fun. I rarely saw the other members of our group up close, and when I did, Tosh just dispatched me with ease. Frankly, I think that Warhawk is much funner with a smaller group of people on smaller maps. Plus the need for communication via headsets was once again underlined.
Next week: CoD4. Those of you without it, maybe you could rent it for the evening. There’s always a way to join us. Last week we had six people, this week we only had four. Next week I’d like to see more than six! Please come and join us, and make sure you have a headset. You’ll need one for Killzone 2 anyway.
Quick Accounting Review: Activision/Blizzard
Deferred Income. Also known as unearned income
Example: A customer buys a year-long MMO subscription for $120 ($10/month prepaid for twelve months)
In classical double-booking accounting, on day one:
- Debit the asset account, “cash” for $120. The company receives the full amount immediately and this is a cash asset.
- Credit a liability account, “Deferred Income” (sometimes called “Unearned uncome”) for $120. The company is obligated to provide $120 of service that the client has already paid for.
At this point, there is no recognized revenue yet for the above transaction and this wouldn’t show up under revenue or income statements in a financial report. However, it would affect the cash asset account and cash flow statements.
At the end of each of the twelve months of the subscription term:
- Debit the liability account, “Deferred Income” for $10 (total year subscription cost divided by twelve months)
- Credit the Equity account, “Revenue” for $10
These monthly transactions *do* affect revenue and income reports, but do not affect cash holdings or cashflow statements.
In Activision/Blizzard’s quaterly report, their official figures for Q4 2008 were:
| Account | Balance (millions) |
|---|---|
| Total Revenues for Calendar Q4, 2008 | $1,639 |
| Total Expenses | $1,787 |
| Net income (loss) | $(72) |
You can also see their deferred revenue balance. This is the money for unused portions of MMO subscriptions that’s not yet recognized as revenue.
| Account | Balance (millions) |
|---|---|
| Deferred Revenue | $923 |
You can also see that their MMO revenues dropped from 62% of total revenues in Q4, 2007 to 22% of total revenues in 2008. Since Wrath of the Lich King shipped late in Q4 2008, I’d imagine that subscriptions have shot way up since then, but that is mostly unrecognized revenue as of the end of the quarter.
From here:
The company said net income excluding deferred revenue and other charges would have been $429 million [...] Revenue excluding deferred game sales was $2.2 billion
What they are saying is saying is that if they could treat all the new year-long subscription sales as day-one revenue instead of using the classical deferred revenue accounting (and a few other adjustments that they detail in the full report), they would be able to report much better numbers.
At face value, it’s shocking that the publisher behind World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Guitar Hero didn’t turn a profit. Those three products are all selling huge unexpected numbers. One other thing to consider is that they bought the Guitar Hero rights after that was already big, and they got the World of Warcraft product in a merger, so it’s possible that some of the money being made on those products is going to the previous property owners through some kind of royalty deals.
SNIKT! Berserker Rage!
Posted by Tosh in X-Men Origins: Wolverine on February 11th, 2009
Finally a true Wolverine game. I’m glad they took the more violent, bloody route. It’s how Wolverine is, he’s a killer when need be. If you read the Wolverine comics, you know how violent they are at times.
Imagine this: Wolverine, body riddled with bullets, climbs atop a helicopter. He bursts through the window, grabs the pilot and lifts the body up to the rotors. The pilot’s head gets shredded apart.
Welcome to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. One could talk about the various nuances of its gameplay, but overwhelmingly only one aspect of the game truly stands out: it’s violent. Really, really violent.
It shouldn’t be surprising that X-Men Origins is so bloody. It is, in fact, about a man who has deadly claws coming out of his hands. For too long, the big-budget Hollywood movies and video games have presented a neutered Wolverine. X-Men Origins: Wolverine wants to tell the story of a man who’s very, very angry at those that created him — a weapon of war.
Seems like he will have some killer moves to. Ripping enemies in half, hacking off limbs, etc. And when Wolverine gets injured you’ll see bullets in his body, gashes from knife attacks. It will even show organs and bone before he heals, which happens in real time!
The gameplay will be similar to God of War in some ways. There will be interactive cinematic sequences. But they do it a little bit different:
While GoW has relied on QTE button presses, Wolverine tries to make these sequences feel more like gameplay. For example, when Wolverine fights a helicopter, players won’t have to wait for random buttons to appear on the screen. Rather, they use the same attack buttons to claw away at the windshield. Players have to dodge with the same button as the one in regular combat. Cinematic sequences have their buttons mapped to mirror regular gameplay sequences. It certainly feels a lot more natural than God of War.
I really like their approach at QTE events, sounds like fun I’m really looking forward to this game. Hopefully it will be good and not another awful video game movie tie-in. But so far it’s seems to be coming along well.
Games Night #6 – 11feb09
Posted by Blackstaffer in Game Night on February 10th, 2009
UPDATE 2: Yup, it all starts at 10pm EST. Unless you can meet in HOME beforehand, where people will start gather before 10.
UPDATE 1: Don’t forget that we’re meeting in HOME beforehand, for those of you in the club. Even those of you without Warhawk might like to drop by, in case there’s enough of you to start a different game. Don’t forget to bring your headsets and that you push R2 to talk. Those of you that are not members of the club that want to play, make sure that you have sent PSN friend invites to Tosh or me before 9:30PM EST, and make sure to mention games night.
Hey everyone. Time for my weekly games night post! Hurrah and hurray. First and foremost, thank-you to everyone who sent Birthday wishes. I am now wearing my nice new watch that I got (the picture doesn’t do it justice). Allison surprised me with a big party yesterday, which was nice.
Anyway. Games night. This week I thought we could give Warhawk another chance. Last time there weren’t that many of us, so I’m hoping for a better turnout this time. The only problem is that if I start the game, my connection only allows 8 people in the party. That shouldn’t be a problem, as the most we’ve ever had so far is 6, but you never know…
So I’m just wondering who might be interested in some Warhawk on Wednesday? Please don’t forget your headsets…
Killzone 2 – King of light sources
Posted by Tosh in Killzone 2 on February 10th, 2009
The lighting in the game is truly astonishing. Muzzle flash casts light. Even the Helghast’s eyes cast light like a regular light source.
In a previous video interview, Killzone 2 development director Arjan Brussee demonstrated a scene featuring 230 different light sources, including multiple lights on flying sentry bots.
I thought that number was the game’s pinnacle; however, in a highly recommended
3DWorld Magazine feature (available in UK shops now), it’s revealed that there are an incredible 350 light sources in one Killzone 2 scene.
Wow, 350 is very impressive. Can’t wait to see this in person
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