Re: The New Title of the Worst Games Console of All Time

Alterz Wed May 11, 2011 6:39 am

Brilliant article here on that very same company.

Gaming site Giant Bomb got its hands on some internal memos at Activision discussing the status of their flagship Call of Duty franchise. One exec asks, "Isn't Call of Duty today just like Guitar Hero was a few years back?" A response assures him that Call of Duty is more firmly entrenched than the recently-collapsed music game genre, and adds that Activision doesn't get enough credit for innovating. Quoting: "If you really step back and dispassionately look at any measurement—sales, player engagement, hours of online play, performance of DLC—you can absolutely conclude that the potential for this franchise has never been greater. In order to achieve this potential, we need to focus: on making games that constantly raise the quality bar; on staying ahead of the innovation curve; on surrounding the brand with a suite of services and an online community that makes our fans never want to leave. Entertainment franchises with staying power are rare. But Call of Duty shows all of the signs of being able to be one of them. It’s up to us. ... Activision doesn’t always seem to get the credit it deserves in terms of innovation in my opinion, but there is no short supply of it, even in our narrower slate." An editorial at Gamepro takes exception to this, saying that Activision should stop trying to milk its franchises dry.

Continued here

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/isnt-call-of-duty-today-just-like-guitar-hero-was-a-few-years-back/3057/

and Here

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/218951/editorial-milking-it-dry/

Dave Wed May 11, 2011 6:53 am

They simply will milk Call of Duty until it no longer makes them a profit - Kotick himself said he intends to "exploit" franchises. Problem is, it'll be a few years before COD stops making them so much money - because the games now take absolutely no skill to play, it's becoming more accessible to kids and casual players who will happily fork out £40 for essentially the same game every year without realising it. Eventually though, it will go down the same route as Guitar Hero. There's no other shooter at the moment that can beat it, but people will get fed up with it (I already am - haven't played Black Ops campaign since I got it). Battlefield won't match the sales for the next COD but im sure it will tank it in terms of reception. Interestingly there's about 3 or so different developers working on the next COD game so I see it being a bit of a mess.

Gilroy Wed May 11, 2011 12:17 pm

Potentially could be the beginning of the end for Sony in terms of making games consoles. They will lose millions of customers over this.

Alterz Thu May 12, 2011 4:04 am

Strangely enough they have just announced the Playstation Phone (or watever its actual name is) is being made Open Source and have released the code for it for you to fiddle around with.

As opposed to the PS3 where they actually take you to court for playing with the same code.

Sony have a tendacy to bounce back, its such a well known brand something like this may harm it in the short term, and we do look back on their other gaffes and laugh, but they still keep at it.

Although their Wii-like controller now is just silly.

Dave Thu May 12, 2011 4:13 am

Sony will bounce back with the PS3 or whatever their main home console will be - it's a fact that their portable attempts over the years have been general FAIL, so all focus will be on making PS3 or whatever's next as good as it can be. They probably will take a hit over this PSN farce but will bounce back eventually. All good publicity for Microsoft and Xbox though.

And the PS Move controller is the biggest piece of crap there is.

Dave Sun May 15, 2011 2:07 am

Quoted from CVG...

PS3 trade-ins on the rise as PSN down time drags on

Fed up with the continued PlayStation Network downtime, PS3 owners are increasingly opting to trade in their consoles for cash or Xbox 360s.

That's according to a number of retailers, who told Edge under conditions of anonymity that the PSN troubles are having a major impact on the high street.

"In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades," said one store manager at a major UK retailer.

"However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 percent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead."

An independent retail source based in the South West said he'd seen a "massive increase" in the number of PS3s traded in recent weeks, with most swapping for an Xbox 360. The customers in question were described as being in "the hardcore online shooter crowd".

Belgian indie retailer Gameswap also told the site. "At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles. People that need money [to pay bills]. What's different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don't want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.

"We're just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 percent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We've only sold 30 to 40 percent of our inventory right now."

The PSN was taken offline on April 20. Sony is aiming to have the service up and running again this month.

Alterz Sun May 15, 2011 5:04 am

I see today there is a new firmware update where users need to change their details.

They are rolling the PSN out again country-by-country and expect whole thing to be back end of the month. Wonder what free, and unheard of games, people will get to download?

Dave Sun May 15, 2011 9:42 am

Bin Lorry Tycoon FTW

Alterz Mon May 16, 2011 1:59 am

Know a few people who have theirs back online, my brother included, not even a sign of a "sorry" or any freebies mind you.

Dave Mon May 16, 2011 3:55 am

I would like to think that they will post something out to him or maybe even email, giving a choice of a freebie. If they don't get anything, Sony need a giant slap

EDIT: apparently Sony are releasing more details regarding freebies for European users later this week; 2 free games and a free 30 day subscription to Playstation Plus. Seems alright I guess, as long as they're decent games

Alterz Mon May 16, 2011 5:59 am

Theyll be what ever games cost sony the least.

Love how people are now having problems changing their passwords, servers cant take it.

Dave Mon May 16, 2011 6:11 am

It's never simple with them is it? Laughing

When COD Black Ops came out, the online part of the game wouldn't work properly, COD MW2 got completely hacked on PS3. Doesn't get any better!

Alterz Mon May 16, 2011 6:20 am

I like my Xbox 360 Smile

Dave Mon May 16, 2011 6:55 am

Alterz wrote:I like my Xbox 360

I agree!

Alterz Wed May 18, 2011 9:43 am

The PlayStation Network is down again. Sony had originally enabled passwords to be reset onscreen simply by entering an email address and date of birth. Whoever has the data from Sony, could, in theory, then reset any of the captured users accounts simply by entering the details they stole.

Gerbilmuncher Wed May 18, 2011 11:11 am

The networks been up or down for the last few days in different regions while they get everything up and running again.

Read somewhere that the password resets were console sensitive, like I wouldn't be able to reset my password on any other console except the one I registered with, or signed in with before April etc.

Last night they had to shut the system down because too many people were resetting passwords, so the shut down was to clear the queue. The only thing up and running this far was a spell of multiplayer is specific regions Razz

still early days yet leek

Dave Thu May 19, 2011 2:53 am

Now the site designed to help users assign new passwords/accounts has been taken down due to "security concerns"

Basically meaning in order to reacquire your account, you enter your PSN ID/email and date of birth, then change your password. Unfortunately all those super smart code monkeys at Sony didn't realise that not only is this information that ANYONE who knew the users could enter, but its also the information that the hackers stole and have possession of in the first place. Idiots.

Alterz Thu May 19, 2011 3:54 am

Yeah poor thing to do when restarting, chances are, anyone could do it, even if you edit the hardware to thinking its the console of the user.

Console sensitive is an easy thing to change when you know how, edit some bits of code in bios and underlying software and its changed. Should work in theory though.

Alterz Thu May 19, 2011 5:16 am

Just got an email from Xbox, one of their email/magazine type updatey things.

New Black Ops Maps....and you have to pay for them?!

Sorry but fuck off.

That is not on. After people paynig money - lots of it - for the game - then asking for more money after that for a few maps.

No.

Fuck that.

Dave Thu May 19, 2011 6:57 am

Aye Activision are basically the Nazis of the gaming world. Try to squeeze money out of everyone for all they can. And if you think thats bad, they released a map pack last year for Modern Warfare 2 for £10 - it included 2 new maps and 2 "re-imagined" maps from the original modern warfare, which were essentially the same maps with a couple different lighting effects. Shocking stuff. Bad Company 2 however, releases the Vietnam expansion for the same price but it has 4 MASSIVE brand new maps, all new guns, characters, vehicles, music etc. That's a good expansion. Plus it wasn't already written onto the disc, unlike a lot of other games. The new Modern Warfare is to have 20 multiplayer maps on disc but apparently 8 will be released through two downloadable map packs. shocking.

Alterz Thu May 19, 2011 7:00 am

I see if you pre-order the new BF (3), you get all that shit free.

Dave Thu May 19, 2011 10:10 am

Aye looks a pretty good deal in the end I reckons - one of the reasons I pre-ordered it this early. Can't wait for BF3, will be epic win!

Alterz Mon May 23, 2011 12:49 am

"Hackers: 6, Sony: 0. It appears an attacker has performed a SQL injection attack against SonyMusic.gr. The latest attack has exposed usernames, real names, email addresses and more. Is Sony's network being used as the world's largest public penetration test?"

Even I stopped laughing after a while.

SQL injection attack

This is incredibly basic.

Dave Mon May 23, 2011 1:28 am

The New Title of the Worst Games Console of All Time - Page 3 PWNED!

When will Sony learn?

Dave Tue May 24, 2011 6:30 am

I'm not even surprised anymore...

Clicky

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