Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is Now Available on Steam!
The dark is no place to be alone. After a beautiful show of summer fireworks, two young girls begin to make their way home. However, a mysterious attacker separates them, and both must brave the haunting night filled with unspeakable terrors and survive the darkness.
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My title on Hand of Fate was “Creative Director,” and my title on “Hand of Fate 2,” says “Gamerunner.” Why? Before I dig in to that, lets take a brief sideways trip into current affairs.
The news came through a couple of days ago that EA had closed down Visceral (a wholly owned subsidiary) and with it the project in development helmed by Amy Hennig. That’s Amy Hennig, writer and creative director of Uncharted, creator of one of the defining franchises when it comes to videogame storytelling. That’s Amy Hennig, who has already firmly written her own place in the history books. That’s Amy Hennig, BAFTA winner, WGA Award Winner, Game Developers Choice award Game of the Year creator.
That’s Amy Hennig, who couldn’t get a game made inside EA.
The honest truth is, there are almost no creatives who can get a AAA game made inside a big publisher. There are a lot of reasons for that, but they mainly come down to a common cause — games, as a business, has no respect for creatives. The number of game directors who have autonomy when it comes to the decisions on their projects in the AAA space you can count on one hand. And three of those fingers are called “Hideo Kojima.”
Compare and contrast that with the role of a director in film or television. Sure, they have to work inside budgets, and they have to (with the aid of producers) get buy-in on their project in order to get a budget to work with. Once that’s done however, they have an enormous amount of freedom to make the damn thing. This never happens inside major publishers. Even the strongest willed of AAA Creative Directors (and I’ve had the good fortune to work with some great ones) has to deal with layers of executive bullshit every day they come to work. They have an endless series of VP’s trying to make political hay out of the work they’re doing.
I have watched a nearly endless series of incredibly talented senior creatives build amazing things — and then get crushed by the system inside large publishers. I’ve seen them travel from place to place, from executive interference to quarterly strategy shift, and along the way watched their games get cancelled before they get a chance to live. I’ve seen people spend a decade without shipping a game, moving from studio to studio in the hope things will be different somewhere else. I’ve seen studios bought for the original work they’ve developed, and then get turned into cookie-cutter producers of derivative work before being shuttered.
There is a place where that isn’t true, however. Most indie studios are creator lead and creator driven. They’re also largely self-funded or bootstrapped. Nonetheless, the wave of indie autuers is starting to have an influence on the way larger projects are managed. As an example of this cross pollination Teddy Dief has gone from indie success (Hyperlight Drifter) through to a Creative Director role at Square Enix. Yet, the question as to whether he can have the impact there that he had on a smaller scale team is still open.
Reagrdless, most indies are lead by someone with a vision and the ability to get the job done to make it a reality. The auteur lives on in the indie space.
On the other hand, I’ve had “Creative Director” on my business cards for 8 or so years now. It’s never been a title that sits comfortably, but it’s been a reasonably good way to communicate with the outside world some of the work I do. As a company founder, there’s always other things that need doing however, that fall outside of that purview. More importantly, as our design team has grown we’ve been conciously evolving towards a model that puts collaboration front and center, ahead of “Direction.”[2] As a mid-size indie studio, we’re very different to a small team of people chasing a vision. We have a lot of other considerations, not least of which is our burn rate.
So my responsibilities aren’t solely the creative outcomes of our projects, but also the production realities of getting them made. The market realities of choosing our projects. The financial responsibilities of ensuring our projects are able to find funding (either internally or externally). The management responsibilities of building our team, ensuring it works well, and guiding its growth.[1]
Now games are not movies, nor are they TV series. The realities of game production (and distribution) are a long way from the way other screen media gets made. Every games company is also a tech company. Nonetheless, TV has a good way of summing up the varied duties that are incumbent on the person with creative authority and production responsibility. In TV, that’s a Showrunner.
“The person who has overall creative authority and management responsibility for a television programme. Generally the creator or co-creator.”
And in that definition is a simple way of summing up the things I do at Defiant. The conversion to Gamerunner is very simple :
“The person who has overall creative authority and management responsibility for a videogame. Generally the creator or co-creator.”
All of which makes a lot more sense. If nothing else, it better reflects the ways that I work (and try to work) with our team. I don’t direct, I run with them. I hustle ahead of the pack to try and clear the way before them, so they can focus on making the game. I help them to set goals, and help judge whether we’ve achieved them or not. More than anything else, I worry about things so they don’t have to. A runner is the most junior position in the hierarchy of a TV programme. They serve everyone, running and fetching. It seems to me that the title is reflected at the top as well, because in the end that’s the most important thing. My job is to serve the game, and to serve the team, in order to create the best possible outcome for all involved.
I have the authority to make that happen, and the responsibility to make sure it does. And that’s why my title is Gamerunner.
It’s also why I humbly hope that the AAA field starts to treat their creatives the same way. If Amy had gone to EA as a Gamerunner, and not a Creative Director, maybe she would have had the authority as well as the responsibility — and in the world of making things for the screen, that makes all the difference.
[1] All of these responsabilities are shared with others inside Defiant. Don’t ever get the impression it’s a one man show — this is just one persons view of it. Most prominently, the co-founder Dan Treble is our “Tech Director,” and that title has the same issues as discussed here with “Creative Director,” — in actual fact, he’s across every part of the studio and business, and is the glue that holds it together.
[2] I’m keen to talk more about our “writers room” model for game design, and the ways that model is evolving. That’s for another day, though.
Blizzard Battle.net®Welcomes Destiny 2 for PC
Winner of Best PC Game – Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2017 Available Today
SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Bungie and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), delivered for the first time, the world-renowned, first-person action game, Destiny 2, on PC across the globe today. Destiny 2 has received more than 70 global awards and nominations to date, including winning “Best PC Game – Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2017,” and industry nomination for “Gamescom Award 2017 – Best PC Game.” The console game, released on September 6, was recognized as the best-selling console game of 2017 in the United States to date with less than one month of sales by The NPD Group yesterday, and now Destiny 2 PC is available exclusively on Blizzard Battle.net®, Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed online-gaming platform, for digital distribution and at global retailers.
Developed by Bungie, and brought to PC in partnership with Vicarious Visions, Destiny 2 is optimized to take full advantage of the PC platform, delivering a native PC experience with PC specific features such as: 4K resolution support, uncapped frame rate, full mouse and keyboard support with custom key mapping, text chat, adjustable field of view, a detailed PC settings screen, 21:9 and triple monitor support, and HDR. Destiny 2 PC is playable on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
“It’s not every day that you get to welcome a new community to a game, but today we’re very excited to welcome PC players to the incredible universe of Destiny 2,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision. “And with the unique partnership between Activision, Bungie and Blizzard, we’re giving players a gaming experience they won’t soon forget. Time to defeat Ghaul on triple monitor widescreen.”
Bungie’s PC Project Lead David Shaw, said, “The anticipation we’ve seen from the community and industry for the addition of PC is exciting for Bungie, our partners at Vicarious Visions and Activision.” He added, “We committed resources to make sure the PC game was created with the discerning requirements of the PC community in mind and are happy to extend a red-carpet welcome to those players across the world now that the game is live on Blizzard’s Battle.net platform.”
“It’s been an honor to work so closely with Bungie on the development of the first PC version from the Destiny franchise since we’ve been long-time fans of the game,” said Jennifer Oneal, Studio Head for Vicarious Visions. She added, “As PC gamers ourselves, the collective team has given great care to deliver on our new audience’s expectations for Destiny 2 PC.”
Destiny 2 takes players on an epic journey across the universe to defend humanity from annihilation. The game welcomes new players to the universe, as well as those who have been devoted to the universe since the beginning, with an array of modes and activities to explore. In the story of Destiny 2, the last safe city on Earth has fallen and lies in ruins, occupied by a powerful new army. Players must master new abilities and weapons to reunite the city’s forces, stand together and fight back to reclaim their home.
In Destiny 2, every player creates their own character called a “Guardian,” humanity’s chosen protectors. Players can choose from playing the cinematic story campaign, venturing into expansive destinations to joining in cooperative modes including Strike missions. PC players can play the ‘Leviathan’ raid, a fan-favorite, endgame, 6-player gameplay experience when it goes live on November 1, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. For competitive players, Destiny 2 offers intense 4v4 multiplayer matches in ‘The Crucible’.
Destiny 2 is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is available at a suggested retail price of $59.99. The product line-up also features the Destiny 2 – Game + Expansion Pass Bundle at $89.99 SRP, the Destiny 2 – Digital Deluxe Edition featuring premium digital content at $99.99 SRP, the Limited Edition at $99.99 SRP, and the Collector’s Edition, featuring a fully-wearable Destiny 2 – Frontier Bag, Expansion Pass, premium digital content and a Cabal-themed Collector’s Box for $249.99 SRP.
Minimum system requirements for the PC game are an Intel Core i3-3250, Intel Pentium G4560, or an AMD FX-4350, along with a GeForce GTX 660 2GB, GTX 1050 2GB, or Radeon HD 7850. Additionally, 6GB of RAM, and 68GB of HDD space.
For more game information, visit www.DestinyTheGame.com and follow the official Destiny social channels on Facebook and @DestinyTheGame on Instagram and Twitter. The community can interact directly with the developers at www.Bungie.net, Facebook, @Bungie on Twitter, Instagram and www.Twitch.tv/Bungie on Twitch.
About Bungie
Bungie is an independent, employee-owned game development studio dedicated to creating hopeful worlds that inspire passionate player communities. For more than two-and-a-half decades that purpose has led to the creation of some of the industry’s most celebrated gaming franchises, including Marathon, Myth, Halo, and Destiny. Today, Bungie is focused on creating new experiences and adventures for the Destiny 2 community to share.
About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading global producer and publisher of interactive entertainment, including Call of Duty®, Destiny, Skylanders™ and Crash Bandicoot™ some of the world’s most successful interactive entertainment franchises. Activision maintains operations throughout the world and is a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), an S&P 500 company. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com or by following @Activision.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the expected release dates, features and functionality of the ‘Leviathan’ raid for Destiny 2, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
© 2017 Bungie, Inc. All rights reserved. Destiny, the Destiny Logo, Bungie and the Bungie Logo are among the trademarks of Bungie, Inc. Published and distributed by Activision. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks or trade names are the properties of their respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171024006406/en/
Activision Publishing, Inc.
Genevieve Waldman
425-440-6854
gwaldman@activision.com
Source: Activision Publishing, Inc.
News Provided by Acquire Media
There are a few different ways this review could have started. Lamenting that officially licensed video games based on blockbuster movies have had a rough history (to put it politely), or the even more disappointing tales of movies that have used gaming franchise IPs as source material. Whichever way you cut the proverbial cheese, the two mediums just can’t seem to get into a groove. The irony is that the more executives and film studios try, the worse it seems to get, and on the other side games based directly on movies have often been confined (recently) to mobile. Of course, historically there are exceptions and noble attempts, which gives hope whenever these tie-ins come around.
Californian developer WayForward certainly has a very good pedigree when it comes to 2D action platformers, so when the relatively surprising announcement arrived regarding its most recent title – The Mummy Demastered – there was at least cautious optimism. What was more interesting was that it was connected to this summer’s Universal monster movie reboot of The Mummy. As the genesis of the studio’s grand plan to build a new ‘Dark Universe’, the rebooted Mummy movie nevertheless got buried by Wonder Woman at the box office and in publicity, seemingly passing by quite quietly. This in turn makes it all the more fantastic that not only did this game see the light of day at all, but judged on its own merits (to cut a long story short), it’s brilliant.
To the well informed, this should come as little surprise, considering the developer has the acclaimed Shantae series, DuckTales: Remastered, DS gem Aliens: Infestation and many more on its CV. The pleasant surprise comes from how the game has taken influences from the glory days of 16-bit two dimensional classics that don’t involve an Italian plumber, and delivers something so well crafted and fun that it has every right to stand alongside prestigious contemporaries such as Axiom Verge and Cave Story; it maybe even gets close to what a certain shovel wielding hero managed to achieve for side scrolling platformers in 2014.
The Mummy Demastered – at its core – takes cues from series such as Contra, Castlevania and Metroid. Based around a squad of elite paramilitaries known as the Prodigium Organisation, they are burdened with the task of finding and eliminating the recently resurrected ancient princess Ahmanet. Guided by a mysterious chap via a codec-like intercom, you assume the role of an unnamed masked trooper looking for the rest of your team and start out with a gun, infinite ammo, and not much else. Taking down beasties, sword flinging skeletons and other bigger, badder and generally more creepy crawlies, you will traverse platforms, interior and exterior environments, learn new abilities, pick up health upgrades and additional weapons (of which you can only carry a certain amount, requiring you to switch at designated locations), while you unlock new areas and explore an ever expanding, large and varied interconnected world.
The overall presentation of The Mummy Demastered is stellar. Whether it be graveyards, forests doused in moonlight or the gloomy London Underground, each environment is beautifully detailed. The incredible soundtrack, courtesy of Gavin ‘Monomer’ Allen, is a blend of pounding and ominous yet ambient techno and neo-gothic synth chiptune, suiting both the environments and atmosphere perfectly. From the architecture and vehicles to the rolling or crouching of the titular hero, animations are superb – whether bobbing when idle or swaying when undead, all of the sprites have a kinetic energy and pace to them that is smooth and mostly seamless in motion. Insects flutter and scuttle, sand or mist drapes outside scenery and smog engulfs underground passages.
Controls are also tight – simply running and shooting is as effective as it is risky, but holding ZR will ‘anchor’ the character to allow free aiming in 45 degree increments. Combined with a changeable jump distance and various abilities later on that require a greater amount of dexterity, everything feels natural and effective. Platforming and shooting is immensely satisfying, especially when dealing with the range of supernatural foes. With some enemies continually respawning you’d be forgiven for thinking that things get stale or predictable. Despite sometimes needing to do a little resource farming the gunplay is fluid and brisk, which is handy as some enemies can hone in on your specific location from various directions. There is also an unobtrusive mini map (which can also be accessed in full by pressing ‘-‘) providing just enough geography to not get frustrating while avoiding handholding. Some of the enemy placement can feel a little cheap considering their speed, but the action is always plentiful, tense, and sometimes tactical.
The crux of the Mummy Demastered is the manner in which it handles life and death. Starting out with an upgradable health counter, if (when) you die, you will become an undead reincarnation, and you will then start again from your most recent save point but stripped of all your gear. The kicker is that locating and defeating your zombified predecessor will allow you to reclaim all the weapons, ammo and health upgrades you had on your previous run. Despite being reminiscent of the developer’s previous movie IP tie-in Aliens: Infestation – where if a marine falls in battle, another is drafted in to take their place – in that case the number of chances was finite.
The emphasis here is as much on survival as it is about progression, as there is no limit to the amount of times you can die and therefore revive. The parallel micro-management of not only journeying through the meaty adventure, but also being more mindful around hazards or enemies than in the average run and gun, is as refreshing as it is enthralling. Die twice in the same place, for example, and you’ll have two of your previous avatars to dispose of.
Taking on the game’s massive bosses is a visual spectacle, too. They’re often articulate, gorgeously rendered and sometimes ruthlessly tough monsters that are on the bullet sponge side, but nonetheless enjoyable. Despite the game running almost completely fine in handheld mode, they truly are worth savouring and tackling on the big screen.
While the game is technically and aesthetically superb, the minor letdowns are the characters themselves. Your mentor / guide is distant, the antagonist pops up and disappears at regular intervals and as a masked, nameless recurring paratrooper; as a result it is difficult to apply any kind of personality to proceedings. However, if you aren’t that interested in another protagonist or universe to rival the caliber found in broader adventures elsewhere, then it’s even more negligible, as there is a rich, challenging and thoroughly enjoyable experience on offer here.
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, and you shouldn’t judge this game based on its movie tie-in; with The Mummy Demastered, WayForward may have reached its apex. It deserves to stand on its own as one of the best recent examples of not only a pixel art aesthetic, but as an excellent combination of run ‘n gunning, platforming and exploration. The game benefits from paying homage to multiple 16-bit ancestors rather than strictly sticking to its celluloid source material; The Mummy Demastered is a polished, accomplished and satisfying adventure that will entertain more than just Metroidvania fans.
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For the past few months we’ve been busy working on significant improvements and additions to the Steam Curator system. There’s still some work to be done before we can roll these out, but we wanted to share a bit about why we see Steam Curators as a crucial component to exploring Steam, and what changes we’re making.
Why Steam Curators?
We’ve heard from many of you that you want to have a more curated experience when shopping Steam; where the titles that are surfaced and recommended and highlighted are picked by humans that you know and trust. But, we also know that players have different tastes in games, so it’s unlikely that any single person or group could cater to the specific interests of every player in the world. This is why we believe that Valve can’t be the only form of curation in Steam – we would be under serving the tastes and viewpoints of many players.
So, we’re focusing on how to support the streamers, journalists, critics, content creators, writers, enthusiasts, and friends that you already know and trust to be able to help you find your next favorite game. By following a few Curators on Steam, you’ll not only start to see their recommendations appear prominently when browsing the Steam Store, but you can also explore each of their customized spaces within Steam and see all the titles they have reviewed.
Using the Steam Curator features on Steam is an opt-in thing. If you’re not interested in the opinions of human beings helping you find games that are worth your attention, then we also have some powerful features coming just for you. We’re hard at work on significant improvements to the core recommendation engine which algorithmically suggests games for all Steam users. We’re anxious to talk in depth about that technology too, and will do so in a future blog post.
What changes are coming?
Over the three years since introduction of Steam Curators, we’ve gathered a lot of feedback from all kinds of perspectives. We’ve heard from players, from curators, from streamers, from game developers, and from all kinds of other tastemakers and content creators. The feedback is clear that the system needs to do a bunch of things better in order to work well for the three primary sets of people it’s trying to serve: players, curators, and game developers.
Players
This system really only works if players find value from following some Curators. So we’re adding to the kinds of content that Curators are able to create, and increasing the places within Steam where that content can be seen.
Curators
One of the pieces of feedback we received from Curators was that they felt it needed to be more rewarding and meaningful for a Curator to spend the time it takes to build and maintain their curation. So there are a few new things we’re building to tackle this.
Game Developers
We’ve heard from many developers that they need a way of getting their game in front of Curators that have the right audience for that game, and to be able to do it in a way that is easy and secure. We’ve also heard from Curators that it can be a challenge to reach out to developers, who are often swamped with requests that they can’t easily filter through. So we’ve built a whole new system that we are calling Curator Connect.
With Curator Connect, developers can search for appropriate Curators, and then send a copy of their game directly through Steam. We’ve added a number of tools for finding relevant Curators and for identifying the forms of social impact that Curator may have. To start with, developers will be able to search the listings of Steam Curators, narrowing results by name, OS, language, or tags that the Curator indicates they focus on. In the results, developers will be able to see a snapshot of each Curator, including follower counts and any linked social media accounts such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch, which can help verify that the Curator is truly who they claim to be. The developer can then build a list of the Curators they wish to send their game to, include a message describing their game, and hit ‘send’.
Curators can then browse a list of games that have been sent to them and can choose to accept or decline as they wish. Accepted games are added to that Curators Steam library to play and review. No need to mess with keys or e-mail.
Next Steps
Today we’re starting a closed beta with a few dozen Steam Curators of different sizes, niches, and languages. This gives us an opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions from Curators and gives those Curators an opportunity to use the new tools to prepare and personalize their store pages ahead of full release. The Steam Curators that are invited to participate in the beta are free to share their thoughts publicly, so you may see some screenshots or write-ups from these Curators as they explore the new features and discuss them with the community.
We’re aiming to run the beta for at least a couple weeks with just the Curators before releasing the update to everyone. Hopefully this blog post helps you understand what we’re trying to do, and why, which we believe will help everyone to have a fruitful conversation.
As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please let us know.
-The Steam Team
The mobile app economy shows no signs of slowing, with Google Play and the App Store both seeing record levels of downloads and consumer spending during the third quarter of 2017.
According to a new report from App Annie, the two stores pulled in combined downloads of nearly 26 billion worldwide — a year-over-year increase of 8 percent.
Combined worldwide consumer spending increased even more, leaping up by 28 percent year-over-year to $17 billion.
More people are actually spending time using apps as well, with app usage among Android phone users growing by 40 percent to 325 billion hours.
As was the case in previous quarters, Google Play maintained a healthy lead over iOS in terms of worldwide downloads, and actually widened its lead by 10 percent.
That growth was largely driven by emerging markets, and particularly the influx of first-time smartphone owners in those regions.
India, for instance, was the biggest contributor to download growth by a large margin, and has been the largest market for Google Play downloads since Q4 2016.
On the other side of the coin, worldwide consumer spending on iOS was nearly double that of Google Play, and Apple’s marketplace increased it’s lead compared to Q3 2016. Both stores, however, reached record levels as growth rates exceeded 25 percent.
The graphs below illusturate how both storefronts are faring in terms of consumer spending and downloads. For more information, you can grab the full report from App Annie.
Nintendo, to date, has released three core smart device games as part of its mobile strategy (plus the Switch Parental Controls and Nintendo Switch Online apps) but Animal Crossing is arguably the best fit yet. Miitomo was a spin on social media that somewhat lost steam, Super Mario Run gained some early momentum but structural flaws / pricing arguably held it back, and Fire Emblem Heroes has managed some solid if unspectacular success (driven largely by the Japanese market). The Animal Crossing IP seems like a smart angle for mobile, and as a result could be the most intriguing of these releases to date.
The structure of the series is certainly tailored to the mobile space – limiting your progress to time frames, the gradual unlocking of new areas and content, accumulating resources, saving virtual cash for that Majora’s Mask t-shirt you really fancy, and just the general combination of mooching about and busy-work. Combine those factors with the IP’s delightful charm and it’s easy to see why it’s successful; Animal Crossing: New Leaf, let’s not forget, shifted over 11 million units on 3DS and went borderline viral on social media back in 2013 (late 2012 in Japan). The ingredients are all there for a potentially lucrative mobile release, while fans will simply hope that the balancing of the app makes it a fun game for everyone.
The Nintendo Direct will be aired at 8pm Pacific / 11pm Eastern on 24th October, which is 4am UK / 5am CEST on 25th October, and noon Tokyo time. It’s scheduled to be about 15 minutes long.
So, what can we expect? For starters, Nintendo has been very clear that there won’t be any Switch or 3DS news, though naturally some will conveniently ignore that. Nevertheless, let’s break down what we actually expect / hope to see in this Nintendo Direct.
Above is the Animal Crossing Direct from November 2016, advertising the ‘welcome’ update that, to be blunt, somewhat defied the odds in supporting New Leaf surprisingly late in the game’s lifecycle. In fact, at this point it wasn’t clear when the Animal Crossing mobile app was due and we half expected it to tie-in to this update, but no such link existed. With Nintendo adamant that we shouldn’t expect Switch or 3DS news today, it looks like the new app will be standalone in that respect.
In any case, the presentation of that Direct was undoubtedly quirky and entertaining. It was typical Nintendo, all cheesy jokes and knowing winks. It’d be nice to see something similar in this mobile Direct, an informal and light-hearted approach to what is actually a rather significant reveal for the company.
Maybe this prediction will be wrong, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the end result is a fairly meaty Animal Crossing game / experience for mobile. That may not be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s hard to see Nintendo putting out a half-baked minigame spin-off, though it’s admittedly done that in the past.
When you look at Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes, in different ways they aim to offer relatively conventional gaming experiences. Mario’s release has a solo campaign with multiple worlds, while Heroes also has a story to get through along with various challenge arenas and side areas. Both apps also have grind-focused modes that re-use assets to stage limited content as ‘new’, but in general Nintendo has stuck to its policy of attempting to produce meaningful gaming experiences suitable for mobile.
Will it be as big as a traditional retail entry in the series? That seems highly unlikely in terms of the solo play, but it wouldn’t be surprising if there’s quite a lot of depth to building up a town and/or business and interacting with lots of visitors. It could even spin away a little in the manner of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, but even that release had quite a lot of content to work through. How the mobile game will be structured is something else entirely, but Nintendo and DeNA’s previous attempts with Mario and Fire Emblem suggest that it could be a relatively meaningful interpretation of Animal Crossing on smart devices.
This partly falls into the first point, but gets its own brief mention because Nintendo often does a good job on this score, particularly when it can make a fuss over nostalgia and history. Animal Crossing may be younger than a lot of other Nintendo franchises, but plenty are fond of its history across multiple hardware generations. Expect cuteness and flashback footage of older games.
A no-brainer, of course, so what’ll be intriguing is how far the game / app goes with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and more. One of the key drivers that helped Animal Crossing: New Leaf take off on 3DS was its use of the portable’s limited-but-functional image sharing capabilities. It wasn’t very snappy or efficient – though, to be fair, we’re going back four years – but it did mean that players could take funny images from the game and share them on social media. This was pure gold for Nintendo – often people shared humorous and charming snaps, and the popularity of the feature effectively served as free advertising.
As we’ve seen with other apps and indeed with the Capture options on the Switch, Nintendo is now very comfortable integrating social media apps into its games and services. It’s also started to embrace the power of these tools for spreading the word about games, so we can expect image (maybe even video?) sharing to be quick and easy, along with visual filters and other quirks of modern online life. If this isn’t worked into the experience it’ll feel like a missed opportunity.
Former company President Satoru Iwata once dismissed the idea of microtransactions in a ‘main’ 3DS Animal Crossing game and was resistant to bringing games to mobile, but both policy and the nature of business changed. Nintendo has not only embraced smart devices in recent years, but also microtransactions in some forms. The company hasn’t gone as far as many of its contemporaries, but for example it did allow a ‘Gacha’ model in Fire Emblem Heroes, where you gamble orbs in the hope of getting a good ‘drop’. Oh, and you can buy the orbs. That’s monetisation; that’s business; that’s life.
We’d be surprised if microtransactions aren’t a notable component of Animal Crossing on mobile, especially after the issues Nintendo encountered in trying to sell Super Mario Run at a ‘premium price’. A low cost of entry – or even free-to-play – with in-app purchases is the standard in mobile gaming, and you don’t need to be a genius to link the in-game economies of Animal Crossing games with the potential to make a lot of real money from players.
The question, as always, will be balancing. How much can players get for free, how much grinding is required to keep playing for free or a low amount of money, and how will microtransactions be structured? Will it be a luck-of-the-draw gacha system, or more likely a simple case of Virtual Currency used to buy furniture, enhancements, outfits and more in-game? It’s a tricky area right now, with plenty of attention on downright dodgy attempts to add loot boxes and microtransactions into retail games. Let’s not forget, though, we’re talking about an Animal Crossing mobile title. It’s hard to see Nintendo taking a pass on the potential profits that the IP can bring.
You don’t have to like it, but that’s the modern gaming reality.
Finally, a brief sixth thing – amiibo. We’ve had various Animal Crossing amiibo figures and a lot of cards, so the question is whether Nintendo will try to support these in the app. It’s not impossible, especially on Android, but Apple in particular has often locked NFC capabilities up on its devices. It’d be a logistical challenge – and Apple may be softening its policies – but isn’t completely impossible.
So, those are some of the areas we think could come up in the Animal Crossing Mobile Direct. As always we’ll be hosting the live stream with a blog and chat so we hope to see you then; in the meantime let us know what you expect to see in the broadcast.
Nintendo has been teasing its Halloween eShop discounts for about a week, and the roll-out has kicked off in Europe. It promises ‘over 100’ discounts across Switch, 3DS and Wii U, with some that may be genuinely tempting.
Below are some highlights from Nintendo’s news post and from our own browsing (UK prices).
Some of those discounts are modest and we’ve been relatively picky for the shortlist, so it’s worth checking out the eShop for yourself. Let us know in the comments if you’re tempted by any deals, or of any others you think should be included in the lists above.
Attack on Titan 2 should be an interesting release next year on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC, as the follow-up to the ‘main’ predecessor developed by Koei Tecmo and the Omega Force team. A live stream (in Japanese) revealed more on the title today, including the release window – it’s due to arrive in March 2018.
If you want to know more including the playable cast and some new gameplay features, check out the video and PR blurb below.
Delving deeper into the series’ fascinating narrative, the game will have fans experiencing the gripping events of the anime’s second season along with versatile action gameplay, all new challenges, and a wide selection of playable characters from Attack on Titan, including some new faces from the second season!
During the broadcast, KOEI TECMO introduced a selection of playable characters in ATTACK ON TITAN 2, while simultaneously unveiling the ability for players to create their own Custom Scout. They also confirmed that players will be able to play as; Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Levi, Miche Zacharias, Nanaba, Gelgar, Ymir and Christa Lenz.
ATTACK ON TITAN 2 will feature enhanced Titan movements and attacks, requiring more precise maneuvers from players. Additionally, it introduces the Monocular; allowing scouts better analyzation based on pinpointing Titan positions from afar and attack strategy utilizing their Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Outside of their excursions, Scouts can also deepen their relationships with fellow comrades by training and preparing for battle with the new and improved Town Life gameplay. Strengthening relationships is an important element of ATTACK ON TITAN 2, providing a greater insight into the series’ cast in a way that has yet to be experienced.
Are you excited that this one is making its way to the Switch?
