Activision community manager Dan Amrich criticises Black Ops II players sending threats of violence to Treyarch developers following Black Ops II patch.

Activision community manager Dan Amrich has appealed to members of the Call of Duty community who verbally insult and threaten its developers over social media.

Amrich's blog post stems from the fallout following the game's latest balance patch, which reduced the rate of fire on the DSR 50 and Ballista and nerfed the damage on the AN-94.

Following the balance changes, Treyarch studio design director David Vonderhaar--one of the most recognisable faces at the studio--took to Twitter to say that the changes weren't worth the threats of violence he was receiving.

"The DSR fire time was 0.2 seconds. It's now 0.4 seconds," he said. "The rechamber time was 1.0 seconds. It's now 1.1 seconds."

"Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence," added Vonderhaar.

Writing on his blog, Amrich said that Vonderhaar "often gets told he should die in a fire or kill himself or is a horrible person. If anybody thinks for a second that this is okay, it is not. But if the loudest voices in the Call of Duty 'community' act like an angry mob instead, guess how the entire world views Call of Duty? Now consider that these Internet Tough Guy rants and demands are not unique to COD, but exist everywhere, in many gaming communities. This is why the world often does not take gaming seriously; this is why gamers are assumed to be immature, whiny a**holes. Because the immature, whiny a**holes are louder."

"The fact that [Vonderhaar] focuses on the useful feedback, puts that intel to good use fixing the problem, and doesn't irrationally lash out at the immature, whiny a**holes is amazing."

"Role-play this for a second. When you make a mistake--because you do, we all do--or someone finds something wrong with something that you created, whether it be a meal or driving instructions or even a blog post, how would you prefer to find out that there is an issue? Would you like someone to just say, 'Hey, I noticed this and I think it's not quite right; are you seeing what I see?' Or would you react better to having someone scream in your face that since your mother didn't have an abortion, you should commit suicide instead? This is not the way to show a developer that what they do matters to you. Not at all."

"If you enjoy your games, have a little respect for the people who make them--and stop threatening them with bodily harm every time they do their job."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Developer says there was "discussion" about charging for endgame DLC, but executive producer Casey Hudson ultimately said no.

BioWare considered charging for Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut downloadable content, community lead Chris Priestly has revealed.

"Probably shouldn't say this; there was discussion [about] should it be charged," Priestly said during a recent PAX Australia panel. "And [executive producer Casey Hudson] said, 'No, we can't do that. We have to make this better. We can do a better job finishing the game, providing clarity, answering some questions.' And it was very important to the team to end it as best as possible."

Recalling the fan blowback surrounding Mass Effect 3's controversial endings, Priestly said the team at BioWare could have ignored the feedback and just moved on. However, BioWare ultimate reassessed the endings and released the Extended Cut because "it was the right thing to do."

"It would have been really easy for them to have hidden. To have put their heads down and said, "Nope, we're done. That's it. DLC coming next month,'" Priestly said. "They didn't. And it's hard; it's really hard when you've put stuff in as a dev team for years making this game to have people say how bad it is. But they didn't. They listened and they made the Extended Cut because it was the right thing to do and release it for free to the fans because again, it was the right thing to do."

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut launched in June 2012 as a free download for all platforms. It features new epilogue scenes that expand on the original Mass Effect 3 ending and aims to give greater clarity to the conclusion of Commander Shepard's story.

BioWare is currently working on an all-new Mass Effect game described as "fresh and new."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Kinect Sports Rivals developer says new motion sensor is 10 times more powerful than Xbox 360 camera.

The Xbox One's new Kinect camera is 10 times more powerful than the existing Xbox 360 unit, according to Rare Ltd. technology development lead Nick Burton.

Speaking during San Diego Comic-Con this weekend (via Xbox Wire), Burton explained that the new camera can register fingertips from three meters away, something that is impossible for the Xbox 360's Kinect sensor to do.

Rare's latest game, Kinect Sports Rivals for the Xbox One, will leverage the new Kinect camera to provide a "new layer of precision and depth of mastery." Subtle movements like how hard players twist their wrists while revving the throttle of a jet ski will be measured in the game.

Kinect Sports Rivals will also boast a new Champions feature that can capture a player's facial structure, hair, skin color, body composition, and expression--all in the name of creating a virtual athlete in "seconds."

Unlike the Xbox 360, every $500 Xbox One comes with a Kinect camera built in. Competitor Sony will offer motion-based camera functionality with the PlayStation 4, though gamers will need to pay $60 for the PlayStation Eye.

Also during the Comic-Con panel, Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb revealed that Microsoft will announce the Xbox One's release date this summer.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D'Astous said "last year was supposed to be a home-run season"; downplays Thief development issues.

Square Enix has great games, but doesn't know how to sell them, according to Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D'Astous, who left the company on Friday.

The publisher "has some things to learn about how to sell their games," D'Astous told Polygon in a new interview.

"We are in a situation that we have great games that could have sold more," he said. "They need to attack that very, very seriously," he said. "Last year was supposed to be a home-run season, but we didn't hit a single home run; maybe a double or a triple, but they weren't home runs."

Hitman: Absolution (3.6 million), Tomb Raider (3.4 million), and Sleeping Dogs (1.75 million) all failed to reach sales targets for Square Enix. President Yoichi Wada resigned in March amid the company posting an "extraordinary" financial loss.

D'Astous cited this financial shortcoming as a reason for leaving the company, as well as "divergent opinions" on what must be done to turn the ship around.

"The lack of leadership, lack of courage, and the lack of communication were so evident, that I wasn't able to conduct my job correctly," D'Astous said. "I realized that our differences were irreconcilable, and that the best decision was unfortunately to part ways."

D'Astous also discussed reports that Eidos Montreal's latest project, Thief, has struggled through a troubled development. He said these reports were "blown out of proportion."

"Thief has been a long project," he said. "Some of your articles [about the game's development] were a little bit harsh. If you take into perspective every different element, it was blown out of proportion in some aspect. Every triple A has its up and downs and I guess we were exposed more to the public when we were at the bottom of the barrel. That was a long time ago."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Shot of a white Xbox One development kit surfaces online, and anonymous Xbox One developer says current Xbox One development kits look like the retail units.

A picture of an alleged white Xbox One development kit has been posted online.

The top-down view of the hardware, posted on Reddit, shows a machine that looks reminiscent of the Xbox One retail model.

Anonymous Reddit poster XboxOneDev, who has been verified by site moderators as an Xbox One developer, added that previously spotted shots of a zebra-patterned unit were for old iterations of the hardware. "The zebra ones were also earlier devkits. We've gone through several revisions since the original alpha kit (giant server case) and the current one we have looks like the launch version."

In June, Xbox creative director Carl Ledbetter showcased dozens of original prototypes for the Xbox One at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference 2013.

"We wanted to make [the Xbox One design] simple and elegant, and we wanted it to be crafted and tailored, so it's all about quality," said Ledbetter at the time. "Using those principles, we started to design."

Xbox One will launch in 21 territories this November for $499/€499/£425.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Writer Patrick Weekes says it's not true that video game companies hate each other; hopes The Witcher 3 is fantastic.

Despite what some might think, video game companies aren't out for each other's throat, according to BioWare writer Patrick Weekes. Asked during a recent PAX Australia panel how he views competition with CD Projekt Red's Witcher series, Weekes said he hopes gamers buy games from both companies.

"I think 'compete' is the wrong word. I think there's a story that people want to tell, where the video game companies hate each other and 'our game is going to crush theirs.' And that's really not true," Weekes said. "I came to BioWare because I love games. And I hope that the next Witcher game is fantastic and I hope that ours is fantastic, and I hope that people buy both and play both."

"Every time another great game comes out, and raises the bar, that's not threatening; it's only threatening if we don't think we can ever do anything better," he added. "So we look at something and go, 'That's a fantastic game. How am I going to incorporate that awesome thing and do it in a BioWare fashion?'"

Weekes explained that with every new BioWare title, the company tries to advance further and further, so much so that past games look "antiquated and quaint."

"So, no, I think our biggest competition, and the only thing we absolutely want to crush, is what we've done in our past games," he said. "That's one of the reasons I'm so proud to be on the Dragon Age team. It's one of the reasons I was proud to be on the Mass Effect team. Every new project we said, 'Let's look at the best things we did on our previous game and let's see how we beat that. Let's see how we make that look antiquated and quaint as we go into our next game.'"

BioWare is currently working on Dragon Age: Inquisition, a new Mass Effect game, and an untitled new IP.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

EA's city-building game moves another 400,000 units in past three months; The Sims 4 will be offline due to SimCity feedback.

Electronic Arts' city-building game SimCity has now sold 2 million units, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau told GamesBeat in a new interview. This is up 400,000 units from 1.6 million at the end of March.

Recalling the game's rocky launch in March, Gibeau said the first week was "really rough" and an "experience nobody wants to live through again."

Despite the initial struggles, Gibeau said the company sees SimCity as a positive achievement overall.

"Since then, we've sold more than 2 million units, and the number of people logging in and playing is holding steady. SimCity is a success," Gibeau said. "However, underestimating demand in the first month was a major miss. We hope that the game and the service we’ve provided since then meets the fans' high standards."

In addition, the feedback EA received from gamers following SimCity's launch helped inspire the company to make 2014's The Sims 4 an offline game, Gibeau said.

"In the last few months, we have started making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don't like," Gibeau said. "In the spring, we dropped our online pass program for consoles--both next-generation and current-generation. We listened to the feedback on SimCity and decided that The Sims 4 would be built as a single-player, offline experience."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Unannounced title in development at Singapore studio; no plans for the title to be on console at the moment.

Namco Bandai announced that its new studio in Singapore is working on a new game IP.

What do you think the mystery arcade game will be? Miss Pac-Man? Xevious?

The publisher told GameSpot Asia that the arcade title will be released worldwide on an unannounced date. So far, 15 people in the Singapore development office are working on it, including former developers from the LucasArts Singapore office.

Makoto Ishii, Namco Bandai division manager for amusement machine group 2, said that there are no current plans to release the new arcade game on consoles. Ishii also did not clarify whether the new arcade title will be related to past Namco Bandai IPs like the Gundam, Tales, and Tekken series.

In related news, Namco Bandai Singapore president Hajime Nakatani clarified that the Singapore studio will be focused on game development, though the studio may have plans to set up a localization division in the future. Namco Bandai Singapore will also do game development work outsourced by the Japanese headquarters. The company set up the studio because past efforts that involved collaborating with Asian game development partners were successful.

Namco Bandai will reveal the new arcade IP "in the near future," as development for the title started last month. For more information on Namco Bandai's latest title, check out GameSpot's coverage on Gundam Breaker.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

EA Games Label president says that Frostbite engine makes for "efficient and low-risk development"; EA brand power gives them "an unfair advantage in a world of proliferating titles."

EA Games Label president Frank Gibeau has said that the Frostbite engine created by Battlefield 4 developer DICE had been the company's core difference in the transition to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Battlefield 4 will be using the latest Frostbite engine.

Speaking in an interview with GamesBeat, Gibeau said, "When you have a proven technology base with tools that work and you're able to move teams around, because they're all trained on the same engine, it makes for efficient and low-risk development. That was a critical decision, to invest in [the Frostbite engine] early on and put the resources in. It causes stress in other parts of the business because a lot of our top guys were working on next-generation behind the scenes. But that was a big breakthrough for us, for sure."

Gibeau added that EA is also experiencing an "unfair advantage" in the mobile market thanks to its big-name brands. "In the case of The Simpsons and The Sims, we're seeing some of the highest results we've ever seen in the revenue on those projects, and they've each been in the market well over a year. The fact that we can stitch [titles like FIFA, Madden, The Sims, and Plants vs. Zombies] together inside a network gives us an unfair advantage in a world of proliferating titles."

He added that a combination of being "platform agnostic" and getting independent developers on board is the way to go for the mobile gaming business to thrive. "On mobile devices, that's never been more true than now. We're seeing console game levels of return, financially, on these projects. We're seeing audiences that are vastly bigger. Our creative teams are intrigued by designing games for mobile devices. The touch screen, the technology--the technology on the next wave of tablets is going to be near-console-level in terms of graphics performance. You have to design for a touch screen. You have to design for short sessions. You have to design with the mindset that it's going to be mobile."

"[In terms of indie developers, they] are driving a lot of the innovation in the mobile channel. And I don't think you can overstate how big that is. Mobile and tablets have lowered the barrier to entry for a lot of the most creative people in the industry. As a result, it's a really great time to be an indie. You'd have to go back to the early days of gaming to find a time when there was this much accessibility and creativity pouring into our art."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Size Five Games slashes price of multiplayer-only title Gun Monkeys weeks after launch to promote growth of online community.

Indie multiplayer deathmatch game Gun Monkeys has cut its price in half, due to developer Size Five Games citing a "hugerer than you think" number of players needed to sustain a multiplayer game.

Gun Monkeys, which was released at the end of June, now costs $5.99/£3.99/€4.49 on Steam, and each purchase comes with an additional gift copy to send to a friend.

Size Five Games' Dan Marshall said the lower price and additional copy is a move designed to attract players to the multiplayer-only game.

Speaking to GameSpot, Marshall said it was "a bit early to form any meaningful conclusions" from the price drop, but that early results are looking positive for the developer. "The game sold really well yesterday after a bit of press and commotion, so player numbers are up and the servers seem to have pretty much constantly had people in them."

"So signs are promising, right now. Hopefully word about the game spreads, and numbers just snowball from here. But yeah, sales are up and player numbers are way up. It's looking positive, I'm happy."

Further explaining the decision to drop the game's price on the Size Five Games website, Marshall said, "So, Gun Monkeys needs players in order to play it. You need other people milling around. At times, the servers are quite busy, you can quite happily play for hours. At other times, they're dead, because everyone who owns a copy of Gun Monkeys is at work or at school or sleeping or playing Rogue Legacy. You have to sell HYPER-LOTS of copies in order for the servers to have anyone in them, triply so if you're trying to get a game at 4am. This is a fact I now know that I didn't really appreciate before."

Marshall added that he doesn't want to "devalue" the game, but that the multiplayer concept is a tough sell. "If you're a loyal Gun Monkeys player, hopefully you understand this change is all to help keep those servers busy. It's something I'm doing extremely reluctantly, because I don't want to devalue the game, I 100% think it's worth $10."

"But I've come to the conclusion that the game's multiplayer-only concept is a tough sell, so a pricing change is a necessary evil. It's just not fair on the people who are playing and enjoying the game that they're struggling to find people to play, so I'm doing everything in my power to remedy that."

"Here's the takeaway from this, for any indie dev considering adding multiplayer to a game: the number of games you have to sell in order to have people playing constantly is HUGE. Hugerer than you think, even. Even hugerer than your revised figure. It's massive, and it might not happen."

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot