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Playstation 3 - Marvel brings digital comic subs to console

Wednesday 19th of August, 2009 - 19:17:03 GMT

The other interesting announcement was from Marvel, which is tightening its association with Sony by bringing the comics, such as Spider Man which the company has already made into successful movies, and the rest of their mutated highly colourful collection of heroes and villains, to the console in book form. It's a service Marvel already offers directly over the internet, so its influence on the console remains to be seen. DC, owned by Time Warner, has yet to strike a similar deal.

I can't see indie comic sellers being too pleased about the news, they have enough problems sustaining their business as it is, and it's a move that serves to turn the PS3 into a gaming version of Amazon's Kindle and the comics as the loss leader. The collector's market would basically revert to the hardest core of professional collectors and I would love to see anyone sit through the 104 pages of the recent 600th Anniversary issue of Spider-Man - by flicking through it at their flatscreen television.

The other issue is, the pricing model. If it's fixed like iTunes and never changes according to story length as the print editions do, then unless the price is right for the UK, buyers will forever lose out on the good side of exchange rate fluctuations with the US dollar or eBay resales of back issues. The same question remains of the price of trade paperback collections of entire stories. At least this latter market could happily survive Marvel's digital competition with itself, as they are sold like proper books on the internet and at retail.

Patience is at the heart of the concern with the monthly releases; the largest titles are now released twice monthly to counter impatience and piracy. For an enclosed digital service to suceed, the same release pattern would have to be maintained, or even made fortnightly depending on the series. Even then, like downloaded music, legally or otherwise, there would have to be some cachet in having files on a hard drive, as opposed to the comics in a bag.

For all the celebration of gaming technology meeting an 90-year old storytelling medium, the stories have to be engaging in the first place, which is debateable when reading the latest volume of, say, Iron Man compared to the separate War Machine strand, or your chosen series of Spider-Man. We'll bring you more details when pricing and subscription methods are properly explained.

- Ken

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Playstation 3 - Going down by GBP 50

Tuesday 18th of August, 2009 - 20:41:54 GMT

The day after Microsoft elected to raise the price of the Xbox 360, Sony went in the other direction by previewing the first PS3 price cut - the first since the console's launch, by a comparatively massive GPB 50 to £249, and USD/EUR 299 in both currencies. Previously the company elected to change hard drive sizes and discriminate by backwards compatibility rather than drop the price. This marketing tactic proved successful in the years before Blu-Ray won the final disc-based film and PC storage format war.

Now that Blu-Ray films are flying off the shelves and the hi-fi players are down to GBP 100, Sony doesn't wish to lose too many film fans that play games - not even to sales of its own players. At the same time, the PS3 refresh, heavily influenced by that of the PS2 slim model, has become as long awaited as a 360 with a reliably cooled chipset. The 34per cent drop in power consumption will do well to reverse the image of environmentally unfriendly consoles compared to the firm's VAIO laptops, which are regularly celebrated by green groups as allowing power computing with fewer dangerous chemicals going into the machine's manufacturing. The slimming of the design will sell itself when placed next to a (presumably Sony) television.

The price cut will let the PS3 easily round off its worldwide sales total to 24 million units, as it currently stands 300,000 consoles short of this total. Given its poor critical image, nearly 53 million PSPs sold is a tribute to the company's tenacity with formats and its small-scale screen design quality.

The slimmer PS3 will arrive to attract the back to school/half-term-to-Christmas market from September.

- Ken

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XBOX 360 - Going up by GBP 30

Monday 17th of August, 2009 - 18:11:43 GMT

The basic Arcade Bundle is to increase by UKP £30, and the Live Arcade games 5-pack offer will soon come to an end.

We hope that this is a short-term move considering the British Bank Holiday at the end of the month, which traditionally sees a small blip in last minute entertainment purchases before children return to school. Considering the price rise could fund a game it's all the more galling for UK buyers. It could also affect high street retailers unless they are allowed to be creative with their independent bundling.

On balance, it's a deliberate upsell to the first MS console bundle with a hard disk, the Elite. There was no mention of the Premium so like the PS3, a new hard disk size may arrive to become the new top of the range, possibly helping to shift any eventual Project Natal Bundle.

With any luck, the current rise will be "All over by Christmas"...

- Ken

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Preys-World Podcast - Back up on iTunes

Monday 17th of August, 2009 - 00:12:36 GMT

We've resolved the RSS listing bug which meant that #15 and the E3 special podcasts were failing to download to iTunes listeners. Another podcast was recorded today and when it's edited and finished, we'll let you know as always and it should be ready to hear wherever you get it.

Visit the relevant section at the Magazine and pick the right hand arrow to access the Itunes listing, but if you're already signed up, the delayed files should download by the end of Monday 17th August or whenever you choose "Refresh".

- Ken

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Hitman 5 - Still under development at IO Interactive

Sunday 16th of August, 2009 - 21:42:37 GMT

In our first exclusive in the history of the Prey's World Gaming Magazine , our man Prey talked to Ian Livingstone of Eidos, and received the confirmation that the Hitman franchise was staying with creators IO Interactive. This was in the face of the gossip about Batman Arkham Asylum devs Rocksteady possibly taking over the franchise (instead of just making a movie tie-in game for all formats to sit alongside the first four hard core PC games in the series).

We were certainly happy that there is a greater effort to tie in the second Hitman film's release with that of the fifth game, rather than leaving the entire trilogy deleted at the time of the first movie's release. This killed the big sales push that occured with the Tomb Raider franchise on the release of the first film, back when budget games in boxes were still shifting from retail outlets. Such a sales boost from the Hitman film would have helped out Eidos when the recession was biting the company hard, before the finalisation of the Square Enix takeover.

Read the story at the link above, and you can read the companion views of other gaming sites with weekend updates (thanks all) in the trackbacks section.

- Ken

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Retro - Mechwarrior 4 free for Battletech 25th Anniversary alongside expansions

Saturday 11th of July, 2009 - 10:52:15 GMT

The company Smith and Tinker was founded by Jordan Wiseman. He was one the creative forces behind FASA with L. Ross Babcock III, which published firstly the Battletech table top game range, which gave rise to MechWarrior in 1989 for the PC. When the company branched out it also created the, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies series. Of those three franchises, the Mechwarrior series, particularly the second game in the range featuring a mixed-mode game CD whose music you could play through your hi-fi, was a massive bestseller.

It is also remembered for bringing Playstation-quality electronic soundtracks to the PC as well as those high sales, and spawning three further full sequels including the standalone expansion Mercenaries which departed from strict Battletech lore, but was still well received. S&T licensed the rights to the FASA Creations in 2007 and undertook digital distribution of the add-on packs for Mechwarrior 4, following Microsoft's effective abandonment of the franchise. To give Redmond credit, they have allowed the usage of the name and features for a Total Conversion in the Crysis engine.

Previously Smith & Tinker allowed a fansite, Mektek.net, to distribute the add-on packs online for MechWarrior 4, as they were effectively abandonware. However, to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of table-top Battletech, it will soon distribute the entire Mechwarrior 4 game for free. This is also handy timing for the recently announced fifth game in the series, and the biggest Retro giveaway since Command and Conquer. In an age where debates rage over DRM it's good to see one entrepreneurial firm using its old IP to promote the new up-and-coming full price sequel by trusting the fans.

- Kenneth Henry

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Retro - Videogame Collector grabs NES sampler for USD 17,500

Tuesday 7th of July, 2009 - 16:39:05 GMT

There are less than thirty mint copies of the game Nintendo World Championships for the original NES left in existence from 19 years ago. The mini-compilation gave samples of Tetris, Rad Racer and Super Mario Bros, but limited the playing time to 6min 21sec for all three titles – Understandable for the Mario classic, if a little stingy for the other two. The cartridge, created for a Nintendo competition, was also painted gold, which could only help its collectible status.

The NWC cartridge was originally priced at USD 25,000 on Ebay but American collector JJ Hendricks seemed to win his next best bid or nearest offer of USD 17,500. That certainly beats the £50 you might have snapped up for the right mint copy of Flight Simulator or Freespace when PC games were still distributed in boxes.

The moral of this story is to make sure your significant other will let you buy and sell videogames and keep the cardboard boxes in perfect condition – even if they might still give you earache for playing the new ones.

- Ken

(Source: Yahoo Games Blog)

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Preys-World Podcast - E3 Podcast Released

Thursday 2nd of July, 2009 - 11:30:36 GMT

For those of you who don't read Gaming Discussion, you can now download the two-part E3 Podcast from the usual FTP Section.

As ever, any of the usual sound issues, or download access problems, please let us know.

- Ken

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Preys-World Podcast - E3 Podcast Released

Thursday 2nd of July, 2009 - 11:28:55 GMT

The most recent podcast to be recorded was all about E3, following up issue 3 of the PW Magazine. It's in two parts, both of which are downloadable from the usual FTP Section.

As ever, any of the usual sound issues, or download access problems, please let us know, and if you're an iTunes listener you will receive it automatically in a few days.

- Ken

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Preys-World Podcast - Episode 15 Reminder

Sunday 28th of June, 2009 - 14:24:49 GMT

For those who don't frequent the Gaming Discussion forum, Podcast 15 has been released and you can obtain it from the usual FTP site here.

- Ken

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