June 14, 2013
June 13, 2013
ESA tries to out smartass Ouya
Source: [IGN]
by Marty Sliva JUNE 11, 2013
The Entertainment Software Association, the company which owns and operates the E3 Expo, called the Los Angeles Police Department today in an attempt to shut down Ouya’s public presence at E3 2013.
Julie Uhrman, founder of the Ouya console, informed IGN that the police visit was just another event in an ongoing conflict with the ESA. Ouya had their console on display in a lot across the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is the home of E3. But at 9am this morning, the ESA rented out the spaces in front of Ouya’s display and parked semi-trucks in them in what Uhrman felt was an attempt to block people from noticing Ouya’s presence.
Well this is awkward.
In response, the Ouya team rented the spots in front of the ESA’s trucks and used the spaces to display various Ouya banners. After this action, Uhrman claims that the ESA called the police. Soon after, the LAPD showed up at the lot and asked to see the company’s permits. After determining that everything was in order, the cops ultimately left without taking any further action.
Urhman feels that Ouya is being unfairly targeted due to its decision to go around the ESA and attend E3 on its own terms. Uhrman and the rest of the Ouya team intend to tackle the second day of E3 2013 by increasing their street team presence. She also reached out to the ESA in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but has yet to hear back. When asked how she’ll react if the ESA continues putting pressure on Ouya, Uhrman responded, “If ten more trucks show up, we’ll come up with another idea. I have a few up my sleeve.”
We reached out to the ESA for comment and are waiting to hear back.
June 12, 2013
Xbox One, the good the bad and the ugly. Mostly ugly.
To me the Xbox One so smells of corporate and a marketing think tank (I use the work think lightly)that don’t ‘get’ gamers. It seems to be all about number gathering to sell to publishers than doing what the console was made for. Games.
if Microsoft can prove that 80% of gamers play Call of Duty (HA! I said duty) then another CoD is made because that must be what gamers want!
Marketing TOTALLY misses the fact that games sell because they are good, then because it’s a part of a series and then because we’re told to. It seems this time around Microsoft is relaying so much on the numbers.
“Numbers are the path to Management. Numbers lead to misinformation. Misinformation leads to bad games. Bad games lead to broken controllers.”
You can tell that marketing has taken over the Xbox IP. Someone that understands gamers and the culture would know that this form of DRM will backfire and not be looked in a good light. But, there will always be the fan boys and there will always be some demand, even for crap.
Personally, I believe the Xbox One will bomb like the PS3 did in the American markets and Microsoft’s marketing team will be left wondering what happened. But because they are management, they will never understand why because the ‘numbers’ back them up.
It’s good to know that Sony seems to have learned from their mistakes with the PS3. They are coming out swinging this time around and using the Xbox One backlash to their advantage. It’s too late for MS to change their marketing strategy for the Xbox One, all they can do is push forward as hard as possible and pray the numbers work for them.
Granted, to me, the ‘issues’ with the Xbox One doesn’t really matter. Currently I pretty much use mine to play Netflix. it is always online, even if I don’t use it daily. I don’t tend to go over to a friend’s house to play games so not being able to share my game is a moot point.
At this point, I might as well just buy a Roku streaming internet appliance and save like $300 dollars.
June 10, 2013
Fable 3–FREE (for the moment)
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Fable-III/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d5308d6?cid=SLink
For some reason, MS is giving away Fable 3 to those with Xbox Gold status. Grab yours before the sale is gone!
June 6, 2013
Mario Overalls…
They are a one size fits most, made of 100% cotton, in black or green, a colorful Mario for the bib, and even little red-shoed feet on the pockets!
Product Page ($25 via ChipChick)
Istaria–Original game concept art–Character line up.
Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, started out as ‘Horizons: Empires of Istaria’. After a few company buys out, piss poor management and pretty much running the game into the ground.. it was picked up by Virtrium, a company made up of former players, that has been slowly blowing new life into dragging game.
While going though my Horizons information for a dead project, I found some of the original concept art. Istaria was to be a totally different game to what it is now. Part of me hopes that Virtrium will continue the bug fixes and return Istaria to it’s former glory.
This image is size comparison of all the races that where to be in Horizons.
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