Could Microsoft be Pushed Out of the Console Race?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/23/13 at 06:55 PM CT
A recent TechFlash report has revealed that not all is well in the Land of Microsoft. According to the report, ValueAct, an investment firm that buys percentages of struggling companies with the goal of guiding them back to profitability, wants to make some big changes... one of which is rumored to be the disposal of the Xbox Division.
The Xbox Division, despite a few recent years of meager profits, has historically been a massive money pit into which Microsoft has joyfully poured billions of dollars that would have been better spent making their existing products better. The total of these recent profits has done nothing to dent the ever-present black hole of back debt generated by the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 during its first few years of its life. With the overwhelming amount of ill-will generated by the Xbox One even before retail availability, it doesn't look like things will be getting any better during the 8th Generation. It would be best to take the Xbox Division, …
5 Conspicuous Absences from Steam Greenlight
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/17/13 at 04:06 PM CT
With Steam Greenlight opening the doors to anyone with $100 to submit their game project for potential publishing on the world’s most popular digital distribution service, it would make sense that every Indie game with any kind of public interest would join the struggle for votes. Yet all 5 of the Indie projects currently on my radar are conspicuously absent from Steam Greenlight. Do some of these developers have access to that mysterious method by which some Indie and small-budget games appear on Steam without going through the Greenlight process? Are these projects still too far off from a finish date (even though there are plenty of games appearing on Steam Early Access as paid alpha and beta tests)? Regardless of the reasons, these are some Indie projects that should appear on Steam Greenlight, and if they did, I would encourage everyone to vote for them.
1. Project Eternity
The state of PC RPGs has been pretty dismal since 2006, when “Neverwinter Nights 2” provided the …
3 Ways to Make Your OUYA Suck Less
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/10/13 at 01:40 PM CT
Depending on where you look, you might find that the OUYA Indie console is experiencing incredibly light sales that contrast drastically with its overwhelming Kickstarter support, or it’s selling so well that Amazon has sold out of them. Either way, if you’re a new OUYA owner, whether a Kickstarter backer or a retail purchaser, you have probably found the upstart game platform to be… lacking in many areas. After spending a month futzing around with my OUYA, I have gathered a few pieces of sage advice that I want to share with other frustrated OUYA owners in order to make the Indie console experience as non-horrible as possible.
1. Tip the OUYA onto its side.
Having problems getting your OUYA to connect to your wi-fi? Find that the controller lags to the point of unplayability after just a few minutes? What I initially assumed was a firmware issue, then a controller issue, then a battery issue (it seemed that the OUYA controller would stop lagging for 15 minutes on a …
Nintendo Direct 8/7/2013 - Wii U Titles
Nick - wrote on 08/07/13 at 03:24 PM CT
Nintendo Direct is a "new online home for exclusive Nintendo news - broadcast directly to you, the player". Does this mean Nintendo is actually coming out with new Wii U games? Well, they still claim to be... but are they crying wolf? I think instead of having a new means of announcing news, they should simply get their butts in gear and release some games! Here is a breakdown of the current announcements.
Sonic Lost WorldThis game is expected to be released October 22nd, 2013. The game itself doesn't look at that interesting, and why it is taking so long to come out I have no idea. The multi-player aspect of any Sonic game has never been very good, it is more designed to enjoy some fast paced action for about 20 hours of your life before you get bored with it. This game also comes out on the 3DS, and you can tie the two together for some sort of cooperative play. Let's face it, no one is going to do that. And if this is why it is taking so long to come out, that's pretty …
Backlog: The Embiggening - August, 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/03/13 at 03:09 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. As I predicted last month, the Steam Summer Sale did terrible, horrible things to my backlog. However, the damage wasn’t nearly as severe as I’d expected, considering that most of the great-looking Indie games on my Steam Wishlist (nearly 20 of them!) didn’t go on sale for more than 50% off. Anyone who understands Steam Sales knows you DON’T buy until the discount reaches at least 66%, but preferably 75%-80% off. I did add a few things to my backlog on the cheap, however: “D&D: Chronicles of Mystara” (not on sale, but the MJ crew really wanted to play it), “The Cave,” “RAGE,” “Deus Ex,” “Deus Ex: Invisible War,” “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3,” “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4,” “Fallout 3,” “Fallout: New Vegas,” “Krater,” “Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams,” “Ys I,” Ys II,” “Borderlands 2,” and a little bit of DLC for some …
View Archive
