Epic Games Launcher Becomes Epic Games Store
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/09/18 at 03:32 PM CT
This week, Epic Games, the development house behind both the omnipresent Unreal Engine and a handful of actual games that run on said engine, such as the inconceivably-popular “Fortnite: Battle Royale,” took the next logical step in making vast sums of money by transforming their Epic Games Launcher, which debuted in 2015, into a full-blown digital storefront. Reportedly unhappy with the fact that Valve Software’s Steam platform, the current global leader in videogame digital distribution, takes a rather hefty 30% cut of all sales made by third-party games, Epic Games’ new store will only take a modest 12% cut, while simultaneously waving the Unreal Engine licensing fee for third-party Unreal Engine games sold through the Epic Games Store.
This new store follows hot on the heels of Bethesda Softworks parting ways with Steam for the rollout of “Fallout 76.” However, big developers/publishers going their own way and rolling their own storefront isn’t a new thing, as …
Review Round-Up: Fall 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/02/18 at 03:01 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
I pulled a Chris this Fall, and played several longer games, thus cutting my review output somewhat. I also did quite a few uncharacteristic things this Fall, such as buying a digital PC game at launch (I still got a discount, though) and replaying a couple of old games from the past that I had already played to completion in the past. Playing solo, I managed to get my ‘Dragon Quest’ fix, which should last me for quite some time, whereas playing cooperatively, the Crew experienced some truly abysmal garbage.
“Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura” – 3/5
“AereA” – 1/5
“Dragon Quest 11” – 4.5/5
“Zero-K” – 2/5
“Unravel” – 3.5/5
“Drakkhen” – 3.5/5
“Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood” – 3/5
“Dragon Quest Builders” – 4/5
“Odallus: The Dark Call” – 4/5
“Tomba!” – …
Backlog: The Embiggening – December, 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/25/18 at 02:16 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! The clock is ticking down for developers to finish their code (more likely, get it ‘good enough’ that it doesn’t crash instantly on every piece of hardware) and shove it out the door before the end of the year. Ironically, most corporations’ Fiscal Years actually end in March…
Breathe it in everyone! *SNIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFF* Ahhhhhhh! A month without blatant shovelware! There are a few borderline titles in the PlayStation exclusives lineup, but I was feeling the Yule spirit, so I decided not to castigate them here. Don’t count on seeing many more shovelware-free months before you die.
We may not have shovelware, but we’ve still got plenty of ports, remasters, compilations, and other ways of selling old, finished, paid-for work at full price. The Switch and PortStation are in a dead heat this month for the first time in a while. For all of recent memory, the Switch has been absolutely plagued with ports thanks to its …
Ubisoft’s “Kingdom Battle: Gold Edition” is Pure Pyrite
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/18/18 at 02:50 PM CT
The Paleo-Switch experiment is still ongoing! I have owned my Switch for just short of a year, and have yet to connect it to the Internet for any reason. Granted, my library of Switch games is currently horrifically tiny, so it’s possible things will still fall apart as the experiment continues.
One company that it seems is desperately trying to deep-six the Internet-free Paleo-Switch is Ubisoft. Those French bastards decided to release a DLC expansion for their amazing TRPG collaboration with Nintendo, “Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle,” which I reviewed favorably early this year. The DLC, entitled “Donkey Kong Adventure,” is a side story for the game, starring everyone’s favorite tie-wearing gorilla, Reggie Fils-Aime DK. I was upset about missing out on this download-only content, but figured there was nothing I could do about it.
Then I read that the regulation-loving EU was receiving a special physical edition of “Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle” that would …
Xbox Begins Hoarding RPG Developers
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/11/18 at 03:24 PM CT
During E3 2018, Microsoft made a bit of a fuss about how they were actively buying game development studios in order to bolster their miserable first-party/exclusive lineup for Xbox. None of the studios they had purchased at the time meant anything to me, leaving me wondering just why Microsoft was so proud of their “accomplishment.”
This past week, however, Microsoft was in Mexico, hosting some kind of fan rally called X018, where they announced yet more studio acquisitions… and it suddenly got real. Both Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment – two semi-Indie, Single-A, Kickstarter-funded RPG developers formed from the castoff remains of InterPlay – are now part of Xbox.
I’m very conflicted about this. Obsidian and inXile have both done great things during the 8th Generation. Shortly after “Neverwinter Nights 2” launched, Western developers largely stopped making RPGs (and, a few years later, so did Eastern developers, with Capcom and Konami dropping …
Backlog: The Embiggening – November, 2018
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/03/18 at 03:31 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Now that the month of fright and horror is in the rear view mirror, it’s time to crank-up the Holiday Season for 2018, with evergreen trees, fat men in pagan elf costumes, and a variety of cheerful music with obscurely dark lyrics – all to get American consumers in the mood to spend their money. And why not spend some of that money on videogame gifts for the kiddies?! Christmas is only 50-some days away, you know!
After the terrifying deluge of shovel-ready crap last month, this month seems positively sedate. There are only 5 shovelware titles, and nearly all of them are Sports garbage. Of course, the mind-numbing minigames of the ‘Carnival Games’ franchise are back for another crack at the current-gen leader (PS4) and next-gen leader (Switch), but everyone should already know to avoid it by now (though I can imagine clueless grandfolks buying it in droves for the kiddies). Then we’ve got a new ‘PGA Golf’ game, a new …
American Company Aggressively Censoring Japanese Games
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 10/28/18 at 02:56 PM CT
Just when it seemed like Weeaboos, self-proclaimed Otaku, and the handful of normal people who just happen to like modern Japanese games had achieved victory in receiving non-Bowdlerized localizations and releases of niche titles that would otherwise not see the light of day outside of Japan, another Nintendo-in-the-90s-calibur crackdown on content that could be seen as “offensive” in the West is underway. In a stunning victory for both Social Justice Warriors – who hate the idea that women could be sexually appealing to men – and for fundamentalist Christians – who hate the idea of non-procreative sex – (normally two groups on the opposite side of everything) one large American console-maker has expanded their content approval process, making it impossible even to release fanservicey Japanese games in Japan
“GRRR! Microsoft sucks for doing this! We should boycott all Xbox products until they reverse their decision!”
But wait, I never said it was Microsoft! I …
Sixense Finally Falls after Years on the Fence
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 10/21/18 at 03:13 PM CT
For years, I’ve been covering the non-appearance of the STEM, a wireless, v2.0 successor to the incredible Razer Hydra PC motion controller. Sixense, the company that owns the technology patents used in both the Hydra and the STEM, successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign in October, 2013, where they raised just over $600,000 to fund development of the new hardware. Preorders for non-backers opened in October 2014, which is when I submitted my $300 for a 2-tracker STEM system.
This past week, though, Sixense’s web of promises and delays came crashing down, when company President, CEO, and overall terrible person, Amir Rubin, sent a mass email to all STEM Kickstarter backers and pre-order-ers stating that all STEM pre-orders were canceled and would be refunded via PayPal. I reached out to my contact at Sixense, Steve Hansted, Director of Business Development, for an explanation, and he directed me to this article on VentureBeat.
Apparently, Sixense’s leadership made the …
Could Copyright Crush CD Projekt?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 10/14/18 at 02:57 PM CT
News broke recently that the Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski, of the original novels upon which CD Projekt’s blockbuster videogame franchise, ‘The Witcher,’ is based had decided to sue the Poland-based developer, publisher, and owner of DRM-free PC gaming superstore GOG, for $16 million in additional compensation. It seems that Sapkowski originally agreed to accept a lump sum payment in order to license CD Projekt with the rights to make a game based on his novels instead of accepting a percentage of the total profits because he “didn’t believe they would be successful.” In a classic case of sour grapes, Sapkowski has decided to take legal action now that the scope of his poor judgment has become apparent.
The sad thing is that Sapkowski actually has a leg to stand on thanks to Poland’s version of the Digital Millennium Copyright act. Copyright has existed in Poland since 1926, and originally favored the Public Domain quite heavily, with a meager 10-year term. …
Goodbye Gamers
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 10/06/18 at 02:33 PM CT
I have some sad news for readers in Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska: Gamers is gone. As reported by KETV Channel 7 this past week, every store in the Midwestern used videogames chain were seized by their bank and shut down without warning. Not only did this leave Gamers employees in the lurch, with no idea if/when they’ll receive their final paychecks, but any customers with store credit may as well have thrown their second-hand merchandise in the nearest pond, as they’re almost guaranteed to receive no compensation.
As someone who found his feet and identity as a gamer in the ‘90s, Gamers was like a home away from home. Between that place and Spellbound Books & Games (which has been closed for just over a decade already), I always felt like there was a local place to let my geek flag fly. In the ‘90s, it seemed like every Midwestern city had a second-hand videogame store and a local comic/tabletop RPG shop. Frequent family trips to Kansas saw me becoming a regular at …
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