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Piecemeal Game Sales
April 28th 2008, 21:19 CEST by Fugazi(werking) So EA is releasing a creature editor for Spore well before the release of the game itself and this editor will have 25% of the functionality of the full game. Or you can pay $10 and get all of the creature tools early. So what do we think-great revenue model or just evil EA gouging customers? Full press release from EA is included below. Redwood City, CA - April 25, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Maxis today announced that a free downloadable demo, and complete retail version of the Spore™ Creature Creator will be available starting June 17, 2008. The Spore Creature Creator gives Spore fans, and those who are creatively curious, the first hands-on opportunity to design their own species and share it with their friends. All creatures designed with the Spore Creature Creator can be imported into the full retail version of Spore for PC and Mac when it launches on September 5, 2008 in Europe and September 7, 2008 in North America. “We are thrilled to finally be putting the creative tools of Spore into the hands of players around the world,” said Will Wright, chief designer, Maxis. “The amazing creations players design this summer will help populate the game universe we all enter when Spore ships this September, so in a sense, the Spore Creature Creator is the birth of Spore.” The free demo version of the Spore Creature Creator will be available worldwide via download from www.spore.com. The demo lets players shape, paint and play with an unlimited number of creatures, using 25 percent of the creature-making parts from Spore. Gamers can then share these creations with their friends, including seamless uploads to YouTube. The demo will also be included in the The SimCity™ Box, which ships on June 23. A complete retail version of the Spore Creature Creator will also be available in North America for $9.99 and most European territories for €9.99, which gives players access to all the creature-making parts in the game. Spore, the highly anticipated game from the creators of The Sims™, gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs. Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world or explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers. Consumers can visit www.spore.com to sign up for the Spore newsletter or check out all-new screenshots and video of the game. Members of the media can visit EA’s press site at www.info.ea.com for information about all of EA’s games. Spore Creature Creator retail version is not available in all territories. My first topic submission bitches! I am no longer part of the problem! |
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Topic: Piecemeal Game Sales
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It figures there would be one. I just didn't know who. Backing away, fingering Beretta... |
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So that's what you call your... nah, too easy. |
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Doesn't usually stop folk round here. |
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I haven't interacted with you enough to know how you react to friendly fun-poking. |
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m0nty, when have you started smoking? <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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Doesn't usually... nah, too easy. In all seriousness, so long as you're not cracking wise about my dubious parentage from the outset, we cool. |
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my dubious parentage Go on… "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
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gaggle (#49): Go on… I was joking. Or, providing an illustration of hypothetical grounds for conflict, if you prefer. |
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Now there's too much hype. I'll have to pass! |
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CheesyPoof (#47): m0nty, when have you started smoking? Um, I changed the avatar as part of a joke in one of these threads about a week ago. I'll change back when I can be bothered. |
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Oh sure, it's all fair game except your whore of a mother! "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
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#52 by m0nty CheesyPoof (#47): m0nty, when have you started smoking? Um, I changed the avatar as part of a joke in one of these threads about a week ago. I'll change back when I can be bothered. Heh. I already forgot about that! |
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Weird, the reason I didn't like Civ IV was that it was too different from Civ II and AC. The focus on having just a few cities annoyed me, because anytime you go on a big war you pretty much end up having to either raze them to the ground or else you have a long assimilation process ahead of you. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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Shadarr (#55): Weird, the reason I didn't like Civ IV was that it was too different from Civ II and AC. The focus on having just a few cities annoyed me, because anytime you go on a big war you pretty much end up having to either raze them to the ground or else you have a long assimilation process ahead of you. Realism motherfucker! |
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The 7 commandments of videogame design. |
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I was going to make fun of that list initially, but I agree with it. |
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I agree with the anti-jetski portion of that tirade. |
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But you post your comment in a tabular format. Very confusing sir. Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
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Not at all! |
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That's a very good list. #1 and #2 being at the top because they obviously the most important. For me though, I'd put #7 a bit higher. And do less whining about open game worlds. "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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#7 - Thou shalt let us play your game with real-life friends. It's nice for games that have it, but requiring it for all games? That'd just be stupid and would cripple games that wanted to focus on strong single-player experiences. #6 - Thou shalt not pad the length of your games. Good rule, although I don't agree with all their examples - not all travel is padding. There's also a certain irony in this rule on a feature that's split into 7 separate pages to increase advert impressions. #5 - Thou shalt not force repetition on the player. Agreed. This could arguably be merged into the no-padding rule though. #4 - Thou shalt make killing fun. Well yeah, everything in a game should be fun. But given that many games make killing their core mechanic, it's more important that that is fun than other aspects. #3 - Thou shalt admit when enough is enough. Broadly agreed, I could quibble over jumping puzzles not being fun and using Gears of War as an example of too many space marines, but that'd be nitpicky. #2 - Thou shalt make sure your game actually works. Agreed. #1 - Better graphics do not equal innovation and/or creativity. That's not really a rule, and they also spelled "Thou shalt include save-anywhere" wrong. MP3 Of The Week: Faithless - Reverence.mp3
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It's nice for games that have it, but requiring it for all games? That'd just be stupid and would cripple games that wanted to focus on strong single-player experiences. Fuck racing games that don't have local multiplayer. I bought Burnout Paradise for a friend for his birthday, thinking we could play some two-player at his house. Turns out it's online-only multiplayer. What a crock of shit. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
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Do you mean two systems linked up, or split screen? #10 - Why not both come out of a window?
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More games should support co-op in the story campaign. Multiplayer doesn't all have to be CTF and deathmatch. And yes, splitscreen needs to be an option. Co-op Crackdown was fun, but if it supported splitscreen I'm sure I would've played through the whole thing co-op with either my brother or gf. It just wasn't good enough to justify buying a second copy. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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The last time I ever played co-op was Quake 1 or Duke3D, can't remember. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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We raced NFS2 split screen for a while, then tried to do so a couple of years later with Colin 2 but frame rate issues and crappy input handling ruined it fast. We did have some good Doom co-op though at LAN parties. #10 - Why not both come out of a window?
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#7 - Thou shalt let us play your game with real-life friends. It's nice for games that have it, but requiring it for all games? That'd just be stupid and would cripple games that wanted to focus on strong single-player experiences. My girl, who has no interest in games, really wanted to play GTA IV with me, and could not believe she wasn't able to. "That's stupid." Game Developers: Don't forget the zombie monkeys.
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What I always hated about my split-screen says was the fact that, back then, you were lucky if you had a 15" monitor, 14" visible. Losing half of that to someone else made it very hard to see anything, and the other half distracted me in some games. It was, however, a cheap way of playing with a friend. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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Do you mean two systems linked up, or split screen? I mean split. Fucking. Screen. It may suck for the 14" TV crowd, but grown-ups have big TVs and can stand to split it out. In-the-same-room multiplayer has been relegated to Wii party games, LAN parties, and indie titles, and it sucks. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
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my split-screen says Don't ask. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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Split-screen, or whatever you call the Lego Star Wars things where both of you are on the screen at the same time and can fuck each other up by not going the same way (Gauntlet-screen?), is a totally different thing that online multiplayer, even with friends. If you're both sitting on the same couch together, you're hanging out. If you're playing online, you're not hanging out. Voice chat helps (when it's not too laggy or garbled) but it's not the same. Playing together in the same room is more social. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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And when someone starts spamming the cheap moves, you can gut punch them. Online lacks that ability so far. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
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#71 by Jibble I mean split. Fucking. Screen. I see. Actually, that has always been my problem with split-screen: I see what the other player's doing. It's completely involuntarily because it disorientates me more than sneaking a peek could help, but I'm just so used to scanning the whole screen that I can't help it. #10 - Why not both come out of a window?
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Isn't complaining that a game like GTA4 (or Crackdown or Burnout Paradise) doesn't have a split-screen option a little naive? Those games have maps that cover vast areas and I'm guessing that that means a substantial amount of memory and GPU/CPU is required to render just one view, let alone two. I suppose they could work around it by forcing the players to remain within the same general area and by reducing the fidelity of textures etc. but that kinda defeats the purpose of such free-roaming games. |
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#76 by deadlock Isn't complaining that a game like GTA4 (or Crackdown or Burnout Paradise) doesn't have a split-screen option a little naive? You point out a technical limitation, and while it may be an entirely valid point I still think there's value in the "naive" requests. If a majority feels it (GTA, Burnout, whatever) should have splitscreen then maybe developers ought to listen and make that possible, however many sacrifices it takes. Within reason. And we never get the full stories of how the game came about, maybe splitscreen was tried and tested and ultimately failed because it just wasn't fun losing all that screen estate. We can want things we don't really want, so it's a balance. But not doing it because it's not a straight-forward task to engineer is the least optimal reason. "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
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GTA4 doesn't need split-screen. Racing games, though, it should be a given. Period. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
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gaggle But not doing it because it's not a straight-forward task to engineer is the least optimal reason. Now that is naive! It's all about returns and at some point developing a split-screen option for a free-roaming, huge-play-area game like GTA4 only offers diminishing returns. If you have to pretty much gut the things that make the game so enjoyable in order to make it technically feasible to have same-machine multiplayer then it's not really worth the bother. |
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Didn't many games that offered split-screen turn down graphic details while doing so? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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OMG RULE 7! #10 - Why not both come out of a window?
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#79 by deadlock Now that is naive! Thanks! But I think my point of view is relevant without dismissing yours. You're right, it is a question of returns of investment. But I think you agree that the best question to ask is whether or not it helps the game, if it pays off for the way the game itself is played, instead of asking "is it too hard to implement". Right? My point was meant as a kinda obvious one in that regard, it wasn't a "you're wrong, do like this instead" argument. "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
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Gaggle: I'm not poo-pooing your point of view and I agree that in a lot of cases a split-screen option in a game would be brilliant fun. I just don't think it will work for all games though and I'm not sure that you could do it for a game like GTA4 or Burnout Paradise on this generation of hardware. |
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My friend and I have this plan of setting up both xbox 360's in the same room but playing vs each other over xbox live when the new mortal kombat vs dc universe game comes out. |
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#83 by deadlock I just don't think it will work for all games though Oh I absolutely agree, I just hope it's not part of GTA or Burnout because they don't want it rather than for whatever technical reason. That's what I meant by saying they should do it if the public wants it and it plays as funny as Jibble thinks it would, even if it'd be a technical hurdle to do so. In saying that I'm not suggesting I'm necessarily following that line of thinking. I hate solutions that are a ton of work, it's more of a theoretical principle to adhere to in that regards. "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
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Fuck technical limitations for a second. Wouldn't it be sweet to be able to play GTA4 with a friend/wife/so while sitting in the same place? Fuck yeah it would. That fact being established means that someone needs to work around the technical limitations and give us the good shit already. coop makes games better, hence any game that can support it, should. And any game that can't, needs to damn well figure out how. :) "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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Multiplayer options of any kind make games worse. Because that's development time and testing time being taken away from stuff that actually matters. If you want something to do with your wife, try tennis. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
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and it's that kind of nonsensical idiocy that will cause the timeline to be set back on its proper course when carmack and romero quietly strangle bob in his sleep with a dmflags golem. |
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Sometimes, there are no words. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 190 lbs. 10 to go. |
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Dude, I played that game on that handheld thing in 1987. It was called Firefighter, I think. |
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Man, I get a bit worried just throwing my kids up in the air and catching them (they get turned around, etc), but tossing them off of buildings? Crazy talk. Though, maybe I'm just a pussy. "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
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Hey, if you believe God is on your side you have to have the courage to toss your baby off a building and let God catch him. Conversely, there was a Christian Rock concert recently where the floor gave way and 70 people were injured. And yet no mention of the obvious implication that God was not happy with what they were doing. Maybe He wants them to listen to better music, maybe He is really Allah, but whatever. You can't just attribute the good miracles to God. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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