A small grey market industry has cropped up for gamers located in certain regions where digital PC games are priced significantly lower than the rest of the world. People have been purchasing non-region locked copies of games and trading them for Team Fortress 2 keys, Amazon gift cards, and PayPal funds. The buyers often get games for up to 80% off, and the seller walks away with a tidy profit.
In the face of the crumbling Russian currency and the impending Steam sale, Valve is cracking down on they grey market sellers by restricting buyers from several countries from sending or trading gifts outside of their region. Regions affected includes Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Phillipines, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, and many countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Aniplex of America has just announced their acquisition of the license to stream Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend. Episodes will begin streaming on the Aniplex Channel, Crunchyroll and Hulu beginning January 8, 2015. The exact time of the simulcast will be revealed at a later date. The series will be directed by Kanta Kamei (Oreshura, Nanana’s Buried Treasure) and will be produced by A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online II, Blue Exorcist, Oreimo 2).
Aniplex provided a synopsis for this series:
One day, an otaku high school student Tomoya Aki has a fateful encounter with a girl amidst the beautiful cherry blossom trees. This meeting inspires Tomoya to design his very own “gal-game” (dating-simulation video game) featuring a heroine modeled after the girl he saw. In order to make his desire a reality, Tomoya must persuade a few eccentric “creators” such as the ace member of the art club, Eriri Spencer Sawamura and the school’s top student, Utaha Kasumigaoka to join his development team. Meanwhile, Tomoya is shocked to learn that the girl he idolized as his muse for this whole project was none other than his boring classmate, Megumi Kato!
But, this doesn’t dissuade Tomoya. He is determined to give Megumi a total make-over within his game and raise her to be the absolute girlfriend that every man desires…!
The press release does not state if the license includes the home video rights as well.
Independent games developer Squad has just released a huge new update for Kerbal Space Program. The game is a physics-based spaceflight simulator, which has garnered huge popularity for it’s physics engine, but has been somewhat lacking in other more traditional content. The game is available on PC, Mac, and Linux, though it is still in Early Access, and it takes a very different approach to spaceflight than games such as Star Citizen.
However, building on recent other updates, Squad has finally brought in more of a career and progression system, called the Kerbal Experience System; this lets a player’s Kerbal’s gain new specialized skills from missions. Some of the new skills that characters can learn and grow in, include advanced piloting, science gathering, and in-flight repairs to spacecraft.
The major new mode added involves a space center progression system; players start with just a basic space center now. Players must work to unlock the full compound, earning new building and unlocking new capabilities and bonuses as they play and succeed in more and more missions.
Another piece of exciting news, is that not only have modders been asked to implement their mods into the game’s official release, but Squad has partnered with the European Space Agency. The ESA has granted Squad use of their logo’s and branding in-game, which shows just how much of real-world orbital dynamics are in this game.
Other new features include:
A Retooled Craft Editor: Build crafts better than ever before with advanced part sorting and construction gizmos that allow players to place, offset and rotate the different parts on your craft.
Expanded Contracts: Brian “Arsonide” Provan, creator of the highly rated mod, “Fine Print,” has implemented and expanded his mod into the game, granting greater variety, depth and difficulty to the previously implemented contract system.
Biomes Everywhere: KSP-TV host, Alyson “Tanuki Chau” Young created new biomes for the game, bringing them to over 100 areas from which Kerbals can collect, store and send science data. The new biomes have been placed all across the universe, giving players bigger incentive to explore every inch of the game.
New Mk3 SpacePlane parts: Prolific modding community member, Christopher “Porkjet” Thuersam has overhauled and added to the popular collection of Mk3 parts that allow crafts to carry larger payloads.
Even as the game is still in it’s beta and early access mode, the title remains surprisingly difficult, with huge depth to those who look. I struggled for a long time to even get ships in orbit, but there are players who have learned to create full multi-module ships to travel into the depths of fictional space. The developers say that while the game is only just entering beta, they can see that they’re in the home stretch. The progression of this game has gone from a simple spaceflight simulator, to being a space agency simluator. The depth available now as compared to when I first started playing way back in the early days of alpha, is immense.
Kerbal Space Program is available on Steam for $30.00 (USD), and I highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it. Getting into space is a huge challenge, that you will enjoy; blowing up dozens of rockets (and poor hapless Kerbals) along the way is just icing on the cake. You can see a gameplay video below.
Hanabee Entertainment has just announced that they have acquired the license to distribute The Ambition of Oda Nobuna. The DVD and Blu-ray sets will be released on February 4, 2015. Both editions have a suggested retail price of $59.99 AUD, come with two discs, feature all 12 twelve episodes with options for both Japanese with English subtitles and English audio and feature the textless opening and ending animation as on-disc extras. Hanabee’s describes the series as follows:
Yoshiharu Sagara is about to get a blast from the past.
Stranded in what appears to be the Sengoku period, Yoshiharu’s understanding of Japanese history is about to be turned on its head. Not only is Oda Nobunga not male, one of the key figures in history has just been accidentally killed defending him.
Tasked with making history right, Yoshiharu comes under the command of the very female Oda Nobuna, leader of the Owari province. Can Yoshiharu aid this ambitious leader into achieving her goal or has he forever altered the course of history?
Fans who enjoyed other series involving time travel to the Sengoku period and fans who enjoy gender-flipped characters will likely find something to enjoy in this series. Pre-orders can be made here.
Last night we wrote about how Sekai Project had launched their Kickstarter campaign to bring all three of the Grisaia games to the West and now in under twenty four hours not only have they managed to reach their full funding goal of $160,000 but they have actually managed to reach their first stretch goal at $200,000.
This means that Sekai Project will begin localizing the spin-off game, Idol Magical Girl Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru, shortly after they finish releasing all three of the main games. It is worth noting that at the moment, the company has not mentioned how much this extra game will cost to add-on to your current pledge, but they did say that it will be available in both physical and digital forms with a collector’s box that will be adjusted to fit all four games.
Currently the Grisaia Trilogy Kickstarteris at $201,827 and the next stretch goal is at $240,000. At this point the company will not only release the games on the PC but they will also port them to Mac, Linux, and possibly the PS Vita.
Thanks to the outstanding support already given to the Kickstarter, Watanabe Akio, one of the artists behind the Grisaia games, drew up a special congratulations image that you can see below.
Earlier this week we learned that Arc System Works is planning on bringing BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PlayStation 3 and now Famitsu has released an online preview of the game giving us a first look at the title as well as some new details.
As mentioned before, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend features Celica and Lambda-11, both of which were added into the 2.0 arcade version and will bring the total amount of playable characters to 28. What has been revealed is that the “Extend” episode will take place in the past and include story elements from Kokonoe but also Bullet, where gamers will be able to learn about her heroic past as a wandering mercenary and her mission to discover the truth behind her allies’ demise.
Today Square Enix and DontNod Entertainment revealed when we can expect to see the first episode of Life is Strange released on consoles. The first episode will be released on January 30, 2015 and will cost $4.99 / £3.99 / €4.99, though you can also choose to purchase the season pass for episodes two through five for $16.99 if you decide you want to lock everything in. Alternatively, you can simply buy the entire game ahead of time for $19.99 / £15.99 / €19.99.
To go along with this release date the company released a trailer that you can see below, which is full of painful comparison quotes and some new in-game footage.
Earlier this week Gust teased an announcement for this week’s copy of Famitsu and while an announcement was made, it unfortunately isn’t quite as amazing as some hoped. In the issue, courtesy of Gamestalk, the company revealed the release date for Atelier Rorona on the 3DS, which is now set to be released in Japan on March 26th
The magazine also revealed that if players are able to complete certain conditions in the game and unlock “Atelier Astrid” where players will take control of Astrid Zexis and Sterkenburg Cranach during their younger days. Atelier Rorona on 3DS will feature a revamped battle system that makes use of a grid-based field and play similar to a standard strategy RPG.
If you’re like me, you are eagerly awaiting the release of Techland’s upcoming survival horror game; Dying Light. The open-world, free-running based game with its impressive day/night cycle is a little over a month away and that usually means it is time for gameplay footage and cinematic trailers to hit the web. Well this time Warner Bros. has given us something a little more unique and fun – a choose your own adventure video.
The video, titled Test Your Survival Skills runs players through a scenario similar to what they will encounter in the full game.The series uses actual gameplay footage so as to best represent the choices that players will face in the game. You can check out the first part of the video below (although sadly it is not a mobile-friendly video series) so check that out and let us know in the comments below how well you did. Dying Light releases on January 27th, 2015 so for all the hottest zombie news as it becomes available, stay tuned to Capsule Computers.
Last week we were teased that a new Deception game would be revealed soon and it looks like it isn’t an entirely new game, but an updated one. This week Koei Tecmo has announced via Famitsuthat they will be releasing Deception IV: Another Princess on the PS Vita, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 in Japan on March 26th.
This upgraded version of Deception IV: Blood Ties will add in new elements, a 100 quest “Quest Mode,” a new heroine named Valgyrie, new traps, and an edit mode named Deception Studio. Deception IV: Another Princess describes Valgyrie as a “nightmare princess” that humans see in their dreams and that she is also a daughter of the devil but has lost most of her power due to a long slumber. Players will encounter Laegrinna, the previous protagonist, during the Quest Mode which is a brand new story experience with Valgyrie, who will appear as a formidable enemy that will use traps against the player.
