At BlizzCon today, the company revealed that they would be creating a new way to pay for the largest MMO of all time. The company revealed that they were creating what they call a World of Warcraft Annual Pass. This news was announced by Blizzard’s President and CEO Mike Morhaime during the opening ceremony of the event.
The Annual Pass will simply be a one chunk purchase of a year long subscription to the popular MMO rather than a monthly billing cycle. With subscription to the service you will obtain the new in-game World of Warcraft mount, Tyrael’s Charger as well as access to the beta of the Mists of Pandaria expansion when it is available.
Currently there is no word how much it will end up costing, or if it will be any cheaper than just taking a monthly billing cycle. Or of course, you can buy it for the World of Warcraft lover in your family and never see them again for one more year.
It was only a matter of time before another expansion pack was announced for the largest MMO of all time, and today that day has come. At BlizzCon 2011Blizzard announced in front of 26,000 fans that they would be releasing the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft named the Mists of Pandaria.
This expansion will promise to deliver the next “phase” in the development of WoW and bring with it new quests, raids, PVP, instances and professions. A list of new features was created by Joystiq with the major points of the update that will be released sometime in the future. Hopefully a release date will be announced as the days go by and BlizzCon rolls on.
There will be a new talent system added to the game, a Pandaren race added, the region of Pandaria opened up, a new Monk hero class, a dungeon challenge mode, a level cap raise up to 90, PVE scenarios and a much wanted pet battle system.
In what seems to be more nails being hammered in the coffin of the Australian games industry, rumours have found their way to Kotaku Australia and reveal that Australia’s arm of 2K Marin has suffered up to 15 redundancies. The studio, based in Canberra and twinned with 2K Marin in California, had been working on XCOM for 2K Games. They had also worked on Bioshock and it’s sequel, Bioshock 2.
The reports suggest that this is the extent of the damage suffered by the studio. Redundancies, however, are never a good sign. Let us hope that those still there do not lose their jobs. For those who have, then I hope they find work soon. No comments on the staff cuts have been made by 2K Marin. This follows the closure of Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM), developers of the video game for Happy Feet Two, last week.
With the run of closures and redundancies from studios with links to the big boys, it seems that our industry is pretty much dead. Sure, we have success stories with the mobile platform, but is it a long term solution to Australia’s problems? I think not.
In a rather surprising announcement, Nintendo have revealed that they are planning to add Hulu Plus to both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii. For those unfamiliar, Hulu is an online service that lets users digitally stream popular television shows and movies at one low monthly rate.
Here are the official details from Nintendo themselves:
With Hulu Plus, Wii and Nintendo 3DS users will be able to instantly stream thousands of TV episodes – including the entire current season of popular shows like Modern Family, Glee, Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser, House and Grey’s Anatomy – from premium content partners like ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV and many more. Hulu Plus also offers access to classic TV favorites like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, The Hills and hundreds of popular and award-winning movies. Hulu Plus is available through a separate subscription fee of $7.99 per month with limited advertising.
Not a bad move at all. Hopefully the portable version of Hulu will be just as competitent as what we have seen on consoles thus far, and considering how well Netflix works on the 3DS, execution shouldn’t be much of a problem. No date has been given for Hulu Plus on the Wii & 3DS as of yet except for “before the end of the year”, but stay tuned as once an official date is announced, we will be sure to bring you an update.
Nintendo’s pre-recorded press event for the Nintendo 3DS is now a thing of the past, but plenty of new details have arisen concerning the new firmware update that will allow for new functionality of the 3DS.
Arriving in November, this update will let owners on the 3DS system to record video in full 3D for the first time. These clips can be up to 10 minutes in length as well, so users will finally get to film their own footage and re-watch it in a whole new dimension.
Also detailed was a stop motion feature, which will allow you to take frame-by-frame snapshots and then combine them all into one full-motion video.
Finally, the Streetpass Plaza will be getting a much needed update as well, with a whole new Quest for the built in “Find Me” RPG, allowing two players to take on the monsters within the various dungeons. New puzzles featuring the likes of Donkey Kong will also be added into Plaza.
The whole conference was rather short, but you can check out Iwata detailing all these new goodies in the clip below.
There is a new trailer for Final Fantasy Type-0, a PSP game that may not see a release in the West due to the waning PSP market compared to Japan. In this trailer, what one would see is realistic deaths, gmapley footage of that exciting battle system and a character roll call. There is so much they are fitting in this game, so much that it will have two UMDs instead of one. It is one of the few games to actually use more than one UMD in Japan.
The trailer also features the theme song by Bump of Chicken. Entitled “Zero”, it is a great tune. Play the tralier to find out how great the song is. I reckon the music (not the lyrics since I don’t speak Japanese) fits the action on the screen. I’m sure it will be available on the official soundtrack.
Captain America already made a huge splash in 2011 with an impressive release on consoles, but now the star-spangled hero is set to make his debut on the 3DS next week. To celebrate this release, Sega have now released a launch trailer for the game, showing off a bit of the action players can expect.
Aside from toned down graphics, this version looks pretty decent so far as it seems to execute the same beat-em-up/platforming elements that it’s console kin did so well earlier this year. The general narrative has also remained the same with the Captain’s main objective being to infiltrate the Hydra’s Castle and defeat the Red Skull’s army. Check out the launch trailer below for yourself and arm your shields, as Captain America comes to the 3DS on October 25th.
Despite the numerous comments on how the current generation still has at least five years left, this hasn’t stopped several studios within Sony’s portfolio to start on preliminary work for several projects which may be available for the fourth Playstation console in the family.
According to Develop, a source revealed that there is work within Sony’s sixteen first-party studios on concepts for the next console. However, the identity of the studios have been disclosed, leaving some mystery of who is going to be presenting concepts. A target date, according to Develop’s source, would be no earlier than 2014. As for the moment, the Playstation 3, the Playstation Move and the Playstation Vita (which started development after the launch of the Playstation Portable, I might add) will be the main focus at least to 2013.
Over the year, Sony representatives, including SCE chairman Kaz Hirai, have denied any development on the Playstation 4, but it is worthwhile to point out that, at the rate of technological development in the 21st century, it would be no surprise that they are at the drawing boards and maybe testing some technologies out in Research & Development.
Even though the 3DS hit quite a slump earlier this year and left a sour taste in investor’s mouths, the little handheld that could is now picking up full steam as last month it sold over 240,000 units due to it’s new low price. Now we all know that Mario, Luigi, Pit, and several other Nintendo greats are looking to make a comeback that should skyrocket sales this holiday season and into early 2012, but I am now wondering what will come after that. I mean, sure, those properties will sell no matter what, but what will keep the 3DS fresh after the winter rush finishes?
Just for fun, let’s take a look at what would be some fantastic additions for the future of the 3DS’ life-cycle.
Pikmin 3
Here is a no-brainer. Since the release of Pikmin 2, fans have crossed their fingers for more information about an ineveitable sequel and have only received teases from Miyamoto. We know it’s coming, we just don’t know when or how Nintendo will go about delivering a follow-up.
Why it needs to happen:
While Pikmin 1 & 2 were great, I really don’t feel like the memory of those Gamecube classics alone will sell the sequel in masses to the general public. Before you grab your pitchforks though, I still feel like Pikmin 3 would perform wonderfully if Nintendo act quickly. You see, the last time gamers got a chance to see Olimar, it was in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold over 10 million copies since release. That means that 10 million sets of eyes have seen our Pikmin friends, whether they played the originals or not.
We still don’t know when or even a proper “if” Pikmin 3 is in some sort of development, but as long as Olimar is fresh on the mind of the masses, there won’t be much of a problem in getting 3DS oweners to spend their cash on a follow-up.
Shantae
WayForward have already made their mark on this generation by releasing some of the highest rated licensed titles and remakes we have seen, period. They turned Thor into a 2D beat-em-up which was critically praised by all on the Nintendo DS, A Boy and his Blob turned out to be a savory treat for the Wii, and the more recent Aliens: Infestation gave us a Contra-Metroid hybrid experience that turned out to be one of the richest 2D titles we have seen in years. All of those fantastic titles are nothing compared though to the imaginative originals that this little studio have produced.
I have said it before, but I truly believe that Shantae is the official mascot of the entire DSiWare service. This little half-genie seen new life of handhelds last year with the release of Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, which still remains as the most substantial title on Nintendo’s digital platform (You can check out our review here for reasoning behind this comment). If WayForward delivered a sequel in cartridge form, there is no telling what these innovative developers could create.
Why it needs to happen:
When I think of Shantae, I think of nothing but potential. If WayForward did a 3DS version of the classic in some form, it would boost the character’s popularity even greater, and we could see an entire franchise take form in just a short time if promoted correctly. I think Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, and the other mascots from Nintendo are fine, but Shantae has all of the goods to have her name on countless spin-offs, sequels, and merchandise that could turn the cult favorite into a mainstream phenomenon.
Shantae has proven her credibility twice so far, so just maybe we can see some publisher make that investment down the line to bring this genie into a whole new dimension.
A “Rare” Return
As much as I love Rare, things have not been the same in the past few years for the same company who carried much of the Nintendo 64’s successes on their back. Even with that said though, Viva Pinata and it’s sequel were superb and two of my favorite titles this generation, and I actually enjoyed Perfect Dark Zero for what it was as well. That same ingenuity and imagination can still be found in the likes of Kinect Sports or with any release Rare cook up these days, but there isn’t much doubt that the industry icons still seem a little out of their element with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as the system itself as it is mainly targeted towards older gamers and families who use the Kinect. Walk into any game store and recommend Viva Pinata to any 19 year old male, and they will usually give it a chuckle and walk towards the shooter section. It’s sad to see such creativity go unappreciated.
This is just a dream at this point, but I would love to see Nintendo reunite with Rare. Not just for Donkey Kong, but to revive familiar faces from the past while tapping in on Nintendo’s younger age market with brand new brands.
Why it needs to happen:
Rare have several franchises under their belt that have been simply begging for another chance. Let’s start off by taking a look at what could easily be revived for Nintendo’s 3D platform.
Conker
When Conker’s Bad Fur Day was originally released back in 2001 on the Nintendo 64, the game instantly garnered a huge cult following due to it’s foul mouthed mascot. The in-game world was large, open, and colorful and the complete cast of characters seemed to hate life because of it. If you remember, this was the age of platformers (which Rare themselves helped build), so the entire experience was almost a parody of the norm and the dark humor within just worked so well due to the brilliance in Conker’s writing and execution.
Nearly a decade has passed and we have just seen one (censored) remake from the tenacious squirrel, which is a bit disheartening to say the least. What would Conker have to say about the past generation of family titles and motion-controlled shovelware? I think we would all know the answer, and I would love to hear it stated in a follow-up on the 3DS. Just in case you may be questioning this choice based on the ending Conker’s Bad Fur Day, this is still the world of video-games and I am sure Rare could easily conjure up some campy reasoning to revive Conker for one more go-around.
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo makes this list for a number of reasons. It was one of the best platformers ever built, it spawned an even better sequel, and Jinjos simply belong on a Nintendo platform, period. By saying that I don’t want to take anything away from Nuts & Bolts, as there were some brilliant ideas present, but that title didn’t have the same feel(or concept for that matter) as it’s far superior predecessors. The 3DS however would be an ideal platform for the franchise though as we have already seen a number of well-made 64 ports that have utilized the handheld to pull off successful revivals.
Just look at any of the Banjo titles though. The slide-pad would work perfect for mimicking the fluidness of control we seen on the N64 and the 3D could be added in to make the entire world “pop” off the screen. Banjo-Kazooie was also a game about collection, whether it was music notes or Jiggys, and a simple online leaderboard could add in a new competitive flavor into the experience, better rewarding the completionists that partake in the journey. These of course are just a few ideas but if everything was executed correctly, the classic pairing would could see another wave of fame and recapture their thrones of Nintendo platforming royalty.
Killer Instinct
As I am writing this, we have seen three fighting games released on the 3DS in just seven months of time. These titles all performed well and have been critical successes for the most part, as each (sans Blazblue) capitalized on the online functionality and utilized the entire button layout provided to pull off a polished control scheme. Nintendo’s handhelds haven’t been well fit for the genre in the past, but if the 3DS has proved anything as of yet, it’s that it knows how to handle a good fighter.
Rumors of Killer Instinct 3 have been spinning for years now and a console would be the perfect way to go if Rare were to make their move on reviving the series. The 3DS however offers a cheaper development option that could at least give fans something to chew on until that grand title is crafted. Orchid and Fulgore in 3D would look amazing as it stands, but if we seen the same love given to Killer Instinct that was given to Street Fighter IV 3D, the result could be phenomenal. Streetpass battles, 3D rendered cutscenes, and even a newly revamped story mode could make this series relevant again and would reintroduce the famed series back to the fighting market that have their wallets open, ready to take on that next great challenge.
All three of these titles are just pure examples at what Rare could revive with the 3DS’ technology, but there is no doubt the ambitious developers could craft some brilliant originals as well that could finally trigger the entire market to follow by example which in turn could lead to a library of gold for the platform.
And then there was Toad…
Poor Toad. Even though he has been in nearly every Mario title to date in one form or another, we have never seen an original creation based upon one of the most familiar and beloved faces in gaming. The question is, would a Toad game sell?
My main idea comes in the form of an RPG. We all know there is plenty of Toads in the Mushroom Kingdom, with the most prominent face being Toadsworth. A brief concept would be to have Toadsworth get kidnapped (Peach style) while Mario was…plumbing or saving the famous Princess. This in turn could have Toad and Toadette set out to save their elder throughout many famed locations from the franchise, partnering up with lost and unwanted characters that players have not seen since their debuts (Mallow and Geno from Super Mario RPG come to mind).
Nintendo could make him paper, make it a platformer, or even a puzzle game. Toad deserves an attempt at an original IP, and that face would sell a game, regardless of the genre.
Now we would like to get some of your opinions and thoughts. What titles (or personalities in general) would you like to see brought to the 3DS’ growing library?
Want to win 3000 Nintendo Points to spend on DSiWare and the Nintendo eShop?
Thanks to Zordix, the developers of the hit Valet Parking 1989 and the upcoming 1950’s Lawn Mower Kids, you can WIN 3000 Nintendo Points to spend on either DSiWare or the Nintendo eShop!
Entering this competition couldn’t be easier! All you have to do is simply play the awesome Flash game below and try and get a high score! Then, just simply enter your name and contact details. Once we reach a certain number of entries, Zordix themselves will pick one lucky winner who will receive 3000 Nintendo Points! Remember you can play as many times as you like, so go nuts!
