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BioWare Boss On Anthem: “We Remain 100% Committed”
BioWare’s newest game, Anthem, received a mixed critical reception upon release in February. It sold very well but it might not have had the impact some expected it to. BioWare later delayed a lot of the game’s anticipated content, leading some to worry about its future. Some of Anthem’s top developers are now speaking up to stress to fans that that BioWare is committed to the project. Anthem’s head of live services, Chad Robertson, said on Twitter that BioWare remains fully committed to the game and expanding it with new content.
“We remain 100% committed to Anthem and look forward to showing players the new content we are working on,” he said. “We want to make sure we aren’t overpromising, so our updates on what’s coming in the game will be focused when we have things near completion.”
A “big team” is working on Anthem’s upcoming content across BioWare’s Austin and Edmonton studios, Robertson added. The teams are specifically working on “improving the game.”
BioWare lead producer Michael Gamble weighed in as well. He said BioWare’s commitment to Anthem “has not changed,” despite what you might have heard.
There’s been a lot of (incorrect) speculation on this. The studio’s support and commitment to anthem HAS. NOT. CHANGED. https://t.co/uxwY3ADPRO
— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) May 3, 2019
In April, BioWare acknowledged that it hadn’t done an optimal job of communicating with fans. Going forward, BioWare plans to stay quiet until work is closer to being finished.
“A lesson we have learned is we have been talking about things too early. There are so many factors that can cause us to pivot on our plans–whether it’s bugs & stability issues, player feedback, or complications with a feature that require us to take more time to deliver it,” BioWare said. “Our goal is to tell you about new content and features once the work is closer to being done.”
As part of BioWare’s effort to communicate with fans and involve them, BioWare is launching a Player Feedback Environment (PFE) server for Anthem’s PC version. The purpose of this is to give a small amount of players access to new content before it’s released publicly to share feedback with BioWare.
“We believe in Anthem. We believe the game will be great, but we recognize getting there will take a lot of hard work,” the developer said. “We want to do that work and we want you all to join us on the journey to get there.”
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bioware-boss-on-anthem-we-remain-100-committed/1100-6466636/
Here’s What Activision Blizzard Thinks About Cloud Gaming
Cloud gaming is poised to potentially be the Next Big Thing for gaming, and one of the companies that stands to benefit the most is Activision Blizzard, according to CEO Robert Kotick. In an earnings call, Kotick said new platforms like Google Stadia are good for gaming to help grow the market, but these platforms can’t succeed without content.
Activision Blizzard owns and controls decades worth of content, and that positions the company uniquely, Kotick said. “When you own 30 years of IP like we do, there’s probably never been a better time to be in the games business,” Kotick said. “When these big, well-funded companies are building out platforms where they have limited amounts of content to actually serve up to customers, I’d say there’s a great opportunity for a company like ours.”
“For starters, they will all try to broaden the audience for gaming and make big investments and commitments to doing so and that’s just helpful for growing the market,” Kotick added. “But in each case, none of these platforms can succeed without great content. Truthfully, they really don’t know how to make it. So when you think about what will be required, it will be support from us [and other game publishers] to allow them to actually build an audience. We have a better audience than most to capitalise on all these new platforms.”
Google Stadia‘s announcement in March was light on content partners, leading some to shrug the service off. Stadia boss Phil Harrison teased that more details will be announced in June, so it could be soon that we learn more about who Google is partnering with. Stadia has also created an internal game development team, Stadia Games led by industry veteran Jade Raymond, that will create games for Stadia.
Microsoft is working on its own game-streaming service, xCloud, and it’s not a stretch to imagine that the company will tap into its long list of owned studios to make new content for the platform. Sony, too, has its PlayStation Now streaming service that will likely continue to leverage first-party studios in an addition to third-parties to build out its content catalog as Xbox is expected to do.
Outside of those companies that are directly tied to game development, Amazon, Verizon, and Wal-Mart are among the non-gaming companies that are confirmed or rumoured to be building cloud gaming platforms. Those companies will need game content to build out their services.
Going back to Kotick, he said distribution models are always evolving and changing for games, and he expects this to continue with cloud gaming. In the next 5-10 years, Kotick said there will be “more ways and places to engage players [and] that serves us better than almost any other company.” Kotick added that, beyond partnering with the new cloud gaming services, Activision has a unique opportunity to connect directly with its massive network of 345 million monthly active players across its catalog of games.
Kotick is not the first gaming executive to discuss the issue of cloud gaming companies and a potential struggle to get compelling content. Xbox boss Mike Nichols said about Stadia, “They don’t have the content.”
What do you think about cloud gaming? Let us know in the comments below! You can also read GameSpot’s cloud gaming primer to find out everything you need to know.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-what-activision-blizzard-thinks-about-cloud-/1100-6466632/
Call Of Duty Franchise Joins Pokemon In Reaching 300 Million Copies Sold
The Call of Duty franchise continues to soar. Activision announced today that the shooter series has now cleared 300 million copies sold since it debuted back in 2003.
For comparison, the Pokemon franchise passed 300 million copies sold after the release of Ultra Sun and Moon back in 2017. Meanwhile, the Sonic the Hedgehog series reached 350 million copies a few years ago. Exact numbers for other franchises are tougher to track down.
The Call of Duty series premiered in 2003 with Infinity Ward’s World War II shooter Call of Duty. No mainline Call of Duty game was released in 2004, but a new entry has launched every year since, with development shifting around between Activision-owned studios like Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games, with support from other owned studios like Raven Software and High Moon, among others.
Activision has not provided a breakdown of sales by individual title or brand, but the Black Ops and Modern Warfare brands are believed to be the most successful.
The next Call of Duty game is launching later this year, and it’s rumoured to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward, which created the brand. The game will be announced in the coming months. On top of that, a new Call of Duty mobile game from Tencent is coming.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-franchise-joins-pokemon-in-reaching-3/1100-6466631/
