Going down the list, anyone notice the few games "activating on Origin" are not really sale worthy pricing? Yeah some of those games are relatively new, and yeah you get a discount on them off the SRP; but in the past I have purchased tons of relatively new games from Steam (and even on fledgling services like OnLive) that were put on sale, and got far deeper discounts.
A great example is The Darkness II near the very top of the list (which is an awesome game BTW, and a steal at such a low price), which is selling for a mere $12.49).
Anyway, it's just a pattern I have been noticing (not just on this sale, but on others as well), so I thought I would ask if anyone else has noticed it too.
@tstorm Turtle Rock is owned by Valve, but as of the reformation of the studio in 2009, operated independently - which means they can shop their games out to other publishers. Which lead to them THQ deal in 2010 . . . which also lead to Turtle Rock using the CryEngine 3 for the next game, instead of Valve's Source Engine.
I think this is good news. A couple of misses aside, THQ has really been churning out some great games the last few years: Saints Row, Dawn of War 2, Darksiders, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, Company of Heroes . . . heck, they even managed to breathe a much needed breath of fresh air into the stale wrestling game genre with the release of WWE All Stars last year, which has got to be the single best wrestling game released in almost a decade . . . I hate wrestling games, and I actually bought that one after playing it at a friends.
And THQ is slated to churn out even more hotness over the next year, like Darksiders II, Metro: Last Light, South Park: The Game, Devil's Third to name a few. What I think the company really needs is to continue outputting quality product, plus they are in serious need of marketing that reflects the quality of product they are bringing to the market. The company's biggest problem is everyone still associates the THQ brand with garbage. If they can manage to turn that image around with marketing, to reflect the AAA caliber titles they have been bringing out of late, they could really turn their fortunes around.
With Crytek now in charge of the Homefront franchise, and new games from developers like Turtle Rock Studios, the quality is there at THQ. The company just seriously needs to get the message out that the AAA quality is there. I think they have done a bad job at getting that message out there, so no one buys their games as a result. And of course if no one buys their games . . . well, we see how that is not working out so well for them.
Whomever their marketing people are, they need to fire them and get new people to do the job. And task them with the singular task of getting the gaming world to see just how much AAA quality THQ is outputting these days.
@(Unverified) Those were awesome days; two of my favorite jRPGs of all time, and I got to play them back to back. I remember stewarding at the yacht club when both games came out. We had just put the boats up for the winter, and there was largely nothing to do around the place . . . nothing besides keeping the place kempt and playing video games all day on the 60" in the upstairs meeting hall. I would get to play both Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, and even Shenmue in their entirety on that thing.
It was partly because of the battle systems in both of those games, that began to wean me off of jRPGs. Between the two, they established a very high mark, and very few other jRPGs that came after, could keep up. After that, boredom for the whole genre sets in . . . and well, that's that, I guess. But while it lasted, it was the greatest. Some of the best memories of my life, and I will always look back on those days fondly.
Nail on the head, man. How many times since 2005 have all the online commenters emphatically stated streaming media would never catch on; especially for HD content? How many times did everyone insist that Xbox needed Blu-ray (or HD DVD) as it was the only way to get added value to the console? Heck, how many times was it screamed from the tops of the internets, that the PS3 would dominate the market all over Xbox 360, because of the added value of the Blu-ray player, while the Xbox supposedly had "no way to play" HD movies and content?
From the very beginning, Microsoft's plan has been steadfast that streaming media would be the future of entertainment, and the Xbox launched with the ability to stream media directly from your PC or home network (something it still does). The only difference between 2012 and 2005, is that Microsoft's vision has gotten a million times more ambitious in it's scope. And the pay off is readily evident. People who once upon a time would only game on their Xbox, then turn it off once they finished gaming, to seek other forms of entertainment, are now spending just as much time enjoying other forms of entertainment, as they do for games. And people who once would have overlooked an Xbox as just a game console, are now purchasing them (or using a family members) as their main portal for entertainment. I feel one of the reasons Microsoft's hardware numbers from last fall surprised so many gamers (they moved almost 10 million units in a single quarter), was because as gamers, none of us were taking serious the effect that serving as a total entertainment hub would have on adoption of the hardware into the mainstream consumer. Xboxes are almost doubling their sales numbers, because of all this streaming media thing. And let's be honest, looking at all the comments over the past seven years, very few of us ever saw that coming.
Seriously, if any of us had a dollar for every time someone uttered some comment over the past seven years to the effect that it would never catch on, we'd have enough money to launch (and screw up) our own next-gen game console by now . . . long live Dreamcast 2.
This actually makes a lot of sense - the ultimate form of the Xbox 360.
The current hardware is already running the CPU and GPU on a single 40nm die. If it's gets any smaller (say 25nm), the entire system will be able fit into a single SoC. This means super cheap hardware.
I can see something like this hitting the market with 16GB of internal flash, and everything else being backed up either on portable flash drives, or in the cloud (that free Sky Drive account is about to get much bigger) . . . or both. The Kinect hardware itself was pretty cheap to begin with. Cost around $70 to make at launch, before they sold over 18 million of them. At the rate it is selling, by 2013, no reason to believe that Kinect hardware isn't going to cost less than $10 each. Throw in WiFi-G out of the box, and one controller, and Bob's you're uncle. So $99 for a reduced sized bundle by 2013 is not only doable, but Microsoft may even turn a profit on hardware.
And for those who just have to have their games on disc, and optional DVD-ROM attachment to retail for around $50.
The only thing, I think MS Nerd probably got his dates backwards. I'd expect the Xbox 720 to ship first, then to be followed by the Xbox 360 Ultra Slim.
The best part about the Xbox 360 Ultra Slim, is not only is it good for enticing the price conscious consumer, as well as the casuals, but when you think about the international markets like Brazil, India, and China, where imported electronics usually cost the price of a used car, a sub-$100 game console that does everything the Xbox 360 does, is probably going to be very huge in reaching those markets.
Amazon 'Spring Sale' on PC has LA Noire for $5, Crysis 2 for $7.50
Apr 5th 2012 9:49AM (Joystiq)A great example is The Darkness II near the very top of the list (which is an awesome game BTW, and a steal at such a low price), which is selling for a mere $12.49).
Anyway, it's just a pattern I have been noticing (not just on this sale, but on others as well), so I thought I would ask if anyone else has noticed it too.
Joystiq's new commenting system is live
Apr 4th 2012 9:13PM (Joystiq)Ghost Recon: Future Soldier presented on PC June 12
Apr 3rd 2012 5:11PM (Joystiq)Ubisoft announced in January that a PC version would be coming - even stated that it would launch at a later date than the console version.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/ghost-recon-future-soldier-launch-delayed-to-may-22-in-na-may/
Rampant Speculation Theatre presents: Microsoft registers XboxFL.com
Mar 31st 2012 12:38PM (Joystiq)I guess it could stand for Xbox For Life.
(Not) Left for dead: Turtle Rock still developing FPS for THQ
Mar 31st 2012 12:18PM (Joystiq)http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23913
http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/26/thq-to-publish-turtle-rocks-newest-title-in-2013/
http://twitter.com/#!/TurtleRockGang/status/127074749884006403
(Not) Left for dead: Turtle Rock still developing FPS for THQ
Mar 31st 2012 3:18AM (Joystiq)(Not) Left for dead: Turtle Rock still developing FPS for THQ
Mar 31st 2012 1:17AM (Joystiq)And THQ is slated to churn out even more hotness over the next year, like Darksiders II, Metro: Last Light, South Park: The Game, Devil's Third to name a few. What I think the company really needs is to continue outputting quality product, plus they are in serious need of marketing that reflects the quality of product they are bringing to the market. The company's biggest problem is everyone still associates the THQ brand with garbage. If they can manage to turn that image around with marketing, to reflect the AAA caliber titles they have been bringing out of late, they could really turn their fortunes around.
With Crytek now in charge of the Homefront franchise, and new games from developers like Turtle Rock Studios, the quality is there at THQ. The company just seriously needs to get the message out that the AAA quality is there. I think they have done a bad job at getting that message out there, so no one buys their games as a result. And of course if no one buys their games . . . well, we see how that is not working out so well for them.
Whomever their marketing people are, they need to fire them and get new people to do the job. And task them with the singular task of getting the gaming world to see just how much AAA quality THQ is outputting these days.
My year long quest to defeat Grandia 2's (almost) final boss
Mar 29th 2012 8:02AM (Joystiq)It was partly because of the battle systems in both of those games, that began to wean me off of jRPGs. Between the two, they established a very high mark, and very few other jRPGs that came after, could keep up. After that, boredom for the whole genre sets in . . . and well, that's that, I guess. But while it lasted, it was the greatest. Some of the best memories of my life, and I will always look back on those days fondly.
Here's to the good old days.
Xbox 360 used more for video and music apps than for gaming
Mar 28th 2012 2:13PM (Joystiq)Nail on the head, man. How many times since 2005 have all the online commenters emphatically stated streaming media would never catch on; especially for HD content? How many times did everyone insist that Xbox needed Blu-ray (or HD DVD) as it was the only way to get added value to the console? Heck, how many times was it screamed from the tops of the internets, that the PS3 would dominate the market all over Xbox 360, because of the added value of the Blu-ray player, while the Xbox supposedly had "no way to play" HD movies and content?
From the very beginning, Microsoft's plan has been steadfast that streaming media would be the future of entertainment, and the Xbox launched with the ability to stream media directly from your PC or home network (something it still does). The only difference between 2012 and 2005, is that Microsoft's vision has gotten a million times more ambitious in it's scope. And the pay off is readily evident. People who once upon a time would only game on their Xbox, then turn it off once they finished gaming, to seek other forms of entertainment, are now spending just as much time enjoying other forms of entertainment, as they do for games. And people who once would have overlooked an Xbox as just a game console, are now purchasing them (or using a family members) as their main portal for entertainment. I feel one of the reasons Microsoft's hardware numbers from last fall surprised so many gamers (they moved almost 10 million units in a single quarter), was because as gamers, none of us were taking serious the effect that serving as a total entertainment hub would have on adoption of the hardware into the mainstream consumer. Xboxes are almost doubling their sales numbers, because of all this streaming media thing. And let's be honest, looking at all the comments over the past seven years, very few of us ever saw that coming.
Seriously, if any of us had a dollar for every time someone uttered some comment over the past seven years to the effect that it would never catch on, we'd have enough money to launch (and screw up) our own next-gen game console by now . . . long live Dreamcast 2.
Rumor: Stripped down Xbox planned for 2013
Mar 26th 2012 5:43PM (Joystiq)This actually makes a lot of sense - the ultimate form of the Xbox 360.
The current hardware is already running the CPU and GPU on a single 40nm die. If it's gets any smaller (say 25nm), the entire system will be able fit into a single SoC. This means super cheap hardware.
I can see something like this hitting the market with 16GB of internal flash, and everything else being backed up either on portable flash drives, or in the cloud (that free Sky Drive account is about to get much bigger) . . . or both. The Kinect hardware itself was pretty cheap to begin with. Cost around $70 to make at launch, before they sold over 18 million of them. At the rate it is selling, by 2013, no reason to believe that Kinect hardware isn't going to cost less than $10 each. Throw in WiFi-G out of the box, and one controller, and Bob's you're uncle. So $99 for a reduced sized bundle by 2013 is not only doable, but Microsoft may even turn a profit on hardware.
And for those who just have to have their games on disc, and optional DVD-ROM attachment to retail for around $50.
The only thing, I think MS Nerd probably got his dates backwards. I'd expect the Xbox 720 to ship first, then to be followed by the Xbox 360 Ultra Slim.
The best part about the Xbox 360 Ultra Slim, is not only is it good for enticing the price conscious consumer, as well as the casuals, but when you think about the international markets like Brazil, India, and China, where imported electronics usually cost the price of a used car, a sub-$100 game console that does everything the Xbox 360 does, is probably going to be very huge in reaching those markets.