Nintendo: New Gameplay Experiences is Like Having a New IP, Why Mario is Still Fresh

REDMOND, Wa. June 27 - Activision gets shit for milking the Call of Duty franchise, Ghosts would mark the series' 10th installment. Truth is, Nintendo puts Activision to shame in terms of exhausting IPs, but that's not the way the company who helped bring video games to the forefront of mainstream culture. Nintendo plans on pushing three Mario games in the next two years, a perfectly appropriate number,  Nintendo of America senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta told ShackNews in an interview published on Thursday.

"We think we're putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers' creative visions are," Scibetta said. "The key to that is as long as there's innovation is occurring within the gameplay, as long as there's new features, then marrying the characters and the IPs that people love is the right call from our standpoint."

"If you look at something like Super Mario 3D World, the gameplay on that one that I find really cool is those transparent warp points. Usually you used to go into one and pop out the other, and that was the end of the gameplay experience. Now, there's a whole dynamic there where you can navigate in there, try to avoid enemies, try to get a better advantage. You could theoretically make a whole new game with those kind of gameplay dynamics," Scibetta argued.

Disney's equivalent to Mario is Mickey Mouse, but the antisemitic mouse hasn't really appeared in any of the company's animated films in the past 50 years. Perhaps Nintendo can take a similar approach, make Mario a figure that represents Nintendo in the same way Tinkerbell appears during Walt Disney's introductory title screen. Nintendo however remains static in their choice of making the more than 30 year old character appear in the majority of the company's first-party titles.

"If we didn't put Mario on it, then it would just seem like a new IP," Scibetta said. "Because there's those new gameplay dynamics like that, we think there's the innovation there that will keep people interested and keep the Mario brand fresh."

"You could call all the games that we're making here new IP in the sense that they're new gameplay experiences. They just happen to also have the IP that people associate with."

SOURCE: ShackNews

Unity 3D To Support Xbox One, 360, Windows 8 And Windows Phone 8

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27 (Playnews) - The multi-platform Unity 3D game engine will provide support for Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, according to an announcement from Microsoft and Unity at the Build 2013 developer conference as reported by Polygon on Thursday.

Unity will develop new tools to support Xbox One, including features like multiplayer matchmaking, SmartGlass, Kinect gesture recognition and Microsoft's Azure cloud technology. Game developers having their work published by Microsoft Studios will get access to Xbox One and Xbox 360 tools from Unity free of charge, Microsoft says.

"I'm also happy to say that the Windows Store Pro publishing add-on will be free when released," writes Unity CEO and founder David Helgason on the company's official blog. "You'll be able to port your games, ads, training and educational apps-any kind of Unity-authored content-to both the Windows Store Apps and Windows Phone 8 platforms with a Unity Pro 4 license."

Microsoft's gaming ecosystem will benefit from the wealth of ideas and imagination flowing from the Unity games development community," said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism group in a release.
At Build 2013, Guggenheimer announced more than $100,000 in prizes available to developers building Windows and Xbox apps in the Unity 3D engine.


In March, Unity Technologies announced a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment to support the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Vita, PlayStation Mobile and "future cloud services."

SOURCE: Polygon

Criticisms Towards Xbox One Helped Sony Market PS4

TOKYO, Japan. June 26 - The seemingly unanimous criticisms towards Xbox One's policies helped drive Sony's marketing decisions with the PS4, SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told Famitsu this week.

"It's not that our hardware policies are decided strictly based on user reaction like this, but when we were thinking about what we had to bring across and how to bring it across, it was a very useful source," Yoshida revealed.

Sony's strikes at Microsoft were far from subtle, they were blatant. SCEA president Jack Tretton enumerated the differences between PS4 and Xbox One and each of his announcements were met with extended applause. "We believe in the model that people embrace today with PS3", Tretton stated - it's amusing how not changing a thing could yield such reward. 

"It won't stop working if you haven't authenticated within 24 hours," Tretton also boasted, a direct stab at Xbox One's now retracted 24 hour internet authentication policy.

Being confident about your product is a good thing, praise it, advertise it, that's all great. But when you directly attack your competitor you cross a different line, one that many disregard (such is the world of capitalism). Take Apple for example, remember the ads where stylish youthful looking Justin Long represented the Mac alongside of John Kellog Hodgman dressed up as a squarish middle aged suit? It claimed that the Mac is hip and the PC, was a bore, the the attack was based on superficiality, an ad-hominem. The campaign, given Apple's clear dominance over Microsoft, worked tremendously well.

Sony Pulls PS4 Camera from Console Bundle to Undercut Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 - Just months prior to E3, Sony decided to pull the PS4 camera from the $399 next-gen console purchase in an effort to undercut Microsoft's $499 Xbox One, according to multiple sources reports IGN. Sony also made the move quietly, informing retailers that the camera was indeed pulled, but the retailers were not privy with the adjusted lower price.
IGN also noted that the camera's absence will also fragment consumer adoption, discouraging developers to design with the peripheral in mind. The Kinect on the other hand, could be implemented into developers' designs with full assurance that the device would be utilized by all Xbox One owners that are at least interested and able. This could very well be true, the Kinect dominated a good portion of Microsoft's Xbox One's presentations, particularly the first one. Remember that TV talk? Xbox go home, Xbox watch TV, Xbox watch me closely as I do nasty things with my private time. The PS4 camera was barely talked about.

If these sources are accurate, this could increase the value of Xbox One in the public's eye even if the perception is meretricious. What separates the two consoles? PS4 is technically more advanced, but not a large enough degree to sway buyers one way or the next. If the Xbox One + Kinect is priced the same as the PS4 + its camera, then the values are at least the same. The policies differed to a large degree, but since last week that factor was abolished. The Xbox One is integrated to Twitch, much more popular than PS4's UStream for those interested in the video game streaming community. I suppose it comes down to loyalty and exclusives, which is as always, based on personal preference.

SOURCE: IGN

DICE Almost Wasn't Selected to Develop Battlefront

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. June 25 - EA's upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront is being developed by DICE, but that almost wasn't the case executive VP of EA Games Label Patrick Söderlund told CVG in an interview.

According to Söderlund, when DICE got wind that EA was in talks with Disney to acquire the license to publish Star Wars games their reaction surprised him. "We'd kill to make [Battlefront]".

Söderlund assumed with DICE's tendency to work on new IPs or their own IP, they'd have little interest in developing a Star Wars game. Apparently Söderlund isn't familiar to the sort of effect Star Wars has on gamers.

"That's when I called Frank [Gibeau, EA Labels boss] and I realised we had something here. 'If they want it that badly, then the game will be freaking awesome - we have to figure it out'. So we figured it out, we got them the game and it was that simple. They begged to do it, the opportunity was there and that's exactly why you'll see a game that will be what it needs to be," Söderlund recounted.

Executive producer of Battlefield Patrick Bach will be on the project along with other vets involved in the vehicular/shooter combat series. DICE has previously explained that the game won't simply be Battlefield skinned over with Star Wars characters and vehicles, although the game will be using DICE's Frostbite 3 Engine which is a beaut to say the least.

Despite not being a huge fan of the Battlefield series, DICE's exuberance towards Battlefront is encouraging and I expect the game will do the IP justice.

Nintendo's Upcoming First-Party Titles Will Drive Wii U Sales, Says GameStop CEO Tony Bartel

AUSTIN, Texas. June 24 - First-party titles like Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros., Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Super Mario 3D World will help drive consumer interest in the Wii U, GameStop president Tony Bartel told GameSpot in an interview.
"They are also launching several games later this year, so we expect to see a lot of interest from consumers as we head into the holidays," Bartel said. "Definitely don’t count the Wii U out."
Bartel is doing a wonderful job marketing new consoles, the CEO of US's largest video game retailer recently commended Microsoft on their policy revisions last week. GameStop's inventories are probably teeming with undesired Wii U consoles waiting to be offed. For the sake of Nintendo and GameStop, I hope Bartel's right.

SOURCE: GameSpot

Call of Duty: Ghosts Executive Producer: Infinity Ward Has Yet to Feel Creative Fatigue

SANTA MONICA, Calif. June 24 - Developer of upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward, must make design decisions that "serve [their] current audience", executive producer Mark Rubin told The Guardian in an interview published on Friday. And a sizable audience that is, Black Ops 2 yielded $1B in sales within 15 days of the game's launch.

"Imagine if in football they suddenly changed the rules so, instead of using your feet, you had to use your hands. If that happened nobody would want to watch football anymore," he analogized.

Every developer should be making their "own creative statement", according to Rubin. "Call of Duty has a creative statement. For single player it's that cinematic, movie-like experience that's immersive and pinned on storytelling. It has those big moments, those summer blockbuster type trailers: the Call of Duty feel. Multiplayer has that fast, frantic addictive gameplay and that's something we wouldn't want to give up. It's what we do well. I want other studios to be doing something else, something new and fresh and cool that nobody's seen before, so I can play that while continuing to enjoy Call of Duty."

Despite having reached the 10th console/PC installment in the series with the November to be released Ghost, Infinity Ward has yet to suffer from creative fatigue according to Rubin.

"I don't feel like fatigue is something we've experienced yet. We do some things in-house at the studio where we allow people to come up with stuff on their own in order to scratch that creative itch. A lot of times that idea becomes a part of the full game…"

As an example, Rubin notes MW3's survival mode where players fight waves and waves of enemies scoring credits to buy equipment in accommodation to the gradual rise in difficulty as the mode progresses. Sound familiar? Of course, it's been done a hundred times before and for someone who has tried out the mode thoroughly, it definitely has its faults. Survival’s greatest defect is that it wasn’t given its own independent stage or stages, unlike Teryarch’s Nazi Zombies. All the maps available on Survival are identical to the maps played in your traditional versus multiplayer, in addition to this flaw, certain maps are given unchangeable difficulty settings that, based on map analysis, seem to be set very arbitrarily. Survival offers very little new substance to a well-worn genre or sub-genre.
A lot of people hate on Call of Duty, but a ton of people love it. What I'm curious to see is player acquisition. Are the people who played the first Modern Warfare still purchasing and playing Black Ops 2, will they purchase Ghosts? Or is the crowd becoming more and more comprised of a newer audience.

SOURCE: The Guardian

Wii U and 3DS Versions of Super Smash Bros. Will Feature Identical Roster

TOKYO, Japan. June 20 - The upcoming Smash Bros. title for Wii U and 3DS will feature all the same characters, assured director Masahiro Sakurai during an interview with NowGamer published on Thursday.

"If there was a character you couldn’t play on Wii U but you could play on 3DS, or vice versa, that’s rough for consumers," Sakurai explained. "So we want players to be able to have the same character experiences on both devices."

Visually, the Wii U would have "increased fidelity and detail", allowing Sakurai and his team to "create things on a bigger scale".

On whether or not predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl will have its stages ported to the forthcoming title, Sakurai said.

"If we did do that," said Sakurai, "stuff that was on Wii would have to be altered to be put on a 3DS. You’d have to make some tweaks. Whether or not you’d do that and still do those justice remains to be seen. We’re going to have to look at that."
Novel characters to be featured in the next Smash Bros. iterations include - Mega Man, the Wii Fit Trainer, and the villager from Animal Crossing's.

SOURCE: NowGamer

Retailer Leaders Commend Microsoft on Xbox One DRM and Online Requirement Policy Reversals

LOS ANGELES, June 20 - Microsoft's decision to change their DRM and online requirement policies was a courageous one, Gamestop president Tony Bartel told Forbes in an interview published on Thursday. Bartel also noted as the move was in indication that the voice of gamers is an authoritative one.
“The very first thing I thought was that gamer won, yet again,” Bartel said. “We knew, but I don’t think the rest of the world knew how passionate the gamer was about the buy/sell/trade model. [Sony's E3 Press conference] was a shot heard round the world. Microsoft heard that, they listened to that, and they changed their policies. I think it took a lot courage to do what they did."

"Courage"? "Courage" is a strange descriptor for Microsoft's revision, I think what it took was a pulse and a sign of brain activity. Still, the company did not escape from the whole situation untarnished. Images like the Xbox One-Eighty (a play on the Xbox One and the backward directions in which the company was moving) quickly circulated the web in ridicule of Microsoft's vacillation. 

However, another major video game retailer in the UK doesn't share the same sentiments as the caustic internet critics, rather his perception of the company was that it is one firmly commited to its consumers.

"Microsoft have listened to the feedback of recent weeks and acted on it, putting gamers and the way they wish to access and pay for their gaming at the centre of their plans for the future," GAME CEO Martyn Gibbs said in a statement, as reported by OXM. "I am immensely impressed with both the speed and the scope of the changes - it shows a real commitment to gamers around the globe."

Commitment to gamers? You mean commitment profits, which, based on the reception the PS4 had received in comparison to the Xbox One during E3, would've been scarce. If they were committed to gamers why would they even have implemented to those god awful restrictions in the first place?

Is there some ailment that solely affects video game retail executives causing them to mix up their words? Oh wait, it's because Xbox One's success is vital to their own! Duh...  they have their own interests at stake. GameStop makes the majority of their profits from used games, I worked there for a brief period of time and that is the one thing they stressed above all else "push pre-owned titles". I am unfamiliar with GAME, but I would assume the same is applicable for them.

The biggest question is of course whether or not Microsoft averted disaster. Fickle as their Xbox One policies have been, they still have a solid lineup of exclusives and an undeniably large fan-base. Despite being $100 more expensive than the PS4, I posit the console will do as well, if not better than the PS4.

SOURCE: Forbes, OXM

Xbox Abandons Deeply Criticized DRM and Online Requirement Policies

REDMOND, Wa. June 19 (Playnews) - Microsoft has abandoned its Xbox One DRM and online requirement policies, president of the interactive entertainment business Don Mattrick announced on the console's official website.

The changes, Mattrick explained, come from the feedback him and his team have received since the Microsoft's E3 press conference.

"You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world."

"I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360," Mattrick added.

According to Mattrick, the only time an internet connection is required for the Xbox One is during the system's initial set-up, then owners "can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again".

Additionally, Microsoft will be cancelling any regional restrictions for the console.

SOURCE: Microsoft

GameStop Stores Cap Out Xbox One Launch Allocation, Ceases Pre-Orders

AUSTIN, Texas. June 19 - Video game retailer GameStop has hit its Xbox One launch cap and the company has ceased taking pre-orders, employees from a number of retail locations told Polygon. The company is still taking orders via its online site however.

According to reports from contacted store managers, the allocations for Sony's PS4 were considerably higher than the Xbox One. A manager from a California location said that they "were only given an allocation of 16 Xbox Ones, but [they] have 60 PlayStation 4s" and that they're still taking orders for the latter product.

A store manager in Ohio said that all stores were given instructions to cease pre-orders until they received more units from Microsoft.

Pre-orders for the Xbox One via GameStop for a $100 deposit began on June 10, the company limited orders to one per household.

A spokesperson for GameStop told Polygon, "Due to high demand, GameStop is not taking additional store reservations for the Xbox One Day One Edition. However, reservations can still be made at www.gamestop.com ... In the meantime, the Xbox One wireless controller and top Xbox One games like: Ryse: Son of Rome, Forza Motorsport 5, and Kinect Sports Rivals are available for pre-order at all GameStop stores or online."

Xbox One will launch in November of this year.

SOURCE: Polygon

Xbox One Violates Potential US Privacy Bill

WASHINGTON D.C., June 19 - The Xbox One could be in violation of a proposed government privacy bill, according to a statement on United States House of Representatives official website.

The bill comes from Congressman Michael Capuano (D-MA) and Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC). Titled the We Are Watching You Act, the bill would require companies to explicitly ask the consumers' permission to store information about them. In the Xbox One's case, the next-gen Kinect would be the invasive culprit and would be required to display an on-screen warning reading "We are watching you" every time the device would begin recording.

Microsoft would also have to inform the user how the data is collected and who would see it. If the consumer opts to block the Kinect's breach of privacy, then Microsoft would have to develop another way to offer an identical service, albeit without the ability to record.

"This may sound preposterous but it is neither a joke nor an exaggeration," Capuano wrote. "These DVRs would essentially observe consumers as they watch television as a way to super-target ads. It is an incredible invasion of privacy. Given what we have recently learned about the access that the government has to the phone numbers we call, the emails we send and the websites we visit, it is important for consumers to decide for themselves whether they want this technology. Think about what you do in the privacy of your own home and then think about how you would feel sharing that information with your cable company, their advertisers and your government."

"Allowing this type of technology to be installed in the homes of individuals without their consent would be an egregious invasion of privacy," added Jones. "When the government has an unfortunate history of secretly collecting private citizens' information from technology providers, we must ensure that safeguards are in place to protect Americans' rights."

SOURCE: United States House of Representatives

Former Mass Effect Writer Shares Where ME3 Could've Gone

EDMONTON, Canada. June 19 - Mass Effect 3 could have ended differently, Drew Karpyshyn ex-BioWare developer and lead writer of the first two installments of the series told VGS in an interview.

What could have been was a focus on Dark Energy - a subject that was alluded to by characters in Mass Effect 2, but never touched on again.

Karpyshyn left the studio before Mass Effect 2 was finalized and replaced by Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters.

The Dark Energy plot was "something that wasn't super fleshed out", according to Karpyshyn, but the former Mass Effect writer had a summary of how it might've played out.

"Dark Energy was something that only organics could access because of various techno-science magic reasons we hadn't decided on yet. Maybe using this Dark Energy was having a ripple effect on the space-time continuum.

"Maybe the Reapers kept wiping out organic life because organics keep evolving to the state where they would use biotics and dark energy and that caused an entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe. Being immortal beings, that's something they wouldn't want to see.

"Then we thought, let's take it to the next level. Maybe the Reapers are looking at a way to stop this. Maybe there's an inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang (the Big Crunch) and the Reapers realise that the only way they can stop it is by using biotics, but since they can't use biotics they have to keep rebuilding society - as they try and find the perfect group to use biotics for this purpose. The asari were close but they weren't quite right, the Protheans were close as well.

"Again it's very vague and not fleshed out, it was something we considered but we ended up going in a different direction."

Karpyshyn believes that whether it be Walters's ME3 narrative or his own proposed plotline, there would always be people displeased with whatever conclusion was chosen.

"I find it funny that fans end up hearing a couple things they like about it and in their minds they add in all the details they specifically want," he explained. "It's like vapourware - vapourware is always perfect, anytime someone talks about the new greatest game. It's perfect until it comes out. I'm a little weary about going into too much detail because, whatever we came up with, it probably wouldn't be what people want it to be."

Karpyshyn shared a few other potential ideas that were what Karpyshyn described as a "little bit wacky and a little bit crazy". One of which was that "Shepard could be an alien but didn't know it". The idea however, was too close to Knights of the Old Republic character Revan and was ultimately discarded. Another was that "maybeS hepard gets his essence transferred into some kind of machine, becoming a cyborg and becoming a bridge between synthetics and organics - which is a theme that does play up in the game," Karpyshyn said. "At one point we thought, maybe that's how he survives into Mass Effect 2."

SOURCE: VGS

EA Sports Ignite Does Not Support PC Or Wii U, But That May Change

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. June 18 - The engine used to power all of Electronic Arts' next-gen sports titles, EA Sports Ignite, currently does not support Windows PC or Wii U, but that may change in the future, EA Sports executive VP Andrew Wilson told Polygon in an interview published on Monday.

"Even though there were some PCs on the marketplace that could run that engine, the lion's share of PCs on the marketplace could not," said Wilson, referring to the technology that made it into FIFA 11. "And the majority of the gamer base that was playing the game on PC did not have a PC spec that would work with that."

"So could I see the potential for EA Sports Ignite to make it to PC in the future? Yes, I think it's possible, but a couple of things need to happen,"  Wilson added.

First, the average hardware specs of the PCs ran by PC playing FIFA players needs to go up, otherwise it lacks business sense for EA to move in that direction. Secondly, "there needs to be some adjustment in terms of how EA Sports Ignite works to facilitate the open nature of PC architecture, rather than the closed nature of console architecture", Wilson explained.

SOURCE: Polygon

Bethesda Quiet About Prey 2 Because The Game Isn't Good Enough...Yet

LOS ANGELES, June 18 (Playnews) - The absence of news regarding Prey 2 coming from Bethesda since April 2012's statement of delay is attributed to the game simply not living up to Bethesda's standards, the publisher's VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines told IGN in an interview during E3 published on Tuesday.

“We appreciate that folks are displeased that we haven’t had any update or any info on Prey 2, but whatever your displeasure is, you can’t even be remotely as unhappy about it as us,” Hines said. “We spent years and millions of dollars and a ton of effort trying to help Human Head make a great Prey 2 game. What we said the last time we said anything was that it’s not up to our quality standards."

"We’ve been very specific about why, and we’ve been very specific about the whats. When that gets addressed and changed or whatever, at that point we can give an update. But nobody’s disappointment is greater than ours," he continued. "We spent a lot of time and money and effort trying to make this thing happen and support folks, but at the same time, you just can’t keep throwing money at it and saying, ‘sure, it’ll eventually work.’ You have to have the discipline to say, ‘it’s not good enough. It’s not hitting the quality bar. Why isn’t it? We’ve been at this for a while, and what we have is not what we talked about.’ So that’s where we are.”

On the "leaks" and rumors coming from developer Human Head, Hines discounted it as "somebody putting [a] spin on it". "That’s your version of what you think happened. I haven’t heard from anybody yet that actually sat in the room," he said.

“It’s great that people have passion for something that we’ve talked about,” Hines said about the fans vigilantly interested in the franchise. “I understand that, in general, there’s a lot of cynicism about the developer versus the publisher. But sometimes you just have to step back and be practical about it. What is the chance that we have some amazing, unbelievable game and we’re just not talking about it for no reason? Zero. This is a business. We do have bills to pay and people to employ. They have families that they would like to provide for. You don’t just keep throwing money at something or going down a path that you’re not happy about. You have to make tough choices. Again, when we have more info on it, we’ll be happy to talk about it. That’s what I can say for now.”

SOURCE: IGN

Ken Levine to Script Remake of 1976 Sci-Fi Film, Logan's Run

LOS ANGELES, June 18 - Bioshock Infinite creative director Ken Levine will be scripting Warner Bros. Pictures' remake of 1976 sci-fi film, Logan's Run, reported VentureBeat on Tuesday.
Levine has had previous experience in the film industry, writing two scripts while living in Los Angeles before joining Irrational Games.
The game maker and screenwriter will continue as creative director at Irrational Games despite his return to cinema.

SOURCE: VentureBeat

Doubts Will Evaporate When Players Try Arkham Origins, Says Creative Director Eric Holmes

MONTREAL, Canada. June 18 - Those cynical about WB Games Montreal's upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins have the right to be, creative director Eric Holmes told GameSpot in an interview published on Tuesday, but that cynicism will evaporate once they play the game.
"I think as soon as you've got the pad in your hand, you're going to see that this game is authentic and uses the same underpinnings and core mechanics of the previous Arkham games."
"I think we have a great story…I can't tell you to much about…but I can tell you I'm really excited about our story," Holmes added. "I think it's a very important Batman story and I think fans are going to love that probably more than any other thing in the game."
Arkham Origins launches October 25 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. The companion mobile game, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate will launch the same day for the PS3 and 3DS.

SOURCE: GameSpot

Nintendo Should Adopt Third Party/Mobile Gaming, Says Peter Molyneux

LONDON, Uk. June 18 - Nintendo can be a gateway to bring non-gamers into the gaming space, Molyneux told GamesIndustry in an interview, but the 22Cans founder believes the company's "hardware is starting to get in the way of that".
Commending Nintendo's mainstay characters Donkey Kong and Mario as "the birth of gamers", Molyneux sees the Wii U as being "very chunky" and a product that "doesn't really feel like it's cutting edge". Nintendo should go third party, make software for mobile devices, noting that the studios that are creating gamers aren't Sony and Microsoft or the big publishers, but companies like Supercell and Rovio.
Molyneux also admits that Nintendo is "more intelligent" than he is, "they've probably got a plan, and you should never underestimate Nintendo. We'll probably be sitting here in a couple years saying, 'Oh that's what they were doing'."

Sources: GamesIndustry

Used Game "Flexibility" Adds Value, Says Jack Tretton

FOSTER CITY, Calif. June 18 - SCEA President Jack Tretton told Boomberg TV that used game "flexibility" adds value and that the firm is "most concerned about the consumer".

The PS4 policies "really appeal to consumers on a worldwide basis," according to Tretton.
"I think in the United States, we realise there's a high degree of broadband adoption, but we're in a lot of countries where people don't have the ability to connect on a daily basis and we want to appeal to consumers worldwide," he added.

The "connect on a daily basis" refers to the Xbox One's requirement of checking internet connectivity every 24 hours.

Restricting used games would devalue a product, Tretton explained. "The other thing as it relates to the ownership of the game, if people pay a lot of money for that, they equate the value with the flexibility they have in that," he noted. "To do with it as they choose; to give it to their friends, sell it to their friends, trade it in to another retailer; that creates value in the initial purchase that they make."

On the $399 PS4 cost of purchase, Tretton said, "The goal is always to reach the most consumer-friendly price point so you can drive volume as quickly as possible. But you walk that line between wanting to deliver the ultimate technological experience at a reasonable price and we think we hit a really nice chord at $399 with PlayStation 4."