Apparently, MSFT registered the domain name KinectLips.com. This could be interesting, Lips already has some form of motion sensing and gestures. However, gestures could be better expanded/implemented with Kinect.
Lips is my most played game on the Xbox 360. So, what songs do i want in Lips Kinect. This is what i would like, not what they would actually release. If you can tell, i don't really care for much "modern music". i've limited it to one song per artist and no songs released on Sony music albums. EMI is now wholly owned by Citigroup? Weird.
Lips Kinect ME edition (what i wish for):
01) 98° - Invisible Man or The Hardest Thing (UMG)
02) ABC - How to be a Millionaire (UMG)
03) Alias - More Than Words Can Say (EMI)
04) BB Mak - Back Here (Holywood?)
05) Billy Idol - White Wedding (Chrysallis, EMI?)
06) Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name (UMG)
07) Boys Club - I Remember Holding You (UMG)
08) Boyzone - No Matter What (UMG)
09) Breathe - How Can I Fall (A&M, UMG)
10) Bryan Adams - Heaven (UMG)
11) Color Me Badd - I Want to Sex You Up (WMG)
12) Corey Hart -Never Surrender (EMI)
13) Crowded House - Something So Strong (EMI)
14) Cutting Crew - I've Been In Love Before (EMI)
15) Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat (WMG)
16) Def Leppard - Love Bites (UMG)
17) Donny Osmond - Soldier of Love (EMI)
18) Duran Duran - The Reflex (EMI)
19) Foreigner - Say You Will (WMG)
20) Glass Tiger - Someday (EMI)
21) Glenn Medeiros - Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone (UMG)
22) Go West - The King of Wishful Thinking (EMI)
23) Howard Jones - No One is to Blame (WMG)
24) Human League - Human (EMI)
25) INXS - New Senstaion
26) Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams (EMI)
27) John Waite - Missing You (EMI)
28) Jon McLaughlin - Beautiful Disaster (UMG)
29) Jon Secada - Mental Picture (EMI)
30) Jude Cole - Baby, It's Tonight (WMG)
31) Level 42 - Lessons in Love (UMG)
32) Lifehouse - Whatever It Takes (UMG)
33) Living in a Box - Room in Your Heart (EMI)
34) Mike + the Mechanics - All I Need is a Miracle (WMG)
35) Naked Eyes - Promises, Promises (EMI)
36) Nick Lachey - Shut Up (UMG, now on Sony)
37) Night Ranger - When You Close Your Eyes (UMG)
38) OMD - If You Leave (EMI)
39) Power Station - Some Like It Hot (EMI)
40) Richard Marx - Satisfied (EMI)
41) Robbie Nevil - C'est La Vie (EMI)
42) soulDecision - Ooh It's Kind of Crazy (UMG)
43) Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels (UMG)
44) Julian Lennon - Too Late For Goodbyes (WMG/UMG)
45) The Jets - Crush on You (UMG)
46) Take That - Patience (UMG)
47) Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight
Friday, February 4, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Game Room vs XBLA
So, in this post i decided to revisit an idea that i brought up in the Business of Game Room post. How have games that have appeared on both XBLA and Game Room fared comparatively speaking?
i consider 10% of unit sales of XBLA titles in Game Room as decent. However, the most recent titles have only been on the service for about 5 or 6 weeks. The revenue picture is a little cloudier.
Ten games have been released on both platforms. i am going to include Rush n' Attack also because MIA was essentially its sequel. The plan was to compare the number of entries on the leaderboards for each game. Did you know you can view leaderboards for XBLA trial games (i didn't)? However, i ran into a problem with the Atari XBLA games that i didn't already own - the leaderboards will load one page of 10 at at time, eventually freezing as when the leaderboards show a few thousand. If anyone knows the number of leaderboard entries on the titles i don't have, i guess i would be interested. If i would have owned the game, i could have simplified things by getting a really low score. These are purely leaderboard number, no intersting manipulations of data. Data can (and will) change over time. For Atari XBLA games with two included, i added together the two Game Room games. Now i'll start...
* Asteroids/Deluxe: XBLA 28,896 / Game Room 24,000 (add 2,000 for the 2600 version of Asteriods and Space Duel)
* Battlezone: XBLA no data / Game Room 4,000
* Centipede/Millipede: XBLA 63,669 / Game Room 23,000 (add 7,800 for the 2600 versions)
* Gyrus: XBLA 31,031 / Game Room 3,000
* Missile Command: XBLA no data / Game Room 4,000 (add 400 for 2600 version)
* Scramble: XBLA 38,627 / Game Room 8,000
* Tempest: XBLA no data / Game Room 10,000
* Time Pilot: XBLA 87,591 / Game Room 5,000
* Warlords: XBLA no data / Game Room 1,000 (add ?? for unranked 2600 version)
* Yie Ar Kung-fu: XBLA 25,475 / Game Room 2,000
* Rush n' Attack: XBLA 40,740 / Game Room 1,000 MIA
i consider 10% of unit sales of XBLA titles in Game Room as decent. However, the most recent titles have only been on the service for about 5 or 6 weeks. The revenue picture is a little cloudier.
Ten games have been released on both platforms. i am going to include Rush n' Attack also because MIA was essentially its sequel. The plan was to compare the number of entries on the leaderboards for each game. Did you know you can view leaderboards for XBLA trial games (i didn't)? However, i ran into a problem with the Atari XBLA games that i didn't already own - the leaderboards will load one page of 10 at at time, eventually freezing as when the leaderboards show a few thousand. If anyone knows the number of leaderboard entries on the titles i don't have, i guess i would be interested. If i would have owned the game, i could have simplified things by getting a really low score. These are purely leaderboard number, no intersting manipulations of data. Data can (and will) change over time. For Atari XBLA games with two included, i added together the two Game Room games. Now i'll start...
* Asteroids/Deluxe: XBLA 28,896 / Game Room 24,000 (add 2,000 for the 2600 version of Asteriods and Space Duel)
* Battlezone: XBLA no data / Game Room 4,000
* Centipede/Millipede: XBLA 63,669 / Game Room 23,000 (add 7,800 for the 2600 versions)
* Gyrus: XBLA 31,031 / Game Room 3,000
* Missile Command: XBLA no data / Game Room 4,000 (add 400 for 2600 version)
* Scramble: XBLA 38,627 / Game Room 8,000
* Tempest: XBLA no data / Game Room 10,000
* Time Pilot: XBLA 87,591 / Game Room 5,000
* Warlords: XBLA no data / Game Room 1,000 (add ?? for unranked 2600 version)
* Yie Ar Kung-fu: XBLA 25,475 / Game Room 2,000
* Rush n' Attack: XBLA 40,740 / Game Room 1,000 MIA
Dview: Resonance of Fate (Xbox 360)
The Bottom Line:
Resonance of Fate (known as End of Eternity in Japan) is a relatively unknown and under-promoted title developed by Tri-Ace and published by Sega. This is probably my second favorite RPG on the Xbox 360 despite a kind of weak story.
Grade: B
Extraneous Explanation:
Unlike the other two Tri-Ace games for the Xbox 360 (Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean: The Last Hope), Resonance of Fate is less action oriented. There is a bit of a learning curve as the game is a bit unusual. There are two types of damage - one real damage (direct damage dealt by handguns) and scratch damage (machine guns) that essentially weakens the enemies. Both are necessary to win. The battle system is kind of hybrid system. The system does have some intricacies such as bezel shards, hero actions and tri-attacks. As for weapons, there are only two types in the game handguns and machine guns (but a few variations). You can sort of customize your weapons - basically for charge time and charge acceleration (one is by adding scopes/sights, the other is by adding barrel parts). However, the guns must fit in the grid they start in and certain pieces only fit certain ways. You can get some pretty strange looking guns. Hopefully Tri-Ace will release another Xbox 360 RPG using this battle system.
What to Expect:
* It takes a while to get used to the battle system
* Random Encounters do exist, though their rate is reasonable
* Side quests given at the guild (mostly fetch and battle)
* Lots of hexes to clear (the map starts off kind of closed off, you have to add hexes to open up paths), of course the use of hexes after you clear pathways is another level of complexity altogether (though it yields advantages).
* A story that is kind of strange: it is mostly how a group of 3 people got together as hunters and a little back story on the characters. It is broken up into chapters. It also has an ending that is as strange as the story - i guess it sets things up for a sequel.
* A game set in kind of a post-apocalyptic tower with 12 levels
* A difficult bonus dungeon (that i haven't explored yet)
* A pretty thorough Arena (hint: do the arena tutorials before starting off in the game, they explain a lot, though you may not realize it at first).
* Customizable guns (the crafting system in this game is about gun parts) that you really do need to improve
* Leveling: is based off of damage caused with a weapon. There are 3 weapon types: Handguns, Machine guns and thrown weapons (grenades). Your level is the sum of the levels of the 3. Leveling up does give some combat bonuses when using certain weapons.
* This game is somewhat difficult (but you can level grind)
* To get all gamerscore (1,000), it will probably take around 100 hours.
Achievements:
The achievements for this game seem reasonable. They are more along the lines of the achievement philosophy i like. There are achievements for beating levels, doing certain things in combat (this is nothing like Star Ocean 4 battle trohpy stuff), getting to level 100, completing side quests, spending money in the shops, using hexes to clear paths, beating the arena, etc. Oh, if you want to get 1,000 gamerscore on this game - you will need to replay it an additional time (though at Normal setting you keep your level, guns and some items from your first playthrough)
- i had 715 gamerscore 41/48 achievements after beating my first playthrough (109 hours and 46 minutes). You do get a 15 point acheivement for starting your second playthrough.
Resonance of Fate (known as End of Eternity in Japan) is a relatively unknown and under-promoted title developed by Tri-Ace and published by Sega. This is probably my second favorite RPG on the Xbox 360 despite a kind of weak story.
Grade: B
Extraneous Explanation:
Unlike the other two Tri-Ace games for the Xbox 360 (Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean: The Last Hope), Resonance of Fate is less action oriented. There is a bit of a learning curve as the game is a bit unusual. There are two types of damage - one real damage (direct damage dealt by handguns) and scratch damage (machine guns) that essentially weakens the enemies. Both are necessary to win. The battle system is kind of hybrid system. The system does have some intricacies such as bezel shards, hero actions and tri-attacks. As for weapons, there are only two types in the game handguns and machine guns (but a few variations). You can sort of customize your weapons - basically for charge time and charge acceleration (one is by adding scopes/sights, the other is by adding barrel parts). However, the guns must fit in the grid they start in and certain pieces only fit certain ways. You can get some pretty strange looking guns. Hopefully Tri-Ace will release another Xbox 360 RPG using this battle system.
What to Expect:
* It takes a while to get used to the battle system
* Random Encounters do exist, though their rate is reasonable
* Side quests given at the guild (mostly fetch and battle)
* Lots of hexes to clear (the map starts off kind of closed off, you have to add hexes to open up paths), of course the use of hexes after you clear pathways is another level of complexity altogether (though it yields advantages).
* A story that is kind of strange: it is mostly how a group of 3 people got together as hunters and a little back story on the characters. It is broken up into chapters. It also has an ending that is as strange as the story - i guess it sets things up for a sequel.
* A game set in kind of a post-apocalyptic tower with 12 levels
* A difficult bonus dungeon (that i haven't explored yet)
* A pretty thorough Arena (hint: do the arena tutorials before starting off in the game, they explain a lot, though you may not realize it at first).
* Customizable guns (the crafting system in this game is about gun parts) that you really do need to improve
* Leveling: is based off of damage caused with a weapon. There are 3 weapon types: Handguns, Machine guns and thrown weapons (grenades). Your level is the sum of the levels of the 3. Leveling up does give some combat bonuses when using certain weapons.
* This game is somewhat difficult (but you can level grind)
* To get all gamerscore (1,000), it will probably take around 100 hours.
Achievements:
The achievements for this game seem reasonable. They are more along the lines of the achievement philosophy i like. There are achievements for beating levels, doing certain things in combat (this is nothing like Star Ocean 4 battle trohpy stuff), getting to level 100, completing side quests, spending money in the shops, using hexes to clear paths, beating the arena, etc. Oh, if you want to get 1,000 gamerscore on this game - you will need to replay it an additional time (though at Normal setting you keep your level, guns and some items from your first playthrough)
- i had 715 gamerscore 41/48 achievements after beating my first playthrough (109 hours and 46 minutes). You do get a 15 point acheivement for starting your second playthrough.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Dview: Nier Xbox 360
The Bottom Line: Nier is a somewhat frustrating below average action game with RPG elements. Your mileage may vary (though the current price is definitely a mitigating factor). This seems to be somewhat of a love it or hate it game.
C-
What to Expect:
* Nier is a bit of a strange game. It has nods to other genres like text adventures, "bullet hell", platformers/puzzle and RPGs. Some people say that the experience is better than the sum of its parts - i disagree. i found the lack of cohesive and standard game play elements problematic and/or frustrating
* Many of the boss fights are multi-staged and annoying.
* Hack and slash: basically, fights are wearing out the X button (attack) or the bumpers (for magic)
* Characters: they aren't really memorable...
- you have the dad character (with an annoying voice) who is the one you actually play as- he is a devoted (allegedly) father and a horrible character model
- the odd female(?) character who wears odd clothing and swears all of the time (NPC who is with you for much of the quest
- a kid who you meet near the end of part 1, he can at least heal you a little from time to time
- a talking book that follows you (and allows you to use magic)
* You controll the dad (whatever you named him). The other characters do not seem all of that useful in a fight (except for their scripted parts). So there really is no party - it is just one character with others occasionally around
* You fight mostly Shades and robots throughout the game. There aren't a ton of different enemies.
* Sidequests that usually give out money - a couple or few give out weapons. There are about 70 side quests in total. None of them are ultimately necessary.
* a game split into two parts - a first part to set things up and a second part that finishes the story up. In the first part, you only have access to one of the three types of weapons (one handed swords)
* 30 weapons total that can be upgraded to level 4 at only one place in the game world. This is acutally one of the worst crafting systems in recent games compounded by the problem of variable drop rates - and one resource in particular, Eagle Egg, that is only available from one specific drop point that eventually vanishes as the story progresses. You will be "grinding" for many of the upgrade resources.
* Fishing and Harvesting: two unnecessary parts of the game. In fishing you basically ignore the directions they gave you - and figure out that some fish will bite on the third pull - then you have to use the analog stick to lean while the fish's HP runs out.
* Inventory: you actually use the start button to find (or up on d-pad for items, other three main directions are for weapons, eventually). For some reason you are only allowed 10 of each type of recovery item (though you can have 99 of resources).
* Graphics: Nier doesn't look horrible, but it isn't exactly raising the bar. It looks somewhat mediocre and occasionally looks a little washed out.
* Soundtrack: Nier actually has a pretty good soundtrack from what i've listened to.
* Game Plus: the game plus inexplicably starts from near the start of part 2. You keep your weapons (and their level) and your level - i forgot to check items. i wish there were an option to start the game over in game plus from the beginning
* Story: a dad trying to save his daughter from a myserious illness, of course not everything is as it seems. Mediocre in my opinion.
* After you get ending D, the game will actually delete your game saves.
Achievements:
- Nier has a horrible achievement list in my opinion. Half of the achievement points are for seeing the four endings. So you need three game + plays after you finish the first time. Though they will probably go faster in subsequent runs - as you might have less extraneous activities (like quests and upgrades) and are higher levels. i had 370/1,000 gamerscore after my first playthrough (and 38 hours in).
* There are collect achievements: weapons (including all upgrades), all of the fish, all of the words
* Timed boss fight achievements
* Quest achievements (though not for the full 70, thankfully)
* Story related achievements (but not enough of them are)
* Beat the game under 15 hours.
C-
What to Expect:
* Nier is a bit of a strange game. It has nods to other genres like text adventures, "bullet hell", platformers/puzzle and RPGs. Some people say that the experience is better than the sum of its parts - i disagree. i found the lack of cohesive and standard game play elements problematic and/or frustrating
* Many of the boss fights are multi-staged and annoying.
* Hack and slash: basically, fights are wearing out the X button (attack) or the bumpers (for magic)
* Characters: they aren't really memorable...
- you have the dad character (with an annoying voice) who is the one you actually play as- he is a devoted (allegedly) father and a horrible character model
- the odd female(?) character who wears odd clothing and swears all of the time (NPC who is with you for much of the quest
- a kid who you meet near the end of part 1, he can at least heal you a little from time to time
- a talking book that follows you (and allows you to use magic)
* You controll the dad (whatever you named him). The other characters do not seem all of that useful in a fight (except for their scripted parts). So there really is no party - it is just one character with others occasionally around
* You fight mostly Shades and robots throughout the game. There aren't a ton of different enemies.
* Sidequests that usually give out money - a couple or few give out weapons. There are about 70 side quests in total. None of them are ultimately necessary.
* a game split into two parts - a first part to set things up and a second part that finishes the story up. In the first part, you only have access to one of the three types of weapons (one handed swords)
* 30 weapons total that can be upgraded to level 4 at only one place in the game world. This is acutally one of the worst crafting systems in recent games compounded by the problem of variable drop rates - and one resource in particular, Eagle Egg, that is only available from one specific drop point that eventually vanishes as the story progresses. You will be "grinding" for many of the upgrade resources.
* Fishing and Harvesting: two unnecessary parts of the game. In fishing you basically ignore the directions they gave you - and figure out that some fish will bite on the third pull - then you have to use the analog stick to lean while the fish's HP runs out.
* Inventory: you actually use the start button to find (or up on d-pad for items, other three main directions are for weapons, eventually). For some reason you are only allowed 10 of each type of recovery item (though you can have 99 of resources).
* Graphics: Nier doesn't look horrible, but it isn't exactly raising the bar. It looks somewhat mediocre and occasionally looks a little washed out.
* Soundtrack: Nier actually has a pretty good soundtrack from what i've listened to.
* Game Plus: the game plus inexplicably starts from near the start of part 2. You keep your weapons (and their level) and your level - i forgot to check items. i wish there were an option to start the game over in game plus from the beginning
* Story: a dad trying to save his daughter from a myserious illness, of course not everything is as it seems. Mediocre in my opinion.
* After you get ending D, the game will actually delete your game saves.
Achievements:
- Nier has a horrible achievement list in my opinion. Half of the achievement points are for seeing the four endings. So you need three game + plays after you finish the first time. Though they will probably go faster in subsequent runs - as you might have less extraneous activities (like quests and upgrades) and are higher levels. i had 370/1,000 gamerscore after my first playthrough (and 38 hours in).
* There are collect achievements: weapons (including all upgrades), all of the fish, all of the words
* Timed boss fight achievements
* Quest achievements (though not for the full 70, thankfully)
* Story related achievements (but not enough of them are)
* Beat the game under 15 hours.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Game Room: Predictions for 2/1/11
i have been playing around with stats as they relate to Game Room. This is not necessarily what i would predict the leaderboards that will go up when i do my next stat check (probably February 1).
However, now i decided to test the paranormalevolence of my Irr method.
Games that will go up a leaderboard level (unless they don't)
* Amidar - to 900
* Beamrider - to 500
* Cosmic Commuter - to 400
* Demons to Diamonds - to 800
* Dodge 'em - to 500
* Dolphin - to 300
* Jungler- to 10,000
* Kaboom - to 900
* Millipede - to 8,000
* Rack 'em Up - to 4,000
* Scramble - to 9,000
* Space Armada - to 8,000
* Star Strike - to 100
* Submarine Commander - to 60
* Super Breakout - to 9,000
* Super Pro Decathalon - to 100
* Time Pilot - to 6,000
* Tower of Doom - to 700
* Tutankham - to 8,000
* Vectron - to 50
* Video Hustler - to 1,000
* Yar's Revenge - to 10,000
My Irr method has issues with game that had significant sales early (then likely dropped off drastically). Some of these are: Yar's Revenge, Super Breakout, Space Armada, Scramble, Rack 'em Up, Millipede and Jungler. There are 22 predicted increases - i wonder how many will actually occur. Last week was the first time i tried this and got 2/21 right. This prediction may become a weekly thing (if i'm really bored for a long period of time). i think i might edit the results in on the bottom of the post.
Edit: so how did my predictions turn out...
* Amidar, Beamrider, Demons to Diamonds, Dolphin, Rack 'em Up, Scramble, Submarine Commander, Super Pro Decathalon, Time Pilot, Vectron and Video Hustler went up (not necessarily by 2/1/11). So i will have be using a 1 month time horizon. 11 Games did not increase (so about 50%). Of those that didn't increase, i was somewhat sure that 5 wouldn't increase. Maybe the numbers have normalized a bit since then.
i will try and have my March leaderboard increase predictions up on or by March 1st (if i feel like doing them).
However, now i decided to test the paranormalevolence of my Irr method.
Games that will go up a leaderboard level (unless they don't)
* Amidar - to 900
* Beamrider - to 500
* Cosmic Commuter - to 400
* Demons to Diamonds - to 800
* Dodge 'em - to 500
* Dolphin - to 300
* Jungler- to 10,000
* Kaboom - to 900
* Millipede - to 8,000
* Rack 'em Up - to 4,000
* Scramble - to 9,000
* Space Armada - to 8,000
* Star Strike - to 100
* Submarine Commander - to 60
* Super Breakout - to 9,000
* Super Pro Decathalon - to 100
* Time Pilot - to 6,000
* Tower of Doom - to 700
* Tutankham - to 8,000
* Vectron - to 50
* Video Hustler - to 1,000
* Yar's Revenge - to 10,000
My Irr method has issues with game that had significant sales early (then likely dropped off drastically). Some of these are: Yar's Revenge, Super Breakout, Space Armada, Scramble, Rack 'em Up, Millipede and Jungler. There are 22 predicted increases - i wonder how many will actually occur. Last week was the first time i tried this and got 2/21 right. This prediction may become a weekly thing (if i'm really bored for a long period of time). i think i might edit the results in on the bottom of the post.
Edit: so how did my predictions turn out...
* Amidar, Beamrider, Demons to Diamonds, Dolphin, Rack 'em Up, Scramble, Submarine Commander, Super Pro Decathalon, Time Pilot, Vectron and Video Hustler went up (not necessarily by 2/1/11). So i will have be using a 1 month time horizon. 11 Games did not increase (so about 50%). Of those that didn't increase, i was somewhat sure that 5 wouldn't increase. Maybe the numbers have normalized a bit since then.
i will try and have my March leaderboard increase predictions up on or by March 1st (if i feel like doing them).
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Western RPGs This Generation
i prefer the Japanese RPG to the Western RPG. However, i still will play the occasional WRPG.
WRPGs seem to be too open/sandbox at the expense of story telling. You are basically playing as a character with little or no personality (and limited back story). JRPGs seem to be more turn-based (my favorite) or hack and slash (action RPG). Western games seem to be more shooter oriented - at least they seem to control more like a FPS. i call titles like Oblivion and Mass Effect shooter RPGs. JRPGs seem to be save the world (maybe from yourself) and overcome a large obstacle. WRPGs tend to be a little different. i prefer the way (cliched some would say) that JRPGs tackle story. i guess it is sort of one is in control and the other is playing a role in a story.
The first struggle with WRPGs is determining if something actually is an RPG. Is it something with some form of leveling - not necessarily. Is it conforming to certain story structures - not really. If something has "RPG elements is it really an RPG? Some of the games i have played that i don't consider RPGs (that some might): Mass Effect 2, BioShock, Overlord, Too Human (which is underrated, but frustrating). Some i barely consider RPGs at all - like Fallout 3.
My personal favorites WRPG so far this generation (Xbox 360 only) are:
* Fable 3 (ok, questionable whether it is an RPG)
* Mass Effect (though 2 seems to have a little better story, but more annoying mechanics)
* Fable 2
* Marvel Ultimate Alliance - it is basically a hack and slash. i guess it might be an RPG.
* Dragon Age Origins - it is farily generic and doesn't really stand out. It is probably the single weakest BioWare game i have played. So why am i consdering getting the ultimate edition with all of the add-ons?
* Two Worlds (well it would be if it wasn't a technical mess plagued by freezing). Once again, a short and weak story that somehow seems inconsequential.
* Fallout 3 - a shooter RPG, with a questionable story and one of the worst endings i have ever seen. It is an interesting premise, but i'm not sure about the execution.
* Oblivion - i really dislike being penalized for leveling up (enemies level up with you). Bethesda games all seem to have annoying bugs when they launch (and freezing/crashing problems).
WRPGs seem to be too open/sandbox at the expense of story telling. You are basically playing as a character with little or no personality (and limited back story). JRPGs seem to be more turn-based (my favorite) or hack and slash (action RPG). Western games seem to be more shooter oriented - at least they seem to control more like a FPS. i call titles like Oblivion and Mass Effect shooter RPGs. JRPGs seem to be save the world (maybe from yourself) and overcome a large obstacle. WRPGs tend to be a little different. i prefer the way (cliched some would say) that JRPGs tackle story. i guess it is sort of one is in control and the other is playing a role in a story.
The first struggle with WRPGs is determining if something actually is an RPG. Is it something with some form of leveling - not necessarily. Is it conforming to certain story structures - not really. If something has "RPG elements is it really an RPG? Some of the games i have played that i don't consider RPGs (that some might): Mass Effect 2, BioShock, Overlord, Too Human (which is underrated, but frustrating). Some i barely consider RPGs at all - like Fallout 3.
My personal favorites WRPG so far this generation (Xbox 360 only) are:
* Fable 3 (ok, questionable whether it is an RPG)
* Mass Effect (though 2 seems to have a little better story, but more annoying mechanics)
* Fable 2
* Marvel Ultimate Alliance - it is basically a hack and slash. i guess it might be an RPG.
* Dragon Age Origins - it is farily generic and doesn't really stand out. It is probably the single weakest BioWare game i have played. So why am i consdering getting the ultimate edition with all of the add-ons?
* Two Worlds (well it would be if it wasn't a technical mess plagued by freezing). Once again, a short and weak story that somehow seems inconsequential.
* Fallout 3 - a shooter RPG, with a questionable story and one of the worst endings i have ever seen. It is an interesting premise, but i'm not sure about the execution.
* Oblivion - i really dislike being penalized for leveling up (enemies level up with you). Bethesda games all seem to have annoying bugs when they launch (and freezing/crashing problems).
The Business of Game Room: Outtakes
There were some topics that came further down the line when associating with the thread.
Profitability: Revenue Split Take One
i may have overstated MSFT's profit position in these games (i think the most fair method would be $1.50-$1.75, or 120-140 points, for every copy of a game sold to the publisher - though that is highly, highly variable), or maybe i didn't. i can't help but think MSFT's take percentage-wise is a little larger (combining both Krome and MSFT) than XBLA as their contracted partner Krome is doing a substantial amount of the actual work. In XBLA, MSFT handles the space to store/list the games, but ultimately there is a publisher that has to be paid. With Game Room, it is like MSFT is the publisher and Krome/Konami, etc is the developer. So, MSFT probably should get a little bigger slice of the pie in Game Room. Don't get me started on the concept of Game Room profit sharing (which i highly doubt exists).
Game Room Promotion: Take One
Misc:
Profitability: Revenue Split Take One
i may have overstated MSFT's profit position in these games (i think the most fair method would be $1.50-$1.75, or 120-140 points, for every copy of a game sold to the publisher - though that is highly, highly variable), or maybe i didn't. i can't help but think MSFT's take percentage-wise is a little larger (combining both Krome and MSFT) than XBLA as their contracted partner Krome is doing a substantial amount of the actual work. In XBLA, MSFT handles the space to store/list the games, but ultimately there is a publisher that has to be paid. With Game Room, it is like MSFT is the publisher and Krome/Konami, etc is the developer. So, MSFT probably should get a little bigger slice of the pie in Game Room. Don't get me started on the concept of Game Room profit sharing (which i highly doubt exists).
Game Room Promotion: Take One
So, what would MSFT rather promote? Would it be some place where they can get 30% of $10 or $15 ($3.00, $5.00) in a much higher exposure area that they built up since the 360's launch or 50% of $3.00 ($1.50) in an area just getting off of the ground (with a smaller target group). The volume in Game Room just isn't there to make up the difference in pricing (and it will never be). Though, as a smaller scale endeavor Game Room probably has better profitability rates. In other words, i suspect that Game Room as a percentage is more profitable (especially if they use flat rate licensing) than XBLA for MSFT, but is dwarfed in absolute dollar sales. The bottom line really is important.
XBLA vs Game Room: The First Round
XBLA vs Game Room: The First Round
Let's illustrate with Centipede (one of the 20K leaderboard games). i would estimate that Centipede sold about 15,000 @ 3.00, for about $45,000 in sales. If MSFT got 50% of that, they would receive $22,500. Now it time for the unfair XBLA comparison (i am using http://www.gamerbytes.com/2010/07/indepth_xbox_live_arcade_sales_11.php ) for the sake of comparison. The game i will use here is Ancients of Ooga. Ancients of Ooga (my favorite style of platformer) had 2,134 people on their leaderboard. If you assume 75% sales like i did with Game Room, MSFT gets Ooga revenues of $4,800. Which means i picked a bad example, these things happen. The difference there was Game Room by $17,700 for a game released for one week in that "reporting period". Now, using that same source - let's look at Puzzle Quest 2 (released the same week as Ancients of Ooga). Using the same 75% of leaderboards as purchase thing i used above, Puzzle Quest 2 sold 15,585 copies for $15 a piece. In that scenario, MSFT (at 30% take) gets $70,132.50. That is Puzzle Quest by over $47,000. Game Room would need 3 Centipede sales level games plus another 1,709 or so sales to equal the Puzzle Quest 2 XBLA revenue in that one week (if you can assume 30% MSFT take for XBLA titles). In other words, the estimated revenue to MSFT from one week of Puzzle Quest 2 (at 30%) would be the equivalent of 46,710 individual Game Room sales (at 50%). If you had the services, what do you chose to promote?
Yeah, i probably should look at a bigger game. What was said was what i was essentially saying on the last paragraph of the last post (from a business sense), with the Puzzle Quest 2 example. i found it interesting that if MSFT got 30% (estimated) of the revenue for sales from XBLA and 50% for Game Room, that it would have taken 46,710 Game Room sales to equal Puzzle Quest 2.
i started a bigger fan of XBLA, but kind of left when they retro stuff dried out and the type of games seemed to have changed (and the prices and file sizes increased). Ok, lets try Limbo (using all of the same assumptions above) - this is going to be scary. i'll assume that Limbo is 1,200 MSFT points. So, if i assume 75% of leaderboards are purchasers, that is about $2.8 million. At 30% of revenue, that would be over $852,000 to MSFT. The equivalent number of Game Room games, for the same revenue to MSFT, would be 568,437 individual Game Room games. To catch up, Game Room would have to more than double cumulative sales and Limbo would have to sell nothing.
i started a bigger fan of XBLA, but kind of left when they retro stuff dried out and the type of games seemed to have changed (and the prices and file sizes increased). Ok, lets try Limbo (using all of the same assumptions above) - this is going to be scary. i'll assume that Limbo is 1,200 MSFT points. So, if i assume 75% of leaderboards are purchasers, that is about $2.8 million. At 30% of revenue, that would be over $852,000 to MSFT. The equivalent number of Game Room games, for the same revenue to MSFT, would be 568,437 individual Game Room games. To catch up, Game Room would have to more than double cumulative sales and Limbo would have to sell nothing.
XBLA vs Game Room: The Second Round
What angle to consider now? Let's go with Game Room vs XBLA
Some of the early projections of Game Room sales were obviously done with previous XBLA releases in mind. By my count (as of August 17, 2010) 10 titles have been released on both XBLA and Game Room. i don't have nearly as much data on these titles as i would like (as i only have 3 of the 10 titles on XBLA). Most of my retro XBLA games are Namco. The three games i have on both are Asteroids/Deluxe, Centipede/Millipede and Time Pilot. i do not have the games Battlezone, Missile Command, Tempest, Scramble, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Gyrus or Warlords for XBLA (i do have them for Game Room). This will be based off of leaderboard entries.
Asteroids/Deluxe had 27,675 leaderboard entries for about 22,140 sales. Using same assumptions in previous posts, that would be a total gross revenue of around $110,700 (about $33,210 going to MSFT). On Game Room, i would estimate that Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe sales were around 14,080 units combined (for a gross revenue of about $42,240). i estimate Game Room sales of those titles accounted for about 38% of the revenue the XBLA game did.
Centipede/Millipede is a bit better selling story on XBLA. i would estimate that Centipede sold around 46,759 units (for gross revenue of about $233,759). Centipede/Millipede did about the same on Game Room as Asteroids/Deluxe (14,080 units for a gross revenue of about $42,240). The Game Room versions of the Centipede/Millipede would be about 18% of the revenue of the XBLA version.
Time Pilot: the leaderboards for the XBLA game are not conducive to seeing how many spots are on the leaderboard (as a page seems to be 7 scores and you actually have to scroll through them). i scrolled down to about 71,000th place (at about 45,000 pts) before i accidentally hit the thumb stick the wrong way. Time Pilot was also a game that was given away as a pack-in for a controller (and maybe otherwise). So, i'll estimate 100,000 leaderboard entries for about 80,000 sales (about $400,000 in gross revenue). i would estimate that the sales of Time Pilot in Game Room would be about 3,200 units (for gross revenue of about $9,600). That would be about 2.4% of XBLA revenue.
Some of the early projections of Game Room sales were obviously done with previous XBLA releases in mind. By my count (as of August 17, 2010) 10 titles have been released on both XBLA and Game Room. i don't have nearly as much data on these titles as i would like (as i only have 3 of the 10 titles on XBLA). Most of my retro XBLA games are Namco. The three games i have on both are Asteroids/Deluxe, Centipede/Millipede and Time Pilot. i do not have the games Battlezone, Missile Command, Tempest, Scramble, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Gyrus or Warlords for XBLA (i do have them for Game Room). This will be based off of leaderboard entries.
Asteroids/Deluxe had 27,675 leaderboard entries for about 22,140 sales. Using same assumptions in previous posts, that would be a total gross revenue of around $110,700 (about $33,210 going to MSFT). On Game Room, i would estimate that Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe sales were around 14,080 units combined (for a gross revenue of about $42,240). i estimate Game Room sales of those titles accounted for about 38% of the revenue the XBLA game did.
Centipede/Millipede is a bit better selling story on XBLA. i would estimate that Centipede sold around 46,759 units (for gross revenue of about $233,759). Centipede/Millipede did about the same on Game Room as Asteroids/Deluxe (14,080 units for a gross revenue of about $42,240). The Game Room versions of the Centipede/Millipede would be about 18% of the revenue of the XBLA version.
Time Pilot: the leaderboards for the XBLA game are not conducive to seeing how many spots are on the leaderboard (as a page seems to be 7 scores and you actually have to scroll through them). i scrolled down to about 71,000th place (at about 45,000 pts) before i accidentally hit the thumb stick the wrong way. Time Pilot was also a game that was given away as a pack-in for a controller (and maybe otherwise). So, i'll estimate 100,000 leaderboard entries for about 80,000 sales (about $400,000 in gross revenue). i would estimate that the sales of Time Pilot in Game Room would be about 3,200 units (for gross revenue of about $9,600). That would be about 2.4% of XBLA revenue.
XBLA vs Game Room: Round 3
Before i get to my hunch/"conclusion" regarding the two (without enough data points), let's take another look at the Asteroids and Centipede games. Just for fun, let's add in the 2600 ports.
* Asteroids: that would only add another 400 or so units and bring the estimated gross revenue up to $43,440 (or about 39.2% of the XBLA sales)
* Centipede/Millipede: adding the 2600 ports would add about 5,760 units and bring up estimated gross revenue to about $59,520 (or 25.46% of the XBLA sales).
"Conclusion"/hunch: sales of Game Room titles will probably generate about 5-10% of the revenue that the XBLA version in the near term (first 6-9 months). Some games will generate higher percentages. In the longer term, i would peg 15-25% as the total amount. The amount of games listed on both simultaneously will hopefully increase (as Game Room gets more titles). As far as money to the publishers or MSFT, who knows. However, Game Room sales of a title (like the ones in my example) can, and will, still increase. The leaderboards for Game Room are pretty imprecise. The 3 XBLA titles i used have been out for, or almost 3 years (i don't recall if these were ever discounted).
To answer a previous thread (using leaderboard data), i believe Pac-Man would sell at least 24,000 copies on Game Room in the first 6 months.
* Asteroids: that would only add another 400 or so units and bring the estimated gross revenue up to $43,440 (or about 39.2% of the XBLA sales)
* Centipede/Millipede: adding the 2600 ports would add about 5,760 units and bring up estimated gross revenue to about $59,520 (or 25.46% of the XBLA sales).
"Conclusion"/hunch: sales of Game Room titles will probably generate about 5-10% of the revenue that the XBLA version in the near term (first 6-9 months). Some games will generate higher percentages. In the longer term, i would peg 15-25% as the total amount. The amount of games listed on both simultaneously will hopefully increase (as Game Room gets more titles). As far as money to the publishers or MSFT, who knows. However, Game Room sales of a title (like the ones in my example) can, and will, still increase. The leaderboards for Game Room are pretty imprecise. The 3 XBLA titles i used have been out for, or almost 3 years (i don't recall if these were ever discounted).
To answer a previous thread (using leaderboard data), i believe Pac-Man would sell at least 24,000 copies on Game Room in the first 6 months.
XBLA vs Game Room: Round 4: Newer Data
* Asteroids/Deluxe - 4,000 / 20,000 (est. sales - 21,000)
* Asteroids 2600 - 1,000 leaderboard
* Centipede / Millipede: still the same 20K / 2K (est. sales 19,250)
* Time Pilot - 5,000 leaderboard (4,375 sales est)
* 2600 ports: Asteroids - 1,000 (875 sales set), Centipede - 700 (612), Millipede - 7,000 (6,126 sales est)
My Expectations:
the most simple terms the statement by Ruined is true. i would prefert the phrase "leveraging previously non-performing assets" on the Xbox 360 console, though (to be fair they do leverage titles on Game Room they do use elsewhere).
Based on what Game Room is, it has far surpassed my sales expectations for it (but then, even the recent packs surpass that). To me, Game Room is a runaway success with a very strong start that has normalized since then. As long as MSFT and the publishers can make money on it, i see no reason for Game Room to stop. As soon as i get my new Xbox 360, i will get some games for my secondary account too.
XBLA is like a blockbuster movie (with higher production costs), Game Room is closer to a low budget major studio movie - the expectations are lower and it takes less sales to be a success. It is like comparing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (XBLA) to Animal House (Game Room), from a sales perspective.
Based on what Game Room is, it has far surpassed my sales expectations for it (but then, even the recent packs surpass that). To me, Game Room is a runaway success with a very strong start that has normalized since then. As long as MSFT and the publishers can make money on it, i see no reason for Game Room to stop. As soon as i get my new Xbox 360, i will get some games for my secondary account too.
XBLA is like a blockbuster movie (with higher production costs), Game Room is closer to a low budget major studio movie - the expectations are lower and it takes less sales to be a success. It is like comparing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (XBLA) to Animal House (Game Room), from a sales perspective.
Changing Estimate Assumptions:
i decided to change some of my assumptions: the first is that i am now using a point estimate of 87.5% of leaderboard entries as purchases (basically 85% + 2.5% for leaderboards being a little more than what is listed). Someone at gamerbytes (where i started thinking of using data after looking at it) said that they estimate that XBLA titles have 90% purchase rates (i don't believe it, but i'll use a higher number). i have modified my estimates of one medal games to 1% of ranked game totals. i might try to look at how games sales (or the representation given to games increase monthly, or so, for legacy titles - i can't afford to keep up with all of the new ranked games). Misc:
Yeah, it can be tricky with licensing. Some companies seem to get it, some don't. Some companies want the extra money from licensing their properties, while others are content to just sit on them. Unfortunately, XBLA seemed to dry up for these retro releases (now it has to be remixed, remade, or whatever other term you may use). This, literally, is not going to be easy to read.
Price point on Game Room seems less of a big deal than most people seem to think. Let's play the role of publisher of retro content right holder here in completely made up pseudo dialog form.
* MSFT: Game Room titles will sell for up to $5.00 (400 pts) each and will be on Games for Windows Live (GFWL) too, thus reaching a larger potential audience that the Xbox platform. It is the new portal for retro titles for the Xbox going forward.
* Publisher: Wait a second, did you say up to? What is the pricing structure here? What kind of sales do GFWL do?
* MSFT: The price will be $3.00 (240 points) for one game on one platform plus a $.50 (40 points) for one play of a title.
* Publisher: what potential responsibilities do we have and what would we get if we signed on?
Enough of that, since i don't know MSFT's next line. Here is how things would play out if i were an arcade rights holder approached for Game Room.
1) Find out how many games they want (also what games, add a few games to the mix)
2) Set prices: my initial offer would be in three scenarios - $10,000 per game (settle for $5K) / $2.50 per game (settle for $1.50) / $5k per game + $1.50 for every sale over 3,000 (the sales threshold depends on the prices of both). The percentage basis for me would always be based off of the $5.00 per game figure. i would want to be paid monthly or quarterly. i would see if MSFT would give me a guaranteed minimum. i would want the contract to cover at least 25 titles and be for more than $100K (preferably $250+ K in USD, maybe for 50+ games). Never sign an exclusivity deal for retro IP, unless well compensated for it (and release on all the platforms you can).
3) Wait for counter-proposals and accept it if it were in the correct range.
4) Do what the contract stipulates. Profit.
Price point on Game Room seems less of a big deal than most people seem to think. Let's play the role of publisher of retro content right holder here in completely made up pseudo dialog form.
* MSFT: Game Room titles will sell for up to $5.00 (400 pts) each and will be on Games for Windows Live (GFWL) too, thus reaching a larger potential audience that the Xbox platform. It is the new portal for retro titles for the Xbox going forward.
* Publisher: Wait a second, did you say up to? What is the pricing structure here? What kind of sales do GFWL do?
* MSFT: The price will be $3.00 (240 points) for one game on one platform plus a $.50 (40 points) for one play of a title.
* Publisher: what potential responsibilities do we have and what would we get if we signed on?
Enough of that, since i don't know MSFT's next line. Here is how things would play out if i were an arcade rights holder approached for Game Room.
1) Find out how many games they want (also what games, add a few games to the mix)
2) Set prices: my initial offer would be in three scenarios - $10,000 per game (settle for $5K) / $2.50 per game (settle for $1.50) / $5k per game + $1.50 for every sale over 3,000 (the sales threshold depends on the prices of both). The percentage basis for me would always be based off of the $5.00 per game figure. i would want to be paid monthly or quarterly. i would see if MSFT would give me a guaranteed minimum. i would want the contract to cover at least 25 titles and be for more than $100K (preferably $250+ K in USD, maybe for 50+ games). Never sign an exclusivity deal for retro IP, unless well compensated for it (and release on all the platforms you can).
3) Wait for counter-proposals and accept it if it were in the correct range.
4) Do what the contract stipulates. Profit.
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