Tagged: Fail

The Wii U has a slight problem with a what we call a “Day One Patch” where you need to update your console before accessing it’s online features. Normally this isn’t a huge problem as the 360 and PS3 fall victim to this from time to time, but what makes the Wii U update feel so painful is that it takes up to 5 GB of space.

For people looking to avoid this massive update, they might have to wait a while as Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime said the update won’t be built into the system until early 2013. ”Nintendo developers want to make sure that the very best product is available to consumers,” Fils-Aime told Gama. “That creates a dynamic where our developers are working on elements until the very last point possible. That’s why the system update was required on day one – and this is quite similar to what’s happened with other consumer electronic products.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had previously apologized for the update stating that he believed customers “should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box.” So if your getting the Wii U for the Holidays, you might want to be patient and try not to unplug the console or cut the connection in anyway as doing so my cause the Wii U to suddenly stop working.

When two of the widely considered “evil” game companies start fighting, it’s hard to choose a side. EA is suing Zynga over their new social media game ‘The Ville,’ alleging that the company is ‘in clear violation’ of copyright laws.

Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw wrote:

“The legal reasons are solid. But for creative teams who feel that their hard work and imaginations have been ripped off, there’s obviously an emotional element too, as outlined in our complaint, when The Ville was introduced in June 2012, the infringement of The Sims Social was unmistakable to those of us at Maxis as well as to players and the industry at large.”

“This is a case of principle. Maxis isn’t the first studio to claim that Zynga copied its creative product. But we are the studio that has the financial and corporate resources to stand up and do something about it. Infringing a developer’s copyright is not an acceptable practice in game development. By calling Zynga out on this illegal practice, we hope to have a secondary effect of protecting the rights of other creative studios who don’t have the resources to protect themselves.”

In 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment of America had patent filed, in which described an advertising system that would “suspend gameplay” , during which an advertisement will appear and then the game would continue shortly after. According to the patent, the ad will appear with an warning, slow down gameplay and then give another warning saying that the game will continue.

Now filing a patent does not mean it is (or if there is any plans to be) implemented in any future games, it’s just that someone thought it was a good idea to have a copyright attached to it. In which we sincerely hope that who ever did this was fired, or put this as a protection in case EA’s Project Ten Dollar (Online Pass) decided to go a little overboard.

Ex-Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki’s first project is looking like it’s in trouble as reports suggest from THQ’s financial briefing call to it’s investors today.  THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said Devils’ Third “The profitability profile for Devil’s Third no longer met our internal threshold and we are currently in discussions with third parties regarding the future of this title.”

The game, originally announced in summer of 2010, had several problems during it’s creation. Farrell stated “There were a couple of unforeseen events that happened during the development of Devil’s Third. One was the company that Valhalla was using for the engine went out of business, so we had to assist Itagaki and the team with a new engine – it took a fair amount of time and cost a fair amount of money.” While no more money will be flowing from THQ in this process, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to see it go to waste, “We think it’s an excellent franchise; we’ve really enjoyed working with Itagaki-san, and we’re going to explore other opportunities with him and others to make sure this product comes to market.”

 

While this doesn’t come as much of a surprise giving that THQ had has issues throughout the year, with the cancellation of a big franchise for them (Red Faction) as well as under preforming sales of other games and assessories like the UDraw tablet, THQ has netted a $239.9 million dollar lost of revenue for last year’s fiscal year, ending March 31 2012, a $100 million more than previous year.

Despite the success of Saints Row: The Third, and WWE 12, the company had to cut 240 employees, cut the salary of some of their head honchos, and cut out the kid-friendly section of the company altogether. Luckily, the company will stay afloat this year, delaying with hopes of profit from the upcoming expansion pack for Saints Row The Third, Darksiders 2, the yet to be confirmed WWE13, and South Park. Which brings us to some good news.

The originally delayed Darksiders 2 is back on track with a Augest 14 release date, the delay was described at the briefing for a better retail window. This is good as pre-orders for the second game in the series is up 5 times more than the original, and with an marketing budget to help show off the game, THQ is looking to get right back on top.

As per the previously mentioned lay-offs, THQ Published South Park RPG has been pushed back again, this time to early 2013. Obsidian was previously hit with lay-offs which featured many members of that team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

250,000 votes were cast in The Consumerist’s poll and the people online have spoken, EA had won The Consumerist ‘Worst Company in America’ award and have gotten the Golden Poo trophy, beating out fellow competition though Best Buy, Gamestop, Comcast, Paypal and Walmart, finally defeating the Bank of America in the final round.

EA seems to have taken the victory in good spirits though, stating: “We’re sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren’t on the list this year. We’re going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide.”

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock, you need to look up the “Stop Online Piracy Act.” And while your at it sign the petition here

Of the companies that were siding with the bill including GoDaddy, Nintendo, EA, Microsoft, and Sony, we’ve recently seen all of the companies taken their names off the list of supporters. Apperently supporting a bill that threatens censorship of the Internet isn’t really good for busness or security of the servers as Sony was threaten by hacker group “Anonymous.”
When asked, EA corporate told Joystiq this afternoon, “EA never expressed a position for or against SOPA.” Sony and Nintendo had yet to respond as of right now.

Note that not all of Sony’s branches have rescinded their support, as Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Nashville still appear on the list. Also, the Entertainment Software Association is still shown as a supporter — an organization which the aforementioned publishers (among others) belong to. Whether the group will remain on an endorsement list which exactly zero of its members appear on remains to be seen.

At this point I’d like to point out, even though we’re Canadian and we have our own problems with Internet Spy bill and Meter Billing issues, which by the way you can help fight at http://stopthemeter.ca. Gameitall.com does not support the Stop Online Piracy Act or any act of censorship for the Internet.

I’m going to be completely serious for a few minutes here, which also may involve more swearing or overall naughty language then usual.

Here at Gameitall, we bitch and complain about some companies, like EA and Activision, where they try to be greedy and pull money out of our pockets. As much as we complain, plan to boycott or dismiss their games, we still buy them because of the quality that they still produce, despite stuff like the Elite subscription, or online pass system.

Now here we go to Ocean Marketing, which as some of you may have found out though popular webcomic Penny Arcade. They royally f**ked up.

for those of you who want to read the entire thing, go to this link: www.penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/just-wow1

A customer purchased a pair of PS3 controllers from the company that specializes in 3rd party controllers. The Customer, known as Dave, was told that the purchase would arrive before Christmas, where that was no longer the case. After a run-around with the companies president, and getting justifiably frustrated about this. Ocean Marketing offered a 10 off any product on their system, however would not allow him to cancel and re-order the controllers, something which is understandable in a business way, but was handled unprofessionally. As I quote from Gabe’s post.

“no one is allowed to cancel and re order if we catch anyone doing it we will simply just cancel your order all together and you can buy it retail somewhere else.
You placed a pre order just like any software title the gets a date moved due to the tweaks and bugs not being worked out and GameStop or any other place holds your cash and im sure you don’t complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer . Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I’ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself. Have a good day Dan.”

Dave goes on to cancel the products, completely in the right about issue and the following ensues. While the full post is worth wild to read, I’m highlighting the major points of his FIRST PARAGRAPH on said email. and I Shit you not, this is exactly how he wrote it.
“LOL Thanks for the Free PR I know the Editor N Chief of Kotaku , IGN , Engadget I’ll be meeting them at CES.
Send that over to Engadget you look like a complete moron swearing and sending your customer service complaints to a magazine as if they will post it or even pay attention do you think you’re the first or the last what are they going to do demand us to tell you were your shipment is or ask for a refund on your behalf … Really … Welcome to the Internet ?
Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up.
Don’t have my controller so im gonna cry to the world … Really ??”

At this point Dave sent this to Mike Krahulik, Gabe of Penny Arcade fame. the full email listed a series of conventions which PAX EAST was listed. To which Mike replyed that if they have a booth, they would cancel it.

The person speaking on behalf of Ocean Marketing, was the President of the company, Paul Christoforo, writing out the most unprofessional email and series of events for any company ever, not just in the video game industry.

Within minutes of Mike’s post on Penny-Arcade, memes were created, orders were canceled, and Ocean Marketing is in the deep shit, the Internet was a blazed because of this.

There is currently no word from Ocean Marketing President, but I’d like to post something he said in the letter he wrote.

Welcome to the Internet.


At what comes as a surprise to some, Capcom has announced a Sour Patch Kids tie-in video game for XBLA, PSN, and PC.

Yep. Sour Patch Kids. The Candy.

“Sour Patch Kids: World Gone Sour” tells the adventure of a lost Sour Patch Kid running and jumping its way from a movie theater’s sticky, filthy floor, past the concession stand, and out into the world as it seeks its home in a candy lover’s stomach. Yes, this is a game in which the goal is a person accidentally ingesting candy that’s been on the floor of a movie theater.

The Game cost $5, and also includes the new Method Man single, “World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids),” and Creed Bratton, whom you know as Creed from The Office, narrating your heroic journey.

While we’re scratching our heads about this, we realize that this is Capcom, the makers of Domino’s Yo! Noid, and California Raisins games. Which brings everything back to a full circle.


Tech developer Impulse Technology has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo and a score of third-party studios, accusing them of violating a 1996 patent for an “interactive system for measuring physiological exertion.” The suit is largely based on the weight-tracking Wii Balance Board (and most of the games which use it, including Wii Fit Plus, Zumba Fitness 2 and UFC Personal Trainer,) which Impulse claims too closely resemble its own Trazer Interactive Fitness machine.

Normally, we’d scoff at such a lawsuit, especially since Impulse leveraged almost the exact same claims against Microsoft for its Kinect hardware this past July. Still, take a look at the Trazer Interactive Fitness machine, seen above. The resemblance truly is uncanny, right?
Right?

Former Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vincent Zampella have an official court date of May 7, 2012 to settle their dispute with Activision as they seek $125 million in unpaid royalties from Modern Warfare 2 sales and wish to reclaim their contractual rights to the Modern Warfare brand, a move that could cost Activision a lot of money and issues with the development of further Call of Duty games. Activision fired both developers in March 2010 for illegally consorting with EA, and has counter-sued West, Zampella and EA for $400 million (which is a bit of a over kill,) claiming EA hijacked its employees, while this wouldn’t be the first time Activision have attempted to fight EA on hijacking, as this was done with Tim Shaftner’s Brutal Legend.

Since their firings, West and Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment and now have 40 former Infinity Ward employees working at the studio, which is creating an unannounced game for EA. Activision’s suit is clear to proceed, but doesn’t yet have a date, it is depending on how long this first case could drag on.