Tag Archives: games industry

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 12.11.13

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Call of Duty GhostsIt’s no surprise to see the new Call of Duty: Ghosts sitting on top of the charts this week. After its one billion dollar sales day one it was always going to take the spot. The question now is how long will it stay there and what will knock it off? Further down the chart the only other new addition is the new Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy at number thirteen from Nintendo.

All formats

Week ending 9 November 2013

POS.  TITLE 

PUBLISHER

 LAST
WEEK 

1

 CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS

ACTIVISION

–

2

BATTLEFIELD 4

EA GAMES

2

3

ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

UBISOFT

1

4

FIFA 14

EA SPORTS

3

5

GRAND THEFT AUTO V

ROCKSTAR

4

6

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

WARNER BROS INTERACTIVE

5

7

–

 WWE 2K14

2K SPORTS

7

8

–

 MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION

MICROSOFT

8

9

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2014

SEGA

4

10

SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE

SKYLANDERS

9

11

JUST DANCE 2014

UBISOFT

12

12

DISNEY INFINITY

DISNEY INFINITY

13

13

 PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE AZRAN LEGACY

NINTENDO

–

14

POKEMON X

NINTENDO

11

15

POKEMON Y

NINTENDO

10

16

TOMB RAIDER

SQUARE ENIX

17

17

SAINTS ROW IV

DEEP SILVER

19

18

LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES

WARNER BROS INTERACTIVE

14

19

F1 2013

CODEMASTERS

15

20

 

 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW LEAF

NINTENDO

22
< previous week

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd
These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News: WWE 2K14 Review

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ultimate-warrior-wwe2k14The people at 2K very kindly sent me a copy off WWE 2K14 to review. This was 2K’s first wrestling game since obtaining the license from THQ.

There couldn’t have been a better developer to take over the WWE wrestling game franchise than 2K. They already had great sports game experience with their NHL, NFL and NBA series. So how did they do with their new IP?

Following on with the popularity of the Attitude Era storyline in WWE ’13 it was a smart move to keep the single player in a similar style. This years game saw the player run through the 30 years of Wrestlemania mode. Starting back at Wrestlemania number one with the $15,000 body slam challenge between Big John Studd and the late, great André the Giant all the way up to Wrestlemania twenty nine with the rematch of John Cena and The Rock for the WWE championship.

It was a pleasure reliving all the great Wrestlemania moments through the years and it was a brilliant excuse to play as several of the biggest Superstars through the events history including Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HBK and of course the Undertaker.

The gameplay and graphics in the game are pretty much the same as they have always been however just with a few rough edges tidied up.

For example when doing The People’s Elbow or the Five Knuckle Shuffle, the superstar on the floor won’t float across the ring to be in the correct position. Much like a real wrestler he will shuffle himself to the right angle for the move and if he is too close to the ropes the wrestler doing the move just simply won’t try and jump over him.

Overall the AI seems to be a bit more intelligent. Previous games have had bad trouble with targeting which can be utterly match changing in some situations, in the new game that happens a lot less but will still occur occasionally.

There are a few more little features included this year such as corner finishers. This makes finishing moves like HBK’s Sweet Chin Music and Edge’s Spear much simpler to do.

My final conclusion for 2K’s venture in to the Wrestling world is that they have smoothed down some rough edges but there isn’t anything particularly new in the game apart from a different enjoyable single player campaign and the updated roster.

Train2Game News: New World of Warcraft expansion announced

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wow_wod_logo_hires_m03At Blizzcon this past weekend, Blizzard announced the next expansion for World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor.

The fifth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, sends players to the world of Draenor at a pivotal moment in history to fight against and alongside legends from Warcraft’s brutal past.

Across Draenor’s savage jungles and battle-scarred plains, Azeroth’s heroes will engage in a mythic conflict involving mystical draenei champions and mighty orc clans, and cross axes with the likes of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul at the height of their primal power. Players will need to scour this unwelcoming land in search of allies to help build a desperate defense against the old Horde’s formidable engine of conquest—or else watch their own world’s bloody, war-torn history repeat itself.

“Warlords of Draenor gives players a chance to take a commanding role in one of the Warcraft series’ most crucial conflicts,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “This expansion also includes features that make it easy for anyone to jump right into the action, whether they’ve played WoW at some point in the past or are just setting foot in Azeroth for the first time.”

To help new and returning players answer the call to arms on Draenor, the expansion will enable anyone to instantly boost one character to level 90, including a newly created character, quickly getting them up to speed and ready to enjoy the latest content with their friends.

To establish a foothold on Draenor once they’ve arrived, the displaced champions of the Horde and Alliance will be able to construct their own Garrison, an expandable, customizable stronghold that will serve as each player’s personal base of operations throughout the course of the expansion. As the Garrison grows, players will be able to recruit NPC allies and followers to take up residence, gathering resources and embarking on missions on the player’s orders.

Warlords of Draenor will also introduce fully revamped player character models and animations for many of World of Warcraft’s existing playable races, bringing the orcs, humans, and several other longtime residents of Azeroth up to the visual standards of newer races while still maintaining their iconic style and identity.

Along with these new features, World of Warcraft players will enjoy a wide array of new content on their way to the new level cap of 100, including new Zones, Dungeons, Raids, Scenarios, Battlegrounds, and more. Warlords of Draenor will also introduce questing improvements designed to encourage exploration and add unpredictability to players’ ongoing adventures.

Train2Game News: Xbox One Launch Apps

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Xbox OneMicrosoft have announced the apps that will be available for Gold subcribers from Xbox One’s launch.

This first wave of third-party apps will be joined by Microsoft’s Xbox Fitness, Xbox Video, Xbox Music, Internet Explorer, Skype, SkyDrive and Upload services on the Xbox One release date of November 22, 2013.

The list of apps for the United Kingdom are as follows:

4oD
Amazon\LOVEFiLM
blinkbox
Crackle
Demand 5
Eurosport
Machinima
MUZU TV
Netflix
NOW TV
TED
Twitch
Wuaki.tv

There are a few differences in the launch apps for different countries.

This will of course be along side the many Windows 8 apps that are becoming more and more available.

Train2Game News: Call of Duty: Ghosts day one sales

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Call of Duty GhostsActivision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., announced that the company sold more than $1 billion of Call of Duty: Ghosts into shops worldwide as of day one.

“Call of Duty is by far the largest console franchise of this generation,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “More people have played Call of Duty this year than ever before, logging four billion hours of gameplay. And in the last 12 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, including its digital content, generated more revenues than any other console game ever has in a single year. Although it is too early to assess sell-through for Call of Duty: Ghosts, it’s launching at a time when the franchise has never been more popular.”

Millions of people are already playing Call of Duty: Ghosts online. Since its release yesterday, Call of Duty: Ghosts has moved to the number one spot as the most played game on Xbox Live, according to Microsoft. Additionally, Activision confirmed that on the Xbox 360 videogames and entertainment system from Microsoft, average player sessions for Ghosts have been longer than either Black Ops II or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, during the same time period.

Call of Duty: Ghosts launched at fifteen thousand midnight openings around the world. Fans around the world shared their excitement in social media, with Call of Duty-related terms trending an astounding 20 times globally on Twitter in the last 24 hours.

“Ghosts is an amazing game which ushers in the next generation of Call of Duty. The team at Infinity Ward has delivered yet another epic thrill ride in the campaign, and what I think is our best multiplayer game yet,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “This is the must have launch title for the next generation of consoles, and we expect Call of Duty: Ghosts to be the most successful launch title for the Xbox One and PS4 by a wide margin. In fact, according to GameStop, Call of Duty: Ghosts is their most pre-reserved next gen title.”

Train2Game News: Have you won a free Xbox One?

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Xbox OneYou may have won a free Xbox One from Microsoft if you have been a loyal Xbox Live customer. Start checking your emails!

Some users have also been gifted the fully unlocked version of launch title, Killer Instinct. The email states that the recipient will get a version of the game with all characters unlocked from the off. Further instructions will follow on the 22nd, the day of Xbox One’s launch.

This offer has been confirmed as legitimate by Microsoft through their official Xbox twitter account.

Gamers with and without the email have been comparing Xbox Live stats to try and determine Microsoft’s methods for choosing recipients. Some have the Xbox One Pre-order Achievement – but others don’t. Some have been beta testers – others have not. Some have nearly a decade of Xbox Live under their belt – others don’t and some have over 75,000 gamer score – others have around 15,000.

“We don’t have any specifics on that other than that some users have received a gift,” a representative wrote. “We considered a variety of things like Gamerscore, Live tenure and other factors in markets where Xbox One is available.”

Train2Game News: Unity free for Xbox One Developers

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Xbox OneMicrosoft has partnered with the maker of the popular Unity kit to secure free access for all ID@Xbox members to the Xbox One add-on, which is planned for launch next year.

Announced at Gamescom earlier this year, ID@Xbox will allow independent developers to self-publish on Xbox One without fees. Registered users will not be required to pay certification or title update fees, though currently developers “with a proven track record” are being prioritised for registration. Microsoft also said in July that every Xbox One console can be used as a development kit, though the functionality will not be available from launch.

“When released in 2014, the Xbox One add-on for Unity will be available at no cost to all developers in the ID@Xbox program, as will special Xbox One-only Unity Pro seat licenses for Xbox One developers in the ID@Xbox program,” confirmed Microsoft’s ID@Xbox director Chris Charla.

“We want to make sure the dev who’s working away in Omaha, or Coventry, or Chiba will have the same shot to realize their vision on Xbox One as one of my developer friends we hang out with in Seattle or at a trade show like GDC or Gamescom.

“The Unity add-on for Xbox One supports every element of Xbox One, from Kinect to SmartGlass to the impulse triggers of the new controller,” Charla added. “Using Unity, developers will be able to take advantage of all aspects of Xbox One, which is rad. More importantly, Unity is available for Windows and Windows Phone too (and yes, the add-on is available at no cost to developers for Windows Phone and Windows 8 store games). So from one base game, developers can ship their games across all Microsoft platforms.”

Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason has said that while the dev kit will support high-end features that will make use of Xbox One’s additional power, its established toolset will simplify deployment for familiar developers.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games -05.11.13

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Assassin's Creed 4: Black FlagAssassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Battlefield 4 go head to head in a fiercely contested chart that sees Ubisoft’s title take the number one spot.  Both titles appear to be affected by the imminent appearance of both Xbox One and PS4 with neither title matching the sales of its predecessor.  Both Assassin’s Creed III and Battlefield 3 were the highest week one sellers in their respective series and achieved number one in their first week of release.  Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag benefits from its Event Title status having been available from Tuesday this week. Sega land at number six as Football Manager 2014 arrives for PC.  The title sees strong sales although it’s down 7% on Football Manager 2013 which debuted at number four.  Also new this week WWE 2K14 is at number seven and is the first in the popular series to fall under Take 2’s 2K Sports label following its acquisition from previous publisher THQ.

All formats
Week ending 2 November 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG UBISOFT –
2 BATTLEFIELD 4 EA GAMES –
3 – FIFA 14 EA SPORTS 3
4 GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 2
5 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 1
6 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2014 SEGA –
7 WWE 2K14 2K SPORTS –
8 MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT 7
9 SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE SKYLANDERS 4
10 POKEMON Y NINTENDO 6
11 POKEMON X NINTENDO 5
12 JUST DANCE 2014 UBISOFT 10
13 DISNEY INFINITY DISNEY INFINITY 11
14 – LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 14
15 F1 2013 CODEMASTERS 12
16 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 8
17 TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX –
18 TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST UBISOFT 17
19 SAINTS ROW IV DEEP SILVER –
20 MOSHI MONSTERS: KATSUMA UNLEASHED MIND CANDY 9
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News: A Gallant Journey Part 3

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WP_20131027_023GallantCloud’s Wayne Campbell discusses the team’s current project A Knights Tail and the bustling UK development scene.

Hi everyone this is Wayne from Gallant Cloud at the helm of this week’s blog and what an awesome week it has been for the team! We started this week’s project entitled A Knights Tail.

So far building this project has been amazing since we as a team are loving every part of the process. It’s hard work for sure, but we all love what we are doing and we are also meeting some really influential people in the gaming industry and beyond.

We are all absorbing things really fast and as we are halfway through the Microsoft Ventures UK accelerator, this is where we all turn things up even more! We assigned our individual tasks through the new system to keep track so that everyone is up to speed on their task. We have the daily scrum to make sure everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet which has been working brilliantly so far. Everyone has been supportive of one another and pushed each other to achieve their best.

We are all very excited about the things we are doing and planning on doing the future and are very fortunate to be right in in the middle of the melting pot of the game developing world. Earlier this week several of the team members went to the Bossa event, where they were showing off some incredible new things that were happening with the Oculus Rift and it was brilliant to meet some really passionate people.

That is one of the greatest points about being in tech city. There are so many incredible events going on all of the time and so many great people. We have found that joining the community has been like becoming part of the family. All I can say in the words of Ben Cooper: it’s “absolutely awesome.”

We all came from different backgrounds and put together simply with the same vision to make absolutely mega games. I come from South London where it can be kind of tough if you don’t have any direction or will power. I personally would like to make some kind of difference in my community and show that anything is possible if you work hard enough for it.

This weeks event highlights: we had another great session around funding and giving us more direction on where to focus our attention for the business side of the company. There was also a session with the incredible Ben Nunney from Twilio on telling a coherent brand story. We attended a user experience workshop within Central working and had a pitching practice session to get a feel of what to expect later this year. We then had a meeting with Professor Bernie Good, a Cyber-psychologist. It is always a pleasure to talk to her and she has some incredible knowledge and views on video games and their gamers.

This week we also had our monthly start-up meeting. This was a brilliant chance for all of the start-ups on the program to give feedback on how they feel the accelerator has been so far. The Microsoft Ventures UK team really have been brilliant in helping each of the teams realise their full potential and constantly work hard to give our businesses the best chance possible.

Thanks for reading guys and don’t forget to check us out on our website, Facebook and Twitter and obviously our blog each week for new updates on what we are doing!

One love, Wayne

Train2Game News: A Gallant Journey Part 2

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WP_20131027_029GallantCloud’s Paul Rayment discusses how the early stages of the Microsoft Ventures UK Accelerator Programme have gone so far.

GallantCloud, the team of five Train2Game students merged together to create a new and upcoming games studio, are now on Week 4 of the Microsoft Ventures UK Accelerator Programme.

With our mentors onboard, ranging from members of existing high profiled games studios, Microsoft resources, and many others lending their expertise, GallantCloud now have a vast quantity of resources to make use of.

The team and mentors have worked hard and have created a game development curriculum that is unique to GallantCloud and will work alongside the overall curriculum that all Microsoft Ventures UK Accelerator teams are working to.

The GallantCloud curriculum is very geared towards making the most of the teams time in getting ideas out there and filtering those ideas to a smaller number which the team will develop further. To accomplish this we are using a physical whiteboard for those in the office, and then everything is transferred to the digital whiteboard for future analysis.

Everyone on the UK Accelorator Programme has just been really helpful as well as informative. GallantCloud have been granted access to hardware and software that wouldn’t have been possible going it alone. Great things were happening, but now they are happening with greater tools for the job.

Of course it isn’t all work (well it is, but it’s fun!), the Eurogamer Expo that took place in London Earl’s Court was a fantastic opportunity not to be missed.

Being that GallantCloud were all Train2Game students, at the allotted time we took our positions within the GamesIndustry/fair section of Eurogamer in the Train2Game room to talk of our experiences whilst on the Accelerator Programme to train2game students. Day two also saw GallantCloud standing up front talking again. After a great overview of the UK accelerator programme a thunderous applause erupted!

Eurogamer was a great experience and we certainly had fun and took away a lot from it (not just the free loot and photos with cosplayers!). GallantCloud managed to take part in the mass energy and excitement that buzzed throughout the building, gathering ideas and intel on ways to create, present and expand on everything there is to do with getting a game created from the simplest to the complex of ideas.

Technological advances such as eye tracking systems to drive cars with your eyes only (or slice fruits in Fruit Ninja!) were brilliant to witness and experience each piece of innovative technology adding to the way we think about our game ideas.

We invited our followers to join us in our Eurogamer experience, with a constant stream of pictures and updates to our Facebook and Twitter, and received loads of new support and great feedback!

We have achieved a lot and have so much more ahead of us to accomplish. We continue to move forward, each step a discovery.

If someone were to ask us how we feel things are going with the UK Accelerator Programme, things are going incredibly well. There is something happening every day, whether it be a talk from an external party coming in to give insight in to how they got started with their product, or a quick chat with a mentor, a meeting with Microsoft to give updates on our milestones, or actually getting some games created, there is always productivity taking place.