Ben Kuchera Joins Polygon

One of the go-to sites for gaming industry editorial and reportage has gained a hell of a new set of fingers. His first post for the site is insightful and as sharp as one expects from Kuchera, looking at the phenomenon of unfinished games succeeding in sales:

This is a controversial one, but you need only look at popular games such as Starbound, Don’t Starve, Planetary Annihilation, DayZ, Nuclear Throne, Rust and Kerbal Space Program to see how many people are taking advantage of the ability to sell a game before it’s "done," and making their community part of the development effort.

Esper-ation

Square Enix just dropped Final Fantasy V on iOS and Android, recently announced Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (a sequel with an awful literal title released to phones in Japan) for this winter, and have now told Kotaku that Final Fantasy VI is on the way too.

You would think the big sales success of these would result in porting of many more Role-Playing Games of yesteryear, but they Japanese studios are playing the Disney Vault approach with these as ever.  RPGs work on touch (even better with tilt support), whereas platformers are a mess.

I'm so big a fan especially of FFIV that I considered buying a PSVita at one point just so I could finally play the sequel.  FFVI is right neck-and-neck with IV as my favorite in the series. I've wanted them legitimately on my phone for ages. If only there were an "original graphics mode"...

Kiefer Sutherland as Solid Snake →

Polygon reports on the controversy of the day in gaming and voice casting. As I noted a little over a month ago, a Metal Gear  game without David Hayter as the voice of Snake is a tough pill to swallow for fans who've followed him in the role for 15 years. I've yet to see anyone thrilled about Solid Snake suddenly sounding like Jack Bauer.

"The themes are a little different from previous games in the series," Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima said of Sutherland's casting. "We're taking on some heavy subjects, like race and revenge. As a result, I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice, rather than words."

The Phantom Pain takes place in 1984, Kojima said, and the developer wanted an actor who could "genuinely convey" Snake as he would look and sound in his late 40s.

"It's different from anything we've done before," Kojima said, explaining that he turned to producer Avi Arad for assistance, who referred him to Sutherland. "I felt that he was the perfect fit, in terms of age and performance," Kojima added.

Maybe this is a fake out, which Kojima has done before. Maybe the "primary" Snake Sutherland plays is yet another clone or something.

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FINAL FANTASY 9: The Undiscovered Side Quest

I played through this game over Thanksgiving break right after it came out, but I don't remember much outside some of the major cutscenes. It was to be one part huge, sprawling adveture, and an equal part full of Final Fantasy series fanservice, in-jokes, and references. I would probably re-play it if they remastered it for HD.

I worked at a videogame store then called FuncoLand (now consumed whole by GameStop), where we actively advised against getting the strategy guide because it was utterly useless. The Final Fantasy IX Official Strategy Guide, as noted by Kotaku, told you to go to the (shortly-thereafter defunct) PlayOnline website for just about everything. 13 years later, a completely unknown side quest has been discovered (found by a NeoGAF poster), as seen in the video below. Go to the YouTube page for more info in the About description:

This is a side quest on disc 4 that was unknown to most FFIX players until yesterday when a topic popped up on the FFIX message board at GameFAQs. It was discovered by The_Kusabi_ (through the Ultimania guide) and confirmed by MysterPixel. Naturally, I had to check it out and I decided to record a video.

An Endless Quest in the Shadow of COLOSSUS

One of my favorite longreads of last week is the years-long story of dedicated gamers searching every square inch of the classic PS2 platformer Shadow of the Colossus for undiscovered secrets, including a fabled hidden end boss.

Indie Dev Cracks Their Game for (and to Defeat) Pirates

A great story, linked by John Gruber last week. I now own this game, even though I may not have time to play it as obsessively as "Tycoon"-type games generally make you wish you could.

Valiant Goes 8-Bit with Harbinger Wars

CBR has a great interview with the Valiant guys about their upcoming 8-Bit-style iOS and Android game adaptation of their first big crossover event since re-launching their line, Harbinger Wars:

CBR News: A retro, 8-bit mobile game isn't unheard of, but it's certainly unusual when it comes to comic book-based video games in this era. How exactly did this project begin and where did the idea to deal exclusively in 8-bit come from?

Dinesh Shamdasani: We announced a series of 8-bit covers for our June books, and they got a tremendous response. What happened is we were all sitting around -- we do brainstorming meetings, and we were coming up with creative ideas, marketing ideas, sales ideas -- and Warren Simons had recently seen "Wreck-It Ralph." We were all talking about the proliferation of 8-bit style and how genius that movie was and how much fun it is. He pitched doing Valiant characters in 8-bit. Atom Freeman, our sales manager, knew Matthew White, who did the covers for us. He hooked us up with Matthew, who did a test piece that actually ended up being the "Planet Death" "X-O Manowar" cover. That hasn't changed from the test piece he did with no direction. It was fun, it was cool, we really liked it and we started talking about how we wanted to play that game. I had a chat with Russ and said, "Man, it would be so cool [to play that game]." Russ said he knew the perfect person for that. Russ and Steve Newton knew each other from doing Marvel with DSI. We sat down with the Storm City guys and everybody was on the same page and the 8-bit covers were announced. … We were totally gung-ho about doing the game and that's how we hooked up with Steve Newton and Storm City, and Steve brought in Dan Kitchen, who's been tremendous.

I interviewed Valiant CEO (then CCO) Dinesh Shamdasani on Giant Size back in the show's earliest days.

"Xbox Next" Always-On is Bad, That MS Doesn't Care is Worse (For Them)

Polygon's Samit Sarkar writes a really solid piece connecting the rumors and speculation about Microsoft's "Next Xbox" to recent comments by one of their Creative Directors on Twitter:

"Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console," said Adam Orth, a creative director at Microsoft Studios, amid a new report that Microsoft's next-generation console will require an internet connection to play games. "Every device now is 'always on.' That's the world we live in." Orth ended the tweet with a #dealwithit hashtag.

Last June, The Verge reported rumors that the new Xbox would be "always-on", if effect requiring an internet connection to play any game. This applies to games that don't have network features or have ones you may choose not to use.

This is the same kind of DRM that has wreaked havoc with the launches of Diablo III and SimCity. The rumblings and leaks indicate we'll see games including some sort of registration code that breaks the concept of (heaven forbid) loaning or borrowing physical copies of games.

"I want every device to be 'always on,'" Orth tweeted later. In response to someone who said he knows Xbox 360 owners who don't have internet access, Orth said, "Those people should definitely get with the times and get the internet. It's awesome."

He has since made his Twitter account private, but screenshots of the tweets are available on NeoGAF in a thread that now runs for more than 100 pages, and in a post that was at the top of Reddit for some time yesterday. Orth's comments have already reached meme status, including a lengthy, profane Dark Knight Rises-based GIF that draws the battle lines in the next-generation console war.

If there's any one thing most threatening the vice grip of traditional console gaming, it's the "brogrammer", frat house atmosphere that permeates the voices of many of the most visible names in gaming. Sarkar's piece goes on to include quotes of support from within the "cool kids" circle. The worst thing you can do when your audience revolts is to effectively tell them "Tough shit! Get with the program, you stupid dorks!".

This is what happens when those at the top of an industry mistake influence and power for being able to control their customer base.

"Torment: Tides of Numenera" Kickstarter Tops $4M in a Month

Reported by Polygon, this is one of the many stories coming out of game development houses being able to connect directly to their fan/customer/demand base. The days of needing a publisher are coming rapidly to a close. Agile, dynamic marketing and engagement are the new keys to the castle.

Disney Closes LucasArts

I was afraid this would happen. The moment the Disney deal got announced, I worried most about LucasArts landing at a company that was on track to end all internal development. LucasArts was not the same company it was during what people consider its golden age, but it was still full of talented people doing interesting work.

In this statement to Game Informer, they confirm the closure of the legendary development house and confirm that future Star Wars games will be sub-licensed externally in the future.

Would it have killed them to announce the layoffs before GDC so that developers could network and look for work there?

They comment further to indicate that the hotly-anticipated Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault are not necessarily dead, and could find themselves a home:

Website Kotaku is reporting that 150 LucasArts employees have been laid off, and that the games Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313 have been cancelled. However, the representative we spoke to said that the company is also evaluating its options regarding projects currently in development, which could be licensed out to external development and publishing partners:

"It is worth noting that we are looking for proven external partners who can help us provide video games to our fans. We still believe in the video game industry, we still will provide Star Wars games, we're just looking at different models rather than internal production... They're evaluating everything. There's always a possibility that it [Star Wars 1313] can still come out via licensing."

The representative also remarked on the general mood at the studio today, which, understandably, is not upbeat:

"It's super sad. It's a terrible day. I want to make sure everyone realizes that there still will be Star Wars games out there."

"Super sad", huh, bro? Great word choice, and yes, of course there will still be Star Wars videogames out there. I think your audience actually cares more about the fate of the developers that make the games they care about. They aren't so dim as to assume that one of the most lucrative franchises in gaming history was going to suddenly stop making piles of cash.

I'll spare you the Alderaan "voices cry out" reference with regard to the few hundred super-talented people without jobs as of today. They deserve more respect than that or how this big heave-ho is being press-released. Here's hoping they all land on their feet and get to do work that is rewarding and means something to them.

Before we start down that road, everyone would be kidding themselves if they think Disney will let go of Secret of Money Island, Day of the Tentacle, or Grim Fandango (or sub-license them, for that matter).

Commander Keen Creator Tom Hall Announces Sequel

...in a manner of speaking. Like he explained in Screen Time 22 "Pure Game Language", the Commander Keen IP is still owned my malevolent bastards who have no interest in selling (my words not his). His new platform game creation tool will include the "spiritual sequel", Secret Spaceship Club. For more, here's my post at Ain't It Cool News on the subject.