The Midagedgamer Report for July 26, 2013
This Week:
Xbox Live goes dead, Battlefield 4's biggest feature, Indie
win on Xbox 1 and more!
So, aren't you glad that Microsoft didn't listen to all
those nervous Nellie's who petitioned to have the original Xbox 1 DRM put
back? The XBox Live outage apparently took a lot of subscribers by surprise on July 23rd around
noon Pacific time. The outage affected everything that had anything to do
with gaming and Windows. That means Xbox
live logons, Games for Windows (as if it wasn't bad enough when it did work)
and Windows Phone not to mention Windows 8.
This follows previous outages on June 20th, July 3rd and July 8th. Other outages weren't as long as this most
recent event which spanned the better part of 24 hours by some reports. While no specific details about the cause of
the outage were mentioned, Microsoft returned its Xbox status page to all
green status on Early Thursday morning.
So much for the cloud eh?
All those people that dismiss these kinds of events as trivial forget
how much turmoil they cause when they do happen. Cloud services are convenient but not a
given.
I've got a feeling Battlefield 4 is going to suck. The story isn't all that original for one
thing. I mean c'mon now, the Chinese teaming
up with the Russians were the best bad guys Dice could come up with? Now they're touting their updated Battlelog
service for its statistical and social features. I wouldn't buy a car based on the ability to
integrate with social networks and I wouldn't buy a game based on it either.
Focus Dice, focus!
Seems Microsoft is showing a little love to independent game developers who don't have a publisher for its
upcoming Xbox 1 console. In what's been
described as a reversal of policy, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for
Xbox has promised Independent game developers access to the Xbox marketplace
and an equal footing with major game publishers.
"Our vision is that
every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development.
That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of
Xbox One and Xbox Live. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the
cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox Live. We'll have
more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August.”
Reaction has ranged from cautiously optimistic to
suspicious. Sony and Nintendo currently
have similar indie friendly policies for game development on their respective
platforms. That means Microsoft would be
the odd man out if they didn't do likewise.
It was around this time last year that news broke that Vivendi, the majority stakeholder in
Activision/Blizzard, was looking to dump the software publisher to shore up its
own portfolio. This week Activision
announced that it was buying back $5.83 billion in shares (429 million) from then majority stakeholder
Vivendi. The move averted a potential
Vivendi raid on Activision's cash reserves of 3 Billion USD in what would have
been described as a "special dividend."
That could have left
Activision cash poor and in the worst case, potentially in a similar position
to the now defunct game publisher THQ. Activision
CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly plan to purchase another 172
million shares for another$ 2.34 billion.
When it's all said and done Vivendi will only hold a 12% stake in the
company and no longer retain a controlling interest.
As much as I hate the antics of the huge game publishers, I
hate corporate leeches even more so this move is a very good thing indeed in my
book.
Finally,
About a week ago I picked up a really good deal during the
Steam Summer Sale. Poker Night 2 which launched
in April this year from Telltale games is unlike any video poker game you've
ever played. With characters from
Borderlands, Sam and Max, Evil Dead and the Venture Brothers it's like sitting
down to a friendly game with a few pop culture friends.
There's two variations of play available; Texas Hold 'em and
Omaha. Side bets occur automatically as
do blind bets. Don't count on the antics
of any of the characters giving you a "tell" either. I've lost enough hands to learn that the hard
way.
I may not last 30 seconds in Vegas at a game of Texas Hold
'em but I'm sure I'll be spending many hours with Poker Night 2.
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