The new Xbox podcast made by resetera members Kaironaut Shpeshal Ed FUNKNOWN iXi and Sikamikanico had a special guest. They've recorded a three hour podcast with the creative director at Xbox Game Studios who has worked on games like Red Alert, Killer Instinct and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
During the podcast they talk Monty Python, Ori, Killer Instinct, Red Alert and Age of Empires. I've tried to make some timestamps:
3:30 - Start of Adam's career
20:00 - Red Alert (Tanya, the Einstein scenes and more)
25:00 - Killer Instinct (Double Helix, Iron Galaxy, netcode of fighting games, Smash & Banjo)
34:50 - Biggest pet peeve game design principle
39:45 - Ori and Moon Studios
1:01:00 - Age of Empires
1:12:10 - Xbox and Age of Empires?
1:12:12 - Controllers
1:19:00 - Xbox and Age of Empires again
1:24:00 - Gears 5
1:28:20 - Xbox Game Studios - length of game
1:42:50 - Transparency in gaming industry, cost of making games
This Is what he said during Q&A session (by reddit source)
Essentially Adam Isgreen (the creative director of AOE franchise) was asked about AOE4 and gave couple of vague high level answers.
He didn't confirm that they will reveal it at XO19, instead went along with the "wink wink nudge nudge" method that we got from Gamescom.
About development, he said that everyone (in-house supervising studio at MS, Relic, FE, and Tantalus in Australia) takes it super seriously to develop the games (3 DEs + AOE4). They want to preserve and stay true to that feeling which makes AOE what it is.
Coming from the background of developing C&C and Red Alert franchise, Isgreen mentioned about bringing mechanics and ideas from other RTS games to AOE, for example, right-click-and-drag map scrolling. He could not withstand the archaic method of moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. According to him, the new scrolling mechanics is in all the DEs, but not AOE4 yet which frustrates (jokingly) him a lot.
There's also mentioning of some innovations to spice up some mundane and boring part of the genre. One example he talked about is how the resource gathering is usually very boring, but in Red Alert 2 they made it more interesting by introducing different harvesting trucks to different factions (teleporting Allies, armored Soviet). Relic and he have had a lot of meetings to discuss what kind of ideas and innovations are worth the effort and budget to put in the game. They don't want to "bring change for changes' sake".
All 4 games had pre-alpha (maybe beta, I forgot the terminology he used) playtesting already. For AOE4, some die-hard fans of the old games were quite shocked and "intense" to changes made to AOE4 (sounds like AOE4 will be kind of revolutionary to the franchise). He used the analogy of "7 stages of grief" (I believe it should be 5 stages but whatever) saying that those fans became softer and more welcoming to the changes later on.
To summarise, he was extremely evasive on AOE4 saying that he didn't want to leak anything about the game (time setting, new mechanics etc.). But one thing is quite obvious TO ME: AOE4 will be a quite different game. Hopefully we can soon find out whether it can capture the magic of previous games or not at XO19.
rutiretan
Essentially Adam Isgreen (the creative director of AOE franchise) was asked about AOE4 and gave couple of vague high level answers.
He didn't confirm that they will reveal it at XO19, instead went along with the "wink wink nudge nudge" method that we got from Gamescom.
About development, he said that everyone (in-house supervising studio at MS, Relic, FE, and Tantalus in Australia) takes it super seriously to develop the games (3 DEs + AOE4). They want to preserve and stay true to that feeling which makes AOE what it is.
Coming from the background of developing C&C and Red Alert franchise, Isgreen mentioned about bringing mechanics and ideas from other RTS games to AOE, for example, right-click-and-drag map scrolling. He could not withstand the archaic method of moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. According to him, the new scrolling mechanics is in all the DEs, but not AOE4 yet which frustrates (jokingly) him a lot.
There's also mentioning of some innovations to spice up some mundane and boring part of the genre. One example he talked about is how the resource gathering is usually very boring, but in Red Alert 2 they made it more interesting by introducing different harvesting trucks to different factions (teleporting Allies, armored Soviet). Relic and he have had a lot of meetings to discuss what kind of ideas and innovations are worth the effort and budget to put in the game. They don't want to "bring change for changes' sake".
All 4 games had pre-alpha (maybe beta, I forgot the terminology he used) playtesting already. For AOE4, some die-hard fans of the old games were quite shocked and "intense" to changes made to AOE4 (sounds like AOE4 will be kind of revolutionary to the franchise). He used the analogy of "7 stages of grief" (I believe it should be 5 stages but whatever) saying that those fans became softer and more welcoming to the changes later on.
To summarise, he was extremely evasive on AOE4 saying that he didn't want to leak anything about the game (time setting, new mechanics etc.). But one thing is quite obvious TO ME: AOE4 will be a quite different game. Hopefully we can soon find out whether it can capture the magic of previous games or not at XO19.
Edit: To the folks worrying about that drastic changes will be made to resource gathering, please calm down I didn't do Isgreen enough justice. This is just one example he gave using Red Alert 2 since he cannot leak anything about AOE4, when talking about new ideas in the general RTS genre. It's definitely not the case that the same will happen in AOE4. Besides, we had asymmetric villagers in AOM and AOE3 before and I personally find them to be pretty good.
One more thing I forgot to mention is that when talking about creative freedom, Isgreen said that when they did the campaign/story for AOE4, they dug into historical events and found out that some are very reminiscent of game modes. He said something along the line that he's surprised nobody has made these events into a game yet. Again, he didn't say what time period the game is set in. But I think we can perhaps deduce a little:
1. It's not set in the future.
2. It has historical events that are not too familiar to Americans. So probably other continents.
3. The events surprised them when they were doing research. So probably not a recent time period as recent history should be more well-documented and well-known.
Jim Sterling | Loot Boxes Condemned By The Church Of England:
The Bishop of St. Albans has weighed in on loot boxes following the UK House of Commons report. Yes, the Church of England has opinions on in-game gambling!
While I'm not exactly a holy man myself, I do find it amusing to see the game industry getting it from all corners. The pasting that publishers are taking in the press is well deserved, too. They earned this with their arrogant ignorance of the issue.
It was revealed a month ago that BL3 use Denuvo (third-party DRM) to prevent piracy.
Many steam gamers consider this malware.
Borderlands 3 will use Denuvo:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/borderlands-3/denuvo
The release of Borderlands 3 is impending, and its PC deployment has brought along no shortage of controversy. It’ll be a timed exclusive to the Epic Games store, and now we know Borderlands 3 will make use of that most derided DRM solution: Denuvo anti-tamper.
In a recent set of store page redesigns, the Epic store’s Borderlands 3 landing has been updated to mention that it “incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo anti-tamper.” Users on the PC Gaming subreddit quickly noted the addition (via VG247). At a minimum, you can expect this to mean that future Epic store releases with extra DRM will tell you as much on the store page.
Denuvo’s not foolproof, but it has proven effective in keeping many 2019 releases from being torrented for months at a time – though some versions of the software have still been cracked very quickly. The Epic store’s internal, Steam-like DRM is pretty light, and many games will run just fine without the launcher even being installed.
DRM measures are typically most focused on protecting a game from piracy during the early days of its launch. Some triple-A titles have seen fit to remove Denuvo in a patch some time after release, like Hitman 2 and Rage 2.
glowpipe
Needless to say. This was discovered early in the crackwatch comment section. A lot of people waiting for the crack did just this. Which i think is kinda moronic. Giving randy even more sales to boast about. No way he reports sales and remove all the refunds
This photo was posted on the Crackwatch page of BL3, claimed to be taken from a denuvo hacking server.
It could be wrong, but considering what epic has done until this point for money.. I would think twice.
Either Randy is lying about sales numbers/concurrent players or EGS exclusives had a big victory?
TheQuartering | Randy Pitchford Declares Victory Over Steam! Borderlands 3 Sales Numbers:
Inside Gaming Daily | Borderlands 3 is Broken, Still a Hit Somehow:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1846/184606.htm
75.Much of the evidence that we received from gamers critiqued the loot box mechanics in Electronic Arts’s FIFA series. In the game’s ‘Ultimate Team’ mode, players build their own football team by buying virtual ‘packs’ containing a randomised selection of footballers. To purchase these packs, players use ‘coins’ that are earned in the game and ‘points’ purchased for real-world money. In 2016, EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen told investors that the Ultimate Team mode accounted for roughly half of the $1.3 billion the company makes from extra digital content—that is equivalent to $650 million in annual revenue, in addition to that generated by units sales of the full games.143
76.Electronic Arts releases a new game in the FIFA series every year. However, with each new release, players’ teams are not transferred over and therefore they must rebuild their teams by purchasing more packs to acquire the best players. One gamer told us that this cycle resulted in them spending “almost £800 to £1000 a year annually on FIFA”.144 Another gamer told us that because a pack’s contents “directly affects gameplay because some players are not as good as others”, it incentivises people to keep buying packs in the hope of getting better players and, therefore, performing better in the game. They told us that:
in order to compete, players feel like they need to buy hundreds, if not thousands, of £s worth of packs in order to get the best players. Children are especially vulnerable because they lack the maturity to understand that these purchases are manipulative, and their parents may not understand that these purchases are entirely unnecessary.145
77.Moreover, because the probability of securing some footballers in a pack is less than 1%, some gamers have expressed frustration at spending vast amounts without receiving the desired reward.146 To tackle the issue of speculative spending on loot boxes, one player recommended that:
the sale of items in game, cosmetic or otherwise, should only be allowed via direct purchase or via achievements unlocked through in game actions. In a loot box type system the player, typically, has a very small chance of unlocking the item they actually want. This encourages further spending on loot boxes in order to get the item they want.147
78.We put some of these concerns to Kerry Hopkins from Electronic Arts, who responded that the way they have implemented this mechanic in FIFA “is quite ethical and quite fun”.148 Yet this is noticeably out of step with the attitude of many of the gamers who contacted us following our evidence session, including those who vehemently rejected her characterisation of packs not as loot boxes but as “surprise mechanics”.149 One gamer called the company’s testimony to us “a bare face lie”, and another told us that the company has:
heavily marketed and referred to their systems as ‘loot boxes’ for several years and […] the mechanics of the system are exactly the same no matter what they choose to call it.150
79.We recommend that loot boxes that contain the element of chance should not be sold to children playing games, and instead in-game credits should be earned through rewards won through playing the games. In the absence of research which proves that no harm is being done by exposing children to gambling through the purchasing of loot boxes then we believe the precautionary principle should apply and they are not permitted in games played by children until the evidence proves otherwise.
LegacyKillaHD | The UK Government finally has ruled against greedy gaming publishers like EA, Bethesda & Activision in a massive new report! 13. sep. 2019
Call for gaming loot box ban:
Gamers are creating huge bills in popular games like FIFA and Fortnite without knowing.
MPs say loot boxes should be recognised as a form of gambling and banned from being sold to children.
Loot boxes contain mystery in-game items, tempting players with the chance any of them could contain something of huge value.
An EA spokesperson told Sky News:
“We have an ongoing commitment to player safety and well-being whenever they are playing our games or engaging in our communities.
"We will continue to look at how we can contribute to productive research and solutions for the topics raised in this report, and we look forward to continuing our ongoing dialogue with the U.K. government.”
The British government should regulate loot boxes under gambling law, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.
After nearly nine months of evidence gathering, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee today published its 84-page report into immersive and addictive technologies.
Chief among its list of recommendations were that paid loot boxes should be regulated under gambling law, and there be a ban on selling them to children.
The inquiry took evidence from all corners of the industry -- including developers, trade bodies, and academics -- and reported a "lack of honesty and transparency" among social media and game company representatives.
Take-Two | Borderlands 3 bait and switch marketing?
This is big if true.
Also, it appears that Take-Two used defamation/lies to shut down SupMatto's YouTube channel (Borderlands 3 Leak Scapegoat).
Defamation like this is illegal in many western countries.
Allegedly gamers close to SupMatto claim that Take-Two are planning bait and switch marketing. This follows a growing trend where games such as Fallout 76 and CoD: Black Ops release without MTX/loot box to avoid negative PR/reviews.
Then post-launch after the review cycle they add new predatory MTX/loot boxes.
Thx to Upper Echelon Gamers for doing some investigative journalism into this BL3 mess.
7:55 - Some new info confirm SupMatto did nothing wrong.
Quotes from Upper Echelon Gamers comments:
Sum FãggOtt
Take two is run by idiots. Why would they attack a guy who’s practically giving their game free advertisement?
Sealedinterface
Because they're afraid that the information leaking early will cost them pre-orders once it gets revealed in full. They think the only hype people will have will come from their own official sources, and hype coming from unofficial leaks is costing them money.
Why SupMatto?
They wanted to make an example to drive fear into all BL3 youtubers, and SupMatto was just big enough to make people notice, and just small enough to get crushed without legal resistance.
Enclavefakesoldier
I remember seeing someone comment in one of UEGs videos a few weeks ago who claimed he came from matto's discord. The reason take two axed him is because BL3 will have post launch DLC after the review cycle. Basically pulling what activision did with CTR
OblivionSA
@Enclavefakesoldier I remember seeing this as well. I want to say it was in the comments for YongYea or maybe TheQuartering. They had indicated it was because some of the info he had may have been about their plans to add loot boxes and other monetization to the game right after all the reviews were released. They didn't want that getting out so people would still buy their game thinking it was micro-transaction free as I believe they had promised. Then they can use the games as a service excuse to force an update with all the monetization crammed in without getting any of the bad PR and lost sales from reviews mentioning it up front.
Kelvin
And it was good advertising lol. One game I play did the opposite, they give leaks to the more proeminent youtubers from the community, the lead developer often joins in video streams with them to discuss about the development, and they even hired a programmer that created one of the most used third-party tools for this game.
crazyinsane
Many people covered it. However, they all said the same thing and didn't follow up on it. In fact, Yong is a terrible offender in this regard as he, unironically and unquestioningly, used IGN and Kotaku as a primary source. Nobody bothered trying to reach out to Submatto, his fans, or anyone else involved besides 2k up until now. I'm pretty sure, nobody else has addressed much of the misinformation campaign by 2k as spread by IGN and Inside Gaming. UEG is doing something very unusual by actually looking into the situation more in-depth than any of his contemporaries, who likely won't issue a follow-up to correct widespread misinformation.
Cornelius Dobeneck
In Germany it is a serious crime to openly claim someone committed a crime when he/she did not. In Supmattos case this claim cost him his "job" and he should sue the outlets who said so pointing out that their lies destroyed his live and endangered the well being of his family. Should be interesting. In addition to that this whole thing need to be published more and T2 boycotted. They need us, we do not need them.
Derek Capron
When the dust settles, I genuinely I wish that Supmatto would find the means to file a lawsuit against them as a corp and hell on an individual stand point. This falls under defamation of character and I am sure there is an attorney out there that would find several other avenues to attack at. The reality though is the cost of that would be extensive and the legal battle very arduous. It is a damn shame where this industry has gone, from the once loved and revered aspect that it was to what adulterated abomination it is now.
Dropy thx for sharing, fun watch . 9.502.828 views now.
Unfortunately, Fallout 76 gullible fans keep defending this bait and switch. So this p2w shitfest is not over.
Bellular News | LIES & GREED | Bethesda STUFF Fallout 76 With Even MORE P2W Microtransactions:
Today we have yet another absurd story from Fallout 76. While there have been glimmers of hope for the game, with content updates adding new content, that has not applied to microtransactions, where the game is steadily getting worse. Bare in mind that Bethesda initially said that the game would only contain cosmetic microtransactions only. Well, times sure have changed, and it’s no wonder why people find it so darn hard to trust the once loved developer.
*SNIP*
But that’s not all, Bethesda used the “none predatory Atomic Shop” narrative as an actual marketing tool during E3 2018 and PAX Aus 2018. Publication site vgr.com even cited GameSpot‘s interview with Hines on the “none pay-to-win” system:
“All the content we ever put out for Fallout 76, all the DLC, all the post-launch stuff, is going to be free. That’s important. And to say, the Atomic Shop is cosmetic stuff. To make sure folks understand. Look, there’s a line. There are people who have crossed it, but we’re going to stay on the right side of it in terms of the things you can spend money on and how this stuff works and what you’re getting for your $60. That you know, when they put out new content or features or whatever, I’m getting that stuff for free. That feels right.”
Looking back further than October 2018, back in August 2018, Hines and crew were using the “cosmetic only” narrative as a selling point on social media too:
Fast forward to today, and we now see a refrigerator that can keep food from spoiling by 50% is now in the Atomic Shop as per the latest update:
The disgusting part about this is how Bethesda used a marketing tactic of “sincerity” or “transparency” to ride the “good train” during a time when the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 debacle was simmering down and when Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey microtransaction controversies were picking up.
And as of now, Bethesda hasn’t even addressed said cosmetic marketing lie, which in turn has kicked up apologist defending the company’s egregious actions.
Lastly, the latest update for Fallout 76 brings a list of things, but one of them is a stat altering refrigerator that runs for $7 in the Atomic Shop — which is supposedly a cosmetic place only.
Everspace 2 devs talk about Epic's and Valve's storefronts: "Without Epic, Rockfish and Everspace wouldn't exist, but it's the same with Steam"; "Valve has the best platform, by far, to roll out a game as an independent developer"
*SNIP*
"Plus, our hardcore fans are on Steam," Schade adds. "They have already said 'Please don't do it. We just don't want it.' You don't even have to discuss whether this is reasonable or not. If they don't want it, they don't want it, and more than 100,000 people bought Everspace in Early Access. They would be mad at us.
Denmark
I didn't do Isgreen enough justice. This is just one example he gave using Red Alert 2 since he cannot leak anything about AOE4, when talking about new ideas in the general RTS genre. It's definitely not the case that the same will happen in AOE4. Besides, we had asymmetric villagers in AOM and AOE3 before and I personally find them to be pretty good.
. 9.502.828 views now.
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SturmTigerCobra
DonnieChan
Inane EliteVideoGameMasturbater
SturmTigerCobra
Relic Entertainment
