Redbox Joins #NoDRM Campaign As Response To XboxOne Used Games Policy. Asks Users To Give Opinions On State of Gaming Industry’s Future

Hahahaha…. wait this isn’t funny.

Redbox is joining the hashtag #NoDRM Twitter campaign and asking Redbox users to give their opinions on the state of the gaming industry, the controversy over the XboxOne Used Games and PS4 Used Games policies, and where they think the videogame industry is headed in the future.

The official Redbox Gaming Site Gamingfuture.net, a forum asking people to post their thoughts on the new policies of the XboxOne and possibly PS4, was linked in a text message sent to members of the RedBox “Text Club” (a Redbox service that offers promos and information on new movies and games at Redbox kiosks via text to members).

In that text they linked to the new website, asking people to discuss the “future of videogaming” with the following message:

“Have you heard about what’s coming? Reports say that Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 might have enhanced graphics, enhanced motion control, cloud-based storage, new games and experiences. But you might not be able to play without an Internet connection, lend games freely, buy used games or rent games. What excites you about the future of gaming… and what concerns you?”

Redbox Vice President of Business Development also tweeted,
“Pretty important time in the history of video games. Weigh in at GamingFuture.net.”

Lots of people have heeded the message from Redbox and posted their thoughts on the site.

To be fair, the XboxOne WILL allow you to rent games, however they can only be rented from specific retailers who take part in Microsoft’s system that allows them to know and track every person who buy’s their games. XboxOne games will then be linked to your profile, wherefore you and your family members can play any games in your collection from any XboxOne using your profile ID.

However for that convenience, you will no longer be able to simply give your friend a game and lend games out for longer than 24 hours. You’ll have to connect online every 24 hours, and lent games will have to go through Microsoft’s online system to have the digital rights transferred from your system to their’s if you give them your game. So while buying XboxOne Used Games remains intact, renting and lending games to your friends quickly and easily is a apparently a thing of the past, as is offline gaming without an Internet connection for any extended period of longer than a day…

Here’s a fun video of a Redbox “Gamebox” kiosk in action, where Redbox tested not just the renting of videogames, but the PURCHASING of new games (or used) via a kiosk system in 2009. Apparently these things aren’t around anymore… I think it’s a great idea however.

 

GameCube WiiU Controller Device Released. Allows Use of GameCube Controller On WiiU Unofficially

Use the gamecube controller on WiiU! YES!

How do I use a GameCube controller on WiiU you ask? A lot of people wonder this, and thankfully a company has stepped up to fill in the gap with a nifty device!

A new peripheral that retails for $17 by third-party peripheral company Mayflash called the “GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii & Wii U“, allows you to plug a GameCube controller directly into your WiiU!

I should note that this device has gotten good reviews despite looking a little sketchy just by staring at the packaging. People report it working nearly flawlessly, but it’s worth noting that you can only use the GameCube Controller for WiiU games that support the WiiU Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro, it won’t work with every game.

Other nifty features of this accessory include:
* Built-in Turbo Button Support.
* Compatibility with all games supported by the Wii Classic Controller.
* Compatibility with all games supported by the Wii Classic Controller Pro.
* A, B, X, Y, L, R and Z Buttons can be customized.

Hopefully Nintendo will get behind this and make it an official accessory, how else will we play Super Smash Bros. 4?

In case you didn’t know, GameCube controller support as well as the ability to use GameCube Memory Cards and play GameCube games, was cut from the WiiU, which only supports the ability to play original Wii games.

The original Wii itself was backwards compatible with the GameCube and all GameCube games would work on the system, as well as most accessories (however GameCube support on Wii was axed with all systems in the “Wii Family Edition” 2011 bundles and forward, including the Wii’s that are bundled with New Super Mario Bros. or Wii Sports & Wii Sports Resort). Whereas the WiiU is backwards compatible with Wii but NOT GameCube. So if you are two generations ahead, then it will only support the previous generation, not the generation two generations back.

I definitely will be picking one of these up myself! Gotta love the GameCube pad which is just about as perfect as a controller gets IMHO.

 

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Videos Coming Soon

AMAZING! :O Someone drew this in the AC art editor!

I am currently in the process of recording videos for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and will have a Let’s Play uploaded soon.

I’ve ran into a pretty big setback due to the small amount of hard drive space I have left and the fact that I never compressed any of my Let’s Play videos… resulting in huge amounts of hard drive space being taken up and very little left to save new videos. I’ll also have an “evolving” text review going up soon.

I’ve also just been lazy in updating, but that will change once E3 2013 hits very soon here, at which point I will switch into full gear!

 

Does PS4 Block Used Games? No Says Sony. Does PS4 Require Always Online? Also No

Does PS4 block used games? Does it require always online? No says Sony, according to some comments by the House That PlayStation Built going all the way back to February 2013.

The President of Sony Worldwide, Shuhei Yoshida, was quoted in February as saying, matter-of-factly, that the PS4 will neither block used games nor require an always online Internet connection.

However there is a pretty big catch. While Used Games will not be blocked at all, whether DRM is used or not on used games is being left up to the publisher, so if Ubisoft or EA or Activision desires to control the way you access their games, they can do that.

President of Sony America also said the following to market analyst Michael Pachter,
“He said, ‘for the record, I’m totally opposed to blocking used games. I think it’s great for the consumer that they can buy those. We have a customer that buys our console late in the cycle, pays less, is looking for value priced games, and I think it would be anti-consumer for us to do that.”

More details on these comments will surely be made at E3 2013 in only 10 days (June 11-13), but at this point it has already been rumored that Sony completely scrapped plans it DID have in place to limit used games following the XboxOne Used Games controversy.

 

WoW2 or Titan MMO From Blizzard Scrapped. Delayed To 2016

World of Warcraft 2 or the Titan MMO from Blizzard, the follow-up Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game to the phenomenon that is WoW, has reportedly been completely scrapped by Blizzard, who are going to recreate the game from the ground up again. To that end, Titan has been officially delayed until at least 2016!

That means over three more years straight of World of Warcraft… and who knows, I wouldn’t be surprised if we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of WoW even after Titan launches.

Blizard announced that the team of 100 developers that had been working on Titan, have been lowered to 70 positions, and Blizzard has re-assigned many of the developers to other projects instead, while the core team starts over on Titan. 2016 is the date Titan is scheduled to hit “at the earliest”, so it very well could go beyond that.

You have to wonder if Titan was too similar to WoW or didn’t re-invent the wheel enough, because that’s a pretty drastic step to scrap the whole thing after several years of development have already been put into the project!

Of course, you also have to realize what a giant cashcow World of Warcraft is for Blizzard… for them to “fix the wheel that isn’t broken” would be quite a drastic thing and could backfire on them… So if they are going to follow up WoW, then they must make sure that the game is absolutely the most phenomenal thing you’ve ever seen. So until that point, then Blizzard will undoubtedly keep delaying Titan until it’s absolutely perfect.

To put things into some kind of perspective, World of Warcraft generates over $1 billion dollars over only a couple of years and has been doing so for years, and has literally MILLIONS of people who subscribe and pay for the game monthly. Although in the last couple of years the amount of subscribers to WoW has dropped, from a high of 12 million to 10 million last year, and now to 8 million players that subscribe in 2013. This drop may suggest that a new MMO is needed from Blizzard to re-invigorate things. Even so, millions of subscribers is nothing to scoff at!

Remember however that this is Blizzard, and Blizzard is known for delaying their games for as long as they want, often for years, until they get the games as perfect as possible. And Blizzard has even gone as far as cancelling projects that have been in the works for years if they believe they aren’t up to snuff.

Even so, Titan was expected in 2014, so it has been delayed by no less than two years to 2016 at the earliest, which is quite drastic.

Of course, Blizzard may have its stiffest competition yet this year when Bethesda releases The Elder Scrolls Online, a game that many think may be the last title to ever truly challenge WoW to the MMO throne. If Elder Scrolls Online can’t give them a run for their money, and neither could the Star Wars or Star Trek MMOs, then nothing will!

Here is what Blizzard had to say about the delay via spokesman Shon Damron:
“We’ve always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We’ve come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game. We’re using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven’t announced any dates for the MMO.”

World of Warcraft remains one of the few MMORPGs that hasn’t gone completely 100% free-to-play, and still maintains a very large subscriber base. Even as the first 20 levels of the game are free-to-play.

Resources for Titan have reportedly been moved to more development on WoW updates (and likely a new WoW expansion), a new Diablo III Expansion, Blizzard All-Stars, and Battle.net development.

WoW was released in 2004 and in 2014 will celebrate its 10th year! (Feels like longer doesn’t it?! :P)

 

XboxOne Reveal Event Was Bigger Than 2010 World Cup, Obama/Romney Election 2012 And Royal Wedding 2011. Over 8 Million Viewers Within 24 Hours

Such an awesome view of the XboxOne Controller!

The XboxOne Reveal Event was the biggest, most watched event in Xbox history, and rivaled some of the biggest events that streaming partner Akamai had ever put on… Bigger even than their Election 2012 Romney vs Obama coverage, the Royal Wedding in 2011 and the 2010 Soccer World Cup!

Here is the entire Microsoft XboxOne Announcement Reveal Event Video:

All in all, over 8.5 million people watched the XboxOne reveal event within 24 hours, tripling the viewers of previous most-watched event in Xbox.com history.

Naturally, Xbox.com saw the highest amount of concurrent viewers ever. To quote:

“The XboxOne Reveal event had almost three times as many people watching the livestream at the same time, versus any other major event in Xbox.com history.”

Akamai stated the following:

“The XboxOne event was among the most watched live broadcasts delivered by Akamai in their history, nearly doubling peak traffic records and eclipsing concurrent viewership high-water marks set by events such as the 2010 World Cup, Royal Wedding in 2011, and 2012 election night.”

So in short, it was a HUGE and extremely popular event for Microsoft, one of their biggest of all time. Of course, how much of that turned into negative energy and how much of it was positive? That’s the real question.

 

SNES EarthBound For $5,000? Sealed, Graded Ebay (Gold Rating) Copy Sells For Unbelievable Price of $4,700

Oh how I wish I could own this…

Would you pay $5,000 for SNES EarthBound sealed (hardcopy released in 1995) and graded with a Gold Rating by the VGA (VideoGame Authority) organization ensuring the copy is in the best shape possible.

Here is my EarthBound Unboxing Video if you haven’t seen it.

Well someone did. They paid a total of $4,700 dollars for this super rare, graded, and sealed copy of one of Nintendo’s most iconic and cult-classic games of all time, 1995’s EarthBound for the Super NES.

I too want to get my hands on a great-conditioned copy of EarthBound, which regularly sells for over $100 due to the fact that Nintendo has never re-released it in the West (yet… EarthBound WiiU Virtual Console releases later this year 2013!)… The game also was never released in Europe in any official capacity.

Because of this, the game fetches a very high price. However it is not super rare, and it’s pretty easy to get a copy of the game if you are willing to pay a high amount for it. I actually bought the game for $15 at Blockbuster back in 1998. However it only came with the box and cartridge, no Player’s Guide Instruction Book (the reason I snagged it. That big box called to me and I assumed it had the instruction book. I also had heard good things about it), nearly causing me to take it back cause my young self was crushed that it didn’t include the Player’s Guide! Little did I know how rare it would become later on.

A couple years ago I paid $80 to buy the Instruction Book off of ebay… giving me the complete set. However the box was not in the best condition. I eventually sold the whole thing for like $30 to help pay bills recently. I was crushed. But I intend to buy the game again as soon as I’m able!

In the meantime, I’ll definitely purchase the WiiU Virtual Console version as soon as it’s finally re-released as well!

Btw, if you are willing to pay $5000 for EarthBound, another graded, sealed copy is up on eBay as we speak!

 

Animal Crossing: New Leaf Is First AAA 3DS Nintendo Game of the Summer

Time to re-enter the always-on digital world of Animal Crossing!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf releases on June 9th in America, June 14th in Europe and June 15th in Australia.

The game is another huge bomb-dropper for the Nintendo 3DS from Nintendo, a game that is sure to sell lots of Nintendo systems, especially given the fact that the game supports Online Play, allowing you to visit the town of any friends in your online friends list. Additionally, you can visit a special location (Tortimer Island) with up to four players online to play mini-games.

Even better, Animal Crossing: New Leaf allows you to visit the house of anyone you’ve come into contact with while walking around your real-world city via the StreetPass feature which is awesome! You can also send letters to people via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and can download new home layouts and other goodies via SpotPass whenever you connect online at certain locations with a free wi-fi connection.

Cool stuff.

I never played any of the Animal Crossing games outside of the GameCube original. A game I loved. Read my Animal Crossing GameCube Review to see my opinion on that masterpiece. It’s a game I still pop in from time to time, 11 years later! Of course, the main reason I loved it, or one of the main reasons, was due to the ability to be rewarded with playable NES games!

This feature was taken out of the DS entry in the series, Animal Crossing: Wild World, as well as the third game in the series, Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii. This made me sad, and made me less likely to play those titles. Even though I really did want to get the Wii game, but never got around to it.

However Animal Crossing: New Leaf has a lot of new features. Not only do you get to play as the Mayor for example, but you get to customize your character way beyond past games. You can even customize individual parts of furniture, essentially creating all-new furniture! And as the mayor, for the first time, you can actually customize your actual town as well. Very cool stuff.

Nintendo sent me a review copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, so expect a review on the site with my thoughts on the game soon!

 

Game Boy Color Cult Classics The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, Ages Release Tomorrow (May 30 2013) For 3DS eShop

Both games coming to 3DS on May 30th!

Zelda: Oracle of Ages & Seasons gets a digital re-release tomorrow on 3DS eShop! Don’t forget Nintendo guys! In all the hubbub surrounding the XboxOne and PS4, Nintendo is dropping bombs! (Also check out my On the Cutting Room Floor: Zelda Oracle Games)

The first major Atomic Bomb Blast in the war between console manufacturers for your almighty dollar is two beloved classic retro titles from the Game Boy Color library that have long been and are oft-requested. These cult classics, known as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, could not be more beloved. However both of them were skipped on by a very large majority of gamers, despite the games selling a combined total of 8 million units when they hit store shelves in 2001, making them one of the best pairs of Game Boy Color games ever released and both a commercial and critical success for Nintendo & Capcom.

Even so, they remain one of the least popular and least well-known, or maybe we should say, “least named in a conversation” Zelda games in the series, parltly because they were developed by Capcom’s Flagship Studios instead of Nintendo, partly because they are portable titles and not console games, and partly because they are kinda… Weird.

Even so, they built on the success, the gameplay, the in-game graphics, the look (albeit with completely new artwork that gave Link a unique, kinda feminine and childish look), the sound and music and the footprint of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening… Which remains one of the best games of all time. Many people who have played these two titles believe that they trump Link’s Awakening… Quite a feat!

They are certainly much more complex than Zelda: Link’s Awakening, kinda like comparing the original Pokemon titles (Red and Blue) to Pokemon Gold & Silver. Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons each feature a different focus. Oracle of Seasons is more action-oriented, while Oracle of Ages is more puzzle oriented. Depending on the type of style of Zelda that you prefer (action or thought), you’ll want to begin with one game or the other.

Not only that however, but each game features it’s own unique hook. Ages has you traveling through Time, Seasons has you manipulating between the four seasons of the earth. And each game features unique characters, dungeons, quests, enemies, bosses, puzzles, Items and more! Not only that, but you can link the two titles together which is the only way to see the true boss! And if you play the Game Boy Color cartridge originals on a Game Boy Advance, you can access a special shop that will not appear in the 3DS Virtual Console re-releases.

All told, these games are definitely worth a play. If you own a 3DS, definitely purchase them (they only cost a measly $5) when they release tomorrow, May 30th 2013 in both Europe and America, at around 9am!

As for me, I own both the Game Boy Color originals but never played them! Thus I’ll be busting them out for a new Let’s Play as well as doing unboxing and instruction book videos for both games! Huzzah! :D

 

PS4 vs XboxOne System Wars – The Shit Just Got Real

BABOOSH!

PS4 vs XboxOne war, the shit just got real! Sony is taking Microsoft to the mat with this one.

While the XboxOne seems to be totally focused on the overall “entertainment” picture, specifically transforming the way people watch TV. Sony is smart enough to play up the fact that while XboxOne is focused on all things besides games, the PS4 is focused on ONE thing. Playing VIDEOGAMES on that TV of yours!

Compare the two conferences:

Sony PS4 Announcement:

Microsoft XboxOne Announcement: