“The debut E3 trailer set the graphical bar high for the Ubisoft developers, as far as current gen is concerned they get a pass but the 360 and PS3 ports have come under a lot of criticism.”

The initial sales figures suggest that Ubisoft hopes of a new franchise to add to their development rooster might come to fruition. Over 4 million copies sold in its first week, making the game the best-selling new IP at launch. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot commented last month that they hoped to sell as much as the first Assassin’s Creed title which sold more than 6 million copies. At the current rate of 4 million in a week Watch_Dogs should easily surpass any of Ubisoft’s predictions and with a WiiU release still to come in September. With such impressive sales and generally positive reviews there is no doubt that the Ubisoft heads will be cracking the whip for their Montréal development team to get back to work on a sequel. In fact last year the Head of Sales and Marketing at the company Tony Key made the comment “That’s what all our games are about; we won’t even start if we don’t think we can build a franchise out of it. There’s no more fire and forget – it’s too expensive.” in reference to the then in development Watch_Dogs. A statement that reflects Ubisoft’s current catalogue of games that are mostly made up of sequels or games based on existing properties. Nobody can really blame the publisher from taking a conservative approach when faced with new IP, video game budgets have increased tenfold in the last decade. The likes of GTA V costing Rockstar over $250 million, with the company relying on the games accumulated reputation to shift copies and recoup the costs. Even if Ubisoft have to take a hit financially on the first release with planned sequels the can account for the initial loses in the franchise.

“A small hitch in the games release as arisen over a bug that causes players to get stuck on the games loading screen. Uplay, Ubisoft’s digital distribution service is suspected to be at fault.”

In an interesting move the publisher has also tasked their film division Ubisoft Motion Pictures to start drafting up a film script for Watch_Dogs. It seems a little earlier to planning a movie adaptation for a series that is so new but then again they are already thinking of the long term plan for this would be franchise. Ubisoft have already made plans for all their other major franchises to get the silver screen treatment, the Assassin’s Creed movie gathering steam with a late 2015 release date announced and Michael Fassbender attached as the lead. The video game industry in fact is beginning to mirror their Hollywood counterparts in some respects. At the top end of the industry the big players favour content that will be able to offer them significant return over a long period of time as opposed to a quick flash in the pan. It would be hard to envisage the pitch session for Goat Simulator with the executives at EA or Activision and the publisher drawing out plans for the game as a franchise. Disney planning out a road map for their highly successful Marvel series of films right through to 2021. The big movie producers favour adaptions over original screenplay, the video game industry taking a similar stance.  At the other end of the scale the indie scene has exploded in popularity with new IP finding great success in what can be sometimes a swing and miss sector of the industry. For as many triumphs like Minecraft and DayZ there are there are ten times as many failures among them. The indie movie scene following a similar failure success rate among the films released over the last few years.  However the more important issue surrounding Ubisoft’s movie studio is will we finally see a decent video game adaption in the cinemas, the video game community doesn’t needs another Prince of Persia movie.

“The film is still in early pre-production with no indication of what role Michael Fassbender might be taking on; Altair, Ezio or Connor?”

Taking a look at some of the other major publishers, paints a similar picture with already establish IP getting the go ahead and financial backing. EA like Ubisoft seemed to have taken a gamble with new IP Titanfall, but then again is it much of a gamble when working with Vince Zampella a proven hit driven developer. No doubt EA have plans for Titanfall to be what Call of Duty has become to Activision with Zampella the man behind that particular franchise. The same could be said of Take-Two interactive and their new IP Evolve that is set to release later this year. Not so much a gamble with Turtle Rock at the helm, the same team that was behind the highly successful Left4Dead franchise. These games also seem to be perfectly suited for a host of DLC releases and eventually sequels. It is becoming rarer and rarer that a game will be made with a definitive end point. Modern video games are developed with the sequel in the back of the developers mind or at least at the top end of the industry. When a publisher is given a hit by one of their studios they always want more. The video game fans also playing a part in this, the community endless speculating on sequels and follow ups. With E3 just around the corner the rumour mill is in full effect and rampant speculation abounds.

“E3 could have seen the big revel of the next Assassin’s Creed game if it wasn’t for those pesky internet sleuths leaking the news early. No doubt they will still have a few tricks up their sleeves for the event”

Watch_Dogs wowed fans at E3 2012 and the anticipation for the game only intensified over the following two years. The game has amassed encouraging sales in its first week of release and is surely on its way to recouping the development costs. Ubisoft might have been criticized for making such bold claims about the games future over a year prior to its launch. Most developers and publisher have future vision for their new IP but to come out and state those claims so boldly is not so common. If the games follow up can build upon the original and maintain the fans attention than their maybe hope for the future of the franchise. If not certain Ubisoft executives might have to back track on their previous statements.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Watch Dogs Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The post Top 5: Open World Games appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“Chinese history and culture has traditionally been viewed through the eyes of Western and Japanese developers.”

The 14 year old ban on selling video game console sold by foreign companies has been temporally lifted. The lifting of the ban will open the doors for the likes of Sony and Microsoft to sell their consoles to Chinese consumers, convenient timing with the two manufactures recently launching their new line of next gen consoles. Of course it will not be the first time Chinese gamers have had a chance to play Microsoft’s or Sony’s devices, with the black market for consoles ever present during the ban. It is also not the first time that foreign console developers have entered into the Chinese market. In 2003 Nintendo launched the iQue Player that was only sold in China and was an attempt to curb the rampant piracy that has plagued the video game industry in the country. China’s policy of keeping manufacturing in house has led to a culture of imitation. Where making counterfeit versions of popular western products is seen as more beneficial for the economy then spending money to import the goods from other markets. Any video game developer or console manufacturer will have to compete with an industry where the term copyright infringement doesn’t quite translate into mandarin. Although the ban has been lifted it is not open season for console manufactures with all devices to be sold in the country having to pass government review. If it meets the requirements it is then only available within Shanghai’s free trade zone. So combined with this and the extreme levels of piracy it will be an uphill battle for any foreign video game company to establish themselves within the Chinese market.

“The iQue Player was based of the outdated N64 system and never really gained much favour with Chinese consumers.”

Not deterred by these facts many western companies have already cast an eye on new digital hubs within the country as potential base of their Asian operations. Companies like Ubisoft have already gained a foothold in the Chinese market establishing Ubisoft Chengdu in 2007. Others like Activision and Blizzard have made deals with Chinese based companies to distribute their games, in what is becoming one of the fastest growing markets for video games. The one sector of the Chinese market that has seen the biggest growth is the PC market, in some part due to the lack of access to consoles and other devices. PC’s taking up two thirds of the industry as a whole and pulling in over $6 billion in revenue in the year of 2011 alone, with that number more than likely increasing in the intervening years. The PC market in China is one the largest globally, mainly thanks to the proliferation of free play games. The free to play model proving very popular in China, where the average worker only earns about 4,000 Yuan a month; just under €500 a month. The high price point of console and console games alike will be an inhibiting factor for many in China wanting to get their hands on the new consoles, with both the PS4 and XboxOne costing as much as an average worker’s monthly salary. Another reason why cheap counterfeit games and consoles are so prevalent in China with video game piracy also at above average levels.

“The Chinese game Final Combat strangely resembles a certain multiplayer title developed by Valve. Just can’t put a finger on it?”

China is not the only Asian region that has lacked investment by foreign companies with the Middle East also a relatively untapped market. Although many developers have published and distributed games to the Middle East, the translation of the games material over to the Arabic culture has been more an afterthought for the games creators. Just like China there are certain government restrictions that have hampered many major titles from been distributed throughout the region. Alcohol, sex and excessive violence all running afoul with the government’s censorship boards. Countries likes Saudi Arabia enforcing far stricter constraints than others. Again Ubisoft in its goal to grow its global presence has established an office in Abu Dhabi in 2011 to help localize many of its titles for the Middle Eastern audience. The Arabic language and its grammatical form proving to be the biggest challenge for western developers to interpolate. However with a market that is estimated to draw in $1 -2 billion in revenue each year, it should be in the interest of the big developers and publishers to investigate the potential for the expansion of their operations in the region.

“Skeletons seem to put the frighteners on Chinese officials, a comparison of the undead character from World of Warcraft stands as a testament to this.”

For a long time Japan has for the most part been the sole country with a substantial video game industry in Asia. Long established through companies like Nintendo, Konami, Sega, et al. However many analysts and industry professionals have been extolling the merits of other potential markets in Asia, China been the most enticing. The industry in China is still very localized and may take a decade or so to reach the same levels of revenue as its western counterparts, but its exponential growth his hard to ignore. Companies like NetEase and Tencent could be the next big players in the video game industry. Tencent over the last few years acquiring stakes in western developers such as Epic Games creators of Gears of War and Riot Games the studio behind the popular MMOBA game League of Legends. It might not be long before gamers will be playing titles that are made in China and disturbed to western audience, but importantly come from a Chinese cultural perspective. A game where the Chinese are the good guys and it’s the Americans who are the warmongering invaders.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The State of the Industry: The Rising in the East appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“It’s off to the Caribbean to get into more scrapes with the dreaded redcoats and maybe hang out with some famous pirates along the way”

The first Assassin’s Creed game was released in 2007 and although some may have criticized its repetitive gameplay, it was a refreshing break in narrative content. Very few games look to spend so much development time on historical accuracy and creating a realistic interpretation of famous settings from the past. At the heart of it Assassin’s Creed can be seen as a series of Historical Anthologies, teaching its players about important people and events from the past. The series is now moving onto its sixth title with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, numerous mobile and handheld titles have also being released along the way. It has now become an annual affair with a new game out every winter. I have to wonder like another annually released game Call of Duty is the development process being hampered by their shorted development cycle. If you compare those series to one such as GTA that just recently had its seventh game in its series released last month. Rockstar have taken sixteen years to reach this point with each new title taking an average of 3-4 years in development. Both the Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed series having development cycles lasting half as much time. Does a longer development time mean that the studio will produce a better game, going by GTA V sales figures it would be safe to make the assumption that it does have some affect. Not that the other two don’t sell well, in fact it’s because of consumer demand that those series receive a new title every year. The question I’m looking to put forward is how much better would those series be if the development cycle was extended. Instead of each of the games looking very similar graphical and only adding a few additional gameplay feature to distinguish it enough from it predecessor, maybe a little more could be asked of the creators of the games. This can be illustrated by comparing the first Assassins Creed game with the second which was released two years later in 2009. The leap in graphics and gameplay demonstrates that when time is taken in the development process the game is generally better for it.

“Call of Duty has become slighty stagnant, the developers are gambling on dogs been the key to reviving the series”

There is of course some cases against such a theory Duke Nukem Forever being the prime example with an extraordinary long 15 year development cycle resulting in what was universally panned by most critics. The developers of the game 3D Realms took this theory a little too far with the games designers continually scraping the project and starting over until it was perfect. The problem was the longer they took the more outdated the gameplay and graphics became and thus they would have to start all over again. Eventually the studio went bankrupt and only for the last minute rescue of the IP by Gearbox Studios that the game ever saw the light of day, whether that was good thing or not. For years Duke Nukem took the title for Vaporware of the year, awarded for the game consistently missing its announced release dates. Another such current title that could soon be following in a similar path is Valve and their long awaited Half-Life 3. Valve again like 3D Realms have never being rushed when making their games in particular the Half Life series. Although Valve take their time with Half-Life 2 coming out six years after the original, they have garnered a well-earned reputation for producing some of the best games in the industry.

“The more valve hold off on annocing any details about the next game the more fans clamour for any shred of news”

It is unlikely that Ubisoft or Activision are going to stop releasing a new title for their respective cash cow franchises. However do gamers need to practise a bit more patient to give game designers more time to make better games? It is the gamer’s insatiable demand that has driven the current release schedules of such series with the pleas of over worked game developers falling on deaf ears. Do we need a Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed every year can’t we just have a break every so often. The video game industry releases more titles a year than ever before and a wide range of games available throughout the year, the choice of alternative is endless. Have gamers become junkies for certain titles with Call of Duty players getting withdrawals if they don’t get their annual fix and Battlefield 4 not enough to feed the habit.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Assassin’s Creed IV Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

Is laser dragons and cheesy over masculine character dialogue really a good recipe for a game these days. It would seem so with Ubisoft’s latest offering Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a dystopian neon coloured future open world game set in the year 2007. The game is based on that staple of 80’s cinema the sci-fi B-Movie, with the not too distant war-torn nuclear future in need of help from an overly adrenaline fuelled muscle bound hero with dialogue that cares little about advancing the narrative and is more a challenge of how many puns and one liners can be crammed into a single scene. Is this a good bases for a game and is the industry not more mature as an art form at this stage and maybe strive to try a little harder when it comes to game design. As was discussed in a previous article video games are always going to have to fight to be heard above the rest and I feel games like this justify scathing comments made by certain critics such as Roger Ebert who sadly passed away a few months ago. On the one hand the industry votes Journey an amazing achievement in audio and visual game design as IGN and Gamespot’s game of the year amongst numerous other awards, and on the other we have game like Blood Dragon that as far as I can see offers no advancement in the art form.

“I will agree that it is very nicely re-textured but graphics are only one part of the equation in making a great game”

Just to make it clear I’m not singling out Ubisoft and the studio that produced this game there are plenty others in the same vain out there, Saints Row would come to mind. My point is more a self-assessment by video game designers and gamers alike. There is a constant outcry against anyone who criticizes the video game industry but are some of those criticisms valid when the video game industry is producing these types of games and justifying the content within them as just being a bit of fun. I will agree that the key element of video games is to have fun, it is a piece of entertainment at the end of the day. However if we make a quick comparison to the film industry. In the early days filmmakers had the same outlook as some video game developers where they simply made movies for the sake of it, filming an oncoming train or workers leaving a factory was justification enough to make a movie. I think over the last 100 years the film industry has evolved and looked to expand upon that initial concept, I grant you there are plenty of terrible B-Movies still being made today and they are even more prevalent with the cost and effort of making a film so low. The difference is that the film industry doesn’t class movies such as The Crawling Eye or Teenagers from Outer Space in the same league as The Shinning or Schindler’s List. Likewise a game like Blood Dragon shouldn’t classed alongside the likes of GTA Vice City, another game that borrows heavily from 1980’s nostalgia but manages to weave it into a compelling narrative. There our nods and references made to films like Scarface and TV programs like Miami Vice but they don’t beat you over the head with referential puns every five minutes. I have no problem with developers looking to blow off some steam and make a game that they know is just made for gamers to have some fun but I would like to see a bit more clarity in the definition between what would be considered a sci-fi B-Movie game like Blood Dragon and a serious narrative sci-fi game such as Half-Life.

“The line between parody and just a bad sci-fi movie seems to be blurred”

I think games can look to parody pop culture and not always take itself seriously but I think game designers can do it without taking the easy route of going completely over the top and sacrificing the narrative at the same time. An example of this would be the aforementioned Saints Row that looks to go all out on the pop culture references and just general mayhem and depravity, with its next instalment looking to take on the elite of comedic satire politics with the Saints crew heading to the White House. If we compare it to a game it closely resembles or one could even say copied GTA, in particular the current game in the series set in an alternate New York City. Aside from the beautiful crafted homage to one of the world greatest cities and a narrative telling that quintessential American tale of an immigrant looking to make it big in the land of opportunity, the game offers brilliantly written comedy and satire that at the same time sends up the modern day obsession with celebrities, the current fear and paranoia suffered by the average American that can only be solved by pharmaceutical drugs and the political wrangling’s of one of the world’s most powerful countries. It achieves all this without detracting from the main storyline and doesn’t feel out of place in this imagined American metropolis. “Lazlow” Jones the writer behind the satire in the GTA series has proven that comedy and parody can be a part of video games without affecting the overall story and gameplay. To me Blood Dragon is a lazy attempt at a parody of the 1980’s and its terrible sci-fi B-Movies that history had gladly forgotten until Ubisoft decided to drag them out of the vault. I think as an industry we should strive for something better than this or at least accept the criticisms that come from other mediums if where happy with developers creating games like this.

N.B* Just as a side note this article might seem a little harsh on the game which does have some redeeming features, its send up of video game tutorials was right on the mark. However in the article I was trying to get across the broader concept of the video game industries need to mature if it wants credit and kudos from the other mediums and an end to the debate that is always being argued, can video games be consider art.  An example of the industries immaturity is when the winners at the 2007 Spike Video Game Awards where revealed with the winning game painted onto the body of a nearly naked woman. Is this the image that the industry wants to be portrayed by?

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post Blood Dragon Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.