Check out the latest footage of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
Watch | Download
Square Enix is celebrating Final Fantasy’s 20th anniversary in a big way this year, and a revival of the sleeper hit Final Fantasy Tactics series is a significant part of that celebration. The role-playing magnate recently released an excellent PSP port of the original PlayStation game complete with new content and wireless multiplayer, and now there’s a new Final Fantasy Tactics on the Nintendo DS, too. Well, at least in Japan. The awkwardly titled Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire is in stores across the pond, and we’ve been hammering on its dense strategy-RPG mechanics to find out what’s new this time around.
Tactics A2 is basically a quasi-sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Game Boy Advance. That explains the A2, in case you were wondering. Similar to the GBA game, A2 presents a much more lighthearted take on the franchise than the original, plot-heavy PlayStation game. Much like in Tactics Advance, A2 casts you in the role of a schoolboy named Russo (or Luso–take your pick) who is sucked into a magical book at the beginning of the game and deposited in the mystical land of Ivalice (seen in Final Fantasy XII and a number of other games). You’ll quickly join forces with this game’s version of the perennial Cid character–who in this case has a disturbingly pointy nose, but seems adept at combat–and a host of Ivalice’s other indigenous races, like the bunny-eared viera and the lizardlike bangaa, to throw down in the turn-based, grid-oriented combat that should be quite familiar to series veterans.
The overworld itself is quite simple, from what we’ve seen so far. It’s essentially a group of locations represented by dots, all connected by pathways. You can move your character to a location or the nearby town by simply clicking on it, though you’ll have to visit the town to actually enable the combat missions at each location. Once you’re in the town’s pub, you can do things like read the daily newspaper or talk to the bartender to pick up the missions that are currently available. From what we could tell, the level of each mission is indicated by a ranking number, and once we’d completed enough of the missions in the starting area, we were able to exit the relatively small initial area and access a new town and a bunch more missions.
Combat here should be old hat for strategy RPG fans.
Even if you have little to no skill with the Japanese language, you’ll be able to draw upon previous strategy RPG experience to muddle your way through the combat in Tactics A2, since the fundamentals are unchanged. At the beginning of a mission, you’ll be able to place Russo and his current allies–each of whom specialize in offensive magic, healing, ranged attacking, heavy melee combat, and so on–in their starting positions and tell them which way to face. Then it’s a matter of moving your characters one turn at a time while your enemies do the same, issuing attack and magic commands per the standards of this genre. The battlefield is situated on the bottom screen–though, strangely, there’s no touch-screen control whatsoever that we’ve found so far–and as you’d imagine, the top screen is used to show character stats, turn order, and other relevant information.
Of course, there are a handful of combat mechanics–some new, some old–that identify this as a tactics game. The judge law system is back, whereby one of Ivalice’s enigmatic combat judges will mediate your battle and award you a bonus at the end if you don’t violate the rule he’s laid down at the beginning of the match. As far as we can tell, these rules typically restrict you from using particular abilities and such. There’s also a new “clan ability” system, which we’re honestly still trying to figure out. You can select from a number of buffs at the beginning of a battle–including increases in power, speed, and luck–but how these relate to the clan you’re a member of, we haven’t determined yet. There’s a lot of Japanese text in here.
The story unfolds primarily in towns between battles.
The visual presentation in Tactics A2 is of the same whimsical, cartoonlike style used in Tactics Advance, and we’ve generally been quite pleased by the lush color palette of the game’s entirely 2D graphics. Our only complaint so far is that with no ability to reorient the battlefield, the characters tend to stack up on top of one another in close quarters, and it can be hard to see exactly who is standing where. But you can cycle through characters pretty easily to plan out your attacks and position your magic spells, so the fixed perspective isn’t a huge problem.
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is looking like a solid, lighthearted follow-up to the previous Game Boy Advance game. Newcomers to the series who recently cut their teeth on The War of the Lions shouldn’t look for the same dramatic gravitas here, but the gameplay looks like it will satisfy those armchair fantasy strategists among you. We’d recommend waiting for a domestic release unless you’re highly proficient in Japanese, though sadly, we don’t know yet when that’s going to happen.
In September, French publisher Ubisoft was rumored as a possible suitor to acquire Eidos parent company SCi Entertainment, a transaction that would include its stable of multimedia franchises such as Hitman and Tomb Raider. Ubisoft denied that rumor, but today the publisher revealed that it had been in the market for an acquisition with the announcement that it will purchase Japanese studio Digital Kids.
With a staff of 20 developers in Nagoya and Osaka, Digital Kids has worked with Ubisoft on its Petz series of games, specifically Hamsterz Life. In a statement, Ubisoft explained the deal by pointing to the studio’s track record in creating pet simulators that appeal to both Japanese and Western audiences.
The publisher’s acquisition of the DS-specialist development house is expected to close before the end of the year.
Sega’s role-playing Shining series got its start winding through some deep, dark corridors. Shining in the Darkness is the progenitor of the whole line, from the turn-based strategy series Shining Force to the hack-and-slashfests of Shining Soul and everything that gleams in-between. However, aside from the art and musical direction, this dungeon crawler shares little in common with its more complex descendants. This is a first-person, turn-based hack through some of the most fiendish labyrinths ever to grace the Sega Genesis, and it’s a test of both perseverance and patience. There are reasons that games like this just aren’t made anymore, but at 800 Wii points (about $8), if you’ve got a serious hankering for twisty mazes, hidden treasures, and hordes of monsters, then Shining in the Darkness can scratch the itch.
A castle, a town, and a dungeon. What more do you need?
You’re a soldier in the Kingdom of Thornwood, and nefarious deeds are afoot. The princess Jessa has been kidnapped, a great knight of the land (your father) is missing, and the perpetrator demands that Thornwood be turned over to him. He’s Dark Sol, an imposing and dastardly sort of wizard who has cunningly holed himself up in an ancient labyrinth. Being that you’re an able swordsman yourself and heir to your father’s considerable legacy of service, the King orders you into the ruins to put a stop to Dark Sol’s plans and save the princess.
Initially you’ll be alone, but soon enough two of your friends join the cause: a shifty-eyed priest named Mylo and a young elf mage named Pyra. There are a couple of cute scenes as you encounter them and they barge in on your adventure, but once they’re in your party, they keep quiet. You navigate through the dungeon and town from a first-person viewpoint, but when you meet enemies it’s a typical turn-based affair. You can use melee attacks, and your friends can bring into play a number of offensive and defensive spells to assist you. Monsters commonly appear in large group clusters that you’ll select for attacks or spells. However, you can’t select individual monsters to attack, which means you can easily end up wasting turns unless you allow for some random targeting. The enemies themselves are a cartoony menagerie of critters that range from slimes and skeletons to giant crabs, with plenty of palette swapping to get the maximum mileage out of each tentacle. They’re progressively more numerous and nastier the further you explore, and you’ll also have to keep cutting through lower-level monsters on your way to more challenging areas.
The labyrinth itself is a giant, multitiered maze of passages with no comprehensive map available. There is a particular item (and later, when you get your two party members, a spell) that lets you bring up a map of your immediate position, but you cannot scroll the map to view other areas, and nothing is marked. You can’t see if a given passage is a dead end, you can’t see where stairways to other areas are, and you can’t mark the location of various items. It takes a good memory and spot-checks of the map (or a pencil and a large sheet of graph paper) to make your way through the mazes with any sort of efficiency, and there are multiple levels and areas to navigate. As you go along, you get better spells and items that let you delve deeply into the labyrinth for long periods of time–and you’ll need all that time to steadily level your characters, find important treasure, and kill powerful monsters. The hook to this game is that drive to explore every nook and cranny, open every chest (even if monsters pop out to bite your face), collect rare items to make armor and weapons, and to get powerful enough to slaughter everything in your path. It’s definitely satisfying to come back to a difficult area and crush monsters that wiped the stone floor with you two levels prior, or to turn a corner and discover a new stairway that leads to parts unknown.
Shining in the Darkness feels its age, though, given that the sweet, sweet hook of character progression and dungeon domination is often coated in a bitter layer of mindless repetition and monster squashing as you advance. When you exit the labyrinth, you’ll have to fight your way back up to where you left off, including any of the lower-level monsters that might happen to be in your way. You can encounter battles as frequently as every step, and given that there’s essentially no strategy involved in fighting most of them (just hit attack or group spells until they all go away), there’s not always all that much to engage the brain. Somewhere between your tenth and hundredth group in a row of malicious toadstools flexing at you as you inch along, you can easily become unhinged.
The cartoon style of the visuals works quite nicely for the most part. The characters and creatures you encounter are all bright and goofy in their own way, and certain areas such as the cozy tavern really have a lot of personality. The problem is that most of the time you’re not hanging out in the tavern and rolling the dice to see if you’re getting drunk; instead, you’re plodding your way down rows and rows of featureless corridors with nothing interesting to look at. The lack of defining landmarks (aside from the occasional torch or puddle of water) also makes travel harder and harder, given that you’ll need to check the map very often if by chance you get turned around and forget which stretch of empty hallway you’re looking at. Music in the game is limited to only a few tunes, but they do have remarkable longevity and somehow remain catchy the whole time. There’s nothing like finally returning to town after a long drudge in the dungeons to hear the lively tavern music faintly spilling out the door.
Will you beat the dungeon, or will the dungeon beat you? Depends on where you keep your graph paper!
The charming look and feel of the game and the satisfaction of progression are the salve over the irritation that the frequent encounters and identical-looking mazes can produce. Shining in the Darkness can last you well over 20 hours of exploring, advancing, and wiping monsters off your sword as you move to confront Dark Sol, but if you’re the type of person who goes cross-eyed at the thought of trying to manually map your own dungeons, you’re better off giving this a pass. If you’re a fan of thoroughly old-school-style dungeon crawlers, it’s 800 Wii points of pure insanity.
In 1992, Namco produced a side-scrolling action game for the TurboGrafx-16 called Samurai Ghost. You haven’t heard of it because few people bought it back then, and those who did hated it. It was complete garbage. This garbage is now available as a download from the Wii’s Virtual Console service.
As the title explains, you play as a samurai who has come back from the dead. Your goal is to save China from a demon infestation. So, over the course of seven short side-scrolling levels, you walk forward, jump if need be, and use your sword to stab whatever creatures appear. Occasionally, the creatures will leave behind candles or logs, which refill your health, as well as colorful orbs that let you hurl energy waves with your sword. At the end of each level, you’ll square off against a large boss that does the typical “attack and show weak spot” routine.
Since when did samurai have flowing red hair, or fight in China? This game is nuts.
The design itself isn’t bad–simple, maybe, but there are plenty of good games out there that chiefly involve walking, jumping, and slashing. Nobody complained that Castlevania or Strider were too simple.
The problem with Samurai Ghost is that Namco’s programmers put zero care into fashioning the design into a decent game. Every level has the same simplistic enemies and the same style of platform-jumping sequences. Progress through the levels is excruciating, because the ghostly hero walks too slowly, and his attacks frequently leave enemies unscathed. Some enemies can block your attacks with their swords and shields, and that’s understandable. However, more often than not, what you’ll witness is your sword just passing through enemies without hurting them. You can perform different sword-based attacks by holding the up and down buttons when you press the attack button, but that hardly matters when the game only registers that you’ve hit an enemy half the time.
You won’t get any satisfaction from the visuals and audio either. The actual samurai ghost is very detailed and has a striking mane of red hair, and his animations are remarkably fluid. However, nearly all of the enemies are crude, two-tone globs that vaguely resemble balls of fire, disembodied hands, and the occasional goblin. Their choppy movements consist of approximately two frames of animation. The audio consists of a few clangs, some grunts, and a selection of woefully generic Asian-tinged action music. To put it bluntly, Samurai Ghost wasn’t worth 50 dollars in 1992, and it hasn’t been made any less horrible now that it costs six dollars.
In the original Castlevania, you journeyed up multiple floors of a castle, merrily whipping zombies and Dracula’s generals until you reached the throne room and unleashed your fury against the Count himself. However, as it turns out, old Drac cast a deadly curse on you right when you dealt the fatal blow. So now, in Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, you have to break the curse by–get this–recovering the Count’s body parts from the various monster-filled mansions the villagers socked them away in. That’s not the only twist, either. This second installment does away with the linear level structure from the first game and instead lets you explore a contiguous world of towns, mansions, and haunted wilderness at your leisure.
Don’t worry–those forests and mansions contain plenty of platforms to jump across and ghoulish enemies to whip. All of the classic Castlevania stuff you like is here, including the holy water and dagger subweapons that allow you to really go bananas on your undead victims. Day-to-night transitions change the look of the backgrounds and cause enemies to gain strength at night. That’s merely a minor wrinkle for a skilled vampire hunter such as you, although it certainly is sweet to see the formerly sunny pastures bathed in moonlight and the villages infested with zombies during the nighttime hours. The main difference between this game and its level-based predecessor is the structure of the quest. You visit multiple mansions, you talk to townsfolk to get clues, and you use the hearts you collect to buy weapons and items from the shopkeepers located in each town.
You’ll find yourself hurling holy water everywhere to reveal fake walls and floors.
Before you get too excited about the prospect of playing an open-ended, old-school Castlevania, you have to bear in mind that the game provides very little guidance as to where to go or what to do when you get there. Shop entrances are often hidden behind fake walls. Two mansions are totally hidden until you equip certain crystals and kneel in very specific spots to reveal their entrances. You’re supposed to talk to the villagers in order to get clues that’ll help you figure this stuff out. Unfortunately, the subtle hints from the Japanese version were butchered by whoever translated the game into English. Somehow, from “hit Deborah Cliff with your head to make a hole,” you have to deduce that you need to kneel down in the western graveyard with the red crystal equipped to summon a tornado.
Realistically speaking, you have two choices. You can go online and read a guide that tells you what to do, or you can try to work through the game the old-fashioned way by throwing holy water on every brick and kneeling down on every inch of ground.
To the developers’ credit, they thought to give you unlimited continues and a password system. So, assuming you have all the time in the world, it is possible that you’ll finish the game eventually. And, if you do invest the time necessary to figure things out, you might come to appreciate how the world in Castlevania II is structured. The first time through, it could take you weeks to reassemble Dracula. The second time it will take a couple of hours. Your reward for the next victory will probably be the best of the game’s three ending sequences. In any case, whipping skeletons and throwing knives in werewolves’ eyes is always fun, regardless of how cryptic the world structure is.
Thankfully, it isn’t 1988 anymore. You’re reading this on a computer that’s “plugged in” to the Internet. Badly translated dialogue is no longer an insurmountable boundary to enjoying what this game has to offer. So if you want to explore Transylvania and lash the undead, and you don’t mind checking your favorite gaming site when you get stuck, you probably won’t regret downloading the NES version of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest onto your Wii.
If you’re a big fan of the block-building, tower-toppling game that is Jenga, you might know that, like Coke, it’s now available in a number of different flavors. Throw ‘n Go Jenga, Jenga Xtreme, and Jenga Truth or Dare are just a few examples of Hasbro’s attempts to make Jenga more interesting. However, like cherry, vanilla, and lime, they really add very little to the original formula, and in some cases actually detract from it. Messing with Jenga feels uncomfortably like messing with Tetris, but that hasn’t deterred Atari and UK-based Atomic Planet Entertainment from coming up with plenty of “enhancements” for their Wii version of the game, titled Jenga World Tour. We recently had an opportunity to spend some time with a work-in-progress version of Jenga World Tour and, frankly, we’re not convinced that the finished game will be nearly as much fun as 54 wooden bricks.
Regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with Jenga, you’ll need to check out World Tour’s brief tutorial mode to get a handle on the game’s controls. They’re straightforward for the most part: The A button is used to grab blocks, the B button is used to tap blocks, the C button is used to hold nearby blocks in place, and the analog stick and Z button are used for camera controls. The Wii Remote controls your in-game hand, and it needs to be moved quite delicately once you’ve taken hold of a block. Gameplay modes in Jenga World Tour include quick play, arcade, free Jenga, and world tour, the last of which is where we chose to spend our time on this occasion.
Even sharks and anthropomorphic slot machines can enjoy Jenga…
Though it has no bearing on the gameplay whatsoever, the character roster from which you’ll choose your avatar is worthy of a mention simply because of how varied the options are. We chose to play as a goldfish, but could just as easily have opted for a snowman, an astronaut, a parrot, a girl in a bikini, or a tyrannosaurus rex with glasses and a blonde Mohawk. The first game on the world tour takes place inside a fancy apartment somewhere in the US and uses conventional wooden Jenga blocks. Enjoy them while you can, because from here on things go downhill and, at least based on our experiences with the work-in-progress version, into a near-unplayable freefall.
The second stop on the Jenga world tour is China, where vines growing on some of the blocks prevent them from being moved and add stability to certain areas of the tower. Next up is Nepal, where you’ll be playing with slippery blocks of ice that occasionally freeze together. Neither of the aforementioned environments messes with the Jenga formula too much, and though they don’t really add anything worthwhile, they look like works of genius compared to what’s still to come.
Even if Jenga had existed in the Cretaceous period, it seems unlikely that anyone would’ve been playing. Any paleontologist with an ounce of common sense will tell you that dinosaurs and Jenga don’t mix, but Atari and Atomic Planet either never received the memo or chose to ignore it when designing the world tour’s fourth locale: a prehistoric Zambian jungle. The footsteps of passing dinosaurs are so heavy that they cause the whole Jenga tower to shake and even to jump into the air on occasion. In testing, we found that towers generally fell over in two minutes or less, even if no player made a move. Assuming that a game in this locale ever lasts long enough, there are purportedly pterosaurs that will bug you and need to be shaken off with the Wii Remote as you play, but to date we haven’t actually seen one.
If you make it through the jungle level, your next stop will be medieval England. Here, atop the white cliffs of Dover, you’ll play a game of Jenga using a tower that’s under constant bombardment from four catapults. The catapults don’t detract from the game nearly as much as the previous level’s dinosaurs, but they don’t add to the experience in a meaningful way, either. The best thing we can say about them, in fact, is that when our artificial-intelligence opponent–who generally completed each move in under five seconds–was struggling to place a block atop the tower after taking it from the bottom, it was the catapults that finally put our opponent out of his misery by knocking the tower down over 10 minutes into his turn.
Next up is the requisite underwater level, where you’ll play against a shark and have to put up with shoals of clown fish swimming across the screen and obscuring your vision at regular intervals. It’s not so bad, really, and the way that the tower of Jenga blocks behaves underwater is quite convincing. Playing underwater feels a lot like playing in slow-motion at times, and we unwittingly used this to our advantage during our game. After placing a block on top of the tower, the whole structure started to sway, and we knew right away that it was ultimately going to fall. However, it took so long for the first block to hit the ocean floor that the collapse was deemed to have taken place during our opponent’s turn, and so we were awarded the win.
Earlier this year, Capcom announced that its upcoming action game Devil May Cry 4 would arrive on the Xbox 360 and PC in addition to the already-announced PlayStation 3 version. A group of Sony fans took the news as a slight, and posted an online petition expressing demoralization at the move, and pledged not to purchase the game. More than 12,000 people added their names to the petition.
Today Capcom detailed a Collector’s Edition option on both platforms that might entice some of those 12,000-plus jilted gamers to pick up the game after all.
While most special edition games are offered at a $10 markup over the standard edition’s new release price, the Devil May Cry 4 Collector’s Edition is being offered for $79.99, a $20 premium over the regular version. For the extra Jackson, gamers will receive a couple extra discs, one with the first four episodes of Devil May Cry: The Animated Series (which will be sold separately for $29.99), and one for the PC that includes a “making of” feature, music from the soundtrack, concept art, wallpapers, icons, and screensavers. The Collector’s Edition will also come packaged in a “steelbook” case.
Both the regular and collector’s edition of Devil May Cry 4 are set to launch in North America on February 5 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. For more on the game, check out If Its Games’s latest coverage.
Before any album can go platinum, it has to first go gold. Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that their maiden collaboration, Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, has “gone gold,” or entered final production and manufacturing on its way to meeting its scheduled November 20 release date.
Arriving in stores just before Thanksgiving, the instrument-driven rhythm game will be available on its own for $59.99, or as part of a special-edition bundle that includes a guitar, drums, and microphone for $169.99. The Xbox 360 version of the bundle will come with a wired guitar and a USB hub, while the PS3 edition includes a wireless guitar that will also work with the forthcoming PlayStation 2 version of Rock Band (set for release December 18). Individual instruments and a wireless Xbox 360 guitar will be made available sometime after the game’s release, though controllers for the rival Guitar Hero franchise will also work with the game.
While going gold is usually the end of the development team’s heavy lifting, Harmonix has promised weekly additions to the Rock Band setlist in the form of downloadable content. Among the confirmed offerings are The Who’s Who’s Next and 18 tracks from The Grateful Dead.
For more on Rock Band, check out If Its Games’s latest preview.
Last month, Electronic Arts stunned the game industry by announcing it was purchasing BioWare/Pandemic. When it was created in November 2005 by the union of Canadian role-playing developer BioWare and Californian action-game studio Pandemic, the so-called superdeveloper looked set to buck the traditional developer-publisher relationship by tapping into $300 million from venture capital firm Elevation Partners.
However, when Elevation board member John Riccitiello became EA’s CEO, he upped the ante by offering $860 million to buy BioWare/Pandemic outright. The deal would see the Redwood City, California-based publisher pay $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp., the Elevation-backed holding company that owns BioWare/Pandemic.
In addition, the publisher plans to issue an additional $155 million in equity to unidentified VG Holding employees, as well as assume $50 million in outstanding VG stock options. It also will lend VG $35 million to fund BioWare/Pandemic’s transition to becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of EA–though the studios will retain their names and current locations.
Though many EA detractors decried the deal, the only official hoop it had to jump through was landing approval from the Federal Trade Commission. Today, the Thomson Financial news service reported that the US government body has given its blessing to the BioWare/Pandemic even before the 30-day period required by federal law expired. Now, barring a stockholder revolt, nothing stands in the way of the acquisition being finalized in January 2008.
Though it drew a mixed reaction from analysts, the buyout of BioWare/Pandemic bolsters the largest third-party publisher’s lineup with some marquee franchises. EA will own the Full Spectrum Warrior, Saboteur, and Mercenaries series and collect royalties on the Destroy All Humans! and Star Wars Battlefront games Pandemic developed.
The deal also makes EA a major player in the RPG market, adding Jade Empire and the forthcoming Mass Effect and Dragon Age to its trophy case. The deal will also have EA overseeing BioWare’s partnership with LucasArts on an unnamed project–which is rumored to be a massively multiplayer online RPG based on the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games.
When MTV bought Harmonix for $175 million in September 2006, many feared for the future of the Guitar Hero franchise. They shouldn’t have. Today, Activision reported that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock minted over $100 million in North American retail sales in the seven days after it went on sale on October 28.
“It is, by far, the most successful launch in Activision history,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick of the well-reviewed game, which was internally developed by Neversoft and released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. (PC and Macintosh version are due out later this month.)
Indeed, Guitar Hero III’s seven-day sales were nearly one-third of Activision’s revenue for its entire second fiscal quarter. Today the Santa Monica, California-based publisher reported that it took in $317.7 million in net revenue from July 1-September 30, an increase of 69 percent over the same period in 2006. Despite the record-setting figure, net Q2 income was just $700,000. That gave investors no per-share return, but was a marked improvement over the $24.3 million the company lost during the same quarter in the prior year.
Though striking, the discrepancy between Activision’s high earnings and low profit has a reasonable explanation. Sales were stoked by the launch of the tepidly reviewed movie tie-in Transformers and strong sales of the Guitar Hero franchise, including the debut of Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s. However, income from sales was apparently gobbled up by Activision’s late September purchase of Bizarre Creations, developer of the acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series.
The Guitar Hero III launch–which Kotick touted as “one of the biggest in entertainment history” to analysts in a postreport conference call–caused Activision to revise earnings projections for the October-December period. The company now expects $1.05 billion during its fiscal third quarter, thanks to the aforementioned rhythm game and this week’s launch of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, 360, DS). For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, the company now predicts it will take in roughly $2.07 billion in net revenue.
Speaking with analysts after the call, Activision executives revealed that the company would be continuing its relationship with Shrek maker DreamWorks Animation by making a game based on the 2008 animated film Monsters versus Aliens. The game will arrive on unspecified platforms during the publisher’s 2009 fiscal year alongside two new superhero games which have yet to be announced. Activision executives also told analysts that the company is “looking at a number of new vectors to take the Guitar Hero franchise for next fiscal year,” and said it will increase the number of original recordings used in the series.
With the massive number of new gamers shipping this holiday, you’d think GameStop would be content to sit on its laurels. In many locales, the biggest nationwide games retailer is one of few–if not the only–stores with an extensive selection of games for all platforms. Were that not enough, GameStop’s stock has more than doubled in value over the past year, thanks to a burgeoning US game market which topped $1.3 billion in sales in September.
With everything going GameStop’s way, why has the retailer gone on the offensive with a new, multimillion dollar ad push in print, online, and on television? Titled “Power to the Players”–which is also the company’s new tagline–the marketing push is the first nationwide coordinated campaign since GameStop acquired archrival Electronic Boutique in 2005. Indeed, it is the megaretailer’s first national campaign ever, and seems designed to blunt the increasing number of chains beginning to sell games. Recently, both Radio Shack and 7-Eleven used the Halo 3 launch to kick off their own game efforts, joining such other nationwide chains as Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart.
How is GameStop staving off the competition? Recently vice president of marketing Tom De Napoli, sat down with If Its Games to discuss his company’s new ad onslaught. He also shared his thoughts on how the new $399 PlayStation 3 and $279 Xbox 360 Arcade will shake up the crowded holiday shopping season.
IIG: So this is your first big media push since you took over EB Games. Why now?
Tom De Napoli: The timing is right, since just we finished the integration with our EB Games. Over 95 percent of our stores now have been rebranded. We’re all under one roof. We just finished a brand exploration that really provided for us the essence of who is GameStop. What is our DNA? And now it’s time to take that and tell it to the world. So really, “Power to the Players” is our rallying cry. It’s who we are, it’s what we stand for. It’s not just an ad campaign.
IIG: What effect did the Halo 3 launch have on your business? How many copies did GameStop sell?
TDN: We haven’t talked about specific numbers yet. But remember one thing: Our sales associates are gamers themselves. So it becomes a celebration of sorts. This gaming phenomena has really become the new rock and roll. It’s a very, very hot space where we, as a company, find ourselves right in the middle. I mean, we’ll open 500 stores this year.
IIG: Yeah? Impressive! But now RadioShack and even 7-11 are selling games. What is GameStop doing specifically to fend off competition from other, non-game-centric retailers?
TDN: Quite frankly, focus. What we do, again it goes back to that, that’s all we do, 24/7. Our associates are experts. We focus on what our core competencies are. And those core competences really revolve around expertise. We are the authority in the category from a retail perspective. We own one of the top gaming e-commerce sites in the business. We have GameStop TV. That’s another asset that we bring. And then there’s our used and trade business. You’ve got a game like Halo 3. People will want it. Or a new console that comes out like the Wii. Used and trade becomes a way for them to generate the currency to go and buy that new, that new, the latest newest thing.
IIG: I noticed when I preordered Halo 3 you bumped up the trade-in value by as much as 20 percent. Is the trade-in value you typically offer so low that you can do that and still make a profit selling used games?
TDN: Again, it goes back to us focusing on the customer and knowing what their wants and needs are, where we can tweak the model a bit and reward or help. We want our customers to be able to be immersed in the newest games and the latest buzz. We want to help create that buzz. So it’s not really that our margins are that deep in those areas. It’s just that we’re running a business and we have to, where we can find a way, to give back to our customers.
IIG: What’s your take on the upcoming holiday shopping season?
TDN: We see that there is a bit of a shift in terms of demographics, and we want to be responsive to that. We see the casual and the gift-giver becoming more prevalent in this space, and certainly at this time of the year. One of the things that we’re doing is we’re adding a section within our store that’s really about music games. We’re putting up music kiosks since obviously Guitar Hero III is going to be a biggie. EA’s Rock Band is going to be a biggie. So you’ve got those things and these titles [and] we want to make sure that we bring them front and center.
Our core and avid players know what we’re about. But casual folks, the newbies, they’re coming in many times because they want to get the gift right. And they want to go to the gaming experts. So we want to take [that], and make sure that our stores are merchandised in a way to make that easy for them.
The other thing is we’ve got a family-friendly focus because gaming has become the new board games. We’re going to have a section in our store for seniors and some of the wellness-type things–like Brain Age, for instance–and some of the children’s titles. Some of these shifts are really seismic. I mean, 45 percent of the population now in terms of gamers is female. That’s a huge shift from a few years back.
IIG: Oh, absolutely. Now you mentioned Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Those games come in pretty big boxes, especially Rock Band. Are you having difficulty rearranging your stores around these larger items?
TDN: We’ve gotten out in front of it in terms of with our fall relay. We knew this was coming. We also see that the…just in terms of this genre of the gaming business it’s just exploding right now. So we, again, as we look at space within our stores and our merchant team is very savvy about allocating square footage to certain sections. We look at that by linear foot, we found a way to solve for it.
IIG: What kind of effect do you expect the new, cheaper PS3 to have on your business?
TDN: I think having a $399 price point definitely helps to migrate certain folks off a certain platform into a more broader experience. So I think it’s smart. With us, we’re certainly not looking to shift console market share. But we are looking to continue to bring in the new experiences to our customers. So I think it helps to do that. The other thing is, what’s going to be available on the PS3? I wouldn’t say its catalog is robust yet. But it’s certainly grown. I think that’s the other piece that Sony needs to put in place.
IIG: Are you concerned about its lack of backward compatibility with PlayStation 2 games, given that GameStop makes much of its profit off of used titles?
TDN: I think at the end of the day, this is really a transition step for somebody who might be migrating off one console. Where they ultimately would like to be is on the PS3, but they need a stepping stone in between. That said, I don’t think in the whole that [the lack of PS2 BC] is really going to have a big effect on our used trade business. I mean, it’s a pretty robust business. There’s a lot of life in the PS2 platform for Sony.
IIG: Now one other thing I want to talk to you about is the Wii. Obviously this has been a huge phenomenon. But it’s still impossible to find. Even Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the Wii shortage will continue through next year. What’s your reaction to that? I mean, does it frustrate you guys?
TDN: Right now, Reggie has a problem that I guess we’d all like to have. They’ve got a couple of really hot SKUs. I mean obviously, Wii has been a huge success for them. And I’ll tell you, their DS platform has been a huge success for them. Their library is very robust. There’s certainly a lot of demand being generated right there, and it’s a pent-up demand.
But anytime you’ve got a worldwide launch like they’ve had, they’re trying to get their production under control. They’re doing a good job of communicating to us in terms of the retail community, I think, of what they can expect when in real time. But it’s going to have to catch up with itself. And I think in the end of the day that enthusiasm is good. Our concern is to make sure that we’re getting our fair share of the allocation so that we’re taking care of our customers.
IIG: And do you feel like you are?
TDN: Yeah. We feel like we are. But we are encouraging people to shop with us early because it’s going to be on everyone’s wish list. Definitely shop early, if that is the item.
IIG: What’s your take on the Xbox 360 Arcade? Microsoft’s Robbie Bach is touting it as an alternative to the Wii. Do you see it as people that’s coming into the store, seeing the Wii is sold out, and saying, “OK, I’ll guess I’ll get that”?
TDN: I think the Nintendo Wii versus the Xbox 360, at its core you still have a console versus a console. They’re very different. Certainly, the Nintendo Wii has really got around the old stereotype notion of the video game guy sitting in there doing his own thing. When you go to the Wii it’s just a different experience. It’s not a sedentary experience. It’s off the couches. It really plays into that social gaming aspect where you’ll walk into people’s house and it’s a Christmas party and people are up and playing. So I think they complement each other. I don’t think it’s an either/or game.
What we’re seeing is a lot of folks are talking about all the broadening of the category with the Wii and DS. But we’re also seeing a lot of core and avid gamers that are buying the Wii as a second console in the house and then experiencing that kind of gaming community with their parents or their friends.
So I don’t think it’s a win-lose proposition. Microsoft’s stepping up with, with this Arcade and they’re giving a more value-added experience to the consumers. [It’s] good for everybody.
IIG: Now this is an exceptionally crowded holiday season.
TDN: It is.
IIG: Though it’s getting less crowded every day! How are you handling all these, like the shipping schedules, these delays?
TDN: Well, we’ve been in this business for some time. We are very nimble in the way we’re able to react. When Grand Theft Auto IV moved out to Q2 2008 it was not foreseen.
But there’s enough right now in the queue that’s coming out during the holiday. Just look at the titles. Guitar Hero III is going to be huge–it’s the first time it’s going to be available on the Wii. Rock Band is going to do good, and I think it’s going to do probably better in the first quarter. Call of Duty 4 is going to be great, and Halo 3 is going to have a big holiday.
So there is not a loss of titles in the pipeline, and software sales are going to be robust. I think hardware sales are going do well–we’ll sell all we get. And then with the gift card season, I think we’ll see a lot of traction into January and February of next year with that.
IIG: I mean, do you think that publishers put too much emphasis on the holiday season? I mean, a lot of these publishers are basically cannibalizing their own the sales by releasing all these great games at the same time.
TDN: I think we all know the old retail notion of you want to fish when the fish are swimming. It’s as simple as that. And when you look at the percentage of retail sales that are done in the fourth quarter, it’s a lot, so.
IIG: Now I know a lot of companies, like Netflix–I’ll use them as an example–whose business model is being threatened by digital distribution being on the horizon have their stock value drop. However, digitally distributed games are already here, but GameStop’s stock is going through the roof. Why do you think that is?
TDN: Well I can’t speak for Netflix and what their business model is doing or not.
IIG: Of course.
TDN: But what I can tell you about for us. You know we, we have been a company that’s been built as a series of roll-ups. We were Etcetera, we were Babbage’s, we were FuncoLand, we were EB Games. So what we’ve been able to do now is put a roof over all this, and now say, define it as, who are we? What are we? We’ve done that. The brand architecture is now done. We’re running a national branding campaign that consists of print, network [TV], and cable [TV]. That puts us in a position where we’re focused.
Then you look at digital distribution–it’s on the horizon, sure. But you know what? Brick and mortar isn’t going away. And when you look at this category and where it is in the life cycle, it’s just getting started. When you have that intangible product that we have, meaning the service aspect of the knowledge, expertise, advice, selection, convenience, the parade model that’s all about currency for new games. That’s something that I don’t think the digital download models are going to.
IIG: But I mean are you making any kind of preparations for it? You don’t see it as a big competitor a couple years down the road?
TDN: We certainly see it as a channel that is going to become more prevalent in our business. We are also looking at some things internally that we’re working on to complement our current channel offerings. So it’s something we’re very aware of, and something that we’ll continue to gauge how far out the technology is, where our customers are in terms of adopting that technology, and where we want to live in that space.
IIG: Now, you mentioned your rebranding is complete. So all stores have been rebranded GameStop now? There’s no more EB Games outlets anywhere?
TDN: In all but maybe–I’m guessing–5 percent of our stores. So 95 percent of the chain has been rebranded. The ones that aren’t are only because there’s a lease requirement or a lease restriction that says you can’t put the new sign up yet.
We didn’t want to launch this new brand campaign until we had the lion’s share of our stores rebranded. It’s a very rare occasion where you’ll see an EB Games sign still up. And even when we look at our international model, it’s really, it’s moving that way too, with the exception of Canada.
IIG: Why Canada?
TDN: We’re still evaluating our mind share and our identity with EB Games and the Canadian market. It’s just before you do move that way want to make sure that you really understand what your top mind awareness is and your brand equity is, before you want to make your shift. So we’re still doing some due diligence.
IIG: Now I don’t know if you’ve been following the Manhunt 2 controversy, but I just wanted to clarifying something. Am I correct in understanding it’s GameStop’s policy to never stock AO games, not even if it’s a high-profile one?
TDN: That is our policy. We do not stock AO games.
IIG: So what’s your take on all these various game laws which would mandate you display M-rated games in a different section, like adult magazines?
TDN: Well, so far you the states have tried to regulate it, without much success. It’s certainly something that’s out there. It’s going to be something that we need to look at state by state, municipality by municipality. But right now it seems like the best guidepost is the ESRB guidelines, making sure that we’re a good partner there. And that’s what we’re doing.
We did a campaign earlier this year that was all about the ESRB guidelines. Last year, the ESRB came together with five retailers including us, and we did a commitment to parents and our take on it was a Respect the Ratings campaign. We created a Web site, respecttheratings.com, that’s basically Gaming 101 for parents.
We are protecting the youth, in addition to a whole public education component that we are working with the ESRB on. There was a huge push last November, and a second push with [ESRB president] Pat Vance and our company president [Steve Morgan] this November, especially around the holiday time, to let parents know it is the natural time to be aware of games and game ratings.
The other thing that we did, too, is a little bit of self-compliance. We’ve implemented a secret shopper program, where we’re making sure that we’ve got the compliance in terms of checking for ID for each and every store. And we’ve sent a real strong message that it’s a zero tolerance. We actually have terminated employees for the violations. We do stick to what we say when it comes to game ratings.
This year has already produced its fair share of high-profile instant hits with World in Conflict, The Orange Box, Halo 3, and BioShock, to name a few. Now, in November, the retail inferno has become a firestorm. Ringing in the month with a flashbang is Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. As the title implies, developer Infinity Ward has shelved its World War II roots and given the classic shooting franchise a modern-day face-lift. Rated M for Mature, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. A scaled-down, T-for-Teen-rated version will also appear this week on Nintendo’s DS.
War is the name of the game this week, as several other conflict-heavy titles come to market. Nearly a year to the day after its console counterpart stormed the sales charts, Epic Games’ Gears of War hits PCs this week. The PC version adds five new levels to the original game’s campaign, as well as three exclusive multiplayer maps and a game editor for creating user-generated levels. The counterpoint to Epic’s brutal shooter announced during this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit, Rare’s adorable papier-mâchê strategy game Viva Piñata also come to life on the PC this week. Rounding out the big-name PC-exclusive offerings is Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, the first stand-alone expansion to the solidly reviewed epic-sized real-time strategy game from Gas Powered Games.
Saber rattling is also on offer in Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Continuing in its tradition of period-piece beat-’em-ups, Koei’s Omega Force Team reenacts the 14th-to-15th-century war of succession between France and England. Those who prefer their sabers to be manufactured in a galaxy far, far away can check out Traveller’s Tales’ Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. A redux of the first two Lego Star Wars games, The Complete Saga adds in a few new gameplay enhancements and modes, and is available for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS.
With Mario and Sonic now set to engage in fireball to spin-dash ball in Super Smash Bros. Brawl in February, once arch-rivals Sega and Nintendo team up in the meantime for some friendly competition this week in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii. Intelligent System’s long-running turn-based RPG series also hits the Wii exclusively this week in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Sony’s handheld receives a pair of exclusives itself, namely the strategically oriented SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike and Silent Hill: Origins, a prequel to Konami’s original survival horror action game.
Like so many aces up its sleeve, Nintendo is busting out Super Mario Bros. 3 to build anticipation for the mustachioed plumber’s interstellar jaunt Super Mario Galaxy, which is slated for liftoff next week. One of If Its Games’s Greatest Games of All Time, Super Mario Bros. 3 is widely heralded as the quintessential platformer and can be had for 500 Wii points ($5) from Nintendo’s Virtual Console. Sega’s run-and-gun side-scroller Alien Soldier (900 Wii points, $9) makes its first appearance stateside, and Hudson’s Power Golf (600 Wii points, $6) rounds out the VC lineup.
Telltale Games’ gumshoe pooch and rabbit-like thing return for the first episode of their new season this week in Sam & Max Episode 201: Ice Station Santa for PCs. Lastly, two of the seven downloadable titles Microsoft revealed last week arrive sooner than later, with Sierra Online’s polymorphic puzzler Switchball and InterServ International’s Word Puzzle available on Xbox Live this Wednesday.
This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information–actual dates may vary).
NOVEMBER 5, 2007
Alien Soldier (Wii VC)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (PS2)
Bee Movie Game (Wii)
Bratz 4 Real (DS)
Build-A-Bear (DS)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, X360, PS3, DS)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii)
Power Golf (Wii VC)
Shrek: Ogres and Dronkeys (DS)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Wii VC)
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (PC)
The Bee Game (GBA)
The Simpsons Game (PSP)
Tips, Tricks & Trips + Aircraft Collection (PC)
Zoo Vet: Endangered Animals (PC)
NOVEMBER 6, 2007
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War (PS3, X360)
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII (PS3)
Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2008 (X360, PS2)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (DS)
Empire Earth III (PC)
Enchanted (DS)
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate (PC)
F.E.A.R. Files (X360)
Gears of War (PC)
Ghost in the Sheet (PC)
Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour (Wii)
Horse Life (DS)
Hot Wheels: Beat That (PC, DS)
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (X360, PS3, Wii, DS)
LifeSigns: Surgical Unit (DS)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
My French Coach (DS)
My Spanish Coach (DS)
My Word Coach (Wii, DS)
Ontamarama (DS)
Panzer Tactics DS (DS)
Power Rangers: Super Legends (PS2, GC, PC)
Puzzle de Harvest Moon (DS)
Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action (X360)
Silent Hill: Origins (PSP)
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike (PSP)
The Sims 2: Teen Style Stuff (PC)
Viva Piñata (PC)
World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets (DS, PSP)
The wait for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (COD4) is almost over for Aussie gamers. This week, virtual warmongers will be able to switch roles with either a British Special Air Service soldier or a US Marine Corps Force Recon operator as they take on terrorists around the world. In addition to single-player action, COD4 features a comprehensive multiplayer mode that extends game life with online play. There is also a perk system that lets you unlock better and more powerful rewards as you climb through the ranks. Essentially, it’s a power-up system you can use to enhance your character or create a custom class. One of the more publicised perks is Last Stand, where, just before dying, your character pulls out a pistol in an attempt to get one last kill in. Expect to see Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in stores on 7 November.
One of the other big games to hit the shelves down under this week is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (GH3). Despite not being developed by Harmonix, GH3 stays true to the series’ roots and features a killer soundtrack–and most of the songs are originals rather than cover versions. One of the new features is online play, which allows you to have a thrash-off with other wannabe rockers from around the world online. The next-gen versions of GH3 come with a Gibson Les Paul controller, while the PS2 version of the game comes with the Gibson Kramer. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be released this Wednesday for the PS2, Wii, PS3 and 360, with a PC version to follow later this month.
Fans of the Simpsons TV series (and movie) can rejoice this week, as The Simpsons Game debuts on all major platforms (apart from the PSP and PS3, which are due to ship next week). The game starts off with Bart discovering that the family is actually in a video game, which in turn gives each member of the family special powers. The different levels get even stranger, and plenty of high-profile games are parodied along the way. If you’ve got a friend and a spare controller lying around, you can also play the game in co-op mode, completing objectives as a team. The Simpsons Game comes out on 7 November, with the PSP and PS3 version to follow shortly.
Four months after its release in North America, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is finally making its way down under. The game is set six months after the events of Metriod Prime 2: Echos, and you play as vetran boun
;)