Tokyo Game Show, or TGS, is absolutely my favourite gaming convention in the world. It's happening this week and, of course, there is a lot of gaming news.
Lets start with the highlights so far.
Sony officially unveiled the new PS3 Slim model. It looks pretty cool and for some stupid reason I want one (even though I already have a badass Ni No Kuni PS3). The new console is 20% smaller than the current PS3 slim and will be for sale in the US starting September 25th.
The next piece of news that is really big for me is the announcement of Oboromuramasa for the Playstation Vita. This beautiful game, developed by Vanillaware, was originally released for the Wii in 2009. The owner of Vanillaware, George Kamitami, had made mention in the past year that he would have liked to release Oboromuramasa for the Playstation Network, so part of that idea is coming to light. Oboromuramasa for the Vita is set to release in March 2013. I personally recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of old school 2D side-scrollers.
I'll post more as a dig into some more reading and watching.
The next piece of information I thought was good enough to share was an opinion I have on the MMO market.
MMO games are really a commodity these days. There are so many on the market that it is hard to distinguish between which ones are good, worth playing, and will have a life span, and which do not. Recently, the Secret World was released by Funcom. This game has been fairly successful critically and has been enjoyed by a wide range of players. It is extremely hard to defend an MMO until at least six months post release. In an article by Gamespot, the CEO of Funcom discusses how Secret World may become free-to-play. This is something that should not happen. There is a clear line between an MMO that is worth paying month-to-month for and one that is not. The decision to go free-to-play should never arise that shortly after a release.
In my opinion, an MMO should either be made solely for free-to-play or pay-to-play. If the game lacks content that would keep a player subscribed for years to come then it should never include a monthly fee. Even Final Fantasy XI, a game that was released almost 10 years ago, still requires a subscription; because it has enough content to keep players coming back day after day. Guild Wars has addressed these issues by acknowledging that it doesn't have that type of content day one.
This is a crucial concept that MMO developers must consider before undertaking the great task of making an MMO. I understand that changing the game to free-to-play may save the Secret World but then players that have been paying since release may feel a bit ripped off.
Anyway, that's my rant. Hope you enjoyed it!
Vanilla ~.~
The Gamespot article can be found HERE
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