Nintendo Terminates Creator's Program In Favor Of Relaxed Guidelines
Nintendo has had a storied struggle with the burgeoning days of Let's Plays and other kinds of video game content on streaming sites. The company believes that its intellectual property belongs solely to them in all forms, which lead to them absorbing advertiser revenue on any video that used Nintendo music or gameplay on video platforms. This eventually lead to what Nintendo seemed to feel was a middle ground with the Creator's Program, essentially splitting revenue from videos between themselves and the content creators. This had its own set of problems, not the least of which being that videos were submitted to Nintendo, which manually checked them for things like vulgar or explicit language.
Now it appears Nintendo is backing off from that idea and is trying to relax those stringent guidelines a little bit.
The new rules seem to completely do away with ContentID, YouTube's automatic copyright claim algorithm that immediately files claims for third parties based on audio and visual information from the video. In other words, just because you put up a video from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and the awesome music from that game plays doesn't mean it will demonetize your video.
"As long as you follow some basic rules, we will not object to your use of gameplay footage and/or screenshots captured from games for which Nintendo owns the copyright ('Nintendo Game Content') in the content you create for appropriate video and image sharing sites."
The new guidelines referred to there are fairly obvious ones. While they are relaxing the rules on copyright issues for videos, that doesn't mean you can start selling Mario hats like all bets are off. Nintendo's also not keen on videos of their games without commentary, but if you talk, you're good to go, though exceptions are made for the Switch's capture button. You can't post stuff that's not been released yet or not officially sanctioned by them, so they'll still come down on you for pre-release footage of Smash Bros. that they didn't assure you could have. You also can't claim association or sponsorship from them just because they agreed to look the other way on videos.
Finally, there is the catch-all rule that they can still just take down whatever they feel like if they think it's inappropriate, which most companies have in place in case of the unforeseen.
It's a fairly big deal for a company that has always been reticent to catch up with the times in this arena. It might be that Nintendo is making a genuine attempt to better balance a modern sense of marketing with protecting their intellectual property. With days to go before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate comes out, keeping people from sharing their matches or streaming tournaments due to their policies might harm that game's reach.
Man of Medan, the first game in Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology, is still a bit of a question mark. While the game seems to take after Supermassive's criminally underrated Until Dawn, more information would definitely help bolster our excitement for the title. Thankfully, the developer and Bandai Namco are answering that request with a series of dev diaries.
The first dev diary focuses on the sound work in the game, arguably one of the most important parts of making a horror game. To get the sights and sounds of an old steel ship right, the team actually got the run of a real one and recorded all the various sounds they could amass.
The video also goes on to talk about the lighting in the game, trying to make sense of how to navigate the game world while both keeping it spookyand playable. Thus the team based lighting off occasional in-room light sources and light coming down in shafts through openings in the ceiling.
Man of Medan is scheduled for release in 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission, an independent regulatory agency within the United States government, agreed to begin investigating the subject of whether video game loot boxes could be or should be classified as gambling. While not an official announcement, the FTC openly discussed that they are looking into the issue, which is a further step than most expected.
In the face of these investigations, the Entertainment Software Association is standing by their long-held stance that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, an ESA spokesperson said "Loot boxes are one way that players can enhance the experience that video games offer. Contrary to assertions, loot boxes are not gambling. They have no real-world value, players always receive something that enhances their experience, and they are entirely optional to purchase. They can enhance the experience for those who choose to use them, but have no impact on those who do not."
The spokesperson went on to point out that the ESA has in fact moved toward making parents more aware of loot boxes by putting labels for it on the back of game boxes.
Less than two weeks ago, Ubisoft – which is a member of the Entertainment Software Association – described loot boxes as a "huge boon" for the industry as a whole. During the FTC meeting where loot boxes came up, Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire estimated that loot boxes would be a $50 billion dollar business unto themselves by 2020.
Loot boxes have been banned in some countries like Belgium, where the publisher response has been to simply remove the ability to buy them completely.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
At the end of the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, a cutscene from the game's World of Light singleplayer mode was shown. In the cutscene, almost everyone dies, except for the pink puffball Kirby, who managed to use the Warp Star to teleport out of the galaxy before it is absorbed by the formless Galeem. It was long suspected that director Masahiro Sakurai chose Kirby to survive, and thus start off the World of Light mode, because Sakurai created Kirby when he was at HAL and thus maintains some preference for the character. Not so, says Sakurai.
In a column for Japanese magazine Famitsu, translated by Source Gaming, Sakurai dismisses the idea that his own bias for the character contributed. Instead, it was actually a lore-dependent decision sprinkled with some gameplay considerations that lead to Kirby being the best choice.
"We needed a solid, convincing reason for why said character could outrun Galeem," Sakurai wrote. "All fighters possessing 'normal' abilities were immediately disqualified. Given that its assault enveloped the ends of the galaxy, only a vehicle that could defy the laws of physics would work. Even short-distance teleportation wouldn’t be enough. Some of you may have forgotten, but Kirby’s Warp Star has been able to, y’know, warp since his very first game. That alone made him a pretty solid contender. The only other two fighters that could have survived would have been Bayonetta or Palutena."
Sakurai reasoned that Bayonetta and Palutena's enemies are in World of Light mode, so they were captured, meaning it was unlikely that these two characters would have made it. But the bigger consideration is that they are much more complicated characters than Kirby, who has been around since Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 and has not changed a great deal since. For new players, taking control of either the witch or the goddess as their first interaction with the game would have been overwhelmingly complicated.
In the column, Sakurai noted that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will receive a day one patch, though he did not indicate what it would include. He also confirmed that, for the first time in the series, Ultimate will be able to save replays as videos rather than a log of button inputs, meaning they won't be broken by balance updates.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases on Nintendo Switch on December 7.
[Source: Famitsu via SourceGaming]
It seems like video game movies are all the rage these days, as studios see the money some games make and publishers are eager for the boost in mindshare that comes from a major mainstream film. In 2016, Universal and Microsoft found themselves in agreement that a Gears of War movie would work well for both of them, so Universal optioned the rights and has found a screenwriter for the project.
F. Scott Frazier, best known for 2016 action film Collide and 2017 equally-action film xXx: Return of Xander Cage, has been tapped for the project, according to TheWrap. The movie is being co-produced by Dylan Clark, producer of the recent Planet of the Apes movies, and Rod Fergusson, who helped create the Gears of War franchise and now oversees it as head of the Gears-focused Microsoft studio The Coalition.
A Gears of War movie written by the people who make action movies like Gears of War makes total sense, as the "War is hell" angle probably diminishes when you start chainsawing dudes or pointing a gun that drops a satellite beam on their heads.
Would you want the Gears of War movie to adapt Marcus and his crew, or perhaps the next generation of anti-Locust forces? What about an entirely original story set in the Gears of War universe? Let us know in the comments below.
[Source: TheWrap]
Dragon Ball FighterZ is still fresh on people's minds despite coming out nearly a year ago at the beginning of 2018 and Bandai Namco seems keen to keep it that way with further updates. A new update out today adds online tournaments to the game with custom rulesets, allowing players to fight together in a winner-moves-on structure. Considering how important tournaments are to the world of Dragon Ball, this only seems appropriate.
Players can create custom rules that get as granular as a tournament of only Yamcha or a tournament where only Kamehameha variations can defeat the opponent. You can also just have a clean match if you want it. You can browse tournaments by their rulesets and fill in empty spots if it's open to you or join in with friends and see who is actually the best Goku Black out there. You can even schedule them for specific times.
Winners get trophies which are then displayable in a trophy room. The themed areas mimic the game's lobby and even let you place lobby avatars down as decorations. You can check out the update in action in the video below.
The game will also be getting a December update with holiday-themed costumes, stickers, avatars, and other cosmetics. Both that and the November update are coming to all platforms, which includes PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see how many Nappa tournaments I can find.
Team 17, the indie publisher behind games like Overcooked and Yooka-Laylee, has revealed a new multiplayer first-person shooter set in the well-tilled grounds of World War II. Hell Let Loose intends to differ itself, however, by being a 50 vs. 50 multiplayer game with an emphasis on capturing territory.
You can check out the reveal trailer for the game below.
"Featuring sweeping maps modeled on real reconnaissance images and satellite data, the entire battlefield is divided up into large capture sectors - allowing for emergent and constantly unique gameplay that pits two forces of fifty players in a fight to the death across fields, bridges, forests and towns on an ever-evolving front line," Team 17 writes on the game's store page. "When a sector is captured, it will generate one of three resources for your team, creating a complex meta-game that will influence your team’s march to victory."
How well that all works out in practice remains to be seen, but it is interesting seeing Team 17 branch out a bit in the kind and scale of the games they publish.
Hell Let Loose is scheduled to go into early access on PC in 2019.
I wanted to wait until I had time to properly gather my thoughts regarding an announcement I never saw coming. Earlier this month, Hajime Tabata resigned from Square Enix. It happened swiftly, announced in a special Final Fantasy XV stream, where it was also revealed that all DLC planned after Episode Ardyn would be canceled.
It was a lot to process, but my mind immediately went back to when I had the opportunity to reflect with Tabata on the progress of Final Fantasy XV a year after launch. Tabata was so excited and hopeful, while also being candid about his missteps. He seemed determined to go above and beyond for the fans who had stuck by the series through the long development cycle, discussing how this year would bring the end of Final Fantasy XV journey. At this time he said, “It's a project that we've come all the way from the beginning alongside our fans and we want to bring it to an end together with those fans."
I can’t imagine canceling DLC and resigning was Tabata’s vision. So, what went wrong? I’m not sure we’ll ever truly know the answer. It’s clear Tabata was passionate about a project he was working on, so much so he felt confident in forming his own business. We also know that Square Enix’s Luminous Productions, the studio Tabata led, had suffered an “extraordinary loss” of over $33 million. Whether this points to scrapping a project or abandoning additional Final Fantasy XV multimedia plans remains to be seen. Instead of speculating, I want to focus on my time with Hajime Tabata, and why I’m bummed to see him leave Square Enix.
Through the years, I’ve spent a lot of time around Hajime Tabata. I was first introduced to him back in 2014 when he took the reigns from Tetsuya Nomura on Final Fantasy XV (previously Versus XIII). I remember thinking that Tabata inherited a ticking time bomb, a project that had been announced too early and had the weight of the entire franchise on top of it. It would be an uphill battle to launch it at all, let alone meet expectations. Oddly enough, Tabata, an avid skier, compared development to climbing Mt. Denali, which has an elevation of 20,310 feet and is the highest peak in North America. If he ever felt that pressure getting to him, he never showed it. Tabata was always smiling, regardless of the situation.
After this meeting, I encountered Tabata at various shows for interviews and got to know him best when Final Fantasy XV graced Game Informer’s cover. Every time I saw the man, he would ask me what I was playing and what I thought about the genre and where it needed to evolve. Yes, I talked Tabata’s ear off about the new standard for RPGs set by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the finer points of the underrated Legends of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. We also discussed our nostalgia for some of our favorite games growing up, from Secret of Mana to Suikoden.
It was clear Tabata had a passion for the genre. It was even more clear he knew Final Fantasy had to raise the stakes; it needed to compete again and take some chances, rather than rest on its laurels. Taking risks when a project is already troubled isn’t exactly a happy path, but Tabata pushed for Square Enix to attempt a more open world, which he knew many had doubts about. Change is difficult for any franchise, let alone a series seeped in 30 years of tradition. Final Fantasy XV has its problems, but it was an important step for the franchise to take. Love it or hate it, the game got people talking about Final Fantasy again and gave the team experience with pushing the boundaries of the RPG envelope.
Tabata made one thing clear from the onset: He didn’t think Final Fantasy XV would become profitable. It wasn’t about that. It was about winning back the fans, and to do that Tabata spoke directly to them. Whether it was getting feedback on the Episode Duscae demo or keeping fans in the loop about the game’s continual progress with a video feature called Active Time Report, Tabata always took the series’ loyal fanbase into consideration. As he told me in my Final Fantasy One Year Later feature for why he continued with free updates and more content, “because they've been waiting so long – we felt we had to give back to them somehow.”
In my experience, being candid like Tabata is rare with Japanese developers. He wasn’t afraid to answer difficult questions and it was refreshing to actually hear Tabata admit when the team could have done better. Up until this point, Square Enix hadn’t exactly been transparent with its fans and Tabata helped turn that around. He opened the lines of a communication in ways that Square Enix had not before, because he knew it was the only way to move the series in a better direction. Being on the cover story trip, it was inspiring to see how he got the whole team to rally around him, especially for a project that had so much negativity attached to it. All of my experiences with Tabata felt very genuine; he really cared about the genre and series and was willing to fight to reach the finish line. And he did. He shipped a game and he kept working to make it even better.
Tabata is what the Final Fantasy series needed to survive. It’s hard to believe he’s not a part of its future. He had the right mindset. You can’t play it safe and still make a mark in the triple-A market anymore. You can’t keep fans at arm’s length away in our current climate where they have more ways than ever to make their voices heard. All your past successes don’t guarantee a win, and you need to make sure every new project brings something interesting to the table. I’ll be keeping an eye on whatever Tabata’s next project is, and I hope Square Enix takes his positive impact into consideration when it approaches the franchise in the future. I feel like Tabata was just getting started, Final Fantasy XV serving as his big testing ground. He’s most likely onto bigger and better things, but I’m sad that won’t involve Square Enix or Final Fantasy.
At XO18 earlier this month, Microsoft announced that they intend to acquire Obsidian Entertainment, the RPG studio behind games like Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Alpha Protocol. Now, not even a month out from that announcement, Obsidian looks ready to announce their next new game and is giving hints of what it might be.
Geoff Keighley, host of The Game Awards, has already confirmed that the next game will be premiering at the awards show.
Don't miss the global premiere and announcement of the upcoming RPG by @Obsidian and @PrivateDivision at @TheGameAwards streaming live everywhere next Thursday, December 6 at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT. #WorldsWillChange pic.twitter.com/LjW8GmdwcB
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) November 28, 2018Private Division is Take-Two's publishing label focusing on partnering with independent studios of experienced developers for major new games, which you can read all about here. It is perhaps some degree of ironic that the next major game from this initiative is, in essence, partnered with Microsoft due to the reality of acquisitions.
Not content to merely announce the game at The Game Awards, Obsidian has begun teasing the aesthetic of the title with some changes to its website. The official Twitter account for Obsidian asked people to notice the teasing by tweeting knowingly about it.
Hmmm... anyone else getting those ads on https://t.co/i158nrCxBL???
— Obsidian (@Obsidian) November 28, 2018The "ads" being referred to are a countdown and a headline about a special message from somewhere called "Auntie Cleo's." Skipping past that ad brings you other images, like an Cleo's banner proclaiming it is "Better Than Nature," and an ad for something called Spacer's Choice. The included sound effects hearken back to mid-20th century advertisements, almost similar to the way Fallout does but with a higher dose of space.
How do you think Obsidian's new game will play? Are you expecting something like Alpha Protocol or an isometric RPG like Pillars of Eternity? Let us know below in the comments.
Update 2: Bethesda has tweeted out that they will give anyone with proof of purchase of the Collector's Edition 500 atoms.
We understand and respect that there is disappointment with the bag in the Power Armor Edition. We are sorry. Please contact Bethesda Support to provide proof of your CE purchase. They will assist in granting your account 500 Atoms.
Please visit: https://t.co/TJBMjYaph0
Atoms are Fallout 76's virtual currency. They can be earned in-game, but also purchased, so 500 atoms is the equivalent of about five dollars.
Update: Bethesda has give us the following response:
"We’re investigating the response from the Bethesda Gear Store Support team and we apologize to the customer who took the time to reach out. The support response was incorrect and not in accordance with our conduct policy. Unfortunately, due to unavailability of materials, we had to switch to a nylon carrying case in the Fallout 76: Power Armor Edition. We hope this doesn’t prevent anyone from enjoying what we feel is one of our best collector’s editions."
The original story is as follows:
The Fallout 76 special edition, known officially as the Power Armor edition, was announced during Bethesda's E3 conference earlier this year. Todd Howard introduced the collectibles by showcasing a CG trailer of someone putting on a power armor helmet, then including an image of the special edition's contents. That picture, which has been and is still being used in marketing materials, is part of what's causing a new round of frustration with fans.
In the advertisement, the image shows a heavy duty canvas bag for carrying your brand new Power Armor helmet around. The actual product released is a nylon bag, which is a lot less durable and made of significantly cheaper materials.
It's no shock that items in a special edition's advertising are different than how they come out once they're mass produced, as anyone that has ever bought one with a statue included will certainly tell you. Materials being entirely different, especially when specifically outlined in the advertisement, is a different ballgame altogether, however.
The issue became bigger when a user on Reddit named AlexanderDLarge posted screencaps of emails sent to and received from Bethesda customer service when questioned about this discrepancy.
"We are sorry that you aren't happy with the bag," the customer service email reads. "The bag shown in the media was a prototype and was too expensive to make. We aren't planning to do anything about it."
We have reached out to Bethesda to confirm the authenticity of the response and for any comment, but did not receive a reply by time of writing.
The image for the Power Armor edition was never changed to indicate that the material for the bag was being changed and still exists on multiple retailer sites, displaying the canvas bag today. While at the end of the day it is just a bag, it does seem fairly obvious that the product released is not the same one being advertised, while piles on to the woes Bethesda is having with dashed expectations for the game.
Fans of Shinichiro Watanabe's 1998 classic animated series Cowboy Bebop remember the show for its specific character writing, jazzy soundtrack, and unemulatable style. Now, Netflix is hoping to capture some of Watanabe's vision with a live-action series announced via their Twitter.
Guess it’s time to announce that Cowboy Bebop, the live-action series, is heading to @Netflix. pic.twitter.com/bKe0d8EKoH
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) November 28, 2018While details are scant, Variety reports that the series has been in the works for about a year and will have an initial run for ten episodes. Netflix themselves later tweeted, perhaps to calm the reaction to the initial announcement, that director Shinichiro Watanabe is a consultant on the series.
Cowboy Bebop rides the line between cult classic and mainstream hit, being one of the first recommendations anime fans make for almost universal acclaim. The series spawned a movie and multiple manga adaptations, becoming both a critical and commercial success. Some of the series' most well-known aspects have permeated other media, like Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands series allowing players to release a banner into space with the words "See You, Space Cowboy," prompting a NPC later to ask if that's "some anime thing."
Netflix has taken to adapting popular animated series as live-action, recently announcing an Avatar: The Last Airbender take as well.
December’s free PlayStation Plus games will get your heart pounding in two very different ways. Soma, Frictional Games’ sci-fi survival horror, received a 8.5 from us back when it released in 2015. Tim Turi wrote that, “All the core genre tenets are still in place, wrapped in a tense, underwater setting that tells one of the most intriguing sci-fi stories in recent memory.”
While Onrush’s bright and colorful vibe is about as far from horror as you can get, the arcade-style racer will make your heart beat equally fast. You can watch Jeff Cork, Matt Kato, and Leo Vader in friendly car-smashing competition on this episode of New Gameplay Today.
PlayStation Plus members can pick up these two headliners as well as the critically acclaimed indies Iconoclasts – which Kyle HIlliad gave a 9 – and Papers, Please – developed by Lucas Pope, creator of recently released Return of the Obra Dinn.
From December 4 to January 1, PlayStation Plus members can check out all these games along with Steredenn and Steinsgate, both originally for the PlayStation 3. Additionally, you can get Warframe: PlayStation Plus Booster Pack III with your PS Plus membership until January 15. Don’t forget to grab this month’s free games before December 4.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
The Bearded Ladies just showed off a new recruitable character to its tactical adventure game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Farrow is a humanoid fox and combat-ready Stalker who can use her signature ability, Silent Assassin, to double her critical strike chance while hidden.
Players will encounter Farrow in the Metal Fields. This stealthy fox makes for a great assassin, but she has no memory of her origins and had no idea that anything other than her settlement existed until she meets your crew in Road to Eden.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden lets players choose from a number of mutations split into three categories: Passive, Minor, and Major. While Farrow has several options, you can only equip one from each category. Her mutations include:
Passive Super Tendons: Move and sprint to high places without a ladder. Silent Assassin: Do great damage while in hiding. Minor Circuit Breaker: Identify and disable a mechanical enemy's critical functioning parts for 1 turn. Sneak: Pass others unnoticed. Gunslinger: Shoot multiple targets at once using only 1 AP. Major Corpse Eater: Eat fresh raw meat to replenish your health. Moth Wings: Grow wings on your back to move vertically and hover in position. Frog legs: Perform super-mutant leaps and cover long distances.Farrow also has passive stat boosts that will upgrade her chance of inflicting critical damage and increase her maximum health.
You'll be able to try out the vulpine recruit when Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on December 4. You can see the game in action in the 35-minute developer walk-through video here.
QC Games – made up of developers formerly from BioWare – has announced that its online co-op action RPG Breach is entering Steam Early Access in January 2019 with a full, free-to-play launch later in 2019.
The game features a fluid class system encouraging customization and swapping as players work to defeat the player-controlled Veil Demon (and its minions) in an invasion of Earth by creatures from a mythical, parallel Earth.
You can sign up for possible inclusion in Breach's alpha here.
Red Dead Redemption II had its share of old faces to please fans of the original. However, one character was conspicuously but understandably absent -- at least in story mode. Red Dead Online has a huge treat for anyone who adores the original game and we're gonna show it right here and now.
Obligatory spoiler warning: This is obviously a massive spoiler for Red Dead Online as this is easily the biggest moment we've come across in the mode. No real spoilers for Red Dead Redemption II outside of revealing which character from the original game doesn't show up in the story. Seriously, last chance to turn back.
Here we go.
So in Red Dead Redemption II's story, you could visit MacFarlane Ranch if you rode far enough west. The place was deserted though, no Bonnie or her father in sight. Just a few ranch hands. However, after seeing a mission marker in the online mode, I rode down there at the dead of night. As I crept up closer to the house, I saw a figure sitting in a rocking chair and cleaning a rifle. A woman.
I smiled big in anticipation and sure enough there sat Bonnie MacFarlane herself, years before meeting John Marston, ready to give me a mission to help her find a wagon.
It's so good to see old friends.
For more on Red Dead Redemption II, here's 101 things you can do in the game right here.
DrinkBox Studios' Guacamelee 2 arrives on Nintendo Switch on December 10, and Xbox One next January. If you already played through the game on PlayStation 4 or PC, new content is coming your way, starting today with the release of the Three Enemigos DLC pack.
Retailing for $2.99, this DLC adds three playable characters to the mix. You can suit up as Jaguar Javier, El Muñeco, or Uay Pek, each bringing unique abilities and approaches to combat.
In December a second DLC pack arrives for $3.99, and adds 15 challenges to the game, along with a bevy of playable characters, including Chamoya Coscorrona, Uay Coco, Ramirez, Flame Face, and two others. Again, each of these characters performs differently.
Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard reviewed Guacamelee 2 on PlayStation 4, and called it familiar to the first game, but still a riot. He said "with myriad combat and platforming improvements, a worthwhile story, and better challenges, this is the follow-up I didn’t know I wanted."
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