I heard somebody talking about a Superb Owl happening last week. It sounded cute, but I was too busy keeping track of the news. After all, someone has to talk about it just In Case You Missed It!
In Case You Wanted to Catch ‘Em All and get Diamond Armor…
Some tech-savvy gamers managed to make a Pokemon game in Minecraft. I get it; that doesn’t sound too fantastic. Pokemon mods for Minecraft have been around for years, so what’s the big deal? For starters, this was all done in vanilla Minecraft, which means no external mods were used. Second, Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst, the name for this fan-game within a game, includes over 130 original Pokemon, a new continent to explore, and its own unique soundtrack. Considering Nintendo’s policy on fan games as of late, it might be better to snag this sooner rather than later.
In Case You Missed It, Japan Gets Cool DLC and You Don’t. Why?
Money. The answer is money. In a blog post, XSEED games commented on the difficulties of localizing games, DLC, and free content. Prior to the wide release of Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns later this February, XSEED decided it had to come clean about all the free DLC that the former Japan-exclusive title received during the last steps of the localization process. XSEED stated: “For the amount of money and manpower we would need, we could almost release a full other title. … We are really grateful to fans for their continuing support of the series under its new name, but releasing DLC of this size for free is beyond our means.” They also asked their fans if they would be okay with paying roughly $4 for each of the three content patches but have also stated that the decision is not yet final.
In Case You Needed a Bomb to Drop…
In a scathing investigation by Kotaku, the games retailer GameStop was discovered to have their “Circle of Life” program ramped to such a ridiculous degree that employees felt that they needed to lie about having games in stock in order to keep their jobs. The premise of the Circle of Life is that individual stores have to sell a number of used/pre-owned titles in addition to new, unopened games. One employee stated, “This is company wide and in discussions with my peers it is a common practice. We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned. We just tell them we don’t have the new one in stock and shuffle them out the door.” Kotaku has since included more stories from GameStop employees.
In Case You Haven’t Shouted at Trico Yet…
Would you do it if The Last Guardian was $20 less? If so, then you’re in luck. Sony has now officially dropped the price tag to $39.99 (from $59.99). The best guess as to why this happened would probably be sales since the game released a little after the Thanksgiving sales rush. Many gamers were probably tapped out after Black Friday and all the other sales, but perhaps this will get them back into the fray (or fur, in this case).
In Case You Missed It, Nintendo Still Sold Wii U’s…
At least, they did. Now they don’t make them anymore. Last week saw the last gasp of the Wii U as Nintendo pulled the plug on production in Japan. The Guardian has put out an obituary for the console in an attempt to explain just what went wrong. Their best guess? Bad marketing, focus on the casual market, and a lack of system-selling first- and third-party titles all contributed to the downfall of the Wii U.
That’s all for this week! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a Superb Owl… See you next time on In Case You Missed It!
