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Press Start: a possible new name for the next Xbox, Microsoft's game-changing Illumiroom technology and more

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:34:15 GMT

Plus, the problem of the uncanny valley, Lego Breaking Bad and how the 3DS helped someone to see 3D for the first time ever

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

Next Xbox named Fusion? | Game Development | News by Develop

A possible name for the new Xbox is currently doing the rounds online.
Fusible reports that Microsoft has been named as the owner of a host of URLs relating to the Xbox Fusion brand.
As well as owning the XboxFusion.com address it also claims ownership of a host of other variations including but not limited to XboxFusion.co.uk, XboxFusion.info and XboxFusion.biz.

This could also be some new multimedia service for the next Xbox perhaps?

Is Illumiroom the Next Xbox's secret weapon? | MCV

Ben Parfitt:

Microsoft's Illumiroom technology could be one of the platform holder's key drivers behind its new Xbox.
As MCV reported in January following the tech's unveiling at CES, Illumiroom uses a system that harks back to the old Philips amBX tech, but evolves it far beyond anything seen before. A projector is used to extend visual cues from the game beyond the edges of the TV display to the walls of the room in which the user is playing.
It was at the time pitched as a "proof of concept" system The Verge reports that Illumiroom is now being described by Microsoft as "a next-generation gaming console with a projector that sits on your coffee table and surrounds your television with projected light".

Here's a video of the CES demo:

You can find out more about the technology on the Microsoft Research site.

The Psychology of The Uncanny Valley | GamesIndustry International

Substantial research has shown that the mugs of human characters matter the most. We have evolved to pay special attention to the faces of other people as a way to do everything from empathise with them, communicate with them, and even look for signs of disease. So it shouldn't be surprising that faces are one of the most important things determining whether or not a video game character will live in the uncanny valley.

This is an interesting analysis of the 'uncanny valley' phenomenon, in which depictions of human figures can become more frightening as they get closer to photo-realism. It's been an issue with 'realistic' games like Heavy Rain, and it's going to be a very important consideration in the next generation.

LEGO Breaking Bad concept video is pure genius | VG247

An amusing consideration of what a Lego Breaking Bad game may look like.

Before you get too excited, it's not happeneing. This is a parody video by animator, Brian Anderson.

I Am Stereoblind, But the 3DS Lets Me See the World as Others See It | Kotaku

This is a really lovely story from Rare designer George Kokoris who is stereoblind ("a blanket term for any condition that prevents a person from perceiving depth using binocular vision") but has been able to experience the stereoscopic effect offered by the 3DS.

After playing with the depth slider off for a few minutes, I slid it up out of sheer curiosity and saw something I had never seen in my life: a third dimension. This is how other people see the world all the time.
Not only was I "seeing into the screen" the way so many others feel when playing a 3DS for the first time, I was seeing in a direction that had previously been literally invisible to me.
It's difficult to come up with a metaphor. Maybe it's what Gomez saw the first time he spun the world in Fez. Maybe you can remember the first time you lay on the grass at night, looked up at the stars, and realized you weren't looking up at all, because there is no "up", and you were suddenly aware of being attached to the surface of a tiny sphere rolling through a vast emptiness. Or perhaps you once looked at an Escher woodcut long enough for the positive and negative space to switch places. I suppose any analogy would be imperfect; I was seeing a new piece of everyday reality.

Wonderful.

You can follow Press Start at Pinboard.

Keith Stuart

Designer Diary: Canterbury, or A Game of City-Building in Dark Age Britain

Wed, 01 May 2013 19:00:31 GMT

by Andrew Parks

Initial Concept

One of the first things that popped into my head after playing Caylus in 2005 was how much I loved the idea that everyone was building the same city. Of course, I also enjoyed the worker placement mechanism, the competition to build the castle, and the resource management aspects of the game, but it was the idea of watching the city's structural dynamic grow based upon player decisions that really got me thinking. Wouldn't it be fun to create a city-building game that focused specifically on this one aspect but felt different from other games of the genre?

Of course, a lot of city-building games were out there, so I immediately set about coming up with concepts that would make this game have a different feel than the others. One of the opening parameters of the design was to remove the concept of personal wealth from the game. Players would have to manage expenses, of course, but I didn't want a player to build up a hoard of gold from using his buildings. I wanted the game to be a competitive city-builder in which players would draw from a common treasury, and that treasury would grow as the city expanded. This would allow us to avoid a "rich get richer" scenario for an individual player, and all of the players' available resources would grow based upon their combined decisions as they developed the city.

But how could I do this and keep the game fair? After all, we couldn't allow one player to show up and drain the city treasury all by himself! And so I decided that on a turn, a player would either collect revenue from the treasury or spend his collected revenue on new buildings. The amount of revenue collected would be based on the city's overall progress so far. To accomplish this, we would need an independent City Marker on the victory track in addition to the Player Markers. Each time a player scored points, the city would also score points, so when a player collected revenue, he would check the position of the City Marker to determine how much gold to collect.

Okay, so I had the game's basic economics down, but I needed more than this to make the design feel different than other city-building games. In particular, I didn't want the game to be about commodities or trading. In other words, I didn't want buildings to produce goods that could then be traded, converted, or sold. Thinking about how else to distinguish each building led me to think about popular city-building video games that I enjoyed, including SimCity and Caesar III. In particular, Caesar III started players off with a little tent village in which residents had nothing but an old well and some vague dreams of a teeming metropolis. Over time, as the city would grow, players would need to provide food, soldiers, and other services in order to attract new citizens.

Inspired by this, I decided that these services would become the center of my city-building board game. Players would compete with one another to provide services to different parts of the city. Small buildings would provide their services to their immediate area, while medium and large buildings would provide services to larger sections of the city. For example, a well would provide water to its immediate area, but a fountain would provide water to several areas, and this in turn would allow those areas to focus on higher level services like food, religion, and so on. In fact, I realized that this hierarchy of services would become a fundamental part of the design. You would need water before you could worry about providing food, for example, and the high end stuff, like commerce and culture, could come only once you had all the basics.

Finding Canterbury

Canterbury was the first game I had ever worked on without having the precise theme selected before developing the mechanisms. I normally like to build the mechanisms around an established setting, so finding the right city for a game that already had an initial set of mechanisms was something new to me. I first thought of appropriate time periods. I didn't want a modern setting like SimCity because I liked the idea of the city starting off with almost nothing, like an ancient community slowly growing into a village and eventually into a city. I had already worked on a game set in classical antiquity (Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean) and wanted to try something new. I also didn't want to create a game set in the Late Middle Ages or Renaissance because those time periods were sufficiently represented by other games.

So I started thinking about the early Dark Ages, a setting which hasn't seen an abundance of games so far. As an English professor, I thought about Dark Age Britain and considered which major cities were developed during that time. As I started my research, I was astonished to discover how little I knew about Britain during the onset of the Dark Ages. I hadn't realized that for a hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire, nearly every major city in Britain had been devastated by a continuous series of raids. Nothing could be rebuilt during this time due to all of the turmoil. It would actually be the Saxon kings who would later restore order by conquering Britain. But wait a minute, I asked myself, are these the same Saxon warlords who are depicted so villainously in the Arthurian tales I love so much? Yep, it's those same guys. As far as I could tell, these guys had actually saved Britain from eternal chaos.

As I started to pore over the topic more deeply, a city leaped out at me as being a possible candidate for the game: Canterbury. Here was an extremely famous city known for its religious significance in Britain, and also for Chaucer's famous poem – but what I hadn't realized was how significant the city had been in the late sixth century. King Ethelbert of Kent had actually converted to Christianity and had established Canterbury (formerly the Roman city of Durovernum Cantiacorum, which was itself built over a conquered Celtic settlement) as his new Saxon capital. In fact, Ethelbert ordered the creation of the famous cathedral during the city's reconstruction in 597, and this moment represented the birth of Christianity in Britain. As I researched further, I discovered that although the Roman buildings had been long gone, the orderly district layout was still set into the groundwork. The Saxon builders actually used the original district layout when rebuilding the city. Now I had a famous British city with a significant but not extremely well-known origin. I knew at once that this would be the perfect setting for the game.

The organized Roman districts would form our board. To keep things simple, I created a 5 x 5 district city with a total of 25 districts. Each district would hold up to six "building slots" (small structures would take up one building slot, medium structures two slots, and large structures four slots). Each district would also keep track of its provided services (water, food, religion, defense, commerce, and culture) with wooden cubes provided by the players.

First prototype game board
Game Structure

It was important to me that the players did not actually own the buildings. The players represented Saxon Lords working for the king as they ordered the construction of the city. Each player would seek to further his individual prosperity by providing the most services to each district, and by providing the most of each particular service to the city in general.

Therefore, after constructing a building in a district, a player would place one of his colored cubes to indicate that the service was now available in that district, and that in turn would allow new buildings to be constructed there. Medium buildings would provide their cubes to adjacent districts as well. At this point, I established a parameter that would remain unchanged from that moment onward: Once a cube was on the table, it could never be removed. Thus, even though the well I built might get demolished and replaced with a fancy fountain or even the town's water works, the people of that district would always remember that I was the one who first brought them water. This meant that the placement of medium buildings became much more strategic, as placing them early in the game would garner you more cubes since there would be more available spaces on the board.

And so, using the prosperity level of the buildings as the primary vehicle for scoring, and adding in district favor bonuses for area control, I had the basic design and was ready for the first playtest.

Playtesting

Figuring out the costs and rewards for everything has been one of the biggest design challenges for Canterbury, but during our first playtest, things basically worked as intended. We moved along from turn to turn with little downtime and actually played the game to completion.

As we looked up from the first test, happy that the thing had actually worked, we also realized that there wasn't enough meat to the game. For one thing, we needed to add more ways to score points. In particular, we realized that it took far more planning to put in a building that provided a higher end service like culture than a building that just offered food or water. Because of this, we added bonus points (more bang for your buck) if you were able to build these "high end" structures. But we added other types of bonuses, too, things like an Enrichment Bonus for demolishing an old building and replacing it with a better version (for example, upgrading a Watchtower to a Garrison). We also added a Breaking Ground Bonus that rewarded you for building in an empty district, and this bonus was dynamic based on the number of services there at the end of the turn. For example, if an empty district had lots of services being pumped into it from adjacent districts, then building the first structure there would garner a really nice bonus. This also increased the level of interaction as players vied with one another to receive those bonuses.

But the level of interaction was still an issue. Once a player seemed to lay claim to a district, most other players just left him alone and moved on. This was a big problem. We wanted people viciously contending with one another for these districts, not politely ceding control and going elsewhere.

As we played the game more and more, we realized that two types of games seemed to emerge. Either we had cutthroat players who risked everything on screwing over their neighbor, or we had risk-averse players who spread out to the edges and left each other alone. We realized that the risk involved with taking over another player's district was too high and a failed attempt to do so could hurt your chances of winning the game. And even if a player succeeded at taking over an opponent's distict, it had too strong an impact on the other player. We simply could not figure out a solution for some time, and focused on other aspects of the design.

The Citadel (art & graphic design by Chechu Nieto)
Breakthrough

We continued to develop Canterbury for many months and came up with all sorts of nifty new mechanisms, including a King's Bonus Chart to reward players who focused on a particular service throughout the entire city. During this time, we also submitted the game as part of a Game Design Competition held by the Games Club of Maryland, and we were strongly encouraged by the feedback we received there. We demoed Canterbury non-stop that weekend, and we were extremely grateful to discover that we had been voted the winner of the competition by those who had participated.

But we still had this interaction problem. For most new players, it wasn't much of an issue as the game had enough going on by this point to open all sorts of interesting strategic possibilities. But to those of us who played it regularly, we knew that the game's replayability was in jeopardy.

I like to give credit where it's due. One day we were playing the game with my good friend and fellow game designer, Geoff Engelstein, who had played the game once before and was coming back to help test all of the new mechanisms. The game played well, but afterwards I mentioned to him the interaction issue and he just looked up, without skipping a beat, and said, "Well, why don't you just add secondary scoring for district favor?"

The solution was so obvious that I still can't believe that it had never occurred to me. Of course, secondary scoring would allow players to interact with one another and have a good chance of getting something out of competing in more districts, even if it was just second place. Furthermore, if you're able to steal a district from someone, chances are they'll still have second place and it won't be as devastating to them. Never mind all the potential for jumping into established, high-scoring districts for just a quick piece of the action.

The addition of secondary scoring solved more than this problem as it added at least a half dozen new strategies that needed to be tested, but now the game had the level of interaction we had hoped for. Even extremely polite players were willing to jump into other districts they would have easily passed on before, and some of them even found themselves gaining control after accomplishing an unexpected move. The interaction level was finally where we wanted it!

The Central District (final version)
Endgame Woes

As time passed and other figures from the game industry took Canterbury out for a spin, we kept receiving the same feedback: The endgame came too suddenly and was too unpredictable. This was another of those problems that persisted for some time, and this time the solution was much more difficult to find. There was something inherently wrong with the game and the endgame issue was just a symptom of that problem.

The issue had to do with the fact that on their turn players could choose to either levy funds or build. If a player chose to levy funds twice in a row, then he collected only half the amount the second time. We noticed that experienced players stopped doing the second levy in a row, and when asked why, they said it seemed like they were getting only half a turn – which of course was correct!

This was compounded by the fact that when the endgame triggered, each player had only one more turn. Some players were caught unawares and had no money, so that player's last turn had to be spent levying funds that wouldn't get spent on anything! We could solve this by giving each player two more turns during the endgame, but this was just a "design band-aid" and involved forcing some players to take a turn collecting 1/2 income just so they could do something on the last turn. It was a big mess.

So we basically had two problems that were interrelated: 1) Some players had an inconsequential final turn, and this would even lead to them having a dramatic defeat simply because their rhythm (between collecting and building) was off by a single turn; and 2) The decision to collect or build was becoming obvious to experienced players, and what had been an interesting decision was now common and predictable.

Collaboration at Gen Con

We actually identified the extent of this problem when we were at Gen Con a few years ago. Many of the team members from Quixotic Games (our game design studio) were there, and we had an impromptu collaborative session to try to solve the problem. We sat in a circle and each team member presented ideas one after the other and each was summarily evaluated by the entire team. Now let me stop to emphasize how much the Quixotic development team loves Canterbury. Some regard it as the best game we have ever created, and they cared deeply about solving this issue, so all egos were erased during this discussion. We all just presented ideas, evaluated them, and (more often than not) dismissed them for one reason or another. The entire jam session took one solid hour, and it is easily one of the most incredible collaborative experiences in which I have ever participated.

Finally, one of the developers, Catherine Weresow, suggested that on the last turn of the game, you could take a "split turn". In other words, you could levy for half the funds, then build only one building (instead of the normal two). For some reason, this idea was shot down, too, but it came back around again during the discussion – and as we discussed it, we realized that this solved the problem of someone having a terrible last turn. If you had no money during the final round, you could simply do a "split turn", raise a good bit of money since the city was so prosperous at that point, then build one building of your choice.

As we were all breathing a sigh of relief that someone had come up with this solution, I had a sudden design epiphany. This "split turn" would solve much more than the endgame problem. What if you could do a "split turn" on any turn? In other words, you would now have three options on each of your turns:

-----• Levy Funds (Collect the full amount based on how well the City was doing)

-----• Full Build (Build one or two Structures, with this action being mandatory if you levied funds on the previous turn)

-----• Tax & Build (Collect half funds and build one structure)

Now the game's rhythm would be varied once again! Some players would be collecting, some would be building, and some would be doing a little of both. Immediately, the number of strategies available in the game had increased. So now I could save up for a big move, or place two buildings at the same time to steal a district, or if I desperately needed to place a building before someone else, I could do an emergency "knock down the farmer's door and grab some loot for the king" and build something right away. There were so many new things you could do with this new system that it literally took us months to playtest the game once again to make sure everything remained balanced.

Final player board
Conclusion

As we continued to playtest Canterbury for several more years with people all over the place, we found that we had gotten to the point where we were running out of things to tweak. People kept trying new things and the system became resilient enough to keep the balance in place.

At this point, we knew the time had come for our team's favorite game, Canterbury, to be published. We had shown it to other publishers over the years and received extremely helpful feedback from each one of them. And after years of implementing that feedback and continuing to hone the game, we felt at last that Canterbury had become more than just another design; it had become an opportunity to take our design company, Quixotic Games, to the next level by publishing Canterbury ourselves.

Thus, we present the gaming community with a design that has been a part of our lives for many years, and we hope it will become a part of yours for a long time as well!

Andrew Parks

The city comes to life in a three-player game on the prototype

Press Start: Free-to-play is not evil, social games not dead and more

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:44:37 GMT

Plus, what the heck is the Sega Pluto, Oculus Rift sea exploration game and Team Bondi's Whore of the Orient title on hold

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

The Future of Games: F2P Is Not Evil Nor The Only Solution | GamesIndustry International

Will Luton:

Free-to-play has fractured the industry, creating smug preaching zealots in the column inches (hello, mum) and neo-luddite reactionaries decrying the advance from the conference podiums. Anti-F2P rhetoric from the bleeding hearts is just as much the mind-numbing wibble as "the only way" lectures from the moneymen.
"Public discussions and formalisation of concepts such as Skinner Box experiments and core loops seemed shallow, cold and greedy"
This nonsense of drawing us-and-them divides and speaking in unwavering certainty is making fools of us all. F2P is divisive when it needn't be. This is a call for the inevitable restoration of common sense.

A reasoned look at the ever-present F2P debate.

The Real Sega Pluto – Assembler Games forum

An amazing post on the Assember rare games forum from someone claiming to be a former Sega employee showing off a prototype Pluto console: essentially a Saturn with a built in Netlink modem:

A little more background info -- as most of you know, Sega is a company with a history of turmoil. Employee turnover is a sad theme, and the Sonic Reaper (as we call him) strikes all too frequently. As such, the past gets forgotten quickly -- treasures from the previous generation are quickly cast aside, as a new regime tries to make a name for themselves (or justify their existence). As such, some of said treasures get left on laid-off-peoples' desks. And in a beautiful twist of fate, this beauty ended up finding its way to my desk, and then in a box with the rest of my stuff when I left Sega.
I was told that only two of these prototypes were made -- and this is #2.
This thing is a beast, and definitely the heaviest console I've ever held in my hands. The front features two controller ports, and on top you have a flip-top drive bay, a cart slot, a Power button, and the venerable Reset button. Note that the logo still says Saturn, so I'm guessing the Pluto codename was simply that, and they were thinking of branding it with the Saturn name. (The logo is printed on production-style though, so I'm guessing they were fairly serious about this one.) The left and right sides feature beautiful-and-exotic vents, while the back is standard Saturn, save for the Netlink ports. The bottom has nothing of note except for the "PLUTO-02" sticker (which is, of course, of note).

Wow, Sega really did get through almost all the solar system between Mega Drive and Dreamcast!

UnderCurrent aims to bring deep sea exploration to Oculus Rift | Joystiq

UnderCurrent is an Unreal-powered deep sea exploration game designed for Oculus Rift from a group of university students over in the UK. The group became fascinated with VR technology and has already put together three different levels, though the collective notes that some of the core mechanics of UnderCurrent are still undetermined.

You can read more about this project on the student workblog.

Microsoft's Zoo unveiled - screens of canned Xbox sim are Viva Pinata with Avatars | The Official Magazine

Once upon a time, Frontier Developments of Kinectimals and "David Braben hates pre-owned" fame was working on a reboot of Zoo Tycoon for Xbox, known as Microsoft Zoo. That's according to former lead artist and UI team leader Anil Glendinning, who has posted a number of screenshots on his personal site.
"Part zoo creation and part animal interaction, this 3rd person adventure was all charm and lay the groundwork for what would eventually become Kinectimals," Glendinning recalls.

Team Bondi staff sacked, Whore of the Orient development on hold | Eurogamer.net

Staff have been let go at L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi and development of its upcoming open-world game Whore of the Orient put on hold as the studio faces a new round of financial woes.
Warner Bros. pulled out of its unannounced publishing deal "right before last Christmas", Superannuation reported.
It's unclear how many staff remain at the developer. MCV Pacific states that the studio itself has not yet shut down.

Sad news for the troubled studio – and this was a fascinating next-gen project.

Are social games on Facebook really dying out? | Gamasutra

First Electronic Arts said that it is pulling its most popular games from Facebook, raising questions over whether it plans to shut down its Playfish social games subsidiary.
Then figures from metrics tracking firm SuperData showed that last month, the social games segment reached a new low of $124 million in total revenue. The social games space is holding back the overall digital space, says the company.
But has this week been the final nail in the coffin for the social games space, or has it simply opened up the floor for a host of new developers to try their luck?

This sector clearly needs to evolve; there are plenty of companies making a success of it, but the wider possibilities of social gaming are not being explored – possibly not helped by the fact that Facebook is an ever-shifting platform.

Ad-blockers, the games press, and why sexy cosplay galleries lead to better reporting | The PA Report

Ben Kuchera:

People like to say that the games press is just chasing page views with certain stories, but let's be honest: We're chasing page views with every story. This is the reality of the business. It takes so many page views and so many uniques to stay in business, you find yourself going after stories you know will be popular. You may pass up covering games that don't have a large following. You may break one long story into two chunks to stretch it out. You do anything to get people to click.

This is an interesting and revealing piece in the financial realities of running a video game site. And it led to...

My Proposed- but very likely half baked- Way To Fix Game Journalism/Criticism | davidjaffe.biz

... this controversial response from game developer David Jaffe who wants to fix games journalism with crowd funding:

Ok so anyway- we get a bunch of names of people doing great work in game journalism and then we- as a game community- vote and whittle it to 5 names.
Then we do a yearly Kickstarter to raise 175K.
125 K goes to pay 1 of the 5 reporters (pulled randomly from a hat or voted on by the folks who contributed to the Kstart) a yearly salarty. The remaining 50K goes to pay for expenses (games, travel).
The reporter posts whatever they want on a blog. There is no editor, no advertising/sales group to worry about, and they can update when they want and write about whatever they want. The only harm for doing a bad job (and I define a bad job as simply filing way too few stories) is looking terrible in the public eye that funded them and wiping out their chances of being included in next year's list.

Oh David, everyone needs an editor...

You can follow Press Start at Pinboard.

Keith Stuart

IAP IN PICTURES: 10 games that broke the in app payment mould

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:15:00 GMT

The Office of Fair Trading this morning announced that it is to investigate in app purchase strategies employed by video games publishers.

The move is a result of concerns that some customers – primarily children – are unwittingly spending sizable sums on content in games which, when they are initially downloaded, are presumed to be free.

The OFT has appealed to concerned parents to get in touch. It has also approached a number of games publishers to explain the reasoning behind their payment models.

Apple and Google are understood to be on the OFT’s radar, as well as gaming services such as Facebook and Moshi Monsters.

Here MCV takes a look at some of the more notable moments in the history of IAP:

Zombies vs Ninjas (Hwa David)
Five-year-old Danny Kitchen hit the headlines in February when The Daily Mail reported on his purchasing of over £1,700 worth of IAPs in Zombies vs Ninjas. Apple eventually refunded Danny’s parents… but only AFTER the media coverage.

Smurf’s Village (Capcom)
A $99.99 IAP for Capcom’s licensed kids game caught the attention of Apple, once it had been reported in the mainstream press. Tired of significant number of calls it was receiving from aggrieved parents, the iPhone maker eventually cajoled Capcom into placing a cap on the number of IAPs that could be purchased in-game – five every 15 minutes.

Playmobil Pirates (Gameloft)
Gameloft was forced to make a statement regarding IAPs in its licensed Playmobil game, the most expensive of which came in at £69.99. It didn’t back down, though. It insisted its pricing followed a standard model and was mainly aimed at adults, adding that players are perfectly free not to purchase the IAPs.

Rock Band (EA)
EA had planned to not only stop providing DLC for Rock band on iOS but actually disable the game people had ploughed money into completely. It changed its mind, of course, but the saga was a warning blow to gamers the world over.

DoDonPachi Blissful Death (Cave)
The prestige of 1CCing a Cave shmup was once the crowning glory of any serious gamer. Cave’s decision to introduce IAPs in this iOS release was met with derision from its fanbase and was yet further evidence of the developer’s struggles to try and get to grips with the economics of modern gaming. The signs ppint to Cave having now withdrawn from the smartphone market completely.

Beautiful Katamari (Namco Bandai)
Namco’s Xbox 360 title launched with DLC. Nothing new there, you say. But Beautiful Katamari is remembered by most for being the first game that required the purchase of DLC to obtain all 40 of its Xbox Live achievements. Undoubtedly the number of Achievement Whores out there lead to a tidy profit on this bit of content.

Real Racing 3 (EA)
Both Real Racing and Real Racing 2 were premium iOS releases but the third game in the series – the first since developer Firemonkey’s acquisition at the hands of EA – was free to download but was heavy on the IAPs. 148apps.com estimated that it would cost gamers $503 to 100 per cent complete the game.

Dead Space 3 (EA)
EA’s decision late on in this game’s development process to standardise ammunition and introduce IAP options for gamers was met with the sort of outrage you’d expect from The Daily Mail should a group of Polish plumbers take to streets with a burning effigy of Princess Diana.

Black Ops II (Activision)
Having tried its hand at selling gamers access to the Call of Duty Elite network, Activision last year tried a different tact – Elite would be free, but instead they could pay cash for pretty designs on their guns. What changes to the payment model will this year’s game bring?

Gears of War Judgment (Microsoft)
Microsoft was far less subtle in its treatment of IAPs with recent release Gears of War Judgment. As well as paying the best part of £50 for the game itself and £40 for a year’s Xbox Live access for multiplayer, players are now able to spend even more cash on things like XP boosts and exclusive playlists. There’s no arguing that these purchases don’t affect the core gameplay.

OPINION: Office of Fair Trading's F2P scrutiny mustn't be a witch hunt - but must be honest

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:13:00 GMT

Forgive me for opening with an 'As a parent' introduction.

But as a parent, I know all to well the perils and concerns about children and content found on screens and online.

My son, not even three yet, knows his way around an iPad. There are some games on there we've introduced him to, and video and pictures (either home movies or actual TV shows) that he watches and laughs at. And hopefully learns from in some way.

But we've had to regulate his use. We've had to check the apps we buy. We've had to delete the YouTube link, as it can be just one button press to go from an Elmo video to a subversive Elmo video dubbed with swearing or strange imagery.

As a result I am wary if he were to ever get into into online games when he gets older. I know they are a bold part of the industry's future. I know they can be compelling, well made, and artistic.

I also know how they make their money. And how they will structure their content around that. And that, at some point, he's going to really want more Smurfberries, magic coins or a new digital sword because of that. And that we'll have to pay for it.

That's a bit rich, right? As the EIC of two games industry publications, I am in supposed to be a champion of the global community and the many innovations it throws up, year on year, to excite and engage consumers.

From an industry perspective I understand the scaremongering threat posed by today's announced Office of Fair Trading investigation into the dubious side of in-app purchases aimed at children.

The result could (although it is unlikely) lead to regulation and stricter rules.

The OFT even has the power to legally pursue those who have been unfair or misleading.

The simple threat of OFT action could undermine this as a business model. Maybe investors will be concerned, or maybe publishers will be less willing to sign these games, maybe wider stories about it will put off parents.

It's also a great issue for those against F2P, be that consumers or developers, to coalesce against.

All of which sounds costly or prohibitive to any company in or eyeing the digital goldmine that is free-to-play games.

The video games industry is broadly against regulation and government interference (except, er, when it's in the trade's interest, like tax breaks...).

The games industry says it is pro-free speech, and its trade bodies are the first to jump in and say that games firms are responsible in how they run and operate.

The last thing they want is to be hounded by the OFT, a tabloid crusade, or a government-commissioned review into age ratings. We've been there before numerous times before, and that put everyone on edge.

Just think back to the Byron Review, and the at-times-vile political climate that existed in the UK trade when games were threatened with BBFC ratings.

Yet the real motivation might really be that an OFT investigation, regardless of outcome, could leave some games firms out pocket.

For the more insipid users of this model, the ones who exploit it, that's actually darkly ironic - how do they like it?

Because at the end of the day, this is not an issue without incident. It is about genuine exploitation.

The problems around in-app purchases do not simply come down to parental action, despite what I've said about the proactive view I personally have on what my young kid sees on screens.

Pointing to parental controls is futile. Like PEGI, the tension doesn't come from the structures in place to stop something happening. The tension comes from what people actually do. And in terms of PEGI, despite all the best will in the world we know that kids will play 18-rated games - sometimes they are bought by their parents. In some places, parents just don't know what is right. The same is true in IAP.

And you can't always be there to watch your kid. In that period when he's still under my charge but allowed some independence I don't want to be looking over his shoulder and deleting the YouTube app or taking away the internet. I won't always be able to turn off Facebook. I don't actually want to have to regulate him.

I will try my best to raise him well and smart, and guide him away from dubious and shallow games, but I want to be able to place some trust in whatever content he is put in contact with.

No, instead I see this as much about an industry looking the other way as much as it might about parents looking the other way.

We've simply seen too many headlines to show that the unmeasured world of online payments can confuse to real extremes, and bamboozle parents who know nothing about games and business models and freemium and virtual goods.

It's not an exaggeration to say some game developers have in some cases created games for children with a view to highly scaled monetisation - and have designed that into games in a compelling way.

The iOS App Store's managed funnel of apps is is packed with thousands of games that target kids and appear free but want cash at crazy extremes. There are hundreds of identikit dress-up apps designed to convince girls to buy meaningless assets under the guise of doll-style dress ups. Hundreds of action games with cute characters that operate with the typical dual-currency, timed-play mechanics that not everyone completely understands the potency of.

Granted there's a lot of good stuff in F2P, and a lot that is it well balanced and value-oriented. Most games you can play without spending a penny. And when F2P games are starting to offer better graphics, better gameplay and better value than some boxed games, it makes sense from a business POV to expect some cash back at some point to pay for that, and then to make a profit.

But that doesn't mean there aren't games that create undue pressure on players, or become unplayable without some cash put into them - and whether that was expressly designed as extortion or not, it certainly feels like it, or looks like it.

It's the industry's responsibility, as this investigation begins, to understand that and learn what is right and wrong here.

The fear is that when an external force like the OFT casts its eye on games it will do so unfairly. Industry people are scared 'they' won't get 'us', and that such outsiders with legal powers will harm us. And yes, prior encounters will get senior execs' backs up. But this issue has too many grey areas for that, I am afraid - and some clear examples where games (or at least: apps purporting to be games) are guilty.

The OFT investigation could actually be useful for the industry, keeping it honest and mindful of its actions.

Educating the industry may be even more important than educating parents and consumers. Because what's the other option: Ignore it, and let the more dubious corners of mobile and web stores keep chancing it with kids? That would prove more damaging to both the games industry and its precious new business models than any outside scrutiny.

Press Start: Indie dev attacks Bioshock: Infinite, Senator attacks violent games and more

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:25:00 GMT

Plus, Xbox 720 launch title rumours, Cliff Bleszinski on 'deal with it'-gate and is Dungeon Hunter 4 the most microtransactioned game of all time?

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian's games writers.

CVG UK Blog: BioShock Infinite is 'horrendous', claims indie dev - but why? - CVG UK

Dan Dawkins tackles the seemingly unstoppable Bioshock: Infinite backlash, the debate now centering on a Tweet from indie developer Kris Piotrowski, who wrote, "I am worried that there was almost ZERO critical discussion of the game, when the game is so charged with problematic content. You should have heard a lot more about what is wrong with it. A lot more."

Dawkins:

What's really interesting is how Piotrowski's comments - albeit inadvertently - highlight the widening chasm between some AAA and indie games developer. It often feels like a subset of journalists and forum posters take glee in the latest major financial disaster, or enforced CEO departures.
Conversely, some indie games are so disproportionately praised, you're made to feel like a porridge-chugging simpleton for even half-enjoying Warhammer 40k: Space Marine.

Violent games can enable would-be mass murderers, say CA Senator | GameSpot.com

Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein has again spoken out against violent video games. Today on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Feinstein said these games can be enablers for would-be mass murderers.
"I think the really violent video game becomes a kind of simulator to practice on. And it enables the individual to become much more familiar with that depiction of death and blood," Feinstein said, referencing the exaggerated way in which some games depict violence and death.
"Of course it's not the way it is in real life," she added.
During an event last week, Feinstein said violent games play a "very negative role for young people." She said if the game industry continues to make games that glorify guns, Congress may intervene.

There is a lot of this talk swirling around US politics again. The timing is... interesting... what with a gun control bill passing through.

Here's everything you can pay for in action-RPG Dungeon Hunter 4 | Pocket Gamer

Mark Brown:

The in-app purchases in Gameloft's latest hack 'n' slash Diablo-like game Dungeon Hunter 4 are really something else.
In this game, the French studio employs an "if you can see it, you can buy it" system, encouraging you to pay for new weapons, better skills, more health, extra potions, instant revival, and more inventory slots.
And then you can take your ill-gotten gains online and best all those poor peasants in the free-for-all arena.

Brown then goes on to list all the microtransaction possibilities in the game, making a rather damning statement about Gameloft's free-to-play mechanics.

Clifford Unchained - "Deal With It"

Cliff Bleszinski deals with the whole situation around EA employee Adam Orth who told Twitter uses to 'deal with it' in reference to our 'always online' future – and then promptly left the company.

My gut is telling me that an always online future is probably coming. It's coming fast, and possibly to the majority of the devices you enjoy. Adam's analogies weren't that far off; although the vacuum one was kind of weird. Sim City, with all of its' troubles on launch, seems to be selling briskly. Diablo 3, the poster child of a messy launch, is estimated to be at 12 million units. (Remember the internet rage over the art style shift? I barely do. But it seemed so important at the time!) I would bet money that without the always online elements of Diablo 3 that it would have sold half of that.

EA: "Gaming isn't mass market yet" | GamesIndustry International

"We have to make sure that game companies know what a mass market really is. We're not one yet," Hilleman says when we meet after his talk. "The closest thing we've had to a mass market, frankly, has been the social and mobile spaces. From my perspective, television is the mass market and we're the fringe. The challenge in front of us is, does the customer think about it that way? Do they see us as so distinct we can't merge those two experiences?"

EA Mobile suffers heavy layoffs, publisher refutes studio's closure | MCV

Significant layoffs have hit EA, specifically affecting hundreds of employees at EA Mobile Montreal.
Gamasutra first reported the redundancies, with a Montreal-based source telling the site that around 200 to 250 jobs were lost. EA has since swooped in to refute that claim, stating that the number is too high – though it wasn't made clear by how much. The publisher also denied rumours that the studio will close.
EA has released a statement explaining the layoffs are part of a streamlining effort, as the company looks to 'sharpen' its focus on providing games for mobile and other new platforms.

Xbox 360 News: Rumour: four next gen Xbox launch titles | The Official Magazine

Crytek's Roman-era punch-'em-up Ryse and Microsoft's own next-gen Forza are both rumoured to be launch titles for the putative and unconfirmed (but daft if it doesn't happen) next generation Xbox (itself rumoured to be announced at the end of May.)

The others are meant to be a zombie game and a, "family game set on an island with Pixar-quality graphics". Okaaaaay...

Zombie Mondo Monday | Plymouth Arts Centre

Had to sneak this in: Plymouth Arts Centre is doing a regular Monday slot of cult movies and next week it's a double bill of undead classics: Reanimator and Zombie Flesh Eaters. Essential viewing!

You can follow Press Start on Pinboard.

Keith Stuart

GAME customers name 1996 as gaming's 'golden' year; Names Wii as best ever console

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:59:00 GMT

1996 has been named as video gaming’s ‘golden year’ by a survey of 2,000 GAME customers.

Big hits released that year included Resident Evil, Super Mario 64, Tekken 2, Crash Bandicoot, FIFA 96 (which was the first in the series to use real-life licenses) and the mighty Tomb Raider.

2002 was the runner-up with releases such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Elder Scrolls III and Halo.

Perhaps more surprising is the Wii’s nomination as the best console ever released. The all-conquering PS2 only achieved a fourth place finish.

Here are all the results:

Top Five Years for Gaming

1. 1996 (14%): Tomb Raider and Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 launched. We were singing along to Baddiel and Skinner’s Three Lions and Brit Pop was at its height

2. 2002 (13%): Halo and Elder Scrolls III on the Xbox and Grand Theft Auto Vice City. BBC 6 Music arrived on our airwaves and Arsenal won the FA Cup

3. 1991 (12%): Street Fighter II and Super Mario World on SNES and Lemmings was out on the PC. It was the start of the Iraq war and the year Bryan Adams made history when (Everything I Do) I Do It For You entered its 15th successive week at number one

4. 1985 (11%): Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong Jr on the NES and Ultima IV and Oregon Trail on the PC. It was the year Eastenders went on air and the mullet was considered the most desirable hairstyle for men and women alike

5. 1980 (10%): Pac-Man and Centipede in the arcade, Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 and Zork on the PC. It was the year John Lennon was shot dead and David Bowie was at number one with Ashes to Ashes

The Top Consoles of All Time

1. Wii (15%)
2. Xbox 360 (10%)
3. PlayStation 3 (9%)
4. PlayStation 2 (8%)
5. Sega Mega Drive (7%)
6. PlayStation 1 (6.5%)
7. Super Nintendo (6%)
8. Game Boy (5%)
9. N64 (4.5%)
10. Nintendo DS (4%)

Tomb Raider has sold 3.4 million copies, failed to hit expectations

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:45:00 GMT

3.4 million copies of Tomb Raider have been sold in four weeks, publisher Square Enix has revealed, which is not enough to hit the game's sales target.

Fellow Square Enix title Hitman Absolution sold 3.6 million units since its launch in November last year, while Sleeping Dogs sold 1.75 million since last August.

There's no mention of what the company's internal sales expectations were for the trio, just that all three missed their respective marks.

Sony announces 20+ PSN games thanks to fresh commitment to indie publishing

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:16:00 GMT

First person shooters Primal Carnage: Genesis and Blacklight: Retribution front a long list of new PlayStation titles announced at GDC 2013.

The news comes as Sony reveals an increased commitment to indie publishing, which amongst other things includes the simplification of the submission and approval process.

“Since my last post, I’ve joined SCEA and expanded the incredible team that focuses on fostering relationships with publishers and developers that share our goal of bringing the best games to you, the PlayStation community,” SCEA’s VP of publisher and developer relations Adam Boyes wrote on the PlayStation Blog.

“During this year’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, our team has put a strong focus on independent game developers. This evening, we collaborated with the PlayStation Network team to host a PlayStation Indie Arcade event, where we gave hands-on demos for more than 25 indie games that are coming to all PlayStation platforms.

“Our goal is to continue to work with the independent developer community to provide fantastic games you can’t find anywhere else.”

Perhaps the most eye-catching title is Lukewarm Media’s episodic open-world Unreal Engine 4 powered Primal Carnage: Genesis, a PS4 FPS that on the face of it appears to be a modern take on Turok or Jurassic Park.

Also heading to PS4 is Zombie Studios’ free-to-play online multiplayer FPS Blacklight Retribution. Videos for both can be seen below, along with the first gameplay trailer for Sony’s outing Rain.

Also down below is a video for upcoming indie 2D fighter Divekick while Spelunky, which has already enjoyed success on Xbox Live Arcade, is confirmed for PS3 and Vita.

Here’s the full list of new games, all of which will be released on PSN:

Blacklight: Retribution – PlayStation 4
Primal Carnage: Genesis – PlayStation 4
Ibb & Obb – PlayStation 3
Rain – PlayStation 3
Sportsfriends (including Johann Sebastian Joust, BaraBariBall, Hokra and Super Pole Riders) – PlayStation 3
Divekick – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Dragon Fantasy Book II – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Guacamelee! – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Hotline Miami – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Luftrausers – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Spelunky – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Thomas Was Alone – PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita
Friend Network App – PlayStation Vita
Limbo – PlayStation Vita
Metrico – PlayStation Vita
Velocity Ultra – PlayStation Vita
A Virus Named Tom – PlayStation Mobile
Beatdown in Treachery City – PlayStation Mobile
Crumble – PlayStation Mobile
Crystallon – PlayStation Mobile
Don’t Wake the Bear – PlayStation Mobile
Hermit Crab in Space! – PlayStation Mobile
Oh, Deer! – PlayStation Mobile
Rymndkapsel – PlayStation Mobile
Ten By Eight – PlayStation Mobile

Apple’s Paid Apps Are Making The iTunes Store Finally Turn A Profit

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:08:47 GMT

Independent Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has done some number crunching on the iTunes Store for an upcoming report titled “iTunes Business Review.” What he has found so far is interesting: the iTunes Store has actually started to generate a profit for Apple in recent years.

Apple has never considered the iTunes Store as a money maker but rather a more break-even endeavor that helps sell hardware with high profit margins. However, the success of Apple’s own apps in the iOS and Mac App Stores has started boding well for the company’s bottom line.

Apple makes paid apps like Pages and Garageband that perpetually float around the top of the App Store charts, and these apps (including more expensive, niche titles like Final Cut Pro) are starting to bring in a signifiant amount of revenue. Dediu calls Apple’s Software group “forgotten heroes.”

“Although I estimate that the software business has been overtaken by the Apps and Music businesses in gross revenues, it keeps an operating margin similar to that of Microsoft or about 50%,” notes Dediu. iTunes costs about $3.75 billion to run. That’s an insane amount of money for only managing software and digital goods.

Based on Dediu’s analysis, Apple’s own apps make the company around $2 billion a year and keep iTunes in the black. Not too shabby.

Source: Asymco

Supermarkets now the cheapest place to buy games; Average game price climbs

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:35:00 GMT

The average selling price of video games last year was £26.45, a rise of 3.2 per cent year-on-year.

Chart-Track data published by ERA shows another year of game price rises. Supermarkets are now the cheapest games retailer, with an average selling price of £25.50, an increase of two pence over 2011.

They have overtaken online retailers, who have seen their prices rise by almost £2 from £23.56 to £25.52. This is driven by the closure of the Channel Island Tax loophole in April last year. The loophole had allowed etailers to avoid VAT on games under £15.

Specialist and independent outlets remain the most expensive for video game software, with an average selling price of £27.82. That is an 81 pence increase over 2011’s number of £27.01.

Supermarkets and online retailers make slight gains in 2012

The market share between UK games retailers only changed slightly last year, despite the loss of major specialist stores.

According to Chart-Track figures published by ERA, the over-the-counter market – which includes all High Street retailers from Argos to GAME – took a 42.5 per cent market share of software revenue last year. That’s a drop of around 4.5 per cent year-on-year. It follows the loss of a number of specialist stores, including 277 GAME outlets.

Supermarkets and online retailers both increased their market by just over 2.5 per cent as a result.

Supermarkets is the second largest sector with 29.5 per cent of the market, while online retailers hold a 28 per cent share of the sector.

Google Reader Still Drives Far More Traffic Than Google Plus

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 23:55:19 GMT

My own referrer logs look the same as Buzzfeed’s — lots from Google Reader, almost none from Google Plus. But I don’t know that that means Google made a mistake by shutting down Reader. I don’t think they want to drive traffic to other sites. Google Plus is like the late-’90s portal mania all over again — they want you to stay on their site, not go elsewhere.

★

Asda shears £50 off Wii U console prices

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:07:00 GMT

UPDATE: The British arm of online behemoth Amazon has matched Asda's discounted Wii U pricing.

Both the Wii U Basic and Premium packs are now £50 cheaper on Amazon.co.uk - £199 and £249, respectively.

Nintendo has yet to announce an official price cut, but the company does not set an official price for hardware in Europe. The console launched on 30th November in the UK and has struggled to gain sales momentum ever since.

Take on a new adventure with the PlayStation Store Expedition Sale

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:00:54 GMT

Hello everyone. It certainly feels like the time of the year where we should all be looking to take on a new challenge or adventure, but if you’re like me and would rather do this through the power of your PS3 make sure you check out the PlayStation Store’s Expedition Sale for some great discounts on some fantastic action adventure titles.

These discounts will go live when the store updates later today, Wednesday 13th March, and will run until 27th March. Enjoy!

Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition (not available in Germany)
Was €19.99/£15.99/AU$24.95, now €9.99/£7.99/AU$12.95
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

I Am Alive
Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$17.95, now €7.49/£5.99/AU$11.05
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Agarest: Generations of War Zero (not available in Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway)
Was €24.99/£19.99, now €8.99/£7.29
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Agarest: Generations of War 2 (not available in New Zealand)
Was €34.99/£18.99/AU$51.95, now €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €14.99/£10.99/AU$17.95, now €7.49/£5.99/AU$11.05
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia Trilogy (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$21.95, now €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €14.99/£11.99/AU$21.95, now €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia Classic (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Prince of Persia Classic and Cell Factor Bundle (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €5.99/£4.79/AU$8.85
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Far Cry 2
Was €14.99/£10.99/AU$17.95, now €8.99/£7.29/AU$13.25
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Far Cry 2 and Fortunes Pack Bundle
Was €19.99/£15.99/AU$29.95, now €8.99/£7.29/AU$13.25
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine)
Was €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45, now €5.99/£4.79/AU$8.85
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Machinarium
Was €7.99/£6.49/AU$11.75, now €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Was €12.99/£9.99/AU$18.45, now €6.99/£5.49/AU$10.35
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Tomb Raider: Underworld (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Ukraine)
Was €14.99/£21.95/AU$14.45, now €7.99/£6.49/AU$11.75
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (not available in Bulgaria, Hungary, Qatar)
Was €19.99/£15.99/AU$24.95, now €9.99/£7.79/AU$14.45
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Jurassic Park: The Game
Was €29.99/£23.99/AU$43.95, now €14.99/£11.99/AU$21.95
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Two Worlds II VELVET Game of the Year Edition + Defense DLC (not available in Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden)
Was €34.99/£28.49/AU$51.95, now €14.99/£11.99/AU$21.95
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Dante’s Inferno (only available in Austria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland)
Was €19.99, now €9.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus members

Dante’s Inferno Super Bundle (only available in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland)
Was €29.99, now €13.99
Additional 10% discount for Plus members