I’m excited to start the next chapter of my like and I’d like to announce that I’m moving on and will no longer be in the gaming industry. Previously all I ever wanted was to work for a company for my entire career and rise within their ranks, but ultimately that’s a decision that wasn’t up to me. Admittedly, I didn’t handle the situation nearly as gracefully nor as professionally as I should have, but with so much emotion propelling decisions, common sense got thrown out the window.

That being said, I look back fondly at all the relationships I’ve forged and opportunities I’ve been given over the years. I truly believe that this industry holds claim to having the most passionate and dedicated workforce in the entire world, and it was my absolute honor to have been part of it, if only in a minor sense. Working closely with the media and helping them gain more information and enjoy products is such a rewarding experience, especially when the end result of their coverage does due justice to what you’re representing… which is in the end a GAME. That’s something that has been worrisome to me for quite some time — I know that companies have to operate with profits in mind in order to stay afloat, but in general they should remember why they got into this industry in the first place. Companies that facilitate a ‘culture of fun’ have that shine through their products.

I’ll keep this short and sweet for those curious… I’ve moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in management and sales for a thriving and stable company, but will still maintain this site as an avenue to express myself in my free-time. Even today, I just attained my 85th platinum trophy in Guacamelee (seriously, an incredible game). I’m still following gaming news and eagerly await the launch of nextgen hardware, as I know I’ll be right there with you in line to get a PS4 on day-one. Much love to all my friends that I’ve made over the years, and to everyone (especially my wife) that has been unshakably supportive of me throughout my journey.

Feel free to email me directly with any questions: will@thepowerreview.com / Twitter: WillJPowers

Almost a year after its North American launch, the PS Vita hasn’t seen incredible adoptions rates, but this deal by Lockerz is unprecedented. Before it runs out, get this PS Vita 3G bundle and save 70%.  If you’re interested at all in mobile gaming, you’d be stupid to pass up on this deal.

Source

**Update** Housemarque’s Facebook page talks about working on several projects with details to possibly come by summer and a tentative launch date within the 2013 calendar year for at least one of their games.

For more screenshots, please visit this gallery provided by SEGA.

Devil May Cry (2001) — 94
DmC (2013) – 86
Devil May Cry 4 (2008) — 84
Devil May Cry 3 (2005) — 84
Devil May Cry 2 (2003) – 68

Guild Wars 2 hit a milestone this morning in terms of sales, 3-million units. This is particularly impressive because of the model that Guild Wars chooses to represent, pay upfront and content is free. This means that their retention of players should be much higher than any subscription based MMORPG because of the lack fo cost deterrent. Congratulations to ArenaNet for crafting a brilliant world and experience for the MMO community.

I’ve reached out to SCEA for comment on localization, and will update the story accordingly based upon their response.

To get a better understanding of these awards and where different publishers/developers netted out, here’s a break down by game and publisher.

Nominations by Publisher

Sony Computer Entertainment — 25
Microsoft Studios — 15
Ubisoft — 13
Electronic Arts — 10
2K — 10
Activision/Blizzard — 9
Telltale Games — 8
Square Enix — 5
Bethesda Softworks — 5
Nintendo of America — 4

Nominations by Game

Journey — 11
The Walking Dead: The Game — 8
Far Cry 3 — 7
Halo 4 — 6
Borderlands 2 — 5
Dishonored — 5
Diablo III — 4
Assassin’s Creed III — 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 — 3
Hitman Absolution — 3
Mass Effect 3 — 3
Sound Shapes — 3
The Unfinished Swan — 3
XCOM: Enemy Unknown — 3

Additional entries with two or fewer nominations were omitted but can be found on the full listof categories and nominations here.

Congratulations to SCE and Journey for being the top nominated game and publisher for the 2013 Awards. The winners will be unveiled February 7th.

The problem is that change disrupts establishment and spits in the face of the status quo. People fear what they do not understand, and in terms of gaming since its conception companies had only understood a single-player development model. So once multiplayer had established itself, it turned the world as we knew it on its head. Throughout the current generation of consoles, multiplayer has been the buzzword of choice so much so that even traditionally single-player only experiences have added multiplayer modes so that they wouldn’t go to market without that “check box” marked off. But is this really necessary? Can a game thrive in the current market without the inclusion of multiplayer, or have single-player only experiences simply died off?  The truth lies somewhere in the middle, because I believe that single-player (SP) and multiplayer (MP) audiences are often mutually exclusive when it comes to genres of games that they play.

Let me outline what exactly I mean by creating autonomous experiences and showcase different games that have both succeeded and failed in bridging the gap to court the multiplayer audience. Now more than ever, consumers have a variety of ways they can choose to spend their time regarding to playing games. Whereas some people look toward gaming as a reprieve from the outside world, others enjoy gaming for the opposite reason, to socialize.  These audiences have clearly defined expectations of what they want to get out of their gaming experience and there is little psychological desire to partake in the alternate mutually exclusive experience. Though this rule is not without exception, as often it is more dependent of the mood of the person playing whether they want a social or isolated experience.

In order to pay proper respect to this, developers shouldn’t force contrary psychological aspects into franchises that has long been strictly single-player. Adding forced MP into a traditionally SP experience ruins the immersion of the game and more importantly tends to take development resources away from creating a cohesive title as good as it could possibly be. The way around this is by creating autonomous MP experiences set the in universe of traditionally SP franchises so that different audiences can enjoy them independently. (Final Fantasy) Conversely, an alternate route to take is to add subtle social aspects to traditionally SP experiences, (The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden) this pays both proper respect to the audience and also gives them something to compare and talk to their friends about in regard to the game.

Bioshock 2 – This is the posterchild of what not to do with a franchise. The deep storyline and character development of the first game was all but tossed to the side as they ran off to develop a sequel without Ken Levine at the helm.  More importantly, multiplayer was thrown into a universe where it simply did not make sense, and it detrimentally hurt the development and resources for the single player campaign. Because of this, the majority of press and critics to this day still rarely acknowledge the game’s existence or importance within the franchise even at the eve of Bioshock Infinite’s release.

The Walking Dead – Telltale did an extraordinary job of creating an emotionally moving SP experience that incorporated social metrics at the end of every chapter. Luckily they’ve been rewarded for their efforts with over 8.5MM sales for the series so far in what is arguably one of the best games of 2012. Another game in the universe is the upcoming (March 2013) The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct which is a primarily multiplayer focused experience. True to what I’m preaching, developers have done a very good job creating two different experiences in order to appeal to the widest possible range of audience.

Final Fantasy – Though the last couple of installments in the franchise have been admittedly lackluster, Square Enix has stayed true to form in creating epic SP experiences for their audiences. While they’ve stepped away from their roots with FFXI and more recently FFXIV, these have been completely MP focused MMORPG experiences so as not to grey the space between these games and their SP focused ones. This has worked very well for Square considering that the possible backlash of a core Final Fantasy game that had an inclusion of MP would be potentially catastrophic.

God of War – God of War: Ascension truly is the elephant in the room when it comes to this topic. The now seventh game in the franchise (if you count the little known mobile title) suddenly has added MP to the mix. Not only that, but it seems to be one of the primary focuses throughout the development cycle. This is evident considering that during the first press reveal of the game the only element shown was strictly MP, and even to this day there is a MP beta available on the PS Store without a SP demo in sight. Though developers will be quick to say that no resources have been taken off of the SP campaign in order to focus on the inclusion of MP, it is slightly worrisome that within two-months of its launch, very few elements have been revealed regarding the core SP experience.

Overall, there seems to have simply been an overcompensation in the industry to try to appease the multiplayer audiences. Developers are forgetting their roots, and publishers are unwilling to take risks in backing titles that don’t have the appeal of a “Call of Duty”. Rather than innovating, the industry seems to be too focused on reinventing the wheel to the point that entire genres of games have been lost. It is important to bear in mind the past as you’re looking toward defining the future. SP games have been a part of the industry from the beginning and have an extremely defined market sector, so to ignore this group would be foolish of any publisher that is looking to be successful.