Square Enix/Ubisoft Ink Exclusive Japanese Distribution Deal
Square Enix and Ubisoft today announced an exclusive distribution deal for the Japanese region, under which Square Enix will gain all distribution rights for Ubisoft games. The deal becomes active in April, meaning the most recent Prince of Persia will likely be the last major game Ubisoft Japan releases.
The deal isn’t so unexpected for Square Enix, as CEO Yoichi Wada has often spoken about gaming globalization, his admiration of Western software, and his ambitions to distribute foreign games in Japan. Ubisoft has handled European distribution for Square Enix titles in the past, providing a pre-existing relationship.
Ubisoft’s apparent abandoning of Japanese publishing is somewhat surprising, however, given respectable Assassin’s Creed sales of over 150,000 units, and the remarkable marketing and localization push the company gave Prince of Persia. For the recent 360 release of the game (the PS3 version is due in Japan January 22), Ubisoft went as far as to hold elaborate launch events with name actors Riko Narumi and Daisuke Namikawa, who provided the voices for Elika and the Prince.
Cuboid, Mahjong, and Qore Comprise New PlayStation Store Update
It’s been more than two weeks since the last PlayStation Store update, so gamers are likely to be upset that the sheer volume of content with today’s update isn’t as high as it has been as of late. In spite of that, it’s not a half-bad update; Cuboid ($9.99) and Mahjong Tales ($9.99) should both cater to certain markets that don’t otherwise get a lot of attention on PSN, and the wave of downloadable content for all of the other games should give most everyone something to enjoy until next week. For those that may have been holding out on the Mercenaries 2 “Blow It Up Again” DLC pack or Rock Band tracks “Are You Dead Yet,” “Hay Poco Rock n Roll,” “Ready, Set, Go!”, “The Real World,” “Tempted,” or “Tutto E Possible,” each of those items can now be downloaded at the new price of $1.99.
2009’s first episode of Qore is now available for $3 and features a look at Killzone 2. This is also the first episode to be released since the free PlayStation show Pulse made its debut on PSN in December — with Pulse’s release, will gamers suddenly feel that Qore isn’t worth paying for?
In the downloadable content space, EndWar adds the Faction Elite Pack ($3.75) which unlocks the JSF 15th Special Operations, Spetsnaz Alpha Brigade, and Enforcer Corpse Battlegroup 1 for use in-game, as well as access to new unit upgrades. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm gets yet another DLC pack with a new support character (Anko) and a new Ultimate Mission to play. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009’s roster update ($4.99) is available and includes four new wrestlers, including three I’ve never heard of — Evan Bourne, Ted DiBiase, Super Crazy, and Charlie Haas — as well as new costumes for Kane, Chris Jericho, and others.
Sony Says the Most Important Thing in 2009 is to Make Money
Having struggled to effectively monetize the PlayStation 3 thus far, Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe president David Reeves believes the company’s most important goal in 2009 is to finally begin making money. Given that Sony is ultimately a business, that has obviously always been the goal. Traditionally, Sony begins each console cycle by taking a loss and slowly working its way towards profitability, much like Microsoft, which is at odds with the way Nintendo functions.
Replying to the question of “What are you looking forward to most on PlayStation in 2009?” on the UK PlayStation.com, Reeves said:
The most important thing for us as a company in the very short term is for us to start making money. This is a pledge that was made last March and is something that we are still very much on target to achieve. Once we have achieved this, I think it will be a very exciting time for PlayStation. Once we have alleviated that specific pressure, we can move forward at a rate of knots. 2009 promises to be a very exciting year for PS3, with blockbuster titles such as Heavy Rain and Killzone 2 coming out, whilst we have the music and video download service becoming available towards the end of the year. PSP will continue to prosper and sell in incredible numbers, with some great games coming out, which will take full advantage of the new enhanced screen. We have built our reputation over the years on great entertainment, and innovation and 2009 will be a prime example of PlayStation at its very best.
Following Sony’s claim that the PlayStation 3 had a “strong” holiday season, they may or may not be poised to achieve Reeves’ goal. It’s hard to ignore that Reuters report which said Sony could shut down “major divisions” next month, though. If that proves to be the case, there most certainly will be additional pressure on the PlayStation division of Sony to begin producing money.
Square Enix Head: A "Very Bountiful" 2009
Square Enix is coming off a year that, by their standards, was pretty low-key. Their top-selling title in Japan was a Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest V that shifted 1.17 million copies, followed by a gaggle of games that did fair-to-middling worldwide. Things are on the up for the company in 2009, however — according, anyway, to president Yoichi Wada, who sat down for an interview with Weekly Famitsu magazine earlier this week.
“I think [2008] was a year where we fought very well,” Wada commented. “Without a very powerful title in the main DQ or Final Fantasy series to rely on, each game and brand we worked on this year did the best they could for us. Our lineup was centered around portable titles, and looking at it like that, they did very well.”
2008 was a year when Square Enix went into the Xbox 360 in a big way — The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery both performed well on the platform, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope is hitting Japanese store shelves very soon. “We are working toward launching other new brands as well, which I think we’ll be seeing the results of in 2009 and beyond,” Wada told Famitsu. “Perhaps we did not get all of the results we wanted to from the very beginning, but this year was an important connecting point to the next step for us. With that in mind, I think we all put up a good fight in 2008.”
Gaming’s Biggest Names of 2008 and 2009
Who changed the industry last year, and who might this year?
By 1UP Staff
Few people in the industry had a bigger year than our power players — a selection of people who made a huge impact on the gaming world in 2008. One of them might be our Person of the Year, which you can find on the second page of this feature. And if you hate the past, check out page three, where we look at gaming visionaries that should make a big splash in 2009.
Power Players in 2008
Alex Evans
The Bob Vila of gaming
The gaming industry first took notice of former Lionhead employee Alex Evans when he helped create the quirky independent PC fighter Rag Doll Kung Fu. But as cofounder and technical director of Media Molecule, he’s made a colossal splash with Little Big Planet, the wildly imaginative do-it-yourself online platformer for PlayStation 3. LBP has garnered tremendous critical acclaim and already fostered a massive community.
What’s next: Little Big Planet will expand and evolve in 2009. Plus, look for Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, a multiplayer online remake of the classic PC hit (from a new development team that doesn’t include Evans), to arrive on PlayStation Network.
Sam Houser
People person
“Cultivating relationships…. That’s one of the things that I’ve personally been obsessed with in games for years,” Rockstar President Sam Houser told us last year. And though Grand Theft Auto 4’s focus on one city seemed scaled down compared to San Andreas‘ sprawling world, Rockstar gave its virtual Big Apple knockoff big heart by having protagonist Niko Bellic spend as much time keeping friends happy as wreaking havoc, propelling the successful franchise to a new high.
What’s next: Downloadable content for GTA4: The Lost and Damned (360 only). Is the long-rumored GTA MMO far behind?
Hideo Kojima
PlayStation patriot
Square Enix Japan Opens Official Final Fantasy XIII Site
Three years after its announcement, Square Enix has opened an official site for the Fabula Nova Crystallis project. The “Official Portal Site” has a section for each of the FFXIII games — plain vanilla, Agito, and Versus, though the latter two consist of only a teaser page.
The FFXIII page, on the other hand, has scads of screens (all seen before, but many direct feed for the first time), as well as “Trailer” and “Character” sections. The trailer section is currently empty, but “Character” leads to profiles for all announced FFXIII characters — Lightning, Snow Villiers, and Oerba Dia Vanille — complete with giant, luscious character renders.
The real treat, however, is two streaming music tracks by FFXIII composer Masashi Hamauzu. A pleasant, lilting piano piece plays most times the page is opened, but keep reloading to hear the Final Fantasy XIII Main Theme in its entirety: Sweeping, bombastic, impossibly majestic.
PS3 and PSP Make Good Showing in Sony’s CES Booth
Games always get some attention at CES, but you never really know what to expect to see at the booths because it is, after all, an electronics show. While most of what they brought is games we’re already up to speed on, the space given for PS3 and PSP shows how much the gaming division means to Sony.
It proved to be a popular move with show-goers. Killzone 2 and LittleBIGPlanet both had queues throughout the couple of hours I spent there. A display setup with several PSPs to play Loco Roco 2 and Patapon 2 also drew steady attention. I tried playing some Patapon 2, but it was simply to loud to hear the music making it impossible to do. I was told this is the first localized build for North America, and it looked good. Judging from its state I’d guess it will be out here around late April.
One of the directors on Resistance Retribution, John Garvin, showed me how they’ve made it so you can play the game with a PS3 controller when you’re at home. The PSP Plus mode lets you connect your PSP to a PS3 via the USB cable, and then play with your regular PS3 controller that’s synced to the PS3. I also got to check out the newly announced EA Sports presence coming to Home during the first part of this year. They’ll launch it with three games to play while you’re in the space: golf, poker, and a racing game that looks a lot like the go karts you used to race around at Malibu Gran Prix. Here are some pictures from the visit. I’ll have more complete news on the EA Sports Home story and Resistance Retribution coming.
Baiyon and Dylan Cuthbert of Q-games Share Behind-the-scenes Look at PixelJunk Eden
1UP: How did you guys wind up getting connected?
Dylan Cuthbert: At a party, there’s a party near here at some friends…it’s all interconnected, so, friends of ours who work at a company near here who did the web page for StarFox Command for Nintendo; they work at this company called Eniac. They also do a lot of other stuff. They do a lot of Nintendo’s webpages.
Baiyon: Maybe Mother 3 too.
DC: It was a party, and King of Games was there as well, it’s like an old network. I went to this party and met Baiyon there. But that wasn’t the first time I’d heard of him. The first time I’d heard of him was through my wife whose friend said that there’s a friend of hers who wanted to try getting into game design and he’s an artist/musician type. So we’d actually looked at his stuff beforehand. And then we went to this party and met.
1UP: What about game design attracted you [Baiyon]?
B: Something that doesn’t translate to movies or music is that the player is the center, the focus point, the main character in the experience.
Used Game Prices Dropped 23.7% by End of 2008
In yet another indication of the myriad ways the recession is effecting the videogame industry, Video Game Price Charts reports (via Gamasutra) that the average price for a used game saw a significant drop in 2008, ending 23.7 percent lower than where it started in January.
As you can see in the chart above, the average price for a used game started at $12.69 at the beginning of January last year. But by November 3rd, the price tumbled to its lowest point of the year — $8.57, a 32.5 percent decrease from the starting price. The average price ticked up again in the remaining days of 2008, and finally ended at $9.68, which was a decrease of 23.7 percent.
What’s particularly interesting about these numbers — and where you see the real effect of the recession — is when you compare them to the price fluctuations of 2007. As you can see in the chart below, the average price of a used game saw a similarly downward trajectory in 2007, indicating a decrease over the year is natural. But the extent of the drop was far less drastic than that seen in 2008. The lowest point of the year was a 30.4% drop from the starting price, but then the price ticked back up by 26.6% for a total loss of only 11.8% of the starting value.
Report Claims Sony May Close ‘Major Divisions’
A Reuters report (via Kotaku) claims that Sony will probably announce closures of Japanese factories and “major divisions” in early February. The original report from the Times of London cites inside sources that claim the company will be making big changes, but Sony spokesperson Atsuo Omagari claims “we do not have any such plan.”
Last month, Sony announced it would be cutting around 8,000 employees by April of 2010, and closing two overseas manufacturing plants. A statement from Sony Computer Entertainment read, “In order to stay competitive in the accelerating global network environment, we will always carefully review and make structural changes, if necessary, in order to further expand and strengthen the PlayStation business around the world.”
It was also early last month that an analyst for CNN Money called the PlayStation 3 a sinking ship, citing declining sales and calling for hefty price cuts to the machine. But it’s just recently that we’ve heard more optimistic news that the PlayStation 3 is almost breaking even on manufacturing costs. If that’s the case, a price cut could be coming to keep the system competitive as consumers watch their wallets in the current economic climate.
