How much money do you spend on video games? Are you one to buy pretty much every single new game that comes out? Well, according to recent studies, you aren’t alone. The study of focus was done by investment firm Piper Jaffray who say that 8% of teen budgets are spent on video games. Also according to the company, those teens make up 35% of all US video game players.
We’re not going to ask you to calculate the percentage of your budget that you spend on video games, but about how much money would you estimate you spend yearly on them? Let us know in the comments.
via cvg
Atlus has recently secured the publishing rights for Kenka Bancho 3, a PSP title that follows a high school student in Japan brawling with, well, everything. Sounds great, right?
It is, but Atlus doesn’t know what to name the US version of the game and has looked to the community for help. The publisher has set up a website, here, that will let visitors choose what they want to game
Of course, it’s only a survery so the chance that you’ll directly influence the game’s US name are slim.
I admit to having no interest in the genre, but I often find myself pitying RTS fans due to the long lag time between releases of titles worth playing. With some PC games if you purchased a top of the line system when the original came out you might still be able to play the sequel. If you still had your PC from when Starcraft was released it’d probably struggle to load the trailer for Starcraft 2.
Luckily for RTS fans a survey suggests development has begun on Command and Conquer 4, the final chapter in the Tiberium saga begun nearly fifteen years ago in the original title. The RTS classic comes back with some new changes and improvements. They’re boasting the Crawler, the first ever mobile base in an RTS game (yes, there have been games where the base could move, but presumably this one can move and still retain all its other functions while doing so) as well as some RPG flavors to the game.
As players battle in any mode, whether single player, multiplayer or skirmish they’ll gain experience points which allow you to unlock new units, abilities, equipment and upgrades to take the fight harder to your opponents in your next battle. Cooperative campaigns are making a comeback so players can get a friend in on the action as well in addition to huge five on five multiplayer matches with new objective modes as well as the standard gameplay.
None of these features are exactly confirmed though since they’re all simply mentioned in the survey, but since the Crawler is mentioned in the headline I’m guessing that’s a big favorite.
A survey hinted to fans of the Call of Duty series that the upcoming sequel to the hugely successful Modern Warfare might feature a paid subscription plan similar to what is already in place for most MMOs. Infinity Ward has put a kaibosh on those rumors, at least when it comes to Modern Warfare 2.
A post on their official forum said ”multiplayer will always be equal and free for everyone as always.”. The survey had come supposedly from Activision and highlighted the benefits of subscription plans. Infinity ward made sure people knew that this was only coming from Activision and had nothing to do with their games. I’m guessing that Infinity Ward knows many of us are only occasional gamers who wouldn’t be terribly happy with paying to play a game they only occasionally have time to sit down at.
There certainly is some room for additional revenue generation when it comes to gaming, but the existing avenue of downloadable map packs and character models is likely the better approach, since the gamers who play more often are generally younger and have less disposable income while the older ones have the cash to put into it but not the time to make a subscription plan worthwhile.
I’m not sure when developers realized that people would pay extra for ‘collectors editions’ of games, but they’ve been a staple of the industry ever since. The contents vary from game to game, but ‘making of’ documentaries and soundtrack CDs are common and recently exclusive DLC has become quite popular.
Sony is gearing up their marketing machine for the impending arrival of spartan Kratos’ third console adventure, the aptly titled God of War III, which definitely warrants a collectors edition package. Sony has been polling gamers to see what people actually want from a limited edition set. Some people enjoy physical, tangible objects like tshirts and exclusive figurines while others are only interested in the bonus DLC.
The question that piques interest is when they ask what would prompt gamers to shell out the extra cash for a collectors edition. Along with relatively standard and somewhat boring options like tshirts, exclusive packaging and the like, they mention the possibility of releasing God of War I & II on a blu-ray disc. They also mention including a cinematic movie compilation from the games, either as an alternative to playing through the two previous games if you want to find out the back story or in case getting them to work on non-backwards compatible PS3s turns out to be impossible.
