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It seems that another small studio has bitten the dust. Rodeo Games who were behind boardgame-turned-videogame Warhammer Quest have been forced to shut up shop after the sales of their last title, Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch didn’t sell as well as hoped.
Rodeo was founded around six years ago, made of developers from other studios such as Lionhead, EA and Codemasters; and was mainly a developer for mobile platforms, but both Quest and an enhanced-version of Deathwatch found their way to computers through Steam last year.
Their fat was revealed through the Touch Arcade forums where former employee Matthew Spencer addressed those who were wondering about the lack of bug fixes and updates to Deathwatch as of recently:
“I and the majority of the team left four months ago, so [as far as I know] there’s no one to offer support or make content. Like most indie developers, you’re only as good as your last game, and even though Deathwatch was Rodeo’s highest metric game, it didn’t make enough so we had to move on.”
If you’re a fan of handheld consoles and want to try something different, here’s something interesting you could look at. An Indiegogo campaign is soon due to launch for a follow up handheld to the Sinclair Vega, aptly named the Vega+.
It’ll come pre-loaded with 1,000 different licensed games on launch, dating from around the time when the Sinclair Spectrum was still being made; and will be marketed by Retro Computers Ltd. of which Sinclair Research Ltd. is a shareholder. It uses low-cost components and software to enable to to run the games and priced at an affordable level, as well as other games being available for download for free to the device.
Product development has already completed and a functioning prototype made, so the campaign fundraising is to help the device enter production on a larger scale within the UK. Backers can even receive their own Vega+ at certain backing levels, as well as some special edition device colours being on offer as well as exclusive backer items.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for several months, you might be aware that 2016 has been declared the “Year of Pokémon” by Nintendo in honour of the franchise’s 20th Anniversary. Nintendo are definitely the kind to celebrate in style, with plenty of Pokémon-themed treats announced for the year, such as a Tekken-Pokémon Cross co-developed by Namco Bandai themselves (Pokkén Tournament); and new 2DS and “New 3DS XL” Designs with the original Pokémon Red and Blue built in – but what could be sweeter than to get some free Pokémon for your games?
Following the Announcement that download codes for Mew are being made available and can be picked up from any GAME store in the UK until the end of February, Nintendo have now announced that for the rest of 2016, there will be another Legendary Pokémon given away every month for the first four weeks of the month. Some of the Pokémon will be made available in-game for download via Mystery Gift; others will be in-store promotions with Nintendo’s retail partners.
Which retailers? Our sources reliably inform us that American distribution of the Pokémon we’ve marked as “Retailer” below will take place at most GameStop stores. And for the UK? Well, Nintendo typically partner with GAME for promotions such as these; and with Mew already available there until the end of the month, it’s a pretty safe bet we’ll see the others hit there too.
So here it is – the full list of Pokémon being given away, when and where:
Celebi: March 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Jirachi: April 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Darkrai: May 1 – 24 (Retailer)
Manaphy: June 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Shaymin: July 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Arceus: August 1 – 24 (Retailer)
Victini: September 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Keldeo: October 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
Genesect: November 1 – 24 (Retailer)
Meloetta: December 1 – 24 (Nintendo Network)
With every generation having a legendary represented, never has there been a better time to catch them all!
A few days ago, after having it alluded to by an entry in the Brazilian Rating Board, we had it confirmed that Quantum Break would be coming to PC. And free if you pre-ordered the Xbox One version.
A little more detail has emerged now though and among the news of specs and other things, there’s one big piece of information that stands out – it won’t be made available on Steam. Instead it will only be available through the Windows Store.
The news was confirmed in the Major Nelson Radio podcast, as Xbox marketing man Aaron Greenberg was asked about the game coming to Steam to which he replied: “Quantum Break on Windows 10 is a Windows Store exclusive.”
Of course, this could be down to how the Xbox and PC versions will communicate with each other to allow for cross-platform action, as well as Microsoft just wanting to keep their game available through first-party means. It’s just that not bringing it to what is arguably the biggest digital retail market on the PC right now could hurt its sale chances.
Hey everyone and welcome to your weekly (mostly…) helping of what’s going on in the world of Kickstarter gaming campaigns.
We’ll start as always with the updates and really, it’s not looking pleasant all round at the moment, which just lends evidence to the theory that now is not the best time to launch a campaign for a game. Both #FML and Goblin Glory have had their campaigns cancelled with their totals ending up far short of their targets, and Space Revolver has at time of writing a few hours to go until the deadline with a lot of money to make up. Other campaigns like Project Elliott, Invisigun Heroes, Mission to Mars, Ghost Theory and Dread Bot Factory all have a few days to go but again steep hills to climb.
It’s happened before that a game manages to steeply climb in their last few days but with so many struggling, I have to wonder how many will be marked as failed when I report next week.
First up this week we have a virtual reality trip in retro-style gaming
Null of Hope is to be a game that will be fully VR compatible, although it can also be played without the use of virtual reality – which is good because many people still won’t have access to that technology.It’s described as a retro ‘list and click’ RPG and one of the listed features is “Fully authentic 90’s environment that changes with the game”. Interesting.
Null of Hope is asking for $50,000 and has 29 days yet to go to reach it. It has so far raised $64.
Next we have a card game about trying to score the lowest points possible while sabotaging opponents’ boards to have the score higher.
Supposedly taking elements from many classic card games, each player will have a board of 9 randomly chosen cards which they have to try and make score as lowly as possible. The poison bottle cards are there to mix it up though and can turn a potentially winning board into a losing one.
With 19 days to go, Poison Bottles has a $850 target to reach.
Now we have a card game where the objective is to work together, while at the same time trying to come out on top.
Villains & Henchmen is for 1-4 players and sees you attempting to free a world famous evil villain from imprisonment as fellow villains and loyal henchmen. In the course of the game you will overcome obstacles placed in your way by heroes, gain new powers and take on these heroes personally. Of course, even if you’re trying to work together for a common course, you’re still an evil villain who wants to be the top of the pile and win the game overall.
Villains & Henchmen has made $2,905 of its $10,000 goal, with 42 days to go.
Another game with ‘villain’ in the name, my brain must be trying to tell me something… anyway, this is a building and ‘architect’ management game in which you manage a haunted house.
Build the manor, raise monsters to unleash within it and set traps, all in the name of slaughtering anyone foolish enough to wander inside. The people behind this one were also involved with Freaking Meatbags, so there’s some history of other games behind this developer.
MachiaVillain needs €23,000 to reach its goal, and with 26 days to go it has made €6,193
