EA considering charging for 'very long game demos' - Analyst

Following investor event, Wedbush's Pachter says publisher is prepping $10-$15 prerelease DLC, confirms Visceral's Jack the Ripper as downloadable for XBLA, PSN



EA has poured significant investment into growing its digital distribution business, a strategy that has for the past couple of years contributed to steep losses. One positive result for gamers, however, has been a glut of postrelease downloadable content packs for the publisher's top titles, some of which have carried a premium. Soon, it appears as if EA will be expanding its "PDLC," or premium downloadable content, approach into the prerelease realm.


The prerelease PDLC will apparently be a bit like Battlefield 1943.

In a note to investors today, Wedbush's Michael Pachter detailed a recent investor event at the publisher's Redwood City, California, headquarters in which group general manager Nick Earl laid out EA's prerelease PDLC initiative. According to the analyst, EA would release what he called "a very long game demo, along the lines of 2009's Battlefield 1943" through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for $10 to $15.

"A full-blown packaged game would follow shortly after the release of the PDLC, bearing a full retail price," Pachter said. "Mr. Earl believes that the release of the PDLC first limits the risk of completing and marketing the full packaged version, and serves as a low-cost marketing tool."

Notably, Battlefield 1943 represented a significant boon for EA upon its critically lauded release for $15 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in July. During Battlefield 1943's debut month, EA proclaimed it the fastest-selling day-one and week-one downloadable exclusive title on Xbox Live worldwide, or on PSN in North America. In November, the publisher said that DICE's online-only multiplayer shooter had sold 1.2 million units across the two platforms.

Pachter's note also made mention of Visceral Games' heretofore speculated downloadable game Ripper. According to Pachter, Ripper will be released through Xbox Live and PSN. Rumors indicate that the game will offer a Van Helsing-like heroic take on notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper. EA had not responded to requests for further comment as of press time.

One other point of note from the investor event, Pachter said that EA CEO John Riccitiello "acknowledged that the company had performed poorly over the first years of his tenure, and admitted that the turnaround of the company was taking longer than he originally expected." According to Pachter, Riccitiello went on to say that EA was about two-thirds of the way through its turnaround and one-third of the way toward reaching its goal of transformation into a business that distributes games through "multiple channels."

Shippin' Out March 7-13: Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix's long-awaited multiplatform role-playing game arrives in stores alongside Yakuza 3, Resident Evil 5 Gold, and Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising.
March Madness doesn't tip off for another week, but the nickname for the NCAA basketball tournament is equally appropriate to describe the month's barrage of big game releases. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 deployed to retailers last week, and next week sees a one-two punch of God of War III and Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight.


Retail tsunami incoming?

Those release lists bookend one that is no less impressive, as this week sees the US release for Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This will mark the first time a major installment in the long-running franchise will receive a multiplatform release at launch. (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time arrived on the DS and the Wii on the same day last March.) For more on the game, check out GameSpot's review or scroll down to watch the video review.

Another Japanese import is set to arrive Stateside this week, as Sega's PS3-exclusive Yakuza 3 bullies its way into stores. The open-world crime drama picks back up with former gangster Kiryu Kazuma, who had abandoned Tokyo's underground to establish an orphanage in Okinawa at the end of the last game.

For PC gamers, THQ has the first stand-alone expansion to its Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy game Dawn of War II. As its name implies, the Chaos Rising expansion will insert Chaos Space Marines into the far-flung futuristic conflict, adding new single-player and co-op campaigns for hardened veterans. The expansion will also be available bundled with the original game in the Dawn of War II Gold Edition.

That's not the only double-dip in the wings this week, as a number of hits are finding themselves in new release sections for the second time this week. Capcom reloads with Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, which includes the 2009 survival horror hit and its various downloadable add-ons. The publisher will also be bringing retro revival Mega Man 10 to the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable title, a week and change after the Wii version's debut, but still ahead of the scheduled Xbox Live Arcade launch later this month.

For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and the Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later in the week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

MARCH 8, 2010
Max & the Magic Marker--WiiWare--TGC

MARCH 9, 2010
Final Fantasy XIII--360, PS3--Square Enix
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition--360, PS3--Capcom
Yakuza 3--PS3--Sega
Foto Showdown--DSi--Konami
Racquet Sports--Wii--Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed 2--PC--Ubisoft
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger--PSP--Aksys Games
Sam and Max 2: Beyond Time and Space--Wii--Atari
Calling--Wii
The Daring Game for Girls--DS--Majesco

MARCH 10, 2010
Scrap Metal--360--Slick Entertainment

MARCH 11, 2010
Mega Man 10--PS3--Capcom
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising--PC--THQ
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II: Gold Edition--PC--THQ
Spectral Force Genesis--DS--Ignition

CES 2010: BioShock 2 Multiplayer Hands-On

Ten players fight for the Big Daddy suit. Only one gets that rivet cannon.
by Levi Buchanan
January 8, 2010 - At CES this week in Las Vegas, showgoers have the chance to go hands-on with BioShock 2's multiplayer mode at a special trailer sponsored by IGN and Sprint. The multiplayer network is powered by Sprint's brand-new 4G technology – which did not fail once during my afternoon play session with seven other players.

BioShock 2's multiplayer is set one year prior to the events of the original game. You are caught in the civil war that unfolded during the fall of Rapture. Chaos reigns over the failing utopia as survivors from the disaster fight for control, if not survival. Since the setting is Rapture in the midst of the war, all ten maps are pulled not from BioShock 2 but the first game. During my play sessions, I quickly recognized locations, like Neptune's Bounty, although since multiplayer is earlier than the events of BioShock, the underwater paradise is not yet in a state of decay. But it sure has been beat up. 2K Marin has also opened up new pieces of these familiar settings and adjusted the architecture for skirmishes involving up to ten players. For example, corridors have been widened.
The maps are huge – so large that there were occasional stretches during play when I did not see another player. Of course, these slower moments gave me a chance to seek out shortcut opportunities like blasting holes through weak walls or hack machinegun turrets so they fire upon your opponents.

While you play as a Big Daddy in BioShock 2's single-player game, the multiplayer mode stars a human cast. Players choose from a variety of outfits befitting Rapture residents, from socialites to scientists to even college football players. You customize your player not just with a general get-up, but also masks and melee weapons. I tossed a pair of bunny ears on my scientist, slapped a rolling pin in his hand, and sent him out into Rapture to fight for his very life.

Customization does not stop with appearance and melee weapons, though. You establish three different loadouts for your hero to switch between after dying, each with a pair of weapons and a duo of plasmids. Weapons include pistols, machineguns, rocket launcher, grenade launchers, and even a lethal crossbow. Combining the strengths of these weapons with your choice of plasmids is how you truly get ahead in multiplayer. Paralyzing an enemy with the Electro Bolt plasmid attack gives you a chance to take aim and deliver a crossbow bolt right to the forehead. The Aero Dash plasmid lets you close the gap between you and another maniac and then blast them straight in the chest with the shotgun.

Talking to Lead Programmer for Multiplayer Jesse Attard at CES, he expressed a genuine (and pleasant) surprise over the different combinations of weapons and plasmids that new players were trying. He also marveled at how players were instinctively figuring out little tricks with plasmids and the environment, such as hitting a waterfall with Electro Bolt to turn it into a death trap. Nobody had stumbled upon Attard's personal favorite, though, which is setting a stack of books on fire with Incinerate and then flinging them at a group of enemies with Telekinesis.

But as powerful as a shotgun and twin plasmid powers makes you, nothing quite compares to the Big Daddy suit which appears somewhere in the level two minutes after the match begins. When you nab the Big Daddy suit, you can no longer use plasmids, but you have access to a powerful rivet cannon with unlimited ammo, a supply of six proximity mines, and a stomp attack that stuns all nearby enemies. While stunned, it's easy to either plug them in the head with the cannon or drop some prox mines at their feet. If you are destroyed while wearing the suit, it disappears for another two minutes and then pops up somewhere else on the map.

One of the coolest tricks, though, is researching fallen foes. After dropping an opponent, stand over their corpse and take a photo (which actually eats up several seconds, leaving you vulnerable). This research grants you a damage bonus against that specific player. It's no minor award. Couple the damage bonus with a grenade to the chest and you are a killing machine. The only way for the other player to remove the damage bonus is to kill you. You can research multiple opponents to maintain lots of damage bonuses.

Though I mentioned some silent spots in BioShock 2's multiplayer mode due to the stage sizes, when players do converge, the battles are great fun. I enjoyed learning from the plasmid-weapon combos of other players, even though such lessons often came at my own expense. I think the plasmid combos will help set BioShock 2's multiplayer apart from the pack, as there were multiple occasions in Modern Warfare when I wished I could unleash lightning bolts on rivals. Well, not really. But after today's play, I just might.

How To Get Fit In The New Year

As soon as the Christmas and New Year festivities are over the first thing on many peoples minds is how to get fit in the new year. This is where gyms start to rub their hands together because they know that many people will pay the expensive fees to join the gyms but after a couple of weeks they will hardly ever go.
A far better solution how to get fit in the new year won't cost you anything and the simple answer is to walk more. Once you get used to it you won't think twice about walking instead of taking the car. What you should really do is try and walk a little longer every week and this will gradually build up your stamina which will therefore result in your fitness levels increasing.

To make your walking even more effective try and walk a little faster and stretch yourself, this will also result in far greater fitness levels than if you were just taking a leisurely stroll.

So, how to get fit in the new year need not really be a big deal. What usually happens is that people make these new year resolutions to get fit and they make unrealistic plans to do so. When they do nothing about it or simply give up then they end up feeling bad about the whole thing and this results in not getting fit for yet another year and all of the health implications that arise from that.
By: sue heintze