Category: Rant

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What Is Sony Doing With Their Spider-Man Universe?

A few days ago Sony dropped the bomb that Tom Hardy was going to be the new Venom, and I instantly started to wonder how an almost forty year old Eddie Brock was going to be in “competition” with a teenage Peter Parker, but then Sony dropped the next bomb that there will be no Spider-Man in their newly minted Sony Marvel Universe.  How can this be?  Sony is making an interconnected Marvel Universe without their one hero.  In other words, Sony is making a villains universe.

Part of me thought that maybe Venom was going to be a one shot deal, but no, Sony has doubled down with their next Marvel movie Silver and Black featuring Silver Sable and Black Cat.  Who are Silver Sable and Black Cat you ask?  Silver Sable is a generic sexy morally gray mercenary from 90’s.  A time that featured a ton of generic sexy morally gray mercenaries, and Black Cat is Catwoman.  Not like Catwoman, but just Catwoman.  I can’t wait for the Cardiac solo flick.

I am not sure how any of this is going work, but I have an idea to try and tie it all together.  A different Spider-Man.  There are several Spider-Man universes, so why not pick one of their Spider-Men.  There are a lot of good options:

  • Spider-Gwen, this would make up for killing her recently, and she is sooo popular right now.
  • Spider-Woman, she would change things up, and let Sony use a popular hero to anchor their Universe.
  • Old married Peter Parker, because then having an old Venom makes sense.
  • Miles Morales, because then old married Peter would be dead and the older villains still make sense, and everyone loves Miles.  Even more than Peter.

And of course there are still more Spider-Men to choose from, and they are all pretty good choices to lead Sony’s Marvel Universe.  Better than Spider-Man’s villains anyway.  Especially villains like Silver Sable and Black Cat (to be fair Black Cat is pretty cool, but so is Catwoman).  We will see how Sony does, and I am pulling for them, but considering the last few Spider-Man movies, I am going to be very cautious.  This from a guy that just pre-ordered Wonder Woman tickets, and the last couple of DC movies have been less than great, or even good.

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Even Digital Games Have A Shelf Life

Just seven years after its release Alan Wake has been removed from digital store fronts.  For some this is rather shocking.  I mean the whole point of buying games digitally is that they will always be available, but apparently always available is not the same thing as always for sale.  It turns out Alan Wake’s awesome soundtrack is what did it in.  It got to the point that renewing the licensing on the music made selling the game no longer profitable.

Of course Alan Wake is not alone in its demise.  Racing games are always disappearing from store fronts because car companies ask a king’s ransom for their cars’ likenesses in games, and just like music, those licenses expire.  We just notice less with racing game because there is always a newer and better one on the Horizon.  With Alan Wake, there is not another one coming.

While all of this make sense, it is strange to think that in this modern era where storage is cheap that digital items will not always be for sale.  Even more ponderous is that a song from 1963 is that main culprit.  All of this to say, if you have been meaning to buy a game for a few years now, maybe you should pick it up when it is on sale because it may disappear forever.  Though for a chilling game like Alan Wake, disappearing without a trace is a fitting end.

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What Is Going On With Game Studios Today?!

The internet has been going crazy the last 24 hours with reports that BioWare Montreal in the middle of restructuring, and since they were the new “Mass Effect” studio, the second Mass Effect: Andromeda game is on hold, but is it really?  Now I can see restructuring, finding a new lead dev team and bringing in some better writers, but even after Mass Effect: Andromeda’s “failure” (it has already sold way over a million copies) it is still one of the most popular gaming franchises out there.  If I see people wearing game related clothing out and about, 50% of it is Nintendo, 30% is Minecraft, but most of the rest bears a large N7 and the BioWare logo, and coming in third to Nintendo and Minecraft is nothing to upset about.  If you are EA you don’t just toss that kind of brand awareness away.

I am guessing the next game is delayed a year or so.  Just enough time to clear out some games that BioWare is currently working on so they can shuffle teams around.  Is this bad news for the people that lost their jobs? Yes (though apparently most of them didn’t), but there will be a Mass Effect game out before we know it.  EA likes to make money, and a good Mass Effect game makes them tons of cash.  We will see how things go, but I am guessing we will hear about a new Mass Effect game around E3 2019.  A long time to be sure, but considering all the games in BioWare’s pipeline, it will just take a little longer to come around again.  Now to things that aren’t okay…

IO Interactive is being sold off by Square Enix.  In some regards this understandable since Hitman is not one of Square’s major franchises, but on the other hand Hitman sold very well and won several game of the year awards.  It isn’t clear yet if the sale will include IO’s IP (Hitman, Freedom Fighters and Kane and Lynch), or if they are just selling the physical assets.  Though like most things in life, I am guessing that is negotiable.  Unlike BioWare Montreal, IO should be hard at work on its next game and reveling in its success.  I hope they find a buyer soon, so they can continue making games and avoid being shutdown.  If IO doesn’t find a buyer and I don’t get my second season of Hitman, Square Enix will enter my World of Assassination!

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What The Heck Is Going On With Buying Games On Twitch?

Did you know that for the last month you have been able to buy games on Twitch?  Well you can.  Do you know how?  Of course you don’t.  I said it was going to happen, and low it did.  The way it is supposed to work is that you go and watch a stream of a game, then if you like it , you buy it.  If you are the one doing the stream you get a 5% kickback.  Fun huh.  Well in practice it is not going so well.

On the main streaming page the link to buy the game doesn’t show up.  You have to go to game info.  If you just want to shop for games it takes several clicks to find what you are looking for.  There is no central store to see what games Twitch has for sale.  If you search for games on Amazon, Twitch’s parent company, you will only be able to buy Steam licenses.  Which makes no sense.

Speaking of making no sense, what are the capabilities of the Twitch Launcher?  Does it do cloud saves or friends lists, can you buy games from it?  The answer to all those questions is of course no.  It is just a crappy app that you have to have to download “some” of the games you purchased on Twitch.  If you buy an Ubisoft game, you get a key for UPlay.  So unless the game was on sale it probably makes more sense to just buy your Ubisoft games from the UPlay store and save yourself a bunch of time.

If I sound frustrated it is just because Steam needs some real competition, and I think Amazon/Twitch is just the company to do it, but not with the crappy system they have now.  At a minimum there has to be some way for me to know what games I can buy on Twitch, and if I am streaming, a visible way to buy the game.  The UPlay thing I kind of understand.  They will sell keys for all platforms to generate revenue, which is a way to differentiate from Steam, but it makes their sales platform look segmented and fractured.  I am sure all of this will get better, but I expect more and better from a company that makes its money selling stuff online and has thousands of developers at its fingertips.

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I Am Sick Of Every PC Game Company Needing A Launcher!

Last night I needed to download the Bethesda Launcher to player “something” (sorry I can’t say what), and at the same time my EA Origin said it needed to update.  Then it got me wondering, “How many stupid ‘launchers’ do I have?”  Let’s list them shall we: Steam, GOG, The Windows Store, EA Origin, UPlay, Epic, Twitch, and now Bethesda.  Those are just the ones that I have, and I am sure more companies are coming up with their own.

Look Game Companies, I get it.  It makes sense.  You can make your own launcher and store and then skip the middlemen to sell directly to your customers.  More profit for you.  Plus you get to push the patches out directly without having to get approval from Microsoft, Valve or CD Projekt Red (am I the only one that thinks they need to drop the ‘CD’ off their name?), but man every time I need to play a game on one of those platforms it needs to patch before I patch the game.  It is supper annoying!  I just want to play the game!

Crap like this is why people love consoles.  Sure you have Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft acting like gatekeepers, and not all consoles get all games, but when you do get a game it just works!  Yes, you may need to make an account with those other companies to make some features of those games work, but for the most part that is optional unless it is an MMO.  I play video games to have fun, not to play patch-a-palooza, or which-launcher-has-that-game bingo.

If this is where the PC market is headed, we are in for a headache.  I understand why it is happening, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.  In my day we went to the store and bought games off of a shelf like man!.  Hold on.  I need to get a stick.  I think there are some kids on my lawn!  “Hey you!  Get your game launchers and your Free 2 Play FPSs out of here!!! … Unless they are really fun!”