Wargaming's US and European director reveals the key to free-to-play success on PC: patience
Victor Kislyi may be Wargaming’s CEO, but Frederic Menou oversees the largest domain in the company - North America, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. He knows his stuff - and the stuff he’s made of, apparently, is patience.
Menou says free-to-play developers need to allow a “certain amount of time before monetisation” if they have a hope of replicating World of Tanks’ success.
Play a pop horticulture landmark: Plants vs Zombies is now free on Origin
It’s difficult to imagine that today might be somebody’s first date with Plants vs Zombies. The original game was first released on Steam in 2009, and on every device imaginable thereafter. It became a floral-flavoured competitive shooter in 2013, and was adapted for cinema by Robert Zemeckis in 2015 (though devotees tend to cite 2017’s Edgar Wright-directed horror-comedy PvZ as the definitive entry in the series).
Oh, sorry, somebody’s been messing with the site’s timestamps again. Ignore that last.
The news is this: EA and Origin have stepped out onto the lawn for their latest On The House giveaway - Plants vs Zombies: Game of the Year Edition.
Gameranger is set to take the torch from GameSpy: “every one of these games can continue on”
GameSpy’s been keeping our games’ multiplayer alive since 1996 but on 31 May it’s shutting down for good. With it goes the server support for a great many games, making them unplayable online. Or, that would be the case if it weren’t for Scott Kevill, creator of Gameranger.
His software is filling the void left by GameSpy but it does more than just let you play Grid online or boot up a match for Star Wars BattleFront 2. It can actually make the games better.
EA about-face on VR - acknowledge Oculus are "making strong progress"
The last time EA CEO Andrew Wilson talked about VR, he didn’t seem to know whether his company would end up partnering with Oculus or the manufacturers of “some hologram that evolves out of your living room floor”. But his shareholders wouldn’t drop the issue during EA’s earnings call this week.
While Wilson made clear that EA were still waiting on a solid install base before backing VR, it seems Facebook’s acquisition has the publishers “eager to see how the headset evolves”.
What the Farming Simulator lot did next: Water Park Tycoon
Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 hasn’t happened the way we would’ve liked. Built for mobiles first, it’s going to be retroactively converted into a PC game via Steam Early Access - and we’re not entirely sure the operation’s going to be a success.
In the meantime, lesser-known alternatives have suddenly taken on an optimistic sheen. Step up to the diving board Water Park Tycoon, destined for UK release by the end of the month.
Former Civ IV Lead On Strategy’s Future, Making Another Civ
Once upon a time, Soren Johnson was the main brain behind Civilization IV. Now he has a mohawk. An indie mohawk. Also, he’s making a game about managing a crazy intricate (yet disarmingly accessible) economy on Mars. Last time around we talked about how a Mars economy simulator even works, boardgames, and the current state of strategy gaming, and today we continue that discussion with the future of strategy (and its alleged “death”), MOBAs, the advantages and disadvantages of working at a company like Firaxis, whether or not Johnson will ever make a game on the scale of Civilization ever again, and why Johnson is *glad* that big publishers aren’t paying attention to strategy games. It’s all below.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player gets headshots with a wheel controller
There are a number of small ways you can humiliate your opponents in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. A classic move is to knife your enemy even when it would be wiser to shoot him with a silencer, just because you can. It’s a way of saying you’re confident enough you can take him to have a little fun with it, like challenging someone to a fight with one hand tied behind your back. Yesterday, the folks at GameMuscleVideos took this idea to an extreme degree by playing CS:GO with a wheel controller.
@TheVoxelman on twitter
Essay Pro