VentureBeat » Dead Island Riptide

GamesBeat weekly roundup: A new social gaming King, big Xbox announcement May 21, and more

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:23:27 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Microsoft announced that it will unveil the new Xbox console on May 21, Nordic Games Licensing acquires both Darksiders and Red Faction from the THQ bankruptcy auction, and Candy Crush developer King overtakes Zynga as the largest social gaming company.

You’ll also find reviews of Monaco, Dead Island: Riptide, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Defiance, as well as previews for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and Kingdom Rush: Frontiers.

News

Mobile News

Earnings and Acquisitions

Tech

Woops

Nintendo’s new plan

Nextbox

Microsoft officially revealing next-generation Xbox on May 21

All This Funding

Reviews

Previews

Interviews

Pieces of Flair

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

Dead Island: Riptide releases today at $32 after discount

Dealzon — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:40:31 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Another Tuesday, another day full of new game releases. While they aren’t exactly highly anticipated releases, fans of Dead Island will appreciate more zombie slaying action with Dead Island: Riptide. PC owners can enjoy a 20% off coupon, making the digital version of the game only $32.

If you’re a Trekkie, you’re either happy about today’s release of Star Trek or you’re nervous like us, given all the bad memories of subpar Trek games we’ve had to deal with through the years. Previews of Star Trek were so-so, but thus far initial user reviews on Metacritic look to be surprisingly decent – a surprise for the gamers reviewing them too!

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

Today’s release: Dead Island Riptide (PC Download) — $32 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Reviews are all in, and if you enjoy Dead Island, you’ll be getting more here. New island, more zombies.

Today’s release: Star Trek (PC Download) — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Somehow initial user reviews are excellent. Subtle marketing or is this the real deal?

Tomb Raider (Xbox 360, PS3) — $39.99 at Groupon. Great price drop considering console titles are rarely on sale so soon after release.

GamersGate Spring Sale (PC Download) — New deals everyday, with lots of excellent titles on sale. Our pick: The Cave for $5.10 and Alpha Protocol for $3.74.

Last Thursday

Dishonored‘s latest DLC The Knife of Dunwall just came out this past Tuesday and thus far has been well received by reviewers. The DLC puts you into the boots of Daud, who is attempting a bit of a redemption after feeling guilt over killing the Empress.

To quickly sum things up, if you enjoyed Dishonored and felt Dunwall City Trials could’ve been better, then this is the DLC you want. Adding icing on the cake, the Steam-activated The Knife of Dunwall can be had for only $8 after a 20% off coupon.

If you don’t already have Dishonored in your collection, the base game is down to $24.99 thanks to an instant discount at GMG. Elsewhere you’ll pay full price for the DLC and at least $5 more for the base game.

Say what you want about GameStop, but their download service can have competitive pricing. This week they launched a Spring PC download sale, which for the most part has respectable discounts. The most standout deals are the best ever pricing on Skyrim DLC. Released last month, the Dragonborn DLC is down to a new low of $10. The popular Dawnguard DLC is also at a $10 new low. As with the base Skyrim game, all the DLC activates on Steam.

Beyond the big Dovahkiin deals, fans of the Assassin’s Creed series should check out the franchise sale this weekend at GamersGate. The best deal is Assassin’s Creed 3 for $24.98 – a new low by $5 and $25 off the usual $50 price tag. The more recent Assassin’s Creed games and DLC are getting 50% discounts while the older ones are as high as 83% off. The offer runs through Sunday, April 21st.

If you think today’s post is all PC gaming, owners of PS Vita should check out Amazon’s $30 deal on Persona 4 Golden, an enhanced port of Persona 4 for the PS Vita. Suffice it to say, the port adds more features and content to probably one of the best JRPGs on the PS2 (mmm… nostalgia).

Hot deals

Last Tuesday’s release: Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall (PC DLC) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. List is $10. Green Man Gaming also has a great price on the Dishonored base game for only $24.99 (normally $59.99).

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DLC Packs — 50% off at GameStop. All the DLC titles are at half price, with most usually around $15 since their respective release dates. Last month’s release of Dragonborn can be had for only $10.

Assassin’s Creed Weekend Sale: Games and DLC — 50 to 83% off at GamersGate. Top choices include AC3 for $25 and the Season Pass for only $15.

Upcoming Releases

Oct. 25: Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. The October 25th release date is quite a ways off, but this is the first significant discount we’ve seen thus far. Another offer worth noting is the Xbox 360 version for $59.99 with a bonus $10 credit at Amazon.

PC download deals

SimCity with $10 Credit or $7 Cash Back — $40 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Elsewhere $60. Everyone loves to hate the online only aspect, but truth is they’re still selling SimCity like hotcakes. In addition to the $20 instant discount at GMG, there’s a credit/cash back incentive, making it a $30-$33 value post bonus.

~~Tomb Raider~~ — ~~$26.79 at GameFly~~ after coupon. Update: was $33.49, today-only coupon makes it stupid low price for a month old, well reviewed Triple-A title.

The Sims 3 University Life — $16 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $40 at Amazon. It’s the lowest price yet on the 9th – yes, 9th! – Sims 3 expansion pack.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning — $5.99 at GameStop. Ties the previous low. Savings brought to you by the state of Rhode Island.

360, PS3, and PC Vita deals

Buy 2 Pre-Owned Video Games, Get a 3rd FREE at Best Buy. Over 7,000 games to choose from, with savings shown in your cart after all items have been added. Deal expires Saturday.

Persona Golden (PS Vita) — $29.96 at Amazon. Elsewhere the game is still selling for at least $39. Excellent title to pick up if you never played the PS2 version.

Halo 4 (Xbox 360) — $23.99 at NewEgg. Next best is $37 at Amazon. This is the cheapest we’ve seen by $6. If you’ve somehow managed to avoid Halo 4 since its release date, this is a solid price.

Hardware

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 59371960 Gaming Laptop — $799 at Lenovo after coupon. $120 less than this configuration sold for a week earlier. Specs: Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM, 1080p Full HD display, and the new Kepler-based GeForce GT 750M 2GB.

HP ENVY Phoenix h9-1420t Gaming Desktop — $862.49 at HP after coupon. $10 shipping. Specs: Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3770, Liquid Cooled, Radeon HD 7670, 10GB RAM, and Blu-ray drive. GPU is a bit weak but you can obviously upgrade.

Sennheiser X320 Xbox 360 Gaming Headset — $69.99 at Rakuten. Next best is $100. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the headset by $13.

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Filed under: Games

Dead Island: Riptide is a zombie game still searching for brains (review)

Sam Barsanti — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:01:13 +0000

Zombies are everywhere these days, making it harder and harder to actually use them in a new way. Publisher Deep Silver launched Dead Island in 2011, and the title tried to make its mark by combining first-person-shooter and role-playing elements. But the experience had a few too many issues to really revolutionize its genre. Now, original developer Techland is back with Dead Island: Riptide (available on April 23 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), and while the studio claims the game is more of a spin-off than a true sequel, it still carries on the same plot and hopes to correct some of the first release’s missteps. Unfortunately, some of those missteps are the fault of using the undead as an enemy in the first place, which means Riptide has to prove itself not only as an improvement in the Dead Island franchise but also as a worthy entry into an already overcrowded gaming space.

So is Dead Island: Riptide a survivor, or should you avoid it like a corpse-reanimating plague?

What You’ll Like

It’s the complete zombie experience
Zombie-related media tends to feature a handful of tried-and-true story beats related to living through the apocalypse. A small group of survivors will almost always encounter other survivors. They’ll go scavenging for supplies. Maybe they’ll get in a vehicle and run over a few creatures. And then, they’ll have to fortify some type of area in order to hold off waves of the living dead. If that’s something you want to sample for yourself, then Riptide certainly comes through. It’s a first-person-shooter-meets-role-playing hybrid that is all about foraging for equipment. Most of Riptide’s 13 chapters end with you and your band of survivors — who include other player-controlled characters — defending a small space from a hundred or so infected islanders while you wait for a water pump to clear out an underground tunnel or whatever.

Riptide even takes special care to include the different types of undead that have appeared in pop culture over the years. Do you like 28 Days Later-esque screaming runners or director George Romero’s shambling animated corpses from Night of the Living Dead? Both are in the game, and these enemies are known as Infected and Walkers, respectively. You even fight a few Left 4 Dead-style fancy monsters that spit at you or tackle you with super strength. This was all mostly present for the original Dead Island as well, but Riptide understands that it doesn’t need to change something that the first entry got completely right.

Plus, you can experience the whole game in co-op, either with friends or via level-based matchmaking that pairs you with people at a similar point in the campaign, which is always a plus.

Melee combat is consistently satisfying
As you can expect from a title called Dead Island: Riptide, you spend most of your time killing zombies. You cut off heads. You smash heads. You shoot off heads. It’s all cheery, family friendly stuff, but the point is that almost all of it is a blast. The combat doesn’t have much depth beyond improving weapons and choosing when to deploy your super attacks (character-specific moves powered by a “rage meter” that fills up as you get more kills), but it never feels too limited or boring. That’s the great strength of using a horde of zombies as the antagonists: Smashing them to death is a lot of fun. Of course, part of that fun comes from learning the benefits of the different weapon types and seeing which fit with your play style the best. Blunt objects, like baseball bats or hammers, have stopping power that will make it easier for you to get hostiles to the ground (where you can get in an insta-killing head stomp) while blade weapons can slice off limbs and are easier to retrieve after you throw them. Speaking of throwing weapons, they are easily the most fun part of the combat. It’s completely badass to throw an electrified samurai sword at a giant zombie, then charge at the beast with a meat tenderizer covered in nails, then rip the sword out and hack the monster to death. That is easily one of my favorite ways to kill a video game enemy ever.

The game’s firearms are considerably less fun to use, which is a shame since they become more and more common as you progress through the story. The gun mechanics are passable, but they aren’t powerful enough to justify how scarce ammo is. Thankfully, Riptide barely forces you to use guns, so it’s not a big issue. You can always go back to your ironic firefighter’s axe that sets things on fire.

Filed under: Games

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Saints Row’s Deep Silver is the opportunistic, gamer-focused publisher that we deserve

Jeffrey Grubb — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:04:09 +0000

Deep Silver isn’t like the others. At least that’s what it keeps telling us, but we’ve heard that before … and we’ve been hurt before.

One of Europe’s rising game publishers, Deep Silver is now competing with Ubisoft, Activision, and EA, but it’s also distinct from those companies.

Deep Silver chief executive officer Klemens Kundratitz

“We are in many aspects quite different compared to other video game publishers,” Koch Media chief executive officer Klemens Kundratitz told GamesBeat. “We are a private company. Therefore, we don’t have to deal with the public shareholder aspects of the business or the quarterly planning and delivering.”

Most publishers are publicly traded corporations. They answer to shareholders who demand constant growth. Deep Silver is at odds with that typical structuring. Two people, Kundratitz and Franz Koch, own all of Deep Silver (and its parent company Koch Media). Rather than pleasing a large group of investors who only really care about the bottom line, Deep Silver is much more limber because it’s only concerned with those top two individuals.

Private ownership has its advantages, but it might also explain why you probably hadn’t heard of Deep Silver before 2011. That was the year the publisher broke out with hit zombie title Dead Island, but it’s been around a lot longer than that.

In 2002, Koch opened Deep Silver to distribute games throughout Europe. The German company has a long history of importing films to the continent and saw an opportunity to use that expertise in the gaming sector. For years, Deep Silver’s primary goal was to partner with external companies to distribute games in Germany and other European nations.

But then Dead Island went and sold 5 million copies in 2011. The publisher quickly announced a sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, which comes out April 23. That one follow-up wasn’t enough to satisfy Deep Silver’s ambitions. The company was primed to strike at the next opportunity … and that came with the collapse of publisher THQ.

“”We were distributing THQ products in Italy and Spain, so in mid-December we had a lineup meeting with the publisher,” said Kundratitz. “We went over their entire portfolio with them. A week later we learned about them filing Chapter 11.”

This introduced a great amount of financial exposure to the company’s distribution business. THQ was an important partner, and Deep Silver was counting on those THQ products to fill out its lineup. THQ’s bankruptcy wasn’t catastrophic for Deep Silver, but it definitely introduced some potential stumbling blocks.

THQ originally attempted to remain intact by selling off the entirety of its assets to investment firm Clearlake Capital. The judge in the Chapter 11 case blocked that move and demanded that THQ hold an auction to see if a consortium of bidders could get more money for THQ’s debt holders.

This opened a window of opportunity for Deep Silver.

“We had to make up our minds about how to deal with the situation,” said Kundratitz. “We really loved their IPs and what they were planning to do over the next few months. We felt that rather than going defensive, we decided to see how we could make this situation work to our advantage.”

So over their Christmas break, Kundratitz, Deep Silver development director Vivien Dollinger, and their staff worked through the math to determine which products made the most sense for them.

“We narrowed down our interest to Metro and Saints Row,” said Kundratitz. “But we were flying blind.”

The THQ auction wasn’t like you’ve seen in the movies. A fast-talking announcer wasn’t taking open bids from Sega and others. Instead, interested parties quietly submitted their bids through a management group, and the highest bidder would take home a new developer or game property.

Deep Silver decided to go for it. It bid $23 million for the Saints Row franchise and for its studio, Volition. It also bid $5.8 million for the Metro 2033/Metro Last Light properties. In both of those instances, Deep Silver outbid its French rival, Ubisoft, who attempted to steal Saints Row for $5.4 million and put in a $5.175 million bid for Metro.

Suddenly, Deep Silver has one of the most interesting publishing lineups of 2013.

In addition to Dead Island: Riptide, Deep Silver has the interesting FPS Metro: Last Light coming on May 14. On Aug. 23, the publisher will release Volition’s Saints Row IV.

That’s a major change for a publisher no one west of the Atlantic had really heard of before 2011.

Beyond this year, Deep Silver is looking at free-to-play and mobile, but it won’t abandon what is working now.

“Free-to-play is obviously an interesting business model that we believe will be a part of the industry’s future,” development director Vivien Dollinger told GamesBeat. “It’s already proven itself. We think it’s here to stay as part of the market, but there’s still lots of room for retail.”

Kudratitz tolds us that the key to Deep Silver’s growth lies in its private ownership and a dedication to delivering what gamers want.

“In a year of transition, of consolidation, of restructuring in many areas. I can only say that we are growing in all of our business segments,” said Kundratitz. “I think that’s proof that companies that are less corporate and maybe more gamer-oriented can be more successful. It’s a time of opportunity for us. As an industry, I think we have to think about what the gamer wants. It’s not production values that will drive this industry. It’s new and novel gaming experience that we can deliver in ways that gamers love.”

It’s odd that a game company would hold up delivering what “gamers love” as something that makes it different. At the same time, gamers have a deep dislike for public corporations like EA that seem to put shareholder needs ahead of gamers. If Deep Silver doesn’t have to answer to a board concerned solely with a return on investment, maybe that really does make it different. And maybe that’s the publisher we need.

Filed under: Games

SimCity drops to $32, Paradox gives away free Europa 3

Dealzon — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:20:02 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Strategy gamers! Allocate your resources toward these two titles: SimCity and Europa Universalis III Chronicles. Both games boast in-depth gameplay, long-running franchises, and have numerous fans – but only one will go down in RTS infamy as an online-only single player game. Setting aside server stumbles, SimCity may actually be worthy of positive attention this week. The PC download is almost half off, and Europa Universalis III is free at GameFly.

Today SimCity dropped to $32 for the PC download with Origin activation (flame away). This is a solid price for a recently released Triple-A game, server snafus and DRM controversies aside. We suspect the game will soon reach the $30 price point, but don’t expect it to break the $20 barrier until closer to year’s end.

Europa Universalis III Chronicles can be yours for the unbeatable price of FREE today through April 11 at GameFly. You’ll still have to check out with a PayPal account or furnish your credit card info. But if you’re a fan of grand strategy games, you can’t go wrong with this bundle, as it includes all four Europa 3 expansions.

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

SimCity (PC Download) — $31.99 at GameFly after coupon. Yes, it’s Origin activated. Yes, you still need to be connected to the Internet. But hey, you’re not paying full price.

Europa Universalis 3 Chronicles (PC Download) — FREE at GameFly. The bundle comes with all four Europa 3 expansions. This same bundle runs $30 at Steam. Between $30 and free, we’ll take free.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (PS3) — $39.99 at Amazon. First big price drop on this beautifully crafted JRPG.

June 14 release: The Last of Us (PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg after coupon. One of the first solid deals we’ve seen on the upcoming and highly anticipated PS3 exclusive.

June 25 release: Company of Heroes 2 (PC Download) — $45 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Comes with beta access. Thankfully the title’s still being released, even after THQ’s liquidation.

Sep 17 release: Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox 360) — $59.99 at Microsoft. Xbox 360 owners get a better preorder incentive than their PS3 counterparts with an offer of 1600 Xbox Live points.

Last Thursday

In a move to bolster sales on titles published by 2K Games, GameFly is bundling up a few fan favorites and selling them at wallet-opening prices. This is a trend we’ve noticed lately for PC game sales, where retailers are happy to cheaply bundle last year’s hit releases to increase sales volume.

For the week, GameFly is offering four solid game bundles priced from $5 to $40. If you preordered BioShock Infinite, you’re probably familiar with some of these titles – they’re the same ones given away as bonuses during Infinite’s preorder sales push. Our top pick would be the BioShock dual pack bundle, containing the first two installment of the series for only $4.

If you see something you fancy, you might want to act fast, since all four bundle deals will be gone tomorrow.

On the console front, we’re spotting the first real discounts on recent releases like BioShock Infinite and Army of Two: Devil’s Cartel. While the savings are less substantial compared to their PC counterparts, kudos to GameStop for actually slashing prices on the 360/PS3 versions. Not bad for everyone’s favorite-game-store-to-hate.

2k Games PC bundles

BioShock Dual Pack (PC Download) — $3.99 at GameFly after coupon and includes BioShock 1&2. If you haven’t played the well-reviewed BioShock series, this is a cheap way to start. The cheapest we’ve seen this combo in the past is $10, and each game normally costs $20 apiece. Note the GameFly coupon code can only be used once per account, though it can apply to multiple games at once.

Spec Ops: The Line and The Darkness II Bundle (PC Download) — $3.99 at GameFly after one-use coupon. Four bucks makes a great price on two 2012 releases with Metascores of 76+. Buying each separately sets you back $60.

BioShock, BioShock 2, and Spec Ops: The Line Bundle (PC Download) — $7.99 at GameFly after coupon. On the surface, this is a good value since each game separately totals up to $70. That said, it’s actually a better move to buy both the BioShock bundle and the Spec Ops: The Line/The Darkness II bundle in the same transaction and use the once-per account coupon code because you’ll get 4 games instead of 3 for the same price ($8).

Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown Bundle (PC Download) — $31.99 at GameFly after one-use coupon. Two very popular 2012 games are discounted $78 off their normal combined $110 price. If you buy each separately elsewhere at their lowest prices online, you’ll pay $80.

Hot deals & recent releases

Dead Island Game of the Year Edition + $8 preorder credit towards Dead Island Riptide (PC Download) — $4.99 at Amazon. This ties the lowest price ever seen on Dead Island GOTY, which includes the base Dead Island game and 3 DLC packs. Once the game is purchased, Amazon will email you instructions on how to get $8 off the upcoming Dead Island Riptide release (April 23rd).

Last Tuesday’s release: Defiance (PC Download) — $48 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Elsewhere $60. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are down to $50.99 at GameStop after coupon. This week, the Magic 8 Ball says an 8+ rating from IGN and Metacritic users, although there aren’t many reviews out yet.

Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3) — $50.99 at GameStop after coupon. Next best is $58 at Overstock.com. German retailer GamesRocket still has the PC download for $46.49, and Green Man Gaming still has it for £23.99.

Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Xbox 360) — $50.99 at GameStop after coupon. List is $60. Like BioShock Infinite this game released last Tuesday, March 26th but received much less attention. Reviewers say it lacks originality, but gameplay appears to be fine. GameStop has the only discount thus far.

PC download deals

Tropico 4 Collectors Bundle (PC Download) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. List is $40. The bundle includes the Tropico 4 game with 7 DLCs. Think Sim City with a sense of humor, more islands, and fewer server problems.

Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior’s Rise (PC Download) — $1.99 at GameFly after coupon. GameFly discounted this July 2012 retro-style beat-em-up from $9.99 to $2.50. Use their once-per-account coupon code and drop the price further to $1.99.

A Game of Dwarves Sale: Game and DLCs (PC Download) — 66% off at GamersGate. The game alone normally costs $10, and after the 66% discount, you can get the game plus 3 DLCs for only $7.12.

360 & PS3 deals

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Xbox 360, PS3) — $39.99 at NewEgg. Until recently, the February 19th release Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance hasn’t strayed far from its list price, making NewEgg’s $20 discount the best ever by $10. Next best price online is $50 at Amazon, which prior to this week was charging the full $60 list price.

Dishonored (Xbox 360, PS3) — $25.49 at GameStop after coupon. While Dishonored has been around for almost 6 months, this is only the second time it’s hit the $25 price point. (The only other time was Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.) Elsewhere this week, most retailers dropped their prices from $40 to $30, but GameStop’s coupon code makes this the best deal around.

Hardware

Alienware M17x r4 Ivy Bridge Core i7-3740QM, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M, 1080p, 8GB RAM — $1,999 at Dell Home after coupon. Although this Alienware laptop commands a premium price, this is the lowest we’ve seen on this 17-inch behemoth by $100 and cuts $300 off this config’s $2,299 list price.

Dell XPS 8500 Ivy Bridge Quad Core i7-3770, Radeon HD 7570, 8GB RAM, Windows 8 — $659.99 at Dell Home after coupon. Dell’s cheapest gaming-capable desktop just got cheaper. At $660, the desktop is a new low by $20 and now costs the same as the base XPS 8500 config – but with a more powerful processor and video card. List price is $875.

PS3 Slim 320GB Console (Refurbished) — $171.96 plus $10.44 shipping at TigerDirect. Next best is $300 at Best Buy. While most PlayStation gamers are saving up for a PS4, the PS3 console prices are starting to drop. This 320GB console costs $300 in new condition, so the buyer saves $118.

Filed under: Games

Dead Island sales surpass 5 million copies

Jeffrey Grubb — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:06:56 +0000

We are not done with zombies in video games. At least, not if the sales numbers for Dead Island reveal anything.

Today, publisher Deep Silver announced that its open-world zombie game Dead Island sold over 5 million copies since its September 2011 release. That is a huge number for a new franchise, and it again reveals the mass appeal that zombies have in media.

“While others focus on ever-increasing development budgets and driving brand messages via ballooning marketing expenditures, Deep Silver stands for hitting the zeitgeist, innovation, and fresh gameplay,” said Klemens Kundratitz, the chief executive officer of Deep Silver parent company Koch Media. “Dead Island has an incredibly active and enthusiastic community, and we are thrilled to welcome the 5-millionth player to the world of Banoi. This once again proves that venturing into new waters in terms of games publishing does matter for success and that even at the end of a console cycle, new [intellectual properties] can be created and nurtured into lasting franchises.”

Deep Silver is next preparing to launch a sequel, called Dead Island Riptide, on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on April 23. The publisher also recently purchased the open-world Saints Row franchise and developer Volition, Inc., which is working on the next entry in that series.

“We’re very proud to have achieved 5 million units sold worldwide,” Koch Media international commercial director Menno van der Bill said in a statement. “We see this sustained excellent performance as a particularly good omen for the projected sales of Dead Island Riptide, our upcoming next installment, that will be released later this year. The continued success of Dead Island has proven that we’re on the right track with our overall IP strategy for Deep Silver. Further new IPs with an innovative angle and maybe even a surprising touch can be expected from [us].”

Gaming is a brand-focused industry. Once a publisher establishes a property, the follow-up usually attracts a wider audience. With the success of Dead Island, the sequel is well positioned to capitalize on the huge install base of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 a few months before the expected launch of Microsoft’s and Sony’s next-gen consoles.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: Disney Infinity, torsos, and violence in video games

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:03:20 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, Disney announced its version of a Skylanders-like game featuring characters from the company’s various intellectual properties, President Barack Obama urged Congress to research the effects of violent video games on children, and the Internet takes Dead Island: Riptide to task over a controversial preorder bonus.

News:

Mobile News:

Interviews:

Reviews:

Previews:

Oculus Rift is virtual reality that won’t make you barf (hands-on preview)

Community Spotlight:

Pieces of Flair:

Filed under: Games

ROUNDTABLE’D! Game characters vs. Dead Island: Riptide’s mutilated torso girl!

Rus McLaughlin — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:00:13 +0000

Once again, we tap our team of video game characters for lessons in good taste and proper etiquette!

We established long ago that video game special-edition packages are only any good if they include a mutilated corpse statue. So naturally, publisher Deep Silver planned to include one (see below) for the UK/Australia Zombie Bait Edition of Dead Island: Riptide, the upcoming sequel to its surprise zombies-in-paradise hit. Shockingly, some people objected to a headless woman in a D-cup Union Jack bikini. Deep Silver tweeted out a heartfelt apology mere hours after announcing the product, citing its complete shock that anyone would find it even slightly offensive despite a badge on the box that reads “WARNING: Includes content that may cause offense.”

It’s unclear as of yet whether Deep Silver plans to keep Chesty McHeadless in the package. Should it? And what could the publisher possibly replace it with? What say you, panel of experts?

Launch the gallery for wisdom!

Dead Island: Riptide is due out in the US on April 23 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Filed under: Games

The Dead Island: Riptide reaction was an equality fail

Community Writer — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:52:43 +0000

We’ve collectively failed as a community once more. Even though only some of us acted poorly, the fact that one side clearly pushed its rhetoric through has made this less of an open place and more of a restricted area: no fun allowed. To give this ongoing lament some context, Deep Silver announced on Tuesday a risqué collector’s edition for Dead Island: Riptide called the Zombie Bait Edition, which prominently displayed a severed and dismembered torso with big breasts and small clothing. Is it tacky? Yes, probably. Is it reason for a mass outcry? Hardly.

Normally, I’d make this into an official piece, thinking up a point-by-point case, argument, solution, future thought, and that sort of thing. However, that would require me to go on endlessly about a topic that is out of my hands in this industry already. Instead, the swift rebuttal here serves to prove that this is a personal standpoint though it has the same basis as most of my op-ed pieces. For those wondering, I live by the Golden Rule. It’s that well-known line that goes, “Treat others like you would wish to be treated.” On that aspect, we treated the Zombie Bait Edition news like we would want to be picked apart by vultures. It’s a standpoint I can respect but not one I can condone.

News outlets were quick to release statements about how “offensive,” “disgusting,” “repulsive,” and “outrageous” (and so on) the limited edition was thought to be. I’m not saying such a provocative item won’t burn in anyone’s eyes. I, too, am offended when Halo thinks it’s a good idea to run its promotions with Doritos chips and Mountain Dew, which implies that we’re all greasy pigs. However, would I call for a massive outcry oversomeone offering a bust? No, not really. I’m not mad at art history for doing the same.

The point can be argued until the cows are dead and we’re serving their racks in a self-righteous buffet of hypocrisy, but it’s where my mind immediately went to. I immediately associated it with a bust because that’s what it is: a bust, which is defined as “the human chest.” That seems accurate to me. Dead Island also features dead women in skimpy, tropical outfits and has dismemberment elements to the gameplay. All these things are fitting, and no one gave a crap about that when the original game came out.

This shot of headless torsos is completely justifiable because … ??? … profit.

No — prior to that, Deep Silver released a clip containing the “magical negro” trope, which was linked to the character Sam B but doesn’t resemble him in the slightest. That is, unless you’re a racist and think all black people look alike. Moreover, that clip is also filled with objectification, but that is OK why, exactly? Is it that hip-hop makes it acceptable? Is it because black people use women as toys? No matter how you look at it, it’s going to be bad when a clip shows over a dozen shots of body parts with no face for no reason other than to show it. Again, here, no one cared. It’s an issue now that Deep Silver rubs it in our faces. We’re not being very consistent, but I’ll leave that point open to debate.

Other than your personal stand on whether or not the bust was offensive, it’s how we reacted like infants that caught my eye. Even that wouldn’t faze me too much normally since we all know how the gaming community can be. However, this time is different for one particular reason. This frothing of the mouth and knee-jerk, quick wit with no further thought came from the very crowd that would pretend to be different — those who make the sensible, adult remarks about how we need to evolve, accept each other, and so on. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been taught that acceptance needs to be shoved down my throat and that if my opinion is wrong, I need to be snuffed out. That sounds like the reverse of accepting anyone for their good or lesser opinions and ideals.

How does acceptance work in Riptide’s case? It made a provocative piece, so it needed to be shut down. Well, all this media outrage worked as Deep Silver issued an apology the same day about how appalled it was by its own behavior. This must have struck the team by surprise, and so it should because it did nothing out of the ordinary. It marketed its product with cheap attention-grabbing as anyone else in any walk of life does. No, not in our gaming community — we’re fighting for equality in here, so there’s no room for that.

That last sentence doesn’t work. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too, and then sue the baker for making you fat. At some point, this mass hysteria needs to end. Whatever happened to disagreement? “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Isn’t that how the enlightened philosophers thought about equality? There doesn’t seem to be any defending of Deep Silver. There seems to be only offense. What people are doing by projecting negativity on this campaign is calling for exclusive behavior that will allow certain things and disqualify others. That’s being part of the very problem you’re trying to fight. I’ll even leave out the fact that publications were quick to publish the news a second time with the apology because showing a bloody bust is so disgusting that you should do it twice, right? It can’t just be updated in the same article — that picture must be drained for all its juicy contents. Again, consistency is lacking.

Perhaps just use your fingers.

However, the lowest of all points was not even this sad state of affairs. It’s that the dogs weren’t appeased with the blood on Deep Silver’s hands. Instead, they went after its personnel and showed the true nature of what it means to not know what you’re angry about. Some of you may know Maurice Tan from his time with Destructoid. He’s now an employee of Deep Silver, and earlier this week he tweeted an off-color joke about this ordeal. Seeing as I don’t want to actively feed the flames of other people’s misery, I won’t link it and instead just state what it said: “It is cut off, so who knows. S(he) might have a cock down there.” The response was immediately and overwhelmingly negative. I’ll post a screenshot here.

Do we notice a pattern here? It’s the same knee-jerk reaction — immediately going for the jugular in the name of equality. The community had choice words for Tan because his comment was deemed offensive and bigoted. Yet nothing in the tweet can be pulled any which way on that topic. There is no divide that would suggest a fixed view. Still, the immediate assumption is negative, and the reaction is downright hostile. It’s bullying in pure form, skewed on the platform of freedom of speech. It’s not offensive, but it might be, so let’s presume it is. It’s these same presumptions that the community should fight, not endorse. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. The whole day this happened, I thought I’d elevate myself and not fume like I watched people fume about their delusions. I failed — we all failed. It was a bad day for gaming. We’re not welcome in our own world, so what do we do now?

Please, excuse the longevity and unfiltered approach of this write-up. Again, I’d like to state that this is my personal reaction, so it doesn’t come equipped with the necessary filters. It is still based on my belief and idealism, which is focused on inclusion rather than exclusion. Let me end this rant the only way the Internet knows how:

TL;DR: Judge not lest ye be judged. We didn’t fight for equality this week — we fought it. Deep Silver shouldn’t have had to apologize for endorsing freedom of choice, and the fact that it did has made our world smaller, not more open. We are all to blame.

Filed under: Games

Milkshake Resolved: A Dead Island Riptide poem

Community Writer — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 03:56:33 +0000

Trigger warning: Violence against women.

Butchered and bloodied by the Male Gaze
Misogyny and games, Deep Silver’s malaise
Zombie Bait nets an unintended reaction
No word yet of product retraction

Is this the way to sell a game?
A woman butchered, bloodied, brutally maimed
Reduced to breasts and washboard abs
Requisite blood, wounds, and weeping scabs

Should I mention that the tits were clear
of wounds, of gore, naught but blood smear?
Is this all that women are good for?
I ask with memories of “Feminist Whore“

The Internet exploded regardless
Responses you’d expect, no points if you guess
“Would anyone care if it was a dude?”
Why wasn’t it a man chopped and displayed half nude?

Is this about sex and how it sells?
Who would find this hot? It just repels
Who would pop this on their coffee table?
I for one, would not be able

Yes, the publisher begged for fans’ forgiveness
Even though more than once had they been careless
Catherine also tainted by their sloppy sales pitch
Lap dances and strippers — another marketing glitch

Let’s hope we learn from Torsogate
Stop reducing women to nothing but bait
Their will and form, for men dissolved
Demand more than this Milkshake Resolved

Filed under: Games

Dead Island Riptide developer apologizes for special edition’s severed torso statue

Jeffrey Grubb — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:19:45 +0000

Here’s what is happening in news of the gross.

Earlier today, publisher Deep Silver revealed a Dead Island Riptide: Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia. This collectors’ edition package includes a copy of the zombie-filled adventure game and a statue of a bloody woman’s severed torso.

Yeah, we know — that’s some major ew.

Moments ago, the developer posted an apology to Twitter:

A statement on the Zombie Bait Edition:

We deeply apologize for any offense caused by the Dead Island Riptide “Zombie Bait Edition”, the collector’s edition announced for Europe and Australia. Like many gaming companies, Deep Silver has many offices in different countries, which is why sometimes different versions of Collector’s Editions come into being for North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

For the limited run of the Zombie Bait Edition for Europe and Australia, a decision was made to include a gruesome statue of a zombie torso, which was cut up like many of our fans had done to the undead enemies in the original Dead Island.

We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver’s entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.

We’ve contacted Deep Silver to ask if it will cancel its plans to release the Zombie Bait Edition with the gruesome statue, but it has not responded.

Filed under: Games

The best video game trailers of 2012

Dan Crawley — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:00:08 +0000

Video game trailers are a big deal. Where once big budgets were the exception, they are increasingly becoming the norm. Deep pockets are not always key to creating a stand-out trailer, though. Ingenuity, innovation, and a healthy sense of humor can also go a long way to help sell a game.

Here we present the best game trailers to grace our screens during 2012. They represent a cross-section of the gaming world and feature a variety of styles and budgets. The one thing they have in common? They’re done right.

If you think we’ve missed any trailers of note, feel free to drop a comment below.

Borderlands 2

Gearbox Software gave its first-person role-playing shooter Borderlands 2 (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) a sing-a-long soundtrack that just shouldn’t have worked. The genius is that “Wimoweh” has never sounded as gloriously out of place since its original 1939 release. Even better than Tight Fit.

Watch Dogs

Eschewing both gameplay and prerendered footage, this trailer for Ubisoft’s open-world action-shooter Watch Dogs (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) brilliantly sets up the game’s premise with a starkly delivered blurring of fact and fiction that sounds eminently believable. Watch Dogs is certainly a title to look out for next year.

ZombieU

Zombies. Are we sick of them yet? Ubisoft doesn’t think so, having created one of the year’s most atmospheric trailers for its Wii U-exclusive survival-horror game. The film succeeds in making ordinary environments look extraordinary by subtly twisting our perspective on the dark streets of London.

Dyad

Independent developer Shawn McGrath unleashed his psychadelic musical shooter, Dyad, on the PlayStation 3 this summer. Its original trailer received an unkindly greeting in some quarters, with PlayStation Blog user Mattsta009 saying of its star: “It doesn’t look like that girl is even playing Dyad, she is kind of just holding a controller, acting badly and smiling vacuously at the screen.” In a stroke of genius, McGrath recast himself in the lead role. Watch from 20 seconds in to see him in action. The original trailer is underneath for a neat “compare and contrast” opportunity.

The Last of Us

Proof of the power of soundtrack, developer Naughty Dog used the Hank Williams song “Alone and Forsaken” to great effect in this trailer for upcoming PlayStation 3 action game The Last of Us. The atmosphere seems even more bleak and unforgiving with Williams’ raspy vocals layering on the tension.

Filed under: Games

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Celebrate Halloween early by preordering Dead Island: Riptide and getting free in-game goodies

Sam Barsanti — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:20:54 +0000

Deep Silver has announced the release date (and unveiled the box art) for Dead Island: Riptide, its follow-up to 2011′s most popular island resort-based zombie survival game. You might remember Dead Island as that game with the really cool trailer where a dead little girl got thrown out a window.

Riptide should be in stores April 23, and those who preorder early enough will be automatically upgraded to the game’s Special Edition, which includes various bonuses to help you in your never-ending fight against undead vacationers. You get exclusive weapon modifications, a digital strategy map, and a unique character skin, which the press release says “looks good.” That’s always a plus. Also, if you preorder particularly early enough, you’ll receive a Steelbook case as well.

Deep Silver says the Special Edition will have different boxart than the normal one, but that’s all it’s saying so far. While you wait, you can see what Riptide will look like for those who would rather not have fancy extras in the Standard Edition boxart below.

Filed under: Games