70°

The unlikely games that stole my heart this E3

GameZone: "The real surprises at E3 are the games that show up out of nowhere, in no way hinted at by preceding fiscal reports, teasing tweets or videos, but wow audiences all the same. These are the surprises that added that necessary spice to my E3 experience this year. Feel free to share the wonky or unexpected games that stole your heart in the comments."

Read Full Story >>
gamezone.com
300°

LittleBigPlanet 3 Servers Are Officially Shut Down 'Indefinitely,' Sony Confirms

Sony has confirmed that LittleBigPlanet 3 servers on PlayStation 4 will remain offline “indefinitely” following troubles with the service from earlier this year.

63d ago
rlow163d ago

Sad day, hopefully they’ll allow a third party server solution. Goes to show game preservation is an uphill battle.

blackblades62d ago

Sad day oh wait everyone that whining about it didn't play it or haven't played it in years and never was going back to it. Funny how people start to care when this happens but when it was actually up those same people didn't even pay attention to it.

rlow162d ago (Edited 62d ago )

First, you don’t know who has or hasn’t played it. So that’s your assumption. Secondly, even if people haven’t played it in awhile, it’s still nostalgia. Those memories of sharing your creation and having fun playing other peoples creations. Third, no game out there is really like this or as iconic. Today if they made this they would nickel and dime the whole way through and it would launch broken.

Cacabunga62d ago

Reason why i really dislike online games.. they become unplayable over time.. LBP story mode is actually only a tutorial

_Decadent_Descent62d ago

How would you know who's played it or not? What about those who get into games years after their release? They can't now. Besides, and more importantly, this sets a bad precedent across the industry when it comes to game preservation and people's ability to enjoy what they've paid for.

blackblades62d ago (Edited 62d ago )

People still play it but not a lot probably a fee people and I know you 2 guys haven't played it in a long time. If the server was doing so good it wouldnt be shut down. As I said the same people that whine and cry saying bad things on Sony etc are the same ones that havent or stopped playing a certain game in years. Let me ask you guys straight up and y'all tell the truth have you guys played it recently and when you did for how long did you play it.

SonyStyled62d ago

@blackblades “ Let me ask you guys straight up and y'all tell the truth have you guys played it recently and when you did for how long did you play it.”

Whatever “straight up” and “y’all” is, I can tell you the “truth” to answer your question.

I’ve been playing LBP2 for the past 5 years, I have 10 levels to Ace in a row and a coupe more hours in create mode for platinum. I played LBP2 earlier today in crate mode.

It sucked when LBP 1 and 2 servers were closed on PS3, but all those creations were still playable on PS4 LBP3.

Every level creation since LBP1 can’t be played now

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 62d ago
CDbiggen62d ago (Edited 62d ago )

Just disappointing. I have such nostalgia for this game and the user levels from LBP 1&2 and I already was gutted when they were shut down but at least they were on LBP3, and now this means I can't ever revisit those creative worlds again. All because some trolls or whatever decided to exploit these games, of all games, for some reason.

63d ago Replies(3)
just_looken63d ago

What needs to be highlighted by this is that the series has had 4 main games then that go kart spin off yet sony let them all die.

There is 0 games like this on ps5 and to my knowledge 0 first party main kids games no tech demo crap

Sony purchased Media Molecule studio the ip then tossed it away letting it rot for over 7 years yet the community carried on until now were we have lost 16 years on all games of content along with no replacement.

Everyone goes on about ea killing studios but sony has killed way way more but its fine its sony they can do no wrong.

Before the sony blidboys track me down again go fire up your holy boxes all the dlc they tossed out all the trophies and all the user content needs a server side handshake that no longer works. Yes offline single player version 1.0 works but that is it.

Media Molecule was not cut i know but they only made LBP and dreams it was reported they just missed the chopping block
https://gamerant.com/little...

Do not forget the dreams game was tossed out 2020 but 3 years later support was pulled
https://www.digitaltrends.c...

All in all this is another failure at sony on a long long list in the past 10 years

Inverno63d ago

It's kind of hard to disagree when SONY has a history of abandoning many of their IPs. They killed Mod Nation and turnt it into LBP Karting because of brand recognition but left it to die too. They made their own Smash Bros only to rush the studio, and turn the game into an advert for recent release at the time and still let it die. They shut down PS Home for more or less the same reason, they left it to rott till it became too broken and exploited to bother fixing.

just_looken62d ago

This right here

Playstation home is what facebook is trying to make now but in vr that metaverse deal

Imagine if sony kept up ps home development

The death of playstation forums was also a huge loss

Demetrius62d ago

When they refused a days gone sequel and no acknowledgement of a infamous series remaster of those gems, I knew Sony slick abandons stuff, sure they still release good games but to an extent smh

u-bEttA-rUn62d ago

Their games were unable to attract the masses every game that came out the attachment grew smaller and smaller they advertise LBP for years the industry changed and then came fortnight... You want Sony to continue to support them which cost them money that they're not getting back from the studio.

DOMination-62d ago

Honestly, I think a well-designed LBP-style game would do better than ever in the current state of the industry.

People have short attention spans. Having something that is pick up, play a few levels and put down again is the experience the "masses" are after.

Keep it as a 2D platformer only with well-designed base levels, make it easy to build new levels and more importantly easy to access new content - personally I always found the way Forze Horizon 4&5 provide daily, weekly and monthly challenges via new content that they've built or handpicked from the community is a system that works great - and then stick it on mobile and PC with Steam Deck support.

Make it F2P with a one-off fee for the level editor (to stop people spamming crap onto the store) and have MTX for more characters, outfits etc. and there you have a live service game that Sony should be all over.

Do the same with a new Karting game and a 2D fighting/Smash Bros style engine and you have three bangers right there.

(I appreciate the N4G community will hate the idea of LBP being a live service game with MTX and I get that but I think if there's one game this model could work well for, it's this.. just imo)

anast62d ago (Edited 62d ago )

Astro's is similar.

Not enough people cared to play it, so they cut it.

Sony has never been a kid friendly console. This should be obvious. People go to Nintendo for this stuff.

DarkZane62d ago

All signs actually point to a new Astrobot game coming to PS5, so you'd be wrong.

anast62d ago

It's the game that came with the PS5

StoneTitan62d ago

Its on media molecule though. They did not want to continue LBP. Sony accepted that.
Sumo continued it. With a solala lbp3 and a great sackboy though.
Its not sonys fault. They dont want to force a studio to create a new LBP game.
But I would love a revival.

romulus2362d ago

For some people Sony can do no right either. You can play Sackboy A Big Adventure on PS5. So there is "a game like this" on PS5.

anast62d ago

They don't want to hear all that stuff.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 62d ago
Tacoboto63d ago

I feel bad for Media Molecule. For the ideas they have it seems they need a publisher that supports games like this and Dreams especially for as many players as possible.

DOMination-62d ago

Sony in the Andrew House era did support them massively though. They let them do their thing with LBP and spent millions marketing it. I remember one E3 they even used LBP to cover the boring parts of the presentation where they talk about sales figures etc.

And then they allowed MM to announce their game on the PS4 console announcement/showcase event and waited the entire generation for them to release it.

Show all comments (55)
460°

Playing Ori Games On Xbox Game Pass Does Not Help The Studio, Claims Moon Studios CEO

The Ori and the Blind Forest studio CEO has asked the fans to purchase the game instead to completely support it.

Terry_B108d ago

oh really. The Microsoft /Game Pass Dream Bubble is bursting, eh?

Outside_ofthe_Box108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

I've been told that this is an outlier and 99% of devs feel the opposite of what moon studios is saying right here.

thorstein108d ago

"It can be? If you're a smaller dev and get an upfront fee to put your game on gamepass and it blows up, that's great.

I merely pointed out that Moon would make no money at this point from people playing Ori on gamepass - so not the best way to support us!" - Thomas Mahler, Moon Studios

Asplundh108d ago

"This is the exact argument people have been saying about GP for years now"

It's not. Moon studios had no say in their game going on GamePass, because it's a 2nd party game and Microsoft own the Ip and games. Moon was paid for developing the games and presumably get a cut of sales, GamePass is hurting their sales but this is a different situation.

108d ago
Lightning77108d ago

Because it is. You can name on one hand the studios GP doesn't help.

GamerRN108d ago

They make no money because they were already paid an upfront fee. So they MADE money, but make no additional money.

Markusb33107d ago

yeah of course because people renting games and not buying them is so much better for studios.
Microsoft has conditioned people not to pay for their hobby or at least not to pay to own anything

Outside_ofthe_Box107d ago

@GamerRN

"They make no money because they were already paid an upfront fee. So they MADE money, but make no additional money."

So it's a good thing that they make no additional money despite their game having continued success well after the initial payment?

Einhander1972107d ago

@Lightning77

"Because it is. You can name on one hand the studios GP doesn't help."

Just in the past few months we have had statements from Larian, 2k and now Moon Studios (as well another indie studio that released it's game pass but I can't remember who it was) have made similar statements recently about the effect of subscriptions on sales and profitability.

Heck you recently saw in Insomniac's leaked slides that after games were put on subscriptions the sales of the games almost totally dried up, which is something they have publicly been saying for years. And on top of that even though xbox fans constantly deny it, Microsoft leaks as well as their own statements and actions (like putting thier games on rival platforms) clearly show that putting games on subscriptions lowers the potential profit of a game.

It's time to accept the reality that the long term effect of subscriptions has been lowered revenue and profit for game sales almost universally across the board.

Credible research and information keeps showing that people don't buy games that are on subscriptions and more and more people don't buy games they suspect are coming to subscriptions.

RGB107d ago

Look into Outriders situation, unless you are a very small indie dev, gamepass loses money for everyone involved, including Microsoft.

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 107d ago
Obscure_Observer108d ago

"oh really. The Microsoft /Game Pass Dream Bubble is bursting, eh?"

I don´t think Sony agrees, because they´ll continue and release yet another brand new MBL game on Gamepass day one for the fourth time in a row!

Crows90108d ago

Because they have a choice right?

108d ago
Christopher108d ago

That's not by Sony's choice... This is a poor argument.

notachance108d ago

dude just randomly mention sony out of nowhere lol

Obscure_Observer108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

@Crows90

"Because they have a choice right?"

Yes they do. They could say no. Nobody is forcing Sony to make MLB games to Xbox at gun point, especially day one on Gamepass.

Christopher

"That's not by Sony's choice..."

Of course, it´s their choice. They could just said *no* to MLB and made their own baseball game just like EA did.

Besides, It´s a GaaS title after all and one of the most played on Xbox. So it´s not really hurting Sony in any way, and I´m 100% positive that they relly love those fat checks from MS.

"This is a poor argument."

You can say that, but, the Interesting and undeniable fact is that after four years making MBL games available on Gamepass day one, nobody from San Diego studio got fired in Sony´s recent wave of layoffs.

Just food for the brain.

108d ago
Elda108d ago

That's not a business choice that was decided by Sony, that decision was decided by the MLB. Sony will reap the rewards only because Sony's first party developers (Sony San Diego Studios) develops The Show. If it wasn't for the MLB licensing contract of The Show the game would still be exclusive to PS.

outsider1624108d ago

"Of course, it´s their choice. They could just said *no* to MLB and made their own baseball game just like EA did."

Well this isn't EA, they lost the license to Fifa, not Fifpro, or the premiere league or champions league or the euros.

MLB I'm guessing (i don't play baseball) is the only licence to it. They have no choice, indeed. American gamers will want authentic teams im sure.

108d ago
107d ago
Futureshark107d ago

What an Obscure Observation!!?!!

1Victor107d ago (Edited 107d ago )

@christopher: “That's not by Sony's choice... This is a poor argument.”
Have you see him have a rich valid argument when it comes to Sony. 🤷🏿

@obscured: “Yes they do. They could say no. Nobody is forcing Sony to make MLB games to Xbox at gun point, especially day one on Gamepass.”
Sure buddy whatever keeps you happy same as no one is forcing Xbox to now and in the future release their games on PlayStation and Nintendo oh btw in the near future Xbox will go fully 3rd party like Sega 💵💰

Markusb33107d ago

do you understand the concept of licensed games? good lord the straw arguments or just lack of actual real information is astouding.

Terry_B107d ago

I don't think many of your comments are thought out.

Christopher107d ago

*** Of course, it´s their choice. They could just said *no* to MLB and made their own baseball game just like EA did. ***

That's an illusion of choice. It's not a choice. You're acting ignorant to try and serve up a bad argument.

Sonic1881107d ago

Obscure

At it again huh LMAO

107d ago
107d ago
+ Show (17) more repliesLast reply 107d ago
Neonridr108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

you have to remember that these games are old now, they are given a fee upfront for their titles to be on gamepass, but for new people to play the games naturally you want to drive them to standalone sales as opposed to them playing on a service that they've already been paid for.

Outside_ofthe_Box108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

I don't understand what you are saying here. This is the exact argument people have been saying about GP for years now. In the short term the upfront cost is good, especially if your game is either trash or was never going to be popular in the first place, but long term and if your game exceeds expectations then it's not as good. Also if your game is AAA and is a sure fire going to sell millions day one, people want those titles day one on GP as well and think it's sustainable for some reason when logically that doesn't make sense.

Neonridr108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

@Outside - I don't know if MS has any incentives in place where devs get bonuses if games do well. You'd have to talk to someone in the know there.

Neonridr108d ago

I bought the collection on my Switch. Love these games.

darthv72108d ago

Same here. its a nice little compilation. Plus I have the XB special editions on disc (still sealed)... and it was all thanks to playing them in Game pass. I dont get why its so hard for people to understand how this service can actually lead to sales, not just blindly accept the few who complain about how sales weren't as good as they expected.

remixx116107d ago

Because not everyone is like you.

Most people wont go out and purchase a game on other consoles or buy special editions of games they already played if they can just try it on their cheap subscription service and move on once theyre done with it.

GotGame818108d ago

I bought Ori for Switch because it's on GP and wanted to be able to play it on the go. That being said, at 120fps and 4K on Series X, that is the way to play.

LoveSpuds107d ago

Fingers crossed for a release on PS5, I'd snap them up even though I have them on Switch already.

OneLove108d ago

No one forced you to put it on there wtf👀

Sciurus_vulgaris108d ago

Moon Studio had no choice. They do not own the Ori IP, Microsoft does.

rippermcrip107d ago

They didn't have a choice to partner with Microsoft for funding and create the game for them?

ChasterMies107d ago

I’m with OneLove on this. Don’t go begging to fans when you already took Microsoft’s money.

Kornholic106d ago

For smaller companies to even have a CHANCE to make some money on Xbox, they often have to put their games on Game Pass. Don't be dense.

SPEAKxTHExTRUTH108d ago (Edited 108d ago )

Anyone who wanted Ori has most likely already bought it. The game is not going to sell significantly anymore but GP will offer free exposure so that when Ori 3 comes out people may be willing to buy. If your game is good enough people will support in even if they can get it on a subscription. I still buy plenty of games that are available on GP and I also have played plenty of games that I would not have played thanks to GP. Bottom line is this, make a product people want and they will buy it.

badz149108d ago

Tbh, the game has never sold significant numbers to begin with.

Eonjay107d ago

I think what the CEO is implying is that the studio makes more money per copy sold vs a player on GP. But I think we know that as common sense. Even without being privy to Moon/Microsoft's contract, I think we can assume that because of the nature of GP, more money can be made per player at retail than via subscription. And honestly this would also probably apply to Microsoft as well. As in they would make more money too. Thats why the only way to maximize the utility of a subscription is to have a really large subscription base.

Show all comments (73)
120°

Dead Space Isaac Clarke: Every Cameo in Other Games

Isaac Clarke of Dead Space fame has appeared in many games, both as a playable character and an Easter Egg. Have you played them all?