How to play the game

Two days before the latest title in the “Ninja Gaiden” franchise, “Ninja Gaiden II”, for the Microsoft Xbox 360 is released, the head of the ‘Team Ninja’ development team at the Japanese video game Company, Tecmo Limited (formerly Tehkan Limited), Tomonobu Itagaki, has resigned & is suing his former employer for “an unfulfilled completion bonus” in relation to the title “Dead Or Alive 4″.

A full translation of Itagaki’s statement can be read at Kotaku.com:

…

Team Ninja, founded in 1995, first came to the public’s attention with the release of “Dead Or Alive” (for the Sega “Model 2″ Arcade machines) in 1996. The game’s story and the characters were created by Itagaki, a figure who is highly regarded in the video game development community primarily for his stubborn nature during the development of the entire “Dead or Alive” series.

And rightly so…

The first game was originally devised as a wager with the President of Tecmo to prove that Itagaki, the newly recruited programmer, could create a video game that would garner a competent fan base. He drew inspiration from the (Japanese) “Fatal Fury” series (influenced by the speed of game-play) and the US-developed “Mortal Kombat” series (due to the ability to knock opponents off set pieces in the game’s environment). The working title of the project, “Dead Or Alive”, as an indication of the success or failure of the project, was retained for the Arcade machine release, and the subsequent titles in the franchise across multiple platforms:

“Dead or Alive” - November 1996: Model 2 (Sega Arcade system printed circuit board-based machine)
“Dead or Alive” - 9 October 1997 [Japan]: Sega Saturn
“Dead or Alive” - 12 March 1998 [Japan] / 31 March 1998 [North America] / July 1998 [Europe]: PlayStation
“Dead or Alive” - July 1998: TPS-System (Tecmo’s own Arcade system board machine)

“Dead or Alive 2″ - 16 October 1999: Sega NAOMI (Arcade)
“Dead or Alive 2 Millennium” - January 2000: Sega NAOMI (Arcade)
“Dead or Alive 2″ - 29 February 2000 [North America] / 14 July 2000 [Europe] / 28 September 2000 [Japan]: Dreamcast
“Dead or Alive 2″ - 30 March 2000 [Japan]: PlayStation 2
“Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore” - 25 October 2000 [North America] / 14 December 2000 [Japan] / 15 December 2000 [Europe]: PlayStation 2

“Dead or Alive 3″ - 14 November 2001 [North America] / 22 February 2002 [Japan] / 14 March 2002 [Europe]: Xbox

“Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball” - 22 January 2003 [North America] / 23 January 2003 [Japan] / 28 March 2003 [Europe]: Xbox

“Dead or Alive Ultimate” - 26 October 2004 [North America] / 3 November 2004 [Japan] / 18 February 2005 [Europe]: Xbox

“Dead or Alive 4″ - 29 December 2005 [North America] / 29 December 2005 [Japan] / 24 January 2007 [Europe] / 13 April 2006 [Australasia]: Xbox 360

“Dead or Alive Xtreme 2″ - 13 November 2006 [North America] / 22 November 2006 [Japan] / 7 December 2006 [Australasia] / 8 December 2007 [Europe]: Xbox 360

However, following the departure of Itagaki, it will put into doubt the further titles in the series that are already in production:

“Dead or Alive: Code Chronos” (prequel to the series) - Release date unannounced: Xbox 360 only

“Dead or Alive: Online” - Expected to be released in China just before the 2008 Summer Olympics: PC platform only

Also, “Dead or Alive 5″, although Originally rumoured to be being consider for development, was later rejected as Itagaki quoted as saying: “This is another area that me and my closest colleagues all agree that we were able to achieve the definitive fighting game with DOA4. So we’re not looking to extend the series at this point.”

His resignation from Tecmo, and not least his court action, will obviously means the chances of this title even being made by Itagaki being more dead than alive.

…

In 1994, after five years of development, Itagaki and Team Ninja were also responsible for reviving the “Ninja Gaiden” series based on the original game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (1988: Japan / 1989: US). Fans may already be aware that the Ninja character ‘Ryu Hayabusa’ features in many “Ninja Gaiden” and “Dead Or Alive” titles.

“Ninja Gaiden” - 2 March 2004 [North America] / 11 March 2004 [Japan] / 14 May 2004 [Europe]: Xbox
“Ninja Gaiden Black” - 20 September 2005 [North America] / 29 September 2005 [Japan] / 21 October 2005 [Europe]: Xbox
“Ninja Gaiden Sigma” - 14 June 2007 [Japan] / 3 July 2007 [North America] / 6 July 2007 [Europe] / 13 July 2007 [Australasia]: PlayStation 3
“Ninja Gaiden Sigma” (2-disc Collector’s Edition; GameStop exclusive) - 3 July 2007 [North America only]
“Ninja Gaiden Black” (re-released as “Xbox Original”) - 11 February 2008: Xbox
“Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword” - 20 March 2008 [Japan] / 25 March 2008 [US]: Nintendo DS
“Ninja Gaiden II” - 3 June 2008 [North America] / 6 June 2008 [Europe]: Xbox 360

A playable demo version of “Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword” is also downloadable from the “DS Download Station Volume 7″. It can also be downloaded (for free) from the Wii Shop Channel.

…

I do not know how much the alleged promised bonus was, but claiming damages to a total of 148 Million Yen (around 715,733 GBP, or 1.4 Million USD) does seem a little excessive.

And that is without taking into account court costs.

However, I can certainly appreciate an employee’s point of view when they do not receive a bonus they were expecting.

Should the ruling not go in Itagaki’s favour, I do not think he will have trouble finding another role in the industry… but future employers will be very careful.

Of course, he will start his own development Company, and probably poach many of his previous colleagues.

…

But, and it is a big but (does my but look big in this, etc), the timing of the announcement seems strange.

Why would anybody aggrieved about an event presumably around the end of 2005 (the date when “Dead Or Alive 4″ was released) wait until a week or a few days before the release of the latest game title to be released?

Why not threaten to leave in 2006, or 2007, or indeed at any time during the first five months of 2008?

I can well believe that the design & development of “Ninja Gaiden II” took longer than a few months, even a year or more, but between the release date of “Dead Or Alive 4″ and today, four titles have been released by Team Ninja; three of them part of the Ninja Gaiden series.

OK, bonus payments may be due at the end of a financial year, or at the end of a calendar year, so let us assume at the worst case, the end of 2006 (a full year beyond the release date of the title that the bonus was associated with).

If no payment were forthcoming a month or two later after this date, then surely it would not take a further fourteen months or so to decide that your only option was to leave the Company & begin legal action.

Therefore, Itagaki had plenty of time to resign before this week… a few days before the release date of “Ninja Gaiden II”.

For arguments sake we will assume that development of “Ninja Gaiden II” did not go as well as anticipated, and the critical reviews so far (an average of 83% at GameRankings.com based on 21 individual reviews) are not indicative of the quality of the game. Yes, the score is less than the average for the original “Ninja Gaiden” on the Xbox. That scored an average of 92% from 112 reviews collated by the same web site. As a comparison, the PS3 title, “Ninja Gaiden Sigma” averaged at 87% (from 59 reviews). “Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword” for the Nintendo DS averaged at 83% (from 43 individual reviews).

If you wanted to find a scapegoat for a poor game, then you would really leave some time during the project schedule, not right at the end. But 83% is not a bad average. (”Dead Or Alive 4″ averages at 86% from 103 reviews).

You could then either blame your management team for a lack of direction or ongoing support, and hence save face for gaining employment elsewhere. Alternatively, the Tecmo shareholders could blame the result of a key member of the project team leaving midway through the development schedule as a justifiable reason for an end result that does not meet expectations.

Finally, a reason for a departure at the very end of the current project would give credence to Itagaki being a consummate professional who wanted to see his vision through to the end.

So, we will assume the latter.

However, I wonder if in the same month as the release of “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots” on the PS3 (a GameRankings.com average of 95% from just 34 reviews), Team Ninja &/or Tecmo were looking for an excessive amount of free press and publicity for the release of “Ninja Gaiden II” as well as re-educating the public on the back-catalogue of titles.

How much of a surprise would it be if Itagaki & Tecmo resolve their differences in a week or two?

I guess we will have to wait & see if any publicity is good publicity.

And yes, I fell into their cunning trap. I bet “Ninja Gaiden II” is exceptional if they can come up with a plan as convoluted as I think they have!

BFN,

fp.
(1upGamers.com Forums Moderator)

Virtually Physical

Hi,

With the advent of downloadable gaming content (via the PlayStation Network/PlayStation Store, the Xbox Live/Arcade/Marketplace offering, and Nintendo’s WiiWare [née Wii Software]/Virtual Console model) at relatively inexpensive cost are we now seeing the beginning of the end of physical disc-based products?

Unless a video games console was specifically purchased to play just one title unavailable on any other dedicated games machine (for example, a PS3 for “Gran Turismo 5”, a Wii for “Wii Fit”, or an Xbox 360 for “Halo 3”), then it is fair to assume that over the lifespan of the console the amount spent on software titles is far in excess of the original purchase price of the hardware. Even when the hardware fails beyond repair outside of a warranty period, it is the selection (and/or quantity) of game titles already owned that enforce the decision to purchase a replacement machine so that the gaming can continue. In some cases, even when the console is covered by a replacement warranty, but the period to gain a refurbished machine is too long, then a new machine is purchased as soon as practically possible (resulting in many “pre-owned” examples ending up on eBay when the replacements finally arrive).

The existence of custom firmware changes and/or bespoke “Flash Cards” aside, the amount spent on handheld gaming machines (costing around £100) is certainly much lower than the “running costs” of buying a few games (cartridges, or Universal Media Discs, for example) that can be upwards of £25 each for newly released titles, so this after-sales market is really where profits can be made (to offset losses on every console made until a certain quantity have been sold).

Reports this week have relayed that Sony is losing 130 or 260 (US) dollars (depending which of the reports you believe) on every PS3 console sold. This is not new information, though. Sony have publicly announced that they hope to finally turn a profit on the PS3 hardware this coming August (2008), and figures on the actual build costs of each component in the console have always been greater than the combined selling price (so far). Whether this is actually true, or not, and whether this may just be a clever marketing strategy to make the public believe they are buying the latest technology for a considerable discount and getting an increased value for their money, I will leave up to you. I would not be surprised, however, if immediately after the PS3 “eventually makes a profit” then the announcement of a new, slimmer, lighter, PS3 console will be made public (another one of the industry’s not very well kept secrets, but it is not difficult to predict given the past history of the PlayStation brand).

This aside, could the profits reaped from game sales be greater by not seeking a Recommended Retail Price of £35-£50 for disc-based titles that sell very little beyond the first week? It has also been reported recently that if a title does not sell in large enough quantities within the first seven days of release then it is considered a “failure”. This may well go some way to explain why new titles always seem to be “out of stock” the week during, or immediately after, release as the store owners are waiting to see how (quickly) the first allocation into stock sell before they go to the expense of ordering more quantities as a regular influx of new titles means that there is always something to fill the shelves and nobody wishes to be left with 3,000 copies of “Asterix at the Olympic Games”, for example.

With the budgets spent on some titles reaching, if not exceeding that of Hollywood movie “blockbusters” it is becoming increasingly important for physical product sale quantities to reach a high turnover as quickly as possible to settle any debts incurred during the development and to ensure that the maximum number of sales are gained before the next “must have” title is release a week later. Those titles that have not sold as well as expected are discounted in price almost immediately, and certainly within a three to six month period the same title can be purchased at a large reduction in price, primarily via online mail order web sites, but also within in-store promotions at dedicated game-related retailers.

But do games have to cost so much to produce? How much is spent on marketing and advertising? Is this wasted expense? Does word of mouth sell a game alone? Do demonstration video trailers released during development whet the appetites of undecided parties enough that a TV campaign, billboard banners, and/or printed media advertisements are not needed? Does anybody ever read the provided manual, or is a button configuration the only information read before the game is launched?

Does a “Limited Collector’s Edition” have to be produced to attract higher sales, or would a game sell as much if it came in a clear plastic sleeve at a reduced cost? In the latter case, I was one of the many who bought the “Assassin’s Creed” Special Edition release with a figurine of the lead character, Altair. It did not add to my enjoyment of the game, in fact it added nothing to my gaming experience. I was actually very disappointed with the game content overall. Why can our hero fall several stories onto concrete, but as soon as he gets his feet wet in 2 inches of water he dies? But I digress. Yes, you can argue that the co-release of a Collector’s Edition is only there to make more profit, instead of catering for the needs of the “collector”, and I suspect you would probably be correct in that thought. Extra in-game content such as a larger roster of playable characters, vehicles, weapons, and so on, or additional production video notes and images supplied in the form of supplemental discs are “collectables” if only available in a truly limited supply (and maybe even deleted from stock catalogues on the day of release). But when these so-called “Special” items are then made available weeks later as downloadable content, or unlocked by the player’s ability to use an Internet search engine, then it diminishes the extra value gained in the higher priced physical product.

If a typical consumer (with, let us assume, limited income) is looking to purchase a console (say, £280 for a PS3, £190 for an Xbox 360, or £180 for a Wii), and they review the prices of the game titles (that are priced comparably across the selection of “next generation” consoles), then it is understandable why the cheapest machine is chosen irrespective of any additional features any other may offer (such as the ability to play Blu-ray movies, or the support of the large online communities, or even the established back-catalogue of family-oriented games).

But do games have to be as expensive as they are? Simple economics says that when the price goes down, and with other factors remaining equal, the demand should go up. Thus, selling 100 units at £50 each may look attractive on paper, but selling 1000 units at £30 each is a much better business model. Of course this thinking is completely irrelevant when a high profile title such as “Grand Theft Auto IV” is released that receives so much hype in the lead-up that people will buy it at almost any cost, and will even queue in the lead-up to midnight to be the “first” to own it too. They then moan when it does not deliver the experience they were hoping for, especially with respect to the current issues with online multi-player games on the PS3 console. So, granted, offering a title of this nature at a reduced selling price in the first week would be financial suicide. In fact, the price will probably not drop until sales reach such a low that it is assumed that anybody who would wish to purchase (at the “any cost” price) has now done so, and the Christmas market needs to be targeted instead.

There are very few titles that attract this media attention (although the imminent release of “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” is another exception to this theory) as there are many new titles released on a regular basis that do not reach the same level of expectations but can be just as enjoyable and just as anticipated by the gaming public.

Personally I spend more time playing downloadable content on my PS3 console (“Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online”, “PAIN”, and “PixelJunk Monsters”) than I do on any other title. This could be because of convenience in that these games are instantly available when I switch the console on as they are stored on the integral hard drive as reaching for a different game stored in a box & having to get up to put the disc into the Blu-ray drive can be such a chore [?]. Or it could be that they are particular good games that I enjoy playing, and the fact they where a tenth of the price of other games only available in physical disc-based form does not have any bearing on my choice. These titles all have additional and optional downloadable “add-on” in-game content in the same “low cost” pricing model, and so the games can be bought in stages, or when disposable income allows.

So, is it justifiable to charge high prices for “big budget” games when much smaller budget titles are just as playable (and in some cases are enjoyed over a longer period)?

Resources should, arguably, be devoted (or re-routed) into producing downloadable titles for less than, say, £10, that can be repeatedly plugged to the dedicated online store punters, with further downloadable content in the form of game packs, add-ons, & updates each costing similarly low-cost fees (£3-£5 each), in an attempt to revitalise sales of older titles and to re-introduce them if they had been dismissed previously. Certainly the “try before you buy” downloadable & playable demonstration versions of upcoming titles available at no extra cost has saved me a fair few pounds in providing a valuable insight to a game I would have bought but then realised it was not for me after all (“Clive Barker’s Jericho” being a prime example). Conversely, playing demonstration versions of certain titles has also meant that I have made subsequent purchases of the full commercial versions that I would never have considered previously (“Burnout Paradise”, being an example here). So, it sort of balances out over time (unless you are the makers of “Jericho”).

In the case of the Sony PS3 console, continuing their current trend of re-issuing PlayStation [One] titles as downloadable purchases from the “PlayStation Store” at a cost of £3 per time is, in some cases, three to six times the cost that the original CD-based titles are sold pre-owned in bespoke gaming-related high street stores & car boot sales, exchange/trade centres, and so on. Using the same approach, PlayStation 2 titles could also be considered for a future revenue stream at, say, £6 per time. The Wii “Virtual Console” also offers past Nintendo, Sega, and (just recently) Commodore 64 titles amongst others to the same audience who wish to reminisce in days gone by at a fraction of the cost of the initial selling price. The Microsoft platform also offers a similar service by way of the “Xbox Arcade Live” facility.

The only downside is that if there is no longer as much of a demand for pre-owned titles in high street stores then these organisations will have to adjust the selling prices of other items to generate the same profits, or move their operations online to reduce overall costs. I believe the internet is quite popular these days, so this may be a worthwhile venture [?]. Retaining a bricks’n’mortar presence will lead to higher shelf prices for disc-based games resulting in fewer console sales as the public choose cheaper (but, not necessarily, better) console options. Also, buying a present for a loved one may well prove less than personal if all you do is go into a shop, hand over your payment, and receive a “download serial key” in a card.

The ability of a small child to cause a fuss, stamp their feet, shout, scream, grab the door frames with all available limbs and show no sign of letting go, and say embarrassing things they should never have overheard until they get a game in their hand when attempting to leave the shopping centre should not be underestimated as a viable sales trend. Look out for the signs of pitching in-store “deals of the week” during school holiday periods, offering demonstration “pods” of upcoming titles or dedicated competitions, and placing “real life” human-sized loveable gaming characters inside shops to attract kids with their reluctant parents bringing up the rear. Then keeping watching when the same parents want to go home & how they have to bribe their little bundles of joy with an over-priced game before they will be “allowed” to leave.

Maybe the absence of physical games in shopping centres may be a good idea for parents? There will still be the sweet selection at the checkout at the supermarket, though, so kids still win. Damn them.

But back to the point… there is obviously a balance to be struck between the prices and availability of downloadable content versus physical product, as well as ensuring further consoles have sufficient on-board hard drive capacities to cope especially given the plans for TV programme content to be remotely streamed & stored locally to video games consoles. Unless you own a Wii console, of course, and welcome the BBC supporting access to their “iPlayer” facility. Or, unless you know where to look for the PS3 iPlayer “hacker project”, and have not discovered “Google” either.

In the future, when the supporting network connection infrastructure bandwidth is in place (subject to significant investment from appropriate Government bodies so that speed restrictions are not imposed on connections no matter how far away a consumer is from a telephone exchange), consoles may well not have hard drives at all, but just larger on-board memory capacities to retain the entire game (or media) content without the need for any other local storage medium.

If the delivery of any media item to a domestic outlet (TV, personal computing device, video games console, mobile telephone handset, fridge, car dashboard, or whatever “multimedia entertainment centre” is deemed appropriate) is relatively instantaneous then the need to own the physical product no longer becomes a necessity.

How many of Earth’s scarce resources go into the manufacture/delivery of plastic cases & metal discs to high street shelving racks that remain unwanted? The products are probably not even made from recyclable materials. If the demand for physical products was not there then supply would need to be lessened.

I have many past purchases for varying games consoles still unopened and unplayed from the day I bought them as the price was “too good” to pass by. If the product was not physically on offer for me to waste my finite income upon, and it was always going to be available online at the same (fixed) cost then I would not feel the need to fill my basket full of top quality, reduced-price titles on the off-chance I will ever have enough time to play them.

As Sony are already underway developing the “PS-Four”, and the other ‘major players’ are also in the design process of their respective next-”next generation” machines, we should really make our thoughts heard now about how we want to see the industry progress into the following decade and beyond.

If past decisions are anything to go by we may well see “SingStar Volume 17″ as a launch title, and executives are probably debating whether 120Gb will be ample storage for the next ten years, if 2 USB ports are all anybody will ever need, or if a DUALSHOCK®3 controller is going to be released in the UK when it is bundled with the next console.

This said, Sony are not going to want to kill the cash-cow that is the home video-ownership market unless they have a suitable alternate delivery (and profit making) mechanism to replace it. As was the case with the vinyl/magnetic audio cassette/Compact Disc “upgrade” path where the same punter was conned into buying the same album multiple times (including the formats that were scrapped along the way such as Digital Audio Tape, and Digital Compact Cassette), the home video progression from ( Betamax to) Video Home System cassettes, though LaserDiscs, Digital Versatile Discs, and now ( again, High-Definition Digital Versatile Discs) to the Blu-ray disc format of today has been a very lucrative market especially if an organisation also has interests in movie production and can release incentives in the form of “never seen before extras” for the general public to re-purchase the same movie again and again when each new format is adopted (or forced upon the consumers).

One thing is for sure, is that if Sony does not see the end to the reliance on shiny round discs, certain other manufacturers (still smarting from the loss of support for the HD-DVD format) may well already be forming relationships with telecommunications organisations for their “next generation” console.

And nobody wants to come second… do they? Well, not unless they are a gentleman.

So think on when you buy cheap downloadable titles. Who knows what it will lead to…?

BFN,

fp.
(1upGamers.com Forums Moderator)

1UP Gamers Blog Launch!!

Hi my name is Zee and Im the owner and creator of 1UPGamers.com. You’re probably thinking “Ah Jeez, not another forum slash blog slash community type gaming site” and you might be right but a few of you might also have had the honour of being part of the initial forum community back in October/November 2006. Those of you who were part of it cannot deny that it was not fun and although it only lasted for a couple of months it was certainly well worth it. In fact even now we have some how managed to keep it alive with just a trickle of its former traffic.

So what do a bunch of highly trained gaming moderators do when we get no visitors ? Well we go out and find visitors, we’re gonna write and write about all things gaming until we get back to where we were before and then surpass our former glory.

So who are these aged gamers we refer too, well most of us have been around for some time now and we don’t really care what platform we’re talking about or how long ago the game or machine was developed. To us a game is a game and if you can play it then its worth talking and writing about.

Infact if you don’t carry these concepts you’re not a “True Gamer!” Go on I dare you say it to any real gamer, tell them you’re not a true gamer and it will hurt, it will hurt so bad that their gut will wrench with pain and the insult will make them want to knock your block off. It’s the only true way to see if a gamer is really a hardcore gamer. I’ve tried it a couple of times with varying results and most of our writers have certainly passed the test.

So now that i have convinced you that we are worthy of your attention, that we love games so much that we dream about them Im sure you will continue to read to atleast the very end of this article. By the way the above statement is not a lie, its very sad but also true, I don’t really want go into the story but one time I was on a conference call at work and I actually dreamt I was playing a very loved game of mine in real life. It was like virtual reality and possibly the highlight of my life which is now coming up to a very long 29 years. Killer4hire another true gamer buddy of mine will certainly remember the story Im referring to and maybe one day I will disclose it to the public but for now let it remain a secret.

In conclusion, we’re a bunch of guys that play too many games, spend too much on them and ultimately love them more than is humanely possible. Remember you’re talking about guys who felt their dream job back in college was to be an employee at Electronics Boutique. Unfortunately that never became a reality for most of us and the regret I feel on a daily basis is too much for me to handle, but in mentioning my failures I want to part on a more positive note and launch this new blog with the hopes that it will one day grow and become one of the top gaming blogs on the internet. Is it possible well, we will just have to see won’t we.