Morning DLC: Video Games News And Rumors 5/26/14
By Nick Tylwalk
"Sony is joining forces with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development (OPCD) to launch PlayStation products in China, according to a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.The statement does not clarify which PlayStation products will officially launch in China or when. The announcement does state, according to a translation by Engadget,that the venture “will introduce quality, healthy games that are suitable to China’s national conditions and the preferences of domestic players, as according to the relevant government policies.”Sony and OPCD will partner to form two companies operating in Shanghai’s free trade zone. One will oversee hardware manufacturing and sales, and the second will manage services, sales, licensing, distribution and software R&D."
"Video game publisher Activision has reinforcements to bolster its prized Call of Duty franchise.For years, Activision-owned studios Infinity Ward and Treyarch have taken turns developing annual installments of the billion-dollar series. The next release,Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, due Nov. 4 for PlayStation and Xbox One, is being developed by another of the publisher’s studios, Sledgehammer Games.By beefing up its creative cadre, Activision gives each of the three development studios an additional year to make ever-more-expansive games. Each of the past five releases in theCall of Duty series has topped $1 billion in sales.The move should pay off, says Wedbush Securities equity research managing director Michael Pachter. Advanced Warfare could sell 23 million to 25 million copies, surpassing the sales of 2013’s Call of Duty Ghosts, which sold about 21 million, he says. “This team is really good and had an extra year, and there is no (new) Battlefield or Grand Theft Auto(game as competition) to drain wallets. Consumers love this brand.”"
"Lead designer and project director on Fallout: New Vegas Josh Sawyer said he hopes the next game in the Fallout series will force players to make difficult choices.“Fallout games are best when the choices are – and this applies to role-playing games in general, but Fallout is a more desperate world – more agonizing,” Sawyer told Eurogamer in an interview. “They feel more appropriate to the post-apocalyptic genre. So I hope that whatever twists and turns the story takes, it’s more nuanced than a black-and-white choice.”Sawyer cites the endings of the original, 2D Fallout games, as well as Fallout: New Vegas, which he said was designed to challenge the player."