Super Smash Bros. Melee really spawned a generation fighting game fanatics on the Gamecube. The Wii had backwards compatibility with the Gamecube and was frequently used to play the same game with the same controller, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl supported the Gamecube controller. No such controller exists on the Wii U. A Smash Bros. player, without a Gamecube controller, might feel lost Continue reading “So THAT'S their plan: Wii U to allow Gamecube controllers”
Category: Gaming
Amazon.com slaps video game bloggers in the face
According to Amazon.com’s new associates agreement, changes are coming, effective next week, May 15th 2014. The people affected the most? People just like me. If you blog about video games and want to earn a living through advertising, it’s time to look somewhere else. Amazon has slashed their already lowest Fixed Advertising Fee Rates on “Video Game Console Products” from 4% to a meager 1%. Clearly, video game bloggers with successful ad models were a threat to Amazon’s success. (That, to be abundantly clear, was sarcasm).
The painful thing to note is that nothing else has changed in their Fixed Advertising Fee Rates. Associates for all other products don’t see a fee-change, but it seems obvious to me that video game bloggers have been able to make a dent in Amazon.com’s income by successfully alerting people to bargains they want to take advantage of via Amazon.com and linking them to the site. With literally 25% of the incentive compared to before, how many bloggers are going to continue plastering Amazon links on their website? I certainly won’t actively work as hard to embed a couple of referral links into an article anymore, and I hope more bloggers are onboard with me. I currently have a side-bar ad for Amazon, which will be gone with the site’s next re-design.
If there are enough sales happening that Amazon.com wants to cut the amount of money they pay out, that means there must be a lot of successful referral linking. Would you rather pay out that 4%, or simply not have any of those sales? To drop an Amazon.com Associate’s share to 1%, while all other products remain 4% or higher is down right insulting, and I hope to see a new revenue-sharing-savvy online retailer step up to take their place, soon.
Dear Sports Game Developers… will you ever learn?
A few years ago, EA Sports decided to jettison the rights to their flailing NASCAR series of games. There hasn’t been a serious entry since NASCAR ’09 was released in 2008. Madden NFL 25 experienced a slight dip in sales compared to previous years, and some people are thinking the 2015 installment of EA’s NHL series could “make or break” the franchise. There is an easy solution, but companies like EA are very reluctant to adopt it. Continue reading “Dear Sports Game Developers… will you ever learn?”
A Theory: Why Hydro Thunder is missing from Windows Phone 8
Update: Was I half right? I predicted Hydro Thunder Hurricane (the Windows 8/RT app) would be made available on the phone. That didn’t quite happen, but for those who have updated to Windows Phone 8.1, Hydro Thunder Go is once-again available, just as it was for Windows Phone 7 users.
Update 2: I have been asked for more evidence that Hydro Thunder Go has appeared on Windows Phone 8.1. The best method I could come up with was by opening my “About” screen, then the game, then loading the multitasking manager and take a screenshot. So here ya go!
UPDATE 3: Holy crap! So, it would seem that the release of Hydro Thunder Go on Windows Phone 8.1 was a mistake, and it has since been pulled from the App Store as the developer doesn’t wish to support it. I am frustrated and saddened by this, because the game plays flawlessly on my phone. What could the possible reason be for not wanting it out there!? I am lucky that the game still resides on my phone as long as I don’t delete it, but if I do, I will no longer be able to re-download this title.
Continue to read the original article below.
Windows Phone 7 was a sun rising on a horizon of Xbox gaming junkies. The first mobile phone to be Xbox Live enabled, and feature games that you know and love, as well as online leaderboards, multiplayer connectivity, and even Achievements. Gamerscore on the go. Hydro Thunder Go was an early release on Windows Phone 7 to help build the hype. Microsoft continued the trend by releasing Hydro Thunder Hurricane on the Windows 8 store, after it had appeared on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. When I picked up my Windows Phone 8, I was expecting to download Hydro Thunder Go from the Marketplace and play it on my beautiful new Samsung screen. No such luck. The app has not been available for Windows Phone 8.
At first, I proposed that it may be due to too much fragmentation in the Microsoft ecosystem. It is not one single platform. At least, not yet. That’s where things get interesting. Continue reading “A Theory: Why Hydro Thunder is missing from Windows Phone 8”