Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Id bossman Todd Hollenshead has explained to VG247 what the “failure” of the in-game advertising model means for Quake Live. He stated that the closure of ad firm Massive – which MS shut down earlier this year – has caused Id to rethink: “I mean, smarter people than me were making these estimations. Look at Microsoft. They spent, like, $200 million on the Massive acquisition, and they basically shuttered that division in February. So that had ramifications for us, because we used Massive. And if that was more successful, that’d have had a significant impact on what Quake Live is.”

It’s not over for the reborn Quake III, however, as Id are now experimenting with subscriptions and video-ads: “The game is an entertainment success, so now we have to figure out how to make the business model work.” And with no hats, how’s a company to make a profit? Eh?

Skybound aviation-based sequel to World Of Tanks is gaining some momentum now, as the World Of Warplanes website appears. It just contains a snippet of information and a bunch of screenshots so far, but we’ll be expecting to learn much more about the game come GamesCom next week. For my part, however, I am not expecting this to be quite as outrageously popular as World Of Tanks, with its millions of sign-ups. I think it’ll do okay, but there was something just right about a purely tank-based game, which I am not sure will be true of air-war…

The men of Bigpoint send word that their Diablo-like MMO based on the Drakensang games (ish) has entered the open phase of its beta activities. I had a moderate amount of fun with it when I played in the closed beta – you can read my account here – and reports are that it’s developed a fair bit since then. You can sign up for it here. There’s also a lovely trailer to tie up this post with a bow, below.
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While Minecraft creator Marcus ‘Notch’ Persson remains an avowed fan of Bethesda games, the legal argy-bargy between the Elder Documents publisher and Notch’s company Mojang over its forthcoming second game ‘Scrolls’ doesn’t look like dying down any time soon. In fact, the big B has stepped up its efforts, announcing its intention to sue Mojang in a Swedish court, as well as a demand for money. In a blog post explaining a little of his side of things, Notch reveals that this all happened shortly after Mojang tried to trademark ‘Scrolls’, which rang alarm bells for the rights-holders of The Elder Rolled-Up Papers. Common sense has had us all thinking the situation is simply ridiculous – one word within a title hardly equals the same title, right?

Well, it may not be that simple. In other words- Bethesda might well have a case, regardless of how you might feel about it.
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Also spilling from Bethesda’s bosom this new week are a few shots of Dishonored. If you didn’t catch up on what that one’s all about, check out the video here. But key points: Made by Arkane (Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah), who now boast Deus Ex’s Harvey Smith, working on a game that is aiming to reproduce the style of Looking Glass. YES PLEASE. You can see the five new shots below.

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Quakecon has come and gone, gibs have been aged, the Great Lord Carmack hath spoken, and yet again nothing was mentioned about Doom 4. But what have appeared are Bethesday-based screenshots. There’s no point in reposting the Rage pics, as they’re all the same ones we had a week ago for our hands on, so you can see them there. But below there are the latest batch from Prey 2.

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Gosh, in the long gap since the last time any games were released I’d quite forgotten the ordeal of Autumnal slippage. (Those outside of the UK may not be aware that Autumn now stretches from May to November on this isle.) These long wet days leave the ground treacherous for games trying to stay on their feet. The latest project to need just a couple more weeks to get ready is Red Orchestra 2. Originally set for the 30th this month, it’s now going to be released on the 13th September. Tripwire explain that they needed another couple of weeks to add extra polish.

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People who go into shops are different from people who go into internets. There’s proof. Head below to take a look at the stark difference between the top 10 PC games at retail last week, and the top 10 games on Steam.

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