Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Brianne Galli
Mark Hamill retires as The Joker… for real this time
After almost two decades of voicing the madman on “Batman: The Animated Series” and in numerous games – including the recently released Batman: Arkham City, Mark Hamill is retiring from his post as The Joker. This marks the second departure of a long-time voice actor from the series, with Arleen Sorkin, voice of Harley Quinn, announcing her leave in May 2011.
Hamill made his announcement via Twitter, where he posted, “Hello/Goodbye Joker! I’ve enjoyed every minute behind the wheel of the Crown Prince’s crazy car- I’m going to miss him more than I can say!!”
The sequel to 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City was released on October 18 to critical acclaim and currently holds a 95 average rating on Metacritic. Given the new release’s success, we can only hope that Hamill is staying in character with his recent announcement and playing a big joke on all of us.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City
Game Informer celebrates 20 years of print
While many begin to mourn the days when readers turned pages rather than clicked buttons to advance through their publications, monthly gaming magazine Game Informer is celebrating 20 years of industry reporting.
The print publication reported an average paid circulation of 5,073,000 over six months, and saw an increase of 33 percent in circulation since 2009. This was the largest increase out of the top 25 consumer titles in 2010, with only 10 of those titles showing increases in circulation for the year. Given its target audience between the ages of 18 and 34, this is extremely successful, and led to Game Informer’s new seat as the fifth largest consumer magazine in the US.
In addition to the print publication, Game Informer maintains a digital format of its content, which launched in May 2010. As of December 2010, the digital format is being delivered to 127,320 paid subscribers each month. It’s no surprise then that Game Informer’s website itself was named Best Games-Related Site of the year in the Webby People’s Voice Awards in 2010.
The publication plans to continue its print publication, and change its digital strategy as technology evolves, leaving no reader behind.
Cataclysm sales make PC gaming market say “WoW”
Though it comes as no surprise, Blizzard Entertainment has done it again with its fourth installment of its highly successful PC game World of Warcraft. With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard has set record monthly sales for PC-games, selling more than 4.7 million copies in its first month.
According to internal company records, one-day sales of the game upon its release were more than 3.3 million. Before the release of its third expansion, World of Warcraft had over 12 million subscribers, which makes sense considering its second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, previously held the title of fastest-selling PC game of all time. Cataclysm has since broken that record.
Cataclysm brings new quests and lands for players to explore, and Blizzard CEO and Co-founder Mike Morhaime has called it their “biggest and most ambitious expansion yet.” Blizzard’s loyal community have helped to maintain World of Warcraft’s position as the “world’s most popular subscription-based MMORPG,” and with this recent news, it doesn’t appear to be moving from that position any time soon.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged World of Warcraft
Amnesia saves Frictional Games from a Dark Descent
Though it’s been done time and again, it’s hard to go wrong with the classic Cinderella story of an underdog standing up to the big guy and coming out on top. This certainly isn’t the premise of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it is for its indie game developer Frictional Games. These underdogs released their fourth PC game in their fourth year of business, and it has proven to be a game that won’t be forgotten.
Before releasing their most recent game, Frictional’s “dream estimates” of sales hovered around 100,000 units. In reality, that figure has doubled, with Amnesia selling almost 200,000 units after four months. The average daily unit sales for the game have not dropped below 200 units, which is impressive for an indie game in an age where anything can be found for free if a user knows where to look. Frictional has stated that they know these sales aren’t typical, and they may be right, especially considering their marketing plan.
“While we tried to make as much noise as possible at the release of the game, our marketing efforts have been far from big,” explained Frictional on their blog. The indie company released movie clips of the game, made demo versions available and sent out review copies for feedback, but the real marketing magic seems to have come from the users themselves.
Players spread their tales of playing one of the scariest games of all time, inspiring reaction videos to be made, one of which received about 775,000 views. And really, what better promotion is there for a horror game than a video titled “Holy shit, Amnesia WHAT THE [F—]”?
The most encouraging part of Frictional’s story is their new-found financial confidence.
“We are now completely financially stable and have enough money to complete our next game without any problems,” read Frictional’s blog on Friday. Because a publisher was not hired for Amnesia, Frictional was able to keep all the royalties earned from their game without having to first pay back an advance and subsequent royalties due to a third party. Most independent developers and artists in the creative world won’t see a penny of their royalties from just one album or term of contract for years. Frictional did it in four months.
Becoming a financially sound company may mean more risks taken by Frictional in the future, ranging from more frequent game releases to experimentation on console platforms.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The 8 Bits of Christmas
What happens when Arthur Rankin, Jr.-esque stop-motion films join The White Stripes video for “Fell In Love With A Girl” and the most wonderful time of the year? It results in Andrew Jive’s “8-Bit Holiday” on YouTube, where Mario, Mega Man, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man sneak out to spread some holiday cheer. The best part? They’re all made out of Legos.
With only 19,770 views as of this writing, it’s surprising that “8-Bit Holiday” hasn’t gone completely viral (maybe it was the post-Christmas posting date), though stop-motion software company Dragon posted the video on their Facebook page. Since his Tumblr is sprinkled with Pac-Man-related posts on every page, perhaps we’ll see more 8-bit tributes from Jive in the future.