Games News: Press Start: Titanfall won't ever come to PS4, Assassin's Creed IV UPlay requirements and more

Titanfall – never, ever, ever coming to PlayStation 4 apparently

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

EA rules out Titanfall for PlayStation

Were you hoping Respawn's PC and Xbox mech shooter Titanfall would eventually find its way onto PlayStation? Nope, says EA – the exclusivity deal is permanent:

This was cemented by EA's Blake Jorgensen today when, during the firm's FYQ2 earnings call, he definitively stated that Respawn Entertainment's anticipated shooter will be exclusive "for the life of the title" to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

However, the extent of the exclusivity deal was a surprise to Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella. On Twitter, the exec said the partnership with Microsoft was always planned for the console's launch, and that "EA made a deal for the rest".

Worryingly, Zampella seems not to have known about the extended deal until late on. He says in a tweet:

Always MS exclusive at launch, great partner and focus is good for a startup. EA made a deal for the rest, we only found out recently =(

So there surely must be a PS4 version of the game in some stage of development at the studio? How long was wasted on that?

Online Pass Activates Some Assassin's Creed IV Single-Player Content

I'm not sure I like the sound of this:

They may not like it, but gamers are at least familiar with the idea of an online pass gating off multiplayer content. However, in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, a noteworthy element of the single-player campaign is unavailable without the Ubisoft's Uplay Passport.

When protagonist Edward Kenway boards a ship, he has the option to add the ship to his fleet. This fleet functions similarly to your assassin recruits in previous titles; you can send them on missions, and after a varying number of real-time minutes, the ships return with money and spoils. However, we've confirmed that your access to this whole loop is gated by the Uplay Passport. In other words, if you borrow the game from a friend who has already redeemed the code (or buy the game used), you don't get the fleet and the benefits that come with it in your single-player game.

Sign up with an online service to complete the single-player experience? It seems rather intrusive – is it about marketing and data collection or DRM?

Inquisitr continues the story:

It appears that the DRM controls Microsoft is planning to bring to the Xbox One are already being used by Ubisoft on current generation consoles. Your copy of Assassin's Creed 4 will be tied to your Uplay account, and this account will be specific to the game.

Ubisoft has done this before with other games. In Assassin's Creed 2 for consoles, you couldn't access the secret family tomb without signing in to your Uplay account. The rest of the game was fine, but that particular area was off-limits if you weren't signed in online.

This probably won't be popular...

EA "bullish" about 10 million PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sales by April 2014

Here is Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore getting us all in a froth about the future:

"When I talked to our friends at both Sony and Microsoft," said EA chief operating officer Peter Moore in a Q&A session following its Q2 financials, "and I'm trying to get some indications in the numbers that are going to be available for sale by the end of our fiscal year on March 31 and I aggregate them, I think I can squint and see 10 million units combined, very easily."

"Both Sony and Microsoft are proposing that this could be their best launches ever as regards their production numbers and their ability to globalize this business quickly. So we feel bullish about our ability [...] of having five truly next-gen titles available for that."

Just warming us up there, for the next-generation!

Wii U sold under 500k in six months

Well, saves of Wii U are up from the last quater, but the figures still make grim reading:

Nintendo sold fewer than 500,000 units of its Wii U console in the last six months, though favourable exchange rate saw the company turn a small profit.

Despite the launch of key first-party titles like Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Nintendo failed to gather some much needed momentum around its faltering console. In the six months ended September 30, 2013, the Wii U hardware sold 460,000 units worldwide, along with 6.3 million units of software.

This actually represents a relative improvement in performance: the Wii U sold only 160,000 units in the first quarter of the six-month period, meaning that it almost doubled sales in the second quarter. However, thanks to a price-cut on the hardware that increase hasn't helped the company's bottom line.

What's it going to take to really turn this around? Mario Kart? Wii Fit? Or is it all too late?

SpyParty's vicious (and entertaining) cycle of stress and relief

Interesting feature about long-awaited body language strategy game, SpyParty:

Independent game developer Chris Hecker has been spying on people at parties.

His goal isn't to be creepy: Hecker's been observing human behavior and interaction in crowds as he develops his multiplayer espionage game SpyParty. His observations have led him to make notable changes to how the game feels.

Hecker has been working on SpyParty for a few years now. The game has one player attempting to complete a number of objectives in a room packed with AI characters, while the other player -- a sniper -- observes the party from outside, and uses a single bullet to take out who they believe is the opposing player.

Talking to Gamasutra as part of a video interview (below), Hecker explained that observing human behavior has led him to a game design decision that is different from what he originally had assumed would work best from a behavioral standpoint.

Can't wait to play this.

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Source: Theguardian. com

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