A thing I’ve written on Huffington Post:
However Valve are also canny enough, unlike Nokia, to see well in advance that the writing is on the wall for the PC platform. So while the PC is not currently a burning platform, it is smouldering and action needs to be taken before the flames catch hold. For those of us Valve watchers we’ve seen their boss, Gabe Newell (below) take swipes at Microsoft as they seemed to lock-down distribution on Windows 8, knowing that for such a clever company there must have been more than just angry words going on. Then a couple of weeks ago phase one of the grand plan was unveiled as Valve played their move that it would become apparent, was a potential master stroke.
Waterstones, eBooks and Amazon
Popping into Waterstones a few months ago to buy a present for somebody I was surprised to find them selling Kindles. Now it seems obvious on first view that this matches – selling eBook readers in a bookshop. However each Kindle is set-up to connect to Amazon, so they are in effect selling a competing bookshop with each device sold. It did make me wonder about the strategy behind this approach and now the boss there has talked about their thinking here:
It is his ambition to make his bookstores enticing places for customers that prompted him to make his boldest move yet – inviting Amazon to sell its e-readers and tablets in Waterstones shops –a move that has been likened to inviting the fox into the henhouse.
Daunt, who denies he ever called Amazon a “money-making devil”, says that stocking the Kindle was about giving customers what they want.
He dismisses worries that customers might disappear with their e-readers into the virtual ether – he is convinced only a small minority will abandon paper books altogether. “I have a strong sense we are reaching a sense of equilibrium with e-reading. E-reading works well – really, really well – in particular situations: noticeably when you are travelling, but it has clear deficiencies to the physical book.
OK…but sounds to me a bit short sighted. Look at the problems HMV, GAME, Virgin Megastores and the others had/have who sold devices to allow people to by-pass the physical shop, are now doing? Each iPod means a connection to another shop (iTunes) just as each console now connects to another e-shop. A senior producer from on the the larger console manufactures once told me they (the company in question) could have moved to digital downloads at a much faster rate than they had, except for they were nervous about annoying retail too early on: keep them sweet until its too late and they’ve sold the rope for you.
I don’t buy the optimism of Waterstones boss – the move towards digital is a wave that is going to crash onto bookshops leaving them little more than book themed gift shops and cafe’s in a couple of years time. I got an eBook reader a year or so ago and and now almost never buy real books unless its a present or to share for work; eBooks are now preferable to me in most ways.
What these ‘locked in’ devices do offer is an opportunity to make eBook shops that users can connect to as competition so readers can find other works and shop around, whatever device they use. That what Waterstones should have been selling instead of Kindles, IMHO.
More Chainsaw Warrior Links
We’re got a new trailer out with the voice of yours truly talking a bit about the making of the game and about how the gameplay works:
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We also had some coverage on games Workshop’s White Dwarf Daily blog:
The heart of the game is a scramble to get to the Darkness (and kill it) before your time runs out, forcing you to gamble between conserving ammunition, taking risky shortcuts and wasting precious seconds. Chainsaw Warrior is a cracking game, with varying difficulty levels and different weapons and wargear to keep you coming back for another try. Check out the links above for more information.
Plus more tweets that are fun:
Chainsaw Warrior Release in Tweets
So Chainsaw Warrior has now hit Steam – very exciting as this is my first Steam title!
So I thought I’d share some of the tweets since launch that have made me smile…
https://twitter.com/TweetsByTheTony/status/385829234670723072
https://twitter.com/tikitang/status/386439082986831872
https://twitter.com/D_Nye_Griffiths/status/386175900787564544
https://twitter.com/wondroushippo/status/387071469236133888
Chainsaw Warrior hits Android
The rip-roaring onslaught of the Chainsaw Warrior continues as we hit Android next via Google Play and Amazon Android Apps. Next stop – PC!
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Oh and while the game is hard – it is possible to win. Evidence:
Reactions to Chainsaw Warrior
Following on from my post about the launch of Chainsaw Warrior, I’m trying to to check the App Store charts every five minutes…. But I am taking notice of how things are going. I’m happy to say we’ve had some good reviews, including an Editors Choice from 148Apps:
I was excited to get my hands on the iOS port of Chainsaw Warrior, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. It’s reminiscent of gamebooks, only with a bare-bones story and potentially limitless gameplay. Board game enthusiasts, Games Workshop fans, anyone who enjoyed the original, and even regular old non-initiates with an iOS device and a love of solid (if incredibly brutal) single player experiences should consider this a Must-Buy.
Which was very cool!
Some fun on twitter too:
The Return of Boardgames
I’ve written an article on the Huffington Post about why boardgames are back:
I don’t see much difference in the engagement that can be gained from playing a board game as a digital one; a great game is a great game. The connectivity that digital offers us as gamers and designers means that we can reach back into a past of gaming and bring out the good ideas into the now as well as use its collective power to support the development of new forms of play. Put simply; its an exciting time to be sitting around a table rolling dice! There are three main areas of this renaissance I want to look at here.
Which follows on from the work we’re doing on Chainsaw Warrior among other things…
Chainsaw Warrior Screenshot
Chainsaw Warrior Rips up the App Store
Taking a bit of a break from making controversial titles, I’ve been getting back to my roots and am happy to say we’ve just launched the iOS version of the classic Games Workshop 1987 boardgame ‘Chainsaw Warrior’. Here’s a quote from the launch press release (the announcement one is here):
Announced in July, it caused excitement with those new to the game interested in discovering a classic, and nostalgia with fans who fondly remembered playing it. The game sees players trying to save New York from dire peril as twisted forces spewing from a spatial rift attempt to rip the city from this reality into theirs. The fate of the city rests solely in the hands of a lone cybernetic solider known as the ‘Chainsaw Warrior’. As the eponymous hero, the player must battle through a zombie infested Manhattan tenement in order to locate the controlling intelligence behind the dark army swarming from the spatial rift. The game was renowned as a tough challenge and this new version remains so.
Chainsaw Warrior Screenshot
We’ve also had a first review…
A variety of futuristic gear is available to you, and you roll in character creation to see how much of it you can carry. By default, two slots have to go to the Darkness-Killing Gun and your chainsaw, without which, you’re just a Run-of-the-Mill Warrior, and who wants one of those when you’ve got zombies all around? Nope, zombie apocalypses and chainsaws go together like a burger and fries,
I’ve managed to play two games so far, and lost both times, but therein lies the fun: Replayability. The first game, time ran out before I could find the Evil Darkness (Look, it’s actual NAME is “Darkness,” ok? Saves me some typing here.). In the second game, I managed to find Darkness with scant minutes to spare, but had forgotten to pack another ranged weapon, so the Anti-Darkness gun only had one shot left and I MISSED!!!
Chainsaw Warrior Screenshot
The game’s main page is here and it has a help guide if you need it here.
https://twitter.com/wayne_peters/status/382141722127376385
Yup it’s coming to Android any day now. First to Samsung via 100% Indie and then to Google Play, PC and Macs…
So far the launch is going well as on day 1 we’d got to No.2 in the iOS RPG chart – being kept off the No.1 by another Games Workshop title, Warhammer Quest – which is a great game and deserves to be at the top 🙂
No.2 woo! Dang, just one more place to go till no.1… Note that equated to no.20 on the Adventure iOS chart…
Chainsaw Warrior Screenshot
Cyberpunk 2077 Developers Talk #Cyberpunk2077
I was moderating a panel discussion on Cyberpunk 2077 with the nice developers from CD Projekt Red – the talk is online now! it was one a few sessions at Nine Worlds I was involved with. What is so fascinating about it is that we also had James Swallow in the room (writer on Deus Ex:Human Revolution) and Jan Wagner from Shadowrun Online developers Cliffhanger. So much Cyberpunk in one room!
This is part of an article posted on Game-Debate.com and there is another article about it online too at 7outof10.co.uk.
A Great Becoming... 