Watch Dogs PR Epic Fail

Before we get to this epic fail, something I wanna point out.

Last week Tuesday, Nintendo and GameSpy ended their partnership completely, meaning as of then, you can no longer play your Wii or DS games online.  But it's not just the Wii and DS that will forever lose its official online service.  Some other gaming services will be gone at the end of this month when Gamespy shuts down its gaming servers completely. 

 Games like the Star Wars Battlefront games, Saints Row II, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, Bulletstorm for the PS3, Crysis 1, 2 and Crysis Wars, and even 3 Command and Conquer games will be taken offline.

Later, I will talk more about the Gamespy shut down when the servers are no more and which games are affected.

Meanwhile, in Ubisoft land, Watch Dogs has released onto a number of system: The 360, PS3, PS4, XBone and PC with a Wii U version due out later this year.  Unfortunately, it seems something went horribly wrong.

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A PR stunt for Ubisoft's new Watch Dogs game has backfired, with a Police bomb squad called to the offices of an Australian news station.

A package arrived at the offices of Ninemsn yesterday, containing a letter and a small safe. Media industry site Mumbrella reports that the letter told the addressee to check their voicemail, only that reporter didn't have a new voicemail. When they then punched a pin code into the safe, the safe started beeping.

Growing slightly concerned it might be an explosive device, Ninemsn started calling other newsrooms to see if they'd gotten a similar package.

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Now as you are aware, Ninemsn is a joint effort between Nine Entertainment Company and the Microsoft Network, founded in 1997. The company also acquired mobile publishing leader HWW Limited and leading Australian SMS and mobile marketing service provider 5th Finger Pty Ltd in 2006.  This allows the site for much better

But something like what's going on is freaking me out a bit.

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"This is definitely the other side of the line in terms of what it's safe for a PR company to send anonymously to a newsroom", Ninemsn's Hal Crawford told Mumbrella. "The thing was black, heavy and slightly creepy.1

"We did check with other newsrooms to see if they had received a similar package as we thought it was a PR stunt, but no-one else had. We weren't panicked at any point, but given there was no note explaining what it was, we had to take sensible precautions."

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This is getting nerve wrenching.  I mean who would be stupid enough to leave something like that?

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That meant evacuating some staff and calling the bomb squad, who opened the safe (you can see it pried open up top) to find...a copy of Watch Dogs, a baseball/iconic cap and a beanie.

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.......

EPIC FAIL!

Ubisoft, what were you think driving Ninemsn to calling in the Bomb Squad?  You should be ashamed of yourselves resorting to this kind of negative publicity. 

If anything, this is going to look bad on their part and on Watch Dogs.

Works cited: Reddit user Stevoisiak
Electronic Arts
Kotaku

Fight for the Internet begins

Anyone here who has been reading the news about Net Neutrality knows that it has been a rough year.  First it was struck down by the United States Supreme Court.  Then a rumored merge between Comcast and Time Warner were announced.  And even more so, the FCC proposed rules that would add in speed tiers to the internet.

And despite protest, it seems the FCC is winning the battle.

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U.S. regulators on Thursday advanced a "net neutrality" proposal that would ban Internet providers from blocking or slowing down access to websites but may let them charge content companies for faster and more reliable delivery of their traffic to users.

For four months now, the public can weigh in on the rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in what promises to be an intense tug-of-war between some tech companies and consumer advocates on one side and Republicans and broadband providers on the other, over the extent to which the agency can regulate Internet traffic.

Dozens protested the vote at the FCC on Thursday as many consumer advocates have rejected FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal that may allow some "commercially reasonable" deals in which content companies could pay broadband providers to prioritize traffic on their networks.

Critics worry the rules would create "fast lanes" for companies that pay up and mean slower traffic for others. Wheeler pledged to use all of his powers to prevent "acts to divide the Internet between 'haves' and 'have nots.'"

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 Anyone here who knows what Net Neutrality is all about, knows that by adding tiers, it would make the internet less equal and more favoring those with huge amounts of cash in their bank accounts.  Especially companies like Comcast and AT&T. 

Folks, we are at an impasse.  We need to tell the FCC that this is not acceptable as part of Net Neutrality.  No speed of ANY website should be faster than the other.  Let them know that this is not Net Neutrality.

In the meantime, read the rest of the article at Reuters and stay tuned.  We'll talk more about the Net Neutrality situation in the future.

NPD March 2014: It's back Baby

Before we get into the NPD of March, I have some good news for you.

UNREAL TOURNAMENT IS BACK, BABY

That's right, folks.  The last time Epic Games game out with an Unreal Tournament was in 2007, and it didn't do well.  So the folks at Epic are gonna try again with Unreal Tournament 2014.  Only this time....It will be free.

And not just Free-to-play.  Free completely.  The only money you'll spend is for the mods that will be for sale on the marketplace.

If you want more information about Unreal Tournament 2014, go to https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/the-future-of-unreal-tournament-begins-today for more information.

Now with that out of the way, here are the Top 10 games of March

At number 10: Minecraft by Mojang and Microsoft for the 360.  RUN!  IT'S A CREEPER!

At number 09: The LEGO Movie Video game by Warner Bros Interactive for the 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, XBone, PS4 and Vita.  Right now the best Batman movie game of 2014

At humber 08: Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster by SquareEnix for the PS3 and PSVita.  Seymour ain't no Kefka.

At number 07: NBA 2K14 by Take 2 Interactive for the 360, PS3, Xbone, PS4 and PC.  And I don't see Madden on the list.  Oh well

At number 06: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros by Konami for the 360, PS3, XBone and PS4.  Exactly why did they not do a PC version?

At number 05: Dark Souls II by Namco Bandai for the 360 and PS3.  The PC version is highly recommended

At number 04: Call of Duty: Ghosts by Activision Blizzard for the 360, PS3, XBone, PS4, Wii U and PC.  Not as huge as it use to be

At number 03: South Park: The Stick of Truth by Ubisoft for the 360, PS3 and PC.  Oh my god, they killed Kenny.

At number 02: inFAMOUS Second Son by Sony for the PS4.  Still won't justify buying a shoddy new console with zero backwards compatibility.

And at Number 01: Titanfall by Electronic Arts for the XBone and PC.  Personally, I don't justify paying money for an online-only game when you can play Unreal Tournament 2014 in the future for free.

Software Sales are down 28% this year compared to the same month last year.  Overall retail sales are up 3%.

Meanwhile, it seems that, despite Titanfall doing better than InFAMOUS, the former can't help the XBone keep up with the PS4 even with both systems doing more then 300K.  The Wii U had a small fall from last month at 70K while the 3DS is steady at 159K.

How will Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls stand compared to the competition?  Stay tuned?

Works Cited: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=803922