Yesterday, GamesIndustry International published an interview with Ubisoft Reflections' managing director Pauline Jacquey, whose studio is contributing to Watch Dogs' development. The big takeaway from the interview, as NeoGAF quickly picked up on, is the casual discussion of team sizes for modern AAA games.
According to her, a typical open world action game from Ubisoft can require between 400 and 600 people, and next-generation development may push this ceiling even higher for companies across the board. Ubisoft Reflections, which represents roughly one-third of the entire Watch Dogs team, currently has 90 people on the project. Do the math and you get 270 people, and that number is still growing.
When I think about all the studio closures in recent years, all the sordid tales of mismanagement and unfathomably long development cycles, I have to wonder why major publishers continue to insist that more cooks in the kitchen will result in a tastier meal. This inefficiency is precisely why the industry is in such a financial mess.
Although Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has been acknowledged by Ubisoft, the full reveal has yet to happen. There's currently a teaser site set up for the game, and through tinkering with the URL, Game Everything was able to find out additional information that hasn't been announced yet. Namely, Black Flag is due out on October 29, 2013.
The page has since been hidden, but not before screencaps were taken. The Ubisoft site also mentioned that the title will be "coming to next-gen consoles" in addition to the confirmed Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions. These guys can't catch a break!
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag dated, next-gen versions confirmed, more [Game Everything via Gematsu]
If you're curious about Omerta: City of Gangsters on the Xbox 360, a demo is now live. The game itself is basically a bare-bones simulation similar to the Tropico series mixed with portions of gameplay similar to XCOM.
There's also an update coming "in the next four to eight weeks," that will feature a number of improvements to the PC and 360 versions of the game, like the addition of an Iron Man "no combat save" difficulty mode, and an overhaul of the cover system.
Of course, if you already read my review, you're probably already turned off by this fairly disappointing release, and the updates don't seem to fundamentally change the game.
Mark of the Ninja , one of the best games released last year, is now on sale for $4.99 on Steam.
If you haven't gotten a chance to play this gem yet, now is the time, as you can spend your entire weekend slinking around and slicing up dudes in the dark. Plus, it has wingsuits!
The sale will run from right now until Monday morning at 10AM Pacific, so get crackin' if you want to take advantage.
Mark of the Ninja [Steam]
Following up yesterday's Resident Evil fire sale, Call of Duty joins the ranks as the massive Xbox Live discounts continue. Today, we have Call of Duty both new and old on offer.
You can grab Black Ops for $19.99, Black Ops II for $49.99, Modern Warfare 3 for $29.99, and finally, World at War (my personal favorite), Call of Duty 2, 3, Modern Warfare, and Modern Warfare 2 all for $9.99.
Basically, anything from Modern Warfare on still has a decent size community on Xbox Live, so you if you've never played a Call of Duty game and want to try it out for the first time, you really can't go wrong with $9.99. Just take your pick of setting and see what the series is all about this weekend.
Also, don't forget the perpetual sale!
Xbox Live Ultimate Game Sale: Day 3 [Major Nelson]
Hawken is the badass twitch based first-person shooter that sees you controlling giant mechs of destruction.The game offers a few different types of mechs ranging in different sizes and classes, and the collection of giant robots is about to grow by one with the addition of the new Raider class mech.
The Raider excels "at closing fast on targets and dealing damage in an up-close and personal manner." The mechs are in the medium class range in terms of armor and versatility, but also feature "excellent burst damage, and surprising speed."
Hawken is free-to-play right now, just head on over to the official site to download your copy. Be sure to check back on March 5 as we'll be revealing more on the new Raider mech.
And for those of you heading to Emerald City Comic-Con, Hawken will be at the show where you can take a photo with a life-sized Hawken mech, see their panel, attend the Hawken art show, and grab the official comic.
You saw League of Legends' Quinn and Valor in action recently, but now, you can let Riot Games walk you through them completely with their new Champion Spotlight.
Based on the footage, Quinn and Valor look really fun to play, and the two comprise one of the most interesting champions to date. Each have their own set of abilities, which will make team fights that much more fun as you judge which abilities and which character to use in each situation.
There's a lot of assassination potential here, and Quinn really reminds me of Vayne, which is one of my favorite champions in the game.
Remember when Konami said there was "no chance" for a Wii U version of Lords of Shadow 2? Well it appears as if they spoke too soon, as there is now a possibility of it happening.
Konami's Dave Cox, speaking exclusively to Nintendo Life after being asked "are there any plans whatsoever for [Lords of Shadow 2] on Wii U?" stated, "I wouldn't rule it out completely."
So basically, he's waiting to see if the install base rises first? Or is he waiting to see how Mirror of Fate does? Either way, it apparently isn't completely off the table, so if you're a Wii U only owner and want this game, you still have a sliver of hope!
Konami won't rule out [Nintendo Life]
