Steam sales data shows that you don’t play the games you buy

I am not ashamed to admit that I have taken advantage of Steam sales and Humble Bundles to amass a library of roughly 150 games for a fraction of the retail price. I am, however, ashamed to admit that I’ve only actually played about one-third of them (and that’s probably being generous). Apparently, I’m far from alone. According to Ars Technica, just shy of 37 percent of registered titles have never been played. The site figured out a way to measure both the sales and number of hours a game is played through Valve’s digital store. That’s a huge deal when you’re talking about an industry that avoids giving out concrete numbers at all costs. While the method used for collecting the data is Steam-specific and won’t work for the entire industry, it still provides valuable insight into one of the largest game retailers in the world.

Basically for the last two months, Ars has been running a random, semi-anonymous rolling poll of publicly available information from people’s Steam profiles. With some fancy math, they’ve been able to figure how many copies a game has sold and just how many hours people are putting into each title. Now, the methodology is not perfect, but the outlet has compared its results with both public and private numbers provided by companies and its estimates match up quite well.

What the results seem to suggest is that the Steam (and likely the broader video game market) is very reliant on big blockbuster titles. The top 20 percent of titles account for 83 percent of all sales and 98 percent of total play time. If you want to break it down even further, the top 110 selling games (roughly 4 percent of titles) account for about half of all sales. It’s not quite enough of a disparity to inspire the gaming industry’s own version of Occupy Wall Street, but it serves to highlight the stark divide between the big boys and the indies.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: Ars Technica

Let the audience decide your fate in new Twitch-backed game

When some 1.1 million people played Pokémon together via Twitch’s game-broadcasting service, developer Studio Bean must’ve gotten inspired. Choice Chamber takes the idea of the audience deciding what happens onscreen to a new level and injects Twitch chat into the game’s DNA; here, the peanut gallery has a direct impact on the player’s progression. As you make your way through a series of randomly generated rooms, the audience (people watching you broadcast via Twitch, of course) takes a series of polls that alter the game’s flow. It’s a lot like playing as dungeon master with your Dungeons and Dragons crew, but with a 21st century twist. As cool as voting on what weapon the player gets, or summoning a giant fist that wipes across the screen to obliterate a boss monster sounds, though, the project is only halfway to its $30,000 Kickstarter funding goal. With four days left in the campaign, Twitch has announced that it’ll step in and match the funds needed to finish the game.

This marks the first time that the streaming outfit has played an active role in game development, and, if it’s a hit, chances are that we could see more like it in the future. If you want a taste of controlling a game without the hassles of actually playing one yourself, the arcadey Dead Nation on PS4 and the upcoming Daylight use Twitch interaction, too. Not into zombies or horror? Well, Twitch is still playing Pokémon.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Kickster, Twitch.tv

Halo, Destiny composer Martin O’Donnell fired by Bungie

After composing some of the most memorable songs in gaming for Bungie games including most of the Halo series, Myth and Oni, Martin O’Donnell tweeted tonight that he has been terminated “without cause” by Bungie’s board of directors. It’s not entirely common for a game soundtrack to get the album release treatment, but that’s just what happened for the Halo games and many gamers have been looking forward to O’Donnell’s work on the upcoming game Destiny. A statement on Bungie.net confirms the move, although it claims “Today, as friends, we say goodbye.” The timing and feeling reported by the two sides appear to be at odds, and while we wait for more details we’ll remember better days with Marty’s recent work on the Destiny trailer as well as theme songs for Halo 1, 2 and 3.

I’m saddened to say that Bungie’s board of directors terminated me without cause on April 11, 2014.

– Marty O’Donnell (@MartyTheElder) April 16, 2014

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Source: Martin O’Donnell (Twitter), Bungie.net

Play: Blizzard’s easy going collectible card game, Hearthstone

Blizzard’s best-known for its RTS franchises and insanely popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, not to mention the Diablo series. With fans of the publisher’s prior work kept sated and docile by sequels and expansions, Blizzard’s turned some of its attention to other genres, like the early stage MOBA Heroes of the Storm, and the card-based game we’re talking about here: Hearthstone. Hear the words “card game,” and it’s hard not to think of the deep mechanics of Magic: The Gathering that may appear inhospitable to newcomers, like starting to watch LOST half-way through the third series. One of Hearthstone’s main strengths, however, is accessibility.

Basically, there are two types of cards, representing spells and minions that fight for you. Stronger cards — like bigger, badder minions — cost more resources (called mana) to play than lesser ones, and resources become more plentiful each turn, creating a nice crescendo effect as games naturally progress towards a conclusion. During duels, you also take on the persona of one of several hero characters from the Warcraft universe with a persistent, low-cost ability. Each hero starts with 30 health points, so lose those, and it’s game over. That’s all you really need to know to get going, and matches take roughly 5 to 10 minutes, too, giving it that pick-up-and-play vibe, making it a great time killer and easy to revisit. A single-player campaign is also in the works.

It’s simple to get your head around, and there’s fun to be had right from the get-go, but it doesn’t take long to understand specific strategies and card combinations to make you feel satisfied you’re “getting it.” You can take it as seriously as you want, though, from playing the stock, hero-specific decks against the computer or human opponents, to crafting a custom deck and attempting to climb the ranks. There’s also an entertaining game type called Arena, where you build decks by choosing one card at a time from random sets of three, then battle others who’ve gone through the same process. To play a round of Arena though, which lasts until you lose three times, you need to spend in-game or real money (gasp!).

Yes, Hearthstone uses the dreaded free-to-play model, with extra card packs also costing cash, in-game or otherwise. We’d argue you shouldn’t be put off by this, though. The easily achievable daily challenges keep this editor’s Hearthstone account healthy enough, and you can earn cards for your collection by leveling up heroes and slaying foes in Arena mode. Many have gone out of their way to prove you don’t need to pay to win, either, creating formidable strategic decks using only basic, free cards. The game’s recently exited an extensive open beta period, meaning Blizzard’s happy with the current state of card balance. And, further to the Windows and OS X releases, an iPad client has also started rolling out to select territories ahead of a wider launch, so now is as good a time as any to see if Hearthstone’s your bag. And why not, it’s free?

Filed under: Gaming

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Source: Hearthstone