Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson-Klint announced plans to expand DLC offerings for the developer's multiplayer co-op FPS Payday 2, citing a financial turnaround in a recent earnings report.
"To put the past six months in perspective, I would like to highlight that Starbreeze historically, from 1998 to June 2013, accumulated a total loss of SEK 94 million ($14.43 million)," Andersson-Klint explained. "Thanks to our new business model, reorganization and a focus on our own brands, we have - in only two quarters - generated a profit before tax of SEK 104 million ($15.97 million). I would like to think that is what they call a turnaround."
Andersson-Klint announced that Starbreeze signed a new agreement with publisher 505 Games, allowing the developer to produce additional Payday 2 content over the next two years. The report states: "The new improved contract, worth 6 million U.S. dollars, gives us the security to, for the next 20 months, focus on developing and refining Payday 2 so that it becomes the best co-operative gaming experience available on the market, with many more add-on packages and other exciting events planned."
Andersson-Klint also delivered good news regarding Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, noting that the critically acclaimed adventure game "has finally begun to generate royalty income for the company." Brothers ranked in at #3 in Joystiq's list of last year's best games.
The PC version of Payday 2 was updated today with a new batch of free content, adding the Death Wish difficulty, new enemy types, and four new masks.
Considering that these games could be reductively called nothing but short puzzles tethered together by dialogue and tapping static environment screens, having the investment in the characters who do that talking and places where you do that tapping is vital.
A little while ago, Riot Games asked the students at the FZD School of Design to submit some designs for League of Legends champions. They did good.Read more...
Looks like Mojang is working with Warner Bros.
on a Minecraft movie. An actual finished film may or may not eventually materialize, but either way, you can't help but wonder: What might a full-length, big-budget Minecraft movie look like?Read more...
Man, how long has it been since you've thought about Cel Damage? Released as a launch title for the original Xbox in 2001, Cel Damage didn't quite rank in the same league as Halo or Project Gotham, and likely resides in the hazy regions of your brain devoted to remembering games like Mad Dash Racing and Fuzion Frenzy.
Toronto-based developer Finish Line Games bets that a number of players have fond memories of trading blows in the classic car-combat game in between Halo matches, announcing that Cel Damage HD is due for release on the PlayStation 4, PS3, and PS Vita.
Cel Damage HD brings its cartoonish brand of cel-shaded, Twisted Metal-like vehicular mayhem to Sony's current crop of consoles with 13 levels and six playable characters. Online multiplayer hasn't been confirmed, but is a likely addition. Cel Damage HD will be available as a Cross-Buy release when it hits the PlayStation Network this spring.
There was a Rambo game
that came out recently. The quality of the title looks dubious, at best. Rambo: Last Blood—a new indie game featuring Sylvester Stallone's iconic, burnt-out vet—is probably a whole lot better.Read more...
Grand Theft Auto 5's "The Business Update" has been entered in the Excel sheet for a March 4 formulation on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The update includes three new sports cars, two new guns (heavy pistol and special carbine, pictured), along with new clothing that's appropriate for the boardroom or the champagne room.
This is also the last chance to get the items from the Valentine's Day Massacre Special, which will no longer be available this Sunday, March 2. So, get in gear, heartbreaker.
[Image: Rockstar]
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BioShock Infinite's next DLC offering, Burial at Sea - Episode 2, encourages players to step out of their comfort zone and rely solely on non-lethal tactics in 1998 mode. Avoiding mass murder in a BioShock game? That's just ... weird.
Irrational Games says 1998 mode was borne from the testing phase where developers were self-imposing non-lethal playthroughs; the titular date is a callback to the original Thief game (nice timing!) and places "a focus on balance and stealth mechanics," says Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games. Burial at Sea - Episode 2 launches on March 25.
Irrational Games was severely downsized last week and Ken Levine, its current creative director, announced he was forming a new outfit within publisher Take-Two Interactive. Support from the gaming community at large quickly followed, in both the form of the "#IrrationalJobs" hashtag on Twitter and local Boston studio Fire Hose Games, which has offered free desk space for any affected developers looking to go the indie route.
[Image: Irrational Games]
The Nintendo 3DS Guide to the Louvre is a very rich app that succeeds quite well at what it attempts to provide, but proves to be a bit hard to use at first. It is fairly easy to imagine people who are uneasy with technology to quickly become lost in all the menus, not knowing what to do, whereas even the most experienced gamer will need some time to adapt to how the app is controlled, which is all the more surprising coming from a Nintendo product most likely primarily aimed at a non-gaming audience.
Grand Theft Auto IV may be almost six years old, but its age doesn't stop folks from doing all sorts of amazing stuff with it. Take, for example, this excellent noire "walkabout series" by gaming's best screenshot artist, Dead End Thrills. The game looks gorgeous like this, no?Read more...
This isn't a step backwards for the series, but it does have its feet planted firmly where they stand, showing absolutely no signs of moving forward. Fans of the The LEGO Movie and previous LEGO games are sure to enjoy this one as well, but don't seek it out expecting anything that you haven't already seen.
