1. Gameplay demo of Lords of the Fallen. Looks pretty cool.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/02/10/seven-minutes-of-developer-gameplay-lords-of-the-fallen
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766646
2. Today there is a Sony Media Event showing of The Order, Infamous and MLB 14. Sounds like the embargo for this event doesn't expire until next week.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766559
3. Wedbrush (Patcher) thinks that in the US both the PS4 and Xbone are still supply constrained and neck and neck in terms of sales. Its worth nothing that while Wedbrush isn't VGChartz (they aren't pulling numbers out of their asses) their sources aren't as good as the NPD's and often their is a difference between Wedbrush predictions and NPD numbers.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-10-game-sales-forecast-to-dip-20-percent-in-january-on-current-gen-weakness-wedbush
Wedbush is expecting hardware sales of 350,000 Xbox One units and 375,000 PS4 units in their third month of release, with the Wii U bringing up the rear at just 60,000 units (although that would still represent a five percent increase year-over-year).
4. Preview of the upcoming EA UFC MMA game. Sounds like they are putting a lot of work into the ground game. I played two different UFCs at my brother's house and had fun until fighters went to the ground....
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-10-ea-sports-ufc-preview-the-mma-genre-re-disputed
This includes the submission system, something which always sparks controversy in any MMA game that offers it as a way to win. Hayes described how the team prototyped at least eight different submission systems before coming up with the final design. It's not the easiest system to describe in writing, but suffice to say that the defending player pushes the right analogue stick in one of four directions to escape the submission while the attacking player tries to match the direction to keep them pinned. If the attacker can hold the opponent in place long enough, a prompt will briefly flash up on the screen.
5. Patcher has stated that the PS4 has 'only' 30 first party games in development. Once again, he shouldn't be taken as gospel, but he has real sources.
http://www.psu.com/a022444/Michael-Pachter-doesnt-think-Sony-has-a-lot-of-first-party-titles
6. Sounds like MS is buying exclusivity for No Man's Sky. Too bad. That looks really great.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/08/microsofts-phil-spencer-would-like-no-mans-sky-more-platformers-and-story-driven-games-on-xbox-one/
7. Sony Santa Monica recently talked about the importance of putting 'crappy' ideas into a game during the prototype phase and seeing how they play out (sometimes such ideas play out better than one would expect). Given that Ascension shipped with multiplayer nobody care about, clearly some of the crappy ideas survive the prototype phase :). Also they mention that Cory Barlog's original game isn't yet 75% complete.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/09/sony-santa-monica-devs-talk-ps4-the-value-of-crappy-ideas-and-give-update-on-cory-barlogs-project/
8. The director of the Yakuza series is very happy with the PS4.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/09/yakuza-devs-compare-ps4-to-ps2-explain-how-it-wiped-away-concerns-and-made-the-impossible-possible/
Yokoyama-san concluded by explaining that in the previous generation developers had an excuse not to push the envelope since certain things were impossible “because the PS3 can only go so far,” but now that excuse has been removed, so there’s the possibility to create some very interesting things. He added that probably one day developers will again reach the limit and say “the PS4 can only go so far” as an excuse, but for now there’s finally room for evolution.
9. No NASCAR game on the PS4 (or Xbone) this year, so NASCAR fans want to hold onto their last gen systems for a while longer.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/10/nascar-14-developers-explain-launch-on-current-gen-not-enough-next-gen-install-base/
10. To no one's surprise, Team Ninja's PS4 game will take advantage of 'soft body physics'.
http://ps4daily.com/2014/02/team-ninja-ps4-game/
I would like to achieve a cutting edge representation of soft body physics by taking full advantage of GPGPU. Right now, even if we try it tends to become unrealistic, ignoring the law of conservation of mass, but I would like to take it to a level where the warmth of the human skin is correctly shown. It is a thing that you want to pursue particularly with a fighting game, where flesh collides and blows connect. This is my personal obsession (laughs).
11. Watchdogs will hit between April and June 2014.
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/02/10/watch-dogs-release-date-happening-between-april-2014-and-june-2014-says-ubisoft/
12. AC4 didn't launch as well as AC3 but it has had a longer tail. That is in line with a long held theory of mine that a crappy last game hurts anticipation for the next game. It also supports another part of the theory that word of mouth counts for a lot (a lot of AC4 owners including me, have positive things to say about it).
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/10/assassins-creed-4-black-flag-sales-reach-10-million
The game was described as having "excellent momentum," although this number is actually less than the sold-in number for Assassin's Creed III -- 12 million units -- during the same span in 2013. This is despite Black Flag being available on more platforms, thanks to the launch of Xbox One and PlayStation 4, than its predecessor. During a conference call this afternoon, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot did note that sales of Black Flag during the first six weeks of this year are outpacing those of AC3 during the same span last year, suggesting the latest game may have a longer tail as more people get their hands on next-gen consoles.
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