Telltale doubling studio size, planning to add 35 new members
To start today’s news off on a lighter note, it seems this year’s been kinder to Telltale Games with releases like The Walking Dead. The San Rafael-based company is planning a move to a new building that will also result in allowing Telltale to grow from around 125 to 160 employees. Ideally, this means more teams and/or larger teams to work on shipping more of the episodic content that Telltale is known for.
In light of so many studio closures and problem stories popping up this year, it’s nice to see that it’s not all doom and gloom for the industry and that some people are still staking claims in what they’re proficient at. I still need to get around to playing through The Walking Dead , having kept myself in the dark since the launch…but soon, all so soon I will be able to join the masses in feeling terrible about everything that Telltale’s cooked up. My experience with Telltale is almost purely comedic in tone, having kept to the Back to the Future and Sam & Max games, which makes me extra interested in seeing the horrific side of adventure games.
[Source: Develop]
Blizzard hops on Heroes of Warcraft URL domain, might have to fight for it
Blizzard might have a non-World-related Warcraft trick up their sleeves just yet. Eurogamer spotted that Blizzard has been hopping around a domain name for HeroesofWarcraft.com, and in the process discovered that someone’s already got their grubby mitts on it. This is leading Blizzard to complain to the National Arbitration Forum in hopes of getting the URL in their thrall, but real Super Sleuths™ will have to wonder why they want a seemingly random URL like that in the first place.
The obvious guess, as Eurogamer points out, is that it may be a rebranding for Blizzard DotA or some other LOMA/MOBA-based game. Beyond that, Blizzard could be pointing in the direction of a Warcraft 4, as outlandish as that might seem. If I had to pick between the two, I’ve got to lean towards a full-fledged sequel. If memory serves, we’ve never seen a game come out after an MMO’s timeline, so it could be interesting to see how the world might look much further down the line. One has to wonder about the lessons they may have learned in the actual RTS space after working on two iterations of Starcraft II…but we’ll have to wait and see.
[Source: Eurogamer]
Fan rallying and yelling brings Nuketown 2025 back from apparent “special events” grave
This was an interesting story that popped up yesterday, but didn’t get mentioned in any editorial capacity on SideQuesting…so I’m gonna mention it here. Yesterday, CoD BlOps Dos players were somewhat surprised to find that a major pre-order bonus for Activision’s new shooter, a revamp of the original’s Nuketown map, had vanished completely from any matchmaking service. When asked why, game producer David Vonderhaar said it’d be back for “special events” in 24/7 format, leaving out completely as to whether or not that’s the only time anyone would be able to play it. Today, that decision was reversed, as Shacknews pointed out that the 2025 rendition of Nuketown was back along with a new map playlist.
The whole debacle here is kind of fascinating. To call this map out as a pre-order bonus only to immediately turn around and try to yank it away from your playerbase is something bizarre and terrifying. I can understand wanting to keep the 24/7 playlist out of arm’s reach if only because there seems to be a large group of people that flock to that map and that map alone. To take it out of everything all together seems like a stab in the back to each and every player that pre-ordered your game and should be condemned.
[Source: Shacknews]
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Dyl-Questing – Something You Should Probably Read: Killing is Harmless
Brendan Keogh is an Australian games critic who does some amazing work all over the Internet. Now, however, he’s put out something that’s a little different as far as game criticism goes. Killing is Harmless is a full-fledged critical reading of this year’s Spec Ops: the Line, looking at it in a scene-by-scene basis to do something we’re really not seeing much of in games writing today. I’ve looked at it today and it’s been a fantastic read so far. You might want to finish the game before reading, however. There’s also an excerpt on Kotaku Australia, should you want to give it a brief read before deciding on a purchase.
[Source: Stolen Projects]
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