- The worst marketing misfires and PR moves in PC gaming (and a pair of console flubs, too) - 8 June 2018
Image source: The Elder Scrolls Wiki What happens when PR goes awry? Not slightly sideways, as we saw recently with the leak of Rage 2 (which is probably the best thing that could have happened to it anyway) but completely, irretrievably wrong, in a way that inspires conversation and funny stories for years to come? Game publishers do their level best to keep the hype machine running along smoothly and inoffensively—that may be the most important part of all—but sometimes, out of malice or greed or plain old good intentions, the bus goes off the cliff and there’s nothing to do but hold on and ride it to the bottom.  That’s when legends are born. Daikatana: John Romero's famous bitch-botch Back before the turn of the millennium, John Romero proclaimed that he was going to make you his bitch. "Suck it down," he added, presumably to ensure that we were…
- Homefront is free on the Humble Store in the 48-hour Deep Silver Sale - 7 December 2017
I will begin by saying that I actually liked Homefront , and mostly unironically. Yes, it was top-to-bottom dumb, from the underlying premise to the wonky AI and especially the over-earnest "war is hell" moments that just don't come off the way they're supposed to. But the shooting was good and the explosions were plentiful.  That's not to excuse its many failures as a game that was intended to run with Call of Duty ( seriously ) but it does mean that it's a solid pickup when you can get it for free—which is now the case over at the Humble Store. Until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on December 9, the Red Dawn-flavored shooter is free for the taking: Hit up the store page , add it to your cart, check out, and find yourself in possession of a Homefront Steam key.  The freebie is part of the Humble Store's 48-hour Deep Silver Sale , which also includes deals on…
- Hunting Yankee is a North Korean game about shooting US soldiers - 28 August 2017
In 2011, THQ released Homefront , a first-person shooter that pits the citizens of America against invading North Korean soldiers. Six years later, it's time for the Norks to get some payback: As reported by state-run media outlet Arirang-Meari (via NK News ), a North Korean developer has released a new game called Hunting Yankee, a "3D amusement" in which you "shoot down American men with a sniper gun."  The report doesn't clarify whether this is a PC or mobile game, but the underlying objective is clear enough, even through the less-than-perfect translation. "The 3D-amusement entertainment program Hunting Yankee is a fighting game of shooting and knocking down Yankees with a sniper gun… behind enemy lines," the site said. "Users can perform a variety of special actions in a virtual world reminded of a cliff-hanger battle scene."  The "Americans-as-villains"…
- Everything We Know About Destiny 2 (So Far) - 19 May 2017
Following a mixed reaction to Destiny in 2014, Bungie seems poised to sand down rough corners and polish its massively multiplayer online shooter to a fine sheen with Destiny 2, due out later this year. Here's everything we know about the sequel so far ahead of its release on September 8 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Destiny 2 is Coming To PC (But We Don't Know Exactly When) While the original Destiny stayed exclusive to consoles, Bungie is looking to expand its player base by bringing Destiny 2 to PC . The PC version will be sold through Blizzard Entertainment's Blizzard Launcher instead of Valve's Steam digital platform. As a result, you'll be able to buy Destiny 2 using World of WarCraft gold . The downside to Destiny 2 coming to PC is that Bungie hasn't nailed down a release date yet , which means that version could follow the Xbox One and PS4 release on September 8. "We're not committ…
- Homefront: the open world shooter that feels like urban Far Cry - 21 September 2015
Homefront: The Revolution sounds exciting. Ostensibly a sequel to Kaos Studios' bland 2011 FPS, it's elevated by a new plot, new development team, and new focus on emergent open world design. Before I get to play it, Deep Silver Dambuster describes a shooter that attempts to capture life as a guerilla fighter. It, they say, is a world where you are outgunned; where you're nipping at the heels of a more powerful force. It, they say, is a shooter where you'll need to know when to withdraw. Soon after, I get to play a section of its open world. Once, during a scripted sequence, my panicked squadmates tell me to retreat from a fight. I do, but only because there's an objective marker. Outside of this mission, the sense of being the underdog dissipates completely. I can wipe out patrols without fear of retribution, and capture Strike Points with relative ease. Getting a bit cocky, I decide t…
- Daily Deal - Homefront, 75% Off - 8 May 2015
Today's Deal: Save 75% on Homefront !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Sunday at 10AM Pacific Time
- Daily Deal - Homefront, 75% Off - 17 February 2015
Today's Deal: Save 75% on Homefront !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time
- Crytek CEO claims he was “surprised” by employees unhappy about payroll delays - 8 August 2014
Over the past few months, Crytek has looked very much like a company in trouble. Reports of missed paydays and high rates of employee turnover were unsubstantiated but persistent, and in July a couple of high-ranked employees left the company for greener pastures. It all seemed to come to a head last week when Deep Silver acquired Homefront and Crytek UK was closed down. But Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli recently insisted that the company didn't need to downsize, and claimed he was surprised that some employees were unhappy about not being paid on time. The interview with Yerli obviously only offers his perspective on the Crytek situation but even so, it's surprising at times how he brushes off concerns that Crytek was in trouble. Employees weren't being paid on time because of a "diminished capital resource" caused by the shift to free-to-play, he said, not because of any underlying structura…
- Deep Silver acquires Homefront from Crytek, sequel development to continue at new studio - 30 July 2014
Deep Silver has announced that it has acquired the Homefront property from Crytek, including the recently-announced Homefront: The Revolution, which will be completed at its new "Dambuster Studios." The source of Crytek's recently-announced new capital appears to have been revealed as Deep Silver, the proud new owner of all things Homefront. "We are thrilled to see another great IP joining the Deep Silver universe," Koch Media Group CE Dr. Klemens Kundratitz said in a statement. "We strongly believe in the potential of Homefront: The Revolution and trust in the new team to continue the path they have been walking in the last years." The game will be finished by Deep Silver Dambuster, a new addition to Koch Media's studio lineup. Deep Silver declined to comment on whether it's actually a new studio or if Crytek UK has also been acquired and renamed, saying that it's still in the process…
- Homefront: The Revolution announced, promises open-world guerilla warfare - 2 June 2014
The words "there is a new Homefront game coming," are, based on previous evidence, something you'd be forgiven for not caring about. But don't scroll on by just yet, because there are reasons Homefront: The Revolution could resuscitate the ill-fated shooter series. Not least is the fact that it's being developed by Crytek UK. That studio were once called Free Radical, and were responsible for the excellent Timesplitters series. Also for the ropey PS3-exclusive Haze, so maybe we're not entirely in the clear just yet. More significant is what the game might offer over its troubled predecessor. Set four years after the North Korean invasion of America depicted in the first Homefront, the Korean People's Army have established a totalitarian regime in Philadelphia. It's as good an excuse as any for some rough-and-ready guerilla tactics around an open-world area. "The city of Philadelphia is…
- THQ dissolves, auctions off franchises and studios – here’s who bought what - 24 January 2013
THQ is no more: the bankrupt publisher and developer auctioned off its assets in U.S. Bankruptcy Court today. Though the court must still approve the sales, a letter from THQ's CEO (which was passed to Kotaku by an employee) reveals the bidders, which include Sega, Ubisoft, Deep Silver, Crytek, and Take-Two, and the THQ franchises and studios they'll acquire. Below is a breakdown of who's getting what, and what led to today's sale. Who's getting what? Based on what we know right now... Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000 developer Relic Entertainment is going to Sega. Saints Row developer Volition, Inc. and the Metro series are going to Koch Media (Deep Silver). The Homefront franchise is going to Crytek. THQ Montreal and the South Park license are going to Ubisoft. Evolve, a game in development by Turtle Rock Studios (which worked on Left 4 Dead), is going to Take-Two Interactive. T…
- Amazon’s Tantalizing THQ Medley heavily discounts Metro 2033, STALKER, and others - 15 January 2013
If you missed out on last year's Humble THQ Bundle or followup Nvidia giveaway, it's time for a threepeat. Amazon saw how all the cool kids were discounting THQ games with great results, and it has followed suit with the Tantalizing THQ Medley, which slices off 91 percent in savings across six games, including Metro 2033, STALKER, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Plunking down just $12 also nets you Homefront, Red Faction: Armageddon and Red Faction: Guerrilla. And though this particular bundle's offerings aren't as strong as some in the past (Homefront fared only somewhat average critically), the price is one of the best for what you get.
- Chinese Newspaper Believes The Onion, Really Thinks Kim Jong-un Is The Sexiest Man Alive - 27 November 2012
People's Daily is China's newspaper of record. It's the paper of the Chinese Communist Party—a mouthpiece of the government. And today, it figured out that The Onion is not America's newspaper of record. If you've been on the internet since forever, you know that The Onion is a humor site that satirizes the news. People's Daily didn't seem to know that when it ran a top story, stating that North Korea's supreme leader—and fellow nerd like us—Kim Jong-un as the " The Onion 's Sexiest Man Alive for 2012" . People's Daily apparently confused People with The Onion . Sure, that happens all the time! As Twitter user Adam Minter showed, the snafu even made the People's Daily front page (not sure if the story made its way into the print edition). China's paper of record quoted this bit from The Onion : "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his str…
- THQ in trouble: Metro: Last Light, Company of Heroes 2 and South Park game delayed - 7 November 2012
THQ's stock has halved in value after the publisher's Q2 financial report announced a delay to the games arriving early next year. Though the delay shows an investment in the quality of those titles, the plummeting share price could leave the company facing bankruptcy before they reach market. Needless to say, this would be a tremendous shame, as many of the games on THQ's roster are very well-liked here at PCG. Metro: Last Light and Company of Heroes 2 look particularly promising, and later releases, like Crytek's take on the Homefront licence and a new Saints Row game should do a lot to chivvy up sales - assuming THQ can find the cash to fund their development. Then there's Darksiders - which I rather enjoyed despite its weak-sauce PC porting - but the last game hasn't made its money back, despite 1.4 million sales. As such THQ faces a tough call: gamble money it doesn't have to fund…
- Show Us Your Favorite Terrible Quicktime Events - 6 November 2012
This past weekend, the video up top made the Twitter-rounds. It's of a failed quicktime event from 2007's Spiderman 3 , and it is hilarious . Watching it over and over, while laughing, got me thinking: There are so many terrible quicktime events in gaming, it'd be fun to put together a huge list of them. And while you may think that bitching about quicktime events is so 2008, well… I've got some upcoming fall games that would like a word. So, have at it: What's your favorite terrible quicktime event?
- Daily Deal - Homefront, 75% off! - 29 August 2012
Today's Deal: Save 75% off Homefront ! Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
- The New Red Dawn Movie Channels a Little Bit of Homefront - 10 August 2012
If you played Homefront , the new trailer for the remake of 1984's Red Dawn is going to seem like déjà vu all over again. When THQ's ambitious but shallow 2011 first-person shooter first started its hype machine, the comparisons to the 1980s Cold War action movie rampant. Part of that is because the movie and the game shared the same core premise, where a foreign power invades and occupies American soil. The two projects shared a creative contributor, too, in the form of John Milius, who wrote the screenplay for Red Dawn . Milius helped Kaos Studios shape the dramatic scenario for Homefront , which also had an ordinary town torn to shreds by the army of another country. In Homefront , the invaders were from a unified Korean army. The villains in the new Red Dawn trailer are Korean, too, led by Will Yun Lee, who voices the lead character in the upcoming Sleeping Dogs game. The remake, li…
- Red Dawn's Writer Didn't Actually Write Homefront's Script, Say Ex-Developers [UPDATE] - 8 July 2012
In a superb autopsy of Kaos Studios, closed three months after it finished Homefront for THQ, Gamasutra 's Leigh Alexander paints a vivid picture of a studio doomed by meddling, duplicitous executives, and filled with underqualified managers, overworked developers and even an overflowing urinal. There's a lot of anonymous sourcing, which means there's a lot of mud flung by pissed-off people who lost their jobs. And a huge wad of it lands on the guy whose name helped sell the game's concept to the public from the day it was announced. That would be John Milius, the screenwriter known for, among other things, 1984's Red Dawn . Milius was invoked the day THQ announced the game in 2009, as Red Dawn 's story closely mirrors that of Homefront 's. However, "Although ... Milius is credited with writing the script, multiple staffers tell Gamasutra he ultimately wrote not a word of it, despite th…
- Video Game Almost Predicted Kim Jong-Il's Death - 18 December 2011
Kim Jong-il, who has ruled the Communist state of North Korea since 1994, has passed away. Which means 2011 shooter Homefront was only two weeks off making one of the most timely (if accidental) fictional statements in video game history. In Homefront , a game which takes the death of Kim as the catalyst for a series of North Korean actions which culminate in a Communist conquest of Northern Asia and subsequent occupation of much of the United States, his demise is listed as having taken place in 2012. With North Korean authorities reporting that he died two days ago, on December 17, 2011, that's pretty damn close. Two more weeks and they'd have been right on the money. Developed by Kaos Studios, Homefront's overall story was actually penned by John Milius , who not only co-wrote Apocalypse Now but, more poignantly, both wrote and directed Red Dawn , another tale of Communists invading…
- Homefront PR Stunt Backfires, Ends In Fine - 14 December 2011
Back in March, PR firm TrashTalkFCM thought it'd be a good idea to promote upcoming shooter Homefront by releasing a ton of balloons. It wasn't. Not only did the game stink, but when most of the balloons ended up in San Francisco Bay, it attracted the attention of Bay Area water control officials, who have decided to fine the company $7,000 for the stunt. While publisher THQ initially defended the move , saying they were "soy-based, biodegradable balloons", San Fran officials said their landing on the water presented "a hazard to birds and aquatic life". They did not comment on the hazards Homefront posed to people who paid money for it. Red Balloon Marketing Ploy Gone Awry Ends In $7000 Fine
