Twisted Pixel Games recently announced that there would be 3 new levels of downloadable content (DLC) upcoming for The Maw at $1.25 each. Gamers immediately cried foul, accusing the independent developer of price gouging. Twisted Pixel, insisting that the additional levels had started development after the original game was finished, had the following to say: [...]

Given all the layoffs reported lately, it’s time for some good news. PopCap Games, makers of such universal hits as Bejeweled and Peggle has announced (via Gamasutra) an 85% retail sales jump in 2008. This spike came at a time when PC games took an overall 14% hit in retail revenues, and has catapulted the publisher into the top 20 retail publishers by dollar volume.

They attribute their success to the recent release of Bejeweled Twist, and while that’s certainly a substantial contributor, the economy also likely plays a role. In economic circumstances where gamers are working longer to keep their jobs and money is short for everyone, publishers like PopCap who sell cheap games that don’t take long to play but have substantial replayability should flourish.

What’s surprising about this news is that PopCap is best known for their web portal, where they do digital distribution of demos and Flash versions of their retail games. It’s certainly true that nothing sells a game like a good demo, but if digital distribution is really driving consumer interest, you’d expect the sales to be via digital distribution as well. Perhaps it really is true: you can’t predict where the consumer will buy.

The Maw is a puzzle platformer that’s loaded with personality and polished until it shines. Twisted Pixel’s labor of love may be about eating things and getting bigger to eat more things, but the first thing Maw will devour is your heart.

What is it about Warcraft that makes a patch a newsworthy story? Oh right. Whenever Blizzard screws it up, 11 million people pay the price. Apparently the patch released this past Tuesday was a doozy, too. According to WoW Insider, the biggest snafu of the latest patch happened in Wintergrasp, where whenever one side took the PvP objective, Northrend crashed. Think of the players as Indianna Jones, the PvP objective as the idol, and Northrend as the boulder, and you’ll get the idea. In addition to the non-functionality of a $30 expansion pack, a number of intended features were not implemented, and the mail system is outright losing mail again.

Now this all happened a handful of days ago, so Blizzard has been on the march, fixing what they can and disabling everything else. Just be sure you really want it when you decide to win out in Wintergrasp.

Although the recession was slow to hit the games industry, causing some to claim that gaming is recession proof, it’s hitting hard now. Sega has just announced layoffs of 30 of its Sega of America employees. The San Francisco-based branch of Sega confirmed the news saying, “At this time of economic recession, harsh retail landscape, and the reality of business challenges to profitability, we must take steps to reduce our cost structure and ensure long-term success.”

This announcement follows various other layoffs affecting developers, publishers, and critics alike. It’s been a tough few weeks to be in the games industry in San Francisco. It’s easy to wonder if the constant critical panning of Sega’s spiky blue mascot’s games (and the corresponding quality issues) might be related to Sega’s woes at large, although it’s worth noting that speculation along those lines has never panned out.

Castle Crashers is a window into an alternate reality where 3D didn’t overtake 2D as the dominant gaming paradigm. The result of this parallel development is a lean polished multiplayer game that doesn’t waste your time or money. It is marred by a few technical problems, but the no-nonsense emphasis on fun will keep you coming back regardless.

Pirates happen. A lot. For the most part, developers and distributers respond to the ever-present threat of theft with DRM and attempts to foster social change. The logic goes that pirates are the enemy and they must be fought and undermined to prevent the swashing of bucklers wherever possible. They can buy your games, so they should be buying them.

Consider the implicit assumption that pirates can buy the games they’re stealing. Jason Holtman, Valve’s director of business development/legal affairs points out that many of them can’t (via GameDaily):

“The reason people pirated things in Russia, is because Russians are reading magazines and watching television — they say ‘Man, I want to play that game so bad,’ but the publishers respond ‘you can play that game in six months…maybe.’ “

He then went on to detail how Valve has experienced significantly declining piracy when they do simultaneous worldwide releases of fully localized products. Although his anti-piracy plan appears to consist of the radical business strategy of selling products to people who don’t have them, the succinct identification of the western centrism underlying most anti-piracy is a bit revelatory. It’d be interesting to see the geographical breakdown on who stole World of Goo.

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you may recall that we earlier had a chance to talk to Mike Henry of Twisted Pixel Games. The independent developer announced on Monday that their upcoming action-adventure game, The Maw, will be released on January 21st, saying:

Twisted Pixel Games, working in conjunction with the Galactic Council, mistakenly let The Maw escape from his quarantine early Monday afternoon. Scientists predict the destruction of all life in the galaxy “probably by next Wednesday.” Twisted Pixel’s CEO Michael Wilford responds: “Real sorry about that. That’s totally my bad.” Twisted Pixel refused further questions, instead announcing the award-winning game’s release date, price point, and website location. The Maw is the company’s first original IP, a product of monumental effort by a passionate and loving team, and also their first venture into galacticide.

If that doesn’t catch your interest, recall also that The Maw won the PAX 10 Audience Choice Award despite stiff competition from nine other worthy titles. Interested players can expect to shell out $10 (800 MS points) to download it on XBLA and curious gamers can poke at the media available at their (now officially launched) website.

We’ll have a review of the upcoming “Eat ‘em all and let your digestive tract sort ‘em out” game just as soon as we can.

Left 4 Dead is more exciting on paper than it is in practice, but the actual game is undiminished for it. It promises an endlessly replayable cooperative multiplayer experience with roguelike procedurally generated content and delivers a brief, intense, FPS game that stays intense even as you become familiar with it. Perhaps not exactly as advertised, but good stuff nonetheless.

So I haven’t been entirely happy by the way that a Monday Feature overshadows a Monday news item. Please consider Monday news on hiatus until a better formatting solution is discovered. The posting schedule will remain MWF with WF news as before and a Monday feature.