Loot Entertainment is taking it back to the Old Skool with Q*bert™

Nothing better than going to Pizza Hut as a kid and having tables with built-in arcade games like Centipede, Asteroid and of course Q*bert™. That was my childhood in Southeast New Mexico and West Texas growing up.

I could not believe it when Loot announced Q*bert™ on the PlayStation Blog. But then again, why not? We had a blast playing Fluster Cluck released earlier this year by Loot and now we get to play one of the all time classics!

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Jamie Ottilie, CEO of Galaxy Pest Control Games mentioned:

“Q*bert: Rebooted remains faithful to the commercially successful 1980’s arcade game while creating an entirely new experience that appeals to today’s savvy gamer. We saw an incredible opportunity by partnering with LOOT to bring Q*bert and his band of adversaries, like Coily, Ugg, and Red Ball, to the 21st Century via PlayStation®.”

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Now you are not just getting the Classic Q*bert™, you get Q*bert™: Rebooted as well, rated E for everyone and PEGI 3, and is now available for download on PS4™, PS3™ and PSVita™ entertainment systems for $9.99 and $6.99 for PlayStation Plus members (SCEA) and €8.99 and €5.99 for PlayStation Plus members (SCEE.)

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So for less than $10 you are getting 2 games in one, the original and Rebooted which replaces the cubes with 3D hexagons and introduces new playable characters such as Q*bot, Q*bertha, Q*knight, Q*nicorn, and Q*zilla, along with new enemies, traps, gem collecting, and power-ups.

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Q*bert™ is a must have for any gamer out there and even better for you parents out there that want to show the kiddos how we gamed back in the day. Too bad there is not a coin slot to collect quarters from the kids like we had to do it!

More information on Q*bert: Rebooted or LOOT Entertainment can be found at www.lootentertainment.com. Players can follow Q*bert: Rebooted on Twitter and Facebook or by visiting www.qbert.com.

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E3, MVPs, H-Hour, Chicago, PS4 so much going on

So it has been a crazy week for Urgent Fury with E3 and all but so much more is going on too… We recently posted a video recorded with NO_Fear and myself talking about what community meant to us, strolling down some Socom memory lanes, H-Hour and such:

E3 was by far one of the most exciting which should not be a surprise since it was in fact probably the biggest console releases in gaming history with XBox and PlayStation going head to head this year. We saw many games on all consoles and PC and played plenty as well. I know I can be labeled as a PlayStation fanboy time and time again, but that is my personal preference and has been thanks to Socom. To each his own.

Since there have been millions of posts about the console wars I won’t dive deep into it, and even as I finally write this, Microsoft has done a u-turn on some of their policies after the out crying of the gaming community and frankly horrid preorders. I really think they just approached the concept the wrong way and well PR was a complete disaster. I actually support getting control of the used game market and ensuring that publishers get their due from retailers. I do not support publishers going after Joe who sells his game to Johnny over like Craigslist or eBay, only businesses that make billions off of giving Joe $5 for a game and then turning around and selling it for $5 less than retail.

I did get my hands on some PS4 play with Blacklight Retribution and I am very happy with the Dualshock 4. It was very well thought out, comfortable and not an overwhelming change. I would say it is a natural evolution.

Blacklight Retribution, a F2P Shooter, was pretty cool. It will release with PS4 I believe from Zombie Studios.

Walking the floor there are several blockbusters coming to current and next gen consoles, so prepare to be broke this holiday season no matter what console you choose. Honestly between the meetings and such, I did not get to experience near enough games this year.

Of course you have seen us all over the announcement of H-Hour: World’s Elite’s KickStarter by SOF Studios. We really talk in the video above how much of an impact the early Socom Games had on all of us, and how David Sears is looking to bring back that style of gaming we have been looking for. Make sure you head over and support this project with a pledge http://bit.ly/ufsupportshhour

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We also announced that this Saturday, June 22nd we will be hosting a live Q & A with David Sears on our Twitch Channel, so get your questions ready… we will have the chat on a limiter to make sure that we are not getting spammed.

We can’t forget that we have added a PS4 Giveaway. To clear it up, we are giving an actual PS4 away, we are doing the pre order and will ship to the winner. This is limited to the US. Sign up now: http://bit.ly/winaps4

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Along with all of this going on at E3, in a PlayStation blog post today (where you can see my ugly mug) Kristine outlined our involvement as MVPs for PlayStation at E3. It was an amazing experience for all the MVPs, especially those that were at E3 for the first time. We had some very direct feedback sessions with PlayStation as well as some get sessions with several developers. This program provides engaged members of the PlayStation community direct access to the right people. With this access your voice can be heard through the MVPs.

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Now that we are done with E3 and all, we turn our attention back to the competitions at Urgent Fury. We have the Urgent Fury on Tour Chicago event coming right around the corner. Get your teams signed up, this is a guaranteed prize pool, so if only 8 teams sign up they are all going home cash in hand, if only one team shows up they are getting $7500 for doing almost nothing, we might make them play the staff lol. Remember there is a 64 team cap, we will not increase this, so it is first come first serve. We have now had a few teams register this week and expect to end up with a waiting list when it’s all said and done. Team Pre Registration is $280 and will be $320 at the door if there are any spots left.

 

 

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How Used Games Could Work Next Gen

With all the talk spawning from the XBox One reveal last week, one of the subjects that is sticking hard to gamers is DRM and getting a handle on the Used/Rental Game Market. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a big supporter of the Used market personally but I understand that it is there. As an IT professional we are trained in licensing and accept that you do not see a used software market. So is there a solution that can work for the industry? I think there is a fine line that could work.

Since XB1 has verified they are going to require game installs (that is a whole other subject with a 500gb drive) there is talk of how it could work that would make sense.

Scenario 1 Lending the Game to a Friend:

Johnny buys COD Ghosts new, and his friend Tommy wants to check it out. Johnny has already installed it on his system so when Tommy takes the game to his house it would deactivate Johhny’s install so Tommy can play. No Fee, just verifies which console the disk is at. When Tommy brings it back, Johnny puts the disc back in to activate at his house and Tommy’s console is now deactivated for the game.

Scenario 2 Rental Services:

Now this situation would work pretty much the same way as lending a game to a friend, but the renter will benefit from the time it takes to send back to the rental company and how ever long it takes for the game to be installed by a next renter. Just as before no fees are needed but once the game reaches another console, it will deactivate the previous install.

Option to Buy:

With the two above scenarios, it is easy to see an option to buy the game to reactivate it via the online store giving the publisher their normal profits and a cut to the console. For the Rental Service, they could have a means of selling an activation code as well letting them get the cut instead of the console online store. This is a win win for everyone and almost how it works now for the Rental Services.

Scenario 3: Used Game Store

gamestop-streaming-611x350Ok so this is where it gets a little more complicated. The key to a Used Game market is buying the game for $X and Selling the game for $Y with the difference equaling a profit. Currently the average difference is about $15 to $30.

For this to work, Johnny would bring his game to the GameStore, and would get $X. The GameStore would then turn around and need to sell the game for $Y but would need to include a reactivation license. Now it would be up to the GameStore to work a deal with the publishers so that at the end of the day the difference between $X and $Y equals enough profit to stay a viable business model and include the required activation codes. But by doing this, the publishers/devs now get their dues from the sale of the game.

At the end of the day that is what the big argument about used game sales have been based on. The current system cuts out the publisher/dev from their part of the sales of their hard work. Now we are not sure how it is going to work with the PS4 yet, but if this solution was adopted I think everyone could accept the process.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know below.

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