https://stayclose.social/CarrollMeier2/ Latest updates from Carroll Meier https://stayclose.social/blog/78538/sonys-2018-first-party-titles-are-being-hurt-by-poor-marketing/ strategy game advanced tactics|https://strategynewsbase.com/ for the Japanese market, with the Japanese track. I don't know about you, but that's how I'd like to experience the g


It is currently unclear as to whether or not these methods have been effective as Riot has yet to release any numbers on them, but the developer is still working on new methods to remove toxicity. This latest method introduces an automated ban system to the game, letting the system dole out punishment when a player has been reported. The system has been in testing since last year and it could eliminate the need for the Tribunal (the peer review punishment system that was released in 20


So far, the reaction to the system from League of Legends players has been divisive. Some people welcome the instant nature of the punishments but others have taken concern that if the system is automated, certain things may slip through the cracks. This system won't be able to look at intentional feeding and other forms of bad sportsmanship either. Riot will be on hand at the beginning though, as their player behaviour team will be hand-reviewing the first few thousand cases that come through, to make sure that the system is doing its job prope
While these bizarre choices to keep certain games longer in the dark than others could be interpreted as Sony having faith in their first-parties to be big sellers without any additional marketing above and beyond the necessary, it instead tends to come across as ignorance at the clear bounty Sony has at their disposal. Fortunately, Sony’s mistakes during the past year have the luxury of being labeled as an "off-year" and can be completely disregarded as Sony continues to make plans for the next year in marketing. If Sony can reinstate a focus on E3 and PSX being the dates for fans to salivate at, and making sure their first-party titles can present something substantial in-between these six month gaps in at least one of the two events, as Sony has proven they can over the past few years, the publisher can return to being the giant to topple at some of the year’s biggest industry events.

At last week’s opening presser, despite the low expectations Sony had set for fans, the publisher still managed to fall below them, with only a handful of new demos and teasers to satiate an increasingly ravenous group of players after the past few disappointing months. Even seemingly obvious reveals , such as a God of War or Detroit: Become Human release date, or any footage whatsoever for Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, or The Last of Us: Part II, were inexplicably left out, as fans were forced to sit through over two hours of developer interviews and several trailers that were debuted earlier this year, including the night before at the more hypeworthy Game Awards. While this series of events would be more excusable if Sony's 2018 lineup was relatively empty, their inability to capitalize on their packed lineup for 2018, one that arguably stands head and shoulders above the other big two in gaming at this point in time, is jaw-dropping, with no release dates for any of their seven big first-party titles slated for next year, despite several supposedly expected to arrive sometime in the next six months .

Over the past few years, Sony has been able to maintain a consistent level of expectations for fans to set for themselves, with E3 and PSX being the two standouts to look forward to for the biggest announcements and updates, and smaller news pieces being shuffled in throughout the year. After a couple of noteworthy E3s, Sony’s middling press conference at this year’s event left a lot of fans underwhelmed and anxious for more. In a moment of seeming panic, Sony set forth a chain of events that pushed forward a few of their key PSX announcements, including the reveal of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, up to the Paris Games Week press conference, an event that, in the past, had rarely been used for major reveals such as those. Teased as the "second half of E3" , the Paris Games Week presser, while distinctly more filled with new trailers, also ended up being fairly standard and middling, leaving fans to wonder what Sony had left up their sleeves for PSX.


Sucker Punch has been keeping its upcoming project Ghost of Tsushima under wraps for a long time. Personally, I was entirely convinced that their next game would be a new inFAMOUS , or something still based on superpow


It wouldn't be an additional cost, because the track is going to be recorded anyway for the Japanese market, and it would enrich the experience for those of us who would like to fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of ancient Ja

Throughout the year, gaming conventions offer a great opportunity for publishers to unveil and highlight their upcoming lineup for the months ahead. While these anticipated events are often few and far between, each one presents a unique opportunity to showcase the titles fan should keep an eye on, and choosing which games to focus on can often be an overwhelming task. Fans’ desires will rarely line up with the actual schedule for a game’s development and ultimate release, leading to lengthy periods of radio silence followed by a disproportionate amount of details to share that can coincide with equally intriguing releases at the same time. This balancing act is a constant struggle to maintain, particularly due to the unpredictable nature of game development, leading to the inevitable outcome that certain press conferences will prove to be less memorable than others due to the availability of news and announcements.
]]> https://stayclose.social/blog/78538/sonys-2018-first-party-titles-are-being-hurt-by-poor-marketing/ Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:05:15 +0000 Carroll Meier https://stayclose.social/blog/78537/sonys-2018-first-party-titles-are-being-hurt-by-poor-marketing/ To give you a small glimpse of what I mean, below you can watch the first trailer of the game for the Japanese market, with the Japanese track. I don't know about you, but that's how I'd like to experience the g


It is currently unclear as to whether or not these methods have been effective as Riot has yet to release any numbers on them, but the developer is still working on new methods to remove toxicity. This latest method introduces an automated ban system to the game, letting the system dole out punishment when a player has been reported. The system has been in testing since last year and it could eliminate the need for the Tribunal (the peer review punishment system that was released in 20


So far, the reaction to the system from League of Legends players has been divisive. Some people welcome the instant nature of the punishments but others have taken concern that if the system is automated, certain things may slip through the cracks. This system won't be able to look at intentional feeding and other forms of bad sportsmanship either. Riot will be on hand at the beginning though, as their player behaviour team will be hand-reviewing the first few thousand cases that come through, to make sure that the system is doing its job prope

While these bizarre choices to keep certain games longer in the dark than others could be interpreted as Sony having faith in their first-parties to be big sellers without any additional marketing above and beyond the necessary, it instead tends to come across as ignorance at the clear bounty Sony has at their disposal. Fortunately, Sony’s mistakes during the past year have the luxury of being labeled as an "off-year" and can be completely disregarded as Sony continues to make plans for the next year in marketing. If Sony can reinstate a focus on E3 and PSX being the dates for fans to salivate at, and making sure their first-party titles can present something substantial in-between these six month gaps in at least one of the two events, as Sony has proven they can over the past few years, the publisher can return to being the giant to topple at some of the year’s biggest industry events.

At last week’s opening presser, despite the low expectations Sony had set for fans, the publisher still managed to fall below them, with only a handful of new demos and teasers to satiate an increasingly ravenous group of players after the past few disappointing months. Even seemingly obvious reveals , such as a God of War or Detroit: Become Human release date, or any footage whatsoever for Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, or The Last of Us: Part II, were inexplicably left out, as fans were forced to sit through over two hours of developer interviews and several trailers that were debuted earlier this year, including the night before at the more hypeworthy Game Awards. While this series of events would be more excusable if Sony's 2018 lineup was relatively empty, their inability to capitalize on their packed lineup for 2018, one that arguably stands head and shoulders above the other big two in gaming at this point in time, is jaw-dropping, with no release dates for any of their seven big first-party titles slated for next year, despite several supposedly expected to arrive sometime in the next six months .

Over the past few years, Sony has been able to maintain a consistent level of expectations for fans to set for themselves, with E3 and PSX being the two standouts to look forward to for the biggest announcements and updates, and smaller news pieces being shuffled in throughout the year. After a couple of noteworthy E3s, Sony’s middling press conference at this year’s event left a lot of fans underwhelmed and anxious for more. In a moment of seeming panic, Sony set forth a chain of events that pushed forward a few of their key PSX announcements, including the reveal of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, up to the Paris Games Week press conference, an event that, in the past, had rarely been used for major reveals such as those. Teased as the "second half of E3" , the Paris Games Week presser, while distinctly more filled with new trailers, also ended up being fairly standard and middling, leaving fans to wonder what Sony had left up their sleeves for PSX.


Sucker Punch has been keeping its upcoming project Ghost of Tsushima under wraps for a long time. Personally, I was entirely convinced that their next game would be a new inFAMOUS , or something still based on superpow


It wouldn't be an additional cost, because the track is going to be recorded anyway for the Japanese market, and it would enrich the experience for those of us who would like to fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of ancient Ja

Throughout the year, gaming conventions offer a great opportunity for publishers to unveil and highlight their upcoming lineup for the months ahead. While these anticipated events are often few and far between, each one presents a unique opportunity to showcase the titles fan should keep an eye on, and choosing which games to focus on can often be an overwhelming task. Fans’ desires will rarely line up with the actual schedule for a strategy game advanced tactics|https://strategynewsbase.com/’s development and ultimate release, leading to lengthy periods of radio silence followed by a disproportionate amount of details to share that can coincide with equally intriguing releases at the same time. This balancing act is a constant struggle to maintain, particularly due to the unpredictable nature of game development, leading to the inevitable outcome that certain press conferences will prove to be less memorable than others due to the availability of news and announcements.
]]> https://stayclose.social/blog/78537/sonys-2018-first-party-titles-are-being-hurt-by-poor-marketing/ Sun, 22 Mar 2026 19:05:06 +0000 Carroll Meier https://stayclose.social/blog/78526/game-of-thrones-james-faulkner-league-legends-swain-voice/ This past weekend provided a rare scene that's usually reserved for the League of Legends World Championship. Many of the best teams in the world headed to the same place, Tallahassee, FL, for the Mid-Season Invitatio


Boy, that was a wake-up call. I'm definitely not exaggerating by telling you that I nearly flipped the laptop onto the floor; Ghost of Tsushima was the perfect storm between an established studio (whose work I love), and an exciting new IP in a setting that I ad


It leads to a lot of interesting and thematic situations, with temporary victories snatched away by a well-timed fireball. It makes everything more chaotic, to a point, but allows for more counterplay and, to an extent, game balance, depending on the combination of Champi


Although TCGs are traditionally played in 1v2 formats, this one supports 2v2 and free-for-all formats from the start. One major mechanic that really sets Riftbound apart is the battlefield system. You need to conquer locations on the game board to score points, rather than smash into each other to lower their respective HP po


There is a team in Japan that helped a "huge deal" with the trailer and made sure that the representation was respectful of Japanese culture. Katami-san mentioned something that was removed but did not specify what it


Battlefield management was a significant factor in why things became generally more interesting as the number of players increased. Rather than force everyone into a kingmaking situation (where everyone is ganging up on one person to eliminate them), players need to constantly read into every strategic move and figure out how to capture each battlefield for themsel


The tournament and the final in particular did not disappoint, with arguably two of the best teams in the world squaring off against each other. EDward Gaming took out SK Telecom T1 in a close 3 to 2 series to give the Chinese the victory over the Koreans. SK Telecom certainly didn't make it easy. The team's best player, and one of the top mid laners in the world, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok nearly won the series for SK all by hims


Faulkner, a veteran actor, has over 120 acting credits over the last 47 years. Appearing in films and television series’ ranging from _ Downton Abbey _ and _ Bridget Jones’s Diary _ to the 1997 direct-to-video _ A Kid in Aladdin’s Palace _ , Faulkner’s career has turned a corner with the credibility garnered for playing Lord Tarly. Randyll Tarly, in _ Game of Thrones _ , is the Wildling-hating and House of Lannister-aligned father of Night’s Watch meister Samwell Tarly. In _ League of Legends _ Faulkner’s strong and distinguished voice fleshes out the demonically-powered ruler of Noxus, Jericho Swain . In the world of gaming voices, Faulkner has also worked on _ Dragon Age: Inquisition _ , _ The Turing Test _ , and voiced Severus Snape in _ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince


ESL is well-known as one of the biggest eSports leagues in the world, which is why it was big news when it was reported today that Swedish media group MTG purchased Turtle Entertainment, ESL's parent comp


That being said, Ghost of Tsushima is different. The game is set in Japan, and the inclusion of the Japanese voice track would mean going the extra mile to help immersion. Of course, this isn't to say that the Japanese voice track is a better option than the English one. Normally Sony does a great job with English voice acting as well, but having the option to pick and choose between the two would be fantas


It's commendable that the Riftbound team has rules for alternative strategy game patch notes|https://strategynewsbase.com/ modes at launch. An increasingly large number of TCGs come and go with a singular format, suffering as a result. It might be way too early for this, but a PVE set would go down nicely with the League of Legends community, if it's ever in the ca


The reason why Sucker Punch moved away from inFamous and created something completely different is that they have done something for a long time, and they wanted to try something else. It was a "huge risk," but according to Harper it was "so worth


It wouldn't be an additional cost, because the track is going to be recorded anyway for the Japanese market, and it would enrich the experience for those of us who would like to fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of ancient Ja


_ League of Legends _ , the long-running and massively popular MOBA, is made by game company Riot Games. Riot traditionally does not credit voice actors for their work publicly, and instead only acknowledges the talent after the actors themselves reveal their work. The gaming world was clued in to Faulkner’s work by a reddit post by a Spideraxe30 showing a Twitter interaction between Faulkner and another user. Faulkner, apparently unaware of Riot’s practice of crediting voice talent, coyly acknowledged his work on the game and lamented the lack of acknowledgement on Riot’s p
]]> https://stayclose.social/blog/78526/game-of-thrones-james-faulkner-league-legends-swain-voice/ Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:57:00 +0000 Carroll Meier https://stayclose.social/blog/78515/ghost-of-tsushima-dear-sony-please-give-us-the-japanese-voice-track/ It's an extremely fascinating setting and, after thoroughly enjoying NiOh by Koei Tecmo , I'm very interested in seeing how a western studio with Sucker Punch's pedigree will tackle feudal Japan. It has the potential to feel very fresh, considering that we're talking about a rendition of three-hundred years older Japan. It's a period that is not often represented in media (and close to never in western media), in favor of the much more popular Sengoku Ji


The game is set on the island of Tsushima in the Korea Strait, right in the middle between the westernmost tip of Japan in Kyushu and the Korean peninsula. The backdrop is the first Mongol invasion of 1274, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan and culminated with the Battle of Bun'ei where the term "Kamikaze" was b


So far, the reaction to the system from League of Legends players has been divisive. Some people welcome the instant nature of the punishments but others have taken concern that if the system is automated, certain things may slip through the cracks. This system won't be able to look at intentional feeding and other forms of bad sportsmanship either. Riot will be on hand at the beginning though, as their player behaviour team will be hand-reviewing the first few thousand cases that come through, to make sure that the system is doing its job prope


It is currently unclear as to whether or not these methods have been effective as Riot has yet to release any numbers on them, but the developer is still working on new methods to remove toxicity. This latest method introduces an automated ban system to the game, letting the system dole out punishment when a player has been reported. The system has been in testing since last year and it could eliminate the need for the Tribunal (the peer review punishment system that was released in 20


That being said, Ghost of Tsushima is different. The game is set in Japan, and the inclusion of the Japanese voice track would mean going the extra mile to help immersion. Of course, this isn't to say that the Japanese voice track is a better option than the English one. Normally Sony does a great job with English voice acting as well, but having the option to pick and choose between the two would be fantas


Battlefield management was a significant factor in why things became generally more interesting as the number of players increased. Rather than force everyone into a kingmaking situation (where everyone is ganging up on one person to eliminate them), players need to constantly read into every strategic move and figure out how to capture each battlefield for themsel


Like many other eSports titles, popular MOBA League of Legends has an issue with player toxicity. However, League in particular has a bad reputation as its bad behavior seems to permeate the game at every level. It's not uncommon to hear abuse from the game's most popular streamers and even professional League of Legends players have been barred from the game for it, with Nicolaj "Incarnati0n" Jensen and Khaled "DarkwinJax" Abusagr having previously been punis


It's commendable that the Riftbound team has rules for alternative game modes at launch. An increasingly large number of TCGs come and go with a singular format, suffering as a result. It might be way too early for this, but a PVE set would go down nicely with the League of Legends community, if it's ever in the ca


Sony's Japanese AAA-level voice tracks are very, very good. We normally don't get to enjoy them because PlayStation's triple-A games typically aren't set in Japan, so it wouldn't really make sense to include the local track for the w

Coaching can be wearying, with long hours of reviewing gameplay much like the film sessions NFL players will sit through but when it comes to Tournament matches the story switches as it can be exhilarating. The biggest gaming proceedings span packed inside arenas with millions of screaming fans watching their players every keyboard stroke ever mouse click of their favorite player. Coaches are naturally sporting their team’s jersey and giving advises to players between matches. eSports is more than just a fad as this year alone it has generated somewhere along the lines of $140 million in the U.S alone and $600 million in global revenue. That’s just from corporate sponsorships, advertising and ticket and merchandise sales, according to SuperData Research, a New York firm that tracks the video game industry.


There's no denying that eSports will continue to rapidly grow for the foreseeable future. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds ' eSports community is only just getting started, the huge, expensive Overwatch League doesn't start until next year, League of Legends is franchising its North American league next year, and it feels like a AAA strategy game Tips|https://strategynewsbase.com/ isn't launched these days without some consideration for eSpo


But let me get straight to the point. Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan and Asia are most probably going to work on a Japanese voice track. That's standard procedure for games of this magnitude, and the release of the first trailer voiced in Japanese is a clear indicat
]]> https://stayclose.social/blog/78515/ghost-of-tsushima-dear-sony-please-give-us-the-japanese-voice-track/ Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:46:15 +0000 Carroll Meier https://stayclose.social/CarrollMeier2/ https://stayclose.social/CarrollMeier2/ Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:46:04 +0000 Carroll Meier