Happy Saturday, gang! It's time for another edition of Beyond Co-Op. Here's where we cover the big industry news unrelated to co-op gaming. Let's do this.
OUYA ends Kicstarter with 900% of goal pledged
If you haven't heard of the Ouya, you've been missing out. Check out the above video. Don't mind me. I'll just drink this beer while you catch up.
Got it? Good. If you didn't watch the video, let me sum up: The OUYA is a rather inexpensive Android-based console for your TV. There's a lot more to it than that. Just watch the video.
You could say there's been a little buzz around the tiny console. The OUYA team originally had a crowd-sourced goal of $950,000. They were pledged over $8.5 million. You hear that console publishers? That could have been your money.
You can preorder the OUYA here. One console and controller will cost you $109. Add another $30 if you want a second controller. I'm excited to see where this goes. I may be able to scrape together an extra c-note by the time it launches next March.
Source: Kickstarter
Gaming sales down for 8th month in a row
Will this console generation just go ahead and die, already? It seems that game industry news on the financial front has been such a downer for about the past, oh let's say eight months. According to the NPD Group, overall retail gaming sales (that includes consoles, software, and accessories) were down 20% in July. Wow. That's a hit.
I should note that the data is for retail sales. You and I know we're not gaming less -we're gaming differently. The wallet-slaughtering juggernaut that is the Steam Summer sale might have something to do with it. This downloadable black hole has brought about the financial ruin of many a gamer. By "financial ruin," I mean they've spent all their date money. I'm just kidding! We all know PC gamers don't date.
The three highest selling games for July were NCAA Football 2013, Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes, and The Amazing Spider-Man. These aren't bad games, but I'm not going to sell my blood for them. I can't wait for September (the 18th, specifically) to get here.
Source: PCMAG
Epic salvages some of Big Huge Games
Furthering it's push toward world dominance, Epic has announced the opening of Impossible Studios. They'll be based out of Hunt Valley, Maryland. The developer team is made up of several members of Big Huge Games, a studio that went through a very public closure a few months ago. Impossible Studios will be working with ChAIR Entertainment, another Epic studio, on the iOS RPG Infinity Blade: Dungeons.
Source: Epicgames
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 MP trailer
Get your dude-bro on.
In other news, we landed another rover on Mars, the USA is up in the medal count at the Summer Olympics, and the GOP presidential candidate named a running mate. 'Merica.