Posted by Al
Fri, 3rd Sep 2010
Hi everyone,
Sorry about not blogging last week. Some of you may have read LJ’s Facebook update and realised that I was actually at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival last week which was fantastic and a real eye-opener (but meant my blog post was waylaid). We’ll definitely be back next year.
On the downside, my hopes of seeing the Proclaimers in the flesh were sadly dashed and there was no haggis on offer – although I did see a man in a kilt at the airport.
Regarding the missing blog post, I can assure you that a 4:15am start on Friday morning and free alcohol had absolutely nothing to do with it. Photographic evidence to the contrary is easily falsified and should not be relied upon.*
Anyway, excuses aside, we’ve got some great (and a bit of not-so- great-but-for-the-right-reasons) news for you...
Ace Armstrong SCEE delay – Bad news out of the way first: Ace Armstrong’s SCEE release has been delayed by 3 weeks to 22nd September 2010: however there’s a good reason for this, honest. We’re using this time to try and build up extra awareness for the product with some promotional activities which I’ll have more news on soon. We’ve worked much longer on this game than our previous Minis, so we felt the need to build awareness as much as we could to do the game justice. The game is still out in the SCEA store next Wednesday (September 7th).
Ace Armstrong price drop – OK, good news now: Ace Armstrong’s price has come down to a barg-a-licious £3.99!!! We felt strongly that the game will perform better at this price point so we’re hoping you’ll all prove me right! I hope it’s some compensation to those SCEE gamers who have to wait those extra 3 weeks. :-)
Please get on to the store and show your support for Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags! at launch by buying the game. This price drop to £3.99 is also reflected in the Euro and USD pricing of the game, with those prices also dropping to €4.99 and $5.99 respectively.
OK, so that’s all for now! More news next week, including an all-new licensed product announcement on Monday, which we’re really excited about! :-)
Al – Senior Producer
* Disclaimer: This statement may be factually incorrect.
Posted by Al
Fri, 20th Aug 2010
Hello again,
At long last I’ve got you a solid, definite release date for Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags! on the SCEA PSN Store. The date you’re all waiting for (I hope!) is Tuesday 7th September 2010. As I said last week, the game has been rated ‘Teen – Blood / Fantasy Violence’ by the ESRB and will be priced at $6.99 upon release. Hopefully everyone will enjoy it once it arrives.
As a reminder for those who didn’t see last week, Ace Armstrong is released on the SCEE PSN Store on Wednesday 1st September 2010, and will cost £4.99 / €5.99 depending on your geographical position. Give the game a whirl – we’re really pleased with the results, but I have to say that I do wish that Minis demos were supported on the Store. Ah, well – maybe it’ll happen some day. :-(
More news – both of our new Minis projects are progressing nicely, although they’re still in the early stages. I can reveal that we’re also working on a full PSN PS3 game, which is exciting for us – we’ve had a dev kit for a little while so it’s nice to be working on something over a slightly longer time frame (about which I cannot reveal further details yet, so please don’t ask, as it causes me mental and physical pain having to hold info back!).
As a side note, we’re now thinking about what products to do next. We’ve got 2 other Minis lined up after the current projects, which will be action-packed pick-up-and-play type titles, but after that I am super keen to do a Contra-style product – something which makes lots of cheeky in-jokes and winking references to the classic action movies of the 80s – I am thinking specifically of films like Commando, Predator, The Terminator, Rambo, Delta Force, etc. Who knows if anything will ever come of it, but I thought I’d put the feelers out! ;-) I am a HUGE action movie fan (a.k.a. the films of ‘Bad Ass Cinema’), so it’s kind of a dream-ticket for me!
While I'm on the subject of which games to do next, thank you to all those who contributed to my little survey topic on pspminis.com recently, and thanks to the site itself for providing the facility for me to survey their visitors, and for their continued support – invaluable as always.
More next week I’m sure – see you then. :-)
Al – Senior Producer
Posted by Al
Fri, 13th Aug 2010
Hi everyone,
Well, I have some good news - we finally have our release date for Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags!
Ace and those dastardly Scumbags will be blasting on to the SCEE PSN Store on Wednesday 1st September 2010, and has a ‘7+’ PEGI rating. More news on pricing when I have it.
The game was approved at QA just yesterday, and seems pretty much bullet-proof - unlike the Scumbags. ;-)
When Ace does hit the US PSN Store, it’ll be rated ‘Teen’ by the ESRB. I guess us Europeans are made of sterner stuff! ;-) Once again, more news on pricing once I've been given the details.
We’re working hard to ensure the SCEA release follows as closely on the heels of the SCEE one as we possibly can. The only reason we’re delayed in the first place is that once the game’s finished you can submit in Europe immediately. In America, you have to get your ESRB rating before you’re allowed to submit, and there was fair bit of back and forth over some of the content.
Once you guys get your hands on the game, my personal tip for getting maximum entertainment value is to ONLY play on Elite difficulty. You get fewer lives and baddies take way more damage, which keeps your screen busier and gives you by far the most rewarding challenge.
I’ve been keeping track on my own personal Ace high scores, which I’ll post on the blog come launch day to give you guys something to aim for. I am widely acknowledged as the office ‘Ace-Ninja’, which is a title I prize above all others (not that I have any others!). Seriously, the day I first finished Ace on Elite difficulty was up there with the birth of my son as one of the greatest days of my life (I’ll leave it to you to decide if I really mean that or not!).
Now Ace is pretty much out of the door, I can tell you we’re currently working on 2 new Minis titles, one of which is kind of a response to a recently launched title, the other being a pretty cool product which will bring back memories to many an 70s/80s child - but I am contractually unable to reveal any more details than that until my bosses let me off the leash!
Beyond these two new titles, there are ideas bubbling for at least 3 more minis, plus some ‘bigger and better things’ to be revealed later in the year - once again I can’t say any more than that for fear of being strongly ticked off by my superiors! ;-)
More blog news next week, no doubt. See you then. :-)
Al – Senior Producer
