Shamus Young:
Maybe you're really upset that Facebook bought Oculus Rift. Maybe you're okay with it. Maybe you're wondering what the big deal is. I mean, it's just a gimmick peripheral, right? Who cares? And they've been talking about it for twenty years. What makes it so special this time?
What makes VR so special? Isn't it just like playing a game using 3D glasses? Minecraft was doing that years ago!
Shamus Young:
Let's talk about user numbers, shall we? I've got some interesting statistics to share, but before I talk about that we need to put things in perspective. Let's start with the Big Three: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
Includes Advance Wars, Metroid Fusion, Wario Ware, F-Zero, Golden Sun and more.
April 3:
Advance Wars
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Metroid Fusion
April 10:
Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
Wario Ware Inc.: Minigame Mania
April 17:
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
Golden Sun
April 14:
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
All games are priced £6.29. In addition to being able to play titles on the TV or the Wii U GamePad, games have been updated with Restore Points and Miiverse connectivity.
23 heroes, plucked from StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo, are available in the current version of the beta, and Blizzard has opted for three tiers of pricing--the cheapest heroes cost $3.99/2000 gold, whereas the most expensive heroes go for $9.99/10,000 gold.
Blizzard has mentioned a couple of important caveats: the pricing right now is being experimented with, so they are subject to change between now and the game's eventual release. The other thing is that players in the alpha will have their accounts wiped in the future, losing their purchases and in-game gold. If you spend real money during the alpha, the money will be credited back into your Battle.net account when the servers are wiped.
But, out of curiosity, just how much would it cost to buy all 23 heroes right now? You're looking at $160.78, or 135,000 gold. Best get playing.
League of Legends, meanwhile, currently has 118 champions, with pricing tiers set at 260/585/790/880/975 Riot Points or 450/1350/3150/4800/6300 in-game currency. Riot sells its Riot Points currency in fixed bundles, with the cheapest (650RP) costing $5, so at that rate its champions range from roughly $2.00 to $7.50 when buying with real money. Valve's Dota 2, on the other hand, does not charge for access to characters--it makes its money purely by selling cosmetic items.
The hero pricing tiers for the Heroes of the Storm technical alpha:
23 heroes, plucked from StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo, are available in the current version of the beta, and Blizzard has opted for three tiers of pricing--the cheapest heroes cost $3.99/2000 gold, whereas the most expensive heroes go for $9.99/10,000 gold.
Blizzard has mentioned a couple of important caveats: the pricing right now is being experimented with, so they are subject to change between now and the game's eventual release. The other thing is that players in the alpha will have their accounts wiped in the future, losing their purchases and in-game gold. If you spend real money during the alpha, the money will be credited back into your Battle.net account when the servers are wiped.
But, out of curiosity, just how much would it cost to buy all 23 heroes right now? You're looking at $160.78, or 135,000 gold. Best get playing.
League of Legends, meanwhile, currently has 118 champions, with pricing tiers set at 260/585/790/880/975 Riot Points or 450/1350/3150/4800/6300 in-game currency. Riot sells its Riot Points currency in fixed bundles, with the cheapest (650RP) costing $5, so at that rate its champions range from roughly $2.00 to $7.50 when buying with real money. Valve's Dota 2, on the other hand, does not charge for access to characters--it makes its money purely by selling cosmetic items.
The hero pricing tiers for the Heroes of the Storm technical alpha:
