Author Archives: Steven

About Steven

Editor-In-Chief of The Wired Fish since 2010. Suggestions, praise, and hate mail can be sent to steven@thewiredfishnetwork.com

Rumor: Is Disney Seeking To Buy Out Hasbro?

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Last week while Hurricane Sandy forced me to go offli–wait I said that last time. Er, last week the sci-fi world was abuzz with news that Disney had acquired LucasFilm and LucasArts from George Lucas, and with it all the IPs associated with both branches, including Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, and Star Wars. But it looks like Disney wasn’t done. Rumors are now surfacing that Disney is seeking to acquire toy giant Hasbro. The company currently has the rights to Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Littlelest Pet Shop, and TV network The Hub. According to MTV Geek, the talks are still in the discussion phase, but are “serious enough that something could be announced at any time and create ripples throughout the entertainment industry.” As MTV Geek points out, Hasbro has collaborated with Disney when it came to the Marvel properties with some table-top games among other things.

Personally, this could really mean a straight up acquisition, OR it could be a another collaboration between Disney and Hasbro for a toyline with Marvel or their new playmate Star Wars. This seems a little too major for it to be taken seriously though, so take this with a grain of salt. As long as they don’t don’t fuck up the ponies…

RUMOR: Disney Buying Hasbro? [MTV Geek, via ComicBookMovie and Equestria Daily]

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Halloween Special

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For eight days we covered the topic of Halloween. The music we listened to ranged from dark, to mellow, to unnerving. We took a breather in Resident Evil. Dreaded the Ishimura in Dead Space. We walked the haunted halls of Luigi’s Mansion. We braced for hell in Silent Hill 3. We feared the Alchemy Lab in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. We feared pianos in Super Mario 64. We inquired about the life of Boos in Super Mario Galaxy. And finally we ended where we began with another Resident Evil composition.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM.

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Final Fantasy Type-0 Western Localization Teased By Scenario Director

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While I prepared to resume operations after Hurricane Sandy forced me to go offline for safety reasons, Gamespot was conducting an interview faaaaar from the mess with Final Fantasy Type-0 scenario director Hajime Tabata. Much of the interview focused on his efforts with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0. Near the tail-end of the interview, editor Jonathan Toyad asked Tabata if there were still any plans to release Type-0, a PSP game. Tabata replied:
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Rent Dishonored From RedBox, Get A Photocopied Disc Instead

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Click for full image.

“That’s some bullshit!” is something I would exclaim if I were the victim of a RedBox disc-swap scam. This past Sunday I was sent a message via Facebook. The person, we’ll call her Lily, told me, “Earlier this week [note: October 24th], my dad and I passed by a Redbox vending machine when we went grocery shopping and decided to rent a game.” So they went and rented Dishonored for the PS3. But upon coming home, she realized “…that the game had been replaced by a photocopy of the CD itself with the barcode positioned for the machine to scan.” I requested a photo of it, and she delivered with the image you see up there. By the looks of it, it was also taped down to keep the piece of paper from moving.

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X-Play And AOTS Cancellation Marks The Beginning Of The End For G4

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Late this summer came reports that G4 as we knew it would cease to exist and become like a sort of GQ version of SpikeTV. I speculated near the end that G4 mainstays X-Play and Attack of the Show would probably be maintained if they were to still have some tech-y programming airing at some point. Well, that speculation is no more as now comes news that X-Play and Attack of the Show will not be retained for the rebranding and will be cancelled. Former employees Adam Sessler and Kevin Pereira sent their farewells via Twitter, with G4 sending out newsletter thanking fans of the two shows. Some might not see this as a surprise considering where this network was going and what it will become next year. But seeing “X-Play” and “Cancelled” in the same sentence does sort of hurt a bit, especially when you take into account how long it’s been around. Same goes for anyone who liked Attack of the Show. To quote my colleague Hachi76, “It’s like seeing an old friend move away”. But deed is now done with all gaming content on G4 ceasing to exist.

Both shows will have their final episodes air and end this December.

G4 Canceling X-Play, Attack of the Show. Gaming Programming Nixed [Update] [Kotaku]

How Card F41 Got Me Into Another Card Craze (And Why I Got Out In The First Place)

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It might not be obvious to some of our readers out there, but a few of us on the staff are Bronies (male adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic). I’m especially hyped to finally see Season 3 starting up on November 10th. There’s an unfinished, unpublished article right now explaining this little cartoon renaissance I went through last year that started with my watching of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and then spread into shows like Adventure Time, Gumball, Regular Show, Transformers Prime, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and The Looney Toons show. When it came to the merch of My Little Pony, from the beginning I said I wouldn’t buy the toys. Yeaaah… But make no mistake, I loathe the brushables and much prefer the molded hair ponies. And I’m still not interested in buying those small blindbag ponies (even though I’m constantly tempted when they actually bother making a new mold instead of Mortal Kombat-ing the whole thing).

But one thing I wanted to avoid was the trading cards. My personal experience with trading cards is… somewhat turbulent early on and ended with a silent phase out at the conclusion of my highschool years. So what’s getting me back into trading cards again? What is it about this cross-eyed little wonder that’s enticing me into collecting these small pieces of printed paper. Hit the jump and find out.

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Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 10/15/12

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We survived the bedlam of New York Comic-Con and took a much needed break for our feet to relax. In the meantime, we listened to Soundset remixes, where music from one game was remixed using another game’s instrument. The week started with a climb through Jakob Elevator from Mega Man X8. Wily’s Fortress was raided for the ninth time in Mega Man 9. Bowser’s Castle beckoned us in Mario Kart Wii. We flew in the wind in Super Mario Galaxy. And finally the Dark King was slain in Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

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Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 10/8/12

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Today was the second day of New York Comic-Con, and we wrapped of Comics Week yesterday. We kicked it off with some Maximum Carnage. Then we tagged in Captain America with Marvel vs. Capcom. We died a lot to the rockin’ tunes of Silver Surfer. We punched fools in the face with Batman on the NES. And finally, we punched more fools in the face to the tunes of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

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Capcom Vs Capcom Pitched Once, Didn’t Quite Fly

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Given Capcom’s propensity to crossover with many franchises (it even has its own Trope page), a Capcom crossover game where Capcom characters fight themselves wouldn’t seem too far off. Hell, Nintendo’s done it. Even Capcom had something like this with Capcom Fighting Evolution, though many agree that game was an absolute mess. But Capcom’s a bit wiser on the fighting games (though most lack content lately), so maybe now’s their chance to try that route again? Well, Christian Svensson tried pitching it, and it wasn’t swaying any execs. “I’ve pitched Capcom vs. Capcom a few times internally” said Svensson in an interview with Rohan Mayers of Capcom Unity. “It’s never really found traction though among the producers or with marketing.” Svensson does stress that either way their”…fighting resources are being utilized on other projects right now so it’ll be some time before such a thing could really be considered for greenlight.”

Well, that’s nice to hear. At least we know those producers and marketers don’t see much happening with a fighting game, yet think a smartphone Capcom crossover game will win over fans.

Svensson pitched Capcom vs. Capcom game internally, hasn’t found traction – fighting game resources currently occupied [EventHubs]

How Ironic, PETA’s Now Picking On Pokemon

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Team Plasma–er, PETA, being the saints they are, have made a new game with Pokemon as the main stars. This isn’t the first time they’ve castigated a videogame for depicting the “wrong message” to kids. Before this they did Mario Kills A Tanooki, and also picked on poor Cooking Mama for daring to cook a turkey. In their press release, they compare Pokemon being in Pokeballs to elephants being “…chained up in train carts, waiting to be let out to ‘perform’ in circuses” PETA’s Marketing director states that games like Pokemon “…send kids the wrong message that exploiting and abusing those who are defenseless is acceptable when it’s not.”

Maybe they forgot the part that there’s a Team in the game that act just like them. I will admit though that the title screen they made looks pretty badass (uh, save for that one Pokemon with the syringe in its head. That’s really pushing it guys. Stop that). So now that they got the attention of the gaming community again, I suggest checking out this video that reveals some pretty nasty things PETA has done in the past.

[via TinyCartridge]

Resident Evil 6 Has On-Disc DLC

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After being critically hammered, the last thing Capcom wants to do is make Resident Evil 6 less enticing. But in comes word that Resident Evil 6 has on-disc DLC, a practice that has proved very controversial this year after Street Fighter X Tekken was revealed to have over 12 characters locked behind a pay-gate. YouTube user FluffyQuack was modding his disc when he uncovered several bits of content already on the disc. The only full piece of content on the disc is a new difficulty mode called No Hope, which is harder than Professional. The rest is partially on the disc. These include 2 map packs, 4 new multiplayer modes, and an a Co-op mode for Ada’s campaign. The Multiplayer modes are called Onslaught, Survivors, Predator, and Siege. You can read up on what each mode is on Fluffly’s video description.

Fluffy points out that some of the info other sites are reporting are wrong, like costumes and taunts. He sates that some of these, while on the disc, don’t seem to be locked behind a pay-gate but through normal gameplay (A and S Ranking Mercenary maps with each character) and unlocked via RE.net. The only items players may have to pay for is what’s mentioned in the previous paragraph. Capcom reached out to Eurogamer to clarify that some of the data is on the disc to ensure compatibility and that “there will be one piece of content, that for technical reasons, requires the use of a combination of newly downloaded data and data that is included on the retail game disc.” If that’s the case, then maybe they should’ve stuck to that original release date in November to, y’know, finish it. You can see all of Quacky’s Mod videos after the break.

Capcom responds to Resident Evil 6 on-disc DLC revelation [Eurogamer, via Kotaku]

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Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, And Halo Represented In College Marching Band Tribute

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I’ve seen routines like this, but not at the level of finesse these guys at Ohio State University do it. They kick it off with Space Invaders, but surprised me when they decided to do Pokemon and the Red/Blue battle theme. You can hear someone near the camera guy question why the hell they’re doing Pokemon. I’m guessing his knowledge of the videogame franchise only went as far as the anime or trading cards. Good game OSU, good game.

Big ups to our podcast cameraman Gesfrid P. for the tip.

The Ohio State University Marching Band – TBDBITL Halftime 10-6-12 Video games Nebraska [Youtube, via MSN Now]

Kevin Butler Actor Was Sued By Sony

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Of the many titles Kevin Butler has donned during his tenure at Sony, VP of Lawsuit Defendant would probably be the last thing on his mind. The lawsuit was sparked after Jerry Lambert, who plays Kevin Butler in Sony’s Playstation 3 ads, appeared in a Bridgestone commercial as one of the scientists testing out tires. The ad was part of Bridgestone’s GameOn campaign where a tire purchase could net you a free Nintendo Wii. In the commercial itself, the scientists, including Lambert, are seen playing Mario Kart Wii. Sony wasn’t too fond of the man playing and advertising a competitor’s game and console, and on September 11th they filed a lawsuit against him citing IP violation. Bridgestone proceeded to remove Lambert’s image from all of their ads for the remainder of their campaign. This begs the question though: are they suing him for portraying a very similar character, or are they suing him for that plus associating himself with a competitor. I have a feeling that they would’ve let him be if he was doing something else as the character. But since he was playing a Wii, that probably wasn’t flying with Sony.

Either way, it looks like both parties might be coming to an out-of-court settlement. In a filing, the lawyer representing Sony called the courtroom deputy and said that they were coming to an agreement. The court then ordered Sony, “by October 12, 2012, to either: (1) withdraw the ex parte motion; or (2) file a status update describing the current status of the dispute and whether a ruling on the motion will be necessary.” So currently the case is still ongoing, but it looks like it’ll all come to an end soon. I guess we can rule out Kevin Butler being in Playstation All-Stars then huh?

SCEA sues Bridgestone and Jerry Lambert (Kevin Butler actor) over Game On promotion [NeoGAF, via VentureBeat]

Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 10/1/12

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The month of horrors and diabetic candy began on Monday, and we came out swinging! This week was all about Battle Themes. Shots were fired with Wild ARMs 3, jobs were changed with Final Fantasy V, got funky with Persona 3, made music with Eternal Sonata, and became demons with Digital Devil Saga.

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New Shin Megami Tensei IV Trailer Looks The Same, But Has A Few Things Added

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I was about to chastise some sites for being ultra late on news that we already broke weeks ago. Then I noticed something off with this trailer. The trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV looks the same, starts the same, sounds the same. Then things seem off once the Titan shows up onscreen and doesn’t have that… er, titanic voice. Then you hear that line some seconds later. I thought there was a lag in the audio. New stuff becomes apparent at the 2:24 mark. For those who don’t know Japanese (or were fighting over how some of those names were spelled), they finally introduce the characters and their names in Romanji characters. Considering they’re supposed to be samurai, the names sound rather western. International samurai perhaps? A new character, Steven, is briefly shown sitting in a chair in some demonic looking chamber. A bit more fusion is shown off as well.

『真・女神転生IV』セカンドトレーラーノーカット版 [Youtube, via Kotaku]