Dipping in briefly before I run away and hide so as not to get spoiled for the finale!
Several months after they SHOULD have explained this in the first place, the powers that be behind the Doctor Who games have finally come clean about a few facts regarding the international versions of the (ahem) free games.
http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/s7.../dw-games-get-july-international-release.html
In a nutshell, the delay is explained sensibly as apparently the events of each game apparently reflect events in the series at the time of the game's release. Since BBC America and Space Channel are running a month behind, the games are delayed a month. It's a bit messy, but it makes sense. Apparently they want to time the release for major gaming events in the US too (which begs the question where were they at E3). The plan is I guess to release the games monthly, so City of the Daleks sometime in July, Blood of the Cybermen in August, etc. If they're timing with major gaming events I'd be willing to bet they'll launch City around the time of ComicCon.
Second, the games will apparently be available for download "for a small fee" from unidentified "third party gaming sites". Anyone's guess what they consider to be "a small fee". That could still mean anything from 99 cents to $30. And I hope whatever site they choose a) handles both PC and Mac versions and b) is actually accessible internationally as I've come across some places that only allow sales/downloads to the US.
Neither of these is particularly unfair or unreasonable, but they would have saved a lot of bad blood (not to mention piracy, executed or attempted) had they explained this back in April when the games were announced, or at least when City of the Daleks came out and people outside the UK were going WTF and getting angry. The BBC's publicity machine really needs a kick in the ass, but then again the number of times they've spoiled surprise endings for Doctor Who (blowing the Eccleston regeneration surprise is still the biggest example ever), not to mention that Graham Norton banner fiasco, what can we expect?
Me, I'm still not sure whether I'm going to bother ordering this, especially if the games end up on the high end of the "small fee" scale or they do something bonehead like only make the PC version available over here.
Alex
Several months after they SHOULD have explained this in the first place, the powers that be behind the Doctor Who games have finally come clean about a few facts regarding the international versions of the (ahem) free games.
http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/s7.../dw-games-get-july-international-release.html
In a nutshell, the delay is explained sensibly as apparently the events of each game apparently reflect events in the series at the time of the game's release. Since BBC America and Space Channel are running a month behind, the games are delayed a month. It's a bit messy, but it makes sense. Apparently they want to time the release for major gaming events in the US too (which begs the question where were they at E3). The plan is I guess to release the games monthly, so City of the Daleks sometime in July, Blood of the Cybermen in August, etc. If they're timing with major gaming events I'd be willing to bet they'll launch City around the time of ComicCon.
Second, the games will apparently be available for download "for a small fee" from unidentified "third party gaming sites". Anyone's guess what they consider to be "a small fee". That could still mean anything from 99 cents to $30. And I hope whatever site they choose a) handles both PC and Mac versions and b) is actually accessible internationally as I've come across some places that only allow sales/downloads to the US.
Neither of these is particularly unfair or unreasonable, but they would have saved a lot of bad blood (not to mention piracy, executed or attempted) had they explained this back in April when the games were announced, or at least when City of the Daleks came out and people outside the UK were going WTF and getting angry. The BBC's publicity machine really needs a kick in the ass, but then again the number of times they've spoiled surprise endings for Doctor Who (blowing the Eccleston regeneration surprise is still the biggest example ever), not to mention that Graham Norton banner fiasco, what can we expect?
Me, I'm still not sure whether I'm going to bother ordering this, especially if the games end up on the high end of the "small fee" scale or they do something bonehead like only make the PC version available over here.
Alex