14 Days of Humble Bundles #3: Banner Saga

The next update to Humble’s 14 Days of Bundles brings us RPG mixed with tactical combat, all wrapped up in a crunchy Viking shell. This is a bit of an interesting bundle as the core game – The Banner Saga: Factions – is actually Free to Play, which of course means it’s supported by micro transactions or other forms of monetization. The core content is “name your price”, so for as little as one penny you can get the Starter Pack (normally $1.99) along with a collection of artwork from the game. That might not seem like much, but at least it’s (potentially) only a penny, though you can always pay more if you’re being generous. Beating the average price will also get you the Variations Pack (normally $9.99), while a donation of $15 or more will get you the full Banner Saga game (normally $24.99).

I need to clarify what you’re really getting, though. The Banner Saga: Factions game (67%, 02/2013) is actually multi-player only and involves you fighting against other humans in tactical battles. I tried it briefly – it’s free, after all – and depending on your feelings for PvP battles it could be a nice way to pass the time. Me, I’m a bit of a gaming recluse these days and like my games to be single-player affairs, so it’s not really my thing. That means the core package doesn’t do me much good, as the Starter Pack just unlocks four rank 1 units. The Variations Pack isn’t any use either, as that’s merely 12 variations on each advanced class that you can use when you promote them, again for the Factions portion of the game. So the real draw here would be for the Banner Saga single-player game (80%, 01/2014), which means you have to donate at least $15. At least the game has received decent reviews from the gaming critics, with many comparing it to a Norse variant of Game of Thrones.

The story of how the Banner Saga came to be is also somewhat interesting, as it came to life as part of a Kickstarter project back in April, 2012. With an initial goal of $100,000, developer Stoic more than reached that target with $723,000+ raised during the funding period. Stoic consists for just three people, with a background in game design that includes credits like The Old Republic. There’s one developer and two artists, and with their combined talents they were able to crank out the single-player game in just under two years. The graphics largely consist of comic-style art with some rather nice backgrounds, as you can see from the screen shots.

Short summary: today’s Banner Saga bundle is a good way to get into the single-player game for $15 instead of the usual $25, which means you’re only paying $5 more than the early Kickstarter backers for the game. The Factions aspect doesn’t seem to be well populated from what I’ve seen, though this Kickstarter might add some new players to the mix, and personally I didn’t find much there to keep me playing. Most people seem to feel the same, given that the current average price is currently $10.91 with over 3000 copies sold, so it looks like buyers are going for the $15+ donation. If you need something else to occupy your time, check out Humble’s Weekly Bundle, which includes several platforming games.

Gallery: 14 Days of Humble Bundles #3: Banner Saga

Microsoft Unbundles Kinect, $399 Xbox One Model Available Starting June 9th

In an interesting reversal of what happened last generation, Microsoft’s Xbox One launched at a $100 price premium to Sony’s PlayStation 4. Despite Sony building the higher performing console, Microsoft’s Xbox One actually had a higher silicon budget (thanks to eSRAM increasing the SoC’s total die area). It was ultimately the bundling of Microsoft’s Kinect that forced the Xbox One to launch at $499 instead of $399. Committed to making the Xbox One more than just a game console, Microsoft seemingly hoped Kinect would be a non-negotiable part of the Xbox experience. That all changes in early June however.

Microsoft just announced a $399 version of the Xbox One, without Kinect, available starting June 9th. The console hardware appears unchanged, it’ll just be sold without Kinect. Microsoft will offer a standalone Kinect option later this fall. Also in June Microsoft will begin offering its Games with Gold Xbox Live program to Xbox One owners as well. Any Xbox One user with a Gold Xbox Live subscription will get access to free games every month (similar to the program already available for Xbox 360 owners, a single subscription will give you access to Games with Gold on both platforms).

Putting the Xbox One at price parity with the PS4 makes a lot of sense, and should help Microsoft in the near term. The real question is whether $100 is enough to move users over to the Xbox One or if the market views the PS4’s spec/performance advantage as being more valuable than the Xbox ecosystem. 

The real tragedy in all of this is that both Microsoft and Sony appear to have hedged their bets a little too much with the Xbox One/PS4. I get the feeling that neither company felt the market for ultra high end consoles was all that solid to begin with, and instead aimed lower on the performance ladder than they did last round (relatively speaking). It’s a bit of a self fulling prophecy at this point. Going more conservative with performance due to a fear of a market going away is a great way to ensure that the market is open for a higher performing alternative (read: Steambox, PCs) to come in and steal users away. 

In speaking with NVIDIA prior to the Tegra K1 launch their viewpoint is that the clock is ticking for when mobile SoCs can equal the performance of the new consoles. I’m sure the other mobile players are focused on the same thing. We’ll likely see Xbox 360-ish performance out of mobile silicon in the next 12 months. Add another few generations (and process nodes) and we’ll be a lot closer to Xbox One/PS4 performance. We’re already pretty close on the CPU side.