Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- Catwoman Missions Only Available if Bought New
- Skyrim Can Be Beat in Just Over 2 Hours (If You're a Developer)
- Buy Uncharted 3, Get in StarHawk Beta
- Microsoft Purchases Twisted Pixel
- Batman: Arkham City, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One and New Professor Layton This Week
Catwoman Missions Only Available if Bought New
Word came that the highly hyped Catwoman missions that were available in Batman: Arkham City will only be available to those that purchase the game new. This is kind of an “online pass” type of system, trying to get people to buy the game new. Further word came that you should put the Catwoman code in before you start the game because even the opening sequence is changed if you do so. Sounds like Rocksteady set it up so that there are two “storylines”…one with and one without Catwoman, but I guess we’ll find out on Tuesday.
Source: Joystiq
Skyrim Can Be Beat in Just Over 2 Hours (If You're a Developer)
Bethesda ran another internal speedrun, this time with the upcoming game Skyrim. A person from QA and a person from the development team squared off and the QA guy beat the game in just over 2 hours (no cheats can be used, but since they have constantly played the game many times they know how to quickly go through the game). The development team member finished the game only 20 minutes later. Now let’s see if there is any general gamer who can blow through it that fast on their first playthrough. Doubtful, but you never know.
Source: Joystiq
Buy Uncharted 3, Get in StarHawk Beta
Along with getting what will probably be an awesome game (with the Online Pass $10 charge if you buy it used) you will also get into the upcoming StarHawk beta that will start next year. Considering I thought WarHawk was pretty good, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this upcoming game be either.
Source: Joystiq
Microsoft Purchases Twisted Pixel
Kind of surprising, but Microsoft bought indie developer Twisted Pixel. Then again, maybe it isn’t surprising since all of their games have come out on XBLA and sometimes PC. The critical success of The Gunstringer had to have helped push this along as well. I would expect more Kinect-based games from them in the future in order to solidify its lineup.
Source: Joystiq
Batman: Arkham City, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One and New Professor Layton This Week
The big game this week is undoubtedly Batman: Arkham City. It looks like Rocksteady has created a great followup to their fantastic Batman: Arkham Asylum from a couple years ago. Sony’s co-op friendly Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One comes out this week as well and the fourth Professor Layton game comes out with the Last Specter.
Source: me