The early release and subsequent rampant piracy of Gas Powered Games' action real-time strategy title were just the beginning of the networking problems that Demigod has been plagued with since release. Some bad networking decisions and assumptions on Stardock's part caused the issues to drag on for weeks. It seems the way they had things set up initially caused far too many sockets to try to open at once, due to a late 2008 decision to have the network library hand off sockets to the game, rather than have all the connections handled by one source. Wardell's example almost makes it understandable.

...on launch day, Alice would host a game. Tom would be connected to Alice by the network library and then that socket would be handed to Demigod. Then, Alice and Tom would open a new socket to listen for more players to join in. As a result, a user might end up using a half dozen ports and sockets which some routers didn't like and it just made things incredibly complex to connect people and put a lot of strain on the servers to manage all those connections.

So what was happening? When I tried to play, two or three players would connect successfully and then the slow, agonizing wait would kick in. Brad explains why:

Alice hosts a game. In doing so, she sends a message to the NAT server (as well as our servers). Tom wants to join so Tom clicks join and it tells the NAT server to begin connecting them. But, it turned out that a relatively small number of people online at once would quickly result in a huge delay in messages being sent back and forth. For instance, when Tom clicks join it sends a message to the server to tell it to start connecting Tom and Alice. But Alice might not get that message for 30 or 40 seconds. That means, for that entire time, Tom and Alice are "attempting to connect" but haven't even really started because Alice hasn't even gotten the message. As more people tried to join the game, that delay could get worse and worse. If someone left the game, it could take that amount of time for the server to realize that player had left (meanwhile it was trying to connect them).

At this point, the people inside the room waiting for the game to start will have resorted to cannibalism, and most of them weren't even hungry. It's just that frustrating.

Brad goes on to detail the changes that have been made and will be made as they continue to polish the network experience, plans for downloadable content, and an eventual demo, but most importantly, his post leaves us with the important lesson Stardock learned from releasing Demigod.

We've learned that you can't treat networking as just another thing to plug in like you would a sound library or even a 3D engine. It's a whole different animal. With Elemental (our next game), it's single-player focused but its MP will be server based (and I mean we literally host the game). After Demigod, I don't ever want to hear the words "socket" or "port" again.

Demigod: So what the hell happened? [Brad Wardell's Impulse Blog]

Yes, Microsoft's Robbie Bach misspoke during last night's CES keynote. Nowhere in the world is Halo Wars' release date February 28th. It's hitting Japan and Asia Pacific on February 26th; Europe, Middle East and Africa on February 27th; and it's waging war on the Americas on March 3rd.

We're pretty sure that February 5th release date for the demo is correct though. Microsoft reps haven't issued a correction on that.

If we made a mistake with Hellgate, it was trying to do too many things for too many people. We wanted a cutting edge graphics engine, we wanted multiple business models with subscriptions and free play, and single-player, we wanted to combine third-person play with first-person play, we wanted to do random 3D levels, and when you're starting with a brand new game studio with very limited budget and no existing technologies, that was probably biting off too much. We ended up rushing it to market and not keeping it in the oven long enough, just out of necessity.

It's still a shame, especially when the game had so much potential, but it's good to see Flagship accepting and learning from their mistake and moving on to bigger and better things. Hit the link for the full interview.

Flagship's Max Schaefer [Eurogamer]

JD, Community Manager here at Treyarch wrote on the official Xbox forums of the Gearbox-aimed slam, "We want to let everyone know that we found those remarks offensive, and they do not in any way represent the feelings of any developer at this studio or at Activision. We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox."

Hugs all around!

A Message from Treyarch [Xbox Forums - thanks, Beau!]

Greenberg told MTV Multiplayer's Patrick Klepek:

“The reality is we’re not removing any games from the service, if you will. They’ll always be there for purchase. Think about a book on Amazon. It’s not always going to be featured on the front page of the store.”

You can re-download titles you once owned, if you delete them, or you can buy them if a friend recommends them to you, Greenberg clarified, even if you can no longer purchase them via storefront browsing.

Still, is the state of XBLA like an episode of "Survivor"? Greenberg told Multiplayer:

He later added:

“I think if we would have just taken some of these very low performing games randomly off the service, nobody would have said much about it,” he laughed. “But now we’ve created this ‘Xbox Live Arcade Death Watch,’ about who will make the cut. It’s almost like a reality show about who’s going to get voted off the island.”

Of course, if Microsoft had started quietly nicking games off of the service without letting people know, someone surely would have caught on, and that wouldn't have gone over well either.

What's your pick for the title that should get culled first?

Microsoft Admits Negative Reaction To XBL Arcade Delisting Policies Was Their Fault [MTV Multiplayer]

"In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we're concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first - instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming."

Reeves: Home was too ambitious [CVG]

We are very aware of the problems some people have been experiencing with the Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition and have been doing everything within our powers to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. We will be releasing a title update through Xbox Live within the next week that we are confident will rectify the problem. We apologize wholeheartedly for the inconvenience that this matter has caused some owners of the game.

Their full statement follows.

We have just become aware of the issues people are having with Bully Scholarship Edition on Xbox 360. It appears that some older 360s are experiencing framerate issues, freezes and other problems. You have our word that we never experienced any of this in QA - in any of our offices or at Microsoft. I am horrified, and we are now working around the clock to rectify this situation. Thanks to Neo-Gaf for bringing this matter to our attention. We love our games and put a huge amount of energy and care into making them all that they can be. We would never shove anything out the door - we never have and never will. We apologise to everyone affected for the inconvenience. Respectfully, Sam Houser

We'll let you know of any future developments on the Xbox 360 edition of Bully: Scholarship Edition and hope that Rockstar Games and Microsoft will do their best to address fan concerns swiftly.

Sounds like EGM and 1UP were quite justified in their legal "picking on" of Pereira and Blogeek. He's an EGM Brazil freelancer and has now admitted to swiping the pics from Ziff-Davis' own media servers. EGM editor-in-chief Dan Hsu, who says ZD has the IP logs of the transgression to back it up, explains.

Guys, maybe a little journalistic investigating before you blast us? How about talking to Ziff Davis to get the "full story"? This guy did not get the information from an "anonymous source." He's a freelancer for EGM Brazil who finally admitted to them that he did not have a source, but rather, stole the information from our servers (we have IP logs for this). He used his working relationship with EGM Brazil, stole a password, and took information from our story and posted it up before we could.

If one of Kotaku's freelancers stole a password to steal a scoop, would that be cool? I'd be OK with it if, indeed, he had a source that leaked the information (I stood up for Kotaku for that very act in last year's Sony debacle). But that's not what's happened. What he did was just outright illegal, irresponsible, and is not what journalists are supposed to do.

Please, next time, before blasting us...maybe get the other side of the story?

Thanks to Hsu for clearing up the matter. I'm off to wince!

When contacted over the weekend Pereira denied the allegations and said that he never admitted to anything.

They don't know what they're saying!!! That's right, I in fact write some things for the brazilian mag. Though, I'm a freelancer, and therefore I don't have access to their FTP. I never wrote a story that used the FTP. And I NEVER admitted that I stole the pictures from their FTP, because I didn't. I know it sounds suspicious, but you must believe me, I don't have their FTP login and did not stole any pics form there. They were given to me, and I published them.

Yesterday, we ran a story about stores in Japan "slashing" prices on the Xbox 360. This was not the case. The price cut is in fact a standing offer for a variety of items in certain electronics stores. Sofmap, and several other stores, offer a discount if you sign a contract with an ISP, an offer that is apparently tacked on to many popular electronic goods for sale in a store.

While the Xbox 360 is available at a reduced price, it does not appear this has anything to do with how well the console is selling in Japan.

The photo used in the post was sent in as a tip, and Kotaku s Japan editor posted it using his own experience at the Sofmap store in Osaka and the wording on the sign as background.

Brian spoke with Sofmap folk a few minutes ago and was told that the campaign did indeed start on launch day and that there are no plans to limit or end the campaign anytime soon. They also confirmed that they still have plenty of 360s in stock.

We regret the error.

Japanese Shops Now Slashing Xbox 360 Prices [Kotaku]