The Infinite Stream is where we post about items that are news-worthy but not necessarily require their own full article. Check after the jump for news from 13/02/2012!
DC Nation premieres on 3rd of March
It's easy to forget that cartoons are the majority of people's first exposure to superheroes, or at least were until recently. Spider-Man, X-Men and, of course, Batman the Animated Series were staples of the 90s geek-kid's nerducation - a gateway drug to the 'harder' comics, films and, to some extent, videogames. So it's great to see that the 'Big 2' comic publishers are trying to step back up to their 90s heyday of cartoons. Marvel have their Avengers cartoon, returning for a second series in April, and Ultimate Spider-Man whose first series starts also in April; and now DC Comics have their DC Nation, an hour long program on Cartoon Network featuring characters from the DCU, both iconic and lesser-know.
The main features of the hour will be half-hours of Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice which will feature Robin and Superboy among others, and short animations will be interspersed throughout the hour featuring other heroes.
I'll be checking out this series when it debuts in March, but it has a high bar to reach to compare to my cherished 90s cartoons and the current run of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
(Via ComicBookResources)
LucasArts working on console MMO?
LucasArts used to be a really big player in videogames, but have recently fallen behind more progressive developers and publishers; but this may be about to change if a recent job listing is any sign.
According to the ad, LucasArts are building a "new way of connected online gaming that is going to revolutionize the industry", and any applicants will need experience with "operating 24/7 services with constant high traffic" - so it's an MMO or some other multiplayer game, so what? But the listing also says that they would prefer to have someone who has worked with Microsoft and/or Sony products - which says "console game".
So you heard it hear first - LucasArts are making an MMO for consoles! I'm not jumping to conclusions am I?
(Via Kotaku)
Free-to-Play Call of Duty "Possible in the West"
Activision are currently playing around in China with a free-to-play version of Call of Duty, and Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg thinks there's no reason why a similar product couldn't be released in the West as well.
Free-to-play games have been springing up all over the place the last couple of years since they get rid of the initial cost-hurdle gamers have to cross to play games but also, almost paradoxically, have more potential to make money for the developers via micro-transactions. The most common F2P games by far are MMORPGs and casual games, but Team Fortress 2 is making a pretty good go at it, so it makes sense that the FPS juggernaut would be aware of the potential of a CoD bringing in millions of 'small' payments.
Activision have gone for the F2P market in China because of the rampant piracy issues over there, but doing it in the 'West' would surely still benefit everyone? Personally, I think the F2P system will be present in all online-based games/game-modes not too far in the future, with maybe a couple of exception, so this 'news' is more a sign of the inevitable than any kind of insight into the workings of Activision.
(Via Spong)
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