Announcing the first GAA - Anarchy Reigns

After announcing our MAC and GAA status a week ago we have kept an eye out for any titles or companies who have demonstrated any of the behaviours since that warranted being out first entry and we have one and we are very proud to announce it is for positive practices (don't worry we will be compiling a shit list and roll of honour from the last few months but we wanted to find an inaugural entry).

The Gaming Anarchist Collective's first GAA title and ironically it's titled - Anarchy Reigns

We have been keeping a fairly interested eye on the western release of Platinum Games' title Anarchy Reigns.  An online beat-em up that has 16 player brawls (yes 16!).  The concept is fairly simple, larger than life characters, many reappearing from Mad World  beating the hell out each other in a series of maps and game modes inspired from first person shooter games .  Notoriously punishing to first time player but contains no advantages to progression (no enhanced damage or health or unlocked moves) besides perfecting your technique which is something that Street Fighter X Tekken got wrong (Capcom, shove those gems up your ass).

There are plenty of reasons before today we were cautious of this title, the combat isn't as fluid as titles like Bayonetta (who appears as a DLC character available from the launch special edition), the offline campaign is laughably short (but then this is designed for online PvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvPvP), no attack cancel, inescapable throw animations and the difficulty involved in delivering a good beat-down when one of your opponents can come along and smack you in the back of the head.

With a release date only a couple of days before of the Ninja Theory take on Devil May Cry which is possibly the most polarising title in the gaming community I have ever known the publishers Sega needed to do something to make enough noise for people to take notice of this fairly obscure title (when you consider their other Q1 2013 release is Metal Gear Rising: Revengence, which from our hands on play of a couple of weeks ago, oh my God, this is the action game people are waiting for) dropping a month after.

The question is what did Sega do to promote their game? Announce a huge amount of DLC?  Insult anyone who has criticised the game? Create cheap publicity through some stunt? No, they slashed the price from the lowest I have previously found of £37.85 down to an RRP of £19.99.

That's right, £19.99, less than you would pay for a second hand copy of the anniversary release of Halo in Game.  That offers terrific value for money and even if, once we get our hands on it, we aren't blown away by the game we are proud to hold this title up and say it is the first holder of the GAA status.  I truly hope this title is a success for both Sega and Platinum Games so that the industry can sit up and take note.  Just charging a standard premium price for a game, irrespective of longevity or quality is an insult to your customers.

EDIT

As an update to this story our favourite online retailer Shopto.net is offering this game at the even lower price of £17.86.  Available for preorder here

EDIT 2

As another update amazon.co.uk are going one step further and offering the game at £15.32