American McGee
Beautiful Pixels
Hideo Kojima
Hitachi Wasabe's Xbox 360
Xbox 360 Marketplace Updates: (MajorNelson.com)
Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Quit encouraging George, dewy dreams, a redesigned PS2, and more Infinium Labs noise ...
- Halo 2 soundtrack going the way of Spider-Man
- Tokyo Game Show lineup
- Quit Encouraging George
- Star Wars Battlefront connectivity grief
- A fanboy's dewy dream week
- XBox TV?
- XBox games updates
- Nintendo getting into movies?
- A new, sexier PS2
- Whither go the console wars?
- More Infinium Labs noise
- New Releases
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NEWS:
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- Halo 2 soundtrack going the way of Spider-Man
- In a controversial announcement, Microsoft Game Studios and Sumthing Else Music Works said the Halo 2 soundtrack will be released in two volumes, and won't be just game music.
- Volume 1 will ship the same time as the game, and include any of the game music composer Marty O’Donnell finished in time to be included (which he says is most of the game music). It will also include songs "inspired by Halo", written by erstwhile Halo fans such as Nile Rodgers, Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin.
- Volume 2 is up in the air, is to be scheduled, will contain all of the game music or just what wasn't included on Volume 1, and may include additional "inspired by" tracks.
- In a controversial announcement, Microsoft Game Studios and Sumthing Else Music Works said the Halo 2 soundtrack will be released in two volumes, and won't be just game music.
- Tokyo Game Show lineup
- Despite having a small market share, Microsoft made a pretty strong showing at this weekend's Tokyo Game Show. Obviously, the lion's share of approximately 333 games was taken up by Sony PS2 offerings (149/45%), but the XBox contingent is the next strongest (44/13%). Interestingly, Microsoft was showing all XBox (no PC) titles. Perhaps even more telling, Nintendo's paltry showing (32/10%) was split among GBA, GC, and DS offerings -- in that order. Not a real strong endorsement of the upcoming DS, and kind of laying down on the current-gen console front.
- Despite having a small market share, Microsoft made a pretty strong showing at this weekend's Tokyo Game Show. Obviously, the lion's share of approximately 333 games was taken up by Sony PS2 offerings (149/45%), but the XBox contingent is the next strongest (44/13%). Interestingly, Microsoft was showing all XBox (no PC) titles. Perhaps even more telling, Nintendo's paltry showing (32/10%) was split among GBA, GC, and DS offerings -- in that order. Not a real strong endorsement of the upcoming DS, and kind of laying down on the current-gen console front.
- Quit Encouraging George
- The release of the original Star Wars trilogy in DVD boxed set, along with the video game release of Star Wars Battlefront, set a single day record of $115,000,000 in single day sales.
- OK, so it would be cool to own the original trilogy on DVD -- if this frickin' was the original trilogy! Not only is this not the original theatrical release of each film, it's not even the much-maligned "Special Edition" re-release (though it's being sold as such). Mr. Lucas has added additional revisionist history, like adding Hayden Christensen in the closing scene of Return of the Jedi -- which doesn't even make sense -- "Hey, Luke, there's your dad when he was younger and whinier than you are!"
- The current iteration of the franchise is a disappoinment, but nothing's going to change if encourage LucasArts pocketbook. Buy the video game; forego the trilogy.
- Mark Hamill rocks. He is the creative and voice acting man, and he seems to be enjoying life. More force power to him.
- The release of the original Star Wars trilogy in DVD boxed set, along with the video game release of Star Wars Battlefront, set a single day record of $115,000,000 in single day sales.
- Star Wars Battlefront connectivity grief
- Shortly after it shipped, XBox users were complaining about Star Wars Battlefront network issues during Live play, with lag issues and servers with certain names not showing up. Less than a week later, a mandatory update will be available when you sign in with Battlefront via Live. Details of the fix aren't available, but include "connectivity" fixes.
- As an aside, regardless of platform, it's good to know what your upstream connection speed is, since this determines the number of clients you can comfortably host. Battlefront needs to send at least 40kbps per client over the upstream connection. On my cable broadband connection, I get a 390kbps upstream, so I can comfortably host 8-10 players. A lot of games (UT24K4 on the PC) do a better job of detecting bandwidth, and letting you know how many you can host, or dumbing down game assets (video, audio, etc.) appropriately. Sucks to be a DSL user ...
- Shortly after it shipped, XBox users were complaining about Star Wars Battlefront network issues during Live play, with lag issues and servers with certain names not showing up. Less than a week later, a mandatory update will be available when you sign in with Battlefront via Live. Details of the fix aren't available, but include "connectivity" fixes.
- A fanboy's dewy dream week
- Despite all of the whining, last week rocked on the fanboy front. With the release of two exceptional treatments of licenses (X-Men Legends for comic book fanboys and Star Wars Battlefront for Force Geeks) in the same week, my head nearly exploded. Legends has 4-way offline co-op play on the XBox, with a choice from 15-plus of my favorite muties (and a bunch of special guests), and Battlefront brings Battlefield 1942-like goodness to the Star Wars universe. I'm buying it once I find someone I know with XBox Live willing to bite the same bullet. Ah, bliss ...
- In a very under-rated news tidbit, GameFly's weekly rental chart for the week ending September 27th showed an interesting rental demographic shift. At number one was the XBox version of Battlefront, with the PS2 version at #3. The XBox version of Legends was at #6, with the PS2 version not making an appearance. XBox games actually hold 6 of the top 10 positions. "Go Bill! Go Bill! It's your birthday! ... "
- Despite all of the whining, last week rocked on the fanboy front. With the release of two exceptional treatments of licenses (X-Men Legends for comic book fanboys and Star Wars Battlefront for Force Geeks) in the same week, my head nearly exploded. Legends has 4-way offline co-op play on the XBox, with a choice from 15-plus of my favorite muties (and a bunch of special guests), and Battlefront brings Battlefield 1942-like goodness to the Star Wars universe. I'm buying it once I find someone I know with XBox Live willing to bite the same bullet. Ah, bliss ...
- XBox TV?
- A job posting for a Xenon feature called "XBox TV" was posted then yanked from Microsoft's job site -- the listing says it all:
- "Want to help create a new feature for Xenon not available on any other platform? Microsoft Game Studios is looking for an SDET with server experience to help design and implement the new Xenon Title Server features, including: a spectator mode for many Xenon games, Xbox TV - with tickers at the bottom of the screen featuring recent high scores and game highlights, a tournament system, and tradable trophies.
- "Want to help create a new feature for Xenon not available on any other platform? Microsoft Game Studios is looking for an SDET with server experience to help design and implement the new Xenon Title Server features, including: a spectator mode for many Xenon games, Xbox TV - with tickers at the bottom of the screen featuring recent high scores and game highlights, a tournament system, and tradable trophies.
- Beware, Comtica ... beware ... or partner ... yes ... partner ...
- A job posting for a Xenon feature called "XBox TV" was posted then yanked from Microsoft's job site -- the listing says it all:
- XBox games updates
- Ubisoft's Rocky Legends and The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee shipped nationwide Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
- Budget third-person shooter Trigger Man is available for buy this week.
- VU Games shipped the next iteration of adult ADD mascot Crash bandicoot, Crash Twinsanity.
- Activision released Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball this past weekend, and International Halo champ Matthew “Zyos” Leto and other video game professionals routed the professional paintball players Rocky Cagnoni, Alex Fraige, Greg Hastings, Chris LaSoya and Keely Watson.
- Once-canceled Microsoft-exclusive platformer Tork has been resurrected by Ubisoft as Tork: Prehistoric Punk, and will be shipped as a buget XBox-exclusive, and is slated for a January 2005 release.
- Ubisoft's 2005 Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will both "co-op" and "versus" multiplayer modes. Spy-on-spy action is coming. Wait ...
- Microsoft's Fable is setting records left and right. The sleeper hit (I'm gonna get letters) sold 375K units (and grossed about $18.7 million). It was EB Games' biggest first-week sales (any Xbox title); Game Rush's first-day sales record (any game); No. 1-selling overall title on any platform at GameStop the fastest-selling Xbox game at EB Games (uh, Canada) for first week sales; it even grossed more than No. 1 film box office movie of the same week (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow).
- "There can be only one ..." -- SCi Entertainment and Davis Panzer Productions are bringing a new Highlander game to consoles, in time for the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Twenty years? Yeesh ... not feeling so immortal ...
- Midway Games Inc. announced a new title, Fear & Respect, an action/adventure videogame based in the gritty world of South Central LA, where you try to get outa da gangsta life. The game is being done in collaboration with writer/director John Singleton. Paramount Pictures has already aquired the worldwide film rights.
- Ubisoft's Rocky Legends and The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee shipped nationwide Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
- Nintendo getting into movies?
- Majority shareholder/former Nintendo prez Hiroshi Yamauchi will be encouraging Nintendo executives to fund and create an animated film project. Yamauchi is the president of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Project Foundation - a foundation supporting the 100 short poems by various Japanese poets that make up the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The poems were written between the 7th and 13th centuries, and Yamauchi says the project will also appeal to Western audiences. Like the Final Fantasy film did. Wait ...
- Majority shareholder/former Nintendo prez Hiroshi Yamauchi will be encouraging Nintendo executives to fund and create an animated film project. Yamauchi is the president of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Project Foundation - a foundation supporting the 100 short poems by various Japanese poets that make up the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu. The poems were written between the 7th and 13th centuries, and Yamauchi says the project will also appeal to Western audiences. Like the Final Fantasy film did. Wait ...
- A new, sexier PS2
- Probably in a bid to steal thunder from the November 9 Halo 2 release, Sony will be releasing a slimmer, sexier PS2 on November 1. Even though it retails at the same $149, the thing looks awesome, and only has the arguably minor downsides of being top-loading and lacking a hard drive bay. Shocking the industry is not 25% smaller than the current PS2 -- it's 25% of the size.
- http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/21/screens_6107997.html?page=5
- Probably in a bid to steal thunder from the November 9 Halo 2 release, Sony will be releasing a slimmer, sexier PS2 on November 1. Even though it retails at the same $149, the thing looks awesome, and only has the arguably minor downsides of being top-loading and lacking a hard drive bay. Shocking the industry is not 25% smaller than the current PS2 -- it's 25% of the size.
- Whither go the console wars?
- Interesting stuff on the console war front, not least of which are the following:
- XBox -- Noise is seeping out about the mock-up controllers leaked last month. The controllers, with two extra triggers and no white or black buttons, may be legit.
- XBox -- Technology may come to the rescue for XBox Next/XBox Now. Strong tech demos are coming out on the software emulation front (especialy the "Virtual PC" arena), which could allow current gen XBox games to run on next gen hardware, despite the difference in graphics cards, etc.
- XBox -- The industry is getting more bullish on the idea of Microsoft being first to market in the next-gen race. Industry firm DFC Intelligence is predicting the industry to be at a combined interactive entertainment (traditional PC game, video game, portable game hardware and software, and online gaming) revenue equalling $41.4 million by 2009. Online gaming by itself is going from $2.4 Billion 2004 to $9.8 billion by 2009. The new report is largely staked on a scenario where Microsoft launches their system a year before Sony and Nintendo.
- PS2 -- The redesigned PS2 is sweet, and is a great way to get an additional high-revenue year out of the platform for Sony. However, it may be counter-productive if the PS market gets saturated, and there's less interest in the PS3.
- PS3 -- Sony's announced that the PS3 will likely have a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc reader for the PlayStation 3. Shortly after they announced this, Sony announced they're prototyping 8-layer BD-ROM technology, capable of storing 200G per disc.
- XBox -- Noise is seeping out about the mock-up controllers leaked last month. The controllers, with two extra triggers and no white or black buttons, may be legit.
- Interesting stuff on the console war front, not least of which are the following:
- More Infinium Labs noise
- Infinium Labs, and its aptly named Phantom console, have been bumped from the purported November 18 launch date to sometime in 2005. Though earlier in the week Infinium announced strong list of publishing partners, they have not yet announced any retail partners -- a link considered critical to the success of any new or established console.
- Infinium Labs, and its aptly named Phantom console, have been bumped from the purported November 18 launch date to sometime in 2005. Though earlier in the week Infinium announced strong list of publishing partners, they have not yet announced any retail partners -- a link considered critical to the success of any new or established console.
- New Releases
- September 26
- Crash Twinsanity (Action)
- The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (Driving)
- ESPN NBA 2K5 (Sports)
- Rocky: Legends (Sports)
- Shark Tale (Action)
- Trigger Man (Action)
- Xbox Live Arcade (Multiple)
- Crash Twinsanity (Action)
- September 26
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
XBox game statuses, More Gaiden Goodness, and The Sony PStwo ...
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NEWS:
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Friday, September 10, 2004
Austin Game Conference, Day 2
It's the second day of the Austin Game Conference (AGC), and it's got the expected day 2 hangover, but it's still pretty interesting.
Don't forget to check out my summary of Day 1.
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Highlights
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* Voice Acting:
> I got my demo out to more folks today, including Critical Mass Interactive (Matt and Billy), International Creative Management, Inc. (ICM) (Keith), NCSoft Corp. (David), and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) (Rich, who I mistakenly called "Rick"). Thanks to these folks for fronting my demo within their companies. Dunno if SOE was really interested, but here's hoping.
* Best Moment:
> My long chat with Critical Mass Interactive's Matt Scibilia. A prince of a guy, very genuine, and roped me in to a whole creative/technical content consortium opportunity, which I shall call "The Pentaverate". Seriously big things are on the horizon, Folks ... I don't play small ...
* Funniest Moment:
> My summary of the keynote below. Sorry, as sick as I was, I had to work much harder than normal ...
* News Tidbit
> In April when Midway Games announced they were buying the Surreal Software, developer for The Suffering, I said it would make sense for Midway to pick up Austin's Inevitable Entertainment, developers of the upcoming Area 51. Last week, Midway announced they'd be opening an Austin studio, and I said it would probably be a zero-sum gain, because I thought that new studio would be the Inevitable purchase. Though Midway recruiting told me yesterday they didn't have any details on the new studio, folks from two companies today, both with relationships with Midway and Inevitable, told me Midway is purchasing Inevitable, and will be staffing 2-3 complete development teams in the expanded office.
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Keynote & Session Highlights
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Here's a blow-by-blow of the sessions (with commentary :-) .
1) Keynote: "Virtual Property in the Age of Wonder"
* Presentor: Edward Castronova (Associate Professor of Telecommunications Indiana University)
* "A touching story about the reunion between a gamer and the young wyvern he was forced to sell during tough financial times in the real world ..."
* ... I'm kidding. I actually missed this keynote 'cause I was really sick. I'll update the blog once I get the recording. And I recommend not doing a NyQuil/Robitussin CF one-two punch. It's bad. Trust me. And don't steal my wyvern idea. (c) 2004 Adam Creighton.
2) "Selling the Service - Persistent Marketing and Shelfspace"
* Presentors: Debysue Wolfcale (Sony Online Entertainment; previously with EA/Origin), Dave Swofford (PR Director, NA NCsoft; previously with EA/Origin),
Eugene Evans (Infinite Ventures, Inc.).
* This was an impressive panel, with the three panelists bringing a combined 36 years of game industry experience, most of it in the MMO space, and even more in the subscriber space.
* SOE made the point that they've chosen to separate the restricted closed beta from the open beta. They treat the latter as presales, with a polished public product.
> An analogy can be made to online financial services, and their QA & UAT cycles. Maybe FI's UAT cycles should be more like this UAT, and used to upsell the product. Leave it to me to make games industry less sexy by
comparing it to the Financial Industry.
* There was interesting discussion around in-game rewards for player/user referral system.
* One audience member asked the very astute question why MMO games aren't marketed in hobby stores (like comic book stores). This is particularly apropos given a title like NCSoft's City of Heroes MMORPG and their comic book tie-in.
> SOE hinted that they've got some similar tie-ins in the works, and was tight-lipped after that.
> I think I'll follow up with Dragon's Lair and pitch the idea.
* Debbysue is one of the coolest names/spellings I hadn't seen before ...
3) "Games in Hollywood"
* Presentor: Keith Boesky (International Creative Management, Inc.)
* As the former president of Eidos, Boesky is the guy to be
credited with turning Tomb Raider into a franchise. Ex-prez, former
lawyer, currently with ICM and self-billed "Hollywood asshole". Boesky was wonderfully sarcastic, impressively sharp, and had great content comparing the game industry to the film industry, and what works (and doesn't).
* Much more investment in game development than making a movie.
> There's no "option" equivalent for games.
* Myth: Games are not bigger than film. Dollar-wise, yes, but not per unit. Games at $50 per unit, versus ~$10 for tickets.
> So? Isn't the total dollar amount what matters, not the average per sku?
> The games industry has been growing at 18% compounded, compared to 2-3% in the film industry.
* Target movie audience is 14-18 year-old women; not the same demographic as gamers.
* In the game industry, we're shooting ourselves in the foot being single delivery via a game. Compare this to the film industry, where they never make money on the box office, but do on merchandising, pay-per-view, DVD,
etc.
> There are probably only 30 titles that have boken over the 1 million unit barrier.
> As the production costs rise, the break-even point is expected to be 3-5 million units in the next gen market. It will take a while for the next versions of consoles to reach that many units.
* "Design does not save film" (film is all about the story). However, story
will not necessarily kill a game, but it can make good game more compelling. (Bad gameplay can kill a game.)
* The $19.99 price point can see sales rise 8-fold over the $49.99 price point. Sega are trying this with the ESPN NFL and NHL franchises.
* Boesky mentioned the idea of game development going to the film model, where sub contractors are used for production, then let go.
> As I've mentioned before, this is the model used by Wideload Games in Chicago.
* I put Boesky off when I talked to him about Midway being able to save money by casting locally for games like Area 51, developed by Austin-based Inevitable Entertainment. He pointedly remarked that ICM brokered the Duchovney/Madsen/etc. connection. Whoops.
* I gave Boesky a voice demo. Hopefully he doesn't chuck it.
4) Customer Service -- In-House or Outsourced?"
* Presentors: Billy Cain (VP Of Development, Critical Mass Interactive),
Matt Scibilia (President/CEO, Critical Mass Interactive, Inc.).
* Two of the scheduled presentors weren't able to attend. The Critical Mass Interactive guys roped in Mike Daubert (CEO/Studio Director, The Animation Farm), and the three talked about issues around content and asset off-shoring. Though it wasn't around support outsourcing issues, it was really interesting stuff, and a lot of it was applicable to almost any vertical market.
* Costs and size of games for the next gen iteration are tripling (with 10 times the assets), ensuring "there is no way the things are going to be completed on-site."
> Panelists didn't seem to think the "Hollywood model" applied to game development would be successful for any but the largest publishers (Electronic Arts, etc.). Smaller developers need to plan solidly for building global infrastructures and teams. Panelists were very positive on the benefits of well-planned off-shoring.
* Scibilia made a good point in response to questions about the downside to off-shoring: "Outsourcing overseas has been happening for centuries. This country was built on outsourcing overseas."
* As a generalization, the offshore markets are good labor resources, but somewhat lack in the design, aesthetics, and self-direction aspects. This is due to a number of factors, not least of which are cultural, language, and skill-level areas.
* Costs of off-shoring include loss of one or more days of work per month, the need for more intense monitoring of the development pipeline, the complexity of the process.
* Off-shore labor markets to consider in addition to India (in order of panelist preference) include South Africa, Eastern Europe, and Singapore.
* Companies like Critical Mass Entertainment and The Animation Farm do all of the off-shoring due diligence (research, relationship building, international legal, contracting, etc.) and the process management, so companies that pick them for vendors don't have to worry about that effort. Off-shoring requires heavy process, a dedicated off-shoring project manager. (As an aside, Critical Mass seems to have a very solid pipilone and process management methodology.)
* The mentality for off-shoring should be a co-development, and co-operative.
> You're saving money, and realizing more profit.
> Off-shore companies are growing their skills and experience.
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Austin Game Conference, Day 1
It's the first day of the AGC, and it's a fun ride so far. I'm here in basically multiple capacities: Voice Actor looking for new gigs; Visa employee looking at where the business oportunities are; and as a potential co-producer of an upcoming video game related TV pilot. Oh, and I'm here as a gamer. (What serious gamer doesn't want to be in the presence of gaming greatness like Garriot, Long, and Walters?)
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Highlights
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* Voice Acting:
> It was a decent day on the voice acting front. Special thanks to Julene & Eric (High Voltage Software; though your business cards make me feel dirty), Tom (Midway Games), and Josh, Mike, & Adam (The Animation Farm) for taking the time to chat and saying they'll get my voice demos to the right people.
I'll hold off saying thanks to the unnamed 3 Activision employees who wouldn't take my demo, didn't give me there cards, but took mine and said they'd "try to find the right people to get it to." Riiight. We'll see, Activision ... We'll see ...
* Best Moment:
> Walking up to High Voltage Software and having Eric Nofsinger look at me and say, "Hey, you emailed us. And said you were coming. And you came." (Pictorial Emails rock.)
* Funniest Moment:
> During the amazing Korea-based WeMade CGI video demo, one conference attendee told one of the WeMade crew, "That video totally kicks ass!" to which the response was, "No! It's good! It's good!"
------------------------------
Keynote & Session Highlights
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Here's a blow-by-blow of the sessions (with commentary :-) .
1) Keynote: "Massively Multiplayer Console Is Coming"
* Presenters: Scott Henson (Director, Platform Strategy, Microsoft Xbox) & Glen Van Datta (Director of Online Technology, Sony Computer Entertainment).
* This keynote was a mixed bag. Henson's presentation was polished, focused, and high-energy. Van Datta's was more folksy, a bit rambly, mostly reiterated slide text, and his valiant attempts at Microsoft/Sony rivalry-related humor fell flat with the audience.
* Some interesting comparative figures came out of the keynote:
> 4 million Sony network adapters & 350,000 hard drives sold vs. 15.5 million broadband-ready XBoxes with built-in hard drives. Microsoft's gamble 5 years ago to go broadband-only looks like it's ready to explode (in a good way).
> Sony is choosing to eschew the casual gamers to drive revenue from there hard-core gamers (what Sony calls the "Ultracore"). Microsoft, on the other hand, is going after both markets. There first foray into the casual market was arguably the creation of the Family Platinum Hits line. There next volley will be the fall launch of XBox Live Arcade.
2) "Monetizing the Masses: What are online players willing to pay for?"
* Presenter: Adeo Ressi (CEO Game Trust)
* This was an interesting session, largely because Ressi was willing to share a bunch of his company's hard-won research data -- from purchasing trends to demographics.
* GameTrust has an interesting model. Companies sign up with GameTrust, and revenues and expenses are distributed across all signed companies. Though it's currently hot in the casual gamer market, GameTrust is pretty much content/genre/platform agnostic.
* The presentation was engaging in no small part to Ressi's animated self-confidence -- you get the impression pretty quickly that he's one sharp guy ...
3) "Purchasing Products From Within Console Games"
* Presenter: Steven Wagner (Principal Engineer Sony Computer Entertainment America)
* This topic was around abstract implementations of money vs. token implementations, largely in the Sony view of the console world. Basically, SCEA is providing the infrastructure to do content management, billing, catalog management, etc.
* The talk was semi-engaging, but was probably hampered by Wagner wanting to steer well clear of exposing trade secrets.
4) Evolution of Business Models
* Speakers: Joe Keene (Perpetualent), David Bowman (Artifact Entertainment), Eugene Evans (Infinite Ventures, Inc.), Alexander Macris (CEO, Themis Group, Inc.), Joshua Hong (K2 Network).
* This session was geared toward summarizing how distribution and revenue models have changed drastically in the last 24 months, and where they're going in the next 24.
* Hong made analogies to the shrinking retail culture in Japan, and the migration of the music industry to download vs shelf space. Getting away from the retail model gets away from the retail piece of the pie, and retailers' demand for a set turnover per linear foot of shelf space, per current life of the product in question.
* The panel leaned toward the possibility that initial released games will drop in SKU MSRP, and revenue will come from expansions, downloadable additions, etc.
* Audience Q&A flagged a recurring theme in Day 1: Making any changes to almost any part of MMOs could be damaging to the overall genre.
* Hong said micropayments are critical to success of AP MMOs -- accounting in some instances to 70% of revenue in Korea. These transactions are largely made over mobile handsets.
5) After Party at The Copper Tank
* I forgot how much I hate going to these things alone. Ah well, I still go to touch base briefly with Critical Mass Interactive, The Animation Farm, a cool rocker, a nice kid from Jersey, and did the guy-head-bob-"hey" thing more times than I care to admit.
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Wednesday, September 08, 2004
How The Mighty Have Fallen (Parts 1 & 2), Wideload and Midway Get Local, and more
1. How The Mighty Have Fallen (Part 1)
2. "Hellish Holiday Lineup ... Could Spell Disaster For Many Publishers"
3. Paramount Options Motion Picture Rights To Area 51
4. Download The Men Of Valor Musical Score For Free
5. How The Mighty Have Fallen (Part 2)
6. Atari Gets On The Retro-Game Bandwagon -- In A Big Way
7. Xbox Video Chat Hits Japan November 25
8. XBox 2 Controller Rumors
9. ATI Almost Done With Xbox 2 Development?
10. Wideload Games Partners With Austin's Aspyr Media, Inc.
11. Midway To Open Austin Game Development Studio
12. Microsoft's Video Codec Added To Blu-Ray
13. New Releases
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NEWS:
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1. How The Mighty Have Fallen (Part 1)
* 'Tis a sad story: Once-mighty industry mainstay Acclaim has joined the likes of 3DO, the original Interplay, Sierra, and Black Isle Studios -- top-notch game companies that went before their prime. After booting staff out of offices worldwide on Friday (August 27), Acclaim filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy last week, which means it will liquidate all assets to pay off as much debt as possible. Unlike reorganizing while protected under Chapter 11, this likely means the end of Acclaim. They have an estimated debt of $100 million and assets estimated at between $10-$50 million.
* Acclaim has verified Juiced, Worms 3D, and The Red Star will not be published by Acclaim, even though one Acclaim Studios Austin ex-employee said at least Juiced has been completed. No mention has been made of Brian Azzarello's 100 Bullets, probably the biggest loss of the current story. Development funding firm Fund 4 Games financed Juiced, and will be seeking a new publisher. Worms 3D looks like it may be in the same boat with its EU developer. Mum's the word on The Red Star and 100 Bullets.
* I've pinged Austin-based publisher Aspyr Media, Inc., and said, "What up?" -- hoping maybe they'll pick up a couple of the products employees toiled hard over in the recent months. Though, hopefully, the remaining properties play better than the XBox demo of The Red Star ...
2. "Hellish Holiday Lineup ... Could Spell Disaster For Many Publishers"
* In its its annual preholiday season report, titled "The Nightmare Before Christmas: Hellish Holiday Lineup of New Video Games Could Spell Disaster for Many Publishers," financial analysts Wedbush Morgan Securities says the upcoming console lineup is "the most formidable...ever released in a single year."
* The report lists 11 console titles and 3 PC titles that Wedbush Morgan says will "exceed 30 million units in calendar 2004", adding to a staggering skewing of half of the 218 million units of software projected for 2004 to move in the last 3 months of year.
> Console Titles: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Take-Two, PS2); Halo 2 (Microsoft, Xbox); Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts, PS2); Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts, PS2); Gran Turismo 4 (SCEA, PS2); Spider-Man 2 (Activision, PS2); Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (Activision, PS2); Pokémon LeafGreen (Nintendo, GBA); Pokémon FireRed (Nintendo, GBA); Metal Gear Solid 3 (Konami, PS2); Mortal Kombat: Deception (Midway Games, PS2)
> PC Titles: Doom 3 (Activision), The Sims 2.0 (Electronic Arts), and Half-Life 2 (VU Games).
* The dire title of the report refers to any publishers shipping Q4 titles other than those listed above, will see holiday sales make or break those companies.
* Those wacky financial analysts, with their impartial reporting on industry trends, always being so careful not to _cause_ financial news ... waitaminute ...
3. Paramount Options Motion Picture Rights To Area 51
* Paramount has optioned the motion picture rights to Midway Games' upcoming remake of the alien arcade shooter. Though Midway also recently announced top-tier Hollywood talent for the game (like X-Files David Duchovney), no commitment to extend their involvement to the movie version has been made.
* Area 51 is being developed by Austin's Inevitable Entertainment, but you generally don't see that trumpted as much as it could be.
4. Download The Men Of Valor Musical Score For Free
* VU Games made the outstanding musical score for Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay available for free download, and now they're doing the same for their upcoming well-storied Vietnam FPS, Men of Valor. The music was scored by awar-winning Inon Zur (Shadow Ops: Red Mercury and SOCOM II: U.S. Navy Seals), the score was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. Studios.
* Download the score from www.menofvalorgame.com, and check out Zur's website at www.inonzur.com.
5. How The Mighty Have Fallen (Part 2)
* 'Tis the season of big-gun releases, with Doom 3 for PC and Fable and Sudeki on the XBox leading the pack. After being obnoxiously hyped and under development forever (around 4 years for each game), how are these new games doing? At best, middling. (All scores out of 10):
> Sudeki -- 6.5 from the Official XBox Magazine and Gamespot.com.
> Fable -- 8.6 from Gamespot.com, and as high as a 9.1 (teamxbox.com).
> Doom 3 -- 8.5 Gamespot.com
* Other than Sudeki, these aren't bad scores, per se, but they're certainly not great given the development cycle and the marketing machines. Meanwhile, games like The Chronicles of Riddick slip under the radar, blow everyone away, and are contenders for game of the year (which these other titles arguably are not).
* We'll see what reviewers and gamers have in store for other upcoming big guns like Halo 2, Half-Life 2, the XBox versions of Doom 3 and Far Cry, and the like.
6. Atari Gets On The Retro-Game Bandwagon -- In A Big Way * Atari announced it will releasing its own anthology for the XBox -- containing a massive 85 games. Personally, I'm looking forward to Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Missile Command, the Swordquest franchise, and Yars' Revenge.
* The full list of games, and a blurb about a plug-and-play, two controller, 20 game retro console, can be found on GameSpot: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/07/news_6106808.html
7. Xbox Video Chat Hits Japan November 25
* A bit delayed, but the video version of XBox Live (with included webcam) will hit shelves at ~$62. Those Japanese gamers that already have XBox Live can get just the camera and software for ~$16. No release date has been set for the US, giving us yet another reason to hate people of other ethnicities ... seriously kidding ...
8. XBox 2 Controller Rumors
* A now-defunct link on the Spong.com forums posted an image of what it claimed is a prototype of the new XBox 2 controller. Somewhat smaller than even the current Controller S, the device had repositioned "Start" and "Back" buttons, 4 triggers (rather than 2), and no black and white buttons.
9. ATI Almost Done With Xbox 2 Development?
* At the Smith Barney Citigroup 2004 Technology Conference, ATI Technologies' CFO Terry Nickerson made the comment, "We're actually winding down development on some of the Microsoft product," leading many to believe he was referencing ATI's GPU work on the next version of the XBox. ATI won the XBox business from current XBox GPU provider NVidia. ATI is also providing the GPU for the next version of Nintendo's console.
10. Wideload Games Partners With Austin's Aspyr Media, Inc.
* Chicago-based Wideload Games and Austin-based Aspyr Media, Inc. announced an exclusive worldwide deal where Aspyr will publish Wideload's games. Ex-Bungie and Halo/Marathon/Oni creator Alexander Seropian generously touted Aspyr's customer-centricity, and Aspyr said, "We've padded our walls and removed all sharp objects from our offices, so we can be ready for the craziness that Wideload will deliver."
* Wideload Games' first title will be based on the Halo engine, and will be "injecting a unique blend of their visionary development model, creative gameplay and oddball humor into the computer and video games industry."
11. Midway To Open Austin Game Development Studio
* Midway announced they will be opening a game development studio in Austin "in the near future." This is good news to the Austin game community, given Acclaim's recent shuttering, and Electronic Arts (EA Games) shuttering of Origin months ago.
* I'm reserved on my excitement (though I think it is cool), because this may be a zero-sum gain (even without considering the Acclaim loss). My thought is maybe Midway will acquire an Austin developer, like Inevitable Entertainment, who is working on Midway's remake of Area 51.
12. Microsoft's Video Codec Added To Blu-ray
* The Blu-ray Disc Association announced Microsoft's VC-1 video codec will be included in the BD-ROM specification, alongside MPEG-4 AVC High Profile. This is huge win for Microsoft, Since their codec is also included as mandatory in the competing HD-DVD standard. Currently, it's rumored XBox Next will support HD-DVD, and Sony's Playstation 3 will support Blu-Ray. This latest announcement means if the latter is true, Microsoft will be in Sony's next-gen console. Heh.
13. New Releases
September 5
--------------------
* Burnout 3: Takedown (Driving)
* Carmen Sandiego: The Secret of the Stolen Drums (Adventure)
* Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (Fighting)
* Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (RTS)
* Silent Hill 4: The Room (Adventure/Survival-Horror)
September 12
--------------------
* Fable (RPG)
* ShellShock: Nam '67 (Action)
* Syberia II (Adventure)
* Vietcong: Purple Haze (Action/FPS)
September 19
--------------------
* Def Jam: Fight for NY (Fighting)
* Headhunter: Redemption (Action)
* NHL 2005 (Sports)
* Second Sight (Action)
* Star Wars: Battlefront (Action/FPS)
* Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (Sports)
* X-Men Legends (RPG)
September 26
--------------------
* Crash Twinsanity (Action)
* The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee (Driving)
* Get On Da Mic (Puzzle)
* GTR (Driving)
* Rocky: Legends (Sports)
* Shark Tale (Action)
* Still Life (Adventure)
* SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (Fighting)
* Torque: Savage Roads (Driving/Motorcycle)
* Trigger Man (Action)
* Xbox Live Arcade (Multiple)
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