Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Sony gets Unreal; What's on the Xbox 360 hard drive?

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Sony gets Unreal; What's on the Xbox 360 hard drive?

Sony gets Unreal
Consequences of Grand Theft Auto
Can't we all just get along (with HD optical)?
Electronic Arts gets the rest of the LOTR
I'm turning Japanese (I really think so)
What's on the Xbox 360 hard drive?
Halo 2 adds more awards
Christians got game

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NEWS:
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Sony gets Unreal
- Sony entered into a licensing agreement With Epic Games to use the Unreal 3.0 Engine. Unllike Microsoft saying the engine will be their preferred middleware, Sony gets sublicensing rights. This won't be free (but will be "substantially discounted"), but an evaluation version will be made available for the PS3 dev community as part of the PS3 Software Development Kit.
- The announcement dovetails into similar SCEI sublicensing agreements -- most notably the Ageia PhysX SDK (aka "NovodeX") and Havok (physics and animation SDKs).
Consequences of Grand Theft Auto
- OK, so I haven't been writing about the so-called "Hot Coffee Mod" for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, because I didn't want to give additional press to what looks like an irresponsible PR stunt (and I won't link to the game, company, or articles in this blurb.
- In case you're blessedly out of the loop, there's a purported PC mod that unlocks somewhat graphic sex mini games. While Take Two Interactive initially denied they had anything to do with the content, blaming "enterprising 3rd parties", industry site GameSpot.com was able to unlock the same content on the PS2 with cheat codes.
- The content would move the game from its current "Mature" rating to "Adults Only" (AO). As a result, GameStop.com, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Circuit City have pulled GTA from store shelves and websites.
- Since GTA is one of the summer's biggest releases (and going back to my "irresponsible PR stunt" comment), analysts are putting the cost to the industry at ~$50 million. The FTC announced Wednesday that they will begin an investigation of Take Two Interactive.
- I'm fairly pissed at Take Two, because they've undermined a lot of good folks' work to responsibly rate and distribute game content.
- You can read the ESRB finding and recommendation here.
Can't we all just get along (with HD optical)?
- Sony and co. are backing Blu-Ray DVD. Toshiba and others are backing the competing HD-DVD. And the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) finally weighed in via president Bo Andersen, who's called for compromise in the DVD format war. Anderson said, "the launch of a single high-definition DVD format is unquestionably preferable to a 'format war' that could cause consumer confusion and lead to a reluctance to embrace either format."
- Microsoft has called Sony's decision to put Blu-Ray in the Ps3 "extremely risky", and aren't going to include any hi-def optical drive in the initial Xbox 360. However, both Microsoft's J Allard and Robbie Bach have said "we have a next-gen optical strategy", hinting at possible subsequent versions of the Xbox 360.
Electronic Arts gets the rest of the LOTR
- J.R.R. Tolkien's world had been torn asunder. Giant Electronic Arts had the rights to the Peter Jackson movies, and was producing great games. Vivendi Universal Games had the license to the books, and ... wasn't doing such great games.
- This is all about to change. EA announced an expansion of their rights allowing them to make games based on the books. They also gave details on the two Middle Earth games: The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II (a sequel to the successful PC RTS) and The Lord of the Rings Tactics (a Sony PSP tactical strategy game, and probably to be renamed).
I'm turning Japanese (I really think so)
- This week saw the XBox summit in Tokyo, and a bunch of new and previous announcements show a lot more Japanese love for the Xbox successor.
- A small sampling:
  - Ridge Racer 6 (Namco) and Mobile Suit Gundam (Bandai) will mark the franchises' first entries onto Microsoft's console. Bandai also announced they're developing 2 other games for the Xbox 360.
  - Resident Evil 5 (Capcom).t
  - Tecmo has show recent Xbox love with Dead or Alive franchise exclusivity, added to the announced Dead or Alive 4 lauch title with Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2, the still-mysterious-as-all-get-out Dead or Alive Code: Cronus, and a new title, Project Progressive.
- A full list of publishers and games can be found at TeamXbox.com, though it doesn't list which games are coming stateside.
What's on the Xbox 360 hard drive?
- Microsoft submitted the content of the Xbox 360 hard drive to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to get the content age-appropriate approved for EU release. Unlike the PS3, the Xbox 360 will ship standard with a removable hard drive.
- Here's the full list (WMAs are audio clips; WMVs are video clips; and I'm really curious about "DVD OF GAME"):
  - 00:22:59:00 DVD OF GAME
  - 00:03:19:00 01 DRIVE AWAY.WMA
  - 00:04:03:00 16 - Z TRIP - FURIOUS.M4A
  - 00:03:54:00 17 - SUNSHINE - WHAT YOU'VE GOT.WMA
  - 00:03:03:00 1ST_TITANICTESTSEQUENCE_SINKING_8MBPS.WMV
  - 00:03:19:00 2ND_TITANICTESTSEQUENCE_AT_DOCK_8MBPS.WMV
  - 00:02:57:00 BAND GIRLS MONEY.WMA
  - 00:03:54:00 BROTHER.WMA
  - 00:02:38:00 C'MON EVERYBODY.WMA
  - 00:04:14:00 GET UP.WMA
  - 00:03:30:00 HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.WMA
  - 00:06:42:00 HDD_FINAL_MASTER_DOUG.WMV
  - 00:03:44:00 HELICOPTER.WMA
  - 00:01:02:00 IMPOSSIBLEFIELD_2MBPS.WMV
  - 00:04:35:00 KRAFTY.WMA
  - 00:03:32:00 PRESSURE.WMA
  - 00:02:56:00 PUNK ROCK SUPERSTAR.WMA
  - 00:04:21:00 SHALLOW.WMA
  - 00:03:41:00 STREETCAR.WMA
  - 00:03:39:00 TAKE IT AWAY.WMA
  - 00:03:34:00 THE RAZOR.WMA
  - 00:06:50:00 WARREN_MILLER_2MB.WMV
Halo 2 adds more awards
- Taping for the 3rd annual video game awards, G-Phoria wound up last night, and Halo 2 took home a warthog full of awards.
- Besides "Game of the Year", Halo 2 took the most awards overall, and bagged "Best Shooter", "Best Multiplayer Game", "Best Sound Design", "Best Original Soundtrack", "Best Boss" (Scarab battle), and "Best Male Voice Performance" (David Cross, who complains about how hearing his voice while playing Halo 2 takes him out of the game. I'd like to have that problem, David.)
- Other games did well, too, like the well-deserving God of War (Sony)
- Full list at G-Phoria 2005.
Christians got game
- Today through Saturday, the Christian Game Developers Conference is going on in Portland, OR. Christian games have gotten recent attention with the announcement that the hugely popular Left Behind series will be made into video games, with the first release (an RTS) out this fall, after being in development since 2001.
- N'Lightning Software CEO Ralph Bagley made the comment "Fifteen years ago, the Christian music world looked like Christian games today."
- I'm hoping Bagley is talking about the nascent state of the industry, and there's not a parallel to Christian music in the late 80s and early 90s, where the bar for entry was so low that several sub-par "artists" who couldn't get a break in the mainstream "converted" and pummeled people's ears with their drudge. I'm going to get nasty-grams ...

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Sony gets Unreal; What's on the Xbox 360 hard drive?

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