Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

Other Blogs:
American McGee
Beautiful Pixels
Hideo Kojima
Hitachi Wasabe's Xbox 360

Xbox 360 Marketplace Updates: (MajorNelson.com)

Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Target has your indie games / Tees

Indie games in the mainstream!

I'm wicked impressed, and want to file this under "little guys with great marketing concept make good".

2D Boy -- "a brave new indie game studio based in San Francisco, making games the old fashioned way - a team of two, no money, and a whole lot of 'love'" -- has struck a deal with retailers (Target stores being possibly first out of the gate).

You can buy independent game game T-shirts, which come with a demo or full version of the game, for like $12.

A bunch of the titles are a la the Experimental Gameplay Project (clothing company egp apparel looks to be an offshoot of the effort), and this is a slick way to get indie cred mainstream recognition (the tags talk quite a bit about the games and creators).

More info at the 2D Boy Website, and (interestingly) waaay more info at Kevin Allen's blog.

Labels: indie development, innovation, licensing, media intersection, shopping deals

Share: | | | TinyUrl | Twitter

Contact Adam

Contribute to 0 comment(s) | Review 0 comment(s)

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

Monday, July 30, 2007

Comic-Con summary (UPDATED)

I've got an initial summary of Comic-Con over on my Acting / Ramblings blog, with more daily summaries to follow.

Those will be soup-to-nuts kind of things, covering acting, comic books, film, cartoons, toys, and video games.

A lot of stuff happened on that last front, and I had some great conversations with everyone from NCsoft to SEGA, and played stuff from the Cartoon Network MMO to TimeShift, and saw hands-off demos for things like Iron Man.

I'll post summaries as it makes sense, but you can also get a ton of Comic-Con content downloaded from Xbox Live (for a limited time), and hit up the following sites / posts for more Comic-Con video game goodness:

UPDATED: Added links for MajorNelson.com (Final Comic-Con content), IGN, and Newsarama.

Labels: announcements, comic books, DLC, Halo, licensing, media intersection, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Share: | | | TinyUrl | Twitter

Contact Adam

Contribute to 0 comment(s) | Review 0 comment(s)

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

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Halo ActionClix update ...

I'm a big fan of toys, video games, and gaming, and I've even mentioned the Halo ActionClix announcement, but somehow missed this interview between Bungie and Senior Game Designer Mike Elliott from Wizkids a few days ago.

Very cool how they updated the Clix gameplay to address dual wielding (which as a side benefit, makes all of your pieces available), and respawning.

Best part?

This:

"At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, Wizkids will be unveiling something pretty incredible for Halo fans and ActionClix players alike. We’re not telling you what it is, though; you’ll just have to wait until the Comic Con which runs from July 26-29 this summer."

I am going to be there this year! Whoot!

Labels: Halo, licensing, media intersection

Share: | | | TinyUrl | Twitter

Contact Adam

Contribute to 0 comment(s) | Review 0 comment(s)

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

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Halo merchandise monstro-morphs...

Dang, I'm good.

From an earlier post of mine:

"(I wonder if JoyRide Studios lost the Halo franchise to McFarlane Toys? That would be sad.)"

Turns out McFarlane Toys is now doing the Halo 3 toys, with five figures (Master Chief, Brute Chieftain, Jackal Sniper, a two-pack of Grunts, and light-up action Cortana) and three mini (3-inch plastic and die-castmetal) vehicles (Warthog, Ghost, and Brute Chopper). The Brute Chopper is new for Halo 3, and this may be the first place it's been officially confirmed.

It's nice to see the figures will maintain a sense of relative scale (5", 6", 5", 3.5"and 4.5", respectively), and despite my previous rantings (across a few blogs) about the lack of articulation in McFarlane's toys, the press release says at least Master Chief will have "more than 18 points of articulation" (would that be "19"?), which ups the Joyride Series One's 15 points. No articulation notes are given for the other figures, which makes me nervous.

But wait, there's more!

Fox, having co-stalled the film that was to be co-produced by them and Universal Pictures, have now signed on to be the primary licensor for Halo, and will provide "a broad array of products, from books to apparel to collectible merchandise."

I've got mixed feelings on all of this licensing. As pro-game as I am, it's a game, not a blockbuster movie. Now, 14.5 million units on a franchise is inarguably market penetration, but is it enough? Also, even executive VP of domestic licensing for Fox Elie Dekel acknowledges, "Fox's licensing division focuses primarily on teens and young adults instead of kids". That makes Halo a great fit for Fox, but does it make for mass-consumerism for a mature-rated game (17 or older) demographic?

Also, the McFarlane toys, oddly, are due "by spring 2008" -- putting them 6 months (or more) after the release of Halo 3.

But the franchise undoubtedly has legs, so I'm curious to watch how all this licensing plays out.

Labels: announcements, Halo, licensing, media intersection, shooters, Xbox 360

Share: | | | TinyUrl | Twitter

Contact Adam

Contribute to 0 comment(s) | Review 0 comment(s)

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