Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Monday, May 11, 2009

What if 3D Realms "closing" isn't?

OK, this is (mostly) pure speculation (peppered with wishful thinking) on my part, but what if the recent 3D Realms shuttering is giant red herring?

I did a blip on this on Twitter at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I think this could be brilliant.

Think about it -- biggest, game-slash-vaporware industry joke, goes "belly up" 3 weeks before the rejuvenated Electronic Arts Expo. Lots o' art and video leaks out. LinkedIn updates, but not as much looking as I would have expected. Steady dribbling of information on the game and studio (compared to things like Free Radical, pre-Crytek pickup). Etc.

What better, brilliant viral marketing could there by than pretending to shutter, then coming out fingers flipping at E3 (hopefully, with a stellar, possibly first-party, publisher in tow)?

Fun to think about ...

Labels: companies, E3, E3 2009, rumors

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

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Activision + VU Games = WTF (I mean, "Activision Blizzard")

Seriously, I didn't see this coming.

There's going to be a live Webcast Monday at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern). I'm guessing the Sunday press release is to head off leaks and rumors.

Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games, the interactive adjunct of Vivendi Universal), owns Blizzard Entertainment (who owns the Warcraft MMO, and the Diablo and Starcraft universes) is merging with Activision, and they're calling themselves "Activision Blizzard".

As an aside, this is an interesting elevation of the Blizzard brand. I almost wish they'd pulled an Infogrames, and elevated defunct Sierra like Infogrames elevated the defunct Atari brand (which isn't Atari to me, but I'm a purist). But the Blizzard brand is actually alive, and has more market and consumer pull.

This is a "mega-merger" for this vertical (and most others, at ~$18 billyun), and makes for interesting times in the publishing / developing landscape.

And it opens all sorts of opportunities for "If they mated" style jokes (the folks at Joystiq and Kotaku have been awake longer than me, and beat me to the "Guitarcraft" and "elves on skateboards" jokes. Personally, I'd like to see "World of Bournecraft", but that didn't require a merger. "Brutal Legend Bee Game" requires a merger. "Marvel Ultimate King's Quest Alliance" requires a merger. I could go on.

Anyway, here's the press release.

More on this tomorrow.

Labels: announcements, rumors

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

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Free HD DVD Heroes with 360 player (UPDATED)

UPDATED: Yeppers -- It's for real.

If you haven't bought an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, Sunday could be your golden hour.

Not only has the price dropped from $200 to $180, but rumor has it Best Buy will give you "Heroes" Season 1 on HD DVD free if you buy from them.

So, here's my math representing the new cost of the HD DVD add-on:
$179.99 HD DVD player
- $99.99 Heroes Season 1 on HD DVD (free)
- $27.00 King Kong (HD DVD pack-in)
------------------------------
$53.00 Total

And, you also get to mail away for 5 free HD DVD titles.

So, depending on how you're selling this opportunity to your significant other, your either getting an HD DVD player for fifty-three bucks, or you're getting the player for free, and five HD DVD titles for a little over $10 a piece.

It's a shame the free titles are a little ... lackluster.

Like most purchasing decisions, you have options. You can go to Wal-Mart, and for $10 less on the MSE (depending on your Wal-Mart), you can get the HD DVD player and 300, rather than "Heroes" (and still get the five free movies).

Of course, rumor has it there's an HD DVD Xbox 360 in the works (which would also include a TV tuner). But that won't see the light of day until probably late next year.

Of course, you could just try to win Season 1 of "Heroes", and a "Heroes"-themed 360 and HD-DVD drive at Amazon.com.

Labels: rumors, shopping deals

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

Sunday, October 07, 2007

PS3 drops backward compatibility

In case you haven't heard, there's a new 40GB SKU PlayStation3 coming from Sony Europe -- and it drops backward compatibility for PS2 games altogether.

I don't know yet if this is going to happen in the United States, and while it is irritating, I think there are some bigger things going on.

First, the irritating part. Parts.

Sony blasted Microsoft for Microsoft's multiple SKU approach -- a "Premium / Pro" (hard drive and wireless controller) and a "Core" (the stupid, hard drive-less configuration). This is all Microsoft had until this year, when they released the Elite. There are special editions of the console (Halo 3, Simpsons, etc.), but those don't count as mainstream retail SKUs to me. Oh, and the "Core" will probably be replaced by the "Arcade" version, which differs from the "Core" by switching to a wireless controller and including a memory card.

So, on the Xbox 360 side, you'll have three retail configurations, and two special editions.

And Sony, who criticised multiple SKUs from Microsoft as confusing consumers, has had a 20 GB model, a 60 GB model, and an 80 GB model. Then they phased out the 60GB model in the U.S., and it looks like they're about to do the same in their European territories (Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania). And they've introduced this new 40GB SKU there (and, shortly, in Aussie Land).

And it's not just a hard-drive change on the 40GB version. It'll still come with the SIXAXIS wireless controller, WiFi, and HDMI, but will have only two USB ports (not the four on the 60GB/80GB), and no multi-memory card port.

And it will not be backwards compatible with PS2 games.

Which leads to Irritation point #2: Dropping backwards compatibility. First, it's nice for gamers to have. Second, Sony was a bit uncharitable toward Microsoft as to Microsoft's not supporting backwards compatibility out of the box. Sony told GameDaily BIZ the feature drop is due to "both the reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles".

Thankfully, Joystiq does a good job of refreshing folks' memory by quoting Sony's Phil Harrison as saying in 2006,

"[B]ackwards compatibility, as you know from PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, is a core value of what we believe we should offer. And access to the library of content people have created, bought for themselves, and accumulated over the years is necessary to create a format. PlayStation is a format meaning that it transcends many devices -- PSOne, PS2 and now PS3."

"Hello, Pot? Kettle's on line one."

Besides the embarrassment, what's with dropping the backwards-compatibility feature, when it's "a core value"?

I think there are at least a few options.

First, in the Sony versus Microsoft versus Nintendo race this round, I'd argue it's not the hardware -- it's the game library. Sony knew this in the PSOne and PS2 era, but they seemed to have forgotten it this round. This holiday, Sony will have 65 games for the PS3. Microsoft will have, what -- 250? 280? Halo 3, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata, BioShock, and other console-selling Xbox 360 exclusives? Three hundred and eighty-five playable original Xbox games (and I've personally played at least 36 last-gen titles on my 360.)

By dropping PS2 support in the PS3, Sony forces PS3 owners to buy PS3 games. Games expensive to develop, and needing to recoup cost. Sony may be hoping money shifted from buying PS2-supported titles will go to PS3 game purchases.

Secondly, Sony could be hoping the move causes people to buy PS2 consoles to play PS2 games. Sony is taking a bath this console generation, coming in an arguably distant third. But the PS2 was selling well, and a recently (quietly) revamped version saw manufacturing cost efficiencies. Sony may be realizing the PS3 was cannibalizing PS2 sales more than expected, and they need to drive up their flagship sales. (As an aside, I've said multiple times only Nintendo seems to be able to avoid the self-cannibalization model.)

Or this could be as "simple" as a "right hand no knowing what the left hand is doing" situation. Could it be SCEA is shaking their heads at SCEE? (Probably. But for this? Dunno.)

Or it could be more complex. Think myriad factors, like does moving away from PS2 support in the PS3 reduce support costs? Is the software emulation unaccountably dropped from the new 40GB SKU actually somewhat hardware dependant, and does SCEE measurably reduce its loss-leader margin by taking out this component of the hardware?

And maybe, maybe this could be a good move. Maybe it introduces another SKU at enough of a reduced cost that meets enough of a new market segment that it will be profitable and non-cannibalizing.

Or maybe it's just Sony's turn at channel stuffing.

So why is it irritating?

Because Sony said one thing, lambasted the competition, then turned about and did the same thing -- in spades (at least Microsoft is releasing more feature-rich SKUs). Companies are getting a lot more scrutiny and less obfuscation in what they're doing -- why not come clean? Why not, "Market demands are currently not aggressive enough to justify manufacturing costs, so after serious study and consideration, we've decided to remove features that will least impact our core Sony PlayStation3 constituency."

Or maybe something's broken on the whole console retail model. I mean, does Sony have apologize each time they release a new DVD or music player? Do they have to go on the defensive every time they release a BetaMax, mini-CD, Sony Memory Stick, UMD, or equivalent?

Wait ...

Labels: rumors, Sony

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

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Capcom TGS rumors

In an earlier Tokyo Game Show post, I said, "I'm hoping for some good stuff from Capcom".

While some good stuff did come out from them this week (moving Capcom franchises to mobile handsets, Omega Five for XBLA, three new PS2/PSP games), I should clarify what I want:

Dead Rising 2. And more original IP (a la Dead Rising and Lost Planet).

Fortunately, Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft caught up with former Dead Rising creator/producer (and now Capcom exec) Keiji Inafune, who provided more info (if not short-term hope on DR2).

While Inafune said he does "really want to do Dead Rising 2. It's just still hard to get games for the Western market approved." and unfortunately, the "original team has been split up and is working on different projects".

More encouraging on the new IP side, though, there's this brief exchange between Ashcraft and Inafune:

Ashcraft: Capcom has been cranking about a lot new IPs like Dead Rising, though — not just relying on sequels.
Inafune: And there are a lot more new titles coming. A lot more.

Awesome. More new ideas, please. You guys tend to rock at those.

Labels: companies, rumors, TGS

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

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Disney on the move?

Hmm, Disney may be up to something -- on the video game and downloadable content (DLC) front. I mentioned my thoughts suggesting Disney buy SCi / Eidos, but I am seeing an amazing amount of Disney activity among my video game industry contacts, their blogs, and micro updates.

I wouldn't mention it as a rumor except I have never seen this much concerted traffic among all the gaming people and updates I follow, all pointing back to a single company. We're talking touchpoints to a couple of dozen (otherwise) unrelated publishing and developer entities, all within a few days.

We'll see.

Could be nothing. Could there's just one active Disney networking beaver, and he's playing "Corporate Partner Pokémon".

Labels: announcements, rumors

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

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Disney should buy SCi/Eidos

SCi / Eidos, the publisher behind Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Hitman, and the upcoming Kane and Lynch and Age of Conan (among others), is up for sale.

They're in "extremely preliminary discussions" with an unknown party or parties.

Ubisoft may or may not be interested, and Robert Tchenguiz (an "Iranian billionaire who bought a 20% stake in SCi last year") allegedly isn't interested.

Front runner in the speculation is Time Warner, who is getting back into the interactive game (how many restarts is this?), building up its Seattle presence, and definitely has the facilities to maximize licenses on the film, home entertainment, merchandising, and comic book fronts.

Trying to determine other potentially interested licensing parties is tough, since SCi's / Eidos's properties are licensed out pretty broadly -- Hitman (Fox); Kane & Lynch and Reservoir Dogs (Lionsgate); and Tomb Raider (Paramount).

You know who should buy them?

Disney.

Disney's on a bit of a controlled buying tear lately, though mostly on the development studios front (their most recent acquisition being Austin house Junction Point Studios). Disney acquiring Eidos would be a mini, interactive library equivalent of Sony buying MGM's library. It's a good way to bolster their catalogue, and grow their publishing and distribution services with any pieces of Eidos they want to keep.

Other possible interested parties (spurred by the Robert Tchenguiz private equity idea)?

Elevation Partners. They've been quiet of late. Too quite ...

Labels: rumors

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

Saturday, July 21, 2007

"Gears of War" comics?

Maybe, if a news post on the comic book publisher Boom! Studios is any hint:
"Boom! Studios has an exciting new publishing plan for the rest of 2007 and 2008. Panelists talk about Boom!'s new partnerships with Disney, Paramount, and Epic Games, their existing partnerships, and the many exciting new projects coming out from Boom! Studios. Ross Richie, Adam Fortier, and Andrew Crosby
(creator of the hit SCI FI series Eureka) talk about all things Boom!"
I'll let you know from San Diego next week.

Labels: announcements, Gears of War, rumors, Xbox 360

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