Over the weekend, Activision and Vivendi announced their plans to merge, creating Activision Blizzard - the world’s largest video game publisher. Vivendi will contribute Vivendi Games (valued at $8.1 billion) and $1.7 billion in cash, for an approximated 52% stake of Activision Blizzard.
2K Games are riding the success of BioShock by forming another studio - primarily comprised of a portion of the crew that worked on BioShock. The new studio is expected to reside in the San Francisco Bay Area of Novato. The studio is currently looking for a lead animator, but if you have the prerequisite 8 years experience we are sure you would have heard about the position already.
via ShackNews
The retail price required for a console to reach mass market appeal is an elusive figure, and it’s safe to say that for the current generation we are still a long way away from that point. In speculating about that figure, there is often a gulf between the perspectives of the platform holders and the consumer. The Sony’s and Microsoft’s will argue that because of their systems’ amazing capabilities, consumers are willing to pay more than they did in previous generations. But on the other hand, consumers are accustomed to parting with the same sum of money as they did for previous generation consoles, irrespective of wizzbang technology. Their standards and expectations of the gaming experience have been kicked up a notch, yet the amount of money in their wallets remains the same.
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EA has apologized for the recent softcore advertising feature for Need for Speed: ProStreet that appeared on Page3.com. A company spokes person had this to say about the controversial shoot:
“We regret that these images slipped through the proper EA approval process. They were not appropriate for our brand. The original site has been taken down this morning.”
The original images were indeed deleted, however a video of the photoshoot still remains - albeit with all association to Need for Speed removed.
Good one EA, thanks for further propagating the stereotype that gamers are mouth-breathing social isolates.
Greenpeace has announced Nintendo as the worst offender in their Guide to Greener Electronics report. Nintendo received a straight 0 from the rating system, and Microsoft weren’t that much better at 2.7 - however Sony did very well, coming equal third with a score of 7.3.
via 1Up
Ken Kutaragi has been chosen by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences to receive the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award, and will receive the honor on February 7th. Aged 56, the now retired Kutargi was former president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, and a stalwart figure in creating and launching the Playstation.
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Your favorite shows are already on hiatus or in danger of being canceled, but there is a silver lining to the writers’ strike in Hollywood - a lot of them are writing for video games during the period. Variety recently brought to light the good news in a recent issue:
While the WGA has made no secret that it would like to eventually cover vidgame writing, it hasn’t pushed the issue yet and is allowing members to work on games during the strike.
“It has been an interesting shift,” says one tenpercenter who focuses on vidgames. “The literary agents are now saying, ‘Why don’t we get our clients over there during the strike?’ even though in the past they thought the money wasn’t good enough or the work is too demanding.”
This is definitely promising news, can you imagine a game written by Charlie Kaufman or episodic content written by some of the writers from Seinfeld?
via Kotaku
Remember Bioshock? If you’re a PC user, one of the many memories you may have had about this game was its painstakingly lengthy install process, which required you to download the EXE from one of 2K’s content servers, which inevitably crashed. While 2K has been under a lot of fire for this and Bioshock’s equally frustrating copy protection issues, senior programmer Martin Slater has defended 2K’s strategies, explaining that anti-piracy measures such as this are essential to tackle the major problem in PC gaming today.
Sony have halved the price of the PlayStation 3 development kit in an effort to increase developer profitability, and bring in more small development companies. Development kits can be now had for 950,000 Yen in Japan, US$10,250 in North America and EUR 7500 in Europe. A company statement described the reasons for the price change:
“As more and more new titles are developed for the PS3 format, SCEI will significantly reduce the price of the Reference Tool in order to contribute to the cost saving measures of the development community.”
It’s always a bit of a conundrum whether to write about Jack Thompson’s latest exploits or not. On one hand you don’t want to give him any more attention but on the other hand it’s news and people deserve to know about it. Now there is another reason not to - you might just get sued. Dennis McCauley, owner and writer of GamePolitics.com, recently found this out the hard way. Admittedly, he didn’t just report on Thompson’s moves - he also wrote a complaint to the Bar that was subsequently dismissed. Thomson is currently petitioning the court to sue McCauley and GamePolitics’ parent company ECA for US$1 million.
via GamePolitics
