Archive for May 2nd, 2008
« Previous EntriesOkamoto Warns Of Atari Caliber DS Crash [Nintendo DS]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Game Republic's Yoshiki Okamoto, a twenty year industry vet whose credits include Street Fighter II, Resident Evil and, more recently, Folklore, tells Gamasutra he fears the Japanese game industry may be in danger of suffering the same fate that befell Atari in the early '80s. If you're too young to remember, a glut of software for the Atari 2600 and its peers, the majority of which we'll be nice enough to describe as liquid feces written in assembler, flooded the market, resulting in a industry crushing crash.
Today's problem? A glut of software—particularly "brain" games—for the Nintendo DS published by inexperienced companies looking to make a quick buck.
"People are talking about how the second 'Atari crash' is around the corner," Okamoto tells Gamasutra "And Nintendo is the one that has to figure out a way to stop it."
He warns that the over-inflated market may come back to bite Nintendo in the corporate ass, that it would be "foolish" to allow history to repeat itself. While it may seem unlikely that a company on the scale of Nintendo, one who is flush with cash and whose key economic interests lie in the video game market—as opposed to the Warner Bros. of the eighties—will be as heavily impacted by a change in tastes and a deflated market, but he may have a point.
We suspect that Nintendo themselves will be fine, with me-too publishers pulling out of the pseudo-educational game market when the shine wears off. We also won't shed a tear when they're gone.
For the full and extensive Okamoto interview, check out Gamasutra.
Yoshiki Okamoto: Japan's Game Maverick Speaks [Gamasutra]
AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 Released, Much Improved [Featured Windows Download]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Windows only: Popular freeware anti-virus application AVG Free recently updated to AVG Free 2008. Aside from a general interface overhaul and faster performance, the updated anti-virus scanner has added several new features with a focus on web security. AVG is always at the forefront of the freeware anti-virus category, so unless you don't run anti-virus software, it's a great alternative to crappy Windows software.
World in Conflict: Soviet Assault Yulja Campaign [Clips]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
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World in Conflict is quite an unique take on PC strategy gaming, so I'm interested to see what World in Conflict: Soviet Assault will do for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (it's also popping up on the PC). This video shows off some of the single player campaign missions from the Soviet point of view. Most of them have been added to the single player campaign included in last year's release.
Happy Seventh [Day Note]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008To: Bash
From: Crecente
Re: Using Two Computers At Once, So Awesome!
Tristan's birthday is Saturday. He turns a whopping seven years old. Kinda creepy, that a child of mine can be that old. He's getting a new bicycle from us, shhhh, don't tell anyone. The grandparents have flown in for the occasion and there will be much eating of cake over the weekend. I doubt I'll have a single second to spare for GTA IV, but we're definitely going to fiddle with some Wii games.
Oh, I use two computers, one with two screens, while I'm working. It's great. Elvis had four televisions in his home. It looks like he took a chainsaw to a wall and just stuck those big old cabinet TVs in the wall. So weird.
Have a good weekend.
What you missed:
ESA Confirms Activision/Vivendi Departure
ESRB Rates EarthBound For Wii VC
Five Publishers Drop Out of E3 This Year, Some Blame ESA President
Wild Earth: African Safari Review: A-Wiimoweh
Industry Insiders Discuss ESA, E3's Future
Next Week’s Rock Band DLC Makes The Scene [Harmonix]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Next week's batch of Rock Band downloadable tracks arrive just in time for the new, officially licensed Rock Band Lip Ring controller, adding extra authenticity to what Harmonix is calling the Scene Pack. Individual hipster tracks will hit you in the wallet for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) each or $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points) as a bundle. They're all master tracks, fortunately, and should show up on the service of your choice starting next Tuesday.
- "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" by Fallout Boy
- "Date With The Night" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- "It Hurts" by Angels & Airwaves
DLC Week of May 6th [Rock Band Forums]
How To Enter the Park Tool Bike Month
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Bicycles are beautiful and amazing things. As a form of transportation and source of adventure and fun they are at the top of the class. With warmer weather and longer days we have more and more chances to cruise along on two wheels and enjoy the world around us. We want to see more people riding ...
By: fungus amungus
How To Enter the Park Tool Bike Month
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Bicycles are beautiful and amazing things. As a form of transportation and source of adventure and fun they are at the top of the class. With warmer weather and longer days we have more and more chances to cruise along on two wheels and enjoy the world around us. We want to see more people riding ...
By: fungus amungus
GTA IV Great For Not Getting Crabs, According To Late Late Show [Clips]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
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Conan O'Brien and The Late Show writers have already weighed in on the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. His competition, Craig Ferguson, takes a different angle, checking in with special correspondent Tim Meadows, who we're glad is getting work. Highlights include racial tension, European immigration, venereal disease gags and the murder of innocents. Does the Late Late Show have that laughter piped in or does everyone else think Craig's accent is as funny as I do?
Google Adds Mac-Specific Search [Google]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
If you run into a problem on a Windows computer, all you have to do is type a little description of the problem and Google takes care of the rest; Mac users, on the other hand, often need to include a little context in their search—instead of typing a query like text editor, you type text editor mac. Google's Mac-specific portal, found at http://google.com/mac/, now includes a Mac-specific search box. It's not groundbreaking, but the guaranteed Mac-specific results could come in handy next time you're looking for a specific application or you're troubleshooting your Mac.
No Bo in New Tecmo Bowl [Tecmo Bowl Kickoff]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Hear that? That's the sound of hearts breaking.
Yesterday I posted more of a plea than a story, asking Tecmo not to F-up their return to the beloved football franchise Tecmo Bowl and it seems that most of you were with me. Heck, I even received a private email with assurances that things would remain F-up free. And for the most part, it seems that that is the case.
But Stephen Totilo IMed me this morning to point out what he's found out about the upcoming game, most of which sounds great, some of which... OK one of which, is not so much.
First of all, I’m told that this game isn’t a new 3D re-invention. It’s a classic 2D game.
I’ve also learned that the game won’t include any NFL teams or players, due to EA having the licenses locked up. It won’t include retired players either, and that includes “Tecmo Super Bowl” icon Bo Jackson.
No Bo? Say it ain't so!
Hit up the link to read Tecmo's take on what you should think of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff.
Tecmo: No Bo Jackson, No NFL For New ‘Tecmo Bowl’ — But Still Faithfully Old-School [MTV Multiplayer]
Industry Insiders Discuss ESA, E3’s Future [E3 Drama]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
What's the fate of E3, and of the Entertainment Software Association? It's worth examining in light of recent events. This morning we broke the news that two major publishers, Activision and Vivendi, have decided to take a pass on the event and exit the trade association, while other companies have withdrawn their E3 attendance as well. At the same time, the ESA appears to be facing stirrings of industry discontent with the ESA's leadership, namely its current president, Mike Gallagher.
E3 is not the boon to publishers that it once was, says Penny Arcade's director of business development Robert Khoo, who as the organizer of the PAX fan expo clearly has an interest, to say the least, in how things turn out.
"The reason that E3 imploded in recent years was because the publishers felt that it turned into this sort of pissing contest between them... where they were trying to figure out who could one-up each other," Khoo said. "They all thought to themselves that it just wasn't worth it."
The controversial decision to re-format last year's E3 into a smaller, more toned-down event was what Khoo calls "a self-correcting measure by the members of the ESA," in an effort to address its constituency better.
"I would imagine that that show is still trying to look out for what the publishers want - that's the whole goal of that trade association, which is to deliver the needs and try to figure out what their members actually want."
Neither Khoo nor Penny Arcade are ESA members, so he couldn't speak to whether the association is acting optimally to assure its members' best interests. "The real question is whether a show like E3 is something publishers want," Khoo said. "I guess Activision, Sierra, Blizzard, Vivendi feel that is not the case,"
Earlier today we reported that several companies skipping E3 blamed their departure on "business issues," which analyst Michael Pachter pinned on poor timing for the July event, inconvenient to those companies' fiscal calendars and overlapping with times during which they must observe a "quiet period" and avoid communicating with investors.
"That blackout period is definitely interesting," Khoo said. "We don't really deal with that at all, just given the timing of our show, because its smack dab in the middle of the quarter. I'm sure that is a genuine concern, but since the third quarter ends at the end of September, it doesn't affect us at all."
According to Khoo, the years where publishers knew what to expect from E3 appear to be over, and that's hurting the event and potentially the ESA by association. After last year's "transitional period," quite a bit looks still to be up in the air, he said.
"It's in flux, and since publishers have that level of uncertainty, that is an unattractive trait to have going into a fairly large investment not knowing what you're going to get out of it."
Several industry sources expressed the same opinion as analyst Pachter: that Gallagher's lack of involvement in the industry not only results in poor planning and poor communication regarding E3, but may weaken the ESA's power to serve the video game industry in the long run.
When prior president Doug Lowenstein gave his final, impassioned speech at DICE 07, he vented his frustration at developers and publishers who refuse to defend their creative work when it's controversial, saying, "Don't duck and cover when the shit hits the fan."
But that's largely what Gallagher did when the association failed to publicly defend Mass Effect during the infamous Fox News "SeXbox" controversy. In an interview with GameDaily, he promised to "support the thrust of the industry activities and the reaction of the video gaming community," but refrained from taking any public position on behalf of the ESA.
However, plenty of the major publishers, including Capcom, Take-Two and EA, continue to support both E3 and the ESA. "It seems that at least four very large members are on the floor and doing press conferences, and it seems like a fifth unaligned company is doing a large event contiguous to that," said EA's Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications. "That means that there's going to be no problem getting a crowd into LA for E3 this summer."
For the first time in several weeks, Take-Two is in agreement with EA on something: "As a member company, Take-Two Interactive supports the Entertainment Software Association, its leadership and its efforts on behalf of the industry," said CEO Ben Feder. "Mike Gallagher has done an outstanding job as president of the ESA and we look forward to participating in the E3 Media and Business Summit this July."
"No plans to drop out, no issue with Mike, no comment," Capcom said, when asked for their thoughts on the usefulness of the ESA and the fate of the event.
Atlus USA is one of the companies declining to participate in this year's E3, but spokesman Aram Jabbari stopped short of placing the blame on the ESA. "The nature of the show changed when they changed it from a consumer show to an invite-only press show," he said. "A lot of things have changed, but our participation doesn't have to do so much with the changes... we just chose not to exhibit this year and we do wish the ESA and all the exhibiting companies the best of luck."
NCsoft said its refusal to attend E3 was related to a timing issue with their internal development schedule and not with any conflicts about E3, but PR manager Mike Crouch declined to comment on potential issues concerning the state of the ESA. "One of the primary functions of the ESA is to manage E3," Crouch said. "And we still believe in E3, and we would have gone this year had the timing worked out for us. In that regard, we don't have anything negative to say about the usefulness of ESA."
"We would have definitely found E3 useful had it fit into our schedule this year. The judgment would be the ESA serves its purpose as far as we're concerned, as far as E3."
Reminder: Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend Underway. … [Steam]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Reminder: Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend Underway. If you were planning on kicking some dust around this weekend, your gaming cupboard dry of thrills, remember that Team Fortress 2 is free all weekend. It's got that fancy new Payload game type now, so if you don't mind playing with ten thousand Medics starved for Steam achievements, fire it up. You can't beat the (temporary) price. Details here.
Make Unusable Time Usable? [Ask The Readers]
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Blogger Steve Rubel discusses his methods for mitigating the Attention Crash caused by modern information overload while remaining well-informed. In the midst of all the demands new technology and information place on our lives, Steve keeps up by making unusable time usable.
I read a ton. However, I have mastered how to stuff it into pockets of time that are normally "unusable." I get through about one business book a week by listening to them when I commute, travel and run errands. In addition, I use Instapaper.com (more) to bookmark articles I want to read.I doubt Rubel is the only one to listen to a book on his commute, so let's hear how you take advantage of unusable time in the comments.