The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer
Two actor organizations which purport to represent Union video game voice actors is threatening to go on strike.
Voice actors have worked under a contract with game publishers since 1993. But now that video games generate nearly as much revenue as domestic movie ticket sales, actors say they want a piece of every game sold rather than one-time up front fees.
Continuing our theme of Rant Wednesday, Stuart Roch is ranting about the PS3 insisting it’s not a gaming machine.
Why, why, why?! Why must Sony persist in their efforts to make a PlayStation console to replace DVD players and stereos in people’s living rooms? Is it just not cool enough anymore to make great game machines? I swear I wish they would just get over this preoccupation with the uber home entertainment system and be satisfied with the fact that they make great gaming consoles. I promise you that I’m not going to buy a PS3 and trade in my PC and high-def DVD player in favor of this supposed all-in-one solution.
This one’s been making the rounds lately (I first saw it on Game Girl Advance): a players’ manifesto on how to fix the gaming industry. A seriously entertaining read, here’s one of the less profane snippets: (2014- Damion notes: updated to a new version of the article from 2007)
[P]romise me that you won’t play the same Madden commentary sound files on every fifth play. “Whoa, he looked like he was hit by a truck! A five-ton truck hauling a trailer!” Yes, you’ll hear that one six motherslapping times in one game of Madden ‘05. YOU HAVE A HARD DRIVE NOW, taking data from a 9 GB DVD. You have NO excuse to keep recycling the same mindless observations over and over and over again until we’re pointing at our television with a shaking finger and screaming “EAT ME, JOHN! JUST EAT MEEEEEEE!” as most of us do now.
While a lot of people were delighted by their E3 experience, there was a lot of grumbling by people who had been there before. The author of GameDrool is one of those people.
Why am I so cranky about these fan boys? Because they prevent me from actually looking at the games on the show floor, which is not only my job, but also everyone else’s. Do you really want to be pushed and shoved around as you walk from booth to booth by a dude whose sole objective is to get the attention of that young lady throwing out a t-shirt?
Peter Freese (head of the Core Technology group over at NCSoft, and former coworker of my own) gave his thoughts about the Xbox 360 on the blog with the really long name He takes it on from a completely different angle than my own analysis, focusing on XBox Live and Microsoft’s desire to control the servers. It’s worth a read. Continue reading
I couldn’t make it to E3 this year. Apparently I’m not the only one.
LOS ANGELES (CNN/Money) – Last year’s E3 was the Phantom’s coming out party.
Infinium Labs, the company behind the on-demand video game service, spent millions of dollars for an elaborate booth meant to quiet growing speculation at the time that the service — and the system that powered it — were non-existent.
…
In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Infinium Labs said there’s a good chance it won’t raise enough money to launch its key product in time, putting its existence at risk.“The company believes, based on past performance, that there is a high likelihood that sufficient capital will not be available … and many or all of these milestones will be missed and the launch date will again shift and/or the company will go out of business,” it said in the April 20 filing with the SEC.
…
But while it hopes to offer at least 10,000 of the Phantom machines by year-end, Infinium acknowledged in the filing that “no firm launch date has been set” for the system. Previously announced launch dates have been missed.
Slashdot pointed out that one of the talks at E3 discusses how to build a Triple-A title. One of the questions that came up on Slashdot was what, exactly, the definition of AAA was. The short, snarky answer is any game with a ginormous budget that reaps ginormous rewards. World of Warcraft is a AAA title. Katamari Damacy is not.
The real problem with AAA titles is, of course, that they’re essentially giant games of chicken. You can always spend money and time to improve a game, but at what point do you hit diminishing returns? At what point does the content tail wag the gameplay dog? Continue reading
It’s worth noting that the PS3 announced their specs last night. Reading through them, it’s almost as if Sony waited for XBox to release their specs, and then increased all the numbers by one. The big question for MMO devs: will it have a hard drive? The answer: Maybe. Continue reading
I thought the juxtaposition of these two stories on Slashdot was pretty funny.
All mirth aside, the first article’s a pretty good summation of the concerns swirling around next-gen consoles. Here’s Warren Spector’s take on things from the CNet article: Continue reading
I won’t be going to E3 this year. Judging from the blogs out there and the tomb-like silence at my own studio, it feels like I’m in a rather exclusive club. All the same, last year’s E3 felt functionally identical to the one before it, so I thought taking a year off would help me appreciate it more next year.
The one thing that I’m sorry I’ll miss is getting a chance to see the XBox 360 in person. I haven’t commented on the XBox 360 yet for the simple reason of not having anything other than rumors with the substance of vapor. Microsoft finally decided to help by putting up a website where you can rotate a model of a XBox 360 controller. Thanks, Microsoft! That clears things up! Continue reading
© 2024 Zen Of Design
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments