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$345m invested in virtual worlds this year
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USD 161 million has been invested into 16 virtual worlds companies during the second quarter of 2008, brining this year's total investment up to USD 345 million, according to figures from Virtual World Management.
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- GameDev
- The Daily GameDev.net
Many people have come up to me in the street and asked me: "Mike, what is best in life?" I generally strike them down with my diamond-encrusted Scepter of the Moderator (+2/+3 against trolls) and shriek something about them having the audacity to approach me without a prior appointment. But in reality, what is best in life is making computer-controlled characters fight each other to the death, so you don't have to waste any ammo. It was true in Doom, and it's true today.
This week brings us little or no specific joy, though some people on staff will be quite overjoyed that Twilight: Scene It is out for the Wii and Hello Kitty Party is available for the DS. You might also be interested in Serious Sam HD, the graphically swank remake of the original game about a man who shoots monsters and frequently locked up my original Xbox.
Stardock has released their annual customer report, revealing that they are getting their butts kicked by Steam, but not as badly as, well, everyone else, ever. It would be nice to have a compelling alternative to Steam (particularly for the Mac - hint, hint) but so far Impulse isn't really there for me.
Need for Speed: Shift is making a pseudo-compelling argument for having my attention back from Modern Warfare 2 and Forza 3 with new free downloadable content which provides for some cheap-to-license American classics as well as a Japanese torque monster. The PlayStation store has a cool application now called adhocParty, which lets you tunnel those bastard PSP games that only offered local multiplayer... through the internet. What this means is this: if you have any stock in any Japanese corporation, chances are you are going to want to sell it right now before they figure out that they can basically play Monster Hunter forever. It's probably too late already. Also, if you have a Wii, SUPER MARIO KART YES. Reportedly, PilotWings is also coming.
Are you one of the people looking forward to BioShock 2? Did you appreciate how the original game made compromises on almost every aspect of every previous Shocklike game, even Invisible War? Well, it's time for you to enjoy some multiplayer footage. It actually feels a little bit like multiplayer Deus Ex to me, which I loved, and which approximately eight people ever played. The Saboteur has gone gold, no small feat considering most of its development staff were fired unceremoniously last week.
EA's marketing team is at it again: if you were looking forward to that game trailer about going to a Catholic church and praying your arse off, well, you're not gonna get it. Turns out it was a publicity stunt for Dante's Inferno, just like when EA phoned me and told me to rob a bank last night and take hostages. That game better be pretty good, because I'm told I only get like 30-35 minutes of video games a day on death row.
Before you go today, check out this year's lineup of Valve Christmas cards, featuring the red Spy doing what must be a form of CPR to the blue Scout's mom. - Weekend Reading: Tales from Journal Land
Entries from 11/13 - 11/19
Journal Land Pick of the Week
Warp Pipe to Professional Game Development - zyrolasting has a mini-article about how to properly manage your code in projects, based on answers he has been giving on the forums, repeating himself often. - The Daily GameDev.net
It's a Daily! Drew wanted me to apologize to you for his lack of a Daily yesterday. I am apologizing for me for a quick Daily today because I just got home (it's late) and I have God of War Collection and Assassin's Creed 2 in my bag and those games need playing.
The most important news of the week is that No More Heroes is coming to Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This is the best news of the week and if you disagree you are wrong.
Speaking of things which are awesome: 3D Dot Game Heroes is also getting a US release in May 11, 2011. This is also brilliant news. 3D Dot Game Heroes is being brought to us by From Software (developer of Demon's Souls!) and Atlus (US publisher of Demon's Souls!) is aimed at making an awesome game that appeals to the inner video gaming child in all of us by emulating Zelda except awesomer.
And speaking of more things which are absolutely rad, the Playstation 3 beta of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 started today. Bad Company was pretty much one of the best multiplayer games of all time (as fellow Daily writer, Mike, and I can attest to) and it looks like DICE is just improving on it in every way possible for the sequel.
In case you were unaware or missed the Daily earlier this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold a whole lot of copies. In the game's first five days of sales Activision claims that a "'new worldwide estimated five-day sell-through record' of $550 million" was reached. That's just an absurd number. Source Shacknews relays the information that Activision included in the press release at the aforementioned link. In tangentially related news, game blogger Matthew Kaplan wrote up a no doubt spoiler-laden summary of Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" mission with contributions from around the Internet. As I indicated last week I think this is an interesting topic of discussion.
Game developer, publisher, and desktop enhancement developer Stardock released its yearly consumer report this week which has all sorts of stats on the company's consumer demographic information and digital distribution and other such numbers. This is the kind of plan a lot of publicly-held companies make for their share-holders every year but Stardock is a privately-held company and, as such, releases this information for the sake of its customers. Check it out. The statistic which saddened me is that, apparently, 96% of Stardock's customer base is male. That's just... Ugh.
Marvelous Entertainment reports better luck with games on the PSP than the Wii. The company cites poor sales for its huge critical hit Little King's Story on the Wii, which is sad, because while I haven't played the game I've heard nothing but praise (and keep meaning to pick it up). Presumably Muramasa: The Demon Blade saw similarly poor sales given the point of the article, but only the Japanese sales data was given. The company has, however, had good luck with its PSP releases due to sales and lower development costs. This is particularly fantastic because Marvelous made Half-Minute Hero which is, actually, one of my favorite games of the year. Not to keep linking my site in Dailies, but I want you to share in the glory of this super clever game. It's brilliant.
Now. Friday. Let's have some fun this weekend, shall we? I know I said this was a quick Daily (and it was, for the most part), but it ended up being long. This is because I pretty much just talked about video games. I like video games. OH I HAVE ASSASSIN'S CREED TO PLAY, HAVE A NICE WEE-- - irrKlang 1.2.0 released
irrKlang, a high level audio library for game developers has just been released in version 1.2.0, adding FLAC file support and performance improvments. irrKlang is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and able to play back various file formats such as WAV, MP3, OGG, MOD etc, both in 2D and 3D. irrKlang is free for non-commercial use and can be used by C++ developers as well as with .NET languages like C#, VisualBasic.NET and similar. - Call for Papers: European Summit for Educators, Game Industry Executives
Named "the happiest place on Earth" by Oprah, Denmark is about to get a tad geekier :)
The first Game Education Summit Europe will take place at the Danish Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment (DADIU) on June 22-23, 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Call for Papers: http://www.geseurope.com/ges-europe-2010-call-papers
- DevMaster
- NeoAxis Game Engine in web browsers and first NeoAxis based game on Steam.
The next release of NeoAxis Engine, version 0.83 is a step to web integration. This version comes with web browser support. NeoAxis based application can be deployed to web browsers now. NeoAxis Engine supports all major browsers including FireFox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.
NeoAxis Engine is a complete integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics including 3D virtual worlds, AAA games, and realistic simulations. The system comprised of both a real-time 3D engine and a suite of full featured tools.
- GamasutraNews
- ArenaNet's Strain Launches Undead Labs, Reveals Zombie MMO
 ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain, who left NCsoft in August of this year, has revealed his new project: Seattle-based game development studio Undead Labs. Strain, a key figure in the development of Guild Wars, will continue to focus on MMOs -- this time on consoles, promising to "pioneer a new development model that will create a new breed of MMO built from the ground up for console gamers." The sole focus of Undead Labs, according to ...
 - Amid Class Action Suit Reports, Microsoft Defends Xbox Live Modded Console Bans
 As it responds to a law firm's attempt to gather petitioners for a class action suit, Microsoft is claiming the number of Xbox Live bans has been over-reported, and defends its efforts to combat piracy. Last week, consumer site IncGamers noticed that law firm Abington IP was seeking information from users who had their Xbox Live accounts suspended by Microsoft because of their modded consoles. Abington's outreach prompted numerous media reports suggesting that a class ...
 - ESA, Sony, Microsoft Respond To Obama's Call For STEM Education
 Several game industry publishers and organizations, including Microsoft, Sony, and the Entertainment Software Association, have announced educational initiatives as part of President Barack Obama's call for progress in science and math education. The President's "Educate to Innovate" campaign aims to foster a greater nationwide focus on "STEM" (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, partially in response to the United States' lagging childhood and teenage rankings in science and math. "I'm committed to moving our country ...
 - Social Dev Zynga Reaches 100M Unique Monthly Users
 Zynga, developer of mega-successful social game FarmVille, says it has reached a major user milestone, with more than 100 million unique users playing its online games every month. A million of those players spend money on virtual goods each month. Despite that figure only representing 1 percent of users, Zynga says such spending comprises 90 percent of its revenue. The company also says it has tallied 200 million monthly active users, a figure that counts ...
 - Nintendo Plans Blue, White DSi Bundles For Black Friday
 Nintendo will launch limited-edition DSi bundles for the holiday shopping date known as "Black Friday," offering special colors and $20 worth of pre-installed software. Beginning on November 27, consumers can purchase either Metallic Blue or White DSis that each come with five different DSiWare software installs -- the blue hardware is themed around Mario, and the White is themed around brain teasers. The Metallic Blue DS includes Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, Dr. ...
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Jason T Clark, IBM developerworks
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Jason T Clark is an author, inventor, and evangelist for emerging interactive technologies. Jason currently works for IBM Software Group on the developerWorks Advanced Design team, where he is a software developer creating enterprise web applications and Web 2.0 applications.
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E3 Media & Business Summit
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July 15, 2008 to July 17, 2008
The event will be open to ESA members and non-members alike. Companies involved in console, PC, online, and mobile game publishing and developing, as well as makers of video game hardware and peripherals will be eligible to participate. Attendance at all events, meetings, and demonstrations will be by invitation only.
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Problem with the custom portlet.
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Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide
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Whip up awesome Wii games using Flash and ActionScript. Nintendo Wii Flash Game Creator's Guide lays out each next-generation technique alongside real-world examples and cut-and-paste code samples. Learn how to design exciting Flash animations, create cool characters, simulate realistic motion, and use the Wii remote control in innovative ways. Plus, you'll get the latest tricks for supercharging your games and tips for distributing them on the Web.
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