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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
Happy Black Friday (in the US) and Just Another Friday (elsewhere). Since yesterday was Thanksgiving us here in the US, it wasn't much of a news day. I'm not really sure how much valuable information I can give you all today. I could tell you about my somewhat unwilling foray into an attempt at online dating, but, yeah, no. So video games!
The big news for anyone right now is probably about sales (Black Friday thing) and in that spirit I give unto you an enormous array of discount video games. Steam's list is particularly brutal.
Gamasutra has a great piece by the consummate thinker Chris Remo entitled "Looking for Meaning in Games." In the piece, Remo analyzes what he felt to be a recurring theme of the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) which was to "reconsider the expressive or creative possibilities of games." It's been kind of a theme in the game industry as a whole this year as we've seen a major rise in the activity of the independent game development space. I won't do the piece a disservice by summarizing it; you should just read it. Imminently.
On the topic of Gamasutra, the site ran a postmortem piece with developer 8Monkey's about the development of Darkest of Days. Postmortems about super successful games are always interesting, but there's something amazing about an honest postmortem about a somewhat less-than-stellar game. Darkest of Days was a game that had an amazing and fantastic concept and, while I didn't play it, appeared to be executed very well all things considered.
Square-Enix Europe announced on Wednesday that they are "restructuring" the UK-based game development company Beautiful Game Studios. Beautiful is the developer of the Championship Manager games. According to Square-Enix: "We have taken a decision to re-focus our vision for the franchise and redefine our business model to build a successful commercial future for the Championship Manager brand. Our current business model does not allow us to compete in a fast-changing industry with any degree of flexibility or commercial confidence. [...] To achieve this, we will be re-structuring Beautiful Game Studios, which will regrettably bring with it unavoidable job losses. We aim to have this completed before the end of this calendar year." According to Gamasutra, roughly 80% of jobs are being cut or relocated.
That's all I've got for you today, folks. Enjoy your (hopefully) long weekend. Play some video games, eat an over-abundance of food, and check your e-mail inbox constantly. Erm. That last one is more for me. - Audiokinetic Releases Wwise 2009.3 and Announces New Pricing
Audiokinetic Inc., the leading audio solution provider for the video game industry, released today the latest version of Wwise, its award-winning audio pipeline solution. Wwise 2009.3 introduces new features and enhancements, including access to two McDSP plug-ins. Audiokinetic also unveiled a new pricing structure that will allow customers to save up to 20% on purchase of the company's product families. - The Daily GameDev.net
Midweek. Always a hard time, not quite the weekend and you're weary enough from 3 days of being at work. With that in mind here's an energizing GDNet daily for you to break that midweek blues.
Wii Bubble deflating?: I can't say I ever truly groked the appeal of the Wii, but it's being extremely popular with a huge demographic of game players for a while now. But according to Cowen and Company, that could be changing. The survey found that of Wii-only owners fewer people are buying new games for their Wii than 360- or PS3-only owners.
Big is Beautiful: EA Montreal is cutting back its support for the Wii to focus on "action titles and HD-quality products" on the XBox 360 and PS3. The decision has been influenced by the success of Army of Two and EA's drive to adapt to the market of today. It is unclear how much EA Montreal has been affected by the recent layoffs announced by EA.
East is Beautiful: Beautiful Game Studios, developers of recent Championship Manager games will see 80% of posts being cut or relocated to China in a major restructure of the company. The current business model is being blamed for being non-competitive and inflexible in the current climate. The Championship Manager brand will still be headquartered out of London.
XBox - Read the FAQ!: It's emerged that in 2008 Microsoft filed a patent around the technology of a "User-Powered Always Available Contextual Help Guide for a games console". Whilst seemingly different to Nintendo's Super Guide, this will feature content written by gamers - for gamers.
Games getting cheaper?: Analysts EEDAR are predicting that the median price for XBox 360 and PS3 console titles will drop by $10 to $49.99 by the end of 2010. Pricing for the Wii has been difficult for the company to predict due to it working "perpendicular to the rest of the industry".
2m XBox Live Facebook Users: It's reported that nearly 2 million people used Facebook on their 360 console in the first week of its availability. A further 1 million signed on to Last.fm and 1.7 million users checked out Zune's brebranded 1080p video store.
Odds and Sods
Alienware: Steam Powered.Unreal Development Kit: "Not watered down"New York trials in game Emergency Alerts - The LOGIN 2010 Call for Speakers is Open
This is the news many of you have waited for, the call for speakers for LOGIN 2010. To speak at the LOGIN Conference is a mark of distinction and accomplishment in the game industry - but it's not necessarily easy. Speakers and their abstracts are vetted through peer review, and are carefully matched to our attendees' needs. The Call for Speakers is open to all online game industry experts worldwide, whether for console, PC or mobile platforms. Candidates are asked to review the topics of interest and session submission tips on the LOGIN 2010 website and then submit a completed session proposal form with 1,000 word abstract and biography before the deadline of January 25, 2010. - The Daily GameDev.Net
It's not Turkey Day yet, but it is Turkey week in the US. That means irritating commutes to meet family, impending weight gain, and people taking vacation days at what will inevitably be the worst possible time. I considered taking a vacation day, but I guess I'm just too dedicated to doing nothing in particular to take a break from it.
Unfortunately Turkey Week is also a pretty thin news week. However, GamaSutra did cover a talk by Ken Rolston that is fairly interesting. I met the man once, and I can tell you for a fact he is crazy. I mean that in the best, most positive possible way, and he's a wonderful game designer...but still crazy. Though to be honest, I'm starting to suspect that's a prerequisite for being a designer to begin with. Just look at Trent! He actually thought having a daily news column here was a great idea.
In the realm of pointless obsession about video game violence, two organizations conducted a study of whether games allow players to violate the Geneva Convention. Apparently the horrible conduct that is allowed in these war video games might mislead people to believe that all soldiers do in real life is go around killing people indiscriminately, disregarding wartime laws. Unimaginable.
I bet a lot of you are big into the whole nostalgia thing, so I can only assume you'll be enthralled or appalled to learn that several Atari games are now available to play online in Flash form. And I have to tell you, Lunar Lander is still really hard.
There's nothing I love more than court cases (except maybe NPD numbers), and today brings us a new one. This time it's against Microsoft, courtesy of accessory make Datel. It's essentially your standard monopoly allegations, as a result of Microsoft blocking out third party memory cards. Personally I'm on Datel's site, and I thought the MS move was pretty asinine. Then again, consoles aren't meant to be friendly to their customers when it comes to money. Just look at the wireless adapter pricing for the 360.
Apparently Square Enix is doing the cinematics for Deus Ex 3. As a fairly enthusiastic Final Fantasy fan, I can definitely attest to the amazing skills the Squeenix guys have when it comes to producing prerendered cinematics. They have to do a good job since the vast majority of their box art and trailers are scripted/prerender scenes, after all.
Lastly, a couple Pandemic guys who got fired decided to go out Office Space style. The video's NSFW audio, but completely worth it. No, it's not quite the original, but there's nothing quite like smashing a printer to hip hop music. Oh and before I go -- Miley Cyrus 1, crazy "fan" 0!
- 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
- Nintendo: Price Cut Drives Wii Sales Up 85 Percent Week-To-Week
 As market signs point to Nintendo's continuing challenge to restore the peak days of the Wii hardware sales boom, the company's $50 console price cut late in September played a key role, the company says. Sales and marketing VP Cammie Dunaway tells the San Francisco Chronicle that since the global price reduction, which put the Wii at $199, sales of the console have been up 85 percent on a weekly basis. Although its DS handheld ...
 - Release This: Avatar Hits U.S., New Super Mario Bros. Wii Debuts In Japan
 Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in a custom compiled list. This week brings James Cameron's Avatar and MX vs. ATV Reflex stateside, while Japan gets Sengoku Musou 3 and New Super Mario Bros Wii. The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions ...
 - Gstar: Ragnarok Online Creator Making New RO-Like Game
 As part of a larger conversation with Gamasutra at the Gstar expo in Busan, South Korea, Ragnarok Online designer Hakkyu Kim has revealed that he is working on a new title in the same vein as the original -- though the Ragnarok name is still owned by Gravity, which distributed the first title. He also revealed a second project of a more conventional nature. "I'm working on two new projects," Kim said. "One is an ...
 - GDC 2010 Announces Level Design, Indie Studio Tutorials
 Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have announced the first set of tutorials for the March 9-13 event, revealing an all-star level design tutorial day and a full-day session on 'building an independent dev studio in 2010' among the initial tutorials. The GDC tutorials occur on the first two days of the event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, alongside the high-profile GDC Summits that span areas such as iPhone games, social gaming, and independent ...
 - Interview: Concerto Tactics - The Music of Hiroki Kikuta and Hitoshi Sakimoto
 [We sit down with the composers behind Secret Of Mana and Muramasa, among many other titles, to discuss their art and new soundtrack albums, joining them as they reflect on one another's work.] Previously, composers Hiroki Kikuta and Yoko Shimomura joined us for an informal interview titled "Magical Planet" on their music for Square Enix role-playing games. Their songs from Secret of Mana and Kingdom Hearts were arranged for the orchestra for September's Symphonic Fantasies ...
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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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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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