It looks like Atari wants to stop the bleeding by knocking the price of all of their games to $20. This goes for all games, on all formats, only in North America. It is being dubbed, “GamersFirst“, and will even allow you to purchase and download all games digitally via Steam or Direct2Drive, starting June 1st.
“Atari is committed to providing great gaming experiences to the largest possible audience,” said Atari chief executive officer Bruno Bonnell. “With our GamersFirst program, Atari is taking another step forward to make our unique catalogue of games more accessible to everyone. We are proud to announce our unique GamersFirst $20 program and reaffirm our commitment to consumers.”
Here’s a list of games from Atari that are generally considered good, and should be a steal at $20:
Scott Miller talks with Hollywood Reporter about original content in video games and why they are the bee’s knees. Scott Miller works for 3DRealms, the development studio working on the much delayed Duke Nukem Forever, and producers of the upcoming Prey. Miller is pretty confident they will make back the money they’ve invested in DNF within a day or two after the release of the game:
THR: What about the latest “Duke” game … the one that seems to be taking forever to build?
Miller: We’ve put about $7.5 million into that and we’ve been working on it since late 1998. So it really hasn’t been that much of an investment. And once it comes out, if it’s as successful as we think it’ll be, we’ll make that money back in the first day or two of sales.
This article also prompted DailyTech to claim Scott Miller said that Duke Nukem Forever is almost done. However, GeorgeB of 3DRealms says it was irresponsible journalism on DailyTech’s part. They’ve since changed the original article multiple times to cover their tracks. So if you hear rumors that the game is almost done, you’ll know why.
E3 wasn’t too kind to independent game developers, as the panel at the event told aspiring game developers to just give up, there’s no room in the game industry for their kind anymore. Perhaps the harsh reality is that most independent game developers won’t be able to secure funding and make a profit, but they are forgetting why most indies create games: passion. Most of the games they create are done either for fun, as a learning experience, or a combination of both.
“You have a zero percent chance of success,” said Warren Spector, a game industry veteran and the current president of Junction Point Studios, a company that develops games for consoles and PCs. “The barrier to entry in terms of cost, quality required, access to a market… forget it.”
I’d hate to see a bad omen like this stifle creativity in the industry. Independent game developers are the only ones willing to take risks these days, and without that, we face a period of stagnation. Remember when Serious Sam first came out? People mocked the name, they scoffed at the idea that a small team in Croatia (Hey, where’s that at? We’d say.) Then the demo came out, it was insanely fun, and the rest was history. It would suck to not see little treasures like that pop up out of nowhere again.
CliffyB has posted on his blog about his thoughts on the games industry today, and how developers should take the best of western game principles and marry them with east’s.
I would love to see a game that takes the best of what many anime style RPGs does and puts it in a more contemporary setting with much more believable characters.
Yes. A game that’s less fantastic. You might just have something that crossess over as a phenomenon if you decided to head in that direction.
There are times when I am amazed at the innovation and creativity that Japanese games display, and wish we had an ounce of that over here in the States. All too often these days publishers stick with cookie-cutter, safe games that doesn’t toe the line. Risks aren’t profitable, but if the industry becomes too stagnant, they end up pigeonholing themselves in the long run. Electronic Arts are feeling this lately, and want to go with more original franchies rather than buying up licenses left and right.
GamesFirst witnessed a protest in action with Booth Babes protesting the recent ban at E3 for being too titillating (I always wanted to say that word) in recent years. The babes carried around signs, one of them said, “I’m Rated ‘E’ for Everyone” and another, “Bikinis>Bullets”. Hard to disagree with the second one. Pictures are included in the report. This didn’t look like it was a large protest, though, but maybe it’ll get bigger. Ok, that’s enough puns!
Also a related story by CNet about booth babes still prevalent at E3, despite controversy pointing to the contrary.
Back on May 3rd, I posted about a rumor that Al Lowe, famed creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series, may return to the gaming industry after having laid low for years. Now it is official, he has joined iBase Entertainment, a new studio of developers he is part of, and will release a new action-comedy game called Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure.
“I needed a good reason to abandon my strenuous life of Mai Tais and golf, and this proved to be it,” said Lowe, Chief Creative Officer of iBase™ Entertainment. “Ken and I are creating a game that’s big on humor, and provides the fun and exploration lacking in many of today’s games. I’ve always wanted to play a game about a common man thrust into extraordinary circumstances and surrounded by beautiful women. Sam Suede™ is that game.”
Video Game Media has a post about the new Denzel Washington movie, Inside Man, and a video game that is portrayed in the movie. The game has close allusions to the Grand Theft Auto series, and has been provoking some interesting conversations about the whole matter.
The robber takes the child’s PSP and asks how to play the game. As he does, a fictional Grand Theft Auto-style urban crime simulator is shown on screen. The boy explains how the game gives you points for “jacking people rides,” killing hookers, and a variety of other unsavory acts. As we hear this description, the in-game protagonist (an overweight black man in a wife-beater — showing some obvious San Andreas allusions) plasters a thug with dozens of bullets as realistic blood splatters all over the street. As the screen flashes with the message “Kill the Nigga” the protagonist gets out of the car, sticks a grenade in the bleeding thug’s mouth, and steps back as his head explodes, spouting expletives all the while.
Like a shark smelling blood in the water, Jack Thompson hones in on the RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, shortly after the announcement that ESRB will be changing the game’s rating to Mature after a nude skin was found by modders, and more violence was found in the game. Jack Thompson is sending out press releases looking for media attention, again.
As spotted by Matt Brett, Gamespot have a new feature in beta, where users can upload their own videos. You have to be a subscriber to upload videos, but you can still view them if not subscribed. Features in the works or already working are: the ability to tag videos, save them to your drive, email them to friends, voting, commenting on each video, embedding on your own website, and more.
IGE, the company largely regarded as a haven of gold farmers, has bought up the MMO database site, Allakhazam. This move doesn’t surprise me, as it is in IGE’s best interest to influence and manipulate the very business it is involved with, and what better way to do it than with such a large site like Allakhazam, which has its own revenue model, as well.
Reaction from the Allakhazam community (which is relocating to the more spelling-friendly Zam, has been less than enthusiastic. The backlash comes in the form of forum posters frustrated with Allakhazam’s decision to “sell out” to the company that parents the most real enemy that some people think MMOs face - gold farming. Portrayed as far worse than any raid boss, many MMO gamers view gold farmers as a plague to their industry. However, like we reported yesterday, real world economy is starting to blur with online spaces, and while it’s different when real world money infiltrates a game economy that isn’t cash-based (like Project Entropia’s) — it can wreak havoc on the economy.
Likely due to the inclement weather they experience, Seattle was named the top video gaming city in the U.S. according to a recent survey.
Sperling’s findings are based on the number of video game systems owned per household (including Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Windows-based PCs) as well as the number of games purchased and rented, combined with the frequency of online game play via Xbox Live and or Windows-based games.
There’s a rumor on Gamasutra that Al Lowe, creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series, may return to making games again after having been absent from the industry for nearly 7 years. If true, this is good news indeed, as Al Lowe could bring back sharp humor to games we play, which has been sorely missing these days.
A press conference invitation sent out to select members of the press, bearing a logo reading “Ecstasy Island Mystery Week,” suggests that Lowe may be heading a new development studio.
“Alloweha,” says the invitation. “A new company with a new game is Launching at E3 under the watch of a Legendary game designer known for creating Outrageously fun games that feature hi-Larry-ous characters With an undeniable knack for Entertaining millions of people,” it continues, emphasized letters included.
First it was Electronic Arts, and now employees for Activision are involved in a class action lawsuit due to unpaid overtime hours working for the publisher. We reported not long ago that EA lost a class action lawsuit and had to pay $14.9 million due to this very same issue, and this one doesn’t look good for Activision.
The lawsuit alleges that Activision unlawfully classifies its Computer Graphics employees as exempt from California’s laws requiring overtime pay. Shapiro Haber and Urmy partner, Thomas Urmy, commented: “Activision’s Computer Graphics employees, who work many overtime hours to produce Activision’s profitable videogames, fully deserve to be paid all the overtime compensation to which they are entitled under the law.”
Ages ago, Bitboys garnered a lot of hype as they used a press release battle to challenge ATI and NVIDIA with an upcoming graphics card they planned on putting together that would be real powerful and power games with aplomb. They raised millions via investors, but year after year, their product was regarded as vaporware and the company became the brunt of jokes by gamers.
Recently Bitboys gave up, and restructured, this time focusing on powering the graphics of mobile devices. It looks like this caught the attention of ATI, as they plunked down ~$44 million and bought Bitboys up. Perhaps this was the real goal of the company, rather than competing against the likes of ATI and NVIDIA.
Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney and hopeful Governor, wants to introduce a new regulation for videogames to bar the sale of violent videogames to minors. I can certainly agree with something like this, as I believe there are too many irresponsible and indifferent parents out there letting their kids play games not suited for their age level.
However I don’t agree with his assessment that these games are actively marketed towards kids, preying on their impressionable nature. Most publishers know what their age group for a game is, and try to maximize that target market for profit. I also don’t agree with the government using their own rating system for games; it should remain with an independent body.
“The Entertainment Software Rating Board does have a rating system that warns consumers of content unsuitable for children, but it’s often ignored,” Spitzer stated. “Laws protecting underage kids from harmful products are nothing new - laws preventing kids from buying cigarettes serve as just one example. But currently, nothing under New York State law prohibits a fourteen-year old from walking into a video store and buying a game labelled Adult Only.”
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