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Archived News:
This press release has word to expect Ghostbusters: The Video Game on
June 16, saying it will come out that day in conjunction with the release of
Ghostbusters on Blu-Ray, celebrating the movie's 25th anniversary. No
specifics about the game are included other than calling it "an all-new
adventure from by [sic] the film’s original writers." Thanks
Joystiq.
UGO Chief Tells Us His Side Of 1UP Purchase Saga on MTV Multiplayer
converses with UGO CEO J Moses about their acquisition of 1Up. J
offers UGO's perspective on the deal in light of criticisms of layoffs, saying,
"We have just hired 24 people. At a time where all you read about is layoffs we
have expanded UGO by 33 percent," and that many of the layoffs relate to the
closing of EGM Magazine, which UGO had no interest in, being solely an online
entity. He also talks about the 1Up podcasts, saying, "I think you will continue
to see video-casts and podcasts. It may not be on the exact same schedule that
it was. It may not be the exact same people. But it will continue being a part
of 1UP." He defers on content to Sam Kennedy, and MTV contacted Sam to ask about
the fates of specific shows, learning the "Retronauts" podcast will continue and
that there are “some possibilities” that 1UPyours will resume, as well, but they
came away with the impression that the fate of the 1UPshow "seems more up in the
air."
The 11th Annual Independent Games
Festival Finalists are now online, listing the games competing for nearly
$50,000 in prizes to be awarded on March 25 in San Francisco at the same
ceremony as the Game Developers Choice Awards at GDC. The
Independent Games Festival Website quotes a
concise rundown from media partner
Gamasutra,
which also mentions
a new independent
games area on IGF sponsor Direct2Drive: From a record field of 226
entries, 30% over last year’s totals, a number of notable games scored multiple
nominations this year.
These include orbital osmosis sim Osmos (3 nominations), abstract PSN action-er
PixelJunk Eden (3 nominations), time-reversing guitar-compatible antishooter
Retro/Grade (2 nominations), and atmospheric ball-ambulator Night Game (2
nominations).
Other examples of the finalists, which are
viewable on the official IGF
website, include charming exploration-game Blueberry Garden and music-based
block puzzler Musaic Box, both double nominees, and several of the finalists for
the new Innovation award, including Ratloop’s Mightier, Jason Rohrer’s Between
and Tale Of Tales’ The Graveyard.
Finalists were decided by a panel made up of over 40 industry-leading game
creators and journalists, including the makers of previous IGF honorees World Of
Goo, Braid, Aquaria and N+; industry veterans from studios including Maxis, Big
Huge Games, and SuperVillain Studios; and noted writers from Wired, Newsweek,
and MTV.
In addition to the announcement, digital download store Direct2Drive has aligned
with the Independent Games Festival to serve as the festival’s official download
partner this year.
This includes a new Direct2Drive Award given out at the IGF Awards this March,
and the service has opened
dedicated
Direct2Drive indie game area, including many previous IGF finalists and
winners and other notable independent games.
A pair of new trailers from F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin show off
Monolith's upcoming horror-themed shooter sequel. A brand new "engine" trailer
offers gameplay footage accompanied by developer narration on how the game is
enhanced and more polished than the original F.E.A.R. thanks to features like
real-time volumetric rendering, enhanced destructible environments, motion blur,
and depth of field. This clip is posted on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell. The other clip is called "Deathmatch Wonderland," which
surfaced on the
F.E.A.R. 2 Community Website on Christmas Eve, and true to that offers a
rendition of holiday standard Winter Wonderland altered to suit the theme
of multiplayer gaming. This is a carrot/stick affair, as the video offers the
allure of in-game multiplayer deathmatch footage, accompanied by the
occasionally painful vocals of Monolith's Lucas Myers. The clip is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
Publisher Freeverse and developer Slitherine are using the ongoing Macworld Expo
to announce plans for a Mac OS X edition of Commander: Napoleon at War,
though a release date is not set at this time. Commander: Napoleon at War is a
grand strategy game featuring a dozen different unit types, 15 research paths,
and eight historical campaigns set in the period between 1805 and 1815.
Greenspeak, the blog of one-time Computer Gaming World and Games
for Windows editor Jeff Green, offers a counterpoint to the story below, as
Jeff takes issue with Sam Kennedy's upbeat assessment of UGO's
acquisition of 1Up. He says Sam is, "in a horrid position here, having to put
a brave face on what is an unequivocally ugly mess. So I wish no ill-will on the
guy, and, more important, those following this story need to know that none of
this is his 'fault'. All this sh*t happened way above him. He's just trying to
make the best of a bad situation. And to that I offer him a heartfelt and
sincere good luck." Jeff goes through some of Sam's statements line-by-line,
sorting through what he considers spin, saying, "You're not the same 1UP because
you just lost a gigantic chunk of what made 1up 1up," and disbelieving that this
is the "best news" 1Up could have received, he says the following: "Again, no.
If this can be called 'the best news', I'd hate to see the bad news. In fact, it
might be the best bit of news that you and the others who kept their jobs ever
had, since you now don't have to be looking for work at the start of a new year,
in the worst economic climate this country has been in in the last 80 years."
The NeoGAF
Forums have a post from Sam Kennedy, director of the 1Up Network, commenting
about yesterday's news that UGO has acquired 1Up (thanks
Rosenberg’s Ramblings &
Joystiq). A good deal of anger has been expressed at UGO (who supply the
advertising for this site), but Sam tries to make it clear that he feels UGO are
not the bad guys here, as 1Up was losing money for years, a situation that has
been exacerbated by a bad economy, and that UGO did their best to "save" the
network. To be clear, he is not happy about the situation, calling yesterday the
worst day in his life, but here's a bit offering is outlook on what happened: And I'm not here to defend this. It freaking sucks. But from my
vantage point, UGO did what they could to, what I consider, "save" 1UP.
Obviously, all of us would have wanted to see things go differently -- most of
all me, considering I just lost many of my closest friends as coworkers and
employees today.
A couple of things to realize, though:
Fact: 1UP was a business that was losing money.
Fact: This economy sucks and the ad market is diminished.
Fact: Ziff Davis has been trying to offload 1UP for years.
With those sorts of factors playing against us, something had to give. Everyone
loved the stuff we did, but our business wasn't in the best of shape (see:
Ziff-Davis files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last summer).
My hope in all of this, over the last year or so, was that some company would
come along and be able to buy 1UP -- the entire operation -- and run with it.
And I think UGO had actually originally approached 1UP with those same hopes.
But the reality of the market was that no company, including UGO, was willing to
sustain 1UP as it was. And that includes Ziff Davis. I hate to to break it to
you, but the sad fact was that there was little hope for 1UP to continue as it
had been. Not in this economy. If any company out there would have been willing
to support us as we were, they certainly didn't step up.
The only company that really did was UGO, and they did their very best to
continue 1UP.
So like I said, while UGO may appear like the bad guy here, in a lot of ways,
they just did what few, if any, other companies would. And, from everything
they've indicated to us, they are completely supportive of 1UP and its people.
Believe me, they were in the office today and were just as distraught about the
losses of any of these shows and the people.
Of course, that doesn't make things any better for any of us. Fact is, we -- as
in, the games industry, not just 1UP -- are losing some great things today. I'm
with you in mourning. But I have a commitment from the UGO guys that they --
now, actually, we -- are going to do whatever we can to help these guys out and
look for ways to continue these shows with them and/or to look into
possibilities for new shows in the future. I'm not saying everything will be
back to "normal" as you knew it anytime soon, but I am saying there should be
some good things to look forward to in the future.
Ubisoft announces a licensing agreement with ABC Studios for a video game based
on Grey's Anatomy, the critically acclaimed medical TV series, saying the
game will be released early this year. The announcement is accompanied by
some
screenshots showing off some doctoring and some playing doctor, and here's a
bit on the game itself: "In Grey's Anatomy: The Video Game, fans will have a
chance to take on the roles of all of their favorite doctors in an all-new
original storyline. As each doctor, players will make important personal and
professional decisions, explore the direct relationships with each other, and
perform the delicate surgeries the series is known for, all through fun and
engaging game play."
Steam now offers their
digitally distributed edition of Saints Row 2, following an unexplained
delay that prevented its release yesterday. Here's the brief
accompanying synopsis of Volition's open-word action sequel: "Set years after
the original, the player finds himself in a Stilwater both familiar and strange
and challenged with bringing the Saints back as the rightful kings of Stilwater
and bringing vengeance to those who wronged him."
Computer
and Video Games reports a rumor from their "secret mouthpiece" that Ubisoft
will reveal new installments in the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six
franchises this year. It seems a given each Tom Clancy shooter series will continue,
though they also say that it is possible both games could be released before
Christmas 2009. They do not offer the bona fides of their source, and they say
that Ubisoft declined to comment on this report.
SEGA confirms
Aliens: Colonial Marines still alive on VideoGamer.com has further
reassurances that Aliens: Colonial Marines is still in production,
following concerns that the game was in trouble when layoffs were
announced at Gearbox last year. They have confirmed with SEGA that Gearbox
Software's upcoming shooter based on the Aliens movie series will be out
for Windows, Xbox 360, and PS3 in the first quarter of 2009, though they are not clear on whether this is calendar Q1 (January through March)
or Sega's fiscal Q1 (April through June).
The same
VideoGamer.com article referenced in the story above also has a release
window for Alpha Protocol, Obsidian's espionage-themed role-playing game
currenly in alpha (protocol) testing. Sega's new release schedule
also lists this game with a Q1 2009 release window, with the same uncertainty
over whether this represents the January through March Q1 of the calendar or the
April through June Q1 of Sega's accountants.
MCV features a preview tidbit from an interview with Christoph Hartmann they
will publish in full tomorrow. They quote the Global President of 2K on the
potential for multiple BioShock sequels, and while he stresses they don't
plan to "cash in" on the underwater shooter series in the manner of The
Matrix sequels, his reference to the Star Wars movie series recalls
another franchise that arguably did just that: For Bioshock, because it’s
so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without
turning into The Matrix? The first Matrix was great, the second one was weird
and the third one, you thought: ‘Who [making this] is on crack and who isn’t?’.
“But, then again, look at Star Wars. It’s a fight between good and evil, just
like Bioshock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of
innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did.
Lighthouse Interactive announces a second patch is now available for
Sword of the Stars: A Murder of Crows that will update the space strategy
expansion to version 1.6.4. A number of new features and enhancements are
included in this update, including new avatars and an auto-pause feature.
Downloads of the patch are located on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
New patches are now available for Depths of Peril, updating either the
Windows or MacOS editions of Soldak Entertainment's action/RPG to version 1.013.
These
change notes outline all the bug-fixes, balance changes, and enhancements in
this version, which is available on the
Depths of Peril
patches page. Additionally, the Windows edition of the patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront; while the MacOS patch is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
FileFront.
The Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
Website says to expect a new patch to update Savage 2: A Tortured Soul
to version 1.7.6 "within the next day or so." A number of balance changes for S2
Games' action/strategy sequel are included, all outlined in
this
change list, though it is stressed this list is not finalized, so it is
possible further tweaks will precede the release.
Games On Net has a follow-up on news that Silent Hill Homecoming
has been reclassified for release in Australia with word on why the Aussie
censors changed their minds. They quote the classification board explaining some
content has been cut: "Several depictions of violence have been edited or
removed altogether from the game. This includes the removal of many finishing
moves that contained high level violence, as well as explicit scenes of torture
using a power drill." Though some of the game's gore has been toned down to
permit its release, the article also notes that a minority of the classification
board expressed the opinion that the game's "elements of violence and themes are
higher than strong," and they still favor refusing to classify it for sale.
Spiderweb Software
is looking for gamers interested in helping beta test the upcoming Windows
version of Geneforge 5: Overthrow, the RPG sequel that's already
available for MacOS.
This page
is where to express your interest, and they say time is of the essence: "Right
now we need Windows Testers for Geneforge 5. You will need to sign a
Non-Disclosure Agreement and get it back to us fairly quickly (Faxing it is a
very good idea). People who don't get the NDA in promptly won't be able to
test." Thanks Gamer's Hell.
Pocketwatch Games announces Venture Dinosauria, an upcoming game
based around the ever-popular theme of dinosaurs. Details are scant to
nonexistent for the time being, but the
Venture
Dinosauria Forums are live, soliciting suggestions, saying: "I know there's
not a lot of details on Dinosauria yet, but if you have any suggestions, we'd
love to hear them! Feel free to reply here or start new topics." Thanks Gamer's Hell.
The Ryzom Forums
announce the business plan for Ryzom, the
science-fiction/fantasy MMORPG that has been on a self-described "roller
coaster" for some time now. The revived Ryzom will carry monthly subscription
fees starting next month, rather than attempting to pursue a subscription-free
model. Thanks
Massively.
Edge Online - What Can Ads Teach Developers?
"Is it false advertising when commercials strongly imply that a game is more
narratively or emotionally engaging than it actually is?" By NGai Croal.
Gameplayer - Are Gamers Scared of Sex
"A history of sex, controversy and video games."
Hooked Gamers - Digital downloads: our games held for ransom.
"For now, I am willing to give other services the benefit of the doubt, but
I still have a nagging feeling that we do not own our games at all, they are
simply being held for ransom."
It's obvious by the calendar that it's winter, but I am disturbed to note that I
can also tell by the mirror, as I seem to have put on a little extra weight. Of
course, when you start out skinny as a rail like me, this may not seem like an
issue, and sure enough, the 13-some pounds I've added over the past few months
put me squarely within the accepted "normal" range for my height, but this is
not exactly what you'd call muscle, so I think I should increase my activity
level a bit to get rid of my newfound paunch.
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