Monthly Archives: March 2009

WoW pioneer Jeff Kaplan told Blizzard’s own staff at GDC yesterday that they are “not Shakespeare” and need to focus on methods of narrative deliver unique to videogames.

“Basically, and I’m speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it,” he said.

“We need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game,” Kaplan added.

“We need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are.”

There was some consolation to WoW’s poor old writers, however.

“If it makes us feel better, Shakespeare couldn’t 3D model his way out of a paper bag,” Kaplan said.

Thanks, Shacknews.

Sony’s serious about getting exclusive content on PSN, apparently. It said yesterday it’s to kick off a scheme to guarantee you won’t lose any money by creating games for the service.

“It’s all very well for us as platform holders to say ‘put all your money into PlayStation Network, it’s a fantastic idea’, but are we prepared to put or money where our mouth is? The answer is yes,” Chris Eden, Sony’s development relations manager, told an audience at GDC yesterday.

“We’re looking for a number of great games, and in return for exclusivity we’ll match your development budget with guaranteed royalties,” he said.

Full thing on GI.

Peter Molyneux won’t be announcing a new game in his GDC session today.

Sorry to disappoint.

“I have a bit of confession about tomorrow really”, he told VG247 in San Francisco yesterday.

“A lot of the times I’ve done talks at GDC it was to talk about the game I was working on. This time, I’m talking about experiments at Lionhead and how we come up with ideas.

“There is a process to creativity and anyone can experiment, therefore I will be showing some of these inventive game mechanics from the past.”

Molyneux had previously hinted that a new project could be aired at GDC, but Peter’s sticking strictly to creative process on existing games, and showing some concepts the crowd is likely to find odd.

“Some of these [mechanics] failed tragically, and some are so truly weird that the audience will be like, ‘Why did they even attempt that?’,” he said.

“But what I think people are going to take away from it is that you don’t have to be scared to be inventive, or scared to work on weird things.

“It’s a process, and process is part of creativity: that is what my ambition is for tomorrow.

“If I finish putting my slides together.”

We’re going to liveblog Peter’s session. It’s from 2:30pm – 3:30pm PST today. That’s 9.30pm – 10.30pm GMT or 10.30 – 11.30 CET.

Sims 3 won’t have any online DRM protection at all.

From Rod Humble’s blog:

“The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed,” he said.

“We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.”

It’s out in June.

MTV’s posted up some photos from Kojima’s GDC keynote this morning, showing off “the wall” the developer banged on about for 90 minutes.

We could explain, but writing the word “wall” brings spots to our eyes. Look at the pictures, read the liveblog.

The ESRB’s rated Wolfenstein 3D for 360 and PS3, as you can see here.

There’s no detail at all, but this is almost certainly planned to coincide with the release of Raven’s new Wolfenstein this summer.

Thanks, Shack.

Far Cry 2′s the Ubi-Steam deal of the day. You can get the Africa-based FPS now for £17.49, or $14.99 depending on where you are.

That’s 50 percent off. The offer lasts until midnight tonight.

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux told Kotaku at GDC today that the next Fable II DLC, See the Future, is to release within weeks.

“The next DLC comes out in the spring,” he said. “We’re in the spring now so don’t think months, think more like weeks. It’s called See the Future.”

He added: “The first [DLC] was done very close to Fable II and the team was tired and we sort of pushed ourselves to get something out early for the fans.

“This time we’ve taken a little bit more time on it, it’s a little bit more story driven. It answers some of the questions, if you’re a real fan of Fable, it answers some of those questions. It’s going to test you a little bit emotionally as well.

“But I think the real unique thing here is it starts to tease and hint at what it starting to happen in the world of Albion and what is happening in the future.”

We’re speaking to Peter this afternoon, so we’ll see if we can get some more then.

There’s a video after the break of Dylan Cuthbert wandering about the Q Games office in Kyoto, showing off the PixelJunk team and explaining why no one wears shoes to work.

It’s mesmerising. Watch it.

More »

Activision’s confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now plain old Modern Warfare 2.

Who needs Call of Duty anyway, right?

Press release after the break. Apparently CoD4′s the best selling FPS of all time. Says so there.

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Sony has announced new Ratchet & Clank game, A Crack in Time.

The title, scheduled for a “Fall 2009″ release, sees you travel through time. As you may have guessed.

Concluding the events that began in Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time will answer some of the franchise fans’ biggest questions. After discovering that lovable robot Clank’s disappearance was engineered by Dr. Nefarious, the Wrench-swinging Ratchet races to save his best friend. Along the way, both will finally uncover the hidden truth behind their origins, and discover their ultimate destinies. As the duo come closer to reuniting, they’ll have to ask themselves the biggest question of all: Do Ratchet and Clank’s destinies lie with each other? Or is it finally time for the universe’s greatest duo to separate for good?

How exciting! Full thing after the break.

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It’s a relentless, GDC liveblogging rollercoaster, Batman. We’re coming at you live from Hideo Kojima’s GDC keynote in San Francisco.

To be sure: the speech starts at 10.30am PST and lasts for 90 minutes. That’s a 5.30pm GMT start, or 6.30pm CET if you’re on the mainland.

Hit the link for all the updates!

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Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has vetoed a Bill (HB 353) put forward by Jack Thompson which would have seen harsher fines to retailers that allowed under-age kids to buy adult rated games.

Here’s why:

After careful consideration and study, I have decided to veto HB 353, TRUTH IN ADVERTISING ACT AMENDMENTS, and have transmitted it to the Lieutenant Governor for filing.

While protecting children from inappropriate materials is a laudable goal, the language of this bill is so broad that it likely will be struck down by the courts as an unconstitutional violation of the Dormant Commerce Clause and/or the First Amendment.

The industries most affected by this new requirement indicated that rather than risk being held liable under this bill, they would likely choose to no longer issue age appropriate labels on goods and services. Therefore, the unintended consequence of the bill would be that parents and children would have no labels to guide them in determining the age appropriateness of the goods or service, thereby increasing children’s potential exposure to something they or their parents would have otherwise determined was inappropriate under the voluntary labeling system now being recognized and embraced by a significant majority of vendors.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Below is a trailer for Namco’s PS3 exclusive, Katamari Damacy Tribute.

It looks mental, as you’d expect. Remember, it’ll run in 1080p, which is a first for the series, apparently.

Thanks, DarkZero.

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We met up with Michael Pachter at GDC yesterday. In return for us showing him where to pick up his badge and sneaking him into the Luminaries Lunch, he told us why he thought Rockstar and Microsoft have yet to release any concrete download numbers for GTA IV DLC, The Lost and Damned.

The Wedbush Morgan analyst reckoned the content has so far failed to meet expectations for either company.

“It’s not like The Lost and Damned sucked, because it didn’t, and it’s not because [they] did not market it well,” he said.

“I just don’t think it has met their expectations, and it would have been better if they had set their expectations realistically.”

Pachter opined that the Live attach rate is one of the reasons The Lost and Damned hadn’t hit the intended mark.

“The main reason is because not too many Xbox 360 owners are hooked up to Xbox Live,” he said.

“100 percent of GTA IV owners are not hooked up to XBL. Therefore by definition, not every single person who owns GTA IV has Xbox Live. Because of this, I don’t think the numbers were as high as they had hoped for.

“When I personally look at DLC, I wait until the second one is released, that way I have over 40 hours of extra content instead of 20. It’s like playing a whole other game,” he added. “And I think a lot of people feel the same way.

He also added that he expects Rockstar to eventually offer a special edition of GTA IV to include both The Lost and Damned and the second, in-the-works piece of DLC.

Gamestop has revealed that profits rose by 24.4 percent over last year to reach a record $8.8 billion dollars.

In Q4 08, the retailer giant amassed $3.5 billion in sales, up 21.9 percent over last.

To celebrate, Mr. Gamestop plans to open 400 more stores nationwide.

There is no recession that you speak of, please move along.

A bit more over at Kotaku.

Joystiq reckons that the battle system in Final Fantasy XIII is similar to the Active Time Battle used in other iterations of the franchise.

Apparently, this means that you have a certain amount of time to make your move, and the various attacks you perform filter off certain chunks of it. The more powerful the attack, the more time it’ll steal.

Japanese gamers get to play the demo very soon when Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is released.

Update: It’s already out! What are you waiting for? Thanks, Mafro.

Monday’s Virtual Console update brings the SNES mega classic, Super Punch Out! to your living space.

There’s nothing else to write apart from the fact that you must buy it because it’s great.

It was revealed yesterady the Punch Out! Wii has Balance Board support.

Thanks, Destructoid.

THQ has announced that Relic Entertainment’s RTS expansion, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor has gone Gold and will be available from April 9.

Shacknews writes that CoH: ToV is a “stand-alone expansion pack, Tales of Valor adds three campaigns and three new multiplayer modes, along with new maps and units, to the studio’s WWII strategy series.”

A bit more through the link.

Exactly what it says on the tin: A pair of 3D glasses will be included with every copy of Disney’s Toy Story Mania which will release only on Wii this Autumn.

Developed by Papaya Studio, TSM is described by by Disney Interactive as “an array of entertaining games based on the … Toy Story franchise at Walt Disney World Resort attractions.”

3D for the win, people.

Thanks, Edge.