Monthly Archives: June 2009

Almost half of the original Crackdown team from Realtime Worlds is working on Crackdown 2, says Ruffian’s Bill Thompson.

During his interview with Edge, the creative director explained that “core members from every discipline” who worked on the original and well as the “majority of the design team” have a hand in it.

The game’s producer, Jim Cope, stated that Ruffian has a “really strong working relationship” with Realtime, and that the team currently at work on the sequel “know what to fix and enhance” which he feels makes them the right people for the job.

Just in case anyone was worried, ya know.

Via Joystiq.

John Carmack’s told VentureBeat that id was sold to Zenimax as going with an EA or Activision acquistion would have meant getting sucked into the corporate machine.

“The two obvious choices [of id buyers] were Electronic Arts and Activision,” said the fabled developer.

“They’re the two giants of the industry. But we knew that we would have to go through big corporate changes if we went with them. We know the developers at the studios owned by those companies. And while they have good things to say, there is no doubt about it that things would change at a company of that scale.

“If we had gone to one of those companies, we would be one more studio. We would be a prized studio. But we wouldn’t even be their only shooter studio.”

Zenimax confirmed yesterday that it had sold to the Bethesda parent, effectively ending one of the greatest indie stories in the games industry.

Read the full thing through the link.

The director of public relations at Electronic Arts has stated that despite the restructuring going on at the company, Mythic will retain its identity.

“There are no plans to change the studio names,” Tammy Schachter told Gamasutra. “The Mythic team is working on ongoing live support for Warhammer Online, Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, and preparing for launches of WAR in Taiwan and Korea.

“Nothing changes in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities of the dev teams.”

When EA purchased Mythic in 2006, it changed the name to EA Mythic. Last year, EA was dropped from the name, so not changing it again is probably a smart move.

Battlefield Heroes, EA’s free-to-play WWII shooter, has finally launched.

The game was supposed to happen at the end of last year, but sort of didn’t.

The extensive beta’s over, however, so get involved. Go kill something.

2K Marin’s released concept art of BioShock 2′s prototype Big Daddy, the lumbering lug you play in the game.

As you’d expect, it’s lovely to look at. The game’s out at the end of October.

During an investors meeting yesterday, Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada was a bit vague when discussing The Last Remnant finally hitting the PS3.

According to Japanese gaming blog Makonako, Wada never said the game was canceled for the system, but instead, Square is considering the pros and cons of releasing it as the title has not done was well as hoped.

Originally announced as a multiplatform title, The Last Remnant has been out for PC and Xbox 360 for quite some time.  Because of this, Square is worried that with the gap between releases being so long, the PS3 port may not be profitable decision in the end.

More over on IGN.

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood said at Game Horizon this week that he’s got “rules of engagement” about how he runs the company. We’re assuming he was holding a riding crop when he delivered his speech.

“Our rules of engagement for the business were don’t work on movie licenses, don’t work on ports, don’t do work for hire, and find a big brother to nurture us in those early years,” he said.

“That’s how you get focus,” Wedgwood added. “We made a decision to shamelessly pursue critical acclaim for our games and we do that by focusing all our effort on making sure the stuff we do is better than the stuff we did.”

Splash Damage is currently hard at work on Bethesda’s Brink, due out early next year. More on Gama.

Patch 1.11 has been released for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

The update for the RTS fixes some bugs and exploits along with the addition of two maps from Red Alert 3: Uprising, and improved balance issues.

Full list of release notes can be found over on GamersHell, along with the download.

SCEE president Andrew House reckons Europeans appreciate PS3′s value, and the console’s cost will only come down when Sony’s goddamn good and ready.

“Not to harp on about it, but the PlayStation 3 has a ten-year life cycle and there are issues of cost and profitability,” the exec told MCV.

“We will make that move on price when all those factors are aligned.

“Would people buy more when they are cheaper? Of course. But on the other hand there is an inherent marketing challenge. In Europe I think people do see the value of the machine, the Blu-Ray and network services and take that all into consideration instead of just focusing on price.

“But we will look at price and will address it when the time is right.”

And when will the time be right? Cologne, apparently, as we’re being told with alarming regularity.

Entertainment retailers are expected to start using a new radio-activated lock on games, DVDs and other disc-based merchandise by Q4 2010 to help curb the three-figured discount some patrons give themselves.

The device is expected to save the retail industry $6 billion annually, according to a report from the Entertainment Merchants Association titled “Project Lazarus: Study of Benefit Denial.”

Sean Bersell, EMA’s VP of public affairs, told Gamespot that this has nothing to do with DRM or anything like it. Instead, the new device makes the disc unusable until it is unlocked by the cashier at the register.

“This is not about DRM or other coding of the discs,” he said. “The technology to which we are referring would be a physical lock that is opened via radio frequency at the point of sale. (Think of a key card that unlocks a door.) And this is not about fighting piracy (illegal reproductions), but rather fighting shrink (theft of legitimate goods).

“The purpose is to make it easier for the consumer to purchase the product and enabling additional retail channels that have significant shrink issues to carry the product.”

Publishers are a bit wary of the technology at the moment, but the EMA says that training store clerks to use it and manage stock better is where it’s at.

More through the link.

The ArmA II demo’s up – get it here or here.

Don’t just download with gay abandon – it’s a belting 2.9Gb in size.

Get full info on what it contains at the second link.

Thanks, El_MUERkO.

SCEE’s Kish Hirani coding keynote at next month’s Develop conference is to include “much more detail” on Sony’s new motion controller, according to this Develop report.

Apparently, he’ll “also be talking about new vision processing and advanced graphical techniques in the PS3 libraries, using real-world examples from recent and soon-to-be-released PS3 and PSP titles.”

We’ll be there. Develop takes place in Brighton, UK, from July 14-16.

EG.de’s got a few new Left 4 Dead 2 screens.

The show zombies, more of that bridge bit and some burning stuff.

It’s all you can hope for. It’s out later this year.

Eurogamer’s published the latest of its European versions, this time in Denmark.

“Eurogamer is a true icon in European gaming and I’m proud to be part of the Danish expansion,” added editor in chief of Eurogamer.dk, Kristian West.

“Personally I look forward to sharing with Danish gamers this fresh take on our games and the vast industry behind them.

Eurogamer now has local language sites in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Romania and the UK.

Rockstar’s put the official Agent site live.

There’s nothing on it apart from the logo, a “coming soon” note and all the PlayStation insignia.

Still. There it is.

The Chinese version of World of Warcraft is still offline, according to this Yahoo! report, having been taken off the air on June 7 when Blizzard’s contract with The9 expired.

As the piece notes, new operator NetEase wasn’t ready to have the game up and running at the time, and clearly still isn’t. No one appears to have a set date for play to recommence.

Whoops. Full details through there.

The first screens of Serious Sam HD, the XBLA remake of Croteam’s FPS, are up on EG.

There’s only one way this is going. And that’s the way of awesome.

It’s out later this summer.

Ruffian’s given up more on Crackdown 2 in an interview with Edge, saying the game is set in a future version of Pacific City and has all-new gameplay.

“From an environmental point of view, you probably would look at it as being an entirely new map,” said creative director Billy Thompson.

“It’s still Pacific City but further on in the timeline. We’ve altered a great deal, and think people who enjoyed the first game are going to be really pleased when they enter this one.

“And we’ve made sure the gameplay’s altered significantly.”

There’s more through there about the game’s E3 reveal and the whole zombie-infected thing.

No date.

Motion-sensing was a done deal after the popularity of the concept of Wii, Activision president Mike Griffith told GI at E3.

“Those are logical directions for Sony and Microsoft and obviously they’re seeing what everyone else is seeing – that the consumer has responded well to the physical interface of the Wii,” he said.

“This has been their response and I think they are expecting it to expand their audience which will be good for the industry by bringing in additional gamers.”

Griffiths added that Activision support would come provided Natal and PS3′s “wand” device were welcomed by the public.

“We’re always very supportive of their initiatives, we’ve got close relationships with all the first parties and if the consumer is receptive we’ll be supporting them,” he said.

Interview through there.

Lemmy is probably one of the most awesome people to have ever lived. He’s seriously fucking awesome. Having him in Brutal Legend instantly makes the game more awesome to the power of ten. But what, Tim-Schafer-talking-to-VG247-at-E3, was Lemmy like to work with?

“Lemmy was a really mellow guy, a really quiet guy,” Schafer told us. “He was really friendly, actually. He invited me to his house. I got to see his collection of knives.

“He’s a really friendly guy. He lives in West Hollywood. He likes to go to the Rainbow Rooms and chat to his fans, stuff like that. He’s a very down to earth guy.

And Lemmy has stories. Stories of ultimate rock.

“He’s got all these great stories,” Schafer added. “You know, he used to be a roadie himself, for Jimi Hendrix. He’s really lived life, you know what I’m saying?”

We do, Tim. We know what you’re saying. Brutal Legend, officially now the most awesome videogame this year, releases this October.