Tag Archives: Montreal International Game Summit

Concept art for Hitman 6, or whatever Square Enix Montreal plans on calling it, has been released into the wild by art director Rasmus Poulsen and senior concept artist Leonid Enyne.

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Two members of the team behind indie darling Sword & Sworcery EP took gongs at the 2011 Canadian Game Development Talent Awards.

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During a panel at the Montreal International Game Summit, A2M CEO Remi Racine accused some publishers of “cheating” in order to get a more favorable rating from the ESRB.

“As a developer who has worked with a lot of different publishers, we’re aware of many that have tried to cheat the rating,” he said. “They say to the ERSB that it’s a Teen rating rather than an Mature to try and sell more. You can do this just by sending them a video that doesn’t show the most violent stuff and then you’ll get the rating that you want rather than the rating you should get.

“We have to make sure that everyone behaves and that the ERSB is duly diligent. Maybe getting your game out at a certain rating will help that game, but it’s really not going to help the industry as a whole.

“Right now I don’t think the industry is doing enough to educate the audience. The ERSB is supposed to do it, but it feels like we just kind of expect these kind of industry or government bodies to do the job for us. As much as I don’t think it’s the place of EA or Activision to go off and try and inform parents on their own, a more active role needs to be taken by all participants to ensure our artists are free to express themselves and that content can be enjoyed responsibly.”

In response to the claim, ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi stated that the ratings board keeps tabs on game after release, and if one is found to be in violation of the rating given – the publisher could face a fine of up to $1 million.

More through Edge, Joystiq.

Montreal International Game Summit organizers officially revealed the five headline speakers who will keynote the sixth annual industry event November 16 and 17.

The official keynote speakers include:

• Yoichi Wada is President and CEO of Square Enix Group, will share his vision of the future of video game development.
• Paul Holden of Media Molecule will speak about challenges encountered in developing LBP.
• Valve’s Jason Holtman will talk Steam and the SOURCE engine.
• Heather Chaplin, author of Smartbomb: The Question for Art Entertainment & Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution.
• Chris Hecker from Maxis/EA will deliver the closing session where he will attempt to answer the question “Can videogames be considered as cultural products in the same way as literature or theatre?”

Full press release is below.

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