I tend to agree that most of the game magazines are more interested in hype and cheat codes than in the inner working of the games business. Right now, I think EGM is the best in terms of writing and industry coverage, but I really miss Next Generation magazine which was the first games related magazine I ever read regularly. It was a high quality publication that told the inner story of the games industry in addition to coverage of the latest games and hardware. It felt like it was written by adults for adults. Does anyone know if the Japanese games magazines do any better? I think gaming is a bit more respected there as an activity that is okay for adults to engage in. I wonder if the magazines reflect this.
Well now that EA has essentially bought up everything that a competitor like Sega might want to use to brand their football games, I wonder if Madden 2006 will be the last game with the Madden branding. Madden himself is getting old and given the way EA puts out a new football game every year, perhaps less relevant. Soon many of the fans playing the game won't even know who Madden is, many probably don't now. So the Madden name itself may not be worth as much as it used to be. Another question I would have is just how much longer does the current deal to use Madden's name last? If that deal expires soon, then what many of us know as Madden may eventually be known as EA ESPN NFL Football 2007.
So maybe EA isn't an evil monopolist after all, they're just planning for the future!
Hmm, who's ranting? I'm well aware of why the cheat codes are in there, but in case you had not noticed, there are plenty of publications that later publish the cheats. My guess is that in some cases they pay the game publisher for the privilege of publishing the cheats. Given that, it is not a long stretch to imagine a company not being happy that someone publishes these cheats without paying them to do so.
Yes I know, you already bought the game, yadda yadda, but in fact you bought a license to play the game on the platform it was made for. Reverse engineering is generally prohibited by the end user agreement. I don't like these licenses either, but right now that's the way it is. Rockstar could even argue that unpublished cheats are trade secrets.
Heh heh heh! I love these kinds of hacks because they cut to the reason that PCs are both so useful and at the same time the bane of the movie, recording, and to some extent, the gaming industry. As far as I know, this hack to get the cheat codes doesn't violate any current laws (maybe the EULA for the game), but I can imagine the legal types at Rockstar not being too happy, especially if Rockstar planned to profit by publishing the codes later. In their zeal to protect IP like cheat codes, I'm sure that some would love to be able to ban PCs altogether or at least control access to various ports with DRM schemes. There's already at least one DRM enabled BIOS shipping.
Software developers and marketers, learn from Apple. Simplicity is king. Don't cause the customer headaches, and they will come back for more.
Absolutely! This is why the early Palm devices were so popular. They were simple and did what they did very well. Even now, they tend to be simpler and easier to use than competing Pocket PCs which try to do everything under the sun.
While it's nice that Wall Street loves Balmer, it doesn't change the fact that Microsoft is facing a real challenge to its primary revenue streams as we begin to enter a post-PC era. While the PC is not going to disappear, prospects for growth are not good as other devices (that don't and won't run Windows) take the place of PCs for many functions. Microsoft has made some efforts to get out of the PC box, but so far they still seem inclined to try to stuff Windows into everything (Xbox, set top boxes, etc...). They've got to free themselves from this kind of thought if they're going to have a chance to create something new that people will want.
The only way spyware/adware is going to be stopped is when the financial incentive is removed. Someone out there is making a lot of money with spyware. Having a list of investors is just the beginning of the list of people to sue and/or throw in jail. It's going to take some time, but my phone is definitely ringing less since the do not call list went into effect with its hefty fines and penalties. I would guess that the conservative family values anti-porn groups will be all over this soon in an unholy alliance with those...those...liberals!
I've been itching for an excuse to get a Mac, but at heart I'm a tight wad. Now I have no more excuses and my current Windows PC can go to Linux server heaven! Well maybe...I am after all, still a tight wad! I think there are many who will be looking for this as a second computer, expect kvm sales to jump a little.
When will they learn? The people they're trying to sell this thing to have no use for computers. Not that they aren't smart enough to use them, they simply do not. Even today, life can be lived pretty well without ever touching a computer or sending a single email. My grandparent's generation is never going to use computers, so if I want to send them mail, it's time to get out the stamps! For electronic communications I just (gasp) pick up the phone and call them.
Most people tend to stick with whatever technologies were prevalent when they reached adulthood. God! I hope that doesn't happen to me!
Why? Because the current situation is not bringing the company any publicity dividends. Before long a competitor will likely express its great sympathy for the plight of the people fighting for our freedom, etc. etc. etc., and offer a friendlier policy in such situations. Worse, some legislator will start drafting a bill! At this point it would be good PR for Yahoo! to give users a choice.
It seems to me that Yahoo! should update their user's agreement to deal with this problem. Basically, they should allow users to specify how they want next of kin issues dealt with. Some people may opt to allow relatives to access their mail after death, while others may prefer that they delete it all. There should be a way to specify this. I suppose you could do it now by simply spelling it out in your will.
On the other hand though, if I have a box of old letters, I wouldn't expect any level of privacy with respect to that box on my death. In the end though, none of this really matters to the dead person, but the living sure do get worked up about it!
EA's exclusive deal with the AFL just confirms the suspicions of many that they want to kill competition in video football games. The AFL is not popular enough to warrant anyone's interest and EA wants to make sure that competitors like Sega don't even get a chance to make this any different. Now any competing game has to go with made up players, leagues, and stadiums. Yeah, I know about the CFL, but that's probably even less popular in the U.S. than the AFL.
My guess is that EA is interested in sewing up American football ahead of the day when they have to stop using the Madden name. Stiff arming the competition is one way to do this. On the flipside though, a really good game with fully customizable players, leagues, and even stadiums could have a chance. Coupled with strong marketing and online league play, it could overcome the lack of real league licenses. I'd love to see someone try this. Oh, how about a MMO football game too? I heard that this is being tried for baseball by someone.
It occurs to me that this sort of thing is just going to hasten the death of the home PC as a media device. We've already seen the decline in the PC as a gaming platform relative to dedicated consoles in part due to ease of use issues. If I'm Jane user and just watching downloaded videos opens the door to hundreds of spyware apps and other nonsense, I'm going to stop using the PC for stuff like that if there's an easier to use alternative.
The next generation gaming consoles may be ready to become the easy to use box in the living room that is easy to use and never gets infected by viruses or spyware. If this happens, home PC sales will plummet! Couple these boxes with HDTV and high quality sound systems and it's game over for the PC. Slashdotters may be able to cope with the nonsense, but most people are going to take the easy way out, especially if the price of admission is low. As for me, I'd love to see a really good web browser on Sony's PSP, then I could do my mindless surfing in the living room on a reasonably good display.
I appreciate the problems of playing too many hours, but they should be so lucky to have all of that time to play games! Back in the day, I'd play so much tetris or pacman that I'd see them in my sleep. But now I'm lucky if I get 6 hours to play in a given week. Yeah, I know, whine whine whine! Hats off to the game designers, because one of the marks of a good game is addictive gameplay. I'm not sure I can recall any bad games that had this quality.
Seriously, perhaps it's not so bad to have a little fantasy in your reality. Real life can often use some brightening up. This is what I think Nintendo is selling in their current crop of GBA ads in which the player becomes immersed in various game worlds.
Well that's interesting. I would guess though that the French govt will do what it can to prevent or impede any EA takeover of Ubisoft. Not only that, while Vivendi has denied any direct involvement at this point, that doesn't mean they won't take some interest in the matter at some point. I can't help but wonder if companies intentionally start/encourage these rumors as trial balloons. In the end, if Vivendi thinks they can make money on the deal, they'll come into play later, though not necessarily on Ubisoft's side. What the govt does in response to all of this should be fun to watch. Of course the real fun will begin if the U.S. govt decides to get involved given how much we just love the French here in the States!
Infinium Labs basically has no money for attorney's fees or anything else since the last I heard, they had failed to get any additional investor funding. So I think throwing in the towel on the lawsuit is part of their endgame strategy. Don't be surprised if this is soon followed by Chapter 7 Bankruptcy following CES. Unless they get more money real soon, they are DEAD and the show is over. I think whatever they show at CES is their last chance. Though I still wonder if success was ever even an option.
Regardless, we've boiled down the argument of "minority" status of Direct3D to the space of desktop PCs, and as any Slashdotter knows, MSFT has nearly total control in that space. So, to say that Direct3D is a "minority" player is not only silly, but it's wrong...
Well actually the console gaming market dwarfs the pc gaming market. A hit console game may sell millions of copies whereas a similar hit on the PC may sell in the hundreds of thousands at best (with a few exceptions, like the Sims or Myst). So in that context, the PC is a niche player so, Direct3D is a minority right now. Also note, that there are far more games consoles (tens of millions at least) than there are high end home PCs capable of playing the same kinds of games. But, if the Xbox ever gets a big share of the console market, then of course Direct3D would be a bigger player.
Even with the delay, I would say hats off to Carmack and id for continuing to release code like this. As others have already mentioned, it really does help keep the fps genre in particular alive and progressing because it seeds the next generation of development talent. This is good not just for fps games, but anything where a good 3D engine is needed. It's easy to think that there may not be any need to further develop 3D engines, but with new hardware and software coming out all of the time, along with new ideas on how to do things, there's always more that can be done.
Contrast this openess to a company like EA which as far as I know has never released any source code. As many here already know, EA just sewed up an exclusive deal with the NFL for NFL branded football games which essentially puts competing games from ESPN or 989 off the field since they can't use NFL players or stadiums. There has never been any source code for sports games like this released to the public, which means no mods or clones. And it also means that learning how to write these types of games has an enormous learning curve. Well I'm rambling now, but I think the point has been made. Oh, and of course EA is not the only company tight with source code, most are!
It would be nice to salvage something from all of the work that went into the title, but I won't be holding my breath. If it is true that Level 5 and MS had a falling out over TFLO, then it is unlikely it will be a poster child when Xbox 2 promotions begin. Why would Microsoft want to smear more egg on its face with this failed title, though even Malice eventually came out...
If Level 5 is serious about getting some return on investment, I think their best bet is to convert whatever they have into a single player Xbox or PC game (PS2 port would take too long and wouldn't fare well against Square Enix offerings that dominate that platform). This isn't trivial, and a rushed game will likely suck, but it would cut their loses somewhat and perhaps save some face.
Nvidia doesn't really have anything to lose from this anyway. Industry insiders already know that the Infinium box is not likely to see the light of day much less be successful. While the general public and the less informed are not even aware of the Phantom or all of the controversy surrounding it. So as long as the demos themselves don't suck, Nvidia and MS won't mind. I would assume that putting together a decent demo is much easier than launching a successful product!
You know, if the Infinium debacle plays true to form, someday any and all things Infinium might fetch a nice sum on eBay!
I would guess two things. First, whatever new control scheme Nintendo has in mind for their next console will be built with the next Miyamoto game in mind (another Mario perhaps). And the new controls will adequately replace D-pad functionality and add enhancements.
So I got to thinking about it and came up with analog thumbpits. The current analog game pad controls sit up like bumps on the controller and are a bit awkward to use as D-pad replacements. But imagine a soft rubber thumbsized pit. Your thumb would sit in this comfortably allowing you to naturally nudge it in a way analogous to moving the D-pad, but now you can do a lot more than the cross pattern such as pushing straight down and down at angles. So games could be developed where it makes a difference how fast or how far down you push with more freedom than the current analog sticks and buttons give.
I would also expect some kind of touch pad to be included on the controller as well. No strike that, it's not necessary. In typical Nintendo fashion, the new console would have a port/ports for connecting the DS. Then you would just use the DS touch pad. They may still put a pad on the controller though since the DS scheme may be too awkward for the next Mario game. The touch pad has some interesting possibilities. For one thing, as a program configurable control I could see it becoming a keyboard for online chat. Not as good as a real keyboard, but much between than onscreen keyboards. (They might throw in a built-in mike like the DS has as well.)
Finally, perhaps the next controller will have pressure sensitive grips. These grips would replace the buttons. Now each finger can provide input in what should be a more comfortable way, if engineered right. If even half of the above comes to pass, I'd expect the new controllers to be rather difficult to emulate by 3rd parties, which of course will mean more money for Nintendo.
Heh heh, if even part of this is true, there may be a knock at the do...
Slashdot Mirror
I tend to agree that most of the game magazines are more interested in hype and cheat codes than in the inner working of the games business. Right now, I think EGM is the best in terms of writing and industry coverage, but I really miss Next Generation magazine which was the first games related magazine I ever read regularly. It was a high quality publication that told the inner story of the games industry in addition to coverage of the latest games and hardware. It felt like it was written by adults for adults. Does anyone know if the Japanese games magazines do any better? I think gaming is a bit more respected there as an activity that is okay for adults to engage in. I wonder if the magazines reflect this.
Domo arigato Mr. Roboto!
Here ya go!
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Disclaimer: Just having a little fun with Fireworks Mr. Probst!
Whoops! My bad, I see that EA is negotiating with Madden right now. Heck we may see ESPN branding sooner than we think if Madden wants too much money!
Well now that EA has essentially bought up everything that a competitor like Sega might want to use to brand their football games, I wonder if Madden 2006 will be the last game with the Madden branding. Madden himself is getting old and given the way EA puts out a new football game every year, perhaps less relevant. Soon many of the fans playing the game won't even know who Madden is, many probably don't now. So the Madden name itself may not be worth as much as it used to be. Another question I would have is just how much longer does the current deal to use Madden's name last? If that deal expires soon, then what many of us know as Madden may eventually be known as EA ESPN NFL Football 2007.
So maybe EA isn't an evil monopolist after all, they're just planning for the future!
Hmm, who's ranting? I'm well aware of why the cheat codes are in there, but in case you had not noticed, there are plenty of publications that later publish the cheats. My guess is that in some cases they pay the game publisher for the privilege of publishing the cheats. Given that, it is not a long stretch to imagine a company not being happy that someone publishes these cheats without paying them to do so.
Yes I know, you already bought the game, yadda yadda, but in fact you bought a license to play the game on the platform it was made for. Reverse engineering is generally prohibited by the end user agreement. I don't like these licenses either, but right now that's the way it is. Rockstar could even argue that unpublished cheats are trade secrets.
Heh heh heh! I love these kinds of hacks because they cut to the reason that PCs are both so useful and at the same time the bane of the movie, recording, and to some extent, the gaming industry. As far as I know, this hack to get the cheat codes doesn't violate any current laws (maybe the EULA for the game), but I can imagine the legal types at Rockstar not being too happy, especially if Rockstar planned to profit by publishing the codes later. In their zeal to protect IP like cheat codes, I'm sure that some would love to be able to ban PCs altogether or at least control access to various ports with DRM schemes. There's already at least one DRM enabled BIOS shipping.
Software developers and marketers, learn from Apple. Simplicity is king. Don't cause the customer headaches, and they will come back for more.
Absolutely! This is why the early Palm devices were so popular. They were simple and did what they did very well. Even now, they tend to be simpler and easier to use than competing Pocket PCs which try to do everything under the sun.
While it's nice that Wall Street loves Balmer, it doesn't change the fact that Microsoft is facing a real challenge to its primary revenue streams as we begin to enter a post-PC era. While the PC is not going to disappear, prospects for growth are not good as other devices (that don't and won't run Windows) take the place of PCs for many functions. Microsoft has made some efforts to get out of the PC box, but so far they still seem inclined to try to stuff Windows into everything (Xbox, set top boxes, etc...). They've got to free themselves from this kind of thought if they're going to have a chance to create something new that people will want.
The only way spyware/adware is going to be stopped is when the financial incentive is removed. Someone out there is making a lot of money with spyware. Having a list of investors is just the beginning of the list of people to sue and/or throw in jail. It's going to take some time, but my phone is definitely ringing less since the do not call list went into effect with its hefty fines and penalties. I would guess that the conservative family values anti-porn groups will be all over this soon in an unholy alliance with those...those...liberals!
I've been itching for an excuse to get a Mac, but at heart I'm a tight wad. Now I have no more excuses and my current Windows PC can go to Linux server heaven! Well maybe...I am after all, still a tight wad! I think there are many who will be looking for this as a second computer, expect kvm sales to jump a little.
When will they learn? The people they're trying to sell this thing to have no use for computers. Not that they aren't smart enough to use them, they simply do not. Even today, life can be lived pretty well without ever touching a computer or sending a single email. My grandparent's generation is never going to use computers, so if I want to send them mail, it's time to get out the stamps! For electronic communications I just (gasp) pick up the phone and call them.
Most people tend to stick with whatever technologies were prevalent when they reached adulthood. God! I hope that doesn't happen to me!
Why? Because the current situation is not bringing the company any publicity dividends. Before long a competitor will likely express its great sympathy for the plight of the people fighting for our freedom, etc. etc. etc., and offer a friendlier policy in such situations. Worse, some legislator will start drafting a bill! At this point it would be good PR for Yahoo! to give users a choice.
It seems to me that Yahoo! should update their user's agreement to deal with this problem. Basically, they should allow users to specify how they want next of kin issues dealt with. Some people may opt to allow relatives to access their mail after death, while others may prefer that they delete it all. There should be a way to specify this. I suppose you could do it now by simply spelling it out in your will.
On the other hand though, if I have a box of old letters, I wouldn't expect any level of privacy with respect to that box on my death. In the end though, none of this really matters to the dead person, but the living sure do get worked up about it!
EA's exclusive deal with the AFL just confirms the suspicions of many that they want to kill competition in video football games. The AFL is not popular enough to warrant anyone's interest and EA wants to make sure that competitors like Sega don't even get a chance to make this any different. Now any competing game has to go with made up players, leagues, and stadiums. Yeah, I know about the CFL, but that's probably even less popular in the U.S. than the AFL.
My guess is that EA is interested in sewing up American football ahead of the day when they have to stop using the Madden name. Stiff arming the competition is one way to do this. On the flipside though, a really good game with fully customizable players, leagues, and even stadiums could have a chance. Coupled with strong marketing and online league play, it could overcome the lack of real league licenses. I'd love to see someone try this. Oh, how about a MMO football game too? I heard that this is being tried for baseball by someone.
It occurs to me that this sort of thing is just going to hasten the death of the home PC as a media device. We've already seen the decline in the PC as a gaming platform relative to dedicated consoles in part due to ease of use issues. If I'm Jane user and just watching downloaded videos opens the door to hundreds of spyware apps and other nonsense, I'm going to stop using the PC for stuff like that if there's an easier to use alternative.
The next generation gaming consoles may be ready to become the easy to use box in the living room that is easy to use and never gets infected by viruses or spyware. If this happens, home PC sales will plummet! Couple these boxes with HDTV and high quality sound systems and it's game over for the PC. Slashdotters may be able to cope with the nonsense, but most people are going to take the easy way out, especially if the price of admission is low. As for me, I'd love to see a really good web browser on Sony's PSP, then I could do my mindless surfing in the living room on a reasonably good display.
I appreciate the problems of playing too many hours, but they should be so lucky to have all of that time to play games! Back in the day, I'd play so much tetris or pacman that I'd see them in my sleep. But now I'm lucky if I get 6 hours to play in a given week. Yeah, I know, whine whine whine! Hats off to the game designers, because one of the marks of a good game is addictive gameplay. I'm not sure I can recall any bad games that had this quality.
Seriously, perhaps it's not so bad to have a little fantasy in your reality. Real life can often use some brightening up. This is what I think Nintendo is selling in their current crop of GBA ads in which the player becomes immersed in various game worlds.
Oh my! If this keeps up, in a few years people will think games themselves are a legitimate artform! ;-) Hooray!
Well that's interesting. I would guess though that the French govt will do what it can to prevent or impede any EA takeover of Ubisoft. Not only that, while Vivendi has denied any direct involvement at this point, that doesn't mean they won't take some interest in the matter at some point. I can't help but wonder if companies intentionally start/encourage these rumors as trial balloons. In the end, if Vivendi thinks they can make money on the deal, they'll come into play later, though not necessarily on Ubisoft's side. What the govt does in response to all of this should be fun to watch. Of course the real fun will begin if the U.S. govt decides to get involved given how much we just love the French here in the States!
Infinium Labs basically has no money for attorney's fees or anything else since the last I heard, they had failed to get any additional investor funding. So I think throwing in the towel on the lawsuit is part of their endgame strategy. Don't be surprised if this is soon followed by Chapter 7 Bankruptcy following CES. Unless they get more money real soon, they are DEAD and the show is over. I think whatever they show at CES is their last chance. Though I still wonder if success was ever even an option.
Regardless, we've boiled down the argument of "minority" status of Direct3D to the space of desktop PCs, and as any Slashdotter knows, MSFT has nearly total control in that space. So, to say that Direct3D is a "minority" player is not only silly, but it's wrong...
Well actually the console gaming market dwarfs the pc gaming market. A hit console game may sell millions of copies whereas a similar hit on the PC may sell in the hundreds of thousands at best (with a few exceptions, like the Sims or Myst). So in that context, the PC is a niche player so, Direct3D is a minority right now. Also note, that there are far more games consoles (tens of millions at least) than there are high end home PCs capable of playing the same kinds of games. But, if the Xbox ever gets a big share of the console market, then of course Direct3D would be a bigger player.
Even with the delay, I would say hats off to Carmack and id for continuing to release code like this. As others have already mentioned, it really does help keep the fps genre in particular alive and progressing because it seeds the next generation of development talent. This is good not just for fps games, but anything where a good 3D engine is needed. It's easy to think that there may not be any need to further develop 3D engines, but with new hardware and software coming out all of the time, along with new ideas on how to do things, there's always more that can be done.
Contrast this openess to a company like EA which as far as I know has never released any source code. As many here already know, EA just sewed up an exclusive deal with the NFL for NFL branded football games which essentially puts competing games from ESPN or 989 off the field since they can't use NFL players or stadiums. There has never been any source code for sports games like this released to the public, which means no mods or clones. And it also means that learning how to write these types of games has an enormous learning curve. Well I'm rambling now, but I think the point has been made. Oh, and of course EA is not the only company tight with source code, most are!
It would be nice to salvage something from all of the work that went into the title, but I won't be holding my breath. If it is true that Level 5 and MS had a falling out over TFLO, then it is unlikely it will be a poster child when Xbox 2 promotions begin. Why would Microsoft want to smear more egg on its face with this failed title, though even Malice eventually came out...
If Level 5 is serious about getting some return on investment, I think their best bet is to convert whatever they have into a single player Xbox or PC game (PS2 port would take too long and wouldn't fare well against Square Enix offerings that dominate that platform). This isn't trivial, and a rushed game will likely suck, but it would cut their loses somewhat and perhaps save some face.
Nvidia doesn't really have anything to lose from this anyway. Industry insiders already know that the Infinium box is not likely to see the light of day much less be successful. While the general public and the less informed are not even aware of the Phantom or all of the controversy surrounding it. So as long as the demos themselves don't suck, Nvidia and MS won't mind. I would assume that putting together a decent demo is much easier than launching a successful product!
You know, if the Infinium debacle plays true to form, someday any and all things Infinium might fetch a nice sum on eBay!
I would guess two things. First, whatever new control scheme Nintendo has in mind for their next console will be built with the next Miyamoto game in mind (another Mario perhaps). And the new controls will adequately replace D-pad functionality and add enhancements.
So I got to thinking about it and came up with analog thumbpits. The current analog game pad controls sit up like bumps on the controller and are a bit awkward to use as D-pad replacements. But imagine a soft rubber thumbsized pit. Your thumb would sit in this comfortably allowing you to naturally nudge it in a way analogous to moving the D-pad, but now you can do a lot more than the cross pattern such as pushing straight down and down at angles. So games could be developed where it makes a difference how fast or how far down you push with more freedom than the current analog sticks and buttons give.
I would also expect some kind of touch pad to be included on the controller as well. No strike that, it's not necessary. In typical Nintendo fashion, the new console would have a port/ports for connecting the DS. Then you would just use the DS touch pad. They may still put a pad on the controller though since the DS scheme may be too awkward for the next Mario game. The touch pad has some interesting possibilities. For one thing, as a program configurable control I could see it becoming a keyboard for online chat. Not as good as a real keyboard, but much between than onscreen keyboards. (They might throw in a built-in mike like the DS has as well.)
Finally, perhaps the next controller will have pressure sensitive grips. These grips would replace the buttons. Now each finger can provide input in what should be a more comfortable way, if engineered right. If even half of the above comes to pass, I'd expect the new controllers to be rather difficult to emulate by 3rd parties, which of course will mean more money for Nintendo.
Heh heh, if even part of this is true, there may be a knock at the do...