Japan basically "invented" modern videogames, while american computer text adventures and pong were the first videogames ever created it was games like space invaders, pacman and Mario bros the once who defined it as a new way of entertainment. The rest of the world has been trying to keep up with japanese videogame advances since then.
However that situation is beginning to change, over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase in quality in American and European games, while yesteryear a vast majority of american games were clones, quick cash ins on popular franchises of questionable quality and quickie sport games. ( also known in some circles as "crap") Talented developers are changing the tables on that.
While games like EQ, MKDA, TaoFeng, ETM or Tomb Raider just can't compete with their japanese counterparts (although you have to admit they are getting close) games like Halo (1-2), Half Life (1-2), Doom 1,3*, Soul Reaver, Warcraft 3, *The sims and *GTA3 (at least in its technology aspect) are giving (or gave) japanese games a run for their money, they are AAA quality games, some of them using technological advances which are even superior to the ones used in japanese games.
The rest of course comes from cultural rationalization, japanese games have always tried to resemble "anime" and general japanese fantasy (to ridiculous proportions in some cases) American games tend to mimic Hollywood style movies and Comics (to ridiculous proportions in some cases as well) while one is not better than the other, American style is for obvious reasons suited to Americans (duh). The only difference now is that games have (in some cases "slightly") more quality. Because any way you see it, crap is crap here and everywhere. And a good game is a good game just about for everyone.
p.s.
Is also worth mentioning that it helps that there is an American based competetive console out there now (before that it took years for a good american title to leave the PC realm or never did "prince of persia","doom","warcraft"), and that porting to consoles is easier than ever, this helps this titles to reach a broader audience.
Yeah sure, I mean Is not like the network is the one that gets and counts all the votes and theres no other system on earth to compare those votes with is not like they can easily modify and adulterate the results of their "polls" for whatever will be more shocking, controversial or at least unexpected, no matter if common sense yells at you: Are you crazy?!!! is completely impossible the people who watched this lame show voted that big breasted girl away!!! yeah I mean this is "Reality TV" that means its REAL!! even if it doesn't look,feel or is that way 99% of the time.
One day, people woke up and smelled the coffee.
They decided it smelled bad.
So most of them went to bed again.
*Morons can go with their ordinary lives watching actors pretending to be morons going with their ordinary lives (paradox abound)
*It is possible to create a show with the lowest production values and still make millions with it just by adding the motto: its entertaining because its real!
*A lot of people can't recognize bad acting and writting when they see it. (bad acting sensing impaired?)
*A significant part of the popullation in the US(and just about everywhere this show is a "hit") is in fact, lets be honest: not very smart.
*The "Big Brother house kit" shall simply contain a set of small cameras easy to hid in your neighbors house. Of course your neighbor should be warned he will be taped, and giving a poor written script (contained in the package) so he can at least try to be entertaining. You also should be prepared when your neighbor gets his "Big Brother house kit." maybe its time to get some lingerie
*You should prepare to be tortured by this show, its millions of clones and iterations which contain such important, thrilling and breath taking scenes such as "people having breakfast", "people using the bathroom", "people sleeping", "people sitting in their asses talking nonsense" and most specially "people you couldnt give a damn about storming about who should be out of your tv set (hint: all of them!)".
The reason why ordinary people (not devoted hackers that can crack it, download it, burn it themselves mind you) buy pirated instead of original software is because is substantially cheaper. However they know this comes with a degrade in quality (no manual, no internet key, no license, etc) what if a company was able to sell their original software at almost the same price than pirated somehow? per example what about if Nintendos next console (or handheld) came with dvd-rws (or other kind of recording device) that could be recorded at your favorite store? additionally you could get a licence, guarantee and a printed manual? for lets say $10?
Maybe Nintendo is using this as a testbed for such a system before launching it at a bigger scale.
Piracy wouldnt be stopped (thats practically impossible) but it would be seriously hampered though
Reading between the lines this idea is not so bad, I hope though they are considering the testbed they've choosen is bound not to succesful since the software they are "protecting" has already been pirated "ad-nauseum" before. This has a much better chance to succeed with new software that users can freshly obtain at a much better price with a marginal difference to pirated.
Sure! specially if you are able to knitt at the same time with up to 1000 people, chat and form knitting quests and knitting guilds together!
Grandmas all over America we invite you to get social! forget about that 100 year old chair you sit all day to knitt and talk nonsense on a daily basis, get "Knitting" online today!
Wow, I definetily would like to check this one out, IMO Generals was an underapreciated game for its time, to begin with it was the first RTS game using "next generation" techniques (real time shadows, vertex shaders) so that made it slower than the competition even on high end pcs. Second: it came out in a real bad time just as war was about to start and it actually themed the american and "terrorist" army (heck George Bush appeared in the intro video) calling it a "not sensible" issue is a bit of an understatement. But all things checked graphically and gameplay wise is not bad at all, is much more realistic than any other C&C but without trapping it in a simulation status, it boosts some features that help you not to take it too seriously, like choppers who can refill their ammo in mid air or command centers than can be stablished 2 feet away from the enemy base, not to mention the constant homage/parody to "black hawk down".
In my opinion that game with the LOTR theme, will work wonders Generals was great but it tapped a truly sensitive theme and that made it a lot less fun than it should.
Er... those look like CGI man, (you can tell by the lighting and the surface texture) . they are just the same pictures that are on the site as far as I can tell. (they are very good, but they are fake)
"How does Microsoft not know exactly how many games they are developing? "
Because he's just some PR guy so he doesnt know for sure?
Besides PRs have to be careful on this things, games ussually get cancelled or postponed, new games might be made or bought, new teams with new games can be hired The point is any number he claims will more likely end up being wrong.
Anyway 35-40 is not exactly a very open number, if thats at least a close aproximate, it is in fact impressive.
If you examine the first xbox games, you will notice most of them tried to be new franchises (blinx, malice , azurik, halo) but only one of them hit (one that wasnt so original btw) so they are changing that strategy.
If you examine the new xbox games you will notice they are using old (and not so old) succesful franchises for new games of their own (starcraft,ninja gaiden, conker,mortal kombat) thats the "nintendo strategy" in case you havent noticed it;-)
The number one complaint about the xbox is that every game it comes for it eventually comes out for the PC or is already available in other system. Even games that are "landmarks" for the system like "Halo" are now available for PC.
When they say the "Nintendo strategy" they mean they are going to invest more money on products of their own so they can be xbox exclusive and not "portable" however this doesnt (theorically at least) mean they are going to do it themselves, more likely they are going to hunt for good teams and hire them to work under their name (not just license or fund their games) which is what nintendo is doing right now. Did you knew Warioware and Warioworld (and the original pokemon btw) were not developed by Nintendo "in house" teams?
Also they are going to keep hunting for more exclusives teams to build exclusive games for them they already did this with studio gigante and rare (MK6 is rumored to be an xbox xclusive, so Ed Boon and company might be on their sights, they also tried to book ID but they got refused) So their plan is to have a good number of (good) exclusive titles by next year.
Next year is going to be decisive for Xbox, they have their best line up ever with games that are just going to be available for this system (and high end PCs), so this is their chance to get ahold of a steady fan base and carry them along to the launch of their next console in 2005 (which is safe to assume will be backward compatible)
I dont remember the name of the movie, but theres one in which Michael Caine and another actor create probably the most stupid theater play in story on purpose in order to collect money from investors, the plan was to make the play bomb (while putting the investor money in their pockets) Since investors got in for a percenteage of sales they got nothing if it failed. (it was a comedy so the play did well anyway and Michael Caine got in trouble)
It may sound silly but people like this DO exist, I have a friend who was working on a "new and revolutionary" software project along with a small team for months the pay was no good but they were promised raises as soon as the demo attracted investors, as soon as the company actually secured a major investor he got "secretly" laid off along with the rest of the software team (their NDA didnt allowed him to mention anything though) as far as they could tell no one else was hired, they didnt even bothered to ask him to finish the documentation before leaving, a few months later the company filed bankruptcy and dissapeared.
After reading the article, the story of this so called phantom "CEO" seems suspicious at best, 6 companies worked with, none of them succesful or famous, yet he kept getting CEO jobs, all of this with "hype fantastic" names (one of them is actually called BIG) and apparently funded in investors or family money, what is that money being used on? the photo of one of the "offices" with a single desk in an abandoned mall gave me the creeps.
Im beginning to think the Phantom is in fact just that (or maybe it just falls in the "made to bomb" category.) anyway after reading that If I were one of the investors of the phantom right about now I will be really worried.
"To get really good at doing this, you have to do multiple companies."
That and the fact that they stopped manufacturing it, its practically unavailable in several countries, it has been number 3 in sales worldwide (except japan for a short time because RPG crazed fans went and bought a single RPG for it),all reports of good sales from nintendo come from the GBA, And they dont have any plans for it in the future you may call spectacular (with the sole exception of fzerox).
Yeah is just a wrong impression for their image and because is trendy, they are actually doing great.
BTW down here in Mexico they were selling a brand new GC in $100 in final sale, one week later it was still there in $90, 2 weeks later it wasnt there I asked the salesman, the thing was under the desk gathering dust, the guy put it there because it was taking space on the the shelf he offered it to me in $75... I had the money and I didnt bought it.
I guess is still there... it must be $60 by now.
Oh yeah, Nintendo is doing great
and just wait til sony releases their handheld they will do so much better.
Anyway you look at it, Nintendo is pointing at the wrong direction.
Kids dont like "kiddie" games anymore: They make only kiddie titles and consoles.
Gamers are incursionating in the "online" play: they dont want to go "online" with any title.
Gamers today apreciate games which take on more mature topics: they dont allow real mature titles on their console.
Most consoles use standard formats to cut on expenses:they use propietary formats which are more expensive.
They are doing very well on the handheld market because they are the only competetive handheld out there: Sony is releasing their handheld soon (think ps1 portable).
They have always had support by japanese users over american companies: sony is also a japanese company and is supported by a much larger number of game companies (american and japanese) and users.
Nintendo has always somehow swam against the current and it has worked (for several reasons) but they just cant keep doing that, gamers are not impressed by some original kiddie games using franchises 10+ years old. Sega tried to do the same for years (with sonic and the gang) and at the end they realized they couldnt sale consoles just based in a set of characters.
Nintendo has 2 choices
a.)They realize they are in fact in trouble (no matter how much they are doing now with the GBA) and REALLY change their ways.
b)ignore it and continue working like they have done for manny years (which is exactly what sega did) if they do that though, in less than 3 years (almost sure) we will see a Mario or zelda game for a non nintendo console.
until now, it looks like they are going for b)
Ps. In an interview in EGM with a nintendo representative about the PSP he mentioned "Im surprised they didnt showed a model or something , just a large list of specs, Im surprised, why sony did that? are they having some problems or something? [laughs]". IMO It gave me the impression they think the psp handheld is just vaporware, they actually think that sony cant create a handheld? thats so naive it hurts.
Unfortunately this means little to nothing outside japan, this is good news for GC owners though because it means they will probably be more japanese support for the console. but chances for this to revive the gamecube worldwide are minimal.
Since we are talking about perspectives, heres one for you:
What about if we found out the kids in columbine didnt played games or heard heavy music at all?(for any reason)
What about if their parent lawyers planted the "evidence" that was found on the web? to turn the blame on someone (something) else?
Would it make any difference
Who is to blame then?
Their parents? because they didnt know what their teenager kids were really up to?
Who is to blame then?
Do you feel the need to blame someone?.
I hate to say it, but online is in fact the future of gaming, take a look at south korea gaming habits those numbers are not made up.
The thing is internet connections to this very day (to use a non technical term) "suck" but expect this situation to change dramatically in the near future
Gaming alone is not as fun as playing with someone else, no matter what the genere is, social interaction in a game (for good or bad) adds an element that AI simply just cant. with new technology (for PC and consoles) now we're even able to talk instead of type to the people we are playing with. Can you imagine what would be capable of if we had 10 times the connection speed we have today?
Sure this brings new problems (cheaters, pkillers, downtimes, lag) but then what new technology doesnt come with their share?
I mean just 5 years ago, a page like this one, would have been impossible or real difficult to create and use. Times change, times change.
The numbers you are mentioning mean nothing, there are about 50 pc online games for each console online game. Xbox live is 1 year old. PCs online gaming is at least 10 years old. Not everybody has a broadband connection, how could anyone in their right mind, expect for the numbers to be even similar? console gaming IS growing, people subscribing to live is increasing , SOCOM for ps2 is a top selling game, expect the numbers for FF XI to go through the roof in a year or maybe even less (specially considering is PC compatible) (everwho?) the xbox line up is saturated with games online so expect the numbers to increase a lot more through "live" amateur console users are getting to know online gaming and their community is growing
Fighting games are not meant to be played online, but DOA might just pull that trick too!
IMO Nintendo is NOT making a wise decission by keeping their games offline. (they already lost Final fantasy XI due to this) As a matter of fact that might be what they need to get back in their feet! (and the saddest thing is : they already have a broadband adapter) just some of the N games that will sold great (even better) if they were online.
Mario Kart, Pokemon Stadium, Yugi-oh, FZero, starfox, etc. None of those games will be online.
Anyway we will see next year which console survives the final part of the war.
FF chronicles has little to no chance to "revive" the GC. First of all the "each of your friends must have a GBA to play" is not exactly a final sale statement. 2nd, is not even final fantasy anymore is more like "Legend of mana" with 3d "ultra cute" characters. (IMO the main characters borrowed the teletubbie faces) put them against the hyped Final Fantasy X 2, and Final Fantasy XI online (both not available in the cube) theres no competition.
If nintendo really wants to recover its ground it has to do 3 things: 1.-Get rid of their damned "Nintendo is for kidies" image and release games like GTA and silent hill for the system, I want a system in which I can play any game, not just the ones some suit considers are "not so bad" for me, Im old enough to vote people! 2.-Get online! Nintendo is refusing to use a system they already sold! "here! have a broadband adapter you can use it for PSO and it also makes a great doorstep! " what kind of respect to their customers is that? Nintendo needs to concentrate on keeping up with the growing online console fan base. (pokemon and yugi online!) 3.-Have some good and original content based on franchises which are not 20+ years old! and that dont look to be made for preeschoolers We had our fun as kids with Mario and the gang, is time to let go and build something NEW a new franchise for teenagers and young adults, Nintendo original fan base has grown up is about time they realize that! If they do that, people would realize the GC is a cheap, portable and pretty capable console.
But guess what? I dont really think Nintendo is even considering any changes. As soon as the GBA keeps being king of the handhelds expect the GC to dissapear silently with some fanboys trying to clutch to it until the new console is released and the cycle starts all over again.
Nope, Im a game developer (a small one though)
Anyway I dont think you are getting the whole picture here, this guys are not just getting "permission" (in which case lucasarts could simply just look in the opossite direction and allow this mod to be) they are getting support! they actually can use all profesionaly produced sounds models and textures from previously released games!
I can understand from watching the screenshots why Lucasarts was impressed with the quality, but if this mod wins the "unreal contest" and gets released around the same time than "jedi academy" sales could in fact get hurt. this simply makes no sense, Lucasarts could have offered the team jobs instead. maybe even realize it would be a good idea to license the ut engine for their next game, but offer full support to a mod group? creating a mod that will compete against dark forces? for a game that belongs to a different company? out of the kindness of their hearts? that is too good, to be truth LucasArts must have something up their sleeves.
beep! sorry to correct you! but the benefiated there is LucasFilm the film company not LucasArts the game company which has created most star wars games and several other franchises. Of course there is a connection, but LucasArts doesnt make money from the films (not directly at least) LucasArts (as far as I can see) is not making any revenue because they don't own UT2003. (if this MOD was for Jedi Outcast/Academy it would be a quite different story)
Why in the world is lucasArts giving permission to a mod team to create a game that plays exactly like Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy? at first I thought this mod would be something different (or at least better) like a 3d RTS but after seing the webpage it looks to me this is nothing but an ordinary vainilla ut2003 deathmatch mod with an sw theme (??).
Is Jedi Outcast Academy doing that bad? where they so impressed (or unimpressed) on this mod? maybe they thought they could get some free advertising on "make something unreal" but for any "ad" they sale they will inevitably lose more on their own FPS sales, even if they got partial rights, they can't even sale this mod. I dont understand where any revenue may come from this, it really makes no sense.
It will eventually happen, all over the world there are beginning to be shows dedicated to video gaming and this will in time spin off to online competitions/tournaments and sooner later broadcasted competitions.
The concept that is not "entertaining enough to watch" doesnt really apply I mean seriously have you ever watched a baseball, football, basketball game in which your favorite team is not playing?.
Watching any game is boring. What makes you interested is that YOU want someone to win you need a "hero" (sort of speak) then the game suddenly gains dramatical value.
Thats why pro gamers are hustling right now, no one knows who they are and no one actually cares (except other gamers) with the right promotion and the right skills to show off, a pro gamer could actually get very far (even today!)
ie. Ive never seen the guy but I know "F4tality" is probably one of the best quake 3 players in the world, he got a gold medal in last year cyberolimpycs, and he was in a tournament in gamespy a few years ago where everybody who could frag him, would make some hard cash. (and I think nobody did) why do I know that guy? because someone cared to show me his impressive game stats/skills and over time Im now convinced the guy is extraordinarily good! (besides he has a "name" that is easy to remember) Thats exactly what pro gamers need: promotion! for them (not just for the games or graphics cards they use)
People tend to admire what they cant achieve and I can tell you this. If I gave people money for fragging me in an online game I would be broke and pretty deep in debt by now. Would I pay to play against "F4tality"? Im not that fool. would I pay to see him play? I think I actually would.
A 40 year old man was arrested in Chicago this morning:
"He started acting weird" mentioned his coworkers, Timothy Arcade 40 year old, went and bought a bunch of aspirins and throw them in the floor across all the cubicles, then he proceeded to eat them while making a "snacka" "snacka" sound effect, several coworkers and security officers tried to stop him, but he elluded them succesfully, in his way he also grabbed some cherries that were in the middle of the office for no apparent reason. When the police finally arrived and arrested the man, he stated he was just trying to emulate pacman after hearing this the policeman let the poor man go and went to burn down namco's office on chicago.
Later that afternoon , the police had to arrest Timothy again, after eating a large Pill in one of the corner cubicles he actually attemped to eat the coworkers that were chasing him.
In other news some other 40 year old, was arrested yesterday for soliciting but he was let go when he confessed he was just emulating Leisure suit larry. The police is looking for sierra's offices to burn them down.
VideoGames: the best way get you off the hook... always!
2 things:
First of all I invite slashdot readers to NOT click on news such as this, all you are doing is adding "hits" to this "news" and making it "hot" (media loves that) most of the people who read this kind of stuff are gamers, and at the end this only "adds" credibility to something otherwise wouldnt beat a dead horse. Eventually normal people will grow tired of this kind of "news" and realize is nothing but bull
but we need to start with us.
I have an idea. let game companies SUE idiot users for abuse/misuse of their products
all they have to do is include in their license a statement clearly mentioning:
"WARNING: we are not responsable for any acts you commit after or before playing this game, if you try to blame us on anything which is not a technical or gameplay difficulty with our product, we will in fact sue your ass ! Yes, thats right! your little scheme to get rich, may actually get us Richer and put you in jail instead!
The letter M in the BOX doesnt mean "MINT" or "candy" it means "Mature" and although you most probably ARE NOT! it means kiddie s(those litle guys that live around with you) MUST NOT PLAY this game no matter how cool it is, if you let any KID watch this game and afterwards they get involved in any criminal activity even littering! we will freaking sue you! why? because we can!
This game may in fact be addictive so if you have the will power of blending alcohol, and your answer to any question is: "yes" DONT USE IT! go and get drunk instead, you and US will be a lot happier"
"If you are a media publisher and have no news for the day, guess what? if you even mention any negative comment about of our products in ANY activity which is not gaming and/or use it as an scapeGoat for real life problems , we will get your writing license rip it to shreds in front of you, beat you in the head with any awards and/or office furniture you may have, break your fingers so you are never able to type, get you fired (and/or in fire depending our rage), get you shaved, bathed, parfumed , dressed with a provocative red dress and then throw you in jail with a 100 pound man who has not seen a woman/affeminate man in 50 years! We will then print 500 copies of your articles and make sure jailers wont serve you anything else for supper for the rest of your misserable little life!"
"Now that we are clear on that, please enjoy our quality entertainment software. Oh and remember those are not bugs they are features, those who are actually bugs will be patched in the next version"
Sorry I just had to say it.
Nice comment however it is in fact incorrect, video gaming has evolved into a new art form, and since it is an art (and business) there will always be the Disney's and the Tarantino's there will always be some artist that will try to explore the dark and less simpathetic aspects of reality or fantasy (and profit from it) and those who will try to explore innocence and fantasy (and profit from it). They are not inherently wrong they are targetted to completely different audiences and explore completely different aspects of life and/or fantasy. The sooner we learn to accept that fact, the less crap we will have to accept from the media who tries to convince us some kind of entertainment has somehow become the source of all evil.
Slashdot Mirror
Japan basically "invented" modern videogames, while american computer text adventures and pong were the first videogames ever created it was games like space invaders, pacman and Mario bros the once who defined it as a new way of entertainment. The rest of the world has been trying to keep up with japanese videogame advances since then.
However that situation is beginning to change, over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase in quality in American and European games, while yesteryear a vast majority of american games were clones, quick cash ins on popular franchises of questionable quality and quickie sport games. ( also known in some circles as "crap") Talented developers are changing the tables on that.
While games like EQ, MKDA, TaoFeng, ETM or Tomb Raider just can't compete with their japanese counterparts (although you have to admit they are getting close) games like Halo (1-2), Half Life (1-2), Doom 1,3*, Soul Reaver, Warcraft 3, *The sims and *GTA3 (at least in its technology aspect) are giving (or gave) japanese games a run for their money, they are AAA quality games, some of them using technological advances which are even superior to the ones used in japanese games.
The rest of course comes from cultural rationalization, japanese games have always tried to resemble "anime" and general japanese fantasy (to ridiculous proportions in some cases) American games tend to mimic Hollywood style movies and Comics (to ridiculous proportions in some cases as well) while one is not better than the other, American style is for obvious reasons suited to Americans (duh). The only difference now is that games have (in some cases "slightly") more quality. Because any way you see it, crap is crap here and everywhere. And a good game is a good game just about for everyone.
p.s.
Is also worth mentioning that it helps that there is an American based competetive console out there now (before that it took years for a good american title to leave the PC realm or never did "prince of persia","doom","warcraft"), and that porting to consoles is easier than ever, this helps this titles to reach a broader audience.
Yeah sure, I mean Is not like the network is the one that gets and counts all the votes and theres no other system on earth to compare those votes with is not like they can easily modify and adulterate the results of their "polls" for whatever will be more shocking, controversial or at least unexpected, no matter if common sense yells at you: Are you crazy?!!! is completely impossible the people who watched this lame show voted that big breasted girl away!!! yeah I mean this is "Reality TV" that means its REAL!! even if it doesn't look,feel or is that way 99% of the time.
One day, people woke up and smelled the coffee. They decided it smelled bad. So most of them went to bed again.
*Morons can go with their ordinary lives watching actors pretending to be morons going with their ordinary lives (paradox abound)
*It is possible to create a show with the lowest production values and still make millions with it just by adding the motto: its entertaining because its real!
*A lot of people can't recognize bad acting and writting when they see it. (bad acting sensing impaired?)
*A significant part of the popullation in the US(and just about everywhere this show is a "hit") is in fact, lets be honest: not very smart.
*The "Big Brother house kit" shall simply contain a set of small cameras easy to hid in your neighbors house. Of course your neighbor should be warned he will be taped, and giving a poor written script (contained in the package) so he can at least try to be entertaining. You also should be prepared when your neighbor gets his "Big Brother house kit." maybe its time to get some lingerie
*You should prepare to be tortured by this show, its millions of clones and iterations which contain such important, thrilling and breath taking scenes such as "people having breakfast", "people using the bathroom", "people sleeping", "people sitting in their asses talking nonsense" and most specially "people you couldnt give a damn about storming about who should be out of your tv set (hint: all of them!)".
Entertainment at its best!
The reason why ordinary people (not devoted hackers that can crack it, download it, burn it themselves mind you) buy pirated instead of original software is because is substantially cheaper. However they know this comes with a degrade in quality (no manual, no internet key, no license, etc) what if a company was able to sell their original software at almost the same price than pirated somehow? per example what about if Nintendos next console (or handheld) came with dvd-rws (or other kind of recording device) that could be recorded at your favorite store? additionally you could get a licence, guarantee and a printed manual? for lets say $10?
Maybe Nintendo is using this as a testbed for such a system before launching it at a bigger scale.
Piracy wouldnt be stopped (thats practically impossible) but it would be seriously hampered though
Reading between the lines this idea is not so bad, I hope though they are considering the testbed they've choosen is bound not to succesful since the software they are "protecting" has already been pirated "ad-nauseum" before. This has a much better chance to succeed with new software that users can freshly obtain at a much better price with a marginal difference to pirated.
Sure! specially if you are able to knitt at the same time with up to 1000 people, chat and form knitting quests and knitting guilds together!
Grandmas all over America we invite you to get social! forget about that 100 year old chair you sit all day to knitt and talk nonsense on a daily basis, get "Knitting" online today!
Wow, I definetily would like to check this one out, IMO Generals was an underapreciated game for its time, to begin with it was the first RTS game using "next generation" techniques (real time shadows, vertex shaders) so that made it slower than the competition even on high end pcs. Second: it came out in a real bad time just as war was about to start and it actually themed the american and "terrorist" army (heck George Bush appeared in the intro video) calling it a "not sensible" issue is a bit of an understatement. But all things checked graphically and gameplay wise is not bad at all, is much more realistic than any other C&C but without trapping it in a simulation status, it boosts some features that help you not to take it too seriously, like choppers who can refill their ammo in mid air or command centers than can be stablished 2 feet away from the enemy base, not to mention the constant homage/parody to "black hawk down".
In my opinion that game with the LOTR theme, will work wonders Generals was great but it tapped a truly sensitive theme and that made it a lot less fun than it should.
Er... those look like CGI man, (you can tell by the lighting and the surface texture) . they are just the same pictures that are on the site as far as I can tell. (they are very good, but they are fake)
"How does Microsoft not know exactly how many games they are developing? "
Because he's just some PR guy so he doesnt know for sure?
Besides PRs have to be careful on this things, games ussually get cancelled or postponed, new games might be made or bought, new teams with new games can be hired
The point is any number he claims will more likely end up being wrong.
Anyway 35-40 is not exactly a very open number, if thats at least a close aproximate, it is in fact impressive.
If you examine the first xbox games, you will notice most of them tried to be new franchises (blinx, malice , azurik, halo) but only one of them hit (one that wasnt so original btw) so they are changing that strategy. ;-)
If you examine the new xbox games you will notice they are using old (and not so old) succesful franchises for new games of their own (starcraft,ninja gaiden, conker,mortal kombat) thats the "nintendo strategy" in case you havent noticed it
Hey, this guys learn fast!
The number one complaint about the xbox is that every game it comes for it eventually comes out for the PC or is already available in other system. Even games that are "landmarks" for the system like "Halo" are now available for PC .
When they say the "Nintendo strategy" they mean they are going to invest more money on products of their own so they can be xbox exclusive and not "portable" however this doesnt (theorically at least) mean they are going to do it themselves, more likely they are going to hunt for good teams and hire them to work under their name (not just license or fund their games) which is what nintendo is doing right now. Did you knew Warioware and Warioworld (and the original pokemon btw) were not developed by Nintendo "in house" teams?
Also they are going to keep hunting for more exclusives teams to build exclusive games for them they already did this with studio gigante and rare (MK6 is rumored to be an xbox xclusive, so Ed Boon and company might be on their sights, they also tried to book ID but they got refused) So their plan is to have a good number of (good) exclusive titles by next year.
Next year is going to be decisive for Xbox, they have their best line up ever with games that are just going to be available for this system (and high end PCs), so this is their chance to get ahold of a steady fan base and carry them along to the launch of their next console in 2005 (which is safe to assume will be backward compatible)
Only time will tell...
I dont remember the name of the movie, but theres one in which Michael Caine and another actor create probably the most stupid theater play in story on purpose in order to collect money from investors, the plan was to make the play bomb (while putting the investor money in their pockets) Since investors got in for a percenteage of sales they got nothing if it failed. (it was a comedy so the play did well anyway and Michael Caine got in trouble)
It may sound silly but people like this DO exist, I have a friend who was working on a "new and revolutionary" software project along with a small team for months the pay was no good but they were promised raises as soon as the demo attracted investors, as soon as the company actually secured a major investor he got "secretly" laid off along with the rest of the software team (their NDA didnt allowed him to mention anything though) as far as they could tell no one else was hired, they didnt even bothered to ask him to finish the documentation before leaving, a few months later the company filed bankruptcy and dissapeared.
After reading the article, the story of this so called phantom "CEO" seems suspicious at best, 6 companies worked with, none of them succesful or famous, yet he kept getting CEO jobs, all of this with "hype fantastic" names (one of them is actually called BIG) and apparently funded in investors or family money, what is that money being used on? the photo of one of the "offices" with a single desk in an abandoned mall gave me the creeps.
Im beginning to think the Phantom is in fact just that (or maybe it just falls in the "made to bomb" category.) anyway after reading that If I were one of the investors of the phantom right about now I will be really worried.
"To get really good at doing this, you have to do multiple companies."
Interesting choice of words Mr. Roberts.
That and the fact that they stopped manufacturing it, its practically unavailable in several countries, it has been number 3 in sales worldwide (except japan for a short time because RPG crazed fans went and bought a single RPG for it),all reports of good sales from nintendo come from the GBA, And they dont have any plans for it in the future you may call spectacular (with the sole exception of fzerox).
Yeah is just a wrong impression for their image and because is trendy, they are actually doing great.
BTW down here in Mexico they were selling a brand new GC in $100 in final sale, one week later it was still there in $90, 2 weeks later it wasnt there I asked the salesman, the thing was under the desk gathering dust, the guy put it there because it was taking space on the the shelf he offered it to me in $75... I had the money and I didnt bought it.
I guess is still there... it must be $60 by now.
Oh yeah, Nintendo is doing great and just wait til sony releases their handheld they will do so much better.
Anyway you look at it, Nintendo is pointing at the wrong direction. :they use propietary formats which are more expensive. .
Kids dont like "kiddie" games anymore: They make only kiddie titles and consoles.
Gamers are incursionating in the "online" play: they dont want to go "online" with any title.
Gamers today apreciate games which take on more mature topics: they dont allow real mature titles on their console.
Most consoles use standard formats to cut on expenses
They are doing very well on the handheld market because they are the only competetive handheld out there: Sony is releasing their handheld soon (think ps1 portable)
They have always had support by japanese users over american companies: sony is also a japanese company and is supported by a much larger number of game companies (american and japanese) and users.
Nintendo has always somehow swam against the current and it has worked (for several reasons) but they just cant keep doing that, gamers are not impressed by some original kiddie games using franchises 10+ years old. Sega tried to do the same for years (with sonic and the gang) and at the end they realized they couldnt sale consoles just based in a set of characters.
Nintendo has 2 choices
a.)They realize they are in fact in trouble (no matter how much they are doing now with the GBA) and REALLY change their ways.
b)ignore it and continue working like they have done for manny years (which is exactly what sega did) if they do that though, in less than 3 years (almost sure) we will see a Mario or zelda game for a non nintendo console.
until now, it looks like they are going for b)
Ps. In an interview in EGM with a nintendo representative about the PSP he mentioned "Im surprised they didnt showed a model or something , just a large list of specs, Im surprised, why sony did that? are they having some problems or something? [laughs]".
IMO It gave me the impression they think the psp handheld is just vaporware, they actually think that sony cant create a handheld? thats so naive it hurts.
Unfortunately this means little to nothing outside japan, this is good news for GC owners though because it means they will probably be more japanese support for the console. but chances for this to revive the gamecube worldwide are minimal.
Is impressive though..
Since we are talking about perspectives, heres one for you:
What about if we found out the kids in columbine didnt played games or heard heavy music at all?(for any reason)
What about if their parent lawyers planted the "evidence" that was found on the web? to turn the blame on someone (something) else?
Would it make any difference
Who is to blame then?
Their parents? because they didnt know what their teenager kids were really up to?
Who is to blame then?
Do you feel the need to blame someone?.
I hate to say it, but online is in fact the future of gaming, take a look at south korea gaming habits those numbers are not made up.
The thing is internet connections to this very day (to use a non technical term) "suck" but expect this situation to change dramatically in the near future
Gaming alone is not as fun as playing with someone else, no matter what the genere is, social interaction in a game (for good or bad) adds an element that AI simply just cant.
with new technology (for PC and consoles) now we're even able to talk instead of type to the people we are playing with. Can you imagine what would be capable of if we had 10 times the connection speed we have today?
Sure this brings new problems (cheaters, pkillers, downtimes, lag) but then what new technology doesnt come with their share?
I mean just 5 years ago, a page like this one, would have been impossible or real difficult to create and use. Times change, times change.
The numbers you are mentioning mean nothing, there are about 50 pc online games for each console online game. Xbox live is 1 year old. PCs online gaming is at least 10 years old. Not everybody has a broadband connection, how could anyone in their right mind, expect for the numbers to be even similar? console gaming IS growing, people subscribing to live is increasing , SOCOM for ps2 is a top selling game, expect the numbers for FF XI to go through the roof in a year or maybe even less (specially considering is PC compatible) (everwho?) the xbox line up is saturated with games online so expect the numbers to increase a lot more through "live" amateur console users are getting to know online gaming and their community is growing
Fighting games are not meant to be played online, but DOA might just pull that trick too!
IMO Nintendo is NOT making a wise decission by keeping their games offline. (they already lost Final fantasy XI due to this) As a matter of fact that might be what they need to get back in their feet! (and the saddest thing is : they already have a broadband adapter)
just some of the N games that will sold great (even better) if they were online.
Mario Kart, Pokemon Stadium, Yugi-oh, FZero, starfox, etc.
None of those games will be online.
Anyway we will see next year which console survives the final part of the war.
FF chronicles has little to no chance to "revive" the GC. First of all the "each of your friends must have a GBA to play" is not exactly a final sale statement. 2nd, is not even final fantasy anymore is more like "Legend of mana" with 3d "ultra cute" characters. (IMO the main characters borrowed the teletubbie faces) put them against the hyped Final Fantasy X 2, and Final Fantasy XI online (both not available in the cube) theres no competition.
If nintendo really wants to recover its ground it has to do 3 things:
1.-Get rid of their damned "Nintendo is for kidies" image and release games like GTA and silent hill for the system, I want a system in which I can play any game, not just the ones some suit considers are "not so bad" for me, Im old enough to vote people!
2.-Get online! Nintendo is refusing to use a system they already sold! "here! have a broadband adapter you can use it for PSO and it also makes a great doorstep! " what kind of respect to their customers is that? Nintendo needs to concentrate on keeping up with the growing online console fan base. (pokemon and yugi online!)
3.-Have some good and original content based on franchises which are not 20+ years old! and that dont look to be made for preeschoolers We had our fun as kids with Mario and the gang, is time to let go and build something NEW a new franchise for teenagers and young adults, Nintendo original fan base has grown up is about time they realize that!
If they do that, people would realize the GC is a cheap, portable and pretty capable console.
But guess what? I dont really think Nintendo is even considering any changes. As soon as the GBA keeps being king of the handhelds expect the GC to dissapear silently with some fanboys trying to clutch to it until the new console is released and the cycle starts all over again.
Nope, Im a game developer (a small one though)
Anyway I dont think you are getting the whole picture here, this guys are not just getting "permission" (in which case lucasarts could simply just look in the opossite direction and allow this mod to be) they are getting support! they actually can use all profesionaly produced sounds models and textures from previously released games!
I can understand from watching the screenshots why Lucasarts was impressed with the quality, but if this mod wins the "unreal contest" and gets released around the same time than "jedi academy" sales could in fact get hurt.
this simply makes no sense, Lucasarts could have offered the team jobs instead. maybe even realize it would be a good idea to license the ut engine for their next game, but offer full support to a mod group? creating a mod that will compete against dark forces? for a game that belongs to a different company? out of the kindness of their hearts? that is too good, to be truth LucasArts must have something up their sleeves.
beep! sorry to correct you! but the benefiated there is LucasFilm the film company not LucasArts the game company which has created most star wars games and several other franchises.
Of course there is a connection, but LucasArts doesnt make money from the films (not directly at least)
LucasArts (as far as I can see) is not making any revenue because they don't own UT2003. (if this MOD was for Jedi Outcast/Academy it would be a quite different story)
Why in the world is lucasArts giving permission to a mod team to create a game that plays exactly like Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy? at first I thought this mod would be something different (or at least better) like a 3d RTS but after seing the webpage it looks to me this is nothing but an ordinary vainilla ut2003 deathmatch mod with an sw theme (??).
Is Jedi Outcast Academy doing that bad? where they so impressed (or unimpressed) on this mod? maybe they thought they could get some free advertising on "make something unreal" but for any "ad" they sale they will inevitably lose more on their own FPS sales, even if they got partial rights, they can't even sale this mod.
I dont understand where any revenue may come from this, it really makes no sense.
It will eventually happen, all over the world there are beginning to be shows dedicated to video gaming and this will in time spin off to online competitions/tournaments and sooner later broadcasted competitions.
The concept that is not "entertaining enough to watch" doesnt really apply I mean seriously have you ever watched a baseball, football, basketball game in which your favorite team is not playing?.
Watching any game is boring. What makes you interested is that YOU want someone to win you need a "hero" (sort of speak) then the game suddenly gains dramatical value.
Thats why pro gamers are hustling right now, no one knows who they are and no one actually cares (except other gamers) with the right promotion and the right skills to show off, a pro gamer could actually get very far (even today!)
ie. Ive never seen the guy but I know "F4tality" is probably one of the best quake 3 players in the world, he got a gold medal in last year cyberolimpycs, and he was in a tournament in gamespy a few years ago where everybody who could frag him, would make some hard cash. (and I think nobody did)
why do I know that guy? because someone cared to show me his impressive game stats/skills and over time Im now convinced the guy is extraordinarily good! (besides he has a "name" that is easy to remember) Thats exactly what pro gamers need: promotion! for them (not just for the games or graphics cards they use)
People tend to admire what they cant achieve and I can tell you this. If I gave people money for fragging me in an online game I would be broke and pretty deep in debt by now.
Would I pay to play against "F4tality"? Im not that fool. would I pay to see him play? I think I actually would.
A 40 year old man was arrested in Chicago this morning:
"He started acting weird" mentioned his coworkers, Timothy Arcade 40 year old, went and bought a bunch of aspirins and throw them in the floor across all the cubicles, then he proceeded to eat them while making a "snacka" "snacka" sound effect, several coworkers and security officers tried to stop him, but he elluded them succesfully, in his way he also grabbed some cherries that were in the middle of the office for no apparent reason.
When the police finally arrived and arrested the man, he stated he was just trying to emulate pacman after hearing this the policeman let the poor man go and went to burn down namco's office on chicago.
Later that afternoon , the police had to arrest Timothy again, after eating a large Pill in one of the corner cubicles he actually attemped to eat the coworkers that were chasing him.
In other news some other 40 year old, was arrested yesterday for soliciting but he was let go when he confessed he was just emulating Leisure suit larry. The police is looking for sierra's offices to burn them down.
VideoGames: the best way get you off the hook... always!
2 things:
First of all I invite slashdot readers to NOT click on news such as this, all you are doing is adding "hits" to this "news" and making it "hot" (media loves that) most of the people who read this kind of stuff are gamers, and at the end this only "adds" credibility to something otherwise wouldnt beat a dead horse. Eventually normal people will grow tired of this kind of "news" and realize is nothing but bull but we need to start with us.
I have an idea. let game companies SUE idiot users for abuse/misuse of their products all they have to do is include in their license a statement clearly mentioning:
"WARNING: we are not responsable for any acts you commit after or before playing this game, if you try to blame us on anything which is not a technical or gameplay difficulty with our product, we will in fact sue your ass ! Yes, thats right! your little scheme to get rich, may actually get us Richer and put you in jail instead!
The letter M in the BOX doesnt mean "MINT" or "candy" it means "Mature" and although you most probably ARE NOT! it means kiddie s(those litle guys that live around with you) MUST NOT PLAY this game no matter how cool it is, if you let any KID watch this game and afterwards they get involved in any criminal activity even littering! we will freaking sue you! why? because we can!
This game may in fact be addictive so if you have the will power of blending alcohol, and your answer to any question is: "yes" DONT USE IT! go and get drunk instead, you and US will be a lot happier"
"If you are a media publisher and have no news for the day, guess what? if you even mention any negative comment about of our products in ANY activity which is not gaming and/or use it as an scapeGoat for real life problems , we will get your writing license rip it to shreds in front of you, beat you in the head with any awards and/or office furniture you may have, break your fingers so you are never able to type, get you fired (and/or in fire depending our rage), get you shaved, bathed, parfumed , dressed with a provocative red dress and then throw you in jail with a 100 pound man who has not seen a woman/affeminate man in 50 years! We will then print 500 copies of your articles and make sure jailers wont serve you anything else for supper for the rest of your misserable little life!"
"Now that we are clear on that, please enjoy our quality entertainment software. Oh and remember those are not bugs they are features, those who are actually bugs will be patched in the next version"
Sorry I just had to say it.
Have a nice day!
Nice comment however it is in fact incorrect, video gaming has evolved into a new art form, and since it is an art (and business) there will always be the Disney's and the Tarantino's there will always be some artist that will try to explore the dark and less simpathetic aspects of reality or fantasy (and profit from it) and those who will try to explore innocence and fantasy (and profit from it).
They are not inherently wrong they are targetted to completely different audiences and explore completely different aspects of life and/or fantasy. The sooner we learn to accept that fact, the less crap we will have to accept from the media who tries to convince us some kind of entertainment has somehow become the source of all evil.