All in all, not bad for a non-holiday season launch. Early enough to get some units into gamers hands before the summer vacation/car trips hit and enough of a lead on Xmas 2005 to allow the developers to really put out some kick-ass games for the holidays.
I hope these sales figures are enough for studios to devote more time to AAA PSP titles... the one title I was really looking forward to (Death Jr.) has already been pushed back to July 2005.
Definitely a minor point, but I think TS2 didn't count because it was originally a direct-to-video project, and it was only released into theatres when they realized how good it was.
Re:Sad, sad commentary
on
XBox Released
·
· Score: 1
> I personally sent a few stories Slashdot's way (including numerous discussions on hacking the
> Box) and apparently noone thought them worthy.
Some of us might find them worthy -- care to post links?
Their advice is similar to advice given to writers (that I've seen attributed to Stephen King): you learn to be a writer by writing. Lots.
Most of the people I know in the game industry who went the CS route built a portfolio of code, engines, and demos that they could show to folks that alreaady are in the game industry. Coders that want to be in the industry are legion, coders who are willing to put together a decent portfolio aren't as common.
If you're serious about it, you should probably attend industry events like the GDC, E3, and the various GDC roadtrips to network. And if I'm not mistaken, the GDC even allows you to be a volunteer to get a discounted admission fee.
Since they are even bothering to hold this event in a geographical location, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they set the machine's consoles across from each other on the table, and had little robotic arms move the pieces.
Re:Great Movie, maybe not for Americans
on
Review: The Dish
·
· Score: 1
I was in Sydney at the time of the premiere of the new Paul Hogan movie, and let me tell you, there was more negative reaction in the press than positive (a la "is this the best portrayal that the world is ever going to get of us?")
From what I can tell the averaze Ozzie isn't too happy about that loopy crocodile hunter fellow either.
Bill Watterson (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) wrote an interesting essay on the licensing wars over C&H and how he considers not licensing the characters to be a question of maintaining the strip's integrity.
UF *did* used to be amusing. I still read it every day looking for a chuckle, but I am often struck at the number of things that are swiped from Bloom County.
It was cool the first time he did it, sort of a nod to strips that have gone by, but after awhile, it gets tedious. Yes, it was funny when Breathed did it. No, it isn't funny when it's redone with different characters.
Granted, Breathed also swiped from strips that had gone before him (Doonesbury), but eventually he started doing his own schtik. Maybe Illiad just hasn't found his own voice yet...
In a PalmSource session, Jeff Hawkins (now of Visor) said that one of the concepts that he was considering implementing when he left Palm was speech recognition.
He had a prototype made out of wood (like he did for the original Pilot), and carried it around with him, pretending that it was a real unit, doing things like making appointments by voice, dictating memos, etc.
He said that "it felt wrong", both in terms of execution (it's much faster to click your way around the OS than try to short-cut through it using voice commands), and it terms of the social stigma that's attached to "talking to yourself". He didn't think that the latter would be overcome, but he also pointed out that a long time ago, even talking on a cell phone was out-of-the-ordinary enough for people to look at you funny.
I've used Dragon Dictate (on a P3/500 with gobs of RAM), and it was just too slow for my tastes even on my relatively powerful machine. I constantly had to "correct" it, but each time I did it would remember the way I said certain things for the next time. Now this is fine on a desktop with mucho storage, but what is going to happen on a PDA with limited storage? Is it not going to be possible for me to customize its vocabulary? Will I have to mold my voice to the device? If so, I see these devices having very limited appeal...
One of the things that bothers me a lot about the process is the fact that AOS's are handled at a local level, and not done centrally.
This gives you variations in processing time as shown here -- something that takes 30-60 days in Honolulu can take up to *1800* days in Sacramento.
And that's assuming that you included your "long form" birth certificate, a list of all of the places that your spouse has lived since they were 16, or any of the other little details that can get your application sent back.
Even if you are married to a US Citizen the processing times are pretty long, and you have to go through an adjustment of status process very similar to an employment-based one.
Marriage-based Greeen Cards Quirks - you have an interview at the end of the process where an INS inspector will potentially quiz you and your spouse seperately about such things as the colour of your toothbruses, what brands of various products you use about the house, what side of the bed you sleep on, etc. Who said INS officers don't get to have any fun?
To the INS, you're an Alien if you're not a USC (United States Citizen), and to celebrate this fact, during your AOS process you get to receive your very own Alien Registration Number.
One of the funny thing about ARN's is that they get re-used. There have been stories on some of the alt.visa.* newsgroups about how people have been issued ARN's for dead people and people who are wanted for crimes by INTERPOL. All part of the road to permanence in this great country, I guess.
Slashdot Mirror
All in all, not bad for a non-holiday season launch. Early enough to get some units into gamers hands before the summer vacation/car trips hit and enough of a lead on Xmas 2005 to allow the developers to really put out some kick-ass games for the holidays.
I hope these sales figures are enough for studios to devote more time to AAA PSP titles... the one title I was really looking forward to (Death Jr.) has already been pushed back to July 2005.
Definitely a minor point, but I think TS2 didn't count because it was originally a direct-to-video project, and it was only released into theatres when they realized how good it was.
> I personally sent a few stories Slashdot's way (including numerous discussions on hacking the
> Box) and apparently noone thought them worthy.
Some of us might find them worthy -- care to post links?
Take a look at this online book.
Their advice is similar to advice given to writers (that I've seen attributed to Stephen King): you learn to be a writer by writing. Lots.
Most of the people I know in the game industry who went the CS route built a portfolio of code, engines, and demos that they could show to folks that alreaady are in the game industry. Coders that want to be in the industry are legion, coders who are willing to put together a decent portfolio aren't as common.
If you're serious about it, you should probably attend industry events like the GDC, E3, and the various GDC roadtrips to network. And if I'm not mistaken, the GDC even allows you to be a volunteer to get a discounted admission fee.
Since they are even bothering to hold this event in a geographical location, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they set the machine's consoles across from each other on the table, and had little robotic arms move the pieces.
I was in Sydney at the time of the premiere of the new Paul Hogan movie, and let me tell you, there was more negative reaction in the press than positive (a la "is this the best portrayal that the world is ever going to get of us?")
From what I can tell the averaze Ozzie isn't too happy about that loopy crocodile hunter fellow either.
Bill Watterson (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) wrote an interesting essay on the licensing wars over C&H and how he considers not licensing the characters to be a question of maintaining the strip's integrity.
e .htm
The essay can be found here:
http://www.okidoki.com/calvin_and_hobbes/licens
UF *did* used to be amusing. I still read it every day looking for a chuckle, but I am often struck at the number of things that are swiped from Bloom County.
It was cool the first time he did it, sort of a nod to strips that have gone by, but after awhile, it gets tedious. Yes, it was funny when Breathed did it. No, it isn't funny when it's redone with different characters.
Granted, Breathed also swiped from strips that had gone before him (Doonesbury), but eventually he started doing his own schtik. Maybe Illiad just hasn't found his own voice yet...
In a PalmSource session, Jeff Hawkins (now of Visor) said that one of the concepts that he was considering implementing when he left Palm was speech recognition.
He had a prototype made out of wood (like he did for the original Pilot), and carried it around with him, pretending that it was a real unit, doing things like making appointments by voice, dictating memos, etc.
He said that "it felt wrong", both in terms of execution (it's much faster to click your way around the OS than try to short-cut through it using voice commands), and it terms of the social stigma that's attached to "talking to yourself". He didn't think that the latter would be overcome, but he also pointed out that a long time ago, even talking on a cell phone was out-of-the-ordinary enough for people to look at you funny.
I've used Dragon Dictate (on a P3/500 with gobs of RAM), and it was just too slow for my tastes even on my relatively powerful machine. I constantly had to "correct" it, but each time I did it would remember the way I said certain things for the next time. Now this is fine on a desktop with mucho storage, but what is going to happen on a PDA with limited storage? Is it not going to be possible for me to customize its vocabulary? Will I have to mold my voice to the device? If so, I see these devices having very limited appeal...
One of the things that bothers me a lot about the process is the fact that AOS's are handled at a local level, and not done centrally.
This gives you variations in processing time as shown here -- something that takes 30-60 days in Honolulu can take up to *1800* days in Sacramento.
And that's assuming that you included your "long form" birth certificate, a list of all of the places that your spouse has lived since they were 16, or any of the other little details that can get your application sent back.
Even if you are married to a US Citizen the processing times are pretty long, and you have to go through an adjustment of status process very similar to an employment-based one.
Marriage-based Greeen Cards Quirks - you have an interview at the end of the process where an INS inspector will potentially quiz you and your spouse seperately about such things as the colour of your toothbruses, what brands of various products you use about the house, what side of the bed you sleep on, etc. Who said INS officers don't get to have any fun?
To the INS, you're an Alien if you're not a USC (United States Citizen), and to celebrate this fact, during your AOS process you get to receive your very own Alien Registration Number.
One of the funny thing about ARN's is that they get re-used. There have been stories on some of the alt.visa.* newsgroups about how people have been issued ARN's for dead people and people who are wanted for crimes by INTERPOL. All part of the road to permanence in this great country, I guess.