Indiecade just wrapped up. The half week event is held annually in LA and is exclusive to Independent development.
While it does not rank in as one the larger industry events it does bring together the largest group of independent developers. Open to the public it comprises a series of keynotes, activities, workshops, and hands of gameplay demos.
Like GDC, Indiecade has an official festival contest. Anyone may enter to compete for a varied array of awards. We entered, a $50 entry fee. Unfortunately, unlike GDC, Indiecade makes no distinction between student and profession which means that we were going up against the likes of Fez, Bonticula, Dyad, and other “professional” indies.
Which means that we had little chance of getting anywhere. However, they did give us actual feedback, which has never happened before in the contests we have entered! That all by itself is a great thing to get back. To have someone else, in the industry, give a critique, however short, is great. Maybe next year we will be able to pull together enough to go out and attend.
Showing posts with label Industry News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Industry News. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Kickstarter! Again!
It has been a little less than three months since graduation and many of the Electronic Games Development (EGD) majors have been able to find jobs in the industry. Several have gone to work for Hit Point Studios, in Mass, we had a programmer get picked up by Microsoft, a designer now works full time for High-Res, an artist is working with Raven, and one of our good friends is working for Torn Banner Studios.Torn Banner just released their Kickstarter campaign to help fund the wrap up of their development cycle. The game looks great and should be hitting the digital shelves on Steam within the month.
Check out their campaign on here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1711512107/chivalry-medieval-warfare
And help get the word out.
Monday, August 13, 2012
The Big Four
Wednesday, in faraway Germany Gamescom will begin.
Out of the calendar year there are four major conventions that shape the industry. During the month of March is GDC, an annual summit held in San Francisco. Developers from all over the world gather to learn from one another. Talks are given on every major “track”, from programming, to audio design, to game design. The conference lasts a full week and includes the International Game Festival Winners (IGF).
Following on the heels of GDC is the Electronic Entertainment Expose, or better known as E3. Probably the premier event for the game industry all major console releases have been announced there as well as the debuts of some of the largest franchises. E3 grew out from the Consumer Electronic Show, CES, which takes place during January in Las Vegas. Like GDC this is an industry only event. The public are not allowed in.
Gamescom, which runs Wednesday to Wednesday, is a strange mixture of the two. The largest European conference it corresponds with GDC Europe. While all of the dev’s attend conferences, the publishers are in a venue across the street showing off more of their work that they had held back with during E3. Usually several large announcements are given as the major publishers all have their own keynotes. This year, most will be streaming live. If you’re interested in watching, check it out here.
The last large conference of the year is the Penny Arcade Exposition, PAX. Held in Seattle Washington it is open and available to the public. Fans get to meet the people behind the creation of their favorite titles, play the games with others, and potentially get hands on with some of the newer games that will be coming out next year. At this event are the PAX 10, ten independent developers who have created something wholly unique and deserving of attention.
Out of the calendar year there are four major conventions that shape the industry. During the month of March is GDC, an annual summit held in San Francisco. Developers from all over the world gather to learn from one another. Talks are given on every major “track”, from programming, to audio design, to game design. The conference lasts a full week and includes the International Game Festival Winners (IGF).
Following on the heels of GDC is the Electronic Entertainment Expose, or better known as E3. Probably the premier event for the game industry all major console releases have been announced there as well as the debuts of some of the largest franchises. E3 grew out from the Consumer Electronic Show, CES, which takes place during January in Las Vegas. Like GDC this is an industry only event. The public are not allowed in.
Gamescom, which runs Wednesday to Wednesday, is a strange mixture of the two. The largest European conference it corresponds with GDC Europe. While all of the dev’s attend conferences, the publishers are in a venue across the street showing off more of their work that they had held back with during E3. Usually several large announcements are given as the major publishers all have their own keynotes. This year, most will be streaming live. If you’re interested in watching, check it out here.
The last large conference of the year is the Penny Arcade Exposition, PAX. Held in Seattle Washington it is open and available to the public. Fans get to meet the people behind the creation of their favorite titles, play the games with others, and potentially get hands on with some of the newer games that will be coming out next year. At this event are the PAX 10, ten independent developers who have created something wholly unique and deserving of attention.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
15 hours and counting down
Ouya has made it, 30 days after it launched today it will close on 7.7 million dollars. That is an incredible amount of money raised through crowd sourcing, though it is very far from that crazy estimate i gave in my original post. We have all been watching the Ouya's progress and over the past month a ton of updates about the console have been made available.
Here is a breakdown of some of the major ones.
The impact this device could have on the industry is unknown. With Microsoft gearing up for the new generation of consoles, it could leave the Ouya behind in the dust, yet 57,000 games/developers/fans have backed this project. With the enormous letdown that the WiiU is, I believe that this open source console will find a niche and grow to become a major player in the industry. Only time will tell and we are all watching to see its effect.
Here is a breakdown of some of the major ones.
- Size: last week or so we actually got a size comparison for how large the device actually is. And as you can see, the thing is small. The Ouya is ridiculously portable.
- The console now has four controller support. Originally it only had two, which now make it a real contender for multiplayer games.
- The device is a media box, thus far two major platforms for music/video/photos, XBMC and PLEX have signed on to add their software.
- And lastly, the games. Final Fantasy 3 will launch on the device, proving that Square Enix is willing to go out on a limb, Namco Bandai, the owners of Pac-man, Galaga, and other classic games are interested in porting over their collection as well.
The impact this device could have on the industry is unknown. With Microsoft gearing up for the new generation of consoles, it could leave the Ouya behind in the dust, yet 57,000 games/developers/fans have backed this project. With the enormous letdown that the WiiU is, I believe that this open source console will find a niche and grow to become a major player in the industry. Only time will tell and we are all watching to see its effect.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
In other business news
S
ix months ago THQ, a rather large game publisher who has backed such titles as the Warhammer franchise, Darksiders, Company of Heroes, and the Metro series, nearly fell apart. Their listed stock at NASDAQ fell below the $1 amount.
Faced with the threat of being delisted, THQ had 180 days to try to raise their stock back above the minimum amount. Last week, the time limit expired and THQ was found in the clear. But in order to do so, they went some radical changes.
Taking a critical look at their market, THQ severed the casual arms of their business. The uDraw tablet was a complete failure and was one of the leading causes of their stock falling so low. Other properties centered around the children and teen demographic have been halted in favor of transferring that talent onto more adult/mature titles.
As a business move, THQ consolidated its shares in a 10-1 split, greatly reducing the number. The company had gone public back in 1991.
The final change was bringing Ron Morveck as a new VP. Ron Morveck, co founder of Relic Entertainment, was also the COO and VP of EA. He brings a heck of a lot of experience to the table.
All three of these actions raised the THQ stock back up to $5 mark. Which is awesome for all us in the industry. THQ has been a huge publishing powerhouse for decades; the loss of such a studio would be catastrophic in scope. The properties mentioned above are all critically acclaimed work that have tens of thousands of fans.
Unfortunately, making games is just another business, which means it can fail like any other business, regardless of how good its products are. However, that was not the case last week!
ix months ago THQ, a rather large game publisher who has backed such titles as the Warhammer franchise, Darksiders, Company of Heroes, and the Metro series, nearly fell apart. Their listed stock at NASDAQ fell below the $1 amount.Faced with the threat of being delisted, THQ had 180 days to try to raise their stock back above the minimum amount. Last week, the time limit expired and THQ was found in the clear. But in order to do so, they went some radical changes.
Taking a critical look at their market, THQ severed the casual arms of their business. The uDraw tablet was a complete failure and was one of the leading causes of their stock falling so low. Other properties centered around the children and teen demographic have been halted in favor of transferring that talent onto more adult/mature titles.
As a business move, THQ consolidated its shares in a 10-1 split, greatly reducing the number. The company had gone public back in 1991.
The final change was bringing Ron Morveck as a new VP. Ron Morveck, co founder of Relic Entertainment, was also the COO and VP of EA. He brings a heck of a lot of experience to the table.
All three of these actions raised the THQ stock back up to $5 mark. Which is awesome for all us in the industry. THQ has been a huge publishing powerhouse for decades; the loss of such a studio would be catastrophic in scope. The properties mentioned above are all critically acclaimed work that have tens of thousands of fans.
Unfortunately, making games is just another business, which means it can fail like any other business, regardless of how good its products are. However, that was not the case last week!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Black Sheep
The game industry is incredibly tight knit and continues to act, despite its size, like it’s this small community. After going to a few conferences you begin to see the same faces and remember the names. In times of crisis, like the closure of 38 studios the community comes together to support one another and try to help those affected find new jobs. In general the attitude is incredibly positive and open.
However, there is one exception to the rule. Zynga.
When Marguerite and I attended GDC, we must have heard three of four pot shots taken at the company from devs at the IGF finals, or during their talk. It seems as if they are unofficially blacklisted from the game development community.
And why is that?
Because they approach game design from a pure business standpoint. Their games Farmville, Mafia Wars, Words with Friends, are all constructed to leech as much money from its players as possible. And what everyone finds so infuriating is that they are so successful to the point of a near monopoly like control over the Facebook platform.
So everyone was more than a little happy when Zynga’s stock went into freefall last week. Since January their stock was on a slow, but steady decline since Facebook itself has suffered from a shortage of users. But over the course of Friday the shares dropped from $10 a share to less than $3. The founder and the rest of internal business staff all decided to unload their shares at the same time, which screams bad business.
We will see how this plays out, but as of this moment, Zynga looks like it won’t be around for very much longer.
However, there is one exception to the rule. Zynga.
When Marguerite and I attended GDC, we must have heard three of four pot shots taken at the company from devs at the IGF finals, or during their talk. It seems as if they are unofficially blacklisted from the game development community.
And why is that?
Because they approach game design from a pure business standpoint. Their games Farmville, Mafia Wars, Words with Friends, are all constructed to leech as much money from its players as possible. And what everyone finds so infuriating is that they are so successful to the point of a near monopoly like control over the Facebook platform.
So everyone was more than a little happy when Zynga’s stock went into freefall last week. Since January their stock was on a slow, but steady decline since Facebook itself has suffered from a shortage of users. But over the course of Friday the shares dropped from $10 a share to less than $3. The founder and the rest of internal business staff all decided to unload their shares at the same time, which screams bad business.
We will see how this plays out, but as of this moment, Zynga looks like it won’t be around for very much longer.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Sir, how fast were you going?
So I am originally from Colorado, a small town about an hour out of Denver in the foothills. And I swear it was one of the last places to get anything close to real internet, except for Northeast Kingdom, sorry Joe. I grew up on dial-up, but we eventually changed over to satellite internet, which gave us about 40K up and down, provided it didn’t storm, or snow, or get too windy. We lived in a canyon between two hills in Colorado which meant that one of these things was almost always happening.When I was in highschool we ended up getting DSL through Comcast, which meant we went up to something like 80K up and down.
I went to college and bang, suddenly I was pulling down at 800K!!!!!!!!!!!
And wait? What’s this? Google Fiber?!
…
…
Gigabit connection speed.
That’s something more than 100 times faster than what I had at college. What in the world???? Available only in Kansas City of all places, but wow I didn’t think that kind of speed was even possible in this decade, I would have been perfectly happy with 20 mgs up/down.
If you want to drool at the future, check out their site here.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Sports for the rest of us.
So I am a self professed MLG (Major League Gaming) fan.
Ya, it’s kind of that peak of geekdom, but it is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. This past weekend was the Summer Arena for Starcraft II, one of my favorite games of all time, and I got to watch a decent chunk of it.
What is so exciting about it? Why do these events have tens of thousands of people pay to attend in person, or tune in for free online, to watch a bunch of twenty-something year-old's play video games?
Well, it’s just like any other sport, we all want to watch people do the things we could never do. Whether is the incredible strength of soccer players, or the rapid 300 actions per minute and decision making of Starcraft players, it’s all the same.
It started to watch a little after Starcraft II came out and it is incredible how fast this sporting industry has grown. This weekend, this kid of Korea walked away with a $10,000 check for winning 1st…
I’m sure that thirty years ago no-one would have guessed that someone could make a living playing video games professionally. If you at all interested, head on over to majorleaguegaming.com to see what the fuss is about.
Ya, it’s kind of that peak of geekdom, but it is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. This past weekend was the Summer Arena for Starcraft II, one of my favorite games of all time, and I got to watch a decent chunk of it.
What is so exciting about it? Why do these events have tens of thousands of people pay to attend in person, or tune in for free online, to watch a bunch of twenty-something year-old's play video games?
Well, it’s just like any other sport, we all want to watch people do the things we could never do. Whether is the incredible strength of soccer players, or the rapid 300 actions per minute and decision making of Starcraft players, it’s all the same.
It started to watch a little after Starcraft II came out and it is incredible how fast this sporting industry has grown. This weekend, this kid of Korea walked away with a $10,000 check for winning 1st…
I’m sure that thirty years ago no-one would have guessed that someone could make a living playing video games professionally. If you at all interested, head on over to majorleaguegaming.com to see what the fuss is about.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
And Kickstarter Does it Again
Yesterday Matt showed us all this new android based console that just hit Kickstarter. Yes, I am talking about a new home console system that would hook up directly to your television. It’s not coming from Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, but a group of entrepreneurial industry vets who want to change the industry.
It’s named the Ouya, a bit of a strange name, but then Nintendo broke all rules when it named their console the Wii, and it looks to be a game changer.
So what is this thing? It kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly exploded in popularity.How much attention has it gotten? To put things in perspective head over to their kickstarter page. They initially asked for $950,000. At the moment of this writing its hit $2.6 million, it’s been a little less than 48 hours…
Just for the sake of it, I threw the Ouya Kickstarter over to Kicktraq, a free prediction system which shows trends for any kickstarter program you put in. According to that, at the rate Ouya is going they will peak at $40 million in 28 days.
This is huge; a major shift that could change how Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo approach the market because pretty soon there is going to be a fourth console.
Why are people excited? Well for developers the SDK (Software Development Kit) is going to be free! That is a big seller right there. The Wii is locked down; nobody without express permission from Nintendo can make applications for it. The PS3 is in a similar boat. Any 3rd party developer has to pay a large overhead to procure a special development system as well as software to even create a game. The Xbox, thanks to XNA is a relatively open market place that allows anyone to be a developer. However, we have heard some nightmare stories about the submittable process for Xbox.
So watch out, something evolutionary is coming and who knows what is going to happen next.
It’s named the Ouya, a bit of a strange name, but then Nintendo broke all rules when it named their console the Wii, and it looks to be a game changer.
So what is this thing? It kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly exploded in popularity.How much attention has it gotten? To put things in perspective head over to their kickstarter page. They initially asked for $950,000. At the moment of this writing its hit $2.6 million, it’s been a little less than 48 hours…
Just for the sake of it, I threw the Ouya Kickstarter over to Kicktraq, a free prediction system which shows trends for any kickstarter program you put in. According to that, at the rate Ouya is going they will peak at $40 million in 28 days.
This is huge; a major shift that could change how Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo approach the market because pretty soon there is going to be a fourth console.
Why are people excited? Well for developers the SDK (Software Development Kit) is going to be free! That is a big seller right there. The Wii is locked down; nobody without express permission from Nintendo can make applications for it. The PS3 is in a similar boat. Any 3rd party developer has to pay a large overhead to procure a special development system as well as software to even create a game. The Xbox, thanks to XNA is a relatively open market place that allows anyone to be a developer. However, we have heard some nightmare stories about the submittable process for Xbox.
So watch out, something evolutionary is coming and who knows what is going to happen next.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
The Bigger They Are…
Within the past few months quite a few big time developers have folded. Whether it is from financial difficulties, missing projected deadlines or other sources it has been huge for the game industry. Hundreds of veterans of the industry suddenly out of work.
Here is the list from this year thus far:
March 31st Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) closed three studios, Denver, Washington, and Tuscon. 205 employees
May 24th 38 Studios, Providence Rhode Island, and its subsidiary studio Big Huge Games, Maryland. 379 employees
June 28th Radical Entertainment, Vancouver, unknown number of employees.
This is especially scary for recent graduates who have not had industry experience yet. The market was just suddenly flooded with talent, which is obviously more valuable than we are. Looking at this list, we at Birnam Wood are all thankful to be able to have this job.
But the thing is, each of these companies was a major studio, 38 probably being the largest. Their “death” does not spell the end of the game industry, not by a long shot. Last year alone twelve companies went under, but dozens of little independent studios opened.
As more of these larger studios falter, more of the experienced developers call it quits and open up their own studio. The Independent movement is on the rise. Bringing with it innovation and quality to an industry that has become swamped with sequel after sequel.
There are exceptions and some of the games at E3 proved that. Watch Dogs, the Last of Us, and I would even consider Assassins Creed 3 to be a break from its own genre. But I believe that the Independent games, Fez, The Witness, Monaco, Skulls of the Shogun, Splunky, and so many others are who are going to be bringing the future to the industry. Change is coming and 2012 is going to be an interesting year.
Here is the list from this year thus far:
March 31st Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) closed three studios, Denver, Washington, and Tuscon. 205 employees
May 24th 38 Studios, Providence Rhode Island, and its subsidiary studio Big Huge Games, Maryland. 379 employees
June 28th Radical Entertainment, Vancouver, unknown number of employees.
This is especially scary for recent graduates who have not had industry experience yet. The market was just suddenly flooded with talent, which is obviously more valuable than we are. Looking at this list, we at Birnam Wood are all thankful to be able to have this job.
But the thing is, each of these companies was a major studio, 38 probably being the largest. Their “death” does not spell the end of the game industry, not by a long shot. Last year alone twelve companies went under, but dozens of little independent studios opened.
As more of these larger studios falter, more of the experienced developers call it quits and open up their own studio. The Independent movement is on the rise. Bringing with it innovation and quality to an industry that has become swamped with sequel after sequel.
There are exceptions and some of the games at E3 proved that. Watch Dogs, the Last of Us, and I would even consider Assassins Creed 3 to be a break from its own genre. But I believe that the Independent games, Fez, The Witness, Monaco, Skulls of the Shogun, Splunky, and so many others are who are going to be bringing the future to the industry. Change is coming and 2012 is going to be an interesting year.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Indie Game: The Movie
It finally came out!
This film is spectacular. Marguerite and I saw it while attending GDC with a
huge group of developers from all over the world and the place was packed, the line wrapping around the conference floor. When it was over a standing ovation was given to James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, the two who directed, produced and shot the film. The showing was especially awesome because after we watched the film the Team Meat folks, Jonathan Blow, as well as Phil Fish took the stage and answered questions from the audience.
What the film does amazingly well from my point of view, is that it brings the experience of game development down to a easily digestible level. My friends back home and my family know that I am a developer, but when they ask me what exactly I do sometimes it can be incredibly hard to encapsulate all the hard work, coding binges, late night meetings, art integration, and systems design.
If your a long time gamer, if you know someone who works in the industry, or if you just enjoy a sweeping heartfelt documentary, go watch this film!
You can purchase it here at their website, http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/
On Itunes or even on Steam
This film is spectacular. Marguerite and I saw it while attending GDC with a
huge group of developers from all over the world and the place was packed, the line wrapping around the conference floor. When it was over a standing ovation was given to James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, the two who directed, produced and shot the film. The showing was especially awesome because after we watched the film the Team Meat folks, Jonathan Blow, as well as Phil Fish took the stage and answered questions from the audience.What the film does amazingly well from my point of view, is that it brings the experience of game development down to a easily digestible level. My friends back home and my family know that I am a developer, but when they ask me what exactly I do sometimes it can be incredibly hard to encapsulate all the hard work, coding binges, late night meetings, art integration, and systems design.
If your a long time gamer, if you know someone who works in the industry, or if you just enjoy a sweeping heartfelt documentary, go watch this film!
You can purchase it here at their website, http://www.indiegamethemovie.com/
On Itunes or even on Steam
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Reaction
And that is the reason I am a Game Designer and not a Game Analyst, but that is perfectly fine because there was some really awesome games shown yesterday!
Microsoft
I admit it. I am not a Microsoft fan, and having worked in the IT industry for three years doesn’t help. They gave a strong lineup, Gears, Call of Duty, and of course Halo. But these were all known sources, nothing surprising, nothing terribly innovative. Microsoft held the course this year.
EA
While EA was honored with the prestigious Worst Company in America, I still am holding out hope that they slowly come around. The EA partners program is a great system for smaller companies to get their feet wet. Tomb Raider looks amazing, a gritty Uncharted like adventure that has some truly cinematic moments. Dead Space is a great horror franchise and though everyone saw it coming, at least Dead Space 3 is confirmed.
Ubisoft
Finally some groundbreaking innovation in the Assassin’s Creed. Moving through the trees looked so fluid and the rock climbing on irregular/diagonal surfaces is perfect. In addition, Ubisoft should get a tremendous round of applause for 1. Creating a wholly new IP and 2. Being able to keep it secret for so long. Watch_Dogs looks like a great original new concept that everyone will be holding their breath to hear more about in the coming months.
Finally Sony.
Who in my opinion gave the strongest presentation of them all, thanks to Jack Tretton who had a great stage presence. Opening with David Cage, and Quantic Dream’s new IP Beyond was fantastic. Since the Kara trailer came out everyone here at Birnam Wood has been excited to see what they come out with and Beyond exceeds expectations. Finally Naughty Dog closed up the night with one of the best in-game experiences I have ever seen in The Last of Us. Can’t wait to see more.
Ok, note to team, one day we are going to be up there on that stage.
Microsoft
I admit it. I am not a Microsoft fan, and having worked in the IT industry for three years doesn’t help. They gave a strong lineup, Gears, Call of Duty, and of course Halo. But these were all known sources, nothing surprising, nothing terribly innovative. Microsoft held the course this year.
EA
While EA was honored with the prestigious Worst Company in America, I still am holding out hope that they slowly come around. The EA partners program is a great system for smaller companies to get their feet wet. Tomb Raider looks amazing, a gritty Uncharted like adventure that has some truly cinematic moments. Dead Space is a great horror franchise and though everyone saw it coming, at least Dead Space 3 is confirmed.
Ubisoft
Finally some groundbreaking innovation in the Assassin’s Creed. Moving through the trees looked so fluid and the rock climbing on irregular/diagonal surfaces is perfect. In addition, Ubisoft should get a tremendous round of applause for 1. Creating a wholly new IP and 2. Being able to keep it secret for so long. Watch_Dogs looks like a great original new concept that everyone will be holding their breath to hear more about in the coming months.
Finally Sony.
Who in my opinion gave the strongest presentation of them all, thanks to Jack Tretton who had a great stage presence. Opening with David Cage, and Quantic Dream’s new IP Beyond was fantastic. Since the Kara trailer came out everyone here at Birnam Wood has been excited to see what they come out with and Beyond exceeds expectations. Finally Naughty Dog closed up the night with one of the best in-game experiences I have ever seen in The Last of Us. Can’t wait to see more.
Ok, note to team, one day we are going to be up there on that stage.
Monday, June 4, 2012
E3 Week!
E3 has arrived! Well, almost for us here on the East Coast. The Microsoft Press Conference will start at around noon, so until then I am going to wildly speculate about what is going to happen in the next several hours.
But for those of you who don’t know what E3 is I’ll break it down quickly. E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, is an annual event for the game industry at the LA convention center. It functions as the largest press event for the industry. All of the current generation of gaming consoles and last generation have been announced during the conference.
In addition some of the biggest games of the coming year are announced or playable for the first time ever. So let the predictions begin!
1. Console Announcement’s
This current generation is coming to an end and everyone knows it. With the advent of the WiiU finally joining the PS3 and the Xbox 360 as an actual HD gaming console it would be in Microsoft’s and Sony’s best interest to announce their own new hardware.
The Windows 8 OS will be launching later this year, as will the Windows 8 phone & tablet. Since all of these will incorporate Windows Live Game center in some way shape or form, and a new console would be another logical step for them in order to coordinate the appearance and feel of all of these new devices.
Sony has caught up to Microsoft in a lot of ways this past few years, and the decision to drop the price of the PS3 was one of the best they ever made, yet I cannot help but feel like they are always one step behind. Xbox Live is still the powerhouse of connected gaming and even still the PSN has a long way to go to catch up. The development of new hardware would allow them to retool their framework and take more than a few hints from the obvious success of Xbox live.
2. Games
So many games have been leaked already to the public and press, but every time someone always has an ace up their sleeve.
Prince of Persia
The Prince of Persia franchise has floundered ever since the majority of the staff got up and left to go make Assassin’s creed. However, the POP franchise has a huge loyal fan base that has been oddly enlarged by the decent Hollywood blockbuster by the same name. It’s been two years since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which while being a decent game it lacked the magic that made the original trilogy so iconic.
Beyond Good and Evil
If a new Sony console is announce I can only hope that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will announced with it. Unlike The Last Guardian, (Sorry folks, I gave up hoping for that after Ueda left to go work on mobile games) I do believe that it has a chance of resurfacing and from the rumors I’ve read about, it would be as a title for the next generation.
Ok, back to work. The countdown has begun and I don’t have enough time to fill out the rest of my predictions. Look here tomorrow for a reaction to the conferences.
But for those of you who don’t know what E3 is I’ll break it down quickly. E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, is an annual event for the game industry at the LA convention center. It functions as the largest press event for the industry. All of the current generation of gaming consoles and last generation have been announced during the conference.
In addition some of the biggest games of the coming year are announced or playable for the first time ever. So let the predictions begin!
1. Console Announcement’s
This current generation is coming to an end and everyone knows it. With the advent of the WiiU finally joining the PS3 and the Xbox 360 as an actual HD gaming console it would be in Microsoft’s and Sony’s best interest to announce their own new hardware.
The Windows 8 OS will be launching later this year, as will the Windows 8 phone & tablet. Since all of these will incorporate Windows Live Game center in some way shape or form, and a new console would be another logical step for them in order to coordinate the appearance and feel of all of these new devices.
Sony has caught up to Microsoft in a lot of ways this past few years, and the decision to drop the price of the PS3 was one of the best they ever made, yet I cannot help but feel like they are always one step behind. Xbox Live is still the powerhouse of connected gaming and even still the PSN has a long way to go to catch up. The development of new hardware would allow them to retool their framework and take more than a few hints from the obvious success of Xbox live.
2. Games
So many games have been leaked already to the public and press, but every time someone always has an ace up their sleeve.
Prince of Persia
The Prince of Persia franchise has floundered ever since the majority of the staff got up and left to go make Assassin’s creed. However, the POP franchise has a huge loyal fan base that has been oddly enlarged by the decent Hollywood blockbuster by the same name. It’s been two years since Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which while being a decent game it lacked the magic that made the original trilogy so iconic.
Beyond Good and Evil
If a new Sony console is announce I can only hope that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will announced with it. Unlike The Last Guardian, (Sorry folks, I gave up hoping for that after Ueda left to go work on mobile games) I do believe that it has a chance of resurfacing and from the rumors I’ve read about, it would be as a title for the next generation.
Ok, back to work. The countdown has begun and I don’t have enough time to fill out the rest of my predictions. Look here tomorrow for a reaction to the conferences.
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