Speaking with GameDaily in response Monday's Variety article (which we had our own response to) on the "turmoil" surrounding Brash Entertainment, CEO Mitch Davis acknowledged that "we took our lumps" on its first three titles – Jumper: Griffin's Story, Alvin & The Chipmunks, and Space Chimps – which scored 29, 33, and 55 (out of 100) on aggregate. Davis also vowed that changes are in store; ones that will hopefully lead to better games.
"First and foremost, we've put an end to short-cycle games," Davis told GameDaily, adding that, "some of our games will benefit from up to three years of development." This may explain why we've yet to see titles in development by Factor 5 and Game Republic, two of several "better development studios" Davis believes will help Brash get back on solid ground quality-wise.
Speaking to the departure of company execs and other staff, Davis stated, "After our first few games did not meet expectation we decided that we needed to upgrade our staff," pointing to the hiring of former Activision licensing head Lori Plager as Senior Vice President, in charge of intellectual property acquisitions. Quality games based on quality source material? Sounds good – Brash just has to prove it can manage the former before gamers en mass can get behind this newly "refined" publisher.
After what most would agree has been a successful stab at (officially) blogging about PlayStation, SCEA has taken up residence on YouTube. No, this isn't directly related to news from May that, should their developers wish, some PS3 games will offer functionality to upload gameplay videos directly to the Google-owned sharing service. (PixelJunk Eden was one of the first games to capitalize on the feature.)
The PlayStation YouTube channel is essentially SCEA's most direct avenue for distributing new game videos; the channel currently has around 54 in total, from NBA 09 The Inside, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, and LittleBigPlanet. It's nothing groundbreaking, but should be nonetheless handy in that you can subscribe and receive official videos as they're released (albeit in YouTube, er, "quality"). Or, of course, you could just keep an eye on a – ahem – certain blog you're reading right now. (Wink)
Breathe a sigh of relief. It's not nearly as bad as it first sounded. In fact, the "Target edition" of Shaun White Snowboarding might actually warrant a trip to Target for game shopping. And, didn't you hear? Target expects plenty of Wiis in stock this season. Why not do all your holiday spending there?
The marketing ploy is quite clear, and a good one. Building off its apparel partnership with Shaun White, Target has positioned itself to offer, exclusively through its retail and online outlets (oh, hai Wal-Mart!), a premium edition of Ubisoft's snowboarding game, and in turn, a hook to lure consumers into crossing off all the game requests on the holiday gift lists they're responsible for. (A recent survey found that 90% of tweens and teens are expected to ask for a video game this year.)
That's right, we said premium edition. While the Target-branded version will cost an additional $5, it'll include roughly 20 percent more game content (which, we were told, will never be offered as DLC). More specifically, the standard edition, available through all other retailers, will feature four mountains (each divided into peak, park and backcountry sections); the Target edition will include a fifth mountain, the "Target Mountain," which isn't as large as the original mountains, but does boast some interesting extras, like a full loop to attempt in the Xbox 360 version (identical to the PlayStation 3 and PC versions) and a trip inside the Target Chalet, based on the elitist party pad in Aspen. We know what you're thinking: But, what about the ads?
You can finally pull the cotton out of your ears (and please throw it away, that stuff's been in there forever). The keen eyes over at PS3 Fanboy noticed that the latest PS3 firmware update added support for not only Flash 9, but a softer voice as well, replacing "PLAYSTATION" with the less obnoxious "PlayStation" when referring to the console's online service and store.
It's unknown if this will be reflected across the PLAYSTATION PlayStation brand, but for now both our virtual ears and shift keys welcome the change. And while we're on the subject of welcome changes, if you could stop poking us with pointy sticks sometime soon, that would be great too. Thanks.
The Conduit may still lack a publisher, but what it does have is a sad little king of a sad little hill. High Voltage announced that it has cast Firefly's Badger, Mark A. Sheppard, as the voice of Mr. Ford, the lead role in the upcoming Wii-exclusive shooter. The Conduit is the latest line item on the British actor's resume, following work in Battlestar Galactica and In the Name of the Father, though to us he'll always be a petty thief with delusions of standing.
The game's credits will include another Sheppard as well. William Morgan Sheppard, whose voice can be heard in such games as Metal Gear Solid 2 and Escape from Monkey Island, will voice John Adams, while Olympian man-cake, Kevin Sorbo, will take on the role of the title's bad guy, Prometheus. There continues to be no word on what company will bring The Conduit to store shelves in early 2009, though with High Voltage forking over enough cash to secure Hercules, we have to believe an announcement isn't far off.
Although it is a general gaming event, the PlayStation Blog pointed the way to Best Buy's Gaming Invasion '08 taking place this weekend in Toronto, Canada. The nice thing about the event is that it appears to be open to the general public and allows gamers to get their Cheetos-encrusted mitts on some of this year's most anticipated titles like Gears 2, Resistance 2, LBP, Mirror's Edge and many more.
With major first- and third-party support at the Best Buy event it seems like it's something big. This is apparently the third year of Best Buy's Gaming Invasion, so any Canadians who can speak to how well the event is organized should kindly feel free to leave a comment as a heads-up.*
*Don't say it's horrible just so you can have all the games to yourself. 30 Helens agree: That's not nice.
Tired of the pranks of Gamecock staffers, like rushing the stage when Ken Levine got his VGA or charging money for Hail to the Chimp? Well, it seems like you won't have them to kick around anymore: SouthPeak, the publisher of a slew of adventure games and some second-tier console releases, announced this morning that they had acquired the Gamecock Media Group.
With the frequency of consolidation in the industry, we're sad to see any independent company bought out, but this one sucks double, because CEO Mike Wilson is such an interesting character to have around. We only wish Gamecock had done their talking with their games instead of their comical hats.
In a bid to avoid the lowest presidential approval rating in 70 years*, President Bush signed the PRO-IP Act into law today. While not quite on par with, say, an ultimate solution to the world economic crisis, the law will create new jobs, er, one new job: The Intellectual Property Czar.
Backed by the RIAA and MPAA, the PRO-IP Act has drawn criticism for its potential for extreme punishment. In its proposed state, the act could grant the government permission to seize all computers and compatible devices from a home if a single, pirated MP3 was discovered on one of the machines. So, about that approval rating ...
For a complete analysis of the PRO-IP Act as it applies to gaming, check out the latest LGJ column!
*Bush has sunk below Nixon, but Truman holds the record: 22.
While Flagship's maiden voyage may have ended up as splintered wreckage at the bottom of the massively multiplayer ocean, a pair of its former crew have found safe harbor at fellow MMO studio, Turbine. The Lord of the Rings Online developer announced that former Flagship execs Dave Brevik and Jeff Lind have joined the company, and will help spearhead a newly opened studio in Redwood City, CA.
The pair is joined by industry vet and former Sniper Studios president and CEO, Matt McKnight, who will serve as the new studio's Director, while Brevik and Lind will take on roles as creative director and engineering director respectively. We offer congratulations and best of luck to all three gentlemen, though we're particularly interested in seeing what Brevik does with his new position. Creative director marks a change from his previous role as Flagship's chief visionary officer, a wise course correction given that his foresight apparently stopped just short of predicting his former employer's impending doom.
Infogrames has completed its $11 million stock purchase of Atari, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher now. Infogrames CEO David Gardner stated the full buyout (it previously owned 51.4%) was another key part of the company's extreme makeover, which has seen the shocking revelation of profits show up in the publisher's coffers.
Tokyo Game Show organizer CESA announced (via IGN) that the show had 194,288 visitors this year, up about a thousand attendees from last year. The increase in visitors on the public days made up for the significant drop during the two "business only" days of the show.
Thursday (Business): 27,305 ('07 - 29,783)
Friday (Business): 24,178 ('07 - 32,390)
Saturday (Public): 71,639 ('07 - 64,795)
Sunday (Public): 71,166 ('07 - 66,072)
Good thing TGS is open to the public because those figures really help distract from asking: where have all the business folks gone?
Shockingly, the Brash formula of churning out abysmal movie-based games with little (read: no) redeeming qualities apparently hasn't panned out so well. Now, another of the company's co-founders, Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull, has followed the lead of former boss Nicholas Longano and vertically disembarked from Brash: The Boat Made of Holes by leaving the company's board.
Proving that the rich and the proletariat do share some common ground, Variety reports "Tull is believed to have been disappointed with the quality of Brash's games." Welcome to the clubhouse, Tom. Sorry it's so packed in here.
As you've surely already noticed, a handful of our more travel-hardened writers have spent the past few days in the natal region of this humble weekly feature in order to more aptly cover the industry happenings at the Tokyo Game Show 2008. While we've missed their presence dearly, particularly at our bimonthly badminton tournament against other gaming blogs (Kietzmann is quite the racqueteer, you see), we've found their overseas stationing to be quite profitable for us homebound 'Stiqers.
You see, thanks to the inexplicable magic of time zones, it's a bit after midday tomorrow in Tokyo at the time of this posting. Our overseas cohorts have discovered a number of startling, time-sensitive pieces of valuable information, then sent them hurtling westward (geographically) and backward (chronologically) to the rest of the staff. We've been using this information to gain a valuable edge in the somewhat turbulent American investment market -- much like the oft-exploited sports almanac from Back to the Future lore (sans the frequent demands for its immolation by absent-minded, silver-haired chronophysicists).
Fret not, dear readers -- we can hear your requests for these valuable investment protips through the insulation provided by our wide-brimmed moneyhats. Here, we'll break you off a piece -- following an unlikely endorsement from acclaimed Japanese film critic Tadao Sato, Beverly Hills Chihuahuawill set the highest single-day box office record in cinematic history tomorrow, and will remain at the top of the charts worldwide for fourteen months. As such, you might want to consider dropping a few bucks on Disney (DIS), and, of course, Chihuawow! (CWOW!), the West Coast's most prestigious Chihuahua distribution outlet.
We all reacted similarly to the news of a DHL freight train derailment in which 21,600 Xbox 360s were lost due to "impact damage, wetting, pilfering and shortage" -- no, not by inquiring about the well-being of those who were on board at the time of the crash. That would be silly. We reacted, as anyone would, with general concern for the Redmond-based software juggernaut whose precious cargo was destroyed in the accident.
That's why we were so glad to hear that Microsoft recently filed a complaint against DHL in which they call for $2 million in damages to replace the missing consoles, stating that the shipping company "negligently breached its duties as a common carrier, handler, bailee, warehouseman, agent, or in other capabilities." We agree -- it was incredibly negligent of DHL to allow their train to crash like that. Really, terribly unprofessional.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." - Ancient proverb.
Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said in an interview with GI.biz that he'd like the Xbox 360 to succeed in Japan for the sake of pushing HD gaming. Yoshida would like to see the PS3 and Xbox 360 be more successful in Japan and getting consumers moving beyond the Wii's dated technology.
Yoshida even goes on to compliment Microsoft's NXE and the Avatars, expressing that he prefers it over the Miis. Although it appears that the Wii will continue to dominate globally, Yoshida believes consumer acceptance of "this generation of gaming" would benefit both Sony and Microsoft.
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