KEYNOTES

Mobile Multiplayer Games: Where Are We Now?

Arthur Goikhman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:37:58 -0600

Arthur Goikhman is CEO of New York-based mobile games company Cellufun.
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Seeding Tomorrow’s 3D Artists

Immanuel Martin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:21:59 -0600

Immanuel Martin is Director of Sales at Luxology. He has been doing sales and business development in the Silicon Valley software companies for more than 15 years. He has been Director of Sales at Luxology for the past three years. In his spare time he spends time improving his modo modeling skills as well as working on independent film projects.

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The Future for Atari

Phil Harrison — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:39:00 -0600

Phil Harrison began his career in the late 1980s, at Mindscape. He spent many years at Sony, guiding the PlayStation through three generations. He is now president of Atari.
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Michael Phelps: Gaming’s Next Big Thing?

Thom Dinsdale — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:49:00 -0600

Is there hope that a game based on Phelps could be anything more than a soulless cash cow?

It recently came to light in a 60 Minutes biography of Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps that a videogame based on the swimmer and, presumably, his sporting achievements.

The 360’s New Battleground

Jerry Johnson — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:28:40 -0600

Having worked on Xbox Live since its inception in 2002 and headed up the software team that created the new 360 dashboard, Jerry Johnson has just taken a new role as general manager of Xbox Live Europe. It’s part of Microsoft’s new emphasis on catering directly to the European market instead of leading it all the way from Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters.
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Capcom's Ben Judd on Japan

Ben Judd — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:57:31 -0600
For those who could tear their eyes from the cosplay annex,‭ ‬this year’s TGS saw the inner turmoil of Japan’s game industry made public.‭ ‬Typically reserved executives brought passion‭ (‬and pessimism‭) ‬to their keynotes,‭ ‬while their studio booths brought little,‭ ‬the showfloor dominated by western titles.‭ ‬Stealing the biggest queues was a solid and truly global display from Capcom‭ – ‬a reward,‭ ‬perhaps,‭ ‬for its steady courtship of western developers and unflappable in-house values.‭ ‬Key to those is veteran expat pr
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Discrete Grey is the New Red

Thom Dinsdale — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:20:07 -0600

Yesterday Nintendo dropped a bombshell that left a bemused gaming community scratching its head it in its wake. Namely, that the company has changed the colour of its logo from the iconic red to a “discrete” grey. And what’s more, it did this years ago!

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Why Co-Op Makes all the Difference

NGai Croal — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:11:41 -0600

When videogame historians look back at the year 2008, two developments will immediately stand out.

The first is that it’s been a banner year for downloadable console games. Whether it was the PlayStation Network (Echochrome, PixelJunk Eden and The Last Guy), Xbox Live Arcade (Braid and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2) or WiiWare (LostWinds and World of Goo), the online stores for each of the three major platforms served up bite-sized titles that were pound for pound as entertaining and engrossing as their full-sized counterparts.
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Today's Opinion and Links

Colin Campbell — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:53:00 -0600

Games journalists who write about the allegedly woeful state of games journalism, in my view, fall into three personality types:

1) I pretty much invented games journalism dontcha know. Here - look at my Jovian talent and how much more wonderful I am than everyone else.
2) I am a nasty little shit-bag with a grudge against a world that has failed to recognize that I exist.
3) My competitors are taking readers away from me for fun, and so snide, inaccurate editorials are my only recourse to vengeance.
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The Grail of Unlimited Gaming

Philipp Marx — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:42:09 -0600

Philipp Marx is CEO of Marx Security Software

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How to Market a Motorsports Game

Michael Pattison — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:42:08 -0600
When you take on a sports license you’re buying a specific audience. MotoGP fans follow that sport. Many of them own consoles. Your primary goal is to create a game that appeals to that particular audience.

The principle applies whether you’re looking at football or ice hockey or Formula One.
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Gabe Newell Writes for Edge

Gabe Newell — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:01:18 -0600

Left4Dead released this week, and I’m extremely pleased with the reception so far.

We set out to create a first-person four-player game in which the action changes each time it’s played. We wanted to use procedural narrative to simulate stories because, in a multiplayer environment like this, we felt a more linear, scripted approach would not deliver in the same way.
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Reader Blog: Why GTA4 reflects an American Illusion

Jarrad — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:49:00 -0600

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."- George Carlin

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Ad Analysis: PSP 3000

Thom Dinsdale — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:48:00 -0600

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Who is The Real Lara Croft?

Eric Lindstrom — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:22:32 -0600

Eric Lindstrom has been active in game development for 20 years, first at Electronic Arts and, since 1994, with Crystal Dynamics and Eidos. He is the creative director of Tomb Raider: Underworld, released this week.

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If you take Lara Croft, you’ll see a core set personality attributes that were established in her right at the beginning. They are still at the center of her being.
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The Ethics of Persuasive Games

James_Portnow — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:41:58 -0600

The question before us today is “Should games persuade?”

At first glance this seems like an obvious question with an obvious answer. Of course they should. How else will our medium advance to take its rightful place as a meaningful and impactful art? How else will we effect change? But this question bears closer examination. In today’s piece we will be looking at dangerous ground we walk by making the tacit assumption that games, like traditional media, should persuade.
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Nintendo is Right to Hold Firm on Price

Thom Dinsdale — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:09:00 -0600

Given the economic climate and the looming holiday season, why is Nintendo refusing to even consider cutting prices?
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What We’ve Learned About Parents and Games

John_Davison — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:59:09 -0600
John Davison is the co-founder of What They Play, the parents guide to videogames. Previously he was the editorial director of the 1UP Network.

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The Big Question

Randy Smith — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:45:49 -0600

On one extreme you’ve got ‘art’: Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Michelangelo’s David, slabs of rusted metal elegantly posed outside an office building, a buck-naked performer howling and urinating while attempting to play a xylophone with her feet.

You know, art.

On the other extreme you’ve got ‘product’: individually packaged microwavable pancakes, Pokemon plush dolls, sunglasses for pets. Useless stuff that adds a breathtakingly small amount of value to our lives.
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For Playing Out Loud

Jennifer Frkanec — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:39:46 -0600

Online games are an intensely social experience, a means for people to come together with friends to play, socialize and nurture relationships.

Out of necessity, players created their own communication tools. As innovative as the solutions were, they posed one major problem – they formed islands of communication where a single person who had the money, time and the technical expertise would set up a server and then pass out server addresses and passwords.
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KEYNOTES

Mobile Multiplayer Games: Where Are We Now?

Seeding Tomorrow’s 3D Artists

The Future for Atari

Michael Phelps: Gaming’s Next Big Thing?

The 360’s New Battleground

Capcom's Ben Judd on Japan

Discrete Grey is the New Red

Why Co-Op Makes all the Difference

Today's Opinion and Links

The Grail of Unlimited Gaming

How to Market a Motorsports Game

Gabe Newell Writes for Edge

Reader Blog: Why GTA4 reflects an American Illusion

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."- George Carlin

Ad Analysis: PSP 3000

Who is The Real Lara Croft?

The Ethics of Persuasive Games

Nintendo is Right to Hold Firm on Price

What We’ve Learned About Parents and Games

The Big Question

For Playing Out Loud