"Early this year the meme circulated that Blu-ray might be going the way of Betamax, and for the exact same reason: Sony's unfriendliness to the porn industry. But at Japan's recent euphemistically named Adult Treasure Expo 2007, adult filmmakers said Sony has begun offering technical support, and this was later confirmed by Sony PR. The company stated that Sony would offer support to any filmmaker working on the format, no matter their industry. Apparently, Blu-ray is now the preferred medium for Japanese adult films."
It seems Sony is taking the consumers advice and is showing some support for the porn industry.
THQ has announced its fiscal 2008 Q1 results, reporting a net loss of USD 9.3 million.
The loss per share of USD 0.14 included stock-based compensation expenses of USD 0.05 per share, and a tax benefit of USD 0.10 per share related to prior years that will not change the company's expected full-year tax rate.
Net sales for the first quarter were USD 104.5 million, led by Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille and catalog sales of Disney/Pixar's Cars and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007. Sales were down USD 34 million from the same period last year.
"Fiscal 2008 is shaping up as we anticipated," said Brian Farrell, THQ president and CEO. "Ratatouille is off to a successful start in North America. With five titles based on owned intellectual properties expected to ship more than one million units each and a proven family and casual line-up for the popular Nintendo Wii and DS platforms, we are well positioned for the rest of the year."
For the second quarter of fiscal 2008, the company expects net sales of approximately USD 240 million and net income of approximately USD 0.10 per diluted share, excluding forecasted stock-based compensation expense of USD 0.07 per diluted share.
Along with the previously announced Stuntman, Frontline, MX vs. ATV, Juiced, and Destroy all Human games, THQ announced a new game in the Red Faction series as well as a game based on the upcoming Disney/Pixar film WALL*E.
THQ recently announced an agreement with Chinese game operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. to bring the company's PC title Company of Heroes to the online market in China in calendar year 2008.
Infogrames, parent company of troubled publisher Atari, has announced that Bluebay Value Recovery Fund now holds 22.5 per cent of its shares.
Bluebay has told the stock market regulator of its "intention to help the Company's turnaround, including by holding seats on the board of directors, but that it does not intend to gain control of Infogrames Entertainment."
Bluebay is now the largest shareholder of Infogrames with 22.5 per cent, followed by GLG which holds 9.29 per cent and Morgan Stanley with 4.06 per cent. The remaining 64.15 per cent are public.
Games Convention Asia has announced that Nexon CEO Joonmo Kwon is one of the latest speakers to sign up for the event, taking place September 6 – 9 in Singapore.
Kwon is boss of the online games specialist, it's mobile division and chairman of the Korean Game Industry Association.
Also joining the line-up is Microsoft's lead program manager James Millar, who will deliver a session addressing the issues of third-party publishing.
Alexander Fernandez of Streamline Studios and Glass Egg Media's Charles Speyer will take part in a panel looking at outsourcing and its effects on the industry, and a roundtable dedicated to game financing is also scheduled.
Games Convention Asia Conference takes place September 6 – 9, at the Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Center.
Future Publishing has revealed the shortlist for this year's Golden Joystick Awards 2007, with all major publishers and games eligible for a variety of awards.
The event this year will be hosted by comedian David Mitchell and includes categories sponsored by UK tabloid The Sun, BBC 1Xtra and Nuts and Bliss magazines.
There are 17 categories including the Ones To Watch Award and UK Developer of the Year, each with between ten and fifteen games for nomination.
The event will be held at London's Park Lane Hilton Hotel on Friday October 26.
A new development studio has been formed with funding from another game developer, Method Solutions.
The Slapdash Games team consists of Scott Hansen, Matthew Molloy, Darren Walker, and Chad Woyewodzic, and between them they've created a myriad of popular casual titles, including the award-winning Luxor series.
CEO of Method Solutions and acting CEO of Slapdash Games, Marcus Hopkins, commented: "The team…is unmatched in terms of creating fun, addicting games that are embraced by the mass market."
The team will produce casual games for PC, next-gen and mobile platforms, and information on its first titles will be announced shortly.
Scholastic, the global publishing, education and media company, announced today that sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the blockbuster final volume in J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally successful series, reached a record breaking 11.5 million copies in the U.S. in its first 10 days on sale. This milestone comes on the heels of the previously announced 8.3 million copies sold in the U.S. within the first 24 hours of the book’s release at 12:01am on July 21st.
Scholastic was printing copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows right up to the final hours prior to release and, with pre-orders and reservations climbing at an incredible pace, the Company was able to print enough additional copies to be in position for re-supply following the launch. The additional copies brought the total number of the U.S. edition in print for the seventh book to 14 million.
Currently, Harry Potter titles and the deluxe edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hold eight spots on the USA Today bestseller list. In the U.S. alone, there are currently 140 million copies of the seven Harry Potter books in print.
Harry Potter books in print in the U.S. by title:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - 29 million
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 24 million
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 20 million
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 19 million
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 17 million
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - 17 million
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 14 million
To date, over 350 million copies of the seven books in the Harry Potter series have been sold worldwide.
MIAMI - A Japanese computer science student fails to take a full load of university classes and loses his student visa. A 10th-grade Indian girl is detained because of a high school essay she wrote on the Department of Homeland Security. These are two of the characters in "ICED!" — a new video game that invites players to step into the shoes of foreigners who run afoul of the U.S. immigration system.
Capcom has announced Q1 2008 net sales of 14.3 billion Yen, or USD 120 million, up 35 per cent from the same period last year.
The company's net income was 1.1 billion Yen, or approximately USD 8 million, a 40 per cent increase year to year. Operating income was also up 57 per cent to 2 billion Yen, or USD 17 million.
Resident Evil 4 Wii edition, Phoenix Wright 4, and Monster Hunter Freedom 2nd led Capcom's sales.
Capcom revised its earnings forecast for the first half of the fiscal year ending in September 2007. It now estimates net profits of 30.35 billion Yen and net income of 1.35 billion Yen.
Due to the continued weak performance of its arcade business, Capcom did not revise its estimates for the full year.
In a translation of the company's conference call following the release of their financial results, Capcom apparently referred to PS3 sales as "sluggish" and also noted that the PSP "hasn't achieved the numbers expected."
Nintendo has confirmed to our sister site Eurogamer that it won't be doing a traditional press conference at this year's Games Convention in Leipzig.
Instead it will be leading groups of the press on "media tours" around the show, in order to get a better and more intimate understanding of Nintendo's strategy and products.
"There is no press conference at Leipzig this year," a spokesperson for Nintendo UK told Eurogamer.
"What's going to happen instead is there will be media tours - groups of people that Nintendo Germany will take around the stands explaining the games to, and giving more detailed hands-ons to."
"The real reason why we're doing it is because you only fully understand a lot of our products when you play them. We felt focus and attention was better spent on more intimate briefings rather than just one big press conference."
It was speaking in light of news unearthed by partner site Eurogamer.de, which was told the traditional format was being downsized due to overcrowded press conferences where many were missing out on seeing the games.
Microsoft will also be offering a unique take on the traditional conference, with what it is calling a "get together". Only Sony will be delivering the traditional press conference.
The Leipzig Games Convention takes place August 22 - 28.
Electronic Arts and Activision are the two publishers set to benefit the most from Grand Theft Auto IV's no-show this Christmas retail season.
With Rockstar's latest title originally due for release in October but now delayed until Q2 2008, analyst firm Nollenberger Capital Partners believes that as much as USD 500 million in consumer spend could now be available for other blockbuster releases.
"We believe the lack of GTA IV this holiday season is a clear positive for Take-Two's competitors, namely EA and Activision,” said analyst Todd Greenwald.
"We estimate that roughly USD 400 to USD 500 million in consumers wallets will be freed up to spend on other hardcore games."
The company singled out forthcoming titles Call of Duty 4, Medal of Honor: Airbourne, Crysis, Need for Speed: ProStreet , Microsoft's Halo 3, Assassin's Creed and Haze from Ubisoft and Midway's Stranglehold as games likely to receive a sales boost this year.
"It will also allow retailers more shelf space to heavily promote these titles," added Greenwald.
Midway's European MD Martin Spiess has told GamesIndustry.biz the publisher is investing USD 30 million in upcoming action game Stranglehold.
Spiess claims the new IP could be the most expensive next-generation game in development, but is confident that come the September release the massive investment will pay off, with retail and consumers already very positive about the title.
"[Stranglehold cost] around USD 30 million, so it's possibly the most expensive next-generation game in development to date," said Spiess, in an interview to be published next week.
"The early indications from retail and the consumers are there, so it is going to pay off."
"In order to recoup development money you obviously have to sell a lot of units, but what we're seeing to date is that we will sell those units. Stranglehold will be the top selling title this Christmas," claimed Spiess.
The title has been developed in collaboration with Hollywood director John Woo and action icon Chow Yun-Fat. Pitched as a sequel to the 1992 movie Hard Boiled, the limited edition PlayStation 3 version of the game will include the original film on the Blu-ray disc.
And Spiess is confident that Stranglehold will offer a new experience for next-gen machines, rather than the equivalent of a PC game tweaked for the home console market.
"From a playability standpoint and a technology standpoint, we're delivering something which has not been done before - true next-gen for the first time, rather than just having some PC game ported onto next-gen with higher resolution graphics," he said.
Midway has announced that its net revenues for Q2 2007 were USD 31.8 million, up from Q2 2006 revenues of USD 25.9 million and ahead of its prior guidance.
Net loss for the second quarter of 2007 was USD 14.3 million, or USD 0.16 per basic and diluted share, compared with a USD 31 million loss, or USD 0.34 per basic and diluted share, from the prior year.
“In addition to successful second quarter launches including The Lord of the Rings Online and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for the Wii, we continued to extend our casual games business," said David F. Zucker, president and chief executive officer.
"Along with Touchmaster brought to the Nintendo DS and Hot Brain for the PSP, we released six of our classic titles on the PlayStation Online Store, and we have become one of the top sellers of classic arcade games on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade.”
For the third quarter ending September 30th, Midway expects net revenues of approximately USD 50 million, with a net loss of approximately USD 0.23 per basic and diluted share.
The company plans to release Stranglehold, Hour of Victory, Myst, and Big Buck Hunter during the third quarter. As previously announced, Unreal Tournament 3 will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 and PC in 2007. Both Unreal Tournament 3 and BlackSite: Area 51 will be released in the fourth quarter. The release of Vin Diesel's Wheelman game has been shifted to the first half of 2008.
Midway has also announced Nintendo exclusives such as Cruis'n and Game Party for the Wii and Ultimate Mortal Kombat, The Bee Game, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends for the Nintendo DS.
The rumoured World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King has been unveiled at Blizzard's annual convention in California.
Blizzard used the opening ceremony of its second BlizzCon convention to announce that the second expansion for World of Warcraft is in development. Confirming internet rumours, it will be titled Wrath of the Lich King, and will open up the northern continent of Northrend.
Details of the expansion are exactly as revealed in the FAQ that was leaked earlier in the week- a new Death Knight hero class, new arenas and battlegrounds, siege weaponry and destructible buildings, customisable hairstyles and dances, a new Inscription profession, and an increase in the level cap from 70 to 80.
In addition, Blizzard confirmed that integrated voice communication and guild banks would be introduced to WoW in regular patch updates, along with a new 10-man instance, Zul'Aman.
Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime also said that new details of StarCraft II, speficially about the Terran race and the single-player campaign, will be revealed at BlizzCon. In addition, the company will announce news of the planned Warcraft film and a collaboration with Dell on the "ultimate WoW gaming PC."
An in-game trailer for Wrath of the Lich King was shown, showcasing the Death Knight's devastating attacks and the atmospheric, snowbound landscapes of Northrend. The expansion is also playable on the show floor, but no word of a release date has yet been given.
Stay tuned for more details from the BlizzCon show floor.
The BBC has rubbished reports that Simon Nelson, controller of BBC Vision, will use his keynote address at this year's Edinburgh Interactive Festival to announce the corporation's move into the videogame sector.
The story first emerged at the weekend, suggesting that the BBC's iPlayer could be used to deliver gaming content to consumers – but the broadcaster has told GamesIndustry.biz that Nelson's address will not discuss any such plans.
"The presentation will not reveal a major move into the games industry and is in fact just reflective of the way in which various sectors of the entertainment industry are now converging and can learn from each others methods of working," said the BBC.
"The focus of his speech is on what the BBC can learn from the gaming industry and vice versa," offered the broadcaster.
10tacle Studios is to acquire a 29 per cent stake in UK developer Climax, as the two companies announce plans to jointly develop new videogame properties.
The studios are working together on two titles in the action and fantasy genre, as well as the recently announced online world for MTV, due to launch in 2008.
"The agreed cooperation of our companies will form one of the biggest independent development partnerships worldwide for next-gen, PC, video and online entertainment," commented Michele Pes, CEO of 10tacle.
"The two companies complement each other perfectly on the development and production side. We are very glad that we have found such an experienced partner to strength our development capacities and we are currently seriously auditing further possibilities to integrate the Climax Group into our organisation."
10tacle recently acquired Hungarian developer Stormregion, along with its Codename: Panzers franchise.
Autodesk has signed an agreement to buy Skymatter for an undisclosed figure, with the deal being finalised in the next couple of months.
Skymatter Limited is the company behind 3D modelling software package Mudbox, which has been used on a number of feature films, including King Kong and the Golden Compass, and by developers such as Epic Games.
Skymatter co-founder Tibor Madjar commented, "We look forward to working with Autodesk's product team to evolve the Mudbox capabilities to meet the expanding needs of a wide variety of digital artists and designers."
Mudbox will add to Autodesk's existing software line-up, which includes 3ds Max and Maya.
Details of this year's Game Career Seminar, part of the Game Developers Conference in Austin, have been released, with the keynote speaker confirmed as Andy Schatz, founder of Pocketwatch Games.
He'll be giving a talk entitled "A Game Industry Journeyman" which will outline his career, from early the days as an intern to his position now.
Representatives from Disney, one of the event sponsors, will also take a session and outline the company's MMO strategy, following on from its recent purchase of Club Penguin.
Other sessions include "Schools Under the Microscope: An Open Q&A," "Pitch Your Game Idea," and "What Are Employers Looking For Now?"
The Game Career Fair takes place on September 7 in the Austin Convention Center.
Sure, watching a wee remote controlled, all electric vehicle hit nearly 200 miles-per-hour is quite impressive, but moving a vehicle large enough to stuff a moderately sized human into with just AA cells is, well, world record worthy. Reportedly, the newly revamped Oxyride managed to maintain an average speed of just over 65mph and hit a top speed of 75.8mph, all while being powered by 192 AA batteries. Unsurprisingly, the promotional stunt rocketed Panasonic into the Guinness Book of World Records for speed attained with a vehicle solely driven by dry-cell AA batteries, but we still wouldn't look at purchasing 192 batteries (each way) as an efficient method of powering your commuter car.
North America is going to be on the receiving end of more Pokemon goodness next month (September 19th, to be exact) as the arrival of the Pokemon Trading Figure Game hits. As if video games, cartoons and collectible card games weren't enough, this new money-making venture game for fans will offer starter packs for $14.99 [about £7.40] and 3-figure booster packs for $9.99 [£5].
While fans of the franchise will undoubtedly hop on board this ship as it sets sail, we must say the Pikachu figure pictured looks kind of stylish. We'd actually like to just flat out buy some of our favorite Pokemon, to tell the truth. They could sit next to our complete set of Resident Evil figures.
Timothy Hall was sentenced to two years in prison and a $1200 USD fine yesterday, for pleading guilty to selling unauthorized video games on his website.
He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement in May after he was caught selling thousands of copied games on his website, Morbidbackups.net. Hall sold games for the Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Wii and also sold TV series on DVD.
For the five year period started in 2001, Hall made more than $266,000 in profits from selling the counterfeit games, and he acknowledged the fact when pleading guilty.
Back in May, undercover FBI agents placed orders for over 70 Xbox games and the 4 full seasons of the hit show "24" and they received every disc as promised.
Shamed American football athlete OJ Simpson has had his fees for Take Two's All-Pro Football 2K8 seized in order to satisfy an outstanding judgement for wrongful death, reports Reuters.
Simpson's likeness features in the game, which also includes a team called The Assassins, whose hooded mascot wields a knife when the team scores.
Simpson does not necessarily have to be assigned to the Assassins, but recent trailers have shown the ex-footballer as part of the team.
Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1995, but later found responsible for their deaths in a civil court two years later.
The fees, royalties and other compensation that Simpson was paid for appearing in All-Pro Football 2K8 will now go towards paying the USD 33.5 million judgement won by Goldman's family in 1997.
Peter Molyneux has admitted to GamesIndustry.biz that he feels there are "no excuses" for Lionhead not to make a "great game" any more, and that while they've come close in the past, they've never quite managed it - yet.
Speaking candidly on Lionhead's tenth birthday, alongside co-founders Mark Webley and Tim Rance, he also spoke of some of the issues with the company's landmark titles to date, Black & White and Fable.
"I still think that Black & White had a huge amount of flaws in it, I still think that Fable had a huge amount of flaws in it. And there are excuses for that. There's time, there's pressure, the small group, there's being distracted…"
But he's confident that now, with the backing of owner Microsoft, "the best is definitely yet to come," and that "the next projects that we do are a true measure of our ability, our ambition, our passion."
In the two-part interview, the team also talk about the company's beginnings, how the stock market crash cost them millions, and where the future of the games industry lies.
Part one is published today, with part two to follow next week.
Three former members of developer Volition have announced a new studio, Blazing Lizard.
The start-up is currently working on original downloadable IP for next-gen home consoles, with more details due to be unveiled on August 13.
The core team consists of Sandeep Shekar, Jiovanie Velazquez and Christopher Stockman, all of which have worked at THQ's Volition studio on projects including Summoner, The Punisher and Saints Row.
Games Convention Asia 2007 will host the signing of a Memorandum of Intent between the national game associations of 12 countries and regions in Asia Pacific.
The presidents of each national game association will attend the Singapore event to sign the Memorandum, which is designed to promote understanding between them and encourage closer networking and collaboration between associations and member companies.
Delegates from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia will attach their signatures to the Memorandum during the event, which takes place September 6 to 9 at the Suntech Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
Each country is also setting up a pavilion at the event to showcase the work of between 8 and 10 companies apiece.
Games Convention Asia is a sister event to Games Convention, which takes place in Leipzig, Germany each August.
Capcom has appointed Nique Fajors as vice president of marketing in North America.
Fajors will oversee all product marketing, creative services, public and community relations.
"Nique's diverse experience includes running sales and marketing with interactive entertainment companies, as well as serving within the White House," said Mark Beaumont, executive vice president of Capcom US.
"Nique will be bringing a senior strategic role to Capcom's marketing group, with the goal of driving Capcom to a greater position within the interactive publishing industry in the coming year."
Fajors was most recently with Atari, and has also held leadership positions with the US Department of Commerce and The White House.
Investment banking firm Spencer Clarke is to help PlayLogic build stronger relationships with the investment community as the publisher looks towards future growth.
The ambitious publisher saw profits rise 71 per cent in 2006, and has recently renewed its publisher status with SCEE and is an official publishing partner for Nintendo's Wii.
"We are delighted to work with the Playlogic management team as it seeks growth capital and alliances that will help the firm expand within the worldwide gaming industry. This is the fastest-growing entertainment media segment during the next five years," said Geoffrey Finkel, VP of Investment Banking at Spencer Clarke.
PlayLogic currently employs around 75 members of staff and has 10 games in development for various platforms.
"We are very content that Spencer Clarke will be assisting us in the future growth of Playlogic. It’s a partnership and alliance that brings us extensive industry experience which assists us beyond a capital raise," commented Wilbert Knol, CFO of Playlogic.
Following on from certain rumours originating in the US regarding the potential closure of its local UK operation, GameSpot UK has told GamesIndustry.biz that in fact the opposite is true.
Site Manager Laura Jenner said that it was, "Wishful thinking on the part of others with no relation to the truth. We are expanding the GameSpot UK editorial team."
The site launched in April last year and currently employs four local editorial team members to work alongside the other global teams, and focuses on news and content originating in the UK and Europe.
Allegations of unlawful use of free technology in id Software titles on Steam are now a "dead issue," an id rep told Next-Gen.biz.
Message board users over the weekend found that older id games on Valve Software's Steam digital distribution platform used the x86 emulator DOSBox.
But the supposed issue arose when users found that id and Valve apparently didn't give credit to the DOSbox Team, which developed the technology that allows old DOS-based games to run on today's computers.
According to id, it's already water under the bridge.
"It's a dead issue," the id rep said in a phone interview. "...As soon as this came to id's attention, it was all immediately corrected." She offered no further comment.
Certain text files referring to DOSBox and licensing terms were apparently not initially included with games that utilized the software when id games were made available on Steam this past Friday.
However, Next-Gen can confirm via purchased id Steam software that DOSBox's Readme file and the GNU General Public License documentation are now included in the program files.
A DOSBox Team member confirmed via the group's official message boards that id-and anyone else-is allowed to use the free software and charge for it. But there are caveats.
The actual license reads: "Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things."
"...If you distribute copies of such a program ["free" software], whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights."
id announced during Quakecon on Friday that it would be offering nearly all of its games via Valve's Steam service.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, no strangers to reaching for seemingly unattainable goals in medical science, have set their sights on what some consider to be the ultimate pursuit of modern prosthetics: a bionic arm that moves, looks and feels like its human counterpart. And they want to do it by 2009.
An earlier prototype of the arm, the Proto 1, was shown in April of this year, and now the team of scientists is scrambling to ready the arm's second iteration, the Proto 2, in time to show it off this week at the 25th Darpa Systems and Technology Symposium (where it will likely be joined by Dean Kamen's Darpa funded bionic arm). Researchers hope that the prothesis, which is currently controlled by skin-surface-attached myoelectric sensors, can be made more intuitive by adding injectable sensors, which send increased amounts of signals (and have improved clarity) allowing for greater control of the arm. In time, the team hopes to move to nerve-attached electrodes, or electrode arrays implanted on the brain, which will eventually allow for full user dexterity.
Codemasters has opened a new studio in Guildford, Surrey, and appointed former EA Criterion exec Adrian Bolton as studio manager.
The new studio will initially take on programming support with a head count of around 35. Codemasters Studio Guildford now joins the HQ in Southam and the recently opened art studio in Kuala Lumpur.
"Following our investment announcements and recent product successes, it is clear to see that these are very exciting times for everyone within the expanded Codemasters Studios group," commented Gavin Cheshire, VP of Codemasters.
"With Codemasters Studios in Southam, Kuala Lumpur and now Guildford, we can continue to grow our business and bring additional titles to the portfolio.
"We look forward to welcoming a new wave of development talent to Codemasters as we continue to grow both our product range and technology assets with projects such as Neon," he added.
The new team will initially work with middleware engine Neon as well as forthcoming titles Race Driver ONE and Operation Flashpoint 2.
The online console market will be worth USD 10.5 billion by 2011, with connected home consoles accounting for 18.6 per cent of global videogame market revenue.
That's a leap from USD 981 million in 2007, representing just 2.5 per cent of the global games market, according to new research from IDC.
Entirely separate from PC gaming, the online console market will be crucial to the success of the format holders and third-party publishers, with subscription fees, paid for downloadable content and in-game advertising all key to growth.
"Gamers' use of connected consoles is expanding the business opportunities and cash flow this console cycle," says Billy Pidgeon, program manager for IDC.
"This emerging sector has huge potential. Getting gamers online and enticing them to spend on content and services is crucial for vendors and publishers."
The research shows that revenue from downloadable content is set to soar between 2007 and 2011. Worth an estimated USD 493 million in 2007, it's expected to grow to a massive USD 7.2 billion in 2011, or 68.6 per cent.
Although subscription revenue for online services and games is set to grow from USD 476 million in 2007 to USD 2.4 billion in 2011, its share of online console revenues will drop from 48.5 per cent to 23.2 per cent in 2011.
And considered to be still in its early stages, revenue from advertising sponsored services, in-game ads and product placement within the console market, is expected to reach USD 12 million in 2007, growing to 858 million in 2011, or 8.2 per cent of online revenue.
Electronic Arts has increased its stake in Ubisoft to 25 per cent, giving the publishing giant a full quarter of voting rights and 15.37 per cent of the company capital.
According to a new report, EA has said it reserves the right to raise its stake in Ubisoft over the next year, depending on market conditions.
EA acquired 20 per cent of Ubisoft in 2005, a move that the French publisher described as "hostile".
Speculation of an acquisition by Electronic Arts has refused to go away, with senior Ubisoft executives vocal in their opposition of such a move.
Electronic Arts now owns 6.99 million shares, representing 13.98 votes.
The report also states that EA "has no plans to seek to nominate board members, but could do so if there are any major changes in the Ubisoft's situation."
Second quarter sales for MMO publisher NCsoft were down 11 per cent to USD 82.1 million (EUR 59.5m) compared to the previous year, with the company seeing USD 11.5 million (EUR 8.3m) in profit lead by the Lineage franchise.
59 per cent or USD 52.5 million (EUR 38.1m) in sales came from the Korean market, followed by 13.9 million (EUR 10m) in North America and 4.9 million (EUR 3.5m) in Europe.
Japanese business accounted USD 8.3 million (EUR 6m) and USD 2.5 million (EUR 1.8m) was attributed to the market in Taiwan.
"During the second quarter, we continued the integration of accounts in the PlayNC service platform. Additionally, Atrix, SP JAM and other new casual games were introduced," detailed NCsoft CFO Jaeho Lee.
"We saw a noticeable growth of up to 1.3 million visitors to the site during the quarter," said Lee.
Lineage II generated USD 34.7 million (EUR 25.1m) in sales for Q2, with the original Lineage creating USD 27.6 million (EUR 20m).
Sales of Guild Wars were USD 8.9 million (EUR 6.4m) and the City of Heroes/Villains titles generated USD 6.9 million (EUR 5m).
John Schappert has been appointed to the newly-created position of Microsoft's corporate vice president of Live, software and services.
Schappert founded Tiburon Entertainment, which later became EA Tiburon, and also served in a number of positions at EA, including chief operating officer, group general manager and executive vice president.
In his new role Schappert will take responsibility for the running of Xbox Live, as well as Games for Windows - Live, XNA and Microsoft Casual Games.
Don Mattrick, vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, commented, "John's expertise will help us focus on expanding and enriching our market leadership with Live in areas like online services while broadening our audience."
Among the key game titles that Schappert previously worked on is EA's best-selling Madden franchise.
Back in May this year European software retailer GAME announced that it was acquiring its nearest High Street competitor Gamestation for GBP 74 million (EUR 108m).
Shortly afterwards the UK's Office of Fair Trading announced that it was investigating the deal to ensure there was no negative impact on the consumer from any loss of competition in the sector.
At the time GAME commented that "As expected we have notified the acquisition of Gamestation to the OFT for normal regulatory review. This review will take about two months and we will be co-operating fully with the OFT process."
However, the OFT today announced its decision to refer the acquisition to the Competitions Commission.
John Fingleton, OFT chief executive, said of the referral, "This merger involves the loss of competition between two parties who, in some segments at least, appear to be each other's closest competitors and in circumstances where we can not confidently rely on new companies entering the market to resolve any issues quickly."
"Without better evidence that competition from other suppliers will be sufficient to prevent the merged firm from raising prices or cutting back services in a way that would harm consumers - in a market where retail sales amount to around GBP 1.5 billion - we must refer to the CC for fuller inquiry."
The results of the CC's investigation are expected by January 23, 2008.
Following the OFT's statement earlier today that it was to refer the acquisition of Gamestation by GAME to the Competition Commission, the retailer has said that it is "disappointed" with the decision.
In a statement Peter Lewis, chairman of GAME, said, "We are disappointed that the OFT found difficulty in clearing the transaction."
"We firmly believe that a combination of GAME and Gamestation will not give rise to any substantial lessening of competition and intend to vigorously pursue this position before the Competition Commission."
He went on to state the GAME would continue to cooperate fully with the process, and was keen to "demonstrate how this transaction brings very strong consumer, commercial and employee benefits in what is an increasingly competitive market."
The awesome (and yet disturbing) Kirby cake we showed you a few weeks ago inspired reader Ricky to send in his own bit of sugary birthday gaming goodness, and does it ever make our mouths water. His girlfriend put this together for a 20th birthday celebration that we wish had been ours -- and from the care that obviously went into this cake, Ricky's princess is probably not in another castle. We're certain he's found her. It's not just pretty on the outside, either; beneath the super-sweet recreation of a classic gaming screen lie layers of chocolate cake, strawberries, and chocolate mousse. Ricky reports that, while it hurt a little, deep inside, to munch on his beloved Mario, the cake was totally worth it. If only he'd sent us a piece.
Has someone put together a unique gift for your special day? Are you sitting atop a throne made of NES carts as you read this? Maybe you just own a particularly cool gaming shirt or two, or are proud of how your gaming set-up looks. If you have something you want to show off, snap some pics and send them over to us at showmeit at dsfanboy dot com. We'll take care of the rest.
Double Fusion, a provider of game advertising, has secured funding from investment fund Sedona Capital in order to expand its business in Japan.
Sedona, which specialises in digital media and entertainment funding, has agreed to the deal because "Double Fusion's proven track record worldwide, and specifically in Japan, made this investment an exciting opportunity," according to managing director Hiroshi Nakata.
Double Fusion Japan will now focus on increasing its activity in what is the world's second largest advertising market, and Alex Rood, vice president for the company's Asia division, stated that it plans to "continue the rapid execution of our growth strategy."
Trinigy's co-founder and director of development, Daniel Conradie, is moving over to the US to become president and CEO of its newly-formed Austin office.
The German company, which specialises in middleware and is best known for its Vision game engine, is establishing an outlet in the US in order to offer better support to developers in the region.
"Expanding to North America was the obvious next step in our consistently customer-focused company policy," commented Dag Frommhold, managing partner.
Work will begin in earnest in the fourth quarter of this year, and the company has also added to its technical support workforce in Germany.
Vivendi Games has promoted Xochilt Balzola-Widmann to executive VP and general manager of its European retail division.
Previously responsible for central Europe, France and Italy, Balzola-Widmann will now spearhead retail growth across all European regions.
"We're thrilled to have Xochilt lead the charge for Vivendi Games throughout Europe and we are confident that positioning the European organisation under a single management structure enables the team to best capitalise on both current and future business opportunities," said Pascal Brochier, president for global retail at Vivendi.
"Xochilt has had a tremendous impact on Vivendi Games' business in Europe since joining the company. She has extensive knowledge of both the games industry and the European marketplace both of which are critical to the company's ongoing success."
Balzola-Widmann joined Vivendi in 2004 having previously worked for Electronic Arts as director of European sales.
"I'm excited about this opportunity and look forward to working with the Vivendi Games' team, our retail customers and business partners to continue bringing high-quality, entertaining games to consumers throughout Europe," she said.
Following on from comments made by Eidos CEO Jane Cavanagh earlier in the week, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association has said that it feels the government should offer more financial backing to the industry in the UK.
ELSPA director general Paul Jackson said, "Our impression is that government understand that there is a serious problem here and we have been invited back to discuss the issue further."
"However we are wary that historically government has never really given us the support we require when compared to other industries in our sector."
Specifically Jackson is referring to the film industry, which currently receives tax incentives for work undertaken in the UK, and he feels that the UK is in danger of falling further behind the likes of Canada, whose government does provide financial incentives to the games industry.
"The reality is that the market is financially doped in other parts of the world, making it incredibly difficult for the industry in the UK to compete."
And in an exclusive interview to be published on Monday, he told GamesIndustry.biz he feels that "We need programs and structures that are appropriate to our market."
"There are issues for our Government in talking to other governments about the predatory activities they seem to be carrying out."
"I don't believe British industry needs special help. We're very innovative and competitive. We need the Government to protect us from uncompetitive activities, to ensure that we're not being attacked by unfair practices elsewhere."
According to ELSPA the UK industry currently employs 22,000 people, and now stands fourth in the world rankings, behind the US, Japan and Canada.
Irrational Games, the company developing the much-anticipated action title BioShock, has renamed its offices in-line with the branding of its parent company, Take-Two Interactive Software.
From now on the company's headquarters, in Boston, Massachusetts, will be known as 2K Boston, while the other office in Canberra, Australia, will go by the name 2K Australia.
The studio, which was acquired by Take-Two to be part of its 2K Games family of developers in 2005, is set to release BioShock later this month.
President and creative director of 2K Boston said, "The name change signifies our growing position as a central part of 2K Games, and we plan to ensure our future titles continue to set new standards of quality and innovation for the industry."
Infogrames Entertainment posted first fiscal quarter results today that showed sales up overall by 13 per cent, subject to finalisation of Atari's results.
Revenues hit EUR 50.1 million, up EUR 5.7 million from a year ago, with 69 per cent of that coming in Europe - while sales in the US were down by 50 per cent.
Meanwhile net debt was up EUR 16.8 million since the last quarter, although that figure doesn't include drawdowns available since new credit facilities were provided on June 20, 2007.
The most popular formats for the company were the Sony PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, making up 35 per cent of sales, while the PlayStation 2 took 32 per cent.
The three next-gen consoles made a fifth of sales, while the PC platform took 12 per cent of the overall figure.
Despite the rise in revenues, the company was keen to point out that this was a traditionally quiet time of year, and that sales in this quarter weren't "indicative of the anticipated sales for the rest of the year."
The company's share price rose 4.8 per cent following the announcement of these results.
Rather than selling its stake in mobile specialist Gameloft, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has revealed the publisher originally wanted to buy the company.
Ubisoft sold its shares in Gameloft last month after the company knocked back acquisition plans.
"Our intention at first was to actually buy the company but as their business is growing extremely fast they were concerned it was not the right time for them to sell," revealed Guillemot following his keynote speech at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival.
At the time, the publisher stated it would use the money raised from the sale for future growth.
The French company held a 19 per cent stake in the mobile specialist, with Gameloft developing numerous mobile titles based on Ubisoft's IP.
ITM Creatives has launched its own website to make using its talent search facilities easier.
The artistic division of International Talent Management encompasses freelance artists, animators and related technicians from the video games, film and television industries.
ITM Creatives' selling point is that it charges a "low and appropriate" commission to freelancers, and no commission at all to the hiring company.
The agency's head, Max Meltzer, believes that it is time for unreasonable deals, specifically within in the games industry, to be replaced.
"Artists and animators are within one of the most abused work brackets across the entertainment industries. This is, in terms of pay, restrictive contracts and rates charged by talent and recruitment agents."
"This is a talent agency, not a recruitment agency, and we're one of the first to primarily operate in the video games industry. The website is the base where ethical practices between games studios and talent come together."
The site's search tool allows producers to search based on location, profession and availability.
Big Brother and Deal or No Deal production house Endemol sees great potential in emerging videogame business models including Xbox Live and digital downloads.
But the producer has no plans to expand into full videogame production or development in the near future, instead opting to partner with publishers on future projects.
"As we move into the digital distribution of content and the growth of services like Xbox Live and the digital distribution of games, we see that as quite an interesting outlet for our video-based content alongside games on the same platform," said Peter Cowley, managing director of digital media for Endemol UK.
"Xbox Live could be a great revenue earning distribution platform at some time in the future.
"The subscription model we see in massively multiplayer gaming is very interesting and potentially appealing, but it seems very hard to achieve," admitted Cowley.
The company has an investment fund of GBP 15 million for digital expansion, initially being used to fund participation TV, gambling and IPTV projects. But with Endemol recently partnering with Electronic Arts on the development of Virtual Me, an online social networking experience, does the production company have further plans in the gaming market?
"I think that's a long way off if we were going to get there," said Cowley.
"We've found a niche in the gambling and skill games market that we felt with our gameshow experience we could extend into. But it's quite a big stretch for us to be a developer or publisher in the games industry.
"The games industry seem to be much harder from where I sit in the television world. We're also built differently as we tend to create content on a local basis as opposed to an international level like the games industry," added Cowley.
A recent SEC filing reported by the Orlando Sentinel reveals that Warner Brothers and Universal have an agreement for a targeted release date between December 15th, 2009 and June 30, 2010.
While we're all hoping for a mid-December release, various construction issues could delay the opening all the way until late June. The broad window may be just for safety in case of some unexpected hold ups. We'll keep you updated!
Mad Catz, a third-party peripheral manufacturer, has announced its Q1 2008 financial results, documenting a net loss of USD 181,000.
Net sales of USD 14.6 million were down 19.6 per cent from the same period last year, but gross profit of USD 4.7 million was up 31.9 per cent from 2007.
"With our seasonally slowest quarter now behind us, the benefit of a broad portfolio of licensed brands and continued penetration into the current generation console marketplace, Mad Catz is poised to enter what will be an important holiday season," said president and CEO Darren Richardson.
"While we will continue to feel the effects of a difficult operating environment related to the prior generation of consoles, we believe we are well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunities ahead as the installed base of current generation consoles continues to grow," he said.
Mad Catz noted that sales of products and accessories for the latest hardware generation accounted for 46 per cent of the company's net sales as compared to 11 per cent in the prior year and 39 per cent in Q4 2007. European sales rose 69.4 per cent year to year.
The company has entered into license agreements with Microsoft and Bioware to produce a new line of customized accessories to support the upcoming launches of Halo 3 and Mass Effect.
Interplay has announced its Q2 2007 earnings, reporting net income of USD 5.47 million.
Although net income more than doubled from the USD 2.06 million reported during the same period last year, almost all of this income came from Interplay's sale of its Fallout property to Bethesda for USD 5.75 million.
Interplay retained the rights to a Fallout MMO which it is currently attempting to finance.
"I am pleased with the progress the company has made, particularly with our debt load, which has improved from USD 59 million in December 2001 to less than USD 3 million today," said CEO Herve Caen.
"Along with our strategy of leveraging our existing portfolio of intellectual gaming properties, Fallout Online will play a key role in the future of Interplay."
Net revenue from US sales in the quarter only amounted to USD 2,000, with USD 60,000 net revenue from international sales. Earnings per basic share in Q2 were USD .055.
Interplay is still in a dispute with developer Bioware Corp. over alleged unpaid royalties and attorneys fees of USD 375,000.
Wideload, the team behind Hail to the Chimp and Stubbs the Zombie, is adding a new splinter studio called Shorts to work on shorter games that are easier for people with less time to get to grips with.
The new team will work closely with its parent developer, with assets shared between the groups.
Company president Tom Kang explained: "A Wideload retail game may include an asset that would be great to spin off into a Shorts game, and vice versa, a Wideload Shorts game could inspire a Wideload Games retail product."
The new studio will be run by former Red Mercury president, Scott Corley, who underlined Shorts' target demographic.
"Wideload Shorts is here to make games for everyone out there who used to play games, who still want to play games, but can no longer invest forty hours a week playing games."
No details have yet been announced regarding the studio's first projects.
D3Publisher has enlisted the development talents of Czech Republic studio Illusion Softworks to put together an original next-generation game, due for release in the last few months of 2008.
No details for the game have been released, but D3 will have the exclusive global publishing rights for the title.
Illusion's CEO Petr Vochozka is delighted to be partnering with D3: "They publish a more streamlined portfolio of products, with any new and original intellectual property they commit to becoming the central focus of the company."
Illusion Softworks, founded in 1997, is best known for previously developing the Mafia, and Hidden and Dangerous titles.
Big cheese Yves has said Ubisoft will be expanding into film production and book publishing as soon as this generation.
Guillemot was speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival taking place right now, where he described the decision as a logical step forwards.
"We will start making movies not because we want to, but because this is what we have to do," he told the audience. "If we don't, we will not be able to take advantage of the next generation."
It's integral to his three-pronged approach that will ensure continual growth in the market: big games, a family catalogue, and capitalising on the Internet.
But despite those bold words, Guillemot had no revelations as to what the films or books will be. He even made no mention of the upcoming Prince of Persia film.
Ubisoft has a busy game line-up this Christmas, with biggies Assassin's Creed, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway and Haze (PS3) all en route. The Paris-based publisher reckons it uses around 200 people to make a title these days, and that more studios will pop up around the world soon.
According to SEC documents filed yesterday, Microsoft's Robbie Bach sold three million dollars more in company stock than was previously reported.
Back in July, it was reported that Bach sold USD 6.2 million in Microsoft stock in the two months prior to the company announcing a USD 1.5 billion charge for extending the Xbox 360 warranty and repairing defective units.
Microsoft blames an "administrative error" for not registering Bach's sale of an additional three million dollars worth of company stock on May 1st. A spokesperson said that Microsoft has followed the procedures for late-filers and is now in full compliance.
Although Microsoft denies that the stock sales were related to the Xbox 360 warranty repair announcement, the sales could trigger an SEC investigation. However, as Microsoft's stock value wasn't particularly impacted by the repair announcement, Bach did not apear to benefit from the sale.
Alliance numériQC has revealed more details regarding the upcoming Montreal International Game summit.
Canada’s largest gathering of video game creators, developers, and producers will feature guest speakers such as Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games), George Borshukov (Electronic Arts and WW Studio), Mike Chrzanowski (Vicarious Visions), Don Daglow (Stormfront Studios), Jon Goldman (Foundation 9), Clint Hocking (Ubisoft), Julien Merceron (Eidos), Samuel Rivello (Neopets), and Duncan Wain (Scope Seven).
As previously reported, David Perry will be headlining the event.
“The Summit’s success since its beginnings confirms the relevance of holding this kind of gathering in Montreal, where we’ll be hosting more than 1,000 professionals from around the world. It’s an exceptional place for information sharing, and one that helps foster the development of expertise in this rapidly evolving industry,” says Solange Blanchard, CEO of Alliance numériQC.
The conference, which takes place on November 27 - 28, also boasts a new personalised meeting feature called the Business Lounge, which should act as a network tool according to the event's organisers.
MIGS partners include Autodesk, Activision/Beenox, A2M, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Humagade, and public sector agencies such as the Quebec Ministry for Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications and Canada Economic Development.
Halo 3 developer Bungie has hired former Red Storm Entertainment creative director Christian Allen.
Allen had worked at Red Storm for five years working on multiple titles in Ubisoft's key Ghost Recon franchise.
"I've accepted a design lead position at Bungie, where I'll be working on something a bit different than Ghost Recon. August 10 was my last day as a senior designer/creative director at RSE and Ubisoft," confirmed Allen via his personal blog.
"I am excited about the chance to face new challenges as a designer," he added.
It appears that EA has been none too chuffed with entries on its Wikipedia page, and rather than soak up the punches has decided to take action.
According to reports, not only has a user - an EA staffer, allegedly - previously removed references to the publishing giant's founder Trip Hawkins, but additionally negative content associated with the company has also been removed.
The detective work has been conducted by Shacknews, which highlights a number of areas on EA's Wikipedia page that have been altered in the past to apparently erase Hawkins' legacy.
Not only that, but 'clean up' alterations were made to the page - again allegedly by an EA staffer - to remove negative entries focussing on controversial business practices and the publisher's previous attitude to its workers.
According to Shacknews, a lot of the alterations that were made have subsequently been revised by the Wikipedia community. We can understand the desire to rub out negative content, by why the removal of references to Trip Hawkins?
We've contacted EA and await a response (which will no doubt be "no comment").
According to reports, a single computer crash on Saturday in the Customs office of LAX caused hours of delays for more than 17,000 airline passengers. US Customs officials say that a malfunctioning network card on a single desktop created a "domino" effect with its other computers, leading to a total system failure that caused massive wait times.
According to a Customs spokesman, "We lost access to our national systems, as well as our local area network."
He went on the claim that it took over ten hours to diagnose the problem, halting screening operations and leaving passengers stranded on planes or in the airport -- unable to enter or leave the US. From the sounds of it, Customs need to hire a handful of Engadget readers, who we're pretty sure could have located the source of the problem in considerably less time.
Has it really been a quarter-century since the first compact disc was pressed, finally freeing us from the infernal routine of rewinding our mix tapes? Well sure enough, Philips was kind enough to inform us that its very first CD rolled off the production lines on August 17th, 1982, which history will forever remember -- perhaps unfortunately -- as a copy of ABBA's The Visitors. Nonetheless, this first widely-produced optical disc format would end up changing our lives forever, ushering in the era of lossless copies, easy music sharing, and an unwanted little friend we've come to know as DRM.
Now with some 200 billion discs having been sold worldwide -- and probably twice as many distributed gratis by AOL in its dial-up heyday -- it would seem that the original shiny little platter is unquestionably in its golden years, with more convenient or capacious formats replacing it on almost every front. So Philips, the readers and editors of Engadget are proud to join you in saluting the revolutionary product you helped pioneer -- and also offer our condolences that things, um, haven't worked out quite so well for you in the transition to MP3.
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has told GamesIndustry.biz that having Electronic Arts as a publisher means the studio has both more support and more freedom than it did when working with Ubisoft.
"Everything's just bigger. From a business point of view, we have more support from EA and superior distribution and marketing power behind us, more freedom," Yerli said.
However, he added, Crytek is also enjoying more freedom thanks to success of its first game, which was published by Ubisoft. "It comes after Far Cry, too; that [game] established us in a different position," he explained.
Crytek is now working on PC shooter Crytek, which will be published by EA on November 16. According to Yerli, the experience of working with the publisher has been a highly positive one: "We can dictate more, and at the same time we can ask for more support. [EA delivers] more, because we both want this to be the best game."
Yerli went on to say he is grateful to Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot for taking a risk on Far Cry when Crytek was still a fledging studio, but admitted that relations did become strained as the game's development progressed.
"There were too many emotions involved back then, it was very passionate... It worked out, but it drained on the level of trust between us," Yerli revealed.
"But despite the fact it was rough at the end, I would like to say big thanks to Ubisoft and Yves Guillemot for taking the risk with us. If they hadn't done it, we would never have survived."
Part one of the full interview with Yerli will be published on GamesIndustry
Atari has received a second warning of delisting from NASDAQ following its failure to file its quarterly financial statement.
The struggling publisher was threatened with delisting last month for not filing its annual report on time.
Atari will now appeal the delisting notices at a hearing on August 30. It states it cannot determine its first quarter results until its year-end results have been finalised.
Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht has said that games' inability to include sexual content, satirical jokes and fantasy violence without degrees of censure are symptoms of a wider problem with ratings - and said that he didn't feel the US Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) took the medium seriously as an artform.
"I would be happy if in games we could talk about homosexuality, but we're not even at the point where we can admit that humans have heterosexual relationships, and that is a real problem - and it tends to show that games are not being seen, even by our own ratings boards, as an artform," he told attendees at the Games Convention Developer's Conference in Germany.
Eggebrecht devoted much of his keynote address on the first morning of GCDC to attacking the US Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) over ratings problems encountered developing PS3 title Lair, and drew attention to various examples.
One of these was a satirical video of a real-life coffee maker hidden behind a cheat code in Lair - a reference to the presence of unfinished sexual content in the original release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. "Everyone thought it was hilarious...but we couldn't call the cheat 'Hot Coffee', because that would imply we were mocking the authorities investigating Hot Coffee."
"If you cannot have satire about these things, that is approaching the realm of McCarthyism," he said.
In a speech that regularly drew comparisons between the use of violence and sex in film and videogames, Eggebrecht called on his fellow developers to include more sexual content in games. "I want to see a game with real sexual content in a store here in Germany - I don't think it will happen unless we really recognise games as an artform," he told the audience. He pointed to Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut, which "discusses relationship issues that you have in a marriage". "You don't have that in games - it is time to wake up and make it happen."
It was during this phase of his speech that Eggebrecht referred to Hot Coffee, defending embattled publisher Rockstar. "How a game can be drawn off the shelves based on a cheat in which you can barely see something that might be interpreted as a sexual act - as an Easter Egg no less - is absolutely beyond me, when at the same time movies have been pushing the envelope for a long time," he said.
Eggebrecht also called on the ESRB to introduce a new American rating between the Teen and Mature badges, arguing that neither was suitable for games like Lair whose innate appeal is to teenage gamers, but whose content is fantasy violence that can be viewed from custom angles - something of a sticking point for censors.
Factor 5 had been forced to excise various elements of Lair's violence because, while publisher Sony sought a Teen rating, the ESRB repeatedly objected to spurts of blood and organic aircraft being blown into visible "chunks", forcing the developer into a time consuming and "hugely problematic" cycle of submissions, Eggebrecht said.
"On the one hand they objected to this, but they let us through with a Teen even though you can use fire - you can set up to five, six thousand people on fire. They burn, they run around and they scream, but of course that wasn't a problem [due to the absence of blood]."
He called the submissions process "a charade". "It's a flat out bizarre system...It makes it even harder for games than movies because we don't have the intermediate ratings." Although there were obvious parallels between the way game content could be tweaked to fit ratings guidelines, and the way that film directors were able to remove frames or frame violence artistically so that disgusting or shocking acts were alluded to rather than literally seen, the gap between Teen and Mature ratings and the ESRB's awkwardness were a source of agitation, he explained.
"They don't really tell you what they will object to - they just say 'well, follow the standards that have been set before', which is a problem if you want to push the envelope," he added.
Despite this, Eggebrecht encouraged his fellow developers to continue pushing against the boundaries of what was acceptable in order to establish games as an artform. He concluded: "I hope that we actually can prove that this is an artform. Show me something that proves on all levels that games are indeed an artform - push the violence, but also push the sex, and push it in an artistic way where it's not really gratuitous, but where it gets my thinking brain going."
