EEG News

Id Software Rejects Activision Offer

The Wall Street Journal lifted a rock in the video game industry today, revealing a messy situation underneath between Activision, id Software and its board of directors.

According to the Journal article, game developer id Software rejected a $105 million buy-out attempt last year from mega-publisher Activision Inc. According to court documents, four of the five id Software directors rejected the bid as too low. The abstaining director Adrian Carmack (not related to id technical director John Carmack) was later forced to resign as an employee and director of id Software.

From the article (subscription required):

Mr. Carmack claims the decision not to sell the company was part of an effort to force him to sell his shares back at a fraction of what he would have made in a sale to Activision. Under terms of a contract he has asked the court to void, Mr. Carmack would have to sell his 40% stake in the company for $11 million, below the $40 million he might have reaped from Activision.

Carmack claims that the owners rejected Activion's offer in order to buy his shares at a price well below what they could acquire in a future offer.

Activision’s attempt to buy id software brings to mind a larger issue with the video game industry today. Although rejected, the acquisition follows a growing trend of large game producers absorbing independent game creators. Even a strong-arm independent producer such as id software is clearly not immune.

A large reason for the drift is the Hollywood-ization of gaming. The market is maturing rapidly and the potential of profit has never been higher. According to The NPD Group vidgame hardware and software topped $9.9 billion in the US in 2004. That is larger than Hollywood’s total box-office in the same period of time.

However, the expectations of the market have increased exponentially with each generation. It is becoming largely impossible for a small group of developers to design a game on par with the production level and graphical power expected of today’s and next generation’s hardware. Large publishers can spend in the tens of millions on making a game, leaving smaller companies without deep pockets behind.

With yet another impressive leap in graphics and hardware arriving for next generation consoles, we may see the final nail in the coffin for the smaller, creative force of independent game makers that created the industry in its fledgling years.

Roger Avary on Silent Hill

Edge magazine’s website has a lengthy interview with Roger Avary, writer of the upcoming Silent Hill screenplay. He talks about his involvement with the movie and adapting games for the silver screen in general.

From the article:

What kind of impact will Silent Hill have on the way games are adapted in the future? Will it inspire a global change across the entire field, or simply make it easier for more faithful adaptations to get the go-ahead?

I think that as videogames evolve and become more cinematic, there'll be a natural convergence. I think that one of the greatest frustrations between games and cinema is that game designers have been attempting to fall into passive entertainment. You're playing an interactive game and then suddenly you stop and you’re sitting there watching a cinematic. It's like 'well hold on a minute, this is a game and I'm not an active participant'. So I actually think that eventually game designers will realise that trying to make movies out of their games is not the key, and that it's instead creating an interactive experience full of consequence that drives the story along without stopping. Movies, by design, are passive entertainment, which is not to say that that's any worse or lesser than gaming.

Maybe the question is: will Silent Hill make game designers more comfortable? Guys like Uwe Boll have done a lot of damage, and I don’t know that one good game adaptation will undo all of it.

Also, this little acorn at the end caught my eye:

I don't mind saying that there is another Konami title – which I can't mention because they haven't closed the deal on it - that Christophe and Sam are in talks about right now. We've already gone into discussions about adapting that material and that would, I must say, be a dream come true.

A Konami title, eh? Maybe a Metal Gear game is coming down the pipes...

Oh...See?

Answering a question nobody wanted to ask, publisher Gameloft announced that yes, indeed everything can and will be made into a video game no matter how absolutely ridiculous by revealing plans for a mobile game based on teen soap The O.C.

Reuters has the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

"The game was designed with the intention of capturing a realistic and true environment that mimicked the show, yet provide new elements to it that was specific only to the game," he said. "We took into consideration the pivotal moments of the last two seasons and worked to create a realistic 'O.C.' environment."

The game is planned to be akin to reality simulator The Sims according to Gameloft prez Michel Guillemot. Gameplay will involve life-enriching tasks such as  “dressing to impress, joining the right cliques, dating the right people and striving to fit into the ultra-trendy community.”

No word yet on vidgame licensing contracts of Count Chocula cereal brand.

But a man can dream....

Game Industry Dodges SAG Bullet

Rosenberg

The recent scuffle between the Screen Actors Guild and the video games industry may have came at an opportune time for game makers.

In the SAG elections held late Friday, Alan Rosenberg has been tapped President. Rosenberg is head of the Membership First faction of the guild, whose platform rests on getting a larger piece of the pie in labor negations with studios, networks and advertisers. Membership First now controls by a three-seat majority.

SAG recently conceded a smaller three-year contract with the video game industry, which gave a 36% increase in vidgame work (at $556.20 per session) but failed to negotiate residuals into the pact. (In the case of video games, residuals would equate to money towards voice actors for the number of sales the game makes.)

With the result of recent elections, such a concession in the future seems unlikely.

From Variety:

“I ran a campaign that offered a simple and straightforward promise: I will fight like hell to get actors their fair share,” Rosenberg said. “For working actors, the stakes have never been higher. Our employers must understand that we will aggressively protect the interests of working performers – and we will not yield on residuals.”

The SAG elections are unlikely to have an immediate effect on the gaming industry. However, the call to arms may result in a fight for more royalties for voice acting work when the contract expires on Dec. 31, 2008.

Revolution and the Industry

It is interesting to see how the gaming industry has reacted to the Nintendo Revolution. The initial reactions from developers were pretty positive. Even Microsoft had something positive to say about it (and I can't remember the last time something like that happened).

Nintendo is taking a major risk attempting to reach out to people who have given up on gaming and to those who have never picked up a controller before. But 1) are these people willing to shell out cash for a gaming console and 2) will this alienate the established market?

If anecdotal evidence has any bearing in this discussion, my experience with the uninitiated and an XBox controller would point to Nintendo doing the right thing. This scary button-covered device can be a very intimidating and confusing to the non-gamer. When placed in the hands of -- let's just say for arguments sake -- a female co-worker (and let us call this purely fictional character Katherine S. since the likelihood of her reading this is extremely low), the reaction is not unlike giving an ape a stun gun. Sniffing, curious pounding of buttons, burnt skin and hurt feelings is the likely result.

Lost Garden has an article on why Nintendo needs to keep innovating the industry. It is long but will make you smarter, I promise.

[edit] Bandwidth exceeded on the Lost Garden article. Give it a little time.

Nintendo Revolution Controller Revealed!

Nintendo finally revealed its next generation controller yesterday evening during its keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show.  They said it was going to be different and they weren’t lying.

It’s…

A remote control with a 3-D mouse – that can be attached to a little egg with an analog stick?

The folks at IGN gave impressions on the controller demos.

Check out the keynote video here.

I’m still unsure what to make of it. It certainly wasn’t what I expected.  Judging by the steady stream of mock-ups denizens of the internet have been creating since the announcement of the Revolution, very few people did. I need to hold this in my hands to be able to decide. You see, I’ve never played games with anything like a remote control with a 3-D mouse that can be attached to a little egg with an analog stick.

I suppose only time will tell whether this is a hit or a flop.  For now, to use an ancient internet proverb: OMG WTF!?!

Happy! Mario 20th

Today is the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.

In Japan.

To celebrate, Nintendo of Japan has set up a page where you can get commemorative edition games, read up on some Mario history and get a limited edition Famicom Gameboy Micro (Famicom is the Japanese name for the Nintendo Entertainment System for you laymen).  But it’s all in nihongo so unless you can read the language you’ll just have to click around randomly.

There’s also this site with T-shirts for Mario’s 20th.  The designs are from different big shots in the industry including this one which stomps all over my childhood memories of the Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry.

Sony’s Slim-Line PS2 Sales Strong, AC Adapter May Explode In Your Face

Sony announced today that they are recalling AC adapters in Slim-Line PS2 consoles manufactured between Aug. and Dec. 2004 due to overheating issues.

The replacement program is set to swap 800,000 to 900,000 adapters for customers who don’t appreciate a good ol' fashion first-degree burn to wash down a round of Timesplitters. The replacement is free of charge.

According to IGN there have been 34 to 38 reported incidents with the adapters including four cases of minor property damage, one minor electrocution and two burns. Other adapters simply melted.

More information can be found at Sony’s swap program web page.

ESRB to Industry: Hot Secret Nude Action Doesn’t Amuse Us

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board is still sore over Grand Theft Auto’s “hot coffee” mod in which wily code wranglers unlocked a sexually explicit scene normally inaccessible in the game. The revelation that the material was in the game's coding resulted in a change in the game's rating from “M” for mature to “AO” for adults only.

According to Gamesutra, the site has obtained an official e-mail from the ESRB sent to all major game publishers that demands an audit all games released over the past year to fully disclose content hidden as Easter eggs or cheat codes. It goes on to say divulgence of such content has always been ESRB policy in the rating of games.

From the article:

The email then specifies: "If you fail to notify us of previously undisclosed, non-playable, pertinent content by January 9, and such content becomes playable through a subsequent authorized or unauthorized release of code to unlock it, rendering the original rating assignment inaccurate, punitive in addition to corrective actions may result." It is as yet unclear exactly what punitive actions the ESRB may sanction, or is capable of carrying out.

On a positive note, now we’ll know about all those secret sex scenes we might have missed in previous games. Maybe we’ll be playing Donkey Konga in a whole new way come January.

Won't Somebody Please Think About The Children?

[quick update] Sorry about the lack of entries last week.  I was on vacation in sunny Montana. Now let’s get back up to speed on gaming news shall we?

California may become the second state to pass a law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. The next stop for the bill is the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who must either sign it or give it the veto.

The bill calls for a $1000 fine for any retailer who sells a violent game to a minor and the placement of a large “18” sticker on games containing graphic violence.

Despite finally getting the OK, the controversial bill passed through the golden state’s house and senate like a low fiber meal in an old man with an underactive thyroid gland (which if I were to spare you the poop joke would read “after much struggle deliberation.”

The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association president Hal Halpin released the following statement regarding the bill:

"The IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) remains opposed to AB 1179 for many reasons," Halpin wrote, "not the least of which is that it is impractical - in essence creating a California-only class of products requiring retailers to buy, warehouse and distribute California video games separately from other inventory - it is unnecessary, in that our member companies have already voluntarily committed to carding policies to inhibit the sale of Mature-rated games to minors, and it is clearly unconstitutional."

Note the humorous half-mention of the unconstitutionality of the bill only after the complaints about the extra work involved.

Although the bill is a step backwards in accepting video games as a medium of speech and expression I can't help having mixed opinions on it. After all, if extra precautions were taken to make sure the stores aren’t selling the games to little Billy maybe then we can place the blame where it deserves to be; the dumb-ass parent who bought Turbo Blood and Guts: T&A Edition for their kid and act like they were fooled into buying it by some conspiracy of the gaming industry.

No HD DVD For Xmas – Santa's Elves In DVD Sweatshop Rejoice

Variety reports that Toshiba is abandoning plans to launch the HD DVD format this year.

In emails to its U.S. studio partners Thursday, the hardware maker said it was considering a "retiming" of the format's introduction for sometime next year to ensure maximum software and retail support.

The news that HD DVD will no longer be first out of the starting gate during a Christmas shopping season will be welcome news to Sony, who is spearheading the competing Blu-Ray format.

More 360 Info

Eurogamer.net has plethora of new Xbox360 information that is both interesting and gives me a good excuse to use the word plethora.

The things that caught my eye:

•  You no longer need to use the remote to watch DVDs.
•  The menus of the 360 user interface are called “blades” (because the word menu is so 2001, dude.)
•  The system men — I mean — blade will remember your control preferences such as if you like inverted controls or not and apply it to any game you play.
•  The “ring of light” around the power button highlights which controller is being used and what the controller is doing in the top left quadrant.
•  iPods and PSPs are detected by default, but PSPs can’t play video on the system right now because Sony isn’t being cooperative (I can’t imagine why).
•  You can plug a keyboard into the 360 – but only to type, no using it for game control