Hot Topics – Page 11

A day of woe: EA buys Bioware, Pandemic

’tis truly a sad day in the gaming industry. Two of our most loved game developers, Bioware and Pandemic have been bought by the corporate giant that is EA. Well, I don’t need to list EA’s evils before you, but let’s just say that they are a large corporation, and Microsoft and Sony are also large corporations.

Bioware is one of the most popular and trusted game developers in the industry, standing by the likes of Valve, Epic, Bungie and so on. Their forté was RPGs and not just any RPGs, but really good ones. Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Baldur’s Gate series, and for God’s sake, Mass Effect, all of them are from Bioware. With EA’s acquisition, we may just be looking at a writhing death for any more awesome titles like these.

Also, Bioware is working on a top-secret MMORPG project for release somewhere in the future. EA is now going to get all the cash. EA’s CFO Warren Jensen stated bluntly: “”In fiscal 2009 and 2010, we expect the BioWare and Pandemic properties to deliver revenue in excess of $300 million annually.” That made me chuckle. Halo 3 brought in that much in a week. But it does make you wonder: Is the Bioware/EA acquisition headed for a model similar to the Bungie/Microsoft one?

Pandemic Studios is famous for its Mercenaries and Star Wars: Battlefront lines of games. They also created Destroy All Humans! and its sequel, two fun games that went unnoticed. Again, all their base now belongs to EA. They have no chance to survive, make their time.

The total deal has cost EA $860 million, which is more than a hole in the pocket. Regardless, it could be possible that EA is not only trying to diversify its portfolio, but gain a substantial lead over its competitors. Besides, Pandemic is known for its LucasArts games (Mercenaries, Battlefront) and one of Bioware’s finest is also an LA title (Knights of the Old Republic). Is EA trying to humiliate LA? Is LA going to strike back? Are both LA and EA fronts of an organization planning to take over the gaming industry? God, I hope so.

Gears of War movie following Halo movie into nothingness?

Not long ago, we learnt that CliffyB was ecstatic about the upcoming Gears of War movie, supposedly under production at New Line Cinema. Well, he was talking rather furiously about it, but looks like even a gaming god can’t help a movie when budget strikes back. The much-talked about Halo movie was probably the first “AAA” video game movie to fall into the bottomless pit of doom. Is Gears of War hurtling towards the same?

Len Wiseman was initially supposed to direct the Gears of War movie, but IESB.net reports some startling news. Wiseman has decided to get his butt out of the Escape from New York remake he was to direct, and is still attached to the Gears of War movie. But things aren’t as smooth as they seem. Even with a director attached, New Line is concerned about the “ballooning” budget of the film, that Cliffy had boasted about earlier.

“Len Wiseman is still on the project currently, but it doesn’t look good, due to the budget concerns the studio has, New Line will most likely not be moving forward on this film.”

Hot damn, the certainty in those words is a point worth noted. Will Gears of War followed the much-compared-to Halo movie and slip into Development Hell? We can only hope it doesn’t (or can we?).

Bungie officially splits from Microsoft, Halo still owned by Redmond

Well, what do you know? Turns out one rumour ended up being real. Bungie has split from big daddy Microsoft and is on its way to become an independent ~~republic~~ company. Of course, Microsoft won’t let one of its slaves off that easy.

It still maintains an equity interest in Bungie and “at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie”, whatever the hell that means.

Harold Ryan, speaking from Bungie’s fortress said that their relationship with Microsoft went pretty well and that they will concentrate their next titles on Microsoft® platforms. To cut a long story short, Bungie’s next games will be for the Xbox 360 (and whatever other consoles Microsoft spits out). This means that Bungie is still hugging Microsoft and will probably not let go for quite a while.

Shane Kim, corporate VP at Microsoft Game Studios, said that Microsoft appreciates the work their little slave has done for them and that they will further the Halo franchise with more collaborations, one notable name being Peter Jackson. Of course, no movie specifics were announced. As you can guess, Microsoft talked more about the franchise Bungie created for them rather than Bungie itself.

We hope Bungie evolves to make more kickass games, and we sure as hell hope they move on to something new and original and stop making more armoured-guy-kills-aliens games, please. Thanks.

Awesome Ultimate Halo Package for sale on eBay – costs more than NASA budget.

Now, this is one deal that will satisfy anyone from an innocent 360 owner, to your grandma who’s interested in this new “Hello 3” game that’s all over the news. One eBay auction is for what appears to be the Ultimate Halo collection. Payment goes completely to charity, so everyone’s happy in this situation. Check out the auction for yourself!

The auction, whose current bid is $8,600 as of this writing contains the following goodness:

A Halo 3 edition Xbox 360 signed by the Devil, Bill Gates himself.
A 30GB Halo 3 edition Zune signed by the Vice-Devil J. Allard himself.
Two damned copies of Halo 3 (standard and Legendary!) as well as one copy of Halo, Halo 2 and that Halo 2 multiplayer pack they made.
Xbox 360 HD DVD player.
Rare special aluminum storage case with over $400 worth of accessories (two Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controllers with an exclusive Todd McFarlane Collectable Figurine, Messenger Kit, HDMI AV cable, extra 120 GB hard drive, and a Halo 3 T-shirt).

How can you resist such an awesome deal? Sell your house, car, wife and kids right away and buy this thing ASAP. You don’t get deals like this everyday (or money like this everyday)! Alright, the auction lasts till October 4th.

[Via Major Nelson]

Say Goodbye to Bizarre Creations

To me Bizarre Creations is one of the best arcade racing game developers in the world. They’ve made everything from Metropolis Street Racer, on the Dreamcast, to the more recent Project Gotham Racing series. Each of their games has always been about improving over the previous title. However all of that could be about to change with the announcement today that Activision has now bought Bizarre Studios. Activision is known for milking franchises (a la Tony Hawk) and potentially now with PGR as well as Geometry Wars!

This is not a good thing folks. Anyone looking forward to the Geometry Wars for the DS and Wii, be forwornd that these two titles aren’t being developed by Bizarre Creations. Both games are being made by the terrible development studio called Kuju Entertainment.

If this is going to be the future of Bizarre, one where games are milked to the extreme, then I for one will not buy them. It’s very well possible that Bizarre could take Activision racing series and improve upon them, or continue to make their own original titles. Either way I hope that this previously independent studio can stay on top of its game and give fans what they deserve.

PGR4

The Great Day Dawns – Halo 3 has come.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Or perhaps good evening? Maybe afternoon, or night? Regardless of where you are and what time it is right now, there is truth in the fact that Halo 3 is right around the corner. September 25th is now officially “tomorrow” for most of the world, and it is no doubt a date that has been permanently etched into your brain if you are a gamer.

There is no doubt that Halo 3 is the most anticipated video game for the Xbox 360 console and will be for the rest of eternity. If you had thought that the conclusion of the Halo trilogy would be quiet and in a way, melancholic, you were wrong. Microsoft can’t let that happen. You see, a lot of games are “highly-anticipated”, but Microsoft pushed Halo 3 to the point of no return. Anticipation is just no longer the right word for it.
Continue reading “The Great Day Dawns – Halo 3 has come.”