Video Game Development – Page 32

Court Denies Preliminary Injunction Relating to Activision – Vivendi Games Combination

Activision, Inc. today announced that the Delaware Court of Chancery has denied the Wayne County Employees’ Retirement System’s request for a preliminary injunction relating to Activision’s proposed combination with Vivendi Games, Inc., the interactive entertainment business of Vivendi S.A.

A special meeting of stockholders of Activision, Inc. will be held on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, to consider and vote on proposals to approve the transaction and related matters. If Activision’s stockholders approve the transaction and the other matters to be considered at the special meeting, Activision anticipates closing the business combination on or about July 9, 2008.

The meeting will be at 11:00 a.m., local time, at The Peninsula Hotel located at 9882 South Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $2.9 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.

BioWare interested in the iPhone

Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday. Veteran RPG developer BioWare mentioned in an interview by MTV that they are interested in the cultural phenomenon that is the Apple iPhone. Of course, there’s no hard words here and it’s all just speculation for now, but BioWare definitely have their eyes on the Jesus phone.

BioWare is currently working on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, which surprised fans since BioWare isn’t exactly known for developing much outside the PC frame. Of course, they did make the Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect, but it was ported over to the PC anyways, so BioWare wasn’t completely out of their element. When asked on the handheld experience, Greg Zeschuk says:

“It’s actually been great fun. That was almost one of the sort of hidden reasons to do a handheld game. One thing was to try something different and explore a different platform, and as you know, kind of sort of work in a lighter flavor of environment in terms of the game we’re working on. We’re nearing the end and it’s turning out really great.

In terms of handhelds, it’s been great because it’s also so fast. The cycle to make changes and improvements is very short compared to the hundreds of thousands of text in a full next-gen console or PC product. The iteration cycle is really short, and that makes it ideal for a short-attention span where you want to do something different every day. [laughs] It’s pretty exciting, actually. It’s been a really unique experience and one we’re definitely interested in pursuing.”

And when asked on whether they are interested in the iPhone,

“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at. Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for. You want to always mash the consumer experience with what you’re building. We want to understand what people are going to do with it. Who knows. We’re definitely looking at every platform.”

Still, BioWare is committed to the PC, for which they will be releasing their original IP, Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG that doesn’t really rock our socks yet. They are, of course, working on Mass Effect 2 and some more mysterious products.

Blizzard Exec: Microsoft not doing enough for PC Gaming

It’s great that there’s a resurgence of PC gaming, or at least PC game development. Valve is already doing fantastic with promising stuff in Steam Cloud. Blizzard show their respect for the venerable platform by making pretty much all their games PC-exclusive (and they’re all big hits, too). I mention this because I believe that Blizzard has every authority of accusing Microsoft for not doing anything for Windows and gaming.

Ever since Microsoft dipped its feet into the console world, it’s never come back, devoting all of its gaming attention to the Xbox and Xbox 360. This is with good reason, as Blizzard COO Paul Sams notes, because it is where Microsoft Games’ bread and butter is, and it is their system, after all.

But they just can’t continue to ignore Windows.“Certainly they have a lot in Windows. And Windows is a system that supports all the business applications as well as games.” he says. That’s true: active participation from Microsoft is what is necessary to bring forth the PC as a gaming platform. Windows is easily the most widespread platform right now, with more copies of Windows in this world than every other console combined.

Take heed, Microsoft, and mend your ways!

3D Realms: E3 is “Irrelevant”, Duke still coming along (yeah, right)

While everyone is getting all excited about what games they’ll bring to this year’s E3, there’s one development studio that doesn’t give a shit about E3. That’s 3D Realms, the infamous and mysteriously funded studio that is still, after 11 goddamn years making Duke Nukem Forever. That is one video game, guys. The entire Halo trilogy started and ended, but the Duke is still not ready.

Scott Miller, chief of 3D Realms updated the progress of DNF at Next-Gen:

“Development is swimming along nicely. Seriously nicely.”

How very informative. Seriously nicely. Maybe that’s code or something, because it sure as hell doesn’t say a thing about a game that has been under development for 11 years. And about this year’s E3:

“It’s just that we view E3 as irrelevant nowadays. In fact, I wasn’t even aware it was coming up.”

There you go, guys. No Duke Nukem goodness for you this E3, better luck next year. Or the next. Or the next. But I can assure you this, that the game sure as hell ain’t gonna release in your lifetime.

No Half-Life 2: Episode Three at E3!

Yesterday was a time to be excited when news hit the Internet that a slew of titles will be appearing at E3 that demand excitement. Among these was Half-Life 2: Episode Three, perhaps the most-delayed of all the Half-Life 2 titles. Valve wants to release a Half-Life 2 episode every year, and going by the record, I don’t think they’re going to make it this year either, thanks to this news.

News just in that Doug Lombardi, the marketing director confirmed that Half-Life 2: Episode Three will not be appearing at this year’s E3. According to him, the inclusion of the game’s title in several E3 lists, such as E3.net was a “misprint”. Well, we’re glad that got of the way fast. No point in waiting all the way till E3 and then asking Valve “Where the hell is the episode you promised?” only to feel Valve’s look of confusion and rage.

But E3 or not, I think it’s about time Valve dishes out some info on Episode Three, like at least when they plan to release it, or whether they even have started work on it! What is surprising is that Valve’s plate is currently clean with only one title in the works, Left 4 Dead (which was the result of Valve’s acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios). Left 4 Dead is scheduled to release in November this year. Maybe we’ll get a teaser trailer with it? Maybe we’ll have some news by then? We can only hope.

David Jaffe: Marvel games need story; I agree

David Jaffe may not be a household name, but just so you know, he’s the genius designer behind the Twisted Metal series for the Playstation and is also known for God of War. On his blog over here, he was seen criticising the guys who make games for Marvel’s movies and their comics, too maybe. Now that he mentions it, who makes those games anyways?

Man speaks the truth as he opens his blog post with the following lines:

Please stop putting Spiderman games in big open sandbox environments where you swing around and do oh so slight variations on 4 pretty dull mission types (chase/race/collect/etc) and then once in a while toss in a boss fight and/or a somewhat unique mission.

I mean seriously, we get the point: we get to swing around and stuff, but please; more emphasis on the stuff and less on the goddamn swinging.

Jaffe demands that Marvel’s comics are ace, but the games are terrible and the biggest problem here is that they are “POWER-BASED” and not “STORY-BASED”. Marvel’s comics are known for their great stories and scripts, as he mentions the big man Stan himself. You’d wish the games would follow suit, but they have to be ridiculous affairs that throw you into this huge story with repititive missions and lack of any sort of direction whatsoever.

Check out the post!