Video Game Development – Page 42

BBFC Rejects Revised Version of Manhunt 2, Rockstar arms itself with clubs

Months ago, we brought you news of Manhunt 2’s infamous banning in England and other British territories, as well as the remarks made by the BBFC which included ‘killing’ and ‘glorifying’ in the same sentence. Well, that led to Take Two apologizing and whipping Rockstar to revise the game and make it less gorier so that our British brethren will be happy. Rockstar grudgingly agreed, and presented before BBFC their revised edition.

Apparently, the BBFC isn’t all too happy. They have rejected the revised version of the controversial Manhunt 2, which makes us wonder as to what is going to happen to the game. David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:

“We recognise that the distributor has made changes to the game, but we do not consider that these go far enough to address our concerns about the original version. The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient. There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature.

Looks like Rockstar didn’t do their homework right. They have also made it clear that they aren’t kissing any more asses.

“We [BBFC] did make suggestions for further changes to the game, but the distributor has chosen not to make them, and as a result we have rejected the game on both platforms. The decision on whether or not an appeal goes ahead lies with the distributor [Take Two].”

This furthers one of this year’s gaming sagas. Will Take Two further appeal against the harsh British decision? Will Rockstar attack Britain? Is the BBFC messing with Take Two? We can only guess until the next chapter is played. We stand by for Take Two and Rockstar’s responses.

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.

Halo 3 makes 300 million in first week, Sparta jokes abound.

We brought you news of how Halo 3 dominated the entertainment industries by raking in $170 million on the opening day itself. Microsoft did some boasting some time ago and revealed that they made $300 million in the week, overall. And you’d think Microsoft wasn’t rich enough.

And now, it’s time for some statistics!

3 million copies (approximately) have been sold.
Halo 3 raked in 57% of the $300 million in the American opening day sales itself.
Xbox 360 sales have reportedly doubled.
Considering that one copy was sold to one individual, and my mathematics hasn’t jaded, only 0.04% of the world owns Halo 3.
(Rumour) Halo-Sparta jokes reached an all-time high around time of release.

Well, how can we sum it up now? It’s a major understatement, but Halo 3 is BIG. Express all your Sparta jokes in the comments, please.

[Via Kotaku]

$17+ million: The price of customer service

DS prints money

Remember earlier we mentioned that you could do yourself a favor and pick up some free stuff from Nintendo? No, not the Mario shoes! Those cost $120 a pair.

That’s right, as the law of economics states, TINSTAAFL, which is the actual abbreviation for “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” That means if something is really, truly, honestly free, you are either getting scammed or something else is going on.

Lo and behold Nintendo is paying a small fortune for making sure us wacky customers don’t accidentally break more SDTV’s and Wii Remotes. It’s not as expensive as a certain $1 billion investment, but at least we know Nintendo can handle their money issues well.

Project Gotham Racing 4 audio interview

Sure, most of the time we have to read through interviews, even though nobody ever really wants to. That’s why podcasts were invented, so everyone could numbly listen to the talking heads while doing whatever it was that oh so dear to them. Then some geniuses tried to ruin it by adding video on it.

The guys over at Gamertag Radio did us all a huge favor and clocked in a 28 minute interview with Bizarre Creations, the guys developing the racing game. While that may be long for most of you, just drive circles around your destination or brush your teeth some more to finish listening in.

Episode #116- Bizarre Creations Interview This is not funny clown

Rumour 2: Bungie splits from Microsoft?

All this talk of rumours has me convinced that something big is going to happen real soon. But right now, let’s talk about the rumour specifically:

A guy from Seattle Post Intelligencer Blogs is running around the streets with a doomsday sign in his hands and saying that Bungie has split from their beloved publisher and surrogate mother, Microsoft. Bungie’s record-breaking video game seemingly pleased the big daddy enough to let them be set free.

Microsoft has supposedly chosen not to announce this right now, as it would hurt their quarterly sales of their already well-sold Halo 3. And about the future of Bungie?

They are now an independent entity, no longer licking Microsoft’s shoes. However, Microsoft still owns the Halo franchise, so if anything Halo is going to happen, it’s coming from Microsoft. However, it has been mentioned that Bungie might be interested in making a Halo 4.

I say for heaven’s sake, no! The Halo series has been completed with the end of the trilogy. Something like Halo Wars, sure! But please no Halo 4. 🙁