Mundinator

Battlefield: Bad Company - Frostbite Presentation

I know this video was posted a number of months ago, but I just bumped into it today and just had to share.  So this is a video done by the guys at DICE who are responsible for the Battlefield series of games.  They have a new engine and wanted to share their excitement.

People are sometimes heard talking about making more developers into celebs to help push the industry forward, but I think a push forward comes from videos like this!  We can see the developers as they really are...wacky, nutzo, screwballs who might be locked up if it weren't for games.  There is this life that happens at a dev studio, this energy that comes about.  Some call it corporate culture, but I like to think of it more as creative culture.  I have worked at companies that have the former, and it's downright sad.  I have worked at companies that have fostered creative culture, and it makes for better games.  BTW...I have only worked at 3 companies, so it might not be all that hard to figure out which one was which culture.

Anywho...check the video out and see how much fun some devs have when they are not crunching to make a milestone.  Its nice to see devs in the limelight...and not just because they are cute producers from Ubisoft working on Assassin's Creed.  No offense, Jade Raymond...you are a dev as well, but I can't discount that you alone have taken visible dev credit for Ass Cred (not by your own choosing).  We all know it was a team effort...every game is.

Vivendi and Activision Merge to Form Activision Blizzard!?!?

Well when giants collide, they really do make a loud noise.  It has come down the pipe this morning that Vivendi (owners of Blizzard) and Activision (owners of Infinity Ward) are merging to become a gaming ma-ma-ma-ma-mega company called Activision Blizzard.  As far as I understand it at the moment, this means that AB is going to be the biggest game company out there, eclipsing the waning EA. 

From my perspective, this was going to happen to EA sometime or another as they continue to lack innovation to either by companies with original IPs or to come up with their own.  Sure there is the whole Spore thing, but I'll be honest with you...I'm already bored with it.  Should'a come out a year ago.

So fuck, what does this really mean for those of us in the industry.  It means there is one less publisher out there.  It means we are becoming more and more like the bastard movie industry.  Fewer people, more power.  Not a bad thing in the right hands...but a horrendous thing in the wrong ones.  Please please please don't fuck things up.

Rumors have already started that EA will now be looking to acquire something (Ubisoft, maybe) in order to still feel relevant.  Good luck guys...have fun making another Madden game while Activision Blizzard releases Starcraft 2 on yer asses.

Here is the Vivendi Press Release and below you can read a quick blurb about the merger.

Vivendi to Acquire Control of Activision

By MATT RICHTEL
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2 - In a deal that creates the biggest independent video
game publisher in the world, Vivendi announced Sunday it plans to acquire a
controlling stake in Activision.

Under the arrangement, the companies said Vivendi would pay $1.7 billion in
cash and fold its games operations into Activision's. The deal will leave
Vivendi with a 68 percent share of the combined company, to be called
Activision Blizzard.

The companies said the new entity would continue to trade publicly on
Nasdaq. Blizzard Entertainment is the name of the most successful game
studio in Vivendi's game operations.

Under the deal, Vivendi, based in Paris, will pay $27.50 a share for
Activision, a 24 percent premium over Friday's close of $22.15.

The deal combines companies with different areas of strength in the booming
video game business. Activision's emphasis is on making games for consoles,
like the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. Its game franchises
include the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, the Call of Duty war game series
and one of the industry's current best sellers, Guitar Hero, which allows
players to strum along on a plastic guitar to tunes played on the
television.

Vivendi's strength is in online multiplayer games, such as World of
Warcraft, which has more than nine million players worldwide.

The two companies said that their combined revenue for the 2007 calendar
year would be $3.8 billion. The new entity will surpass Electronic Arts,
with annual revenue of about $3 billion, as the largest video game publisher
in the world that is not affiliated with a console maker, like Microsoft or
Nintendo . The two companies said they expected operating income for the new
company of $1.1 billion, or $1.20 a share, in the 2009 calendar year and
also said it would have the highest profit margins in the industry.

OBVIOUS: Next Simpsons Game To Suck

Holy SHIT!  This Simpson's game looks so stoopid I can't help but posting about it. 

Ok, so a Simpson's game sounds like a great idea about now, but from this video and from another few I have seen of just the game footage, it looks like they had NO IDEA what the hell they wanted to make.

EA gets a brilliant license and they think that they can throw any old lame game idea to it and it will sell tons of copies.  Well, I'm not saying that they won't sell copies of this game, but from what I have seen so far, they don't have a good idea to save their lives.

Look, the Simpsons is a brilliant IP.  It demands the respect of a brilliant game to be on par with it.  So, I would hope for something where it feels like I am playing through an entire season of the show.  WOW...game designers unite and call me dumb if this isn't the perfect time for that grand old action adventure genre you morons buried for games like Madden <Enter Year Here>. 

Sorry for the brief rant, but I really really really really expected more from EA than a damn platformer.  Go make another Sims game and give back some of your other IPs. 

Argh...I'm already bored with Spore!