Microsoft has announced a live-action Halo TV series in conjunction with film great Steven Spielberg that will air exclusively on Xbox Live. Spielberg will work with developer 343 Industries on the series.
We now have a trailer for Boom Blox, the Wii-exclusive action puzzle game announced yesterday. Developed by EA Los Angeles in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, Boom Blox will be released this May.
Electronic Arts has pulled back the curtain on Boom Blox, the first of several EA Los Angeles-developed titles stemming from the company's collaboration with renowned director and producer Steven Spielberg.
Due out in May, the Wii-exclusive action-puzzler features over 300 levels, with players able to make their own stages in Create Mode and share them with online friends through WiiConnect24. Read more »
In his last keynote speech at CES, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his supporting cast had a lot to speak about on Sunday night at the International Consumer Electronics Show--and some of it was related to games.
Playing up high definition displays and connected entertainment, Gates spoke of wide-ranging changes to the industry, before bringing on Microsoft president of entertainment devices Robbie Bach to make a few Xbox 360-related announcements. Read more »
Over at GameSpot you can find a Q&A with EA's Neil Young, who is asked about the company's Steven Spielberg projects.
Read more »EA Los Angeles disclosed more details today on its collaboration with legendary director/producer Steven Spielberg (Columbo: Murder by the Book, Hook, The Terminal) on three original game projects. At EALA, Spielberg is working with Doug Church (Thief, System Shock) and Louis Castle (Command and Conquer), formerly of Looking Glass Studios and Westwood Studios, respectively. "I am a gamer myself and game development has always intrigued me," Spielberg said. "Now I've been able to jump in and do it, enjoying the creative collaboration with the EALA team on our first two games." As previously reported, one of the titles is a Wii exclusive game involving phsyics-based block manipulation. Codenamed PQRS, the game will have more than 100 minigames for one or two players, featuring both versus and co-op modes. A creation tool will allow players to craft their own games and create or destroy block-based structures. A second title, described as a "more ambitious project" in the announcement, will come to PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. An adventure title wherein the player's actions will determine the course of the story, the game will focus on the dynamic between the player and a "mysterious female character." Neither project has received a release date, and EA has not revealed any information on the third Spielberg collaboration.
Read more »In 2005, Electronic Arts announced that acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg (1941, The Sugarland Express, Always) would be overseeing three new video games to be developed by internal studio EALA. Now, Newsweek has published details on two of the three titles, one for Wii and one for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively codenamed PQRS and LMNO. PQRS, in development for Wii, is a physics-based action puzzle game that has players using the Wii remote to spatially manipulate building blocks within the game world. Gameplay details are slim at this time, but Newsweek reports that Spielberg is confident the game will have a broad appeal. "It just seemed like a great thing for the entire family to play together over Christmas," he said. "Although you don't need the excuse of a holiday to enjoy it." LMNO, heading to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, sounds more in line with Spielberg's silver screen productions. The action game's player character is a former secret agent partnered with a female NPC whose in-game abilities are influenced by her interactions with the player. According to story author N'Gai Croal's impressions of the game, the AI character sports impressively realistic human traits. As far back as 2004, Spielberg (pictured above right) expressed interest in the emotive power of video games, a topic frequently condensed into the question of whether video games are capable of eliciting tears from their players. At the time, the director claimed that "video games are getting closer to a storytelling art form--but are not quite there yet." EALA general manager Neil Young (pictured above left) had similar opinions. No release date information was given for the upcoming titles. Electronic Arts is likely to release more information during its upcoming E3 press conference, scheduled for 2:00pm PDT on Wednesday, July 11. Shacknews plans to feature live reporting from the proceedings. Further inquiries have been sent to Electronic Arts regarding today's reports, but a response had not been received at the time this story was published.
Read more »In an analyst conference call following the release of Electronic Arts' earnings report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, EA executives announced that the release of Will Wright's upcoming evolution simulator Spore has been pushed out of 2007. EA CEO John Riccitiello, who recently returned to the company after co-founding Elevation Partners, indicated that there is a possibility the game will be released at the end of EA's coming fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, but it is more likely it will be pushed into the following quarter. "We continue to have enormous confidence in Spore as a franchise but have made the call not to include this title in our fiscal year financial plan," said CFO Warren C. Jenson. Responding to analyst queries regarding the current status of the game, Riccitiello added, "I've had the chance to review the title three times in my short return to EA, and it looks fantastic." The CEO stressed the importance of giving the ambitious game enough time to create a franchise with lasting power "like The Sims." Speaking to Shacknews in 2005, designer Wright said on developing Spore, "It's a challenge. Quite a challenging project, but I've got an amazing team on it, and I'm actually very satisfied with where it's going." EA executives frequently pointed to the company's increasing emphasis on internal intellectual property rather than licensed titles. "In general, I'd say that if you go back five or six years EA was probably over-tilted to license properties," admitted Riccitiello. "We saw the writing on the wall in terms of the cost of licensed properties rising. [Chairman and prior CEO] Larry [Probst] and the team redirected the team to owned intellectual property. That has paid dividends and there [has been] big investment made in the last 12 months to further enhance that strategy." Jenson noted EA Montreal's Army of Two, EA Black Box's SKATE, EA Canada's EA Playground, EA Montreal's Boogie, and an unannounced Steven Spielberg-produced Wii game as examples of new EA IP slated to be released this fiscal year. He also confirmed that the nearly-announced The Simpsons game will be released this holiday season. The three current generation home consoles as well as Nintendo DS were said to be receiving the largest allocation of games. In the current fiscal year, approximately 20-23 games will be released across PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 10-13 on Wii, and 10-13 on Nintendo DS. The company plans to retain its leading market share across most platforms, with the goal of achieving the leading market share among third parties on Nintendo platforms. Regarding EA's strategy for the coming years, North American publishing general manager Frank D. Gibeau said, "Our goal absolutely is to be the biggest murderers on murderers' row."
Read more »With GDC still in full swing, it's another Late Night Consoling handled by yours truly, other Chris. But that's what I get, living in Indiana and all.
Print publication The Economist recently featured an article about the need for increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence in video games, speaking with industry members such as Facade co-creator Michael Mateas and Electronic Arts LA head Neil Young. Currently, EA LA is working on a title with Steven Spielberg as part of a three franchise deal between the publisher and the filmmaker. Buried within The Economist's article is an intriguing hint at the basic concept behind Spielberg's first game.
Tellingly, Doug Church of Electronic Arts, who gave the keynote speech at last year's AIIDE conference, recently started work on a game with Steven Spielberg where "the focus is on building an emotive relationship at a story level and a gameplay level between the player and another character," says Mr Young.The brief description is more than a little reminiscent of past declarations on the part of both Young and Spielberg that, someday, a video game will make you cry. Spielberg postulated, "I think the real indicator [that games have become a storytelling art form] will be when somebody confesses that they cried at level 17." Young stated, "A computer game still hasn't made you cry. I think we'll crack that problem in the next five years and it'll be a watershed event for our business." That was during GDC 2004. Presumably, Spielberg's first game with Young's studio will meet its implied March 2009 deadline. Read more »
Online sources are claiming that Hollywood trade publication Variety has reported that director Steven Spielberg is attached to the recently announced WarCraft movie.
Hot on the heels of the anouncement of a Kip Thorne-inspired sci-fi project, Steven Spielberg is now being set to direct WORLD OF WARCRAFT, the adaptation of the popular computer game. This seems rather odd because, not only is it a bit much for Spielberg to have what is now four projects slated for the next few years, a video game adaptation (which, as a genre, have yet to claim any kind of mainstream prestige) does not seem like the type of movie for a director of his status to even consider, let alone pile on top of other stuff he has in the works.As of writing, neither developer Blizzard nor parent company Vivendi have responded to Shacknews' inquiries on the matter. UPDATE: Blizzard has commented to Shacknews on today's rumors, neither confirming nor denying Spielberg's involvement. "No final determinations have been made at this time, and we're working very closely and carefully with LP to ensure that the team that forms around the picture will be fully equipped to accuarately depict the WarCraft universe," stated a company spokesperson. "We look forward to revealing more details about the cast and crew in the coming months." No further details were given. Read more »
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the neverending trend of movie-based video games. Perhaps surprisingly, considering the reputation movie licenses have for being money in the bank, the article's author notes that licenses may not be the guarantee they're cracked up to be. Ubisoft's tie-in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, designed by the acclaimed Michel Ancel (Beyond Good & Evil), was hailed as one of the all time best examples of a film to game adaptation. Despite the hype and the positive critical reaction, the game apparently didn't see the kind of retail sales that were expected from such a high profile property. Ubisoft still considers the game a success in terms of the positive effect it had on the company's interactions with Hollywood, and soon after the game's release, Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot noted that he'd like to see 25% of the company's revenue come from movie licenses.
Movie producers and game designers have tried for decades to cash in on each other's appeal with movies based on games and with games based on movies. Flops have far outnumbered hits. Even as technical differences erode -- games are more cinematic, movies rely heavily on computer effects -- the gap between the two remains difficult to bridge. Only one game with a movie tie-in, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith," ranked among the top 10 best-selling U.S. titles of 2005, according to NPD Group video game analyst Anita Frazier. In contrast, Frazier said, "King Kong" came in 72nd.With the cost of game development continually rising, particularly with the current console transition, many are reevaluating the benefits of movie licenses, which are often very expensive for publishers to acquire. Activision just spend an estimated $70M on the Bond license, but that opportunity was only made available after Electronic Arts dropped the license to move away from content not entirely controlled in-house. As most gamers know, movies and games have not traditionally been nearly as compatible as many Hollywood and game publisher executives have hoped. Still, more and more Hollywood filmmakers have expressed interest in moving into the video game space, even in the case of games that are not solely adapdations. Last year, Electronic Arts announced that Steven Spielberg will be contributing to several upcoming video games. Action director John Woo is making what is essentially a sequel to his classic film Hard Boiled, but instead of a movie, the followup is a standalone video game. Actor Vin Diesel's game studio Tigon has contributed to Starbreeze's Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (a rare example of a well-received film adaptation) and an upcoming original property The Wheelman, which is being developed both as a game and a film. Despite the less than promising results of the past, it seems that the possible payoffs from a crossover between two incredibly lucrative industries are simply too attractive for game publishers and film studios. Expect the film-to-game trend (and vice versa) to be relentlessly pursued, with the occasional success fueling the fire. Read more »
Check it out, Advent Children is finally making it over here. Sure took them long enough.
Well, as publishers prepare for the onslaught of 2006, most of the news today has to do with release dates for the upcoming year. You know, some postponements, some advancements, some continued states of To Be Determined.
Recently, it was announced that an investment firm called Elevation Partners had bought controlling interest in BioWare and Pandemic, both formerly independent development studios. Onboard as CEO is John Riccitiello, former president of Electronic arts, and other partners include former Apple CEO Fred Anderson as well as U2 singer Bono. The New York Times now reports that the new development entity, temporarily called VG Holdings, will be traded publically on the stock market. That kind of move is almost unheard of in the game industry; generally, independent studios rely entirely on publisher funding (or, in the case of extremely small developers working with small budgets, direct sales) to generate income. This decision theoretically allows the developer a greater degree of freedom; if they are not beholden to a publisher for funding, they have better leverage when hammering out publishing deals and more creative control in the games themselves.
The game industry is highly dependent on hits, and major titles can cost up to $20 million to develop. The publishers have to shoulder that financial risk, so it's not unusual for a distributor to take 75 percent of sales, after recouping its costs, Mr. Resnick noted. The focus on hits also makes publishers reluctant to back new titles and types of games when they can rely on sequels of best-selling games with built-in audiences. This dynamic means that the creative talent - the programmers, engineers and designers who make games - tend to have relatively little control or reward, particularly compared with creative talent in the movie business. "The talent is not getting anywhere what they should," [Pandemic president Josh] Resnick said of the video game industry. "We're the film industry in the 1920's."Some don't see it as such a great idea. "They don't have any chance of success," said industry analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan, pointing out that Wall Street investors like to see more security in video game firms, preferring large corporations with many branches of operation like EA or Activision. Resnick, however, points out that Pixar is a successful independent creative studio that is publically traded, and VG Holdings hopes to pursue the same type of path. Of course, the film industry is very different from the game industry in that film audiences tend to have at least somewhat of a better awareness of who is behind the film than your average gamer does of who is behind the game. That is, it's easier to sell a Pixar movie simply by virtue of being a Pixar movie than it is to sell a Pandemic game simply by virtue of it being a Pandemic game. This gives Pixar a certain amount of control simply because their name is so valuable. In modern film, the same can be said for directors such as Steven Spielberg or M. Night Shyamalan; even casual audiences are familiar with those names. By contrast, in gaming, it is the franchises and the publishers, not the actual developers, with whom most gamers are familiar. No moviegoer cares whether Universal or Tri-Star distributes a picture, yet many gamers have brand loyalty to publishers such as Activision or Electronic Arts. While entities like VG Holdings aim to challenge that perception, it is going to be an uphill battle. There's also simply the possibility that, in the (theoretical) absense of the controlling hand of a publisher, shareholders will fill that gap. The game industry is still sadly fixated on bullet points as a description for games, much more so than most other types of entertainment, both in terms of marketing and in actual design. They are the type of guidelines that it seems would be easy for shareholders to impose upon developers based on the hot games that happen to be selling at any given moment. It's only a matter of time before somebody demands an urban gang warfare shooter set deep in the trenches of World War II. Oh, and it's a trilogy. Pandemic and BioWare are both talented studios with proven successes and great potential. This sort of endeavor is one that, properly managed, would be very encouraging in today's publisher-driven games industry. However, there's a lot working against it, and there's the possibility of it turning into simply more of the same, which long term might be even worse than the venture simply proving unsuccessful. It'll be interesting to see how this develops. Read more »
"I'm not optimistic. I think it will be a tough sell for Spielberg bring in top talent (directors ..."
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