Games industry news, gossip, and more at Playthrough » Industry

EA playing catch up on the Wii, waking up to PS3 failure says analyst

Playthrough — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:38:15 +0000

Gaming and financial analyst Roger Eherenberg’s epic post tracking EA’s stock price and strategy is a great great read which he’s just revisited and revised. I’m actually still ingesting it all after the third read, but I can’t help but agree on just about every point raised. Focusing on EA’s mistake with focusing too much on the PS3, the article also takes Sony to task for their continued mis-steps in getting the PS3 into the homes of gamers and Nintendo’s brilliantly handled Wii which Eherenberg predicts is replacing the PS2 as the console of choice for mainstream gamers.

Capcom throwing Lost Planet launch party in San Francisco, January 11th

Playthrough — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 09:33:45 +0000

A letter from Capcom has informed us (and just about every other major gaming press on Earth) about the upcoming Lost Planet: Extreme Condition launch party in San Francisco on January 11th. Compete in a huge multiplayer tournament for big prizes and the chance to play against the Lost Planet development team. The first 50 through the door get exclusive t-shirts, the rest just get lots of swag, nerd points and free food and drinks.

Space is limited so you have to RSVP via the Capcom community site, Neovenus Construction, username: Genesis and password: 111.

The party takes place Thursday, January 11th from 8pm – Midnight at the S.F Concourse Exhibition Center – East Hall in San Francisco, California. Have fun and someone grab me a shirt!

Warthog still around as it seeks acquisition

Playthrough — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:35:02 +0000

Venerable UK game developers Warthog, who many of you have heard about thanks to their past acquisition by the infamous crooks behind Gizmondo, are still alive and kicking, and seeking to be acquired by someone, anyone. Currently, the company is maintaining their AIM market listing, incurring losses quarterly while it actively looks for someone to come in and swoop them up, but probably not for the price they went to Gizmondo for.

Killzone PS3′s budget is more than $21 million. WTF!?

Playthrough — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:33:51 +0000

Whosa whatsa!? It was recently revealed that Killzone PS3′s production is aiming to be the most expensive in Dutch history, topping the 16 million EUR ($21 million USD) mark of the Dutch WWII movie Black Book. A large part of the costs are attributed to localizing the game into 20 different languages. Yes, 20 different languages. As the bubble continues to inflate, fanboys around the world quiver in anticipation.

Read more: Killzone PS3 costing way too much

ML Enterprises, ex-developers from Rockstar Vienna, take over production on Sabotage

Playthrough — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:35:59 +0000

ML Enterprises, an up and coming games industry consultancy startup from Munich, Germany, has announced their assumption of production for Replay Studios’ upcoming PC title, Sabotage. The interesting part of the announcement is the mention of ex members of Rockstar Vienna, Rockstar’s European development studio which was axed in May of this year, being involved in not only their own startups but also involved in work that actually gains them a little bit of credit. Good luck guys…

A Strong Partnership: ML Enterprises takes over producing for “Sabotage” by Replay Studios
Press release supplied by Games Press 17:36 17/11/2006

Munich – 11/17/2006 – ML Enterprises takes over producing for the third person action game “Sabotage” by Replay Studios in Hamburg, Germany.

Players will perform acts of sabotage all across Europe when they play the role of Violette Summer, a allied secret operative in the Second World War.

In this case producing to ML Enterprises means the conversion of meaningful and holistic strategies to successfully connect creative work and organisational challenges in a target-oriented way.

Jurie Horneman will help as a producer from ML Enterprises to handle the different challenges and questions in Hamburg. He has been working in different positions in the industry for 15 years (project manager, game designer, lead programmer), amongst others for Rockstar Vienna and JoWood Productions.

Horneman sees this constellation as a golden opportunity: “I am really content with the productive cooperation with ML Enterprises. It will be very satisfying to be a part of this interesting and ambitious project.”

Managing Director Hendrik Lesser explains: “Sabotage is a bang for the buck! The game has a unique look and drags the player into a thrilling and fascinating world. That is why we are so looking forward to cooperate with Replay Studios.”

Creative Director Sascha Jungnickel holds: “We are glad to have the backup from ML. They can help us to remedy some structural and communication problems, and this will be the beginning for long lasting partnership.”

About ML Enterprises

ML Enterprises GmbH is a production and licensing agency for the entertainment industry.

Its founders have been active in management positions in the industry for over 14 years. ML Enterprises GmbH was established in 2005 and is guided by the vision of offering classic consulting services, business management, project and resource brokering, licensing, financing and also producing and content consulting from a single source. Applying this concept throughout the entire life cycle of a product has proven to be successful, and we continually and persistently work to optimize and expand on our efforts.

About Jurie Horneman

Since 1991 Jurie Horneman has been working in various positions and countries on games. Now he labours as a free lance game designer and producer. More information and his blog can be found at his website: www.intelligent-artifice.com.

Read more: Replay Studios | ML Enterprises

Nintendo spending $200 million to fight Sony

Playthrough — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 09:53:14 +0000

DING DING DING. In what will probably be their most expensive marketing campaign ever, Nintendo has stated that they will spend more than $200 million USD in order to market the Wii console. With Nintendo’s success with the DS handheld and their profit on every piece of hardware sold, Nintendo has built a nice little war chest in order to compete against the new PS3 from Sony and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. 80% of the marketing spend will go towards adult markets, also marking a shift in strategy for Nintendo, which is trying to broaden it’s appeal among adults as the gaming market ages and younger consumer tastes continue their shift towards the mature market. Nintendo is projected to shift over 1.2 million units of the Wii this holiday season, with projections of only around 500,000 units for Sony, thanks partially to the manufacturing difficulties of Blu-Ray components. It’s also not helping Sony that their new console is over priced and their image among many gamers is severely damaged after months of public relations mis-steps.

Read more: Nintendo to spend $200 million

An inside look at CCP Games, developers of EVE Online

Playthrough — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 05:11:44 +0000

Since working in the games industry and always having a casual fascination with interior design, I often wonder what other game developers’ studios looked like on the inside. This led me to start a new series of posts for Playthrough, where I’ll be collecting photos I find around the internet which give us an inside look into game development studios, large and small, posting them for my and your enjoyment. So let’s get started.

CCP, developers of MMORPG EVE Online is perhaps one of the most under-rated developers within the games industry. With tech that most developers would die for and an office situated in a location that most of us can only dream of, CCP and EVE are growing at a rapid pace. With many new players joining the ultra-massive multiplayer world on a monthly basis and with CCP well into EVE’s expansion into China, this MMORPG is a force to be reckoned with, sans publishers.

See photos from a recent blog post by EVE employee “Redundancy” after the jump..

Rant about the lack of quality coding practices in the industry from a frustrated game developer

Playthrough — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:47:54 +0000

Independant game developer Wolfgang Deutsch has posted a thought-provoking rant over at his games and software development blog, On Programming, taking the industry and more specifically, programmers within the industry, to task over their seeming lack of appreciation for quality coding practices. As one would expect from a blog about coding practices and software development, coders take the brunt of the rant for ignoring proper coding practices within their implemented code and for many times simply substituting hacks in-place of actual tested code. Also included is a stern warning for producers to pay more attention to their project’s souce code, keeping an eye out for apathetic or just plain pathetic comments or notes explaining hacks to the source that just may end up in the final product. Though I’ve heard many excuses from many conferences, blogs and presentations on what ails the gaming industry, this is honestly the first time I’ve heard a rant against the coding practices of the industry’s developers. I have to admit, though many points in Deutsch’s post do ring with some truth to my ears (er, eyes), I think these are but some of the many problems that ail the mainstream gaming industry.

I’ll end this with a random quote from Wolfgang’s rant on the lack of quality coding practices within the games industry..

The real reason for exploding costs in game development is incompetent software developers. I am sorry to say. Itâ€™s not the big, all encompassing, unrelenting and unchangeable advancement of technology and refinement of consumer taste and expectations, neither is it those â€œrisk averseâ€ publishers who won’t finance your creative idea. No, it is simply incompetence. Our skill in devising reliable and flexible software architectures is, to put it mildly, severely lacking.

Rockstar presents the characters of Table Tennis in San Diego

Playthrough — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 22:29:33 +0000

Those Rockstar fans in or around San Diego on September the 28th will be lucky enough to see a presentation sponsored by Rockstar Games and IGDA San Diego, titled, “The Characters of Table Tennis“. Wolfgang Engel, author and senior developer will discuss the real-time graphic algorithms used in Table Tennis, as well as the shaders used to mimic skin, sweat, eyes, eyelashes, cloth and the various hair-types. The event will take place Thursday, September 28th at Qualcomm Auditorium in San Diego, California.

Rumour Mill: Duke Nukem Forever ‘mass exodus’

Playthrough — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:42:37 +0000

The rumour mills kicked into high gear yesterday after a Shacknews story was posted regarding a ‘mass exodus’ of key members from the Duke Nukem Forever team departing 3D Realms. Reportadly 10 (or more) major members of the team have left with multiple departues occurring in the past few days. Scott Alden, Will Bate, Brian Cozzens, Keith Schuler (a 16 year vet of Apogee and 3D Realms) and many more have been confirmed to have left the team since December of last year, creating more doomsday predictions for one of the gaming industries most legendary projects. However, many look at this as the possibility that the project is nearing completion, where it wouldn’t be surprising to see large amounts of members leave a 10+ year project as it winds down and their roles become significantly reduced. Either way, Duke Nukem Forever still proves it has the ability to move media mountains with just it’s mere mention in a news story.