The prospect of a keynote discussion at the DICE Summit between Gabe Newell and J.J. Abrams seemed intriguing enough. After all, the two are some of the biggest names in their respective fields, Newell being the co-founder of Valve and Abrams being one of the most prolific producers and directors in Hollywood over the past decade. The conversation the two had on stage today was interesting enough, but the most noteworthy bit came in the form of a revelation that the two sides could collaborate on a game, as well as a movie based on Portal or Half-Life.

Newell explained that the talk was a rehash of conversations the two have had previously, Gamasutra reports. It centered around the strengths and weaknesses of storytelling in film and games. Because of the linear nature of film and TV, Abrams said that "games in many cases are far better than movies in telling story," although he did later note the problem with game characters who are "empty vessels." Newell, meanwhile, took issue with the lack of agency in movies; he showed a clip of the Abrams-produced film Cloverfield and quipped about how he'd like to be able to put down the camera "and f***ing run." Abrams countered by pointing to the problems that can arise with telling a story when players are free to run around, doing whatever they want. ]]>Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:31:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/features/odyssey-skulls-shogun-featureJose Otero

Feature

The Odyssey of Skulls of the Shogun

Developer 17-bit gives us a look behind the scenes at their darling turn-based strategy game.

By: Jose Otero January 31, 2012

It's a sunny and brisk winter morning in Seattle on January 14, 2013 as Jake Kazdal arrives at his independent game studio, 17-bit. I find a few of his employees huddled around a small TV as they start their workday with an impromptu session of Steel Battalion for the original Xbox. Another person sits at his desk designing an invite for their game's launch party at the end of the month.

To most bystanders, the lack of activity in the office might signal an uneventful day for these developers -- a work environment known for its mix of deadlines and play time, as the team slowly churns their concept into a video game. But today's an exciting day for everyone in the company: After a grueling three and a half years of development, their game, Skulls of the Shogun, is almost ready for download on Xbox Live Arcade -- one of three Microsoft-exclusive digital storefronts where people can purchase it at launch.

It is something we see far more often than many of us would like: A game hits it big and the publisher responsible for it proceeds to annualize it or, at the very least, provide each subsequent release with little breathing room before yet another follow-up is released. The short-term rewards for doing so promote a temptation to exploit series in a way that can be harmful to the quality of the games in question and the series as a whole. Not only that, the interest in backing games with this sort of potential can make it more difficult for certain games to be released -- just look at the way Activision dumped games like Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters because they didn't "have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises."

Ignoring sports games, the franchises that likely come to mind first when thinking of this sort of thing include Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. The last time we went a year without a Call of Duty game was 2004, and the last year we didn't see a new Assassin's Creed game on consoles was 2008. (It's no coincidence that, in both cases, that year was the gap in between the first and second entries of the series.) Although it probably doesn't jump to the top of your list, Prince of Persia is another series to fall victim to this sort of treatment. Though not as extreme an example as CoD or AC, the Sands of Time reboot for Prince of Persia began a six-and-a-half-year stretch that saw five games released, not counting those released for handhelds or the remake of the original. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of games for one series to see in a relatively short span of time. ]]>Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:16:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/warren-spector-junction-point-shut-downChris Pereira

Following rumors that began to circulate yesterday, the news was made official today: Junction Point Studios is the latest game development studio to be shut down. While far from outright shocking, considering the moves its parent company had made in recent years, this does call attention to how quickly things can go south for a developer, even one with a name like Warren Spector at the helm.

Spector, who is best known for his earlier work on games like System Shock and Deus Ex, founded the studio in 2005. It was acquired in 2007, joining the likes of Propaganda Games under the Disney Interactive Studios label. It was responsible for the release of two games: Epic Mickey in 2010 and Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two just last year. The former was a fairly well-received game that sold 1.3 million units in the U.S. during its first month of availability, according to NPD Group numbers reported by the L.A. Times. That was a solid figure for a third-party Wii game released at that point in time. Its flawed sequel, despite being available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U, in addition to Wii, sold a small fraction of that, moving only 270,000 units in a similar window. Update: Joystiq reports the game ended up selling 529,000 units in the U.S. during November and December, though keep in mind the game was heavily discounted during and after Black Friday. ]]>Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:05:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/respawn-debut-game-speculationChris Pereira

This spring will mark three years since Respawn Entertainment was established by Jason West and Vince Zampella, the founders of Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward. While you wouldn't expect development to have begun immediately at a brand-new studio, enough time has now passed that it seems reasonable to assume Respawn is fairly deep in development on -- well, whatever it is they're making. Over the past few years, we've gotten almost zero indication of what the studio is at work on. Besides some teaser images, early indications that the game would be on the scale of a "huge, summer blockbuster," and EA's statements that it will be a sci-fi-oriented shooter, there has been nothing of substance to go on. Knowing it's a sci-fi shooter limits the scope of possibilities to a degree, but let's be honest -- neither of those details is specific enough to tell us much beyond the fact that it won't be a historically accurate World War II RPG.

There are a limited number of conclusions we can safely jump to. Given this is an EA-published game and multiplayer is what made Call of Duty into the phenomenon it has become, it's OK to assume Respawn's mystery project will not be a single-player-only affair. Presuming it will be a first-person shooter, considering West and Zampella's past with Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor before it, might be a stretch, though. For all we know, they, along with the many former Infinity Ward employees that followed them to Respawn, are interested in getting away from what they're used to and, as a result, would prefer to make a third-person game. Gears of War might not be as big as Call of Duty or Halo, but it's done very well for itself with that perspective. ]]>Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:04:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/thq-breakup-south-park-ubisoft-darksiders-abandonedChris Pereira

Four years ago, Ubisoft was heavily advertising its games around episodes of South Park. In the next few months, it'll likely be doing that once again, only this time it will be doing this as the publishers of the newest South Park game, The Stick of Truth. Ubisoft was among the companies today to acquire assets that formerly belonged to THQ, a company that is now all but dead following an auction that kicked off yesterday and concluded today.

THQ has been in a very poor position for some time now. Even with Jason Rubin being named president, its eventual collapse was, in many people's eyes, an inevitability following the uDraw disaster, Homefront's failure, and a number of other factors. Yet it's difficult not to be reeling today when accounting for the human factor; many former THQ employees are finding themselves out of work today, and those numbers may continue to grow as the new owners of the companies acquired through the auction evaluate their needs. ]]>Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:19:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/features/breaking-down-ouya-steam-box-new-wave-systemsChris Pereira

Feature

Digital and Nontraditional: Breaking Down Ouya, Steam Box, And Other New Wave Systems

What makes each of these systems unique, and what factors will result in their failure or success?

By: Chris Pereira January 15, 2013

If 2012 was the year of crowdfunding, it's looking more and more as if 2013 will be the year of the nontraditional games console. Apparent one-offs like Ouya attracting $8.5 million on Kickstarter and the notion of a Steam Box have given way to numerous others trying their hand at developing some sort of gaming system. There has been talk in the past of a one console future; whether or not that's where we're ultimately headed, in the short term it seems abundantly clear that there is no lack of interest in being a company that puts hardware in gamers' homes.

For years it's been said that companies like Microsoft and Sony wanted to take over the living room. They've attempted to do this by expanding upon the functionality offered in the boxes they already have in place. As we are quickly approaching the point at which both of those companies will again be competing to sell new pieces of multi-use hardware, we're seeing quite a few other companies line up to get into the living room, but with much more gaming-oriented systems: There's Ouya, the various Steam Boxes, Shield, GameStick, and Razer Edge, to say nothing of lesser-known ones such as eSfere.

Update: As of this writing, The War Z is no longer available for purchase through Steam. Valve told Kotaku a mistake "was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build." Players wanting a refund can submit a ticket to request one, while those who do not are free to continue playing in the meantime. And, just to make things juicier, Kotaku reports the game's title screen has images ripped from elsewhere. It's feeling more and more to me like the game was rushed out in order to be available before people were able to invest their money in the standalone DayZ.

Original Story: The War Z is a game that, long before launch, attracted some criticism for how much it resembled the super-popular ArmA II mod DayZ, which is on its way to becoming a standalone game thanks to its success. Similarities in title aside, the two are open-world zombie games where permadeath can play a critical role. As DayZ was the first to market, War Z developers Hammerpoint Interactive have been accused of simply ripping off Dean Hall's mod. A "foundation release" of DayZ was expected to be out before the end of the year, though Hall has expressed a willingness to let that deadline slip in order to deliver a better game. Hammerpoint, following a similar strategy of getting out a base game that can then be built upon, had its own foundation release land on Steam this past Monday. However, the lack of any way to discern that certain features promised on its Steam were not available at launch has resulted in a lot of angry gamers, and a developer with an apparent reluctance to fully accept the blame for the situation. ]]>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:30:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/molyneux-godus-kickstarter-messy-campaignChris Pereira

After a month-long campaign, 22 Cans' Project Godus Kickstarter will come to an end later this week. It still has a ways to go to ensure it receives anything at all through the crowdfunding site. However it turns out, it will serve as a fascinating example of the dos and don'ts of the service. From a vague initial pitch to any number of things hanging over the head of 22 Cans and its founder, Peter Molyneux, in particular, there are any number of factors that may prevent us from getting what now more than ever looks like a game I'd personally love to see get made.

With less than three days to go, it's far from a given that Molyneux's latest project -- the self-described reinvention of Populous -- will receive the funding it needs. The Kickstarter is seeking 450,000 GBP, the equivalent of about $731,000. As of this writing, it's raised roughly $647,092. Per Kickstarter rules, 22 Cans won't see any of the money that's been pledged unless its goal is reached by the deadline. It's a substantial sum that needs to be raised in the next few days, but it's not impossible; many Kickstarters see a rush of pledges as they approach their final hours. According to Kicktraq, a website that tracks Kickstarter pledges, the past few days have been some of Godus' best since it launched in November. Whether things pick up enough to hit the target by Friday is anyone's guess. ]]>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:13:00 PSTNEWShttp://localhost/news/company-of-heroes-futureChris Pereira

With Company of Heroes 2, Relic Entertainment is exploring fairly familiar territory. Certainly the Eastern Front was distinct as compared with other World War II theaters -- especially those I would imagine most people, at least those in the United States, picture when thinking of WWII, due to this country's involvement elsewhere during the war. CoH2's focus on this aspect of the war affords Relic the opportunity to introduce features like a dynamic weather system that emphasizes the snowy conditions the Eastern Front was home to. It's an addition that has the potential to impact gameplay in a significant way, and it could even cause two matches on the same map to play out much differently because of the way snow and cold weather changes things. This is all well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that the game is not dramatically unlike its predecessor, part of which is due to it still being set in World War II. CoH2 is the series' first numbered sequel, but it's set during the same war as the first game and its two expansions. What does that say about the limitations on where Relic is willing to go with the series?

Not much, as it turns out. In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, game director Quinn Duffy expressed a willingness to expand beyond the deadliest war in human history. "We could look at setting this game anywhere," Duffy said. "We know what we want to deliver in a Company of Heroes game. We know what we want it to feel like. So the setting becomes another piece of military history to tell -- or another set of stories. But the game should feel like a Company of Heroes product." He went on to reaffirm that CoH is not explicitly about World War II, but that, given the Eastern Front's significance, it demanded to be covered before Relic moved on from WWII. ]]>Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:35:00 PSTNEWS