Gamasutra Social/Online News

38 Studios' Downfall: The Gamasutra Report

Fri, 1 Jun 2012 09:44:00 -0400

In the wake of 38 Studios' collapse, insiders are at last speaking out. Speaking under condition of anonymity, multiple Gamasutra sources say the characterization of 38 Studios as a heavily-funded studio that bungled its resources at taxpayer expense is not entirely accurate. They tell us founder Curt Schilling -- the former pro baseball star with a love of MMORPGs like EverQuest and World of Warcraft -- was a kind patron and supportive leader. But his ...

Why one Zynga executive left his post for a small startup

Fri, 1 Jun 2012 03:52:00 -0400

While he may have had a secure job as an executive at the world's biggest social game company, Zynga's former CTO of mobile Laurent Desegur has chosen to leave his post for a new position at Game Closure, a small California-based studio focusing on HTML5. Interestingly, Desegur and other Zynga officials had tried to acquire Game Closure roughly one year ago, though the startup decided to turn down the offer. Desegur told Gamasutra, however, that ...

Dota 2 is free-to-play, but not pay-to-win, says Valve

Fri, 1 Jun 2012 01:08:00 -0400

Half-Life and Steam house Valve Software confirmed Thursday evening that its upcoming action-RTS Dota 2 will adopt the free-to-play business model. The confirmation is Valve's latest vote of confidence in the emerging free-to-play model. The company successfully converted its class-based online shooter Team Fortress 2 from a traditional pay-then-play model to free-to-play in 2011. That game is supported by sales of virtual items -- some created by Valve, and some of it created by users. ...

GDC Europe 2012 debuts Total War, MMO design, rendering sessions

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:51:00 -0400

With the buildup to this year's GDC Europe now in full swing, show organizers have debuted even more notable talks, including in-depth presentations on the Total War franchise, the essentials of MMO design, and a tech talk on forward rendering pipelines. These talks all fall within GDC Europe's Main Conference, which takes place Monday through Wednesday, August 13-15, 2012 at the Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, co-located with major consumer/trade show gamescom. The full ...

Opinion: Video game detractors becoming weaker, weirder

Thu, 31 May 2012 18:59:00 -0400

Games have been lambasted for their negative influences for the past 30 years. Parents have fretted about this new medium, while mainstream journalists and politicians have taken advantage of these fears and concerns. But as games have moved closer and closer to the center of our culture, the criticisms have lessened in volume but increased in eccentricity. CNN ran an editorial last week titled The Demise of Guys: How Video Games and Porn are Ruining ...

In-Depth: Xbox Live Arcade Sales Analysis, April 2012

Thu, 31 May 2012 17:40:00 -0400

[Gamasutra contributor Ryan Langley examines April 2012's Xbox Live Arcade debuts and continuing successes, with charts and Leaderboard data showing the performance of titles like Trials Evolution, The Walking Dead and Fez] While March was the end to a promotion, we've started up once again in April with "Arcade Next," a four-game push to show that new titles are now able to have more Achievement points. Among them are Trials Evolution, but that's not to ...

Upcoming 'mid-core' Zynga titles will help shares gain traction - analyst

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:32:00 -0400

Despite the fact that social game giant Zynga's shares have declined 37.6 percent since the beginning of 2012, analyst firm Baird Equity Research still believes that the company's stock will bounce back thanks to upcoming game releases and its relationship with Facebook. After Zynga went public back in December and subsequently saw its shares selling for under the $10 initial share price, Baird's Colin Sebastian originally said that Zynga's proven ability to attract millions of ...

Zynga CEO Pincus' plans to make Zynga.com 'like Xbox Live'

Wed, 30 May 2012 18:59:00 -0400

With its new proprietary game platform, social game giant Zynga has at least partially moved away from Facebook to independently distribute first- and third-party games. It's a significant move for a company that has historically relied on the major social network, and Zynga's CEO says that he's looking at services like Microsoft's Xbox Live to shape the future of the platform. Speaking at AllThingsD's D10 event, Pincus explained that the newly-launched Zynga.com isn't just a ...

Lack of Q1 releases causes drop in Perfect World profits

Wed, 30 May 2012 06:44:00 -0400

Major Chinese MMO maker Perfect World saw a dip in profits for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, although it put this down to the Chinese New Year, and a lack of new releases. The company's financial results softened as it focused its efforts on enhancing existing games, and readying itself for upcoming game launches during the remaining fiscal year, it said. Perfect World's CFO Kelvin Lau also noted that the Chinese New ...

Opinion: Make games for yourself - and nobody else

Wed, 30 May 2012 03:46:00 -0400

[In this op-ed from the May issue, Game Developer magazine editor-in-chief Brandon Sheffield argues that developers should stop focusing on monitoring metrics and emulating popular games, and instead be successful through interesting titles that are true to their own vision.] A lot of people say that if you want to make a popular game, you need to listen to focus groups, carefully monitor metrics, and focus on the mainstream. I say: bullshit. Scaling small and ...