Gawker
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layoffs
Electronic Arts kills nonexistent outsourcing project
No one knew exactly what the Blueprint division of videogame maker Electronic Arts was up to. Officially, it didn't exist. Now, it officially hasn't been shut down, but there's no one working on it. An ex-employee who blabbed to Variety tried to explain: Blueprint's dozen or so staff were charged with creating a way for EA to reliably develop games without hiring onsite, full-time employees. Now more than ever, you'd think that's a businessworthy project. Instead, Blueprint seems to have confirmed there's no substitute for a building full of crazed code monkeys with all the hardware and free snacks they need to crank out Madden NFL 09.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Skunky: Free snacks? Not in this reality. Cheap sodas and free hot chocolate/coffee, but no snacks. At least Redwood Shores has... more » | Other threads
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meltdowns
Broke, homeless, laid-off Americans buying more videogames
Good news! October videogame sales were up 18 percent to $1.31 billion. Most of the growth comes from increased game sales, but Nintendo sold a surprising 803,000 Wii consoles.
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By Paul BoutinComment by skc15: An unemployed buddy of mine just had to send his Wii back for refurbishing. No money=lots of time to... more » | Other threads
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distractions
Wrath of the Lich King to devastate IT departments
Good luck getting your computer fixed today. Is there some strange flu that only infects sysadmins sweeping the nation? No — but Blizzard Entertainment did dump Wrath of the Lich King, an update to its online World of Warcraft videogame franchise, on the Internet at midnight last night. What this means: A lot of engineers are going to be calling in lich this morning, having stayed up to download the update and then level their new Death Knight for a foray into Northrend. Yes, World of Warcraft players actually talk like that. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Shadowlayer: WoW, or how to work like IRL instead of playing, but you make no money at all... Anyway, I was playing... 1 Responses | Other threads
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jackpot
Rock Band creators get $300 million rock-star bonus
Eran Egozy and Alex Rigopulos, the MIT-educated creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, have earned a $150 million bonus from Viacom, whose MTV unit bought the game. The pair are on track to earn an even bigger bonus in 2009. (Photo by Newsweek/John Huet)
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By Paul BoutinComment by sample032: Fuck this shit. Some of us can actually play a guitar. 4 Responses | Other threads
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clips
Google AdSense for Games demo
Ads inserted into the middle of videogames, what a stupid idea. Oh wait, they're from Google, what a brilliant idea! I can't tell if this is Google hubris over its ability to sell ads anywhere, or some engineer's 20 percent time project that seemed worth a shot. Lucky for us, Google has provided a video demo of exactly what they're trying to sell. The ads kick in at 0:57.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Lawrence: That's actually tastefully done - and it gives you a small break to pause your eyes from staring too hard... 1 Responses | Other threads
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Stephen Colvin
Gamespot editor's nemesis on way out of CNET
At CNET, the heads keep rolling, nearly a year after Gamespot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann was sacked. Stephen Colvin, an executive who oversaw Gamespot, is out of the company, a tipster tells us. Gerstmann's firing came after a negative review of an advertiser's game, which made him a cause célèbre among gamers. What Gerstmann's fans will say: That Colvin and other suits are getting what they deserved for ruining the CNET-owned gaming site's editorial credibility. Josh Larson left CNET, now owned by CBS, in April. Colvin, a former magazine executive who was Larson's boss, joined CNET a year ago, shortly before the Gerstmann incident. His exit comes as CBS rejiggers CNET's generous benefits, our tipster says: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Llost: Can anyone tell me the webiste Gertsmann made himself after leaving? 3 Responses | Other threads
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big fish games
Casual games maker for "Ohio shut-ins" gets $83.3 milllion
Big Fish Games — a maker of low-end videogames known as "casual games" — just landed $83.3 million in funding from Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital. Paul Thelen, a RealNetworks veteran who worked on that company's videogames business, founded Big Fish, which has seen one of "the biggest game-related fundings in recent history," according to PaidContent. The company plans to spend the money on acquisitions, international expansion and getting games onto the Nintendo Wii. Iminlikewithyou founder Charles Forman, who makes a different type of online game, tells us Big Fish makes "games for Ohio shut-ins" and that "they represent the very old school of casual gaming, which is still a very good business. Their demo is 45-year-old women who don't have jobs but have tons of disposable income."
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Comment by Shadowlayer: They get almost $90M for that? seriously, WTF is happening at most VCs? With that money you can release at least... 1 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in pr
Electronic Arts publicity stunt seizes up London traffic
As part of Electronic Arts's efforts to promote Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the video game publisher gave away $35,340 in free gas at a station in a north London neighborhood. The game, set in Venezuela, uses gasoline as a form of currency. However, the scene that developed looked more like Baghdad shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, with a line forty cars long and actors in camouflage fatigues trying to placate angry commuters trying to get out of their driveways. In the end, the company ended the giveaway with a little over half the free fuel doled out.
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By Jackson WestComment by matto: EA's always done a downright Majestic job promoting new games. more » | Other threads
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videogames
Afrika, a game where you can't shoot the animals
Executives at Sony are forecasting 100,000 sales for this week's release of Afrika, a game where you play photojournalist and shoot photos instead of bad guys. It's a major departure from exploratory games of the Myst genre, or the build-your-own landscape of Second Life. Afrika's premise is that the high-definition animals will be so much fun to watch that you won't be bored out of your mind. What I want to know: How long until the furries hack their way into the scenery?
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By Paul BoutinComment by Valleygrrl: They completely ripped off an idea released by another company. I hope this game dies the death it deserves. Stealing... 2 Responses | Other threads
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e for all
IDG's game expo stiffs
After a weak start last year, trade mag and conference company IDG's attempt at a trade show for videogames looks to be an outright flop. Staff at AOL's Big Download blog contacted all the big game makers and came up with a pretty thin attendee list for next month's show in Los Angeles. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Shadowlayer: I heard one of the organizers was in last year's pax trying to gather some intelligence on why that expo... more » | Other threads
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jackpot
Shawn Fanning's company sold for $15 million, not $30 million
Napster founder Shawn Fanning never got a payday for his greatest creation. His latest, videogame social network Rupture, sold earlier this year — but for less than rumored. The actual price Electronic Arts paid, an SEC filing reveals, was $15 million, not $30 million. [Silicon Alley Insider]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Passerby: Well its amazing what you can accomplish when you play an online game with a VC. I think WOW's new expansion... more » | Other threads
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vimeo
Amateur video site overrun by — no, not porn
Victim of their own success: Vimeo, the online video-sharing venture owned by Barry Diller's IAC. The site has been been doing well since IAC fired Vimeo's founder, wacky Web 2.0 poster boy Jakob Lodwick. But Vimeo's ample capacity is now bogged down by a glut of videogame screen-capture movies, sometimes called fraps. Why is that a problem? More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by VuzeJohn: Have you checked out Vuze? You can publish video-game screen capture movies (including HD) for free, and Vuze won't... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Flagship Studios' bankruptcy a cautionary tale for startups
The bankruptcy of Flagship Studios, an ambitious videogames startup, provides a startling example of what not to do when it comes to finding funding for your startup. The company, founded by CEO Bill Roper, formerly of the Starcraft team at Blizzard North, leveraged the intellectual property rights for its two games, Hellgate: London and Mythos, as collateral in order to secure loans to keep the company afloat. When the company finally ran out of that money, the two core projects immediately reverted to the lenders, Comerica and HanbitSoft, respectively. HanbitSoft, a Korean company which had the exclusive rights to market the games in Asia, ended up in a position where it was in the company's interest to let Flagship go under: Why pay licensing fees when you can own the game outright after the owner goes under? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Shadowlayer: Meh, all these small studios pumping new MMORPGs after the financial success of WoW are the equivalent of the web... more » | Other threads
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videogames
EA buys mobile rival Hands-On's Korean arm
Is San Francisco-based mobile videogames startup Hands-On Mobile in trouble? That was my first thought on reading that it had sold its Korean unit to Electronic Arts. EA moved to buy Hands-On's closest competitor, Jamdat, in 2005, and has been aggressively expanding in cell-phone games since. Hands-On, once rumored as an IPO candidate, has a string of offices around the globe, which must surely be expensive. It's possible EA made an offer Hands-On couldn't refuse. But the fact that Hands-On is selling, not buying, speaks of strained finances.
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By Owen ThomasComment by j-c: hands-on also sold off their china arm, so I think that assumption is a safe one more » | Other threads
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videogames
Gamers annoyed at Nokia
Videogames which run on Nokia's N-Gage cell-phone gaming platform are locked to a specific phone, requiring a new purchase when the phone is replaced. Cell-phone users typically buy a new phone every 18 months. [BBC News] -
ipo
RealNetworks to spin off its games business
RealNetworks' games business grew revenues 33 percent since the first quarter of 2007. CEO Rob Glaser thinks it could grow even faster on its own. RealNetworks announced today it plans to spin off the casual games business and "may precede the spin with an initial public offering and sale of up to 20 percent of the shares," according to a press release. RealNetworks will also buy back $50 million worth of stock.
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Comment by BobDope: He looks lie he took a dump that made him feel like he just slept 12 hours. Hoo-ah! more » | Other threads
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exits
Ad sales VP leaves Yahoo for Electronic Arts
Yahoo VP Elizabeth Harz has left the company to become SVP of global ad sales at videogame publisher Electronic Arts. At Yahoo, she was most recently in charge of poring over marketing data — the kind of background that will be invaluable to EA as the company develops advertising strategies for casual games on sites like Pogo.com and mobile devices. And in the wake of Jerry Yang's announcement that the new AMP brand advertising platform will be ready to go by the third quarter, it sounds like more bad news for Yahoo. Even if the code works, you need people to bring in customers. -
videogames
I would've written this earlier, but I'm about to beat Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Apparently being addicted to videogames is like being addicted to crack, with addicts going through physical withdrawal when they couldn't play. Gaming addicts have personality traits similar to people with Asperger's syndrome. So they'd do well on Wikipedia? [The Telegraph] -
great moments in journalism
CNET reporter, still employed for time being, asks EA and Take-Two to stop fighting in public
Industrial-sized video game publisher Electronic Arts is in negotations to buy the only real competitor in the sports game market Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two's shareholders want more than EA is offering and may be stalling until the release of the latest Grand Theft Auto installment. The two companies have taken their negotiations public by issuing dueling press releases — and CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman is tiring of it.Get your highly-paid keisters into a meeting room. Order some takeout. Lock the doors. And work this out yourselves.
With all due respect to Terdiman, Valleywag loves it when companies air their grievances in public. It's like hip-hop MCs exchanging dis rhymes, but with less rhythm and poetry! So to everyone on the EA and Take-Two negotiating teams, feel free to send us anonymous tips and call each other the dirty, backstabbing double-dealers you know you want to. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
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By Jackson WestComment by matto: Jason Calacanis would have fired John Ricciatello by now! more » | Other threads
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videogames
BusinessWeek releases "Web-based" games that download to your computer
With great fanfare, BusinessWeek released a compilation of twenty "free, independently developed Web-based games" on its website today. "Casual games," free games that are easy to play and addictive (think Tetris), are big business. Nickelodeon recently announced it was developing 600 games for its websites. Why is BusinessWeek playing tastemaker in this market, though, under the guise of praising the outlandishly simplistic videogames for their "design"? More »
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Comment by raincoaster: There's a metaphor here, but I'm one glass past finding it... more » | Other threads
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iphone
Jesusphone getting God game Spore
It's fitting; the Second Coming of the phone will get a game from On High. Alongside Apple's SDK demo today, Electronic Arts' Travis Boatman showed off a version of Will Wright's magnum opus Spore running on the iPhone. The release date hasn't been finalized, but the hope is it will coincide with the game's multi-platform release this September. That BART ride just got a helluva lot more interesting. More »
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Comment by longcrosse: all I saw was Travis Boatman and all I heard was "blah blah blah" - EA needs to send less-hot... more » | Other threads
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videogames
Search isn't working, so Diller tries another flooded market
As his search engine Ask.com inches toward irrelevance, besieged IAC CEO Barry Diller has found another crowded market to pour cash into: videogames. According to Variety, Diller plans to invest $50 million to $100 million of IAC's money on InstantAction, a new site from recently acquired IAC subsidiary GarageGames. GarageGames doesn't develop games quite so "casual" as the type Mark Pincus's Zynga produces, but the venture's product will still be Internet-based games made for those who don't want to waste time in front of a TV. Just like everyone else in the market, only a year or two later.
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Comment by curthopkins: Yes, some of the other commenters are quite right. This is hardly PopCap. We see InstantAction as being easy to... more » | Other threads
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clips
CollegeHumor adopts Valleywag style
Streeter Seidell and Jeff Rubin, editors of CollegeHumor, announce in this clip that "videogames" will henceforth be spelled as one word on the website. Why spelling matters on a postliterate collection of clips is beyond me, but I appreciate CollegeHumor's adoption of Valleywag's style on this matter. My favorite part: 1 minute, 12 seconds in, where the editors take a break, off-camera, to clean the filthy lens. -
acquisitions
Electronic Arts' Take-Two takeover made simple: It's about sports and cars
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello isn't content to sit idly by twiddling his thumbs until retirement. He'd rather spend as much as possible to keep his company relevant to the vanishing-attention-span generation of males whose spending pads his pension. They're interested in fast cars and sports — which makes Riccitiello keenly interested in EA rival Take-Two. Riccitiello has placed a $2 billion bid on Take-Two Interactive, the notorious publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series. More » -
careers
Carnivores not welcome at videogames startup
A job listing sent recently to an email list: "A vegetarian-owned and managed emerging sports games startup in San Francisco is looking to hire vegetarian software development interns for summer 2008." An odd qualification, but apparently legal. A recent court case in California found that employers can discriminate against vegetarians. That would imply that a startup could equally choose not to hire omnivorous sorts. One would think that the pool of candidates who simultaneously favor sports videogames and eschew meat products would be a bit shallow. The full job listing: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Amazonca: Non-Smokers only Non-carnivores Gays, people with low perception and low food security- are especially welcomed! signature: "I like to drink coffee and smoke... more » | Other threads
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quotable
"I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don't think Wii Fit's purpose is to make you fit." Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, on the origins of Wii Fit. Too bad it's already sold 1.2 million in Japan based on the notion that it does. The non-exercise videogame is out in the U.S. later this year. [Wii.com] More » -
electronic arts
John Riccitiello should just get himself fired
Curious: It's in Electronics Arts CEO John Riccitiello's best interest to get the company's board replaced, or the company sold. If only he were working at Yahoo, Microsoft would have a much easier time of things. EA has penned a "Key Employee Continuity Plan," a nice little safety net for its executives. If Riccitiello is fired without cause after a change in corporate control, he would receive $2.3 million. And 18 months of health coverage. God knows insurance can be expensive. More »
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Comment by DwightSpider: Riccitiello might get himself fired by the board of directors should they get upset that the company is being sued... more » | Other threads
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clips
Wall Street Journal nerds out with LAN party video
Rupert Murdoch has clearly issued a diktat: The Wall Street Journal must now cater to the Slashdot crowd. And Andy Jordan has simperingly scampered to obey. On the front of WSJ.com's Technology section: "Andy Jordan hangs out at a LAN party, where caffeine-fueled videogamers battle till the wee hours of the morning." Jordan follows the pasty gamers to the local deli, hears from the lone Mac user who unplugs a comrade's computer after getting killed in-game, and finds out who consumes seemingly 90 percent of all energy drinks. This is the kind of high-level reporting we expect from the paper with which Murdoch hopes to beat the New York Times. Here's the video: More »
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Comment by elvenjewel: Video game parties. Now being covered -- nay, filmed! -- by the WSJ. Was thought involved here? more » | Other threads
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facebook
Electronic Arts wants its games on Facebook
Electronic Arts is learning to ask questions like "What is your sex song?" and "Hottie" requests. That's right, the videogames giant is leaping into the world of Facebook applications. Former EA Los Angeles general manager Neil Young is in charge of a "stealth division" believed to be EA Blueprint, which will develop and publish games to social networks. At least someone who knows what they're doing will be making games for the network. But if these rumors pan out, this at least sheds a bit more light on the threatened shutdown of Scrabulous. More » -
hardware
Smaller chip mean a cheaper PS3 — and a comeback for Sony
Gadget battles are won and lost on the price of components. In that regard, Sony has had poor luck with its latest PlayStation console. Its hulking size, exorbitant price, and dearth of interesting titles left it vulnerable to the Wii's unexpected rise. Gamers were more interested in the Wii's casual fun than the PS3's sophisticated Cell processor, especially since the available games hardly made much use of the expensive piece of gear. But the Cell is about to get cheaper. Manufacturer IBM has reduced the size of the chip to 45 nanometers, a technological leap which will at once make the processor cheaper and easier to cool, requiring a smaller case. Good news, at long last, for Sony.
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Comment by x40sw0n: One difference is that traditionally Sony (unlike Microsoft and Nintendo) actually does lower the prices of the hardware; they did... more » | Other threads
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virtual worlds
"Second Skin" sheds light on virtual-worlds addiction
A new documentary, Second Skin, promises to reveal why people are so obsessed with massively multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft and Everquest, as well as even more pointless environments like Second Life. By capturing the online lives of seven devoted gamers, the film captures love, greed, addiction, and depression — all spurred by something that's not even real. Second Skin premieres at the South By Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas this March.
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Comment by team-dale: I'm doing research on second life addiciton, it would be a great help if people would take a survey I... more » | Other threads
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videogames
On Wii and PS3's home turf, Microsoft cuts Xbox price 20 percent
In Japan, Microsoft has dropped the price of its entry-level Xbox 360 to around $260 — less than it costs in America. The software giant hopes to gain some traction in the tough Japanese market. Microsoft has had tremendous difficulties selling the Xbox in Japan, moving only 257,800 consoles last year, compared to Sony's 1.2 million PlayStation 3s and 3.6 million Nintendo Wiis. Somehow, we suspect just dropping the price won't get the job done.
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Comment by gildorn: ... in Japan even Twilight Princess was not very popular compared with Wind Waker--in the US, Twilight Princess was significantly... more » | Other threads
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clips
Why wait for the Super Bowl? Tecmo solved football 17 years ago
The New York Giants are 12 point underdogs going into this weekend's Super Bowl matchup against the New England Patriots. So it's not likely to be much of a game. Over by the second quarter is my guess. But this Tecmo Super Bowl version of the game? Exciting to the bitter end. Added bonus: No Go Daddy commercials. -
media
Gasp! CNET values sales over editorial
News flash: CNET's "ad sales team carries more weight than the editorial team," writes Alex Petraglia, editor of Primotech, a videogames-news site. In the wake of Gamespot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann's firing, should anyone find this shocking? No. But in an attempt to jump on the Gerstmann story, Petraglia has posted a long-winded rant about a new ad campaign plastered all over the Gamespot website. More »
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Comment by Christopher Batty: @cheradenine: I *loved* my time and the relationships I formed at Cnet and being let go probably lit a fire... more » | Other threads
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virtual worlds
World of Warcraft has officially consumed 10 million souls. Blizzard Entertainment, the multiplayer online game's maker, is officially an unstoppable machine. If 2007 estimates are to be believed, World of Warcraft is responsible for 12 percent of the videogame industry's $9.1 billion in software sales. [Worlds in Motion]
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Comment by sample032: It's not the first hit (software sales for sales, marketing, and engineer types) where they make their money; it's customers... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
CNET sells editorial placement, needs to raise rates
Buried news in a long post by Amadeo Plaza at Gamer 2.0: CNET allegedly sells placement of articles, not ads, on the front door of its GameSpot site for about $3,500 per week. He's not saying advertisers can buy an article — rather, they can pay to have an article placed prominently on the front door. Imagine the makers of Cloverfield paying The New York Times to move its review of the movie to page A1 and you get the idea. I'm supposed to opine here about the evil advent of adverjournalism and its corrupting influence on my so-called career. But at $500 a day to override CNET's editorial judgement, my overwhelming reaction is that GameSpot is selling itself too cheap.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Owen Thomas: @GameSpotter: Your own management, two years ago, admitted to the practice of paying for editorial placement. more » | Other threads
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satire
"Let's think about the future for a second. You probably don't understand the kids that make up the bulk of our audience, but I do. I call them the network MySpace remix 3.0 social generation. Unlike any other people before them, young people today like to interact with each other. They also like music. YouTube is the perfect example of whatever point it is I'm making. Everything should be online and customizable." [Five Short Video Game Industry Keynotes]
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By Nick DouglasComment by Paul Boutin: Wonderful. These work so well because they could apply to almost any keynote about any industry. "The industry... more » | Other threads
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virtual worlds
World of Warcraft teaches survival skills
Blizzard has finally disproved the old adage that videogames rot your brains. In fact, they impart essential survival training on players. Earlier this month, 12-year-old Jørgen Olsen survived a moose attack in Norway by playing dead — a skill his World of Warcraft character had recently learned. And then the game taught a 17-year-old in Bejing how to deal with schoolyard bullies. After losing a fight, he took a cue from the game's Fire Mage and set a match to his real-world opponent, after dousing him in gasoline. -
videogames
Silicon Valley's armchair athletes may want to rethink their training regimen. A recent study shows that Nintendo's Wii tennis is no substitute for real exercise. In fact, it's only 2 percent more taxing than playing Halo 3. [Ars Technica]
valleywag
San Francisco, 1:02 PM
Mon Jul 6
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