Ontario budget boosts credits for video game production
From the
CBC:
The Ontario interactive digital media tax credit available to small digital media businesses will increase to 30 per cent from the current 20 per cent, the province's finance minister, Dwight Duncan, announced in his budget speech Thursday afternoon. The move is likely to attract video game studios to Ontario, a quest provinces such as B.C. and Quebec have already had some success with.
The global market for video and computer games is predicted to be one of the fastest growing sectors within the entertainment industry over the next four years, according to a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers in June 2005.
Rockstar's Pong
IGN has a
preview up for Rockstar's Table Tennis:
"...It doesn't instantly suck you in with blazing guns and sci-fi themes. Instead, you pick up and play, and a few minutes later you're familiar with the controls and the experimentation begins. Then, something interesting happens. The more you play, the deeper and deeper you'll dive into it. I went through a phase, in just one night, where I was slamming it with just the hard button over and over again. Later on, I switched players and found the spin game to be totally enthralling. Table Tennis is a little like Virtua Tennis in its intensity and easy-to-handle controls, but it's also a precision game that's compressed into a faster, more rhythmic pace. Jon Miller and I got into several serious rallies that lasted what seemed like minutes, and each one required our full attention and concentration. I know, I know, it's still table tennis, but Rockstar has made this work. In its own way, it's just as immediate as any fast-paced first-person shooter."
No, this isn't CJ busting some moves in a GTA4 mini game.
Lucas urges global care
From BBC News:
"As long as there has been a talking Hollywood, Hollywood has had a huge impact on the rest of the world.
"It shows all the morality we espouse in this country, good and bad."
The 62-year-old director said television was equally as influential, adding that people watch shows such as Dallas - about a wealthy Texas oil family - and decide they want the grand lifestyles portrayed.
"I hate to say it, but television is one of the most popular exports," he said.
"They say that is what I want to be. That destabilises a lot of the world."
"There has been a conflict going on for thousands of years between the haves and the have-nots, and now we are in a position for the first time to show the have-nots what they do not have."
The rest of the article HERE.
Pic of the day: Hairpod
Hairpod ... an employee of a Japanese health-care company demonstrates a new hair restoration device that stimulates the user's scalp with low frequency electric current.
Interview with Shiggy
From Guardian Unlimited:
Sony and Microsoft are focussing on the technical capabilities of their consoles, such as power and graphics. Nintendo's focus seems to be away from this now. Can you explain the thinking behind this?
In the very beginning we were confined by the technology and it restricted how we could express ourselves. That has changed now, but we think that games can't be improved by just focussing on the graphics which is the direction that most of the industry has been heading. Nintendo is very unique, we are an entertainment company. For a long time now we have been concerned by the direction of the industry. Our competitors are talking about beefed-up graphics and better technology. We could fight in that area but we think it is not necessary and we would rather focus on what Nintendo can do uniquely. We want to get a balance between powerful CPU's or beautiful graphics and making the technology comfortable and appealing. We created the DS and Revolution with this philosophy and concept in mind.
2005 was a poor year for game sales generally. Do you think consumers are bored with sequels and the same-old titles?
It's not necessarily that people are getting tired of videogames per se but the problem the industry faces is that it is creating titles that are similar to other ones. Platform holders usually say we have this great number of titles available but what really matters is variety of titles. Customers are more interested in variety and quality then straight quantity. Too many game creators listen to requests from existing gamers who simply want beefed-up versions of existing games. Also, shareholders may be worried about financing games that are different as they are seen as too risky. A lot of creators have lost the ability to create something new. But at Nintendo we are unique as we create new and innovative hardware. You don't always need big budgets. Look at Brain Training, which has been a great success and didn't cost much to create. One of my aims is to let game creators know that they shouldn't feel constricted by budget. If you have a good idea, we have the money.
Read the rest
HERE.
Sony to delay launch of PlayStation 3 until November
TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) will delay the release of its new PlayStation 3 video game console until early November, the president of its game unit said on Wednesday.Ken Kutaragi, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, the company's game division, made the announcement at the firm's annual PlayStation business briefing to software licencees.
It will launch the new consoles simultaneously in the United States, Japan and Europe, the company said.
Japanese newspapers reported earlier that the company would delay the launch of the PS3 because consumer electronics makers and movie companies were unable to reach an agreement on the development of the copy protection technology for the Blu-ray Disc drive, which is used in the console.
The PS3 launch has been the subject of heavy speculation in the industry as expectations are high for the powerful machine, which will feature cutting-edge technology in its DVD player, processors and graphics.
Other info from the conference report:
1. Kutaragi stated that Sony expects to sell to manufacture 6 million PlayStation 3 units by the end of fiscal 2006, ending March 31, 2007. That's less than 6 months after launch.
2. As reported, the PSP will soon support an emulator to play original PlayStation games. The games will be stored on memory sticks via e-distribution.
3. The PS3's online service, dubbed "PlayStation Network Platform", will sport voice chat, matchmaking lobbies and Marketplace-type features that allow users to download content, including software, implying some sort of digital distribution for games. The online service will be available at launch. As reported, the service will be free.
4. PS3 will allegedly be backwards compatible to all PS1 and PS2 games. The new console will also support high-definition resolutions for previous generations.
5. Finalized PS3 dev kits will be shipping to developers in June.
6. The PS2 will remain at its $149 price tag for the foreseeable future.
7. Kutaragi said that that the PS3 will require a hard drive, which will have a 60 GB capacity and support Linux OS. No word on if it will be included.
8. A hard drive-equipped PS3 is intended to be a sort of a central server for the home, allowing users to upload media from one peripheral and view it on another.
9. Sony will release a new firmware upgrade for PSP which will support Flash in its Web browser.
10. PS3 games will be featured exclusively on Blu-ray discs to protect against piracy.
Take-Two's $25M Deal to Secure GTA Future
From
Next-Gen:
Take-Two has signed a three-year $25 million employment agreement with "key Rockstar personnel" in an effort to safeguard the creative engine behind its most valuable franchise, Grand Theft Auto. The agreement, outlined in a 10-Q filing yesterday, is for a three-year term, and provides for the payment of $25 million in restricted stock, plus unspecified internal royalties.
The 10-Q explores the value of Rockstar's creative heads, and the risk to the company of any failure to offer a decent package to GTA's bosses. It states, "We rely on our management and other key personnel for the successful operation of our business. In particular, we are highly dependent on the expertise, skills and knowledge of certain of our Rockstar employees responsible for content creation and development of Grand Theft Auto and other titles."
Pic of the day: iPod Nano MAME
Review: Burnout Revenge (Xbox360)
Some one tell me what kind of awesome sparks rendering engine the PS2 has, because the sparks still look better on the PS2 version than the 360 version.
• The 360 is a funny console for these reasons: I'm playing a great game, with great graphics and sound, fantastic gameplay, yet I am disappointed. First reason is of course that the game is a port (and I've played it already), and the 2nd reason is that the game just doesn't feel next gen. It feels somewhere in between the previous generation and what I feel the next-gen should be. The 360 has it's work cut out for it if it wants to shed the image of being "xbox 1.5" because games like Burnout just SCREAM Xbox 1.5.
• The people who own high def teevee's will probably appreciate the SLIGHT cosmetic upgrades more than people rocking CRTs, but I found it hard to find any real differences between the 360 and OG xbox versions. Yes it looks great, and yes the original looked great too. I did notice some gameplay enhancements. Something about it just felt better, and the increased draw distance lets you see cars wayyyyyyyy down the road. This was nice.
• The online aspect rocks. I'd almost buy this just for online racing as Burnout is my kind of racer. It has a great responsive feel to it, and the sense of speed is unparalleled, especially online. I never played the OG xbox version online (cough * modded xbox * cough) so maybe its the same deal. Either way, the first race I played I came in first, playing against a dude who was ranked 26 in the fucking WORLD. It felt good to hear him scream in his semi-literate midwestern accent. I am now ranked 446 thank you very much.
• This game is so fucking cheap with achievement points I cant even tell you. Suffice to say that no one will be replaying this game just to pad their GS (not that I was thinking of doing such a thing... oh no.... not me)
• Remember when they were hyping BLACK as Burnout but with guns? The more I think of it they should just give Burnout guns. OR, make a FPS where you run REALLY REALLY FAST while shooting stuff. THAT would be Burnout with guns. Fuck FPSs that make you walk. I've done the walking thing. The next 'next-gen' FPS I want to play will let me run as fast as you can drive in Burout Revenge.
• They got rid of the golf meter thing in crashmode. Why they put it in there is anyone’s guess, but now its gone. Either way, Burnout 3 still rules for crashmode.
9/10 if it was fresh, 7/10 because it's a port.
Rockstar's next game: Table Tennis
IGN has the full story
HERE.
"...we absolutely love table tennis and wanted to try and make something that could show the audience what could be possible -- on a relatively focused level -- in the next generation of videogames. Our mission brief at Rockstar has been clear to us from when we founded the company -- to make titles with innovative game play about subject matters we were interested in. We have always been a company that likes to take risks, and do things differently from everyone else. For us this does not just mean gangster films, or car chases or westerns (much as we still love them), but anything that we think is interesting and has not been successfully handled elsewhere in a videogame. From our perspective, table tennis fitted the bill perfectly -- especially as games with a very strong two-player component are very fun to make -- and play! Above all, Table Tennis allows us to showcase what we believe the key characteristics of the high definition era of console gaming will be. These are not just higher resolution graphics, but using higher resolution graphics and hugely advanced animation systems to impart physical and emotional information to the player, so that the control and tactics of the game are more real and more diverse than on current-generation titles. "
