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Wednesday, December 12, 2007 |
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Qix Update
I just took the office high score -- over 78k. That knocked Dave Clayman from his perch that he had been enjoying for a few days. Now the leaderboards are just me, Dave, and Dan Adams.
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Saturday, December 08, 2007 |
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PS3 and the Qix Revolution
So I finally bought a PS3 yesterday. Woot. I spent most of today playing Uncharted -- that is one fine looking game. Is it weird that I'm more excited to watch BluRay movies than I am to play the backlog of games? Oh well.
But the real reason for this post is Qix. This old arcade game has taken the IGN office by storm after Spence started playing it in the break room earlier this week.
It's gotten so bad that a group of us stayed late at work on a Friday night to play until almost 8:00. And now Dave Clayman is talking (and I'm seriously considering) going back to play more Qix right now.
Microsoft, bring Qix to the Live Arcade. Please?
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Monday, December 03, 2007 |
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Hope for a Maturing Industry
Talk about a stormy couple of months in the videogame world. The videogame industry has seen amazing growth in recent years and people outside of the traditional fan base are beginning to take notice. With that comes money and those who wield it, leaving many hardcore gamers with thoughts of more innocent times. It wasn’t so long ago that videogames were made in garages and basements and the only thing that mattered to gamers was getting the high score -- not sales numbers, marketshare or how high up the ladder a game ranked on MetaCritic. But times have changed and that change has not always been a smooth one.
This past weekend, Activision and Vivendi announced their intentions to become Activision Blizzard. This puts the combined forces of Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Warcraft under a single parent company. Think about that for a second. This is a massive company. We’re talking about billions of dollars in revenue here.
A lot of people are worried about what this means for their favorite franchises. It’s clear that nobody wants a forced release schedule to milk the hits for all they’re worth. A quick look at the lukewarm reception the ninth Tony Hawk game received this year shows tolerance wearing thin. Gamers are becoming savvier and it won’t be long before the name and shiny boxart isn’t enough to carry a franchise. Along with high profile sites like IGN or GameSpot, there are less Google-friendly ways of learning about games that are becoming more and more important. Blogs, message boards and fan sites are increasingly stepping in to round out the information available to those that seek it. Those that do are making more informed purchases that will ultimately shape the direction of such mega companies as Activision Blizzard.
But this speaks to a business trend that shows the videogame industry rapidly catching up with its peers. As we fans continue to demand flashier graphics, more engrossing stories and innovation, the cost of making these blockbusters is skyrocketing. A single major failure is approaching disaster levels of totally bankrupting a small publisher. Atari’s struggles to stay afloat are no secret. The desires for financial stability were given as driving forces behind BioWare and Pandemic being bought by EA as well as Bizarre scrambling over to Activision. Large companies can weather disasters much more readily than small ones. Take a look at the movie or music industry and you see several major companies running the show. This is not a fluke. Smaller and independent companies simply run at a higher level of risk, which can create instability in the long run.
A pleasant side effect of the race to create ever more complex games is that the cost to make simpler ones is going down. The rise of digital distribution on the PC and home consoles is creating a viable and low-cost model for independent studios. At the same time that we see development costs skyrocketing, we’re seeing a return of the garage studio.
It’s not a pleasant thought to picture the future of gaming using the same business model as movies and music, but it was likely inevitable as the business side of the industry matured. There is still hope for the future after the dust clears. Independent studios can operate outside of the confines that money brings. Gamers, with their democratic use of the internet, can look past marketing, hype and franchise dilution.
That won’t always be easy, as we have seen in the past week.
Jeff Gerstmann, long one of the editors most readily associated with Gamespot, was fired. I don’t know the full story…or really anything beyond what has been posted around the net, but I do know this: the rumors are scary.
It’s scary for the people who still work at Gamespot and I wish them the best. It’s scary for us at IGN with similar jobs to even think that something like that could ever happen (by the way, we’ve been told by those on high that it never would). It’s scary for readers of game reviews everywhere.
Regardless of what the full story is, a dark cloud has been cast over the entire industry. Yet I still remain hopeful for the future. It’s good that this has sparked so much quality conversation alongside the outrage. It’s good that this isn’t something people are taking lightly. It’s good that the internet provides a forum where information can be spread and things like this can’t be swept under the rug.
Recently, we’ve heard rumblings of mainstream media outlets picking up on the story. I hope they do. Perhaps in the long run this ordeal can force positive change. In case you haven’t noticed, enthusiast sites aren’t alone in reporting on the games we all love anymore. Rolling Stone has begun regularly writing about videogames, and quite well. The same goes for the New York Times. Even if we have seen a few stinkers, things on the whole are looking up.
Things are going to stay bumpy for a while before the industry fully matures. In the meantime, I’ll remain hopeful.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 |
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GTA Boxart Unveiling Video
Seriously.
Do you care about GTA IV as much as Rockstar thinks you do?
If the answer is 'yes' then this video was made especially for you.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 |
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That's What I'm Talking About
American Gladiators is coming back! I finally saw a commercial for it last night, making me ever so excited for January.
Time to start doing crunches, pull-ups and blasting quads until I'm good enough to take on America's best.
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