Category: Game Developers

Activision Turned Infinity Ward into a Police State: You Buy It?

According to Kotaku, 40 past and present Infinity Ward employees have filed suit against Activision for a slew of reasons, including turning the work environment into a “police state”. Here’s my favorite passage from the article:

The suit says that had Activision not fired West and Zampella, withheld the bonus, created a hostile work place, not created a “police state-like atmosphere” they would have stayed on with the publisher.

I’m sure things were bad at Infinity Ward, but calling it a police state is ridiculous. Do these guys and gals know what it’s like to live in North Korea? I’ve avoided writing about the Activision/Infinity Ward issue because I really don’t think it’s that interesting and the enthusiast press has presented an overblown description of the situation. The “police state” line cracked me up though. No matter how bad it was, I’m positive it was nothing like living in communist Cuba.

What do you think of the situation? Do you think it was police-state bad? Do you care? Do you want more stories on this? Or can I happily ignore it?

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Hideo Kojima Says That Japanese Youth Lacks Motivation

Kojima Productions’ Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) posted a meaty Twitter rant about Japanese youth and their role in the future of game development. He’s very candid with his feelings that motivation and passion are lacking in Japan. Check it out:

Lately I have come to conclusion that, with highly motivated foreigners… it doesn’t matter where they are from, working with highly motivated indiviuals is the only way to move forward. I am tired of taking care of people who do not have the passion.

The Game Industry is very similar. The West is very motivated. The younger generation of Japan is losing. The designers and to-be-designers in the West have the focus, ambition, and ability to make their dream become true. So it is not the Japanese technology or culture that is losing, we are lacking the motivation.

In contrast, the number of students that study abroad from Japan has decreased. There are very few Japanese students at the prestigious Harvard University, and in MIT…zero. The engineering population in Japan may be in jeopardy. We should first review our education system here in Japan.

That’s pretty scathing stuff from a Japanese developer. I’m actually shocked that it came out of his mouth and not Tomonobu Itagaki’s. The rant reminds me of those silly Arakawa Group sketches on Saturday Night Live where fake Japanese people referred to Americans as “fat and lazy”.

Seriously though, over the last decade Japan has become less important to gaming than it once was. I wonder if the trend will continue. Perhaps the Japanese development community needs a kick in the pants. It’s one thing for Kojima to rant about it, but will he make an effort to make sure Japanese kids get the proper education and follow the right path to become a successful developer?

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Cliff Bleszinksi Holds the Key to Quality Game Journalism

My friend Cliff Bleszinski, the amazingly talented designer from Epic Games, sent out a tweet praising an excellent article by Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo. It was a great read and Cliff was right to call out Totilo’s superior work. The second half of the tweet amused me. Cliff wrote, “Take note blogs, more of this, less rumors and flame bait please.”

Gaming blogs do spend too much time reporting rumors and…encouraging debates. Those kinds of articles generate the most traffic and reader comments. I fully admit that I post both types of stories (though I’m a verbal entertainer, not a journalist, so it’s totally cool). For most blogs, it’s what the readers and advertisers want.

The thing is, unlike most people that read gaming blogs, Cliff is in a position to do something about the type of writing that gets page views and advertisements. That’s why I tweeted back, “Tell your publishers to advertise on sites with quality writing and there will be less flame bait/rumors.” Certainly he can’t tell Microsoft, “You’re only going to advertise Gears of War 3 on Gamasutra, The Escapist, and The Huffington Post,” but he can nudge his publishers in that direction.

Our brief exchange — which I’m positive he didn’t read until I pointed it out to him — reminded me of this moment at DICE 2009. Several high-profile developers were on panel and complained about the quality and type of writing most game journalists produce. My friend Tom Russo, former editor-in-chief of Next Generation, quickly spoke up and told the developers that Next Gen had the content they wanted but publishers didn’t support it with advertising. If that’s what they really wanted then they should have done something about it. (By the way, this was a moving speech that’s up there with Bill Pullman’s rally in Independence Day.) I’m sure there were other factors other than what Tom mentioned, but I’m also sure that the lack of publisher support was a major reason Next Gen shut down.

So yeah! A lot of people — developers, publishers, gamers, chimney sweepers, etc. — claim that they want smarter coverage of the gaming business. A lot of people say they’ll read quality articles with plenty of thought. Few people are in a position to support web sites that offer such writing. Cliff Bleszinski is one of the people that can help quality writing flourish. So how about if Cliff? You going to help your publishers put their money where your mouth is?

(On a related note, since I’m a verbal entertainer and not a game journalist, a special amount of Gears of War 3’s advertising budget should go to my site. Gears can have all the ad slots on the site for a year for a special price of however much it costs for me to live/work in Koh Samui for a year.)

Shigeru Miyamoto Says That Cats Are Like Girls

During a roundtable discussions at E3 2010, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that cats were originally part of Nintendogs, but they didn’t behave quite right. For example, when dogs are happy they wag their tail. Cats…not so much.

As with several Miyamoto games, a lot of the ideas behind Nintendogs + Cats were derived from his personal experience. As many of you know, a lot of his ideas from Zelda came from playing in caves, likewise for Pikmin and gardening, and finally Nintendogs and his family dog. Miyamoto picked up a kitten and was fascinated by the way it interacted with his dog.

Miyamoto jokingly stated that cats are similar to women:

Cats are interesting. They’re kind of like girls. If they come and talk to you, it’s great. If you go and talk to them, sometimes it doesn’t turn out so well.

Too true Mr. Miyamoto. Too true.

Tomonobu Itagaki’s New Game Revealed Today: What Will It Be?!?

Earlier in the week, Tomonobu Itagaki — the man behind Tecmo’s Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games — revealed that his next project will be shown at E3 2010. Valhalla Game Studios — the company Itagaki started after leaving Tecmo — has updated its site and revealed that the first wave of info will hit today! The game will be shown tonight on Spike TV’s pre-E3 special at 8:30PM Pacific Time.

I’m really looking forward to Itagaki’s new game…which is kind of weird because I’m pretty sure I find him more interesting than his games. Don’t get me wrong, I think Ninja Gaiden is fantastic and I’ve enjoyed lots of DOA Xtreme over the years. As a verbal entertainer, I enjoy Itagaki’s brash and bold personality (it’s easy to get interesting quotes from him). Plus, there was this one time in band camp Japan where we made this rookie journalist wait outside the interview room while we smoked and chatted about nothing — good times.

Anyway, let me know if you’re interested in Itagaki’s big reveal. What are you expecting? Will it have ninjas? Is it a fighting game? Will it feature buxom wenches playing volleyball? Or is it going to be something unexpected? Whatever it is, I’m sure it will look stunning. I can’t wait!

PlayStation Move Developer Diary: The Shoot

Here’s a Sony developer diary for The Shoot. It’s an interesting example of motion controls in a traditional game. With motion controls set to play a huge part of E3 2010, I wanted to hear what you guys and gals thought about this developer diary. While nothing beats hands-on experience, this clip should give you a good idea of what to expect from Move in a shooter.

Insomniac Signs with EA Partners, Will Go Multiplatform

Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank, Resistance) has signed a publishing deal with EA Partners. After 16 years (spanning 13 titles) of developing games exclusively for Sony PlayStation consoles, the developer has decided to branch out with EA Partners. Incomniac founder and CEO Ted Price told Gamasutra:

It was the desire to reach more players. We’re extremely happy with the loyal PlayStation 3 fan base, and our goal now is to take our games to a broader player base — to go to Xbox 360 as well.

We’ve been building to this point for a while. We have multiple teams working at Insomniac. We have a team dedicated to this project. We are dedicating new technology for the Xbox 360. As a company, we are taking more time for all our projects to make sure we can really polish them up and make sure fans have the best experience possible.

This is a great deal for EA Partners, which gets to publish games from one of the best developers in the world. Although Price insisted that his company’s commitment to Sony will remain strong, it has to be seen as a blow to the PlayStation 3. Sony’s exclusive relationship with fantastic developers like Insomniac, Naughty Dog, and Sucker Punch helped differentiate its first-party games from the competition’s. It’s great that more gamers will get to experience Insomniac’s games, but it definitely sucks for Sony that it has to share the love.

Honestly, I’m still in a bit of shock. I haven’t had my coffee yet and this is big news to wake up to. How do you boys and girls feel about it?

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Google’s Chris Pruett Speaks on Developing Android Games

Here are several photos from Google developer advocate Chris Pruett’s Google I/O 2010 panel on developing games for Android. Looking at the slides will give you a better understand of the challenges Android developers face. In addition to developing for a relatively new platform, Android developers have to contend with multiple versions of the operating system floating around on different hardware (various screen resolutions, trackballs, d-pads, keyboards, etc). Optimizing for the latest and greatest version is all well and good, but considering that a large portion of the phones are running older versions of Android and the input options differ from phone to phone, games have to be scaled to work for all kinds of users.

Pruett used his experience creating Replica Island to give developers insights on different approaches to take in creating Android games. One of the coolings ways he took advantage of the mobile platform was tracking difficulty and updating the game accordingly. His game sends back data on where players are dying. He sees the results on level maps containing heat spots that indicated where players were dying the most. With updates, he adjusts levels to be less frustrating and more fun.

Pictures of the map and more can be found below!

Coffee Talk #142: Do You Dream About Game Companies?

I’ve told a few of you about this already, but I’ve been having this dream about BioWare for the last decade or so. I’m at this super fancy awards show (think Oscars or Emmys). I’m wearing a tuxedo and I’m at a podium presenting an award. Finally, with complete seriousness I say:

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, why Chase’s customer services sucks, highlights of last night’s Monday Night Raw (missed it), or your feelings on the Thor movie, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’ve told a few of you about this already, but I’ve been having this dream about BioWare for the last decade or so. I’m at this super fancy awards show (think Oscars or Emmys). I’m wearing a tuxedo and I’m at a podium presenting an award. Finally, with complete seriousness I say:

And the award for best white developer goes to — oh my God! — Ray and Greg! BioWare!!!

I’ve actually told BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk about this dream. The reason I’m bringing it up again? Well, I’ve been having another BioWare dream…but I’ll share that with you tomorrow.

For now I’d love to hear about your videogame-company dreams. I’m not talking about dream games. I’m talking about dreams that involve developers, publishers, etc. Perhaps you’ve had a dream where you match wits with Will Wright. Maybe you’ve explored caves and tended gardens with Shigeru Miyamoto. I know at least one of you has had a dream about Cliff Bleszinski in lingerie (bonus points for ornate tales about Cliffy in a thong). Share your dreams in the comments section (please)!

Developers Speak on PlayStation Move

Here’s an interesting promotional video on Sony’s PlayStation Move featuring developers that are working on games for the upcoming motion-controller hardware. Espousing the virtues of PlayStation Move are Sony’s Dr. Richard Marks, The Workshop Entertainment’s Peter Ackerman and Christian Busic, Zindagi’s Romain Soson and Andrew Jepson, Farsight’s Jay Obernolte, and more.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Does the video make you more interested in PS Move? Or are you expecting a batch of improved Wii games?