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Archive for April, 2010
Most Popular Games 4-16-10
Apr 22nd
| Game Stats MOST POPULAR GAMES 4-16-10 | ||||||
| Rank This Week | Rank Last Week | Format | Title | Genre | Vendor | Release |
| 1 | 1 | X360 | Halo: Reach | Shooter | Microsoft | 09/30/10 |
| 2 | 2 | PS3 | God of War III | Action | Sony | 03/16/10 |
| 3 | 3 | X360 | Red Dead Redemption | Act/Adv | Rockstar Games | 05/18/10 |
| 4 | 4 | X360 | Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction | Action | Ubi Soft | 04/13/10 |
| 5 | 8 | Wii | Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Platformer | Nintendo | 05/23/10 |
| 6 | New | X360 | Mass Effect 3 | RPG | EA | 12/31/11 |
| 7 | 5 | PS3 | Red Dead Redemption | Act/Adv | Rockstar Games | 05/18/10 |
| 8 | New | PS3 | Gears of War 3 | Shooter | Microsoft | 04/30/11 |
| 9 | New | PS3 | Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City | Compilation | Rockstar Games | 04/13/10 |
| 10 | 6 | PS3 | Final Fantasy XIII | Action RPG | Square Enix | 03/09/10 |
| 7 | PS3 | Heavy Rain | Adv | Sony | 02/23/10 | |
| 9 | X360 | Fable III | RPG | Microsoft | 12/30/10 | |
| 10 | X360 | Alan Wake | Action | Microsoft | 05/18/10 | |
Facebook Needs to Become More Like Xbox Live, says Zynga
Apr 22nd
Facebook has seen tremendous success, and there’s perhaps no better example of a beneficiary of this social networking boom than games developer Zynga, which has grown by leaps and bounds over the last year. Now, however, Facebook needs to decide just how it’s going to evolve as a platform and a business, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said at the Inside Social Apps conference [thanks VentureBeat].
“Facebook is at a crossroads,” Pincus said. “They have to decide whether it’s more important to be the web’s social platform, to make their social plumbing pervasive,” he added, referring to more open technologies like Facebook Connect. Pincus believes that Facebook ultimately has a chance to become far more universal than it is today. “They have a more obvious business model around being a portal,” Pincus said. “I hope they find the business model around the plumbing.”
What direction does Pincus think Facebook should head in? Basically, he sees Microsoft’s Xbox Live as a perfect example. “Where this ought to go is it should be an open Xbox Live for the Web,” he said. “If we get to this place where there are achievements, a consistent user experience, a way for web publishers and networks and sites to participate, and an easy way for developers to develop amazing game experiences that enhance relationships among people, then I think social gaming can end up being the few real consumer experiences on the web and be a massively large business for all of us.”
GameCore Takes on Unity in the 3D Browser Space
Apr 22nd
LOS ANGELES — While much has been written about game engine company Unity and its impact on social games, a new competitor is out to prove that 3D social gaming and cross-platform development is the future. Helios Interactive CEO Rave Mehta, who is speaking Thursday in Los Angeles at the 3D Gaming Summit, talks about his company’s new cross-platform development toolset, GameCore, and how it could change the dimension of how casual players embrace social games not only on PC and Mac, but on Xbox 360, iPhone and iPad.
IndustryGamers: How have you seen the videogame industry evolve recently?
Rave Mehta: The nature of what we call a videogame experience has changed dramatically in the past few years. The market has split into the large Hollywood-style AAA releases for consoles that are more and more life-like, which require larger and larger teams, and huge investments in time and capital to produce. On the other side, as AAA games have become more expensive and difficult to produce, an ever-growing gap in the market has appeared that is slowly being filled by smaller, innovative developers producing games for an ever-growing list of platforms. Nintendo took the first swing at this with the Wii — focusing on simple, fun, cartoony, non-realistic games that engage a different audience who were looking for more of a social experience. The success of the Wii, the phenomena of social gaming and the popularity of the more advanced mobile devices are some of the early results of this new era of gaming. The simple fact that a large percentage of people that play games on Facebook (as an example), do not identify themselves as gamers says a huge amount about the nature of the changing face of video game experiences today.
IG: What role has this migration to social games played in your company?
RM: While we love playing the next big game as much as anyone, this shift is something that we noticed many years ago and began developing a custom ‘rapid game creation’ system which has evolved over several major iterations into the GameCore technology we have today. One of our primary goals is to streamline the development process and make it easier for anyone — hobbyist, student, professional or studio — to create fun and compelling games.
IG: What is GameCore?
RM: GameCore is, first and foremost, an integrated development environment for producing 3D games. GameCore provides a true end-to-end solution for producing games that can be delivered seamlessly across a wide range of platforms. We have the full range of high-end features that developers and gamers expect for modern games, including real-time physics, morph targets, advanced animation support, 64 bit HDR rendering and other advanced post-processing effects. On Windows, we support both DirectX and OpenGL, and OpenGL for the Mac. GameCore also provides a complete server-side implementation as well that includes account management, online user profiles, leaderboards, cloud-based save games as well as a robust NAT traversal and master server system for online networked games. We also have custom server-side implementations that provide seamless integration into Facebook, as well. Integrations for other popular social networking sites will be rolled out over the coming months.
IG: What types of games will we be seeing on Facebook that use this tech?
RM: GameCore allows developers to rapidly iterate and produce content. Helios is focused on producing seed proof of concept games — the first example of which is the Truck Off monster truck racing game — that both showcase the kinds of games that are possible on these platforms and also provide complete, polished and professional games that are fun to play. By creating these games ourselves internally, we’ve been able to easily identify and improve the development process and add improvements to the technology that our licensees can benefit from.
IG: How long did it take to make Truck Off?
RM: To give you an idea of how long it took to produce a multi-player 3D social game like Truck Off compared to some of the larger 2D Facebook games, at GDC developers from Zynga mentioned that FarmVille’s initial development took 5 weeks with 15-20 people to complete prior to launch. A small team of five produced Truck Off in roughly 3 weeks, including developing the custom Facebook integration. We feel that this ability to produce sophisticated 3D games rapidly will completely change the dynamic of what is possible on the social gaming platforms. Additionally, many of these proof of concept games will also be made available to our developer community as game templates that can be dissected and used as a basis for creating their own games.
IG: Can you talk about how your technology works with cross-platform gaming?
RM: The biggest advantage to developing with GameCore is the fact that you can truly develop once, and deliver your game to multiple platforms. This is a promise that has been touted many times in the past, but when it came down to the reality of actually developing games, the so-called ‘cross-platform’ capabilities often required developers to rebuild their games essentially on multiple platforms separately.
With GameCore, the game that you deliver on multiple platforms is the exact same content, the exact same gameplay. As a more dramatic example, in our internal tests for the Xbox 360, we literally export the PC version, copy the data onto the 360 and it just works. GameCore handles all of the platform-specific requirements automatically under the hood. There is no real porting involved in jumping from one platform to another. Create a PC game and decide later on to ship a Mac version and it’s all of a couple of mouse clicks. The same goes for development – you can have some developers on Windows, others on the Mac all working on the same project. Our objective is to provide developers with the freedom to take their games wherever their audience may be – whether it’s on a PC, Mac, Web, Social gaming platform or mobile devices.
IG: Will you be bringing social games to Xbox 360?
RM: Absolutely! We’ve done technical tests with the Xbox 360 and games can seamlessly port to this platform the same as any others. We do have plans to do proper ports to the consoles and believe GameCore will help solve some of the cross-platform development issues that teams run into. On the Xbox 360 side, Microsoft has a history of not allowing games on their console to communicate with “the outside world,” but with their new 3 Screens approach that they showcased at GDC this year, hopefully this will begin to change for upcoming games. Technically, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t have a GameCore game running simultaneously across the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, Mac, Facebook and iPhone/iPad, literally playing the exact same game.
IG: Would gamers be able to play games across PC to the new iPad? What do you see that device adding to games?
RM: For online gaming, you’d probably want to make sure that you are using the WiFi connection on the iPad for an optimal online experience, but yes, most definitely. When you start to get into the more unique devices such as the iPad, I can easily see that developers could come up with equally unique ways to use them, particularly in online games. For example, imagine a dungeon-exploring multiplayer RPG where the ‘dungeon master’ is using the iPad (with a drag-and-drop interface) to spawn enemy encounters, spring traps etc. on the other players that are playing on other devices (PC, Mac, Web, Facebook) in first or third person adventure gameplay modes. As well, a number of online shooters today have commander modes where one player’s role is to drop reinforcements, control artillery, etc. The iPad would be ideal for this kind of interface.
IG: Sounds interesting. Thanks for your time.
Pachter’s Podium: Red Dead Redemption Not Blockbuster Material, DSi XL Facing Obsolescene
Apr 22nd
It’s time once again for our monthly Q&A column with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. In this “Pachter’s Podium,” we chat with Pachter about whether or not Red Dead Redemption can really reach GTA status, what will happen to Infinity Ward and the Modern Warfare brand, the future of PSP and more. Check it out.
IG: Alex St. John recently argued that high budget console titles couldn’t make the switch to digital when the time comes to do so. Will this render current console developers extinct, or will we just see an evolution of that content?
Pachter: I think Alex is one of the most brilliant people I’ve met, and am hesitant ever to disagree with him, as he generally thinks rationally and his conclusions are sound. In this case, I think he’s guilty of a bit of hyperbole. Alex says that “games designed for retail distribution are simply dead in an online world.” This is certainly true, once we have a world in which online gaming is the only option. However, that is not true today, and is not likely to be true for many years. Until a significant majority (more than 80%) of households are connected to high speed Internet, we will likely not see publishers mandating digital downloads or streams of games. The fact is that only around 35% of U.S. and European households have fiber, cable or DSL connections today, and until that penetration rate more than doubles, console games will continue to do well. So while I don’t disagree with Alex that once we have nearly complete broadband adoption in the U.S. and Europe, we’ll see a nearly complete migration to online gaming, I don’t think that the extinction of developers is imminent.
IG: Take-Two has made comments that they consider Red Dead Redemption to be a blockbuster franchise. They said it’s their “most ambitious game to date.” Will RDR really be the next GTA for Take-Two or are they just blowing smoke to validate their purportedly large investment in the game?
Pachter: I’m sure that the quality of Red Dead Redemption is extraordinary, and I expect the game to garner review scores of around 90. Whether the game is a blockbuster franchise will depend upon whether the game resonates with a large segment of the market. The trick in getting a game to sell a lot of units is not as simple as saying it will be a blockbuster. Rather, the game has to be great (likely), has to appeal to a large potential audience (questionable), and has to have solid marketing support (likely). I suppose that you can see where I’m going—I am not sure that a game set in the late 19th century has tremendous mass appeal. I would have said the same for Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, God of War, Dante’s Inferno and any other “period” pieces, yet most of these sold quite well. My bias is that a game that is set in the U.S. West will not be particularly appealing to European audiences, and a game where the most powerful weapon is a Gatling gun will not be particularly appealing to U.S. audiences. With that said, I suppose that the game could sell 2 – 3 million units with a review score of 85 or more and solid marketing, and that’s what I’ve modeled it to sell. I remain skeptical that the game will be considered a “blockbuster franchise,” and certainly do not expect sales to rival those of GTA.
IG: Do you think in hindsight that Activision regrets firing Jason West and Vince Zampella, given the negative PR, the launch of Respawn and signing with EA and the potentially devastating impact it’s had on Infinity Ward?
Pachter: I think that Activision regrets the situation that led to the firing of Jason West and Vince Zampella. The parties appear to have had creative differences, likely about the direction of the Modern Warfare franchise, and it’s clear that Activision decided that it was in their best interests to terminate West and Zampella. I think that once that decision was made, the consequences were clear. It is hard to imagine that West and Zampella would simply retire, and so it seems to me that Activision should have anticipated that they would plan a competitive product, and would solicit former co-workers to join them. I don’t know whether Activision anticipated the negative press, and am pretty confident that they don’t believe that the lasting impact will be “devastating” (as you put it). I don’t think that Infinity Ward will be devastated, given that they will likely retain three-quarters of their employees, and I think it is highly likely that future games based on the Modern Warfare brand will be successful. It’s likely that the gaming press, which is merciless to begin with, will give future Infinity Ward games lower review scores than in the past, but my expectation is that they will still be high scores overall. And while I think that many consumers will be aware that the “creators” of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare are no longer with Activision, the majority of consumers will either not know or will not care enough to shun future games. With that said, I think that it is likely that future games will sell fewer units in the past, primarily due to increased competition from Respawn, DICE and EA games that will likely be in the same or similar genres.
IG: With Nintendo possibly looking to launch the 3DS later this year, do you think Sony will announce a 3D handheld, or what do you think they’ll do to reinvigorate their portable business?
Pachter: I’m not sure what Sony has planned for the portable business. The PSP sounded like a brilliant idea when it was conceived (essentially a portable console for serious gamers, differentiated from the “starter” devices from Nintendo that were marketed to younger audiences), and it’s been modestly successful, but it has never quite performed as well as people expected. I think that the best thing Sony could do to reinvigorate the PSP is to cut price, and yet I’m not sure that they can afford to do so. The PSPgo is a great device, but consumers have voted with their wallets, and low sales levels suggest that the price is just way too high. While I think that the PSP would sell out everywhere at $99, I don’t think we’ll see a price cut below $149 for the 3000 [model] this year, and don’t think the PSPgo will drop to any lower than $199. With sales like this, it’s hard to envision that Sony will create an even more expensive PSP with 3D capability.
IG: You said in one of our previous columns that you thought the DSi XL would not sell well at launch because it was priced too high and that Nintendo killed it with the 3DS announcement. As it turns out the XL had a solid start with 141,000 units sold in its first month. What’s your reaction?
Pachter: I suppose that the audience for the DSi XL consists largely of people who don’t read IndustryGamers, as those who bought a soon-to-be-obsolete device did so with smiles on their faces. There is no question that the DSi XL is a great device, and it comes bundled with software, so the price point is actually reasonable. I suppose that once Nintendo launches the 3DS, sales of the DSi XL will suffer, as a greater percentage of the population will be made aware of its impending obsolescence.
By James Brightman
PlayStation Move, Project Natal to Attract ‘PS2 Type’ Consumers, says Sega
Apr 22nd
With E3 less than two months away now, most video game publishers are preparing to unveil their software lineups for the upcoming motion platforms, PlayStation Move and Project Natal. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the support is divided or if the third parties look to Move and Natal equally as they plan their motion strategies. For its part, Sega seems quite excited about both and Mike Hayes, President of Sega West, told IndustryGamers this week that his company has big plans for Move and Natal.
“We’re very supportive of both [PlayStation Move and Project Natal]. It’s too early to give out details on that, but we’ll provide that at E3. The thing we like about these [motion control] applications is that they tend to suit the traditional Sega genre,” Hayes said. “Look at the phenomenal success we’ve had with games like Mario & Sonic, which effectively is a whole variety of party games that happen to be based on the Olympics. And we’ve done very well recently with Sega All-Star Racing. So we actually like the fact that Move and Natal will bring in more of what I’d call the PS2 type of consumer for those platforms (Xbox 360, PS3), which then suits very much the IP that Sega has. So I’d say we’re fully supportive of both equally, because they’re both very important partners for us as we try and sell more software.”
Of course, both Natal and Move are technically peripherals and historically peripherals haven’t always sold gangbusters, but Hayes is confident that the respective installed bases will be there for these motion platforms. He seemed encouraged by what the first parties have show so far.
“It’s essential that first parties, Sony and Microsoft, do as much as they can to drive the installed base of these peripherals obviously, since that’s what we’re going to base our numbers on. What we’ve heard from both Sony and Microsoft… the investment these two are making in [their products], if you’re a betting man, you’ve got to believe that’s a very good route to follow in terms of developing software. My other point would be, and this might be more Euro-centric, but let’s not forget that Sony has had phenomenal success with peripherals in the past – with the EyeToy they produced and sold several million, and back in the day we produced a game called Sega Superstars, which was an EyeToy game that did very well. And then you see what Sony has done successfully with SingStar, and it’s clear that the consumer definitely likes to buy peripherals in very large numbers,” Hayes noted.
He added, “And the other thing is that the consumer has seen via the Wii how much fun motion-based games are, and for us they’ve been commercially very successful. So I just think the whole idea and concept of what Microsoft and Sony are trying to do is [great]… because the market has changed where it’s become a far more acceptable way of consuming games. So it’s something new, which is always a risk, but I think it’s a very well managed risk, and certainly something we think is worth us spending development dollars on to make sure we’re part of that. We think both are going to be successful.”
Xbox 360 Peak Hours Between 7 – 11 PM, says Nielsen
Apr 22nd
Nielsen
released a study today that confirmed that the peak hours for gaming are between 7 PM and 11 PM, the same as that for prime-time television. Nielsen went beyond these numbers, however, and studied the game playing audience on Xbox Live.
A notable finding showed that the 18 to 35 year-old demographic comprised 45 percent of all players on Xbox Live, while they made up 55 percent of those playing 1 vs. 100. The Nielsen data also says that from month-to-month, roughly 20-25 percent of Xbox 360 consoles are active during prime time hours.
“Advertisers should be very interested to see the amount of time consumers spend interacting with these games – especially during those appointment-based ‘1 vs 100 Live’ sessions,” said Gerardo Guzman, Nielsen Games. “What makes this pilot study so important is the potential for precise audience segmenting. As more game companies and advertisers participate in studies like these, we’re able to define and refine an efficient set of metrics for gaming that can be compared against other media.”
“Our independent research shows that gamers are very engaged while playing, especially during Live Play,” said Carolyn Fuson, Sr. Audience and Analysis Manager, Xbox LIVE Advertising. “In one specific case, an advertiser who placed ads within the games saw notable brand recall and lift. Our ability to learn more about the audience can only be a positive to those brands looking to make an impact on the growing gaming community.”
Infinity Ward Members to Get Bonuses Originally Intended for West, Zampella
Apr 22nd
Dan Amrich, a former member of the press who’s been working as Activision’s social media manager and blogger, today revealed some interesting information on a Facebook group page called “Gamers against Bobby Kotick & Activision.” As it turns out, the remaining Infinity Ward members will be getting redistributed bonuses that had been intended for the fired studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella.
Amrich noted that more employees are likely to leave Infinity Ward despite this. “More people will probably go too, looking for new situations. Maybe they will join Respawn, maybe not. I’m confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus — and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay,” he said. “I’d think if you are young and hungry and have a vision for a new game, IW would be a really good place to be right now. There are so many young and hungry designers, programmers, and developers out there, and I suspect some of them are already employed at IW, just waiting for their shot. When the dust settles, I expect to see some talented people step up and redefine the studio.”
Later in the Facebook discussion, he added, “IW still exists; obviously its identity and company culture are going to go through huge changes in the coming months and years. But can we agree that change also means opportunity? When stuff happens and a situation changes, we all have the same core decision: Stay the course and reinvent, or move on to something else. The people who stick at IW will have to reinvent the studio, but it may well be that some of these people who cut their teeth on MW and MW2 are now ready to step up with their own ideas. AND they are getting a bigger chunk of the bonus money than they expected for what they already did. So…what exactly is the downside of having creative freedom, career opportunity, AND financial reward for a job well done? Nobody’s given me a good answer to that one yet.”
Modern Warfare 2 DLC Pricing a ‘Mistake,’ says Activision Blogger
Apr 22nd
Activision social media manager Dan Amrich, who revealed some information about Infinity Ward bonuses today, has also commented about the recent Stimulus Pack DLC for Modern Warfare 2. The $15 price point for the additional map packs caused a minor uproar in the gaming community, but nearly 25% of Modern Warfare 2 owners still purchased the new content – 2.5 million copies were sold in the first week. Even with the sales success, Amrich believes Activision should have sold the DLC at a lower price.
“I think the $15 price point for MW2 DLC was a mistake,” he said candidly, “and as soon as I had the opportunity I said so, even came up with some alternate suggestions (‘how about $10 for three maps and the two remakes as freebies to thank everybody?’) — but by the time I was made aware, it was too late, and people weren’t really asking me that kind of stuff anyway. Plus, the price clearly was a success so it’s hard to gain traction when they’re looking at a bottom line and going ‘Hey, turns out people felt this content was worth it.’”
Indeed, if people plunk down the cash, Activision and other publishers may consider higher priced DLC content for high-profile games going forward. As EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich wrote in a recent IndustryGamers column, “Am I happy with Activison’s actions? As an economist, yes, since someone needed to test the boundaries on DLC pricing. DLC is a new market opportunity for publishers, and it is because of the intrepid actions of Activision that we now have a few more answers.”
Modern Warfare 2 Enters Guinness Record Books
Apr 21st
Shooter grossed more than $401.6 million in its first day of sales.
April 21, 2010 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now officially in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The company announced the latest shooter from Infinity Ward now holds the record for having “the most successful entertainment launch of all time” when it released last November. Verified first-day sales totaled more than $401.6 million worldwide, surpassing the previous record holder Grand Theft Auto IV from developer Rockstar Games.
Grand Theft Auto IV grossed $310 million in its first day in 2008, record-high at the time in video game sales. Halo 3 from Bungie raked in the third highest of $170 million in 2007.
“Video game releases such as the Call of Duty series have outperformed the launches of major Hollywood blockbusters for several years and the day-one sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved once again that video games have become cultural events in their own right,” said Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition Editor, Gaz Deaves.
The first downloadable multiplayer map pack, the Stimulus Package, sold 2.5 million downloads on Xbox Live in its first week. The PlayStation 3 and PC versions will be released in early May.
