| Video Games: The Movie hits funding goal May 29th 2013, 15:17 Mediajuice Studios' documentary on games gets $60,000 in funding in under two weeks; stretch goals revealed. 
The Kickstarter campaign for independent film Video Games: The Movie has met its $60,000 funding target for post-production efforts. With 19 days remaining, funding stands at $70,052 from 567 backers. The $60,000 was raised in under two weeks and will be used to fund post-production on the film, including editing, a musical score, motion graphics, and the acquisition of licensed archival clips. Mediajuice also has announced three stretch goals for Video Games: The Movie. Should the project raise $80,000 by June 18, the film will be narrated by an unspecified celebrity. If the project gets to $100,000, Mediajuice will purchase the rights to "popular" songs to be used in the movie. If funding reaches $120,000 a "famous" band or composer will create a musical score for Video Games: The Movie. The film features interviews with some of the industry's most experienced and influential designers, celebrities, and executives, including Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton, and a long list of others. It aims to highlight many hot-button topics, including the link between video games and real-world violence, games as art, next-generation trends, and stereotypes that "plague" the industry. Video Games: The Movie also shot a number of scenes on-location at industry events like Comic-Con, Pax, and E3 and studio shoots at places like Gearbox Software, 343 Industries, and Epic Games, among others. Director Jeremy Snead and Mediajuice Studios originally launched a crowd-funding campaign for Video Games: The Movie through IndieGoGo last year, gathering $1,790 of a $107,550 goal. Unlike Kickstarter, IndieGoGo is not all-or-nothing, thus allowing Snead and Mediajuice Studios to use those funds. Video Games: The Movie is expected to premiere this summer in Los Angeles, before being released theatrically and on home video and video-on-demand through a distributor yet to be announced. For more on Video Games: The Movie, check out GameSpot's interview with its creators. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
|  | Industry sounds off on violent games debate May 29th 2013, 14:46 Developers from Gearbox, Epic Games, and Blizzard challenge assertion that games cause violence; "It's like finding your dad's Playboys under the bed and blaming Playboy." 
Violence in games does not cause violence in the real world. That's the message developers from Gearbox, Epic Games, and Blizzard have provided in an clip from the upcoming film Video Games: The Movie released this week. "There's always a lot of media talking about violence in video games. And certainly there are violent video games. But that's not how you describe the medium of gaming," Blizzard Entertainment chief creative officer Rob Pardo said. "The interesting thing, I think, with games, is that we actually have an even better ratings system than movies but there's still kind of this general misunderstand with the older generation that all games are like Grand Theft Auto. It would be like saying 'We don't want anyone to go watch movies because all movies are violent.' But people don't say that because everyone really understands movies as a medium. " Gearbox Software creative designer Mikey Neumann said parents should be accountable for the media their children consume instead of blaming the gaming industry. "It's weird how when you watch the people and they go to Congress and they're angry: 'Our kids are being corrupted.' I'm like 'Yeah, exactly. Your kids,' Neumann said. "They're your children; you should be not corrupting them. 'I leave them alone ten hours a day, he's getting corrupted by this.' Well no sh**. It's like finding your dad's Playboys under the bed and then blaming Playboy." Former Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski is also quoted in the video. He said the causal link the media draws between games and violence is a fallacy. "Last time I checked, Cain didn't bludgeon Abel with a Gameboy; Genghis Khan didn't have an Xbox Live account; and Hitler didn't play Crash Bandicoot." -- Tommy Tallarico "People like to make just kind of a causal link and say well video games cause violence. It's like, let's see, so, there's more crime in the summer and more ice cream is sold in the summer, therefore ice cream causes crime. That's not how legitimate scientific research works," he said. Game composer Tommy Tallarico, cousin of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, acknowledged that violence is a fundamental element of the human condition, but said this is not a reason to blame violent games for violent behavior. "Violence unfortunately is a part of human nature. And last time I checked, Cain didn't bludgeon Abel with a Gameboy; Genghis Khan didn't have an Xbox Live account; and Hitler didn't play Crash Bandicoot," Tallarico said. "I don't believe that video games are murder simulators; if anything, what the statistics prove is that it's exactly the opposite." Lastly, Epic Games art director Wyeth Johnson said he believes the violent game debate will subside in time, due in part to the game business being young, relative to other forms of entertainment. "You realize that it's about imagination and invention and connection to a world and it doesn't have these big trappings that people apply to them," Johnson said. "So I think it's a problem that's just going to naturally evolve away and we just have to defend the industry until that evolution happens." Games have been a much-discussed topic by mass media since the December schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut that left 20 children and six adults dead. The shooter was reportedly a "deranged gamer." Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Resistance dev Insomniac is 'just getting started' with Fuse May 29th 2013, 14:30 Insomniac is looking into "expanding what we've begun with Fuse," but says it's not talking about DLC for the game. 
Developer Insomniac is "just getting started" with the Fuse universe, and says it already planning new "experiences" for the franchise. Fuse launched for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this week, and the Resistance and Ratchet & Clank has pledged its commitment to the new IP. "We’ve already begun expanding what we’ve begun with Fuse," wrote Insomniac CEO Ted Price on his blog. The new experiences being developed are not related to DLC for the game, Price adds. "Right now as I write this we’re taking the core concepts behind Fuse and prototyping new stuff’stuff that leverages this bizarre alien substance which is at the heart of the game. No, I’m not talking about DLC. I’m talking about new Fuse experiences altogether." Price said he is "damn proud" of the game, but is aware that the studio attracted its fair share of controversy from its decision to switch from cartoony Overstrike to a grittier Fuse mid-way through development. "I’m well aware that we’ve taken some heat over our switch from Overstrike to Fuse. We read the YouTube comments. We watch the forums. And we listen," said Price. "After our re-reveal of the game in summer 2012 we continued to make adjustments to the game, adding more color; making sure the humor came through in emergent dialogue. No, we didn’t make aesthetic changes because of a 12 year-old’s focus test comments. We did what we thought was right for the Fuse universe. In particular we focused on creating co-op weapons and gameplay that we think work better than any other co-op shooter out there and allowed that to drive the game." Price said the studio has been "unusually (and sometimes unintentionally) open" about the switch between Overstrike and Fuse, and that Insomniac has been "giving everyone a window into the changes we’ve made along the way." "This has been both good and bad for us," added Price. "While I know there are some who will never be convinced that moving to Fuse was the right decision, I know there are many who appreciate what we’ve done. I know there are many who will try Fuse and will love it." GameSpot awarded Fuse a 7.0 in its review of the game, calling Insomniac's first multi-platform title in the developer's near 20-year history a "slick third-person shooter that is just fine to play solo, but a lot of fun with friends." Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Itagaki: Devil's Third will 'surprise' people May 29th 2013, 14:05 Tomonobu Itagaki says project "going along really well" and Valhalla is in talks with publishers to bring game to market; "Valhalla Corner" opened at Roman game museum. 
Tomonobu Itagaki's third-person game Devil's Third remains in development at Valhalla Game Studios and aims to "surprise" gamers, the Japanese developer said in the latest issue of Famitsu (translated by Polygon). "It's going along really well," Itagaki said. "We're discussing things with publishers; we're continuing to expand on and deepen the gameplay. That's about the level we're at." Itagaki did not give details regarding which publishers have shown interest in the game. Devil's Third was originally slated to be published by the now-bankrupt THQ. Devil's Third will not be on display at next month's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Itagaki confirmed, noting it "wasn't the timing for that" yet. The game is progressing well, he continued to say, noting the project may "surprise" people. "The game itself is pretty well along in development," he said. "I'm building upon the context I've created up to now to provide gameplay that will really surprise people. I'm not sure there's really a game like this on consoles, and I'd like fans to know that I'm definitely building this up Itagaki-style." Valhalla Game Studios plans to expand the Devil's Third property into other forms of media, including manga, novels, animation, and film, in an effort to spin the fiction into a "blockbuster franchise." In addition, Valhalla Game Studios announced today that a "Valhalla Corner" has been opened at the Vigamus Video Game Museum in Rome. It features the work of Itagaki, spanning Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, and Devil's Third. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | PlayStation 4 devs required to support Vita Remote Play - Report May 29th 2013, 13:45 All PS4 games, with the exception of PlayStation Eye titles, required to support Remote Play, suggests report.   
PlayStation 4 developers are being required to include support for Sony's PS Vita Remote Play function in their upcoming games, according to a new report on Digital Foundry. The only games excluded from Remote Play support will be those that use the PlayStation 4 camera, according to Digital Foundry's "trusted PlayStation 4 developer source with a proven track record." The move, if true, would help bolster the library of the PS Vita, as well as offering functionality integral to Nintendo's Wii U console. Unlike with the PlayStation 3, Remote Play is supposed on the PlayStation 4 at an operative system level, allowing developers to utilise the service without making concessions to the speed of their software. The service works by rendering the game as video and transmitting the images wirelessly over the users' local network to the PS Vita in a fashion similar to cloud-powered game services like OnLive. Sony, which purchased cloud-streaming technology Gaikai last year, showed PlayStation 4 platformer Knack running on the Vita via Remote Play when it unveiled its next-generation console back in February. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Nintendo details Best Buy E3 Wii U promotion May 29th 2013, 13:31 Demos of "select" Wii U titles will be playable at 110 locations across North America on June 12 and June 15. 
Nintendo has provided more details regarding its recently announced partnership with Best Buy that will allow gamers to play some of the Wii U titles it shows off next month at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Mario maker today released a list of over 100 North American Best Buy locations that will host the games. Nintendo did not specify which titles will be playable, though the company has previously confirmed Wii U Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and 3D Mario games will be on display at E3 2013. The Wii U games will be playable at Best Buy locations on June 12 from 4-8 p.m. and June 15 from 1-5 p.m. Nintendo cautioned that participating Best Buy stores are subject to change. The most up-to-date list is available through a special Best Buy landing page. Below are the US Best Buy locations participating in the promotion Alabama
Birmingham
Huntsville
Arkansas
Fort Smith
North Little Rock
Arizona
Phoenix
California
Culver City
Elk Grove
Emeryville
San Jose
Tracy
Visalia
Colorado
Denver
Connecticut
Manchester
Delaware
Wilmington
Florida
Brandon
Fort Myers
Gainesville
Kissimmee
Miami
Pensacola
Georgia
Augusta
Duluth
Savannah
Smyrna
Iowa
Cedar Rapids
West Des Moines
Illinois
Bloomington
Schaumburg
Indiana
Greenwood
Kansas
Overland Park
Wichita
Kentucky
Florence
Lexington
Louisville
Louisiana
Harvey
Massachusetts
Cambridge
Dedham
Worcester
Maryland
Frederick
Glen Burnie
Wheaton
Michigan
Ann Arbor
Flint
Grand Rapids
Rochester Hills
Minnesota
Eden Prairie
Missouri
St. Louis
North Carolina
Cary
Fayetteville
Pineville
Winston-Salem
New Jersey
Iselin
West Paterson
Woodbury
New York
Albany
Amherst
Long Island City
Syracuse
Valley Stream
West Nyack
Ohio
Fairborn
North Olmsted
Reynoldsburg
Toledo
Oklahoma
Oklahoma City
Oregon
Portland
Pennsylvania
Erie
King of Prussia
Pittsburgh
Reading
Whitehall
South Carolina
Greenville
North Charleston
Tennessee
Brentwood
Knoxville
Memphis
Texas
Arlington
Austin
Houston
McAllen
The Woodlands
Tyler
Utah
Sandy
Virginia
Charlottesville
Glen Allen
Virginia Beach
Vermont
Williston
Washington
Lynnwood
Wisconsin
Greenfield
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Blizzard confirms 'large design and technology changes' for Titan May 29th 2013, 12:09 Developer confirms World of Warcraft follow-up undergoing major overhaul. 
Blizzard Entertainment has issued a statement regarding yesterday's claim that its World of Warcraft follow-up--codenamed Titan--was being sent back to the drawing board. "We've always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We've come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game," the company said in a statement to Kotaku. "We're using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes," the statement goes on. "Note that we haven't announced any dates for the MMO." Yesterday's report claimed the Titan development team was cut from 100 to 30, with the 70 displaced staffers not let go, but rather reassigned to other projects inside the company. The report also suggested Titan would not be brought to market before 2016. Blizzard Entertainment has been at work on Titan for years now. The game was playable more than two years ago, with company COO Paul Sams singing its praises thoroughly. "We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play," Sams said at the time. "We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before. We're very excited about that. I believe that it's the type of game that will have a very long life, much like World of Warcraft has." Blizzard Entertainment's current MMO, World of Warcraft, is the biggest subscription-based MMO on the market. It launched in 2004 and had 8.3 million subscribers at the end of March, down from a peak playerbase of 12 million in 2010. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Humble Indie Bundle 8 flies past $1m in sales May 29th 2013, 11:43 Latest bundle of indie games features seven well-received indie titles, with a portion of proceeds going to charity. 
The latest in the long-running series of pay-what-you-want indie bundles has sailed past one million dollars raised in less than 24 hours after going on sale. At time of writing the Humble Indie Bundle 8, which was released yesterday, has raised $1,002,383 after being purchased 176,019 times. Included in the bundle, which will be available for two weeks, are indie well-regarded titles Little Inferno, Awesomenauts, Capsized, Thomas Was Alone, and Dear Esther. Customers who pay above the average purchase price--which currently stands at $5.69--will also get copies of Hotline Miami and Proteus. The games are provided DRM free, and customers who pay more than $1 will get Steam keys for any applicable titles. Each of the titles featured in the bundle are compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and soundtracks for every game apart from Hotline Miami are also provided. Revenue generated from the bundle is split between the developers, the bundle organisers, and charities Child's Play and The Electronic Frontier Foundation. The average purchase price of the bundle currently stands at $5.69. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Xbox One E3 showing will 'get it right,' assures Microsoft exec May 29th 2013, 10:43 Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg asserts that the company's E3 2013 presentation will clear up Xbox One questions. 
Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg has further reiterated that the company's E3 2013 press conference will shed light on many gamers' issues and concerns surrounding the recently unveiled Xbox One. Since the console's unveiling last week gamers have questioned the Xbox One's handling of preowned software, the privacy implications of its always-connected Kinect peripheral, and the company's decision to leave the bulk of its gaming announcements until E3 2013 in June. Greenberg, who serves as Microsoft's chief of staff for interactive entertainment business, took to Twitter (via OXM) in response to a complaint about the Xbox One needing to check-in online. "A lot of assumptions but very little based on facts," he said. "We will share more at E3. We will get it right." Responding to a comment questioning the mood at Microsoft's Redmond HQ, Greenberg responded by saying the "mood is positive, good to be able to start sharing what we are doing. But too many details to cover in one day. Stay tuned." When asked if Microsoft will showcase indie developers at E3, Greenberg pledged that "our team loves indie devs too" and that fans needn't worry. Microsoft has pledged 15 exclusives for the Xbox One in its first year, including eight original IPs. Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference will take place on June 10. GameSpot will be in attendance. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Xbox One cloud service to offer three times console's performance - Report May 29th 2013, 07:43 Cloud services to compliment hardware capabilities; provide richer, larger game worlds. The cloud service supporting Microsoft's Xbox One will multiply the device’s local performance threefold, according to a report by group program manager of Xbox incubation and prototyping, Jeff Henshaw, in an interview with OXM. Henshaw said that the partnership between console hardware and the supporting web service will allow for the ability to create more complex, permanent spaces for gamers to explore and play in. "We're provisioning for developers for every physical Xbox One we build, we're provisioning the CPU and storage equivalent of three Xbox Ones on the cloud," he said. "We're doing that flat out so that any game developer can assume that there's roughly three times the resources immediately available to their game, so they can build bigger, persistent levels that are more inclusive for players. They can do that out of the gate." It’s a sentiment Microsoft Australia marketing manager for console and software, Adam Pollington echoed in an interview with website Stevivor. "It's also been stated that the Xbox One is 10 times more powerful than the Xbox 360, so we're effectively 40 times greater than the Xbox 360 in terms of processing capabilities [using the cloud]. If you look to the cloud as something that is no doubt going to evolve and grow over time, it really spells out that there's no limit to where the processing power of Xbox One can go,’ he said. The news follows comments last week from EA executive vice president and chief technical officer Rajat Teneja, who claimed that the architectures of upcoming hardware is a generation ahead of the highest-end PC on the market. Epic Games vice president and co-founder, Mark Rein voiced his disagreement with the statement on Twitter. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Microsoft investing $1 billion into Xbox One games May 29th 2013, 07:17 At least $1 billion will be invested into next-generation games by Microsoft; core games "always important". 
Microsoft will be investing an unprecedented amount into games for its next-generation console, the Xbox One. Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine, Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer and president of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick discussed the future of the console and the company's vision. At least $1 billion will be invested by Microsoft into next-generation games, a number which may appease fans who scrutinised the company after its Xbox One unveiling focused more on television and entertainment than on games. Speaking about the console's core titles, Mattrick acknowledged that they are "always important". "We just ran through our script and counted the number of exclusives, and looked at the amount of money that we're spending and the deals that we have, exclusive windows and [things to create differentiation]. I think, candidly, people are way, way under-indexing how hard we're punching." Mattrick said. On the topic of the Xbox One's core game market, Mattrick was confident in Microsoft's ability to succeed. "We're going to come out with detail on things, and people are going to go, 'oh my god'. Like, 'they were focused, they made this a core goal, core activity'. There are great hits, there's innovation, and there are world class creators plugged in. There's a lot of hyperbole about things, but I think we're going to deliver." Microsoft has confirmed 15 exclusive games for release in the Xbox One's first year of launch, a move that was accompanied by the opening of Microsoft Game Studios offices in London, Washington, and Victoria, British Columbia. On the topic of the Xbox One as a development platform, Spencer described the new console as an opportunity to engage with a different audience. "People are playing games on all kinds of devices, and games with different business models, with different engagement time frames. I think when we started Xbox 360, so many of the games were about 'I'm going to play it for four or five hours, and then I'm going to play online'. "Today, our creators are really lighting up with the opportunity to build games that can live as full-screen immersive experiences like you're seeing on shelves today, but also the idea of building device experiences that live in the SmartGlass world that connect to what's on the screen. The ability to take your mobile away with you and continue to engage on it, engage with the game. The opportunities today--more people are playing games today than, I think, ever before," he said. His comments echoed the sentiment of Microsoft senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business Yusuf Mehdi, who claimed that the next-generation of console sales could hit one billion units due to deep media opportunities. "If I want to play a game for two minutes, or I want to play a game for two hours, or I want to play a game with twenty other people, all of those opportunities are available on the platform we're putting forward," Spencer added. For more interviews and news about the Xbox One, check out GameSpot's Xbox One hub. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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