Monday, January 22, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Analyst: Sequel to Rockstar’s Bully Unlikely
Even a week before Bully’s release, most didn’t have a clue what to expect from the off-beat adventure from Rockstar Games. Was it an action game? Were they simply trying to stir up controversy while working on Grand Theft Auto 4? As it turns out, they simply made a surprisingly great game, as evidenced by 1UP lavishing it with a score of 10.Game Politics recently contacted analyst talking head Michael Pachter, otherwise known as managing director of research at Wedbush Morgan Securities, about the game’s sales. Pachter predicts Bully has sold no more than 400,000 units since its October 2006 release and will eventually lose steam somewhere around 800,000 units in the coming months. With less than a million sold, Pachter believes a sequel is unlikely.
“…at an average wholesale price of around $30, so it will likely generate around $24 million in revenues. Since the game took three years to develop, it likely cost Take-Two close to $15 million in R&D, and my guess is that the company did no better than to break even. I would NOT expect a sequel,” he told the website.
1UP contacted Rockstar about Pachter’s statements and received a typical “no comment” from the company.
But, let’s get this straight. According to Pachter, Bully will make roughly $9 million in profit (excluding the marketing budget) and sell almost a million copies, in spite of being a completely new franchise in a mostly undefined genre, relying almost completely on word-of-mouth and the Rockstar brand’s reputation for sales, yet it’s considered a failure? No matter what, Bully appears it will make it a profit, and considering the industry’s reliance on sequels and franchises, isn’t that a win for gamers and Rockstar?
This wouldn’t be the first time Rockstar’s scratched out a sequel, though, as Manhunt never received one, either. Still, here’s hoping we’ll eventually have a chance to experience Jimmy Hopkins’ college life.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tekken 6 Bound for Xbox 360?
Considering Namco’s Tekken 6 was one of the games Sony showed last E3, rumors that the franchise — which has never appeared on another console — is coming to the Xbox 360 with Live Support in 2007 may be premature (even though the source of the rumors is the same place the VF5 to 360 rumors began). However, the recent migration of the Virtua Fighter series to Xbox 360 could motivate Tekken developers to bring the fight (think of the franchises as mortal enemies) to another platform.
When talking about Namco and 3D fighters, expect to hear about the next Soul Calibur coming to the Xbox 360 before Tekken 6 is announced for Microsoft’s platform.
Hollywood Surprised By Xbox Video Marketplace
The push for HD has come from all corners of media, but actually accessing high-definition content isn’t so simple — the amount of people with HD televisions running standard-definition content is staggering. But Hollywood’s initial investment into Microsoft’s service has proved a profitable one, as its direction connection to the TV means there’s no technical wizardry needed to move a computer-downloaded film onto the TV. Do I really expect my mom to figure out DVD burning? I can’t even figure it out.Variety reports that several “industry insiders” have found Xbox Live the only successful movie service in 2006, with Amazon.com’s “Unbox” feature experiencing unexpectedly sluggish sales. “If you look at our sales charts, movies like The Perfect Storm, Unforgiven and Swordfish are all doing disproportionately better than you would expect, and the only explanation is that they’re available in HD,” said Ross Honey, senior director for media in Microsoft’s content and partner strategy group.
No official numbers have been released, but sales trackers report movies like Poseidon, which performed poorly during their box office run, are doing well on Xbox Live — thanks to the availability of a HD version. It’s cheaper and more convenient than tracking down a HD-DVD drive and wondering whether you’re supposed to buy Blu-ray discs or not.
And, hey, Superman Returns just showed up on the service with all the trimmings — HD for the win.
American Games Influenced Lost Planet Team
Largely thanks to Final Fantasy VII, we’ve become accustomed to a drastic difference between the visuals featured in cut scenes for story-heavy games, as they’re traditionally computer generated. As console visuals have advanced, however, we’ve seen a major shift towards story telling occurring via the in-game engine — a trend largely started by American developers, according to the Lost Planet development team at Capcom.”Games from overseas have a really nice presentation, so it’s a good reference for us. I think the way things are portrayed or shown on the screen is really great. A lot of times they do the cutscenes in the actual game, rather than “movie” sequences separate from the gameplay experience,” says Lost Planet Director Kenji Oguro. “These sorts of unique ways of integrating the gameplay and the storytelling are really amazing.”
Oguro cited Electronic Arts’ Lord of the Rings games’ use of actual movie footage to tie the story together as an effective technique he hadn’t seen out of Japan before.
But that doesn’t mean CG scenes have become extinct — Square Enix still leverages them heavily for their big budget RPG releases, something that cut scene director Yoshiyuki Tonoe doesn’t necessarily feel is the best choice. “The latest CG movies found in games are stunning and really help sell the game. But when I think about how they are used to tie the story to the gameplay, I wonder if they are effective at making the games any better.”
It’d probably be a lot cheaper, too. Will Square Enix change their tune with Final Fantasy XIII?
Rare Founders Leave to ‘Pursue Other Opportunities’
Chris and Tim Stamper, two of Rare Ltd.’s (Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark and Viva Pinata) three founders have left the studio. While the news surfaces in the wake of disappointing sales figures for Rare’s excellent Viva Pinata, Microsoft told 1UP that sluggish Pinata sales had “absolutely” nothing to do with their departure.
“Chris and Tim have helped shape Rare into the world-renowned development studio that is it today and their impact on the videogame industry as a whole is well known. They are simply leaving to pursue other opportunities and we wish them luck in their future endeavors.”
The Stampers’ exodus comes just four years after Microsoft acquired Rare from Nintendo for $375M. Since that acquisition, Rare has published five games for Microsoft Game Studios. In addition to Pinata, the Rare released Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero at the Xbox 360’s launch and shipped Conker: Live & Reloaded and Grabbed By the Ghoulies on the original Xbox. While it seems unlikely that Microsoft has recouped their original investment in Rare, the company maintains that the studio is “the cornerstone of Microsoft Game Studios’ broadening strategy.”
Microsoft told 1UP that Mark Betteridge, a 19-year-veteran of the Rare team, and Gregg Mayles will succeed the Stampers as Studio Director and Creative Director, respectively.
Virtual (Yawn) Console: Baseball, Urban Champion
The latest Virtual Console update came on New Year’s Day, but Nintendo must have expected everyone would be too hung over to actually enjoy their Wiis, as 2007 kicked off with the most uneventful Virtual Console Monday lineup yet: Baseball and Urban Champion, each costing 500 Wii Points ($5).None of the Virtual Console games have been spruced up, so what’s the deal? Nintendo has access to five whole libraries of content, yet we’re stuck with two long-forgotten NES releases.
Boo urns!
EA Vows Increased Creativity, Happiness
The name Electronic Arts is widely synonymous with plenty of things: profitable and undying annual sports franchises, being the proverbial 200 pound gorilla of the games industry, that whole “EA Spouse” fiasco… Creativity however, is not a word which generally springs from the tongue. That’s (supposedly) going to change — at least according to Alain Tascan, the general manager of Electronic Arts, Montreal.Gamasutra recently conducted an feature piece with Alain, who had some interesting things to say about the new directives emanating from the top over at EA Montreal.
Along with co-op paramilitary blaster Army of Two and SSX Blur for the Wii, Electronic Arts is apparently spending some coin on producing a (currently top-secret) intellectual property. Though he was unable to talk much about it, Tascan fingered the new title as being a serious departure from the established EA format and one of the top three titles currently being worked on over at EA Montreal.
“EA has realized that what we need now to stay number one and keep that edge is really to focus on creating new IP.” he said. “I mean, we just did Superman Returns and all the sports, but we feel that we are now ready to take big bets on new IP, and not bet the farm on the established titles.”
“We think this is something that people are going to react well to, because EA is not known for this. I mean, if you look at the comments of people on some of the things I’ve said and they say ‘how can you dare talk about innovation?’ And that’s what we want to prove that as a company we can do it.”
Along the way, Tascan took some time to comment on the policy changes which EA has enacted as a response to recent criticism. As readers may recall, EA caught some serious heat a while back, after their ‘80-hour workweek’ policies were publicly outed in a widely-popularized letter written by a desperate spouse. The affair (which ultimately spiralled into a class-action lawsuit) is now largely water under the bridge — apparently.
“It was an issue, and I think that there was a big wake up a few years ago, that EA really, very drastically changed the situation, especially at the studio where there were all of the problems. Even if there was bad press I feel that we reacted fast in a measurable, tangible manner. We get it, and now we manage it far better.”
“It’s hard, though, as soon as you work out a method of working with a system, there’s a new system and you have to learn how to work with that one. It’s like a new start up all over again.”
Tascan went on to say that now Electronic Arts’ new policy is aimed at reducing crunchtime pressure “across the entire company”.
Capcom Hires Hollywood Liaison
More video game moves are inevitable, but the least publishers could do is start talking to the right people. Look at the care Microsoft and Bungie have taken with Halo — even if that one won’t move into production for some time. Capcom’s hired former THQ executive Germaine Gioia, who helped ink THQ’s immensely profitable deal with Nickelodeon, to act as a Hollywood liaison going forward.The idea is to copy Gioia’s plan with Nickelodeon, where franchises are born in collaboration between the publisher and the Hollywood studio, rather than converting the franchise after it’s been released onto the market place. Often times THQ-created games became Nickelodeon shows, and it appears Capcom’s hoping for a similar approach.
How will this Hollywoodization affect Capcom’s game development? Apparently any collaborations will still be headed by the company’s top designers, and for the time being any deal will likely be made based on existing franchises.
“For the near-term, I’m going to look at the game engines that Capcom has and the capabilities internally at the studios and presumably see if there are things we can take advantage of with properties that might do well with recognizable characters or story lines associated with existing game engines,” Gioia said to The Hollywood Reporter. “But that always doesn’t work, so it might be a while before certain licensed properties that have been developed from the ground up are out in the marketplace.
And apparently the next Street Fighter movie will focus on Chun Li. Somewhere, some place, Jean-Claude Van-Damme is crying. But it does bring up a good question — why another Street Fighter movie? Why now? Could Capcom be finally working on the mythical Street Fighter 4? Are they looking for a mainstream tie-in? Our magic 8-ball says “likely.”
Mortal Kombat Won’t Be Coming to DS
We’re still not sure what Midway has planned for Mortal Kombat: Armageddon on Wii — ripping out someone’s spine with a hand motion might not go over so well with the parents. But what we definitely won’t be seeing is Mortal Kombat on Nintendo DS, as Midway Chicago studio head Scot Bayless tells Gamastura he doesn’t think it’s a solid creative choice, even if the game would likely make them money.Bayless compared the idea to porting their NFL Blitz franchise onto the platform. “The same is true of Mortal Kombat. I’m not going to be a big fan of putting it on Nintendo DS. It would be hard for me to believe that’s a good idea. It might even be able to make some money, but it’s not a great use of our time,” he says.
Then again, proper 3D on the DS isn’t easy to pull off and executing fatalities with Harry Potter stylus trickery really doesn’t sound very fun; Midway’s probably right about this one — but that doesn’t answer our questions about the Wii version.
Bungie Takes Halo 3 to Troops in Iraq
It shouldn’t be long before we have the first details on the Halo 3 mulitplayer beta, but a few men and women in uniform have already gotten down and dirty with Bungie’s latest, as pictures (and one or two videos, as well) have surfaced of US soldiers stationed in Iraq playing none other than Halo 3.
Is this the same version we’ll be obsessing over experiencing in a few months? Probably not, but hats off to Bungie and Microsoft for making this happen, and maybe someone overseas can finally tell us what the flippin’”X” button does.
Madden NFL Proves Best Selling Game of 2006
Critical opinion of Madden NFL games year-to-year doesn’t really matter; football fans are going to eat up Electronic Arts’ latest update simply because there’s no other choice. Combine that with its release on every platform under the sun and becoming the best selling game of the year isn’t much of a stretch. What makes up the other nine, however, is a toss-up.USA Today pulled some numbers out of the NPD Group for an article on Gears of War’s recent success, as it broke sales records faster than any Xbox 360 game before it. Despite its considerably smaller userbase, Gears of War managed to grab the number four spot and Nintendo’s handheld gamble, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, took number 10.
1. Madden NFL 07 (PlayStation 2; 1.8 million+ sold)
2. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS; 1.5 million+ sold)
3. Kingdom Hearts II (PS2; 1.5 million+ sold)
4. Gears of War (Xbox 360; 1 million+ sold)
5. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Xbox 360; 913,000+ sold)
6. Final Fantasy XII (PS2; 895,000+ sold)
7. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2; 860,000+ sold)
8. NCAA Football 07 (PS2; 849,000+ sold)
9. Madden NFL 07 (Xbox 360; 826,000+ sold)
10. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!/ April (Nintendo DS; 792,000+ sold)