Archive for May 17th, 2006
Where’s J Allard? Working at Wal-Mart
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Business
When we interviewed Peter Moore at E3 we asked him right away, “Where’s J Allard?” Peter said he was riding BMX bikes or some such nonsense, whereas Dean Takahashi says he’s been working on a top secret Xbox portable project. Turns out they were both wrong: J’s been busy making guest appearances on television’s The Apprentice! That’s a pretty public showing … so is he the face of the 360 or not? Really, I’m confused.
On Monday’s episode of The Apprentice, J was there to judge the results of the contestant’s Xbox 360 Wal-Mart displays. You can check out photos and a summary of the show on NBC’s website, or download the show from iTunes (link). Heads up to NBC, it’s “J” not “Jay.” Like Homer’s middle name, just a letter. Why? It’s just cooler that way, okay?
[Via GamerBabble]
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Video E306: Neil Young Talks EA Culture
In the final part of my interview with Neil Young, the EA LA studio head talks about his job, the culture of EA and the future of the industry. I was impressed with Young’s take on game development and the need for gaming to think outside the box. Kotaku and EA have had a few run-ins over the past year, but Young has always been professional in his dealings with us and his ability to do a video interview says a lot about him. Oh, and he says he loves the site.
Make sure to check out part one here and part two here. —Brian Crecente
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Related: Video E306: Neil Young Talks C&C and Evoking Emotions
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CliffyB’s guided tour through Gears of War
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, E3
You already know what we thought of CliffyB’s space marine action shooter, Gears of War (in case you don’t, it’s awesome!). Now listen to what CliffyB has to say about it. Gears of War Realm (that’s right, a GoW specific fansite is already up and running) has posted a video of CliffyB’s part in an E3 panel with a troika of console-specific gaming luminaries including Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3), Xavier Poixwho (Red Steel on Wii), and Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War on Xbox 360, duh).
Cliffy talks a bit about his design of the game — “it’s almost like a platform game but instead of jumping up, you’re jumping forward and around the world” — before walking us through the first level with running director’s commentary. I always love the juxtaposition of thoughtful CliffyB (see Smartbomb) and pimp-suit CliffyB. Thoughtful CliffyB is on display here.
[Thanks, Luke]
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Video E306: Neil Young Talks C&C and Evoking Emotions
In part two of my interview with EA LA studio head Neil Young we get into a discussion about narratives in video games and just how close Electronic Arts has come to evoking emotion through a game, the difficulties of developing for a beloved franchise like Command and Conquer and the chances of EA making another Generals game. II’ll be posting part three a bit later tonight.
Make sure to check out part one here. —Brian Crecente
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Related: Spacetastic Command & Conquer 3 Images
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Today in Joystiq: May 17, 2006
E3 Coverage
PC impressions: Re-Mission
360 to Wii: Anything you can do, I can do better
News
Heroes of M&M V updated trailers
Xbox 360 is April’s top selling console
Getting lost in Tokyo’s media immersion pods
Kutaragi: PlayStation 3 is “too cheap”
New Oblivion add-on inspired by Goonies
Charting the seven seas of video gaming
Online bakery sim heading to PC
Study shows more support for in-game ads
Marvel heroes unite for Ultimate Alliance
Rumors & Speculation
Wii will cost $200 say spectators
How many games at PS3’s launch?
Xbox 360, HD-DVD combo less than $500?
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Video E306: Neil Young Talks Spielberg and Wii
The head of Electronic Arts LA studio, Neil Young, was kind enough to take the time to sit down with me at E3 this year to talk about the future of EA and the industry. Forgive my voice, I had pretty much lost it at this point in the show. We uploaded our video interview in three parts. Part one deals with Electronic Arts take on the Wii’s unique controller and if it will effect the way they develop games, EA’s approach to movie to game adaptation and the developer’s work with Steven Spielberg. I’ll be posting parts two and three a bit later tonight. —Brian Crecente
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Related: Kotaku Stalku: Steven Spielberg
360 to Wii: Anything you can do, I can do better
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
We saw what Sony’s PlayStation 3 EyeToy can do in terms of motion technology (as well as its upgraded PS3 remote), and we know Nintendo’s primary console feature is its motion-sensored remote, but what about the Xbox 360? Aaron Stanton of About.com visited the GestureTek booth in Kentia Hall at last week’s E3 to learn about a new development kit to use with the Xbox 360 camera. Not only can it map your face to a character model, but with GestureTek’s technology the Xbox 360 camera can accurately track a player’s movement, including specific finger usage.
To further impress, GestureTek demonstrated for Stanton how the technology can emulate each Nintendo Wii game on the show floor. The technology is impressive, of course, but as Stanton points out not likely to surpass the Wii. Simply put, the GestureTek demo is just that — a demo. And on top of that, technology for a peripheral, which can be easily ignored by developers. It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft and Sony use their respective cameras to match Nintendo’s features, but if Sony’s press conference is any indication (Sony just glazed over its EyeToy demo), we doubt it.
[Thanks, Eric Stoben]
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More Retro Baking!
The improbably named Rakka Deer sent us a link to her great Flickr photoset featuring some enthusiastic and charming attempts at immortalizing classic game characters in cupcakes and pies. Not only she baked the chain of Centipede cupcakes above (or to the right, I guess… this new widescreen template is so damn unpredictable), but a Pac-Man cupcake, a Space Invaders apple pie and Tetris cookies.
Oh! And Katamari Cake! A woman who can bake and plays video games? Love of our life, fire of our loins. - Florian Eckhardt
Phantom Pump & Dump
One of the things we never expected to see from Infinium Labs is shady business practices.
Ha ha ha! No, just kidding — if the Phantom console was ever released, we pretty much expected to see a 486 processor shoved into an XBox shell and a swaztika logo slapped on top of the giant neon X. So we aren’t surprised at all that the SEC is investigating Infinium Labs ex-CEO Timothy Roberts for misleading investors to artificially raise Infinium’s stock prices, then immediately selling his own shares at an inflated price before they got wise.
According to Gamespot, Roberts personally sent out thousands of faxes to investors, guaranteeing a January 2005 launch amongst a gaggle of other bald-faced lies. The faxes informed investors that Infinium’s stock values could rise as much as 3,000%. Investors greedily swooped up more Infinium stock. Roberts then immediately sold 1.3 million shares of his own shares, netting a cool $422,500.
With the SEC involved, Roberts now equals screwed. Even if the console is never released, no one can say that gamers haven’t had thousands of hours worth of fun with the Phantom Console, can they? - Florian Eckhardt
Ex-Infinium CEO Accused of Stock Scandal [Next Generation]
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Related: Infinium Lab’s Financial Books Opened
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Marvel heroes unite for Ultimate Alliance
Filed under: Nintendo DS, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, RPGs
With the success of the X-Men Legends series, it was only a matter of time before Activision applied the popular hack and slash-RPG formula to the rest of the Marvel universe. We’ll see the result at the end of the year when they release Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.
Like the Legends games, Alliance takes place in Marvel’s Ultimate universe, and when it’s clobberin’ time, you and three of your fanboy buddies can engage in a little competitive co-op play. Experience points won’t be shared, but will be granted on a per kill basis, and can be used to unlock new costumes, as well as upgrade powers. With Justice League Heroes due out around the same time, you can renew those Marvel vs. DC debates at your local comic shop.
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Castlevania Not Coming to Wii?
According to Magic Box:
Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi said that Castlevania does not fit with Wii, because the Wii market is for people who want to have new experience, these type of people do not have time to play lengthy games like Castlevania; also he does not have a good idea to make use of the Wii controller in the game.
Dude, you aren’t trying very hard. The Wii remote is a natural whip handle. Swinging overhead lashes out Belmont’s mean razor blade whipe. Flicking the Wii remote sideways tosses a projectile weapon. And you could even pound stakes through vampires’ hearts with a satisfying forward thrust. And I’m sure our imaginative readers could fill the comments section with endless other ideas.
Also, no one wants to play long games on the Wii? Hello? Aren’t Metroid and Zelda highly anticipated on the Wii? - Florian Eckhardt
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Delicious Wii Controller Cakes
Sure, it looks cool, I’m more interested in how it plays tastes. —Brian Ashcraft
Image Here [Jyouhouya]
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Silent Hill Origins Preview
Kikizo has some beautiful screens (the first, they assure us, and our internet quasi-omniscience tells us they’re probably right, maybe) of the upcoming PSP port of the first Silent Hill game, Silent Hill Origins. They certainly look more vivid than the muddy, foggy mess I remember playing on the Playstation many moons ago in a kingdom by the sea.
The Kikizo post stresses that the engine has been changed not only to offer a camera more appropriate for a portable but to be more engaging on the PSP, specifically citing a new combat system that allows you to drag obstacles in front of enemies to slow them down. That doesn’t really seem all that engaging to us — more a nuisance. We don’t really play games to drag stuff around… Silent Hill should be a game of eerie psychological horror and depravity, not a simulation of doing chores for my mom. - Florian Eckhardt
Silent Hill Origins Scares the PSP [Kikizo]
(Edit: We’ve since been informed that our quasi Internet omniscience has indeed failed us. This is a whole new title, apparently. We were confused - we could have sworn this was supposed to be a remake)
Xbox 360, HD-DVD combo less than $500?
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Peripherals
After Sony announced the pricing of the PlayStation 3 (both of em), introducing a $200 price delta between it and the Xbox 360 offerings, thoughts immediately turned to Microsoft’s pricing for their HD-DVD addon. GamesIndustry.biz writes “that Microsoft has intimated to [retail sources in the UK] that the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 will be priced such that console and peripheral combined are cheaper than Sony’s PS3.”
Of course, using the British and/or European pricing can be tricky considering how different companies choose to price their offerings overseas. Sony, for example, is charging [the rest of Europe] the numerically equivalent €499 and €599, despite the radically higher currency conversion in dollars. Regardless, if Microsoft can offer two 360 models bundled with HD-DVD for the same price as the PS3 models, will it be enough to remove that weapon from their arsenal? Do gamers really want HD movie playback, or is Microsoft simply making the motions?
[Via Engadget]
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Mizuguchi Ponders More Rez
Legendary game creator Testuya Mizuguchi (Lumines, Meteos) tells news site Eurogamer he’s considering making sequels to two of his most famous games. When asked if he’s up for Rez 2, he said:
I’m currently seriously considering it. It’s always there. I’m always thinking about it. [Grinning] Also Space Channel 5.
I’d take one Rez or a Space Channel sequel over any of the four Lumines games Mizuguchi was promoting at E3. Talk about misdirected time and energy. —Brian Ashcraft
Full Interview Here [Eurogamer]
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The Coolest Gaming Bathroom
The votes are in for our contest to pick the coolest reader game room. The winner is the guy sitting on the toilet playing what looks to be Duck Hunt on a 12-inch Sylvania. Mr. Bath Room won with a whopping 456 votes, or 33 percent of the total. Who says Kotaku readers don’t have taste.
We’ll be shipping out a Kilowatt excercise gaming thingie to the bathroom guy, who lives in Canada by the way, in the next week. I hope he sends us pictures of that thing wedged in between his bathtub and toilet.
Stay tuned for more exciting bathroom-free contests in the coming weeks. —Brian Crecente
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Study shows more support for in-game ads
Filed under: Business
According to oddly-capitalised research agency comScore Networks, gamers are a ripe target for marketers. With almost 50% of all Internet users apparently reading game sites, reaching out to these 76 million consumers is big business.
The survey also looked at attitudes to in-game advertising amongst heavy and light gamers. Heavy gamers are more familiar with the concept of in-game ads, and are also more likely to buy products advertised in-game. The conclusion across all types of gamers leans towards the inevitable — in-game ads will be a feature of the future.
With only 800 gamers surveyed, a larger segment may produce vastly different results, but these statistics are encouraging for firms like Microsoft’s Massive who are working within this market.
[Via Gamasutra]
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Street Fighter is Dudical
A righteous, totally hip dude — you can tell by the way his hat is tilted backwards with a cocky jaunt. This is the same way I signified my O.G.ness growing up in the CPT. A t-shirt tucked into your blue jeans is also a good signifier — ushers you through an exciting sneak preview of the Super Street Fighter 2 on the SNES.
Apparently, he thought the best place to conduct such a walkthrough was at the local food court, in between trying to get “the digits” from 14 year old girls. He must have had great success: who doesn’t like a hunk of cornbread who winks, points his fingers and cocks his thumbs as if he’s shooting a couple of pistols every time he says the word ‘Dudical?’ Okay, so he doesn’t actually say ‘Dudical.’ But can’t you imagine him just?
“Roo” is my favorite Street Fighter, for what it’s worth. Also my favorite character from A.A. Milne’s series of Winnie the Pooh novels. - Florian Eckhardt
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PS3 Maybe Heavy, But Ain’t Noisey
It may weigh more than a small goat, but the PlayStation 3 is no next-gen German howitzer. Sony claims that the machine makes less racket than a PS2 (Sony also claims that the PS3 is “cheap”). British tech pub T3 points out that the company needs the console to be as quiet as possible in order not to ruin the Blu-ray and audio playback. Powerful definitely, quiet maybe, but the machine still looks like a Victorian waffle iron. —Brian Ashcraft
More Here [T3]
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Related: Delicious Wii Controller Cakes
New Super Mario Bros.
Traveling made easy: book a flight to Worlds 4 and 7 with this handy secret.
