Director and animator Sugimoto Kousuke hasn’t done anything of significance to Western audiences. At least not according to Google or Bing. His nifty animated piece The TV Show might put him on the radar. There’s no corner of pixilated pop culture that he doesn t explore in his video. It s official Mr. Kousuke, you ve exposed the madness, and you re just as wrapped up in it as the rest of us.
Watch it at YouTube.
Writing for LA Times, Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier have penned an article looking at recently proposed changes to Screen Actors Guild contracts dictating compensation for videogame voice-over. The changes include a slight overall pay increase, but at issue is how they affect the amount of atmospheric dialogue a SAG actor can be asked to record during a session. A group of Hollywood heavyweights have opposed the contract, saying it amounts to more work for less money. Fritz and Verrier get input from both sides, with actors saying they re feeling left behind by a booming industry, and supporters saying that the new SAG guidelines will ultimately help grow the amount of game VO work going to union actors.
Read Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier’s article at LA Times.
Writing for NY Times, Ari Karpel looks at creative promotions launched by film marketers facing tighter ad budgets. Products are getting ever more prominent placements and going way beyond the traditional Happy Meal model tie-ins. Although, as Karpel points out, Happy Meals are still very much part of the mix. He looks at a range of recent efforts, from tie-ins bleeding out of the recent Twilight saga film New Moon, to the broad promotional campaign executed for Where the Wild Things Are that also relied on social media.
Read Ari Karpel’s article at NY Times.
Jesse Divnich of analyst firm EEDAR has shared a forecast on game console performance through 2013 with Industry Gamers. Divnich predicts that even with a worst case scenario for Nintendo, the Wii will ultimately benefit from its current lead to ride out this console generation as the best-selling box. Divnich starts his argument using forecasted 2009 sell-through for consoles in the U.S., where Wii is expected to reach more than 26 million units compared to about 18.4 million units for Xbox 360 and 11.1 million units for PS3. The figures are derived from existing NPD install base data combined with EEDAR s forecast for console sales in November and December.
In his worst case scenario for Wii, Divnich assumes a 25 percent decline in sales in 2010, followed by two years of 30 percent declines and a 50 percent drop in 2013. For Xbox 360, he predicts 10 percent annual bumps capped by a 30 percent decline in 2013. For PS3, he predicts a 25 percent boost in 2010, followed by two 10 percent annual bumps, then a 30 percent decline in 2013. The scenario has Wii as the winner come 2014 with 41.7 million units sold compared to 39.2 million units of Xbox 360 and 33.4 million units of PS3. Divnich says that marks the end of this console cycle. However he predicts that Sony will pursue a strategy similar to PS2 leveraging PS3 s movie-playing capability, in this case Blu-ray, to support it into the next generation. Read more at Industry Gamers {link no longer active}.
Game retail giant Game Group has said that sales of videogame hardware and software declined by 14.3 percent across its stores in the UK and Ireland, reports Edge-Online. Game Group is the largest specialist retailer in the UK, operating more than 1,400 stores. The retailer said it saw overall sales fall despite a bump in demand for consoles from recent price cuts and record-breaking software sales by Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 and EA’s FIFA 10. It pointed to weaker than expected sales of other recently released titles, which it didn’t name. Game Group added that it is investing in digital distribution for games. It claims to be the only UK game retailer currently operating a down service for PC games.
Read more at Edge-Online {link no longer active}.
A recent patent filing by Sony has shed light on a range of possibilities and add-on peripherals for the upcoming PS3 motion controller. Kotaku got a hold of the patent filing and accompanying diagrams. The documents make no reference to PS3 but showcase a device with form factor identical to the console s planned motion controller. Among methods and apparatus patented by Sony for the device is the ability to join two controllers together in various ways, representing different setups for different types of games, as well as attach add-ons. Diagrams of the add-ons include drawings for a flashlight, a baseball bat, a maraca, and a microphone. Kotaku says the filing also includes a proposed biometric reader to identify fingerprints.
Read more, and check out diagrams from the patent filing, at Kotaku.
Future Publishing has appointed new editors-in-chief at two of its U.S. videogame publications, reports Industry Gamers. Logan Decker has been named to the position at PC Gamer, and Gary Steinman will fill the role at PlayStation: The Official Magazine. Industry Gamers says Decker will turn focus at the PC magazine to covering massively multiplayer online and independent games, while Steinman intends to target more core and casual console game fans. UK-based Future had recently reported a 61 percent drop in profits for its 2009 fiscal year ending in September, pointing to slumping revenues at U.S. game magazines.
Read more about the new editors at Industry Gamers {link no longer active}.
Penny Arcade has raised more than $1 million in its charity drive for Child’s Play helping children s hospitals, reports 1up. Penny Arcade’s Mike Gabe Krahulik says the tally jumped by more than 25 percent in one week to surpass the million dollar mark. He added that their charity drive is continuing for a number of weeks with an upcoming event sponsored by MTV Games and Rock Band. Read more, and access the Penny Arcade Child’s Play web site, at 1up {link no longer active}.
NC Soft has a trailer introducing the characters in its upcoming role playing game Guild Wars 2. Capturing an RPG with a compelling trailer isn t easy. Footage from even the best them can come across as canned combat and more of the same game play, and highlights such as art style and intricate environments don t necessarily provide great editing material. NC Soft finds a way to maximize the impact of the content at hand to overcome some of those challenges.
The trailer for the Guild Wars sequel is nothing new or groundbreaking. Rather, it s an impressively crafty construction of the usual elements that need to be showcased fanciful characters, fantasy premise, vast environments and playable classes. It also adds a nifty show piece in using animated illustrations to introduce each character, and elevates the overall production quality with first-rate writing and voice acting.
Watch the Guild Wars 2 trailer at GameTrailers {link no longer active}.
Developer Grasshopper Manufacture is porting over its well-received Wii game No More Heroes with a HD version destined for PS3 and Xbox 360. The over-the-top, twisted-plot action game from Japan game creator Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda51) has a lot of unique elements going for it. For one, it s essentially a reverse homage that channels U.S. cinema’s channeling of Asian cinema. It also involves a half-Japanese, half-Irish lead character named Travis Touchdown who manages to ooze celebrity-cool while being a down-and-out, unemployed videogame fanatic. And never mind that the game is essentially a series of sword fights involving ever-bigger swords. The trailer for the HD-version, titled No More Heroes: Paradise, captures all of that.
Despite the unique IP, or perhaps because of it, the title may not make it to PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers here in the West. Ubisoft had published the Wii title in Western territories, getting good critical reception but seeing only moderate commercial success. After the game s slow start, Grasshopper Manufacture became one of the first companies to publicly question the viability of third-party software on Wii, a statement it later retracted as Nintendo stepped in to provide some support for the title and sales picked up. Ubisoft is currently saying they don t intend to publish No More Heroes: Paradise. Should the game s developer seek alternatives, they could look to Capcom’s approach with Resident Evil: Alternative Edition. Capcom put that title s release in the West up to gamers, asking them to vote on if they wanted it and whether they’d accept it as a downloadable game.
Watch the No More Heroes: Paradise trailer at GameTrailers {link no longer active}.
