Rock Band 3 Details-palooza

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According to Harmonix, development on Rock Band 3 began right after they released Rock Band 2 in September 2008. After the game released, the music genre started to saturate and sales dropped off.

“We saw a kind of staleness in terms of game-play innovation,” says project director Daniel Sussman. “Really, the main focus of Rock Band 3 development was finding new ways to experience the music and actually doubling down, if you will, on our investment in compelling game play. We are adding a new instrument (a 25-key, fully functioning MIDI keyboard) and we’re adding a whole new mode, which is designed basically to answer that staleness factor.”

The addition of these things is expected to make the game both more accessibly to those new to the game and liven it up for veterans. For one, more detail has been added to the player models and the story mode. “Previously our career modes weren’t really about getting better as a Rock Band player, it was about investing time,” says senior designer Dan Teasdale. “We developed this entirely new career mode based around unlocking achievement-like goals to show your progression through the game, and also give you incentives to get better. We have hundreds and hundreds of these goals across instruments and gameplay modes and across (downloadable content). It is a really great way to finish Rock Band in your way, based on your skill, and not on some predetermined path of songs.”

Players can now more easily jump in and out of the game, making for an easier party experience. There’s also a better method of finding titles in your collection, along with having seven-player band options. More realistic guitar controllers are being considered where you can actually strum, along with a drum controller with added symbols, and expert players can play in the music training pro mode. “You can be an expert keys-player playing with an all easy band, no problem,” says Harmonix PR John Drake.

Source: USA Today

Amazon Spectacular Spider-Man Pre-Order Offer

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Amazon and GameStop are quickly becoming the kings of pre-order bonuses. As part of Amazon’s most recent attempt to one-up its retail rivals, it announced a reward for those who pre-order Activision’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

Those who pre-order the game with Amazon will receive a book featuring concept art, character renders and environments. There will also be an unlock code for those who preorder the game for a Iron Spider-Man costume for the 2099 dimension.

To find out more about the pre-order bonus, please visit amazon.com.

Les Grossman Dances Back To Theaters

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In one of the most unlikely but welcome pieces of movie news, Paramount Pictures and MTV Films announced their intention to make a Les Grossman movie. The foul-mouthed movie producer played by Tom Cruise was one of the more memorable characters in Tropic Thunder.

The press release even quoted Grossman himself who said, “To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus, ‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me.'”

“Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds,” said Stiller, Grossman’s “Tropic Thunder” co-star. “He has assured me he plans to, quote, ‘F—ing kill the sh– out of this movie and make ‘Citizen f—ing Kane’ look like a piece-of-crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”

“Everything I learned in this business, I’ve learned from Les,” added Paramount Film Group President Adam Goodman. “I started out as his assistant, and from the first day he threw his desk at me when I got his lunch order wrong, I have loved him like a father. I am forever grateful to Ben and Stuart Comfeld and their ability to secure his highly coveted life rights.”

Source: MTV {link no longer active}

Feature: Nexon: Bringing Free-To-Play To E3

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Nexon is perhaps best known as the successful online company that runs MapleStory. The publisher is one of the pioneers in the free-to-play space, but Nexon believes it’s just scratching the surface with free-to-play games currently. Thus, Nexon is appearing at E3 for the first time this year as part of the group’s continued expansion. We spoke to Min Kim, VP Marketing at Nexon, about his company’s initiative at E3.

[a]list: Tell me about why Nexon is exhibiting this year at E3.

Min Kim: A lot of people have been asking me that. We brought our company to the U.S. in 2005, but we didn’t really launch until 2006. Since then, we’ve seen a really good pickup in consumer interest, but haven’t gotten as much mainstream coverage. MapleStory has the equivalent of 120,000 subscribers a month and that’s pretty big, but from the press side there hasn’t been a ton of coverage.

We’ve been expanding every month with our free-to play titles. While in the past people might introduce our games as ‘Hey I have this friend and she has a great personality’ but now some of the games we have been coming out with this year are like ‘Hey we have this friend and she’s hot… and she has a good personality!’ We have Vindictus, which was built with the Source Engine and is a sexy RPG, then we have Dungeon Fighter which is a very retro, button mashing action fighter. So in terms of products, the timing is just great for E3. Big console companies aren’t doing so well but online is doing great. You look at what kids are playing now, what they’re getting used to, and I think that’s a great sign for our long term business.

Right now, for us we have a branding issue – we’re just not recognized enough among the gaming press. Of course, I can’t blame them for not knowing us; they’re not mandated to cover our products. At GDC, before an interview, they explained why they don’t interview game makers like us, but we kind of already understand why. We kind of feel like coming out to E3 helps them better understand us.

[a]list: Do you think that Nexon at E3 is a sign of the maturation of free-to-play in America?

MK: I still feel like we’re on the ground floor. It hasn’t been a experienced widely yet, but that’s coming as the Club Penguin generation grows up. Back in the ’90s, people didn’t look at the PC as a gaming platform in the same way, and that’s part of the reason why certain consumers aren’t as aware about us.

[a]list: Yeah, we tend to use the analog ‘MapleStory is the future of PC games’ to those old school PC gamers that grew up with DOS; we’re being facetious but serious at the same time.

MK: Fortunately, delivery to retail is not something we’re worried about . It’s hard to be excited about PC the way the market is. When you see the PC section, the section is two feet wide or behind glass if it’s there at all. Plus, many PC titles are on consoles and don’t do a good job standing out and taking full advantage of the platform.

It’s funny, because while there’s the Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft party, there’s no PC or online party. We’re looking to change that; we’re doing something at a place called the Colony, and we’ll have a lot of industry luminaries there.

[a]list: You see a lot of shift now in the online space to the free-to-play model.
Min Kim

MK: Yeah, I mean, a lot of games are successful in getting people to buy those boxes, like Age of Conan. But a lot of people thought it was weird that Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play, like, ‘whoa can you make more money with a free-to-play title?’  [laughs]

[a]list: The main advantage in getting customers in, or getting them back, is not having that pay barrier.

MK: There’s no pressure to pay. You might want to pay, but your friends may not, but both of you can play.

[a]list: Will E3 be an important event for Nexon not only for displaying its products, but also for business contacts?

MK: On the business side, we’ve never had a problem. Whomever we deal with, they know what we do – even the VCs understand our company. It’s reaching the consumer with advertising that’s the hard part. The press tells people what they want to be excited about it, so that’s why we need to reach out to them. But we launched pre-paid cards, had them in 7-Elevens and the like, and now everyone is doing it. But maybe on a branding side, this will help us unlock an advertising opportunity. Like with Coke, we have a deal with them in South Korea but not here, but a lot of it may just be awareness about our brand in North America.

[a]list: What are some of Nexon’s goals for E3?

MK: Number one goal is up our brand, and that’s all about making relationships, whether that’s a better image, with our consumers or with the press. We want to show that free-to-play is a place to play, that our new games are the “future of free” and what better place than E3?

[a]list: Well, the future of free-to-play looks pretty bright, on PC and emerging platforms like smart TVs and mobile.

MK: Right now we’re a client-side PC company, but you want to have experiences that reach the users where they are. And that’s why we’re going to E3, because that’s where the attention is! [laughs]

[a]list: Min, thanks.

Google TV: A Big Deal

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Google TV was among a series of recent announcements by the company, and while it may appear to be a smaller part of the search giant’s overall business, it’s actually hugely important. This hasn’t stopped many from wondering why Google should care at all about moving into the TV space.

“Some have expressed surprise that Google would even care about TV in the first place,” writes James McQuivey. “After all, Google takes nearly $7 billion dollars into its coffers each quarter from that little old search engine it sports, a run-rate of $27 billion a year. In fact, this has long been a problem Google faces its core business is so terribly profitable that it s hard to justify investing in its acquisitions and side projects that have zero hope of ever contributing meaningfully to the business (not unlike the problem at Microsoft where Windows 7 is Microsoft). So why would Google bother with the old TV in our living rooms?”

Still, the TV advertising business is worth $70 billion annually, despite the advent of other media, and results in roughly $25 billion in consumer-electronics sales. Google wants a slice of that pie, and they think the timing is right on Google TV.

“Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it has been tried before. But no, Google TV is not in the same situation as Roku, Vudu, Boxee or even Apple TV,” writes McQuivey. “Google TV is different; it s more ambitious yet more likely to succeed. First of all, timing matters. With broadband penetration at two-thirds of U.S. households higher in many European and Asian markets and with home networks in more than a third of U.S. homes, the base layer of high-speed connectivity to and in the home can support Google s ambitions. Plus, there’s enough content online between YouTube, Hulu and Netflix, to make it worth the bother of connecting the TV (which, by the way, is why nearly 10 million homes in the U.S. connect their PCs to their TVs to watch that content today, so Google s asking us to do something millions of us already do).”

Google TV should not only benefit from numerous features, but also the partners to make it happen. While Intel and Logitech are important partners, they won’t provide the experience necessary for such a product.

“That’s where Sony comes in. Sony has been selling connected TVs for longer than any other TV maker,” writes McQuivey. “It obsesses about R&D and its connected TVs are actually relatively robust compared to some others that rely on cheaper silicon and have a less elegant user interface. Yet Sony willingly set that technology investment aside giddily, as Sir Howard Stringer himself said and tied its fate to Google TV. This will make all the difference, giving Google TV a shot at reaching millions of homes by year-end 2011.”

Sony’s experience in the TV market will cause the competition to take things more seriously. Other TV manufacturers will focus more on it, cable companies will accelerate their trans-platform solutions and Apple will likely have to respond.

“In fact, Apple will kick itself that it didn t tackle TV in a similar fashion sooner,” theorizes McQuivey. “Jobs has admitted the Apple TV was a hobby and has painted the entire TV market as nearly impossible to overhaul. But he’s hiding from the fact that his solution and all the other solutions tried so far didn t really bring the kind of power to the TV that Google TV will. The Apple TV, on a good day, is capable of taking your attention for no more than an hour, two at most, and then only if you have paid to rent or download a movie from iTunes. That s an infrequent scenario at best. Google TV will be a persistent interface that resides on your TV, giving you access to search functions (searching linear programming, web video, and even the general Web to get IMDB facts or background on the season finale of Glee) any time you re watching TV, not just when you switch the input.”

“It’s a critical difference that makes Google TV unique compared to all previous attempts to ‘Webitize’ the TV. And it’s the difference that will matter at scale, thanks to TV manufacturers that will support it. And it s the difference that will matter to developers, who will want to appeal to millions of consumers through a persistent interface, not a sidekick box in the living room. That’s why Google TV is bigger than you think it will occupy more of your time and attention than you think. Then, once it has your attention, it can begin siphoning away ad dollars. Oops, did I just reveal the nefarious master plan? You bet I did,” he concluded.

Source: Paid Content  {link no longer active}

ECA Petition For Free Speech

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While lower courts in the U.S. have struck down on constitutional grounds several laws seeking to limit the sale of video games, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether video games have the same freedom of speech rights that books, movies and music do; the ECA considers this a matter of utmost importance.

“Over this summer, we ll be drafting and formally submitting our amicus brief, which will be included with the other official court documents related to the case,” says the ECA. “Separately, we will also attach a petition signed by you, the American public, which by its very existence will publicly define who the consumers of interactive entertainment are and why we care enough about the issue to take the time to make the effort to speak up and make our voices heard. The petition establishes an authoritative collective position which cannot be redefined by detractors nor co-opted by others. And it enshrines each and every signatory’s participation in the court documents and in the U.S. National Archives official records related to the case.”

To find out more, please visit the ECA’s petition site here.

AT&T Exploit Exposes iPad Email Addresses

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An exploit in AT&T’s website exposed the email address of over 100,000 iPad users. A hacking group found a program on AT&T’s Web site that would send back an iPad user’s email address when given an ICC-ID.

“AT&T was informed by a business customer on Monday of the potential exposure of their iPad ICC-IDs,” said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said in an e-mail message. “This issue was escalated to the highest levels of the company and was corrected by Tuesday; and we have essentially turned off the feature that provided the e-mail addresses.”

AT&T indicates that the only personal data that could be retrieved as a result of this was email addresses. “At this point, there is no evidence that any other customer information was shared,” said Siegel.

The data released indicates that iPads are owned by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer.

Source: SF Gate

Red Faction Primed For Transmedia Platforms

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THQ has teamed up with Starlight Runner Entertainment to bring the Red Faction franchise to other media platforms like film, television, online, mobile, books and graphic novels. Transmedia Producers Jeff Gomez and Mark Pensavalle will look to expand the Red Faction universe by developing an overarching backstory for the game universe and the previously announced TV movie.

We were impressed by Starlight’s demonstrated track record with numerous high profile transmedia projects including Avatar, Halo and Pirates of the Caribbean, said Danny Bilson, Executive Vice President, THQ Core Games. In order to fully realize our vision of creating franchises that successfully transcend gaming, we re tapping the best in the business with Jeff and his team to make our game fiction more robust and consistent across multiple media platforms.

THQ will retain all rights to any transmedia projects involving Red Faction. Gomez and Pensavalle, who will be credited as Transmedia Producers on the projects, will work closely with Bilson, and Director of Fiction Development, Paul DeMeo on all extensions of the Red Faction universe.

“Red Faction has cultivated an excited and participatory fanbase over the last decade that is eager to engage and learn more about the Red Faction world, characters, and storylines,” said Jeff Gomez, Transmedia Producer and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment. “Danny Bilson is a thought-leader in the videogame and entertainment space and a big advocate of transmedia storytelling – we are thrilled to be working with him and his team to create content that will excite the Red Faction community by allowing them to discover the secrets of the Red Faction universe.”

Enslaved Journeys West

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Enslaved has come a long way since the initial screenshots for the game, with the destroyed world 150 years in the future looking lush and green. The action is also shaping up nicely, looking approrpiately like a more articulate version of Heavenly Sword.

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