Double Fine Says That Indies Might Depart Consoles

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With the rise of iOS, Steam and Facebook as platforms for games, Xbox Live Arcade has become a less popular choice for indie developers. While 2D Boy’s Ron Carmel recently wrote a scathing article with regards to Microsoft’s online platform, Double Fine’s Tim Schafer believes that the warning presented in the op-ed has been totally dismissed.

“I really think it’s something they can’t dismiss and they should really pay a lot more attention to because he’s calling attention to a migration, an exodus of real creative talent away from those platforms to more open platforms, and I think they should do something quick to reverse that,” Schafer commented. “Can you reverse an exodus Is there a term for that A redexus Seriously, I think that that was kind of a warning call. It’s not like ‘it would be nice to do this’ for developers – [if they don’t] they’re going to lose out. Things change every generation and just because you’re on top and the 900 pound gorilla in one generation, as you’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t mean it’ll be that way forever. I think that these threats that are possibly being ignored are going to hurt those guys.”

For Schafer, the alternative platforms are simply making themselves more open than Xbox Live or PSN. “We can put something up on the App Store pretty easily. We can put stuff up on Steam really easily. I like the Xbox and the PS3,” explained Schafer. “I like Sony and Microsoft, but those systems are closed and curated very closely and it costs a lot more money to go through that system, to patch a game. It makes me stressed out that if I put a game up there, I might not be able to patch it because it might cost too much money, whereas these more open platforms will let us manage our own price and our own updates. It’s just a lot more appealing right now.”

“There are good games on both platforms. And that’s the thing, is that I really believe in both those platforms, and I want them to succeed. Ever since the first time I played Geometry Wars, I was like, ‘Hey, this XBLA – well, both XBLA and PSN – but I mean the thing that branded Xbox Live Arcade, that is opening up a portal for a certain type of game, a size of game.’ We were used to thinking of these huge triple-A games and all of a sudden when you got your 360, one of the things that felt really next-gen about it was that you could download Geometry Wars for five dollars, and we hadn’t done that before. I hadn’t thought of buying that kind of game on a console before and I’m having tons of fun and I think that leads to a new creative outlet and brought us games like Limbo and Castle Crashers and all the great games that we saw on that platform. I want that to succeed. So when you read an article about that, warning about the migration away from the platform, that’s a shame and we want that not to be the case,” he concluded.

Source: IndustryGamers {link no longer active}

Highlights From Shoot My Truck

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The recent “Shoot My Truck” social installation for the new Twisted Metal game allowed users to fire a military-grade machine gun at a set full of explosive laden objects after connecting using Facebook or Twitter. Check out a highlight reel of the fully commentated live-streaming 2 day event, with 100,000 bullets, thousands of people and a real M249-SAW machine gun in a battle to the death of a truck.

SCEA President — We’re Not Thinking About The PS4 Right Now

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The Wii U is set to launch in 2012 and the next version of the Xbox is expected to come out some time in 2013. However Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO and president Jack Tretton says that while Sony is always thinking about the future, they’re focused on the PS3 and PS Vita for right now.

“In terms of when you talk about [the next generation] and when you announce it, it really depends on the health of the existing platform and the other things you have going on,” said Tretton. “And right now, we’re focused on PlayStation 3, and I’ve got another platform (PlayStation Vita) to get out the door in seven days, so I don’t want to be thinking about trying to launch new technology anytime soon. I want to focus all our energy on our console business, which is really just hitting its stride, and Vita, which really deserves a dedicated push from us.”

“I, quite frankly, would be very distracted if I had to be talking about next generation hardware this year,” he added.

Source: IGN {link no longer active}

Google Takes Flack From Safari Browser Tracking

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A posting by a Stanford grad student recently detailed how Google was following user’s online activities in Apple’s Safari web browser, despite the use of a browser mechanism to block such tracking. Widespread attention to the post brought about by the Wall Street Journal has left the search giant on the defensive.

Rachel Whetstone, Google’s senior vice president of communications and public policy believes that what has happened was been mis-characterized, that Safari “contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser.” She said Google engineers did not anticipate this and they were removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-California, is asking Google to reappear before Congress over this incident. “Google has some tough new questions to answer in the wake of this latest privacy flap, and that’s why I am asking them to come in for another briefing.” Says Bono Mack. “These types of incidents continue to create consumer concerns about how their personal information is used and shared.”

Meanwhile, Representatives Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Cliff Stearns, R-Florida, sent a letter to the FTC asking if this violates an order for Google to not misrepresent its privacy policies. “Google’s practices could have a wide sweeping impact because Safari is a major web browser used by millions of Americans,” the letter states. “We are interested in any actions the FTC has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Google has violated the terms of its consent agreement.”

Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, implied that the U.S. Senate might step into the fray as well. “According to press reports, Google circumvented consumer choice and may have paved the way for third-party ad networks—including Google’s own DoubleClick—to track consumers against their will,” says Rockefeller. “If so, this practice may have violated the company’s own stated privacy practices. I fully intend to look into this matter and determine the extent to which this practice was used by Google and other third parties to circumvent consumer choice.”

The Electronic Privacy Information Center wrote into the FTC saying, “[Google] took elaborate measures to circumvent the Safari privacy safeguards, and it benefited from the misrepresentations by the commercial value it surreptitiously obtained.”

Source: USA Today

Sony Worldwide Studios Head Talks ‘Huge Expectations’ With Hirai Promotion

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With the rise of Kaz Hirai to the position of Sony CEO, it is clear that a large amount of faith and focus is being directed towards the Sony Computer Entertainment division. Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said that this move will support and put pressure on the PlayStation division.

“I’ll be remiss if I say they won’t be because we’re part of the big Sony corporation,” said Yoshida. “But when you listen carefully to the announcements by Kaz Hirai, he clearly said that Sony going forward has a two pillar business. We have a really strong vertical integration, one is the digital imaging, with digital and video cameras and the other is games.”

“Coming from Kaz, saying these two businesses are the pillars of the company, it’s a huge expectation for us to kind of lead the business and so I would expect Sony would allow us to invest for the future,” he added. “It’s clear messaging, the appointment of Kaz himself is a clear message. The way he has developed software, hardware and services together, I’m sure that’s how he’s going to develop the business.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Sony Ericsson Becomes Sony Mobile Communications

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Sony has finalized the acquisition of Sony Ericsson, henceforth known as Sony Mobile Communications. The re-branded company will be headquartered in London, with R&D sites in Beijing, Lund, Silicon Valley and Tokyo, headed up by President and CEO Bert Nordberg overseeing 8000 employees.

“This acquisition makes sense for Sony and Ericsson, and it will make the difference for consumers, who want to connect with content wherever they are, whenever they want,” said Sony’s Howard Stringer at the time of the acquisition announcement. “With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment. This includes Sony’s own acclaimed network services, like the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network.”

Interplay Veteran Eyes Wasteland Kickstarter

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Brian Fargo has confirmed that he will try a Kickstarter in the next month to help fund a new Wasteland game. Currently the CEO of inXile Entertainment, he helped develop Wasteland, its spiritual successor Fallout, and A Bard’s Tale.

Wasteland

He indicated that any new incarnation of the franchise would be, “100 percent faithful to its roots. [It] would be focusing on top-down, probably isometric, party based, skill based — where if you’d just finished playing Wasteland and moved onto this you’d feel comfortable.”

Fargo seemed excited because “this process means we don’t have to do it like the publisher wants” and that it will be “more like the old days…totally creative.”

Source: IGN.com