Planetside 2 Has Acclaimed E3 Outing

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Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) won a series of awards for their E3 showing. The game got “Best of Show” from both Game Informer and Polygon and was honored as the “Best Shooter”, “Best Free-to-Play Game”, and “Best PC Exclusive” by GameSpy.

The [a]list got an exclusive interview with Matt Higby, creative director at SOE for Planetside 2. Look for it next week in [a]list daily!

Free-To-Play Helping To Grow Gaming Industry, Says DFC

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DFC Intelligence estimated that revenue from games will increase from $52 billion in 2011 to $70 billion in 2017. Software, mostly online and free-to-play, for PCs leads the way with 39 percent of the growth, followed by game console systems with 36 percent and mobile devices with 25 percent.

“While the game industry is expanding on all fronts with new demographic groups playing games on a regular basis, the core consumer still remains male, age 12 to 30,” says David Cole, CEO of DFC Intelligence. “In every segment, the key growth factor is improving access and monetization capabilities to that core demographic. Digital distribution, already widely accepted among core gamers globally, is clearly broadening access to products and driving much of the industry growth.”

Working with Xfire, DFC, found out that products like League of Legends, Diablo III and Minecraft have consistently seen as many as one million active users a day. “DFC is the ideal partner to help Xfire analyze gameplay data from our user base of more than 21 million gamers in North America, Europe and Asia” said Malcolm CasSelle, CEO, Xfire. “Xfire has a deep insight into game trends because our app natively tracks the number of players – and hours played – for each title, by country. Xfire tracks the growth trajectory of new titles at launch, including which titles keep a share of gamers’ time and which games get dropped in favor of newer titles.”

DFC partnered with Live Gamer and found out that purchase behavior of core consumers of an F2P game is much like it is for a traditional boxed retail product. “Gamers tend to make purchases several times a year in bulk sums of around $20 to $50,” adds Cole. “A successful game should count on an average paying consumer spending $75 a year for two years.”

Core gamers are embracing mobile games, but are still reluctant to play social games in wide numbers. DFC believes that browser and social network games will exceed $8 billion in revenue by 2017… if they have a stronger appeal to core gamers.

“The bottom line is core gamers spend money on products they like and right now the game offerings on sites like Facebook are simply not appealing to that demographics,” said Cole.

38 Studios Files For Bankruptcy

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38 Studios has officially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and all of its assets will be liquidated. The company has over $150 million in debt and assets of around $21.7 million.

“After ongoing negotiations with the state of Rhode Island and potential investors and other interested parties, the company has been unable to find a solution to the current stalemate,” said Schilling spokesman Larry Solters.

Additionally, federal and state law enforcement officials confirmed the launch of a formal probe into 38 Studios and its determination to secure Rhode Island tax credits to remain afloat. “The state police, the attorney general’s office, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI are opening an investigation into 38 Studios, both the money that came from the state as well as the money that came from Bank Rhode Island,” said Rhode Island State Police Col. Steven O’Donnell.

Source: WPRI.com {link no longer active}

E3 2012 Sees 45,700 Attendees

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The ESA said that 45,700 industry professionals attended E3 and saw products from over 200 exhibitors. The crowds spent almost $40 million in Los Angeles over the course of the event, and stayed in an estimated 30,000 hotel rooms.

“E3 2012 focused and harnessed the passion, energy, and excitement for video games and propelled our industry into the global spotlight,” said ESA president and CEO Michael D. Gallagher. “Thanks to our members and exhibitors’ remarkable vision, billions of consumers watched and learned about our industry and this incredible intersection of creativity, technology, and content. We look forward to building on this great momentum for 2013.”

The dates and location for E3 2013 are currently up in the air, as the ESA mulls what to do about the planned renovation to the L.A. Convention Center.

Angry Birds Coming To Consoles Via Activision

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Activision revealed that they are launching Angry Birds on consoles in a rather low key fashion. Part of the company’s video roll in their E3 booth, it showed the red bird crashing into a Activision logo.

“We’ll have some news for you in about two weeks,” said an Activision spokesperson. “Wait until you see Angry Birds on consoles in HD.”

Source: The Escapist

David Jaffe Talks New Free-To-Play Venture

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David Jaffe has formed a new studio and is looking to create a free-to-play shooter title. Despite the ambivalence towards certain parts of the free-to-play model, he think it aligns more with his current goals as a developer than making a “AAA” game

“I hate free-to-play but I love aspects of it,” said Jaffe. “I love the instant-on, I love the low to no barrier of entry to get all kinds of people to jump in and play, I love the fact that you’re sitting there at lunch and can play for five minutes or you can get sucked in and play for three hours. You don’t have to sit there and power up your f***ing machine and go through legal screens and load screens and load the game. I know that sounds kind of petty but when you think of all the distractions and fragmentation of entertainment today, for me that’s kind of a pain. I’ll choose to do other things rather than sit down and load up a triple-A game unless it’s super, super special.”

“When I started thinking about it with regards to pure gameplay, the games that I can get on an iPhone or iPad or something that’s simpler or quicker to access, I’d say are 90 to 95 percent as good or better – just in terms of game mechanics – as what I’m playing on next-gen,” he continued. “That next-gen stuff 5 to 10 percent of the time is worth it because you’re getting great gameplay, amazing spectacle, bleeding edge graphics and that’s wonderful but most of the games that come out and put themselves in that $60 box, I don’t get enough that I stay away from my other devices these days.”

For Jaffe, he wants a successful free-to-play game that isn’t “pay to win” as some are accused of.being  “So while I love parts of free-to-play, I hate other parts. I hate how it’s like the tail wagging the dog and it’s the business model and all about getting people to pay [with more micro-transactions],” noted Jaffe. “You can listen to developers all day long tell you it’s not pay to win, but you know, it kind of is pay to win. I’m not saying they’re evil or they’re lying – but one of the things they like to say is pay with your time or pay with your money. Well both of those are really s***ty.”

“Let’s take a shooter – if you think about what’s happened with shooters, so much of what makes shooters today work (and it’s unfortunate that sometimes it’s the only thing that makes them work besides graphics and spectacle) is sort of the morphine drip of powering up and leveling up,” he detailed. “So if you’re saying pay with your time, you’re saying have sort of a crappy time because we’re stretching out those morphine drips really long because we want to motivate you to pay. And if you pay immediately and get the really cool stuff, then suddenly you don’t have that meta desire for a while to go back to it and to want to keep playing.”

As for where Jaffe’s company is at right now, “For me it’s about starting a company and finding the right group of people that really believe in this vision that there’s great stuff about free-to-play but we want to make it genuinely for gamers. And I know a lot of people say that, but what they mean is we’re making games that are thematically and mechanically appealing to gamers, but then we’re going to f**k it all up with a business model that kind of pisses gamers off and keeps gamers away. So there’s nothing original in my saying I want to make free-to-play for gamers. It’s really about how we’re going to execute our version of what that means. So that’s what I’m extremely passionate about and what we’re building.”

Jaffe’s been considering numerous forms of funding, from venture capital and a publisher to even Kickstarter. Still, he sees issues with the crowdfunded route.

“There are so many cool things we could do with this on Kickstarter… but most Kickstarters are ‘give me $15 and you get the game’ but we’re free-to-play. What’s great about this – and why I hate that free-to-play has gotten such a bad rap – is you should be able to strip away the entire business model of free-to-play and what’s left is just as good as any other game. That’s thing thing – I want to be able to know that if I go Kickstarter, I want to be able to properly communicate to people that the game underneath is meant to be a great game outside of the business model,” Jaffe emphasized. “So if you donate a certain amount and get access to everything, that’s not f***ing it up. You’re getting a great game without having to pay more than what you might pay with free-to-play [under the typical business model]. I can’t even articulate it yet; I just don’t want to disrespect people and say ‘oh it’s free-to-play and give me 15 bucks’ because as a gamer I’d go ‘it’s f***ing free-to-play dude’.”

It’s not just the business model of Kickstarter that has Jaffe concerned, it’s its own reputation. “The other part that fascinates me about it is if I go out to the world and I go to Sony and VC guys and publishers, and I say I want to do free-to-play but I want to change up this business model… I don’t know if they’re going to be like, ‘Dude, f**k you, World of Tanks works, Battlefield Heroes works, so thanks but no thanks.’ So if that’s the case then maybe the Kickstarter audience would be a great way to go… so it’s absolutely something we’re thinking about but I haven’t made a decision,” he acknowledged. “I’m kind of scared to go Kickstarter, truth be told. Because I’m kind of divisive.”

“Schafer’s not only known but he’s loved,” he continued. “Who doesn’t love Tim Schafer He’s a super nice guy and has given the world great entertainment. And while there are people who love the stuff I’ve worked on and I love that they love that, but there are probably an equal number of people who just think I’m an asshole. And I’m not but because of the way I present myself… I don’t make a conscious choice to be outspoken but I do think a lot of people walk around being too buttoned up and I think it’s not healthy. I think there’s a balance – I’m not saying just say anything that comes to your mind but I think as a society we should let ourselves shine through a bit more. But my point is that I’m more polarizing than Tim Schafer and if I go out there with a Kickstarter and it doesn’t work, a) it sucks, and b) what message does that send to someone I might go to in order to raise money from a VC guy ”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Final Fantasy Tech Demo – Agni’s Philosophy

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Final Fantasy has made use of attractive pre-rendered scenes for many years at this point, but it seems the technological singularity could allow those sorts of visuals in real-time for next gen consoles. Square Enix showed of their new engine, Luminous Studio, in a short movie that’s something of a aesthetic mishmash but it’s doubtless impressive in its technical display.