The Creative Assembly worked with British director Will McGregor on “The Faces of Rome” to show the internal struggle for power that defined Roman political, military and family life that will be in Total War: Rome II. As you can see from this making of video, Will McGregor sourced historically accurate costumes, dressed three distinctive sets and, with The Creative Assembly’s in-house cinematics crew in tow, directed the Budapest shoot across three days.
Sleeping Dogs gets around the issues of having an open world game starring a cop by having Wei Shen be undercover pretending to be a member of the Triad. This contrast is shown clearly during this recreation of an induction ceremony for the Hong Kong police.
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While free-to-play has been a winning concept for MMOs and multiplayer focused games, it’s still mostly untested for single player experiences. Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi thinks the sky is the limit for free-to-play titles.
“A lot of games will be free-to-play,” said Kislyi. “What I hope and what I want is that some companies keep doing the classic franchises, the single player games. I think single player games are still viable, that experience is still viable for classic RPGs, empire building games and some first-person shooters like Half-Life.”
“Free-to-play is still the wild west,” he added. “Nobody knows and nobody can predict where it will evolve to, where it will branch out to. I can see a single player experience being done on a server, like Gaikai or OnLive. At Wargaming.net, we don’t know free-to-play, we’ve just conquered this player versus player niche, we’re responsible for that.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
Jagex has announced that it has appointed Sam Forrest as Director of PR. Forrest has over 16 years of PR experience working in the video game and entertainment sector, including nine years at THQ, and will oversee Jagex’s global PR activities including the launch campaign for the upcoming Transformers Universe.
“It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Sam to Jagex’s marketing team,” commented David Solari, Jagex’s Chief Marketing Officer. “The Director of PR role is pivotal for us and Sam’s wealth of knowledge and experience is just what we need as we embark on one of the most important periods of growth in Jagex’s history. In his role, Sam will be supporting the launch of Transformers Universe, continuing to promote the record-breaking RuneScape, plus the launch of two unannounced projects.”
“It’s great to be joining Jagex at a time when both the department and the company are in the process of rapidly expanding,” said Forrest. “This role presents a real opportunity to solidify Jagex’s reputation with the launch of such a prestigious IP as Transformers and I look forward to the opportunity to expand Jagex’s PR footprint out into wider Europe with the recruitment of leading PR agencies across the European territories.”
Sony Mobile has announced that there will be over 1,000 jobs lost as a result of moving its headquarters from Lund, Sweden to Tokyo, Japan. This decision is part of the process that started when Sony bought out Ericsson from the business and Sony Mobile CEO Kunimasa Suzuki says that this does not undermine Sony’s efforts in the mobile arena.
“Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core businesses and the Xperia smartphone portfolio continues to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide,” said Suzuki. “We are accelerating the integration and convergence with the wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a more focused and efficient operational structure will help to reduce Sony Mobile’s costs, enhance time to market efficiency and bring the business back to a place of strength.”
Reports are that OnLive had debts between $30 and $40 million before being bought out by Lauder Partners. It is estimated that creditors will receive 5 to 10 cents on each dollar OnLive owed.
“It was a company that was in dire straits. It only had days to live in terms of cash flow and the like,” said Joel Weinberg, CEO of Insolvency Services Group. “Something had to be done immediately or there would have been a hard shutdown, which would have been a disaster.”
Source: Mercury News
The closing arguments were recently made in the Apple vs. Samsung trial in San Jose, California. Judge Lucy Koh spent a full two hours reading aloud the list of instructions on how the jury should decide the trial’s separate issues before the case was sent to the jury.
The seven men and two women part of the jury will have to fill out a 70-page form dealing with the issues in the case. “This is the kind of case that shouldn’t go to a jury,” said Ted Smith, a coordinator for the International Campaign for Responsible Technology, asserting it should be decided by a panel of judges well-versed in patent law.
Many believe that Apple wanted this jury trial in the hopes of winning a big verdict from a populace familiar with and likely friendly to Apple products. Apple lawyers asserted in their closing arguments that Samsung suffered from the iPhone’s competition and sought to duplicate the iPhone’s features in its Galaxy line and benefited from that.
“Steve Jobs started the iPhone development project in 2003,” said Apple counsel Harold McElhinny of Morrison Foerster. “I was floored when I heard (Samsung designer) Jeeyuen Wang say they did it in three months. That represented four years of investment and R&D.”
Samsung has sold 22.7 million phones and tablets during the period in which Apple charges it with infringement, since June 2010 and are seeking $2.75 billion. “The job we’re asking you to do is decide how much of that $8.16 billion we should receive,” said McElhinny.
The system of protecting technical inventions by obtaining patents, a cornerstone of American technical companies, is at stake asserts Apple attorney Bill Lee of Wilmer Hale. “You’re going to have to decide who is playing by the rules and who isn’t … If you render a judgment for Apple, you will be endorsing the American patent system,” Lee said.
Charles Verhoeven, partner from Quinn Emanuel, made the case from Samsung that it had many case designs and that Apple’s tie-in to the Galaxy series wasn’t as simple as they asserted. He even looked at design similarities and purported patent implications. “You’re not telling me Apple owns colorful icons and the right to arrange them in rows and columns,” he asserted.
He also noted some design differences between Galaxy models versus the iPhone. The iPhone has a flat face while the Galaxy a ridge around the edge of the screen where a metal bezel overlays the glass and protects it from being scratched if it’s laid down
As true as these assertions may be, patent law only asks that “the ordinary observer” find “substantial similarity” in the ornamental design of an object. Judge Koh instructed the jury explicitly in calling for them to ignore other factors and concentrate on the impression of the overall design.
Verhoeven cited differences in the home screen as well, and pushed back that anyone might look to buy an iPhone but pick up a Samsung product by mistake… all of which might mean little in the final verdict dealing with patent law. “All the arguments about booting up and moving through those screens are irrelevant,” McElhinny warned the jury during his turn, citing the judge’s instructions.
Verhoeven asserted in conclusion that the Apple suit against Samsung in the end isn’t about a patented design. “The real reason Apple brought this case, rather than competing in the marketplace, is because it’s seeking to block its biggest competitor … It wants to keep its most serious competitor from even attending the game,” he said.
He continued, making an assertion that many televisions are similar from the outside, but aren’t violating each other’s patents. “Form follows function … Many smartphones today look like the iPhone. Are they all copyists Yet Apple wants to $2 billion for the infringement of ornamentation, its design patents,” he said. “Is anyone really deceived by the Samsung design Apple has no credible evidence of it.”
Nick Tran, a former software developer for eBay, said that both sides made good arguments. “But Apple has the more cohesive narrative,” he said.
The case is now in the hands of the jury, which has begun its deliberations.
Source: InformationWeek.com
The organizers for PAX Prime announced that Jesper Kyd will speak at the panel “Behind the Music of Blockbuster Video Games” at the Kraken Theatre at Grand Hyatt on September 1 from 10:30 a.m. — 11:30 a.m. The iconic composer has worked on the Assassin’s Creed and Hitman franchises and has most recently worked on Darksiders II and Borderlands 2.
Also, Konami Digital Entertainment revealed that game designer and director Hideo Kojima will participate in a discussion surrounding the past, present and future of Metal Gear during PAX Prime 2012 moderated by Geoff Keighley at the Paramount Theatre on September 1st at 1:00 p.m. To vote for a question that may be asked during the discussion via the MGS Facebook poll, visit www.facebook.com/mgs.
Source: Prime.PAXsite.com
SGN has announced it has hired Ruairi McGuckin as vice president of marketing. The veteran of Jesta Digital will deal with marketing and user acquisition for the mobile and social developer’s cross-platform games catalog.
“With the success of our cross-platform games, our next area of investment is focusing on building a world-class user acquisition machine,” said SGN COO Colin Digiaro. “Having a marketing veteran like Ruairi who understands the nuances of user acquisition in today’s rapidly evolving gaming landscape adds a critical layer of depth to our management team.”
