DMW Games Gathers Industry Heavyweights In L.A.

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With E3 still a couple of months away, there’s another reason for game industry heavyweights to gather in Los Angeles.  Digital Media Wire is preparing to host the 2013 DMW Games Conference with a line-up of more than 80 speakers next week.

The two-day event looks at investment opportunities in games and how the rise of digital and mobile games is affecting the industry.   Headliners include Michael Pachter, Adam Sessler, Ralph Koster, Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago.  They’re joined by speakers representing a cross-section of major game publishers, rising digital game makers such as Rovio and Wargaming, traditional entertainment companies including Warner Bros., NBC and CBS, and a bevy of industry and investment partners.  In addition to speaking and panel sessions there will be companies exhibiting games and running demos.

The conference is scheduled for April 18-19 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.  More information and registration is available through the event web site.

Source: Digital Media Wire

Finally, A Tweet From President Clinton

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Earlier this week, political satirist Stephen Colbert created a Twitter account for former President Bill Clinton during an event for college students involved in the Clinton Global Initiative. Colbert segued a conversation on whether young people should get involved with politics into Clinton’s social media presence, namely Twitter.

The comedian who goes by @StephenAtHome on Twitter is avid on social media, delivering daily quips to more than four million of his followers. When he prompted the ex-president to talk about his social media involvement, Clinton’s participation in the social sphere proved to be limited.  Although he uses Facebook, Clinton explained he has reservations about Twitter.

“What if you tweet and nobody tweets back?  There’s nothing worse than a friendless tweeter,” said Clinton.

He also recounted a quote from a speech where he admitted to being a complete novice when it comes to technology.  Shocking if not for the fact that he first served in office 20 years ago, Clinton claims he sent just two emails during his term.

Colbert used humor to get Clinton to reconsider his absence on Twitter.

“Sir, I took the liberty of opening you a Twitter account,” he told Clinton during his show.  “Now, President Clinton was taken. William Jefferson Clinton was taken. But PrezBillyJeff was available.”

Colbert then asked, “Would you like to break into the 21st century right now, and send your first tweet?”

And with that, a bit of presidential history followed with Clinton’s first tweet.

 

Clearly the former president who is popular around the world had nothing to worry about in the engagement department. His account has amassed over 35,000 followers since the first tweet. Although he did get some help from Colbert.

Source: Huffington Post

Omega – The Perfect Mechanical Movement

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This TV spot from Omega entwines images of nature and the world with man-made gearwheels and other elements of mechanical watch movements. Perhaps the best part of the ad: all of the watch mechanisms and gears are 3D renderings of components found in the Omega Co-Axial caliber 9300 chronograph.

 

Metro: Last Light – Ranger Survival Guide Chapter 1: The World Of Metro

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This video gives players more details of what its like to be part of the Spartan Order, the self-styled protectors of the Metro. Rangers are taught about the dangers they will face within the different areas of post-apocalyptic Moscow, from the threats of man in the tunnels of the Metro, the ravaged surface wasteland with traps and radiation, and the deadly transition levels in-between crawling with mutants.

 

Sega Says Paid User Acquisition A Must For Major Publishers

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Sega director of online operations Ethan Einhorn notes that gaining visibility in the mobile market is challenging and increasingly expensive. To that end, Einhorn sees paid user acquisition and cross-promotion as mandatory practices now in the field.

“Both strategies are important to use,” Einhorn said. “I think that you can’t not do paid acquisition at this point if you’re a major publisher. I think that’s a key part of driving users, and if you’re a major publisher, you’re in a good position to shuttle players from one game to the other through cross-sell. I think that’s valuable. But at the end of the day, quality is the most important piece to getting people engaged and willing to play the game. That’s what makes something truly viral.”

Einhorn also doesn’t see free-to-play going away. “I don’t think people are going to get tired of getting things for free,” he said. “We’re still very early in what is an extremely subtle business model. Free-to-play is not an easy or simple thing; it’s very complex. And we as an industry are just working that out. So I would expect that over the next few years, as we work it out and the right balance between gameplay and monetization and those aspects are better understood, we’ll see an improvement in the revenue side as well.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

FairSearch Files Complaint Against Google’s Android

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FairSearch has filed a complaint against Android with the European Commission that the mobile OS is anti-competitive. The lobby group representing Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle and others says that the below cost distribution of Android gives Google an unfair advantage over other OS manufacturers and that Google tries to obscure these aspects.

“Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,” said Thomas Vinje, counsel to the FairSearch coalition. “We are asking the Commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market. Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google’s Android operating system.”

A major sticking point is that device manufacturers are required to give default placement to Google apps and services in order to get access to mainstays like Google Maps and YouTube. This gives the Google a degree of control of the data on a majority of mobile phones shipped and sold in the world today.

Exclusive: Joe Ybarra Shooting The Moon

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By David Radd

There are many opportunities to enter in the gaming industry these days, but most of them are not without some peril.  Joe Ybarra, industry veteran of three decades, knows this better than almost anyone having working on a variety of projects for EA in its nascence and other studios down the line.  He’s now attempting to re-enter the gaming industry with his new studio, Joe Got Game.  While he canceled the Kickstarter he attempted, he said he’s gathered a lot of useful information from that brief venture and plans to press on.

We talked with both Ybarra and Josef Shindler about their company, the changing industry, and their project Shackleton Crater.

[a]list: It seems like the industry is more accessible on all fronts.  The business model is changing?

Joe Ybarra: It feels more like the days when we started at Electronic Arts in the ’80s and all the projects were small.  Most studios didn’t have more than eight or nine people and it was difficult to find those with the right skills!  It feels very much the same way now, but finding talent isn’t as hard.  It’s actually easier to make games now than it was back then!

[a]list: Now back in the ’80s… was there anything resembling a game “engine” or was it all just made from scratch?

Joe Ybarra: When you say “engine” in that time frame, it was of question of ‘how do you display pixels on a screen?  The one unified element was getting pixels on the screen, but beyond that, everything was built from scratch from the ground up.  Even the programing environments weren’t universal, so the primary language was assembly.  We had our own compilers and Starflight was built that way.

Josef Shindler: When all this stuff is brand new, you have to build stuff for hardware that doesn’t exist.

Joe Ybarra: To reinforce your point, this has been going on for a couple of years, and this might continue for a long time.  We saw a little bit of this in the early ’90s with 3D and the acceptance of the CD as a medium and the reuse of development environments.

But [new console] development taking tens of millions of dollars pushes design technology, maybe not in design and innovation, but they’re refining the process of make high level stuff.  We need the Call of Duty and Battlefields of the world to advance certain technological elements. 

[a]list: What’s your experience with Joe Got Game and how did you decided to join up with the studio?

Josef Shindler: The story starts with him.  I came in about a year ago and  we were talking about what we wanted to make.  We were teaching students how to make games and Joe’s buddies were pushing him to remake MULE and he said ‘Why would I want to do that ‘ but he thought about to expand it and make it different.

Joe Ybarra: To reinforce this point, I’ve been thinking about this project or something like it for three years.  I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted to do in the game industry – I’ve been an executive for 15 – 20 years and at the end of this career, I wanted to start making games again, so it’s a labor of love because there’s a lot of other processes I’d like to go through.  I was working as a teacher and was the program chair.  Working with all these students on product development made me realize I wanted to build this stuff again.  So we decided to do Shackleton Crater.

[a]list: So what’s the plan B, the non-Kickstarter plan?

Josef Shindler: We have B,C,D,E,F, and G plans.  If there’s something [Joe Ybarra] does. it’s plans.  We don’t just have the wild success model.

Joe Ybarra: The game is designed in stages.  So our intent was that the game could be given out in some small way, like the first stage, but what we want people to play the whole game.  It would be rolled out over time: if you buy stage 2, you get 3 and 4 for free.  Certainly we’re going to have different vehicles to get the game out there.

[a]list: What about the importance of cross-platform?

Josef Shindler: We do believe in the tablet platform, given the way it’s developing and the games we see coming out. We think people will want some serious games on this platform.

Joe Ybarra: With cross-platform development, there’s some interesting things we’ll have to do for this product.  In making it turn-based, we’ll allow players to have a session in just 10 to 20 minutes, or longer if they choose, making it adaptable to what people want from a mobile game.

[a]list: Anything else you’d like to add?

Joe Ybarra: The only other thing I want to say is that I want to be as agnostic with content as possible. We also want people to know that we’re representing every space program.

Josef Shindler: We have data from the U.S., Europe and Japan.

[a]list: Trying to reach as many markets as possible?

Joe Ybarra: What you have to assume is your game is going to be international.

Stay tuned for in-depth talk of Shackleton Crater’s design!

IGDA Sets New Ground Rules For Events

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IGDA executive director Kate Edwards has laid out new guidelines for events held by the organization, following the recent GDC party that led to the resignation of co-chair Brenda Romero. The events will now be networking focused, will purposefully be inclusive, and there will be more due diligence on choices of partners.

Edwards pledged a personal “Walk Out and Talk Out” policy where she will immediately leave any future event she deems to be unsuitable after explaining her reasons for doing so to the sponsors and organizers. Edwards encouraged others to do so to help push change.

“In the big picture, conference parties are a small aspect of our greater growth and professional development, but they’re a flashpoint for demonstrating values that are either oppressive or progressive,” Edwards said. “Our humanity makes us prone to mistakes, but that does not diminish our resolve to be a force of change. I hope the IGDA membership will rise to the challenge, and keep working together to help our industry reflect the reality of our diversity, whether it’s at events, in the workplace or in the games we create.”

Source: Gamasutra

Gamers Eulogize Roger Ebert

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Roger Ebert didn’t think much of games, as the film critic famously declared in 2010 that “video games can never be art.” At the time, the gaming world seemed to rise up with one voice to contradict the Pulitzer-winning critic, so much so that he eventually conceded he shouldn’t have ignorantly opened his mouth on the subject (even if he never actually recanted the statement).

But with Ebert’s passing last week, dying at the age of 70 after a decade-long battle with cancer, there was no shortage of admiration, respect, and mourning among gaming circles. Developers, journalists, and gamers alike flooded Twitter with condolences and reflections on Ebert’s legacy and contributions. Among the gaming luminaries paying tribute were Warren Spector, Ray Muzyka, and Harvey Smith.

“Games desperately needs its Roger Ebert,” remarked Ron Gilbert. “Until it does, it will never truly be an art form.”

David Jaffe also weighed in, saying, “The world has lost such a smart, articulate voice about all sorts of things (yes, even his stance on games). I’ll miss you Ebert-thank you!”

Just two days before his death, Ebert announced that he was taking a “leave of presence” due to another bout of cancer. While he said he was planning to reduce the number of movies he would review, he laid out plenty of future plans he still intended to realize, including a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to return his TV show “At the Movies” to the air.

“And gamers beware, I am even thinking about a movie version of a video game or mobile app,” Ebert said. “Once completed, you can engage me in debate on whether you think it is art.”

Ebert is survived by his wife Chaz, stepchildren Sonia and Jay, and grandchildren Raven, Emil, Mark, and Joseph.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times {link no longer active}