Wednesday, January 23, 2008
News
How Much Do British Devs/Industry Types Make?
11:00PM Luke Plunkett | British trade site MCV, after being overcome with a bad case of the busy-bodies, went around the UK asking anyone and everyone involved in the gaming industry how much money they were making. The cheek of them! Plenty of people answered, though, and MCV have just published the results. They show that if you want to make some money in the business, you need to be a Managing Director for a big publisher, because then you’ll be making up to and beyond £250,000 a year. At the other end of the scale? Junior artists and designers, who are only making between £18-21,000 a year. Which is even less than journalists. Industry salary survey [MCV] More »
News
Market Losses Hurt Games Companies Too, You Know
10:00PM Luke Plunkett | Thanks to a shaky US economy, global stocks are taking a swan dive. Doesn’t affect you? Maybe not directly, but remember, platform holders and publishers are almost all publicly-held companies. And surely you care about them, at least in an impersonal, “oh, that’s a shame” kind of way. Anyways, in the wake of big falls in the US, Japanese and European markets, the following games companies have all lost a sizeable pile of cash: Ubisoft (down 11.5%), Sony (down 3.5%), Microsoft (down 3%), Take-Two (down 3%) and SCi (down 7.8%). Think of all those generic sequels and hardware colour variations, lost! Worldwide Stock Dive Hurts Publishers [1UP] More »
News
Mario Is Afraid Of His…Dry Cleaning?
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | This is a commercial for the upcoming Interactive Achievement Awards. No idea why it’s so funny, but for some reason, it is. I think it’s his face when he throws the papers down on the floor. So cheeky. Not really sure why Mario’s so afraid of his dry-cleaning, either, but there could be a number of explanations. He might just be afraid of tipping. And by afraid, we mean “not interested”. [thanks Gabriel!] More »
News
Why Oh Why Can’t Games Meet Release Dates?
9:00PM Luke Plunkett | They say patience is a virtue. If so, it’s one gamers have had wrenched from their clammy fists years ago. Delays for major games are about as common these days as a brown sci-fi landscape, which makes nobody happy, but did you ever wonder just why so many games see their release dates slip, and slip, and slip? A CVG article has quizzed the devs behind some of history’s more notorious culprits (Galleon, STALKER), which provides us with some handy excuses as to why their particular projects went through development hell. Sadly, the piece only briefly touches on what’s probably the most broken aspect of the whole shebang: the effect marketing departments have on the problem by announcing early, bogus dates. They believe a delayed game builds excitement, whereas I’ve always thought a delayed game does nothing but antagonise and create unrealistic expectations. But hey, what do I know, I don’t work in marketing. Hot Dates [CVG] More »
Final Fantasy XIII Will Have A Demo…Sometime In The Future
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | At least it will according to Squeenix’s Tetsuya Nomura, who has said that they want to release a demo so that players can get a handle on the game’s new battle system. That neatly removes the “if” from your FF fanboy’s list of demo fantasies, leaving only the “when”, which wasn’t even hinted at. Not even a little. Sorry. But it probably won’t be anytime soon. Final Fantasy XIII demo planned [CVG] More »
Sony Postpones Japanese PSP Skype Launch
7:10PM Luke Plunkett | The Japanese launch of Skype for the PSP, originally slated for late-January, has been postponed due to issues with Sony’s official microphones. Apparently some of the microphone’s components failed to meet Skype’s necessary certifications, and rather than launch the service with no official peripherals to accommodate it, Sony have put the entire launch on ice. No new date has been set for the launch, Sony only saying “solutions to enable users to start using Skype features and services on their PSP are being sought for and will be announced in due course”. Sucks for Japan! Western users, you’re OK, as Sony have told us this “will make no difference to the European and USA launch, which will coincide with the end of January firmware upgrade”. More »
German SingStar Is A Living Hell
7:00PM Luke Plunkett | SingStar in English is bad enough. Sure, every version of the game released thus far has had one or two tolerable, maybe even memorable tracks, but on the whole? Complete drivel. The German-language SingStars, though…well. After the jump are some of the tracks featured on SingStar Apres-Ski, a Europe-only edition of the game released last year. Europe, Germany, pop music, singing, you know where this is going. Enjoy! More »
Solar-Powered “Nintendo” Handheld Is The Swiss-Army Knife Of Gaming
6:00PM Luke Plunkett | This is a solar-powered MP4 player. Eh. It’s also, however, a solar-powered Nintendo emulator, what with its ability to play NES, Famicom, Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games. Only catch is that the unit doesn’t have slots for the actual carts: it’s software emulation all the way, so you’ll need to put the ROMs on an SD card before they’ll work. The handheld costs around $US 120, and for that money you’re not only getting the Nintendo emulation, but MP3, MP4 and WMA playback, a voice-recorder, flashlight and even a usb dock so you can charge other devices via its solar screens. A PSP for Nintendo-loving outdoorsman, if you will. handheld nintendo emulator goes solar [technabob] More »
News
Total Overdose Developers Announce Faith And A .45
5:30PM Luke Plunkett | Deadline Games, the Danish devs behind the charming-yet-flawed shooters Total Overdose and Chili Con Carnage have taken the wraps off their latest project, a new shooter called Faith and a .45. Great name! It’s also offering a somewhat original premise, as it’s set in during the Great Depression, and will be focused on the Bonnie & Clyde-style adventure of a guy and his dame driving around shooting stuff up, as they try to topple the reign of “a ruthless, corrupt oilman who’s out for their blood”. You have our attention Deadline, keep us posted. Total Overdose Devs Reveal Faith And A .45 [Gamasutra] More »
