Thursday, June 19, 2008

Peter Moore Thinks Rock Band’s Changing Our Thinking About Games

11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Peter Moore isn’t just a game exec. He is a rocker. And as a rocker, he knows the importance of things like Rock Band. And what is that? It really came home for me when we were in Munich for our global marketing meeting and we took over the Hard Rock Café for the night and had a Rock Band competition… There were a hundred of us and it was like a real rock concert. It was a blast. I stood back and I thought that this was an incredible cultural phenomenon… The crowd were going wild, but all we were doing was playing on toy guitars, toy drums and singing badly into a microphone. Now the beer might have had something to do with it, I don’t know, but it was a great social thing. And I said, ‘Boy, this product is going to change the way we think about games.’ Boy was he right! Rock Band also changed the ways game execs can embarrass themselves at E3 press conferences. Peter Moore Interview [CVG via videogaming247] [Pic] More »

One Of These ‘Special Incentive’ DoA 4 Contracts Is Fake

10:30PM Brian Ashcraft | Yesterday, Itagaki vs. Tecmo commenced with Itagaki’s lawyer submitting into evidence the contract he had supporting his completion bonus for Xbox 360 title Dead or ALive 4. Tecmo’s lawyers submitted a somewhat identical-looking contract, differing in that it did not support Itagaki’s claims that he was entitled to a completion bonus. Hrm. Someone it seems is lying, and other evidence seems to indicate that Tecmo isn’t exactly being truthful about overtime — which is a totally separate case altogether. More »

Godfather Creator’s Son Sues Over Game Royalties

9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Anthony Puzo – son of Mario Puzo, author and creator of the Godfather – has begun legal proceedings against Paramount Pictures, accusing them of stiffing him over royalty payments he’s owed in connection with the recent Godfather game. Puzo says that a deal was struck between his father and Paramount in 1992, whereby the now-deceased series creator (and by succession, his kids) would receive a “significant share of the revenue of any audio-visual products” associated with the Godfather, but then accuses Paramount of failing to “pay the Puzo Estate the sums due it in respect of the Godfather game”. I don’t know what Paramount are getting at, but if I was dealing with the family of the guy who created the Godfather, I would not mess with their money, and I would not mess with their respect. Son of “Godfather” sues Paramount over video game [Reuters] More »

Neil Young Leaving Electronic Arts

8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Via Newsweek comes word that Electronic Arts mainstay Neil Young has left the company for a yet unnamed “new project.” During his 11-year run at EA, Young managed Maxis during Sims 2, lent his talents to games like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and headed up EA Los Angeles, where he supervised Medal of Honor and Boom Blox. Recently, Young was heading up small-team-focused EA Blueprint, which will now be headed up by Westwood Studios founder Louis Castle. Hit the jump for the internal EA email describing Young’s departure. More »