Warren Spector keeps a tidy blog. Sometimes, he even updates it. He did so yesterday, in fact, letting the world know what he's up to now he's working with the chaps at Disney. No firm details on just what it is, but even this vague suggestion is enough to set our short, stubby tongues wagging:

My team and I have been working hard on our own and (get ready for the cool factor to go way up) in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar. If I say anymore, I'll get in trouble, so let's just leave it at that.

Yes, Warren, the cool factor just went up by about as far as a Disney games-related coolfactorometer can go.

I'm ba-ack...[Warren Spector's Blog]

Current gen video games look pretty darn good! Almost like movies. But there is a difference. Ask ask Ralph Eggleston, production designer behind Pixar's upcoming movie, Wall-E (pictured). He'll tell you!

How much of a gap exists today between current-gen consoles and the tech you use?

A vast, vast difference. If the player is involved in the narrative they can render it only so fast, really, though it will get faster. But when you're in control of a narrative, as we are as filmmakers, the level of detail has to be much greater and we have the opportunity to create that because we have full control - our worlds are finite as opposed to video games, which are not entirely infinite but a lot more infinite than what we do... I think it will get better and better. But for me, the big thing lacking in video games, and I haven't seen one that has done this for me, is how you involve a strong narrative story. Not just a set-up that you jump in to, but a narrative story in which the player is an active participant. I've had this conversation with friends now for almost a decade on how you could actually do that with a videogame. Unfortunately, although I think there would be a market for that, I don't think the market would be large enough.

M'kay. If it's good, Ralph, people will buy it. Don't underestimate your fellow human!

Pixar Interview [Next-Gen]

Cutest. Robot. Ever. That was the biggest takeaway I got from glimpsing the Wall-E Wii game at THQ's Fall and holiday season preview event today, and as the game is set to launch simultaneously with the movie, I have a feeling that that googly-eyed little guy, whose function is to pick up and compact garbage, will sell zillions of copies of this title whether it's good or not, especially as it's launching on Wii, PS2 and Xbox 360.

Unlike most of the games I saw today, Wall-E's coming out this month, so we'll know for ourselves soon enough, but I still thought I'd share my impressions of the title, along with some screens of the Wii version.

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Nintendo's doing great! Making tons of money — just look at it go, go, go. What does that mean for its competitors? It means things are hard and not easy. Publisher THQ had a disappointing year with its Disney movie games. According to company CEO Brian Farrell :

The kids' market was extremely competitive during fiscal '08. In fact, it was the most crowded market for video games for kids in recent memory. With a tough Pixar comparison to Cars [Ratatouille] and new competition from Nintendo's first-party titles — as well as new music games — our traditionally strong kids' business did not meet expectations.

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The folks from Pixar were on hand to show off the video game adaptation of their animated movie, Wall-E. In Wall-E, the world has been taken over by a benevolent corporation and in a little switch, it's the consumers who are the enemies rather than the big corporate menace. Players can either take on the role of Wall-E (a trash compactor robot that looks like a cross between R.O.B. and Johnny 5) or the sleek and "iPod inspired" Eve, a flying female robot with a killer laser, both of whom are trying to save the universe from its own twisted remains.

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A Pixar film getting a game translation? Get out of town! Yes yes - it isn't much of a surprise to anyone, but THQ is busy preparing the video game version of the next big Pixar film WALL●E for just about every console marketable, including both the DS and PSP, Mac and PC, and all points in between. WALL●E is the story of a little robot left on the Earth to clean it up after humanity trashed it, who falls in love with a robot named EVE who arrives 700 years later on a probe to check on his progress. Unless the folks at Pixar were kidnapped and replaced with cardboard cutouts, expect the film to make millions and the game of the film to follow suit. A small part of me hopes it will fail, if only because typing WALL●E out is a bitch and a half. Look for the game this summer, on or around the movie's June 27th release.

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