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With the rising costs of game development, studios are actively moving the financial burden to publishers by selling out.UK-based Climax Games is the latest to join the trend, as Buena Vista Games, part of the Walt Disney Company, announced they’d picked up the company today. The news is official, though the actual deal won’t be completed until early October.
“The acquisition of Climax Racing aligns perfectly with our strategic and geographic goals by allowing us to both reach into new genres and new markets for creative talent,” said Graham Hopper, senior VP and general manager, of Buena Vista Games in the announcement release.
No word on what THQ’s plans for the Moto GP series are, or what will be Climax’s first game under new management.
Sega just recently acquired a famous novel series to be converted into licensed video games.ÂÂ
Reading? What’s reading? You know, that thing teachers cruelly force upon students. Fantasy fans are likely aware of Philip Pullman’s award-winning His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy, set in a world where magic and industrial civilization have collided as Lyra, a young girl searching for her friend in the icy north, learns the secrets of her parents and uncovers another universe in the process.Sega confirmed this morning they’ve picked up the rights to develop videogames based on the trilogy from New Line Cinema, the company currently adapting the novels into films, starring Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rogue) and Daniel Craig (Casino Royale, Munich). No target platforms have been announced, but, as with most licensing deals, expect it everywhere.
“For New Line’s biggest film since The Lord of the Rings, we knew we wanted an interactive partner that had the talent, the scope and the reach to deliver AAA video games to the four corners of the globe,” said David Imhoff, senior exec. VP of worldwide licensing and merchandising at New Line, in the announcement release. “For The Golden Compass, that company is SEGA.”
The Golden Compass, the first book in the series, is currently shooting for a release date of November 17th, 2007. Anticipate Sega’s interactive adaptation to land around the same time.
Source
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Nintendojo’s opinion on Wii outselling the PS3 and DS Lite making the old DS obsolete described below:ÂÂ
Am I the only one who thinks the old DS is cool?
I notice that our site’s 1UP mushroom is currently going to the Polar White DS Lite for being so suave and handsome that people can’t help but love it (I’m paraphrasing, here), and I’m starting to feel a little sad for my platinum friend.
Out With The Old, In With The New, Sucker
I don’t agree. I’ll admit that I haven’t spent any particularly significant amount of time with a DS Lite, I certainly have played a game on one before. And I agree that the lighting on the screen is a lot better, from an objective point of view. It’s so much better that it fries my eyeballs when I look at it. Sure, I could turn it down so that it’s the level of a regular DS, but I’m pretty sure I already have a system that could handle that amount of backlighting.
Maybe it’s just a problem with me. My meaty claws are just too big to be comfortable around a system of the DS Lite’s size. That must be it. Although, in theory, the bigger stylus would be better, by that logic.
Anyway, I just wanted to toss in my three cents on that whole debate. I think I’m going to be sticking with my old Nintendo DS for a while. If you want to get a DS Lite instead, go for it. In fact, buy two and support Nintendo even more.
Also, some good news for Nintendo! Wii has been named the first video game console ever to the Toys ‘R Us “hot list.” This may or may not be impressive to you, depending on how cool you view yourself to be.
I Don’t Want To Grow Up, I’m a—
Okay, let’s not go shouting out advertising slogans. At least, not without getting paid for it. But this does matter. Not only will it be quite visible, in the ad handed out in the stores and possibly in newspapers around the country, but it also means that at least one retail store has decided that Wii is going to be a hit.
I’ve also decided this, but that shouldn’t surprise you in any way. In fact, I can make you a little guarantee about that holiday season. I shouldn’t go out on a limb like this, but my blind Nintendo loyalty won’t let me keep silent: Wii Will Outsell PS3 At Launch
I know, I know. It’s a little early to be making blanket statements like that, right? Well, maybe. But I can’t hold it in. Plus, the fact that there will be one million Wiis at launch in North America means that Nintendo will have over twice as many units in the territory as Sony has with its overpriced multimedia computer entertainment doohickey. So, even if Nintendo only sells through half of the Wii shipments in America, it’s already outsold PLAYSTATION 3 by one hundred thousand! That’s a win-win situation. And it’ll turn into a win-win-win when the complete shipment of Wiis sells out, which we all know it will, anyway.
Just remember — you heard it here first. And if you didn’t, you’d better think it over again, because you’d definitely be wrong in that case.
More Reggie info from his interview with ABC News:
For Nintendo’s hardcore fans, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is more than just a spokesperson for the company they adore, he’s a general leading them into the next-gen console war.
“Are you sure you gave me a twenty?”
Nintendophiles will have a chance to get up close and personal with their leader, Fils-Aime told ABC News. In an interview with the program, the man known simply as “Reggie” said he would be handing out some of the first Wiis at a New York store on November 19, the day the console goes on sale in North America.
“Those consumers, the core gamer, are very important to us,” Reggie said. “And you know what? I’ll be at a store in the New York area, where they will camp out and I will be handing out some Wiis that very first minute that we’re available for purchase.”
The store Fils-Aime refers to is likely the Nintendo World Store in Times Square, which has played host to other Nintendo events in the past.
Reggie used the network-television time to hawk the system to the mainstream crowd.
“Our focus with a mass market game [console], was to have a mass market price, and a mass market collection of software, and we think we’ve done that.”
The mass market price comes with some caveats, as the console won’t have some of the multimedia perks that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 have. But that doesn’t bother Fils-Aime.
“There are some choices that we made in the development in order to achieve that price point. There’s no DVD playback capability. And our thinking is most consumers have about 5 different [DVD players] in their house. Our games are not high-definition. Again our thinking is HD penetration is [only] about 15 percent of households.”
The current generation of systems clearly had a winner–the PlayStation 2. While many try and predict who will be this generation’s champ, Fils-Aime doesn’t think there will be gold, silver, and bronze medals. However, he’s not content to simply share the spotlight.
“In order for me to win, must they fail? I don’t think so, because they’re trying to do something very different,” he said. “But our goal is to be the leader in this industry.”
According to the DFC, any of the three console giants could win the next console war.
Research firm DFC Intelligence released a game-industry brief providing its lay of the land heading into the PlayStation 3 and Wii launches this November, and the organization is abstaining from backing any particular horse in the race. The brief is titled “Win, Place, or Show: Does it Really Matter,” and it suggests that there are more important considerations than who is going to sell the most consoles this year.
“The console hardware battle is a marathon, not a sprint, and will be played out over the next three years,” the firm said. “It is unlikely that this holiday season will reveal any major surprises that would cause us to make a major market reassessment.”
DFC has been vocal in the past about its opinion that Sony’s pricing of the PS3 has left the door open for Microsoft and Nintendo to claim plenty of market share at the electronics giant’s expense. To stay in the hunt, DFC thinks Sony needs to keep the PlayStation 2 market active to postpone consumers from making the leap to the next-generation systems and to make the PS3’s price competitive by late 2007. One move the firm applauded was Sony’s announcement that it would include an HDMI port in both versions of the PS3 hardware, noting that it should cut down on confusion and keep the cheaper bundle from being perceived as a “crippled” version of the system.
“Another key point is that under all scenarios the new game systems from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all viable platforms,” the brief said. “In the past generation there was one platform, the PS2, that far outclassed the field. Going forward we do not see a scenario where any platform has that kind of dominance over the next five years. Even under the worst case scenario, Microsoft and Nintendo do better with the Xbox 360 and the Wii than they did with the Xbox and GameCube.”
And while the differences in the three main hardware platforms will make porting games a challenge for developers, DFC believes those unique qualities each platform possesses may spur the industry’s growth in the coming generation.
“Increasingly consumers own multiple platforms on which they play games,” the brief said. “There are many opportunities to reach a growing consumer base. Unfortunately the market is also getting substantially more competitive and the pitfalls are growing just as fast. Even the largest companies risk becoming overextended as they try to be all things, to all people, in all places.”
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If you are picking this game up at launch (I am…it’ll be the first game I try out on the Wii!), then THIS is a MUST-READ.
It’s always cool to hate the big guy and in the realm of videogame publishers, Electronic Arts is definitely the big guy on the block. Perhaps that’s partly why Nintendo fans have in the past not jumped on the Madden NFL Football bandwagon as readily as Xbox and PlayStation 2 owners. Maybe it’s just because the GameCube versions of EA’s sports offerings sometimes lacked the features of the others. Or maybe it’s just because Madden is not Mario or Link. But whatever the case, as die-hard Nintendo fans ourselves, we’re asking you to give the franchise one more chance. EA has with Madden NFL 07 for Wii delivered a footballer that boasts all the features of its competitors (and then some) and puts Nintendo’s new controller to use in a manner that feels neither gimmicky nor forced. Indeed, after a short learning curve, throwing bullet passes and making bit hits feel incredibly natural — and because the control scheme is so radically different, it feels fresh, too.
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Madden for Wii runs in 480 progressive scan and also supports a 16:9 widescreen mode. The title speeds along at 60 frames per second while employing crisper textures and more advanced lighting and shadow effects than the Xbox build, plus little touches like a depth of field view. Animation is fluid and — as in all versions — the camera is designed to showcase the on-field action via a variety of cinematic zoomed in and panned back angles. Plain and simple, it looks really good, although it’s not on par visually with the Xbox 360 game for obvious reasons. That noted, we look at some first generation Wii games and we get the feeling that the developer didn’t even try to up the graphics over GameCube. However, with Madden for Wii, it’s clear from the opening sequence that EA has really tried to push the hardware.
Of course, with Wi games visuals will always be secondary to the method by which the Wii remote controls the on-screen action. This, surprisingly, is where EA has not dropped the ball — and excuse the pun. We honestly didn’t expect the developer to put as much thought as it has into reworking the fundamental control make-up of the Madden series. The studio has also meticulously refined the sensitivity of the Wii-mote controls so that they don’t feel jumpy, but smooth, which is more than can be said for some other third party launch games. And the entire setup is complemented by a series of great tutorials that work hand-in-hand with the on-screen play to teach gamers how to become pros in minutes and not hours.
At the core of this dramatic new control method is EA’s self-coined “FreeMotion” mechanic, which simply refers to the way players make gestures with the free-hand style remote to manipulate the players on the field. EA uses both the Wii-mote and the nunchuk attachment to execute the variety of moves at athletes’ disposals and the controls themselves are relatively simple. To hike the ball, you simply snap the Wii remote back. When you want to throw, you select your receivers via the four sides of the D-Pad or A button, and then make a throwing motion with the remote. If you snap the controller forward, you’ll throw a bullet pass. If you’re slow with your motion, you’ll lob it. And, naturally, somewhere in between is where you’ll find your normal passes. Meanwhile, you control your quarterback in the pocket with the analog stick on the nunchuk, easily moving him around and avoiding tackles.
Does this all sound kind of gimmicky and unnecessary? We admit, when we first heard about the controls, we were skeptical. After all, the traditional Madden mechanics have worked just fine for years. But almost shockingly, the Wii-mote controls not only operate perfectly, but they feel very natural and are incredibly easy to pick up. Indeed, were we to introduce someone who has never played football videogames before to both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of Madden, we’re confident they’d find the Nintendo iteration much more accessible right off the bat. Which is exactly what EA is hoping will happen, thus attracting an audience of sports fans who have in the past resisted videogame footballers because of their complexity.
More at Source
Matt says that the Wii is “not gimmicky”. Well, he is certainly a believer in the Wii. Very good news, indeed!ÂÂ
This is going to be a quick one because i’m out the door. Earlier today I arrived in San Francisco to play some Wii demos and also go to a co-worker’s wedding. Just five minutes ago I wrapped up an hour or so hands-on demo with Madden NFL 07 for Wii. And I have to tell you, the game is fun. On top of that, it’s not gimmicky.
EA has really invested a lot of time and resources into making the game play well. The controls don’t feel as though they were designed for GameCube and made to fit with the Wii remote. They feel like they were built for the Wii from the ground up, which is pretty much the truth. Within 10 minutes or so, I was moving along pretty smoothly and having a great time with the game.
We grabbed a ton of crispy footage that we’ll be posting up soon with any luck, so you’ll be able to see everything for yourself. Until then, take my word that the title is solid and actually pretty good looking, too. Not Xbox 360, of course, but definitely well beyond GCN and better than Xbox.
I think a lot of football fans will love it. I wonder, though, if hardcore videogamers who have grown up with traditional Madden will be willing to give it a chance?
naterocks1: ok naterocks1: [hattrick] you should own it.
lightanddark: lol Ill try and post more stuff and perhaps on weekends go back through what WiiNintendo posted and do...
Sarah Chino: this looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty good game 
classic sonic ftw
Whitesides: Impressive efforts, and quite comprehensive. Makes you seem trustworthy, which is hard to come by these...
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