EA’s Moore Says Large Publishers Must Adapt Or Die

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The digital revolution will come for every company in the gaming industry, it’s just a matter of time. EA COO Peter Moore thinks that companies must be ready for the switchover from physical, disc-based retail sales.

“Companies that continue to rely on the old model as the model changes before our eyes, unless they change their ways and invest in the future those companies eventually will die off,” said Moore. “No two ways about it.”

“Eventually, physical media will diminish as the core part of how gamers get their content. And we’re ready for that, but we’re also still ready to be the number one packaged goods publisher in the world, which we are.” Moore noted. “We might be the company that sells the last disc! But by then we’ll also be doing several billions of dollars in digital. If you want to be a publisher that’s still going to be viable for the consumer 3-4 years from now, you better be ready to deliver your content anytime, anywhere and to everyone.”

Source: IndustryGamers

 

Warner Bros. Looking For More Superhero Games

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Warner Bros. is making plans for more superhero games, best evidenced by a new studio in Montreal. This brand new studio is going to get working on both AAA games and casual online games.

“We’re definitely working closely with DC on different titles, yet to be announced,” said Warner Bros. Montreal studio head Martin Carrier. “It’s one of the reasons we talk to Geoff Johns and Jim Lee [the publisher’s head honchos] on a regular basis. It’s interesting for our geeky side to be in touch with those guys, especially now that they’ve relaunched all the 52 [comics]. It’s a good time to be working with DC. There’s so much energy going on there.”

Making a superhero game now means living up to the standard that Rocksteady has set with their Batman games; Carrier knows this because his studio has been founded to follow in the success of those games. “We realize how good a job Rocksteady did with Arkham Asylum,” said Carrier. “They changed people’s perceptions and that’s why we’re not satisfied anymore with sub-par superhero games. Now, it’s like they should be better than all the other games. So what’s their secret recipe ”

Carrier sees this new focus by Warner Bros. towards making games internally as a good one for both the studio and for gaming. “What’s positive is there’s a new-found respect for games. In 2007, Warner was just a licenser of [intellectual properties],” noted Carrier. “They didn’t think video games were important enough to have their own production studios. Now, it’s a case of, ‘Wait a second, this is a real entertainment business. We should have our own studios so we can really inject some quality into the products that get out there.’ To me, that was the message. It’s come into its own. How you make quality products is by working closely with production. There’s no barriers between us and them. We’re part of the same family, so it’s much more conducive to creating quality.”

Source: Canadian Business

Foursquare-Type Apps Growing In Relevance

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According to Forrester, only 6 percent of U.S. online adults use geolocation apps, a very small growth from 4 percent in 2010. Of that group of geosocial smartphone users, only 2 percent say they use the apps once a week or more.

“The bottom line is that geosocial apps are still niche, but they’re growing in usage. Since we published our previous report in July 2010, foursquare has grown from 2 million users to 15 million,” writes Melissa Parrish, the Forrester analyst. “Twitter — and now even more aggressively, Facebook — has continued to fuse their social offerings with location information; even technology companies like Apple are chiming in with the launch of the “Find My Friends” app. However, even though the user-base numbers have grown quickly, we still find that few consumers are checking in: 6 percent have ever, with only 2 percent doing so at least weekly.”

While adoptions has been slow, the category’s early adopters are young and influential (75 percent of geolocation app users are between the ages of 23 and 45) and are twice as likely to share product information, and also promotional coupons, discount codes, or the results of a game they’ve played. The percentage of female geosocial app users also climbed from 22 percent in 2010 to 37 percent in 2011.

16 percent of online adults in the U.S. were familiar with geolocation apps in 2010 but that has nearly doubled to 30 percent in 2011, which stands to grow more as Facebook, Apple, and Google invest more in the important advertising category.

“The important thing for marketers to note is that there’s a ton of marketing potential within geosocial apps,” added Parrish. “These services allow marketers to know when their consumers are in or near their retail locations, and to deliver them relevant information that can help with everything from branding to driving in-store foot traffic.”

Source: AdWeek.com

Call Of Duty Xbox 360 Avatar Sales Benefit The Call Of Duty Endowment

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Call of Duty fans on Xbox 360 have been given a chance to help U.S. military veterans. Money made from the purchase of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 avatars on Xbox Live Marketplace until December 16 will be donated to the Call of Duty Endowment.

Over 30 items based on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series are already available in the Avatar Marketplace. In honor of the continuing partnership with the Endowment, two additional Modern Warfare 3 Avatars- one based on American Special Forces and the other on Special Ops Juggernaut- are available now as well.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Begins In Earnest On December 13

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BioWare has announced they are making final preparations for the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Those that pre-ordered the game can begin as early as December 13, 2011 at 6:00 a.m. CST, with many pre-orders still available.

“Star Wars: The Old Republic is a go for launch on December 20,” said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder of BioWare and General Manager of the BioWare label’s MMO Business Unit. “We are extremely humbled by the surge of players who have joined us on this journey and participated in the Beta Weekend. Their participation has given us the opportunity to stress test the game and allowed us to tune the experience, ensuring that we deliver the smoothest possible MMO launch later this month.”

Those that have pre-ordered any version of Star Wars: The Old Republic can redeem their code at www.StarWarsTheOldRepublic.com/preorder before the launch of the game to sign up for pre-load and early access.

Naughty Dog Talks Jak And Daxter Legacy

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The Jak and Daxter Collection marks ten years since the franchise launched with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Developer Naughty Dog has long since moved onto the Uncharted franchise, but that didn’t stop Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells from reminiscing.

“We are delighted at the place the franchise has found amongst the gaming community and the mark it has left on the platformer genre in particular,” said Wells. “Given that we’re so close to the 10th anniversary, looking back at some of the work that went into making those awesome games seems to be in order. It’s amazing to recall just how the development of the Jak and Daxter franchise has progressed and just how far we’ve come.”

“With each outing in the Jak and Daxter series, we set out to create a game that offered the player a new experience that built on the previous game,” he added. “As you go from Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy to Jak 3, the story will connect across the titles as the gameplay and technical aspects of the games and the tools used to create them evolved. From being on foot in Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy to the hoverboard and morph gun in Jak II to the dune buggies in Jak 3, new gameplay ideas were always in play and being fleshed out and amped up. On the technical side, for instance, Jak 3 featured a new terrain renderer that included bump-mapping, which is now a commonplace element in rendering terrain. Cloth dynamics and rag-doll physics, also standard features in many modern games, were new developments by the time that Jak 3 was released in 2004.”

Source: PlayStation Blog