I feel bad for all of the game developers especially in the US. In case you didn’t know, Midway is facing possible bankruptcy (well when they were making the DC vs Mortal I was wondering from where they were back. They were dead for me), Factor 5 -in which I know a frenchy- faces financial issues (no one paid, projects canceled) and the big one EA:
From DubiousQuality
Stock price of Electronic Arts. -75% in a year. Good luck Brütal Legend. This summer at the GDC Paris I was impressed by the “wind of change” that seemed to blow in this big corporation; they were explaining F2P with their Battlefield franchise, there was Mirror’s Edge, Boom Blox, Skate it, Spore… Sadly none of them really achieved something special.
Mirror’s Edge seems to have been rushed out to match a financial quarter (STOP making ten headlines about your game per day on the main games blogs, it’s ridiculous and yes LBP I’m looking at you too). Spore is quite a success but quite a disaster from a public image point of view (conclusion: STOP the fucking security bs before you even think about it).
So you would think Ubi is in good shape while rivals are biting the dust. Well maybe not:
“While three acquisitions are currently on the table, the loss of Cryptic Studios to Atari left the company disappointed, according to Martinez.”
Of course they are, they desperately need a cash cow like a MMO, like WoW the shit that sells like crack.
Did I mention F2P ?
So like the movie industry which was uncapable of doing other things that western and colonial stuffs with huge publishers, the medium is facing a large crisis. And a reborn. The rise of creative aware multi-talented people working the Game in every way. We’re all still brainstorming and prototyping but I think something really powerful is going on.
Minotaur China Shop is out. It’s fun well polished and all. Congratulations to the Flashbang peeps.
Knytt Stories, I have it on my netbook, lovin’ it, the feeling is great (listen to the audio). Polishing once again. Here’s a design tour (via Petri’s twittaah).
How about labrute.fr one of the fastest growing website audience in France? The gameplay is simple ok there’s none BUT this is a game. Labrute makes more audience than some national newspaper with a concept ala Battlemail. Good job Motion Twin.
Globz has launched a new version of Globulos, check it out.
Games are really, really mainstream when I see ads everywhere for Left 4 Dead or for the 360 or Babyz on my way to work, I have hard times to think this is fairly new. But this is, games are fucking HOT (via Raph).
I didn’t spread the word so that nobody can think about it but me but Ron Gilbert’s DeathSpank needs attention (coming in 2009):