Ever since Electronic Arts made public its intent to acquire Take-Two, newspapers, Web sites and blogs have been abuzz with reporting, rumor and speculation. Over the past couple of days, several business reporters have focused on the recently revised employment contract forTake-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick's ZelnickMedia, which is managing Take-Two. Even though Zelnick admitted to the Wall Street Journal that he originally hadn't planned to remain in the job more than six months, and even though there was significant interest in Take-Two by potential acquirers, ZelnickMedia now has an extra year tacked on to its management contract to go along with an increase in its annual mangement fee from $750,000 to $2.5 million. The Wall Street Journal described the agreement as follows:

Between those two offers [from EA to purhcase Take-Two], on Feb. 14, Take-Two's board of directors approved an amendment to an earlier agreement that more than tripled ZelnickMedia's cash compensation for providing financial and management consulting services to the company, boosting to $2.5 million a year from $750,000 the annual management fee it pays the firm. The board also boosted to $2.5 million from $750,000 the maximum annual bonus the firm is eligible to receive, according to a filing with securities regulators.

The board further granted ZelnickMedia 1.5 million Take-Two restricted shares, worth about $40 million at current prices, an award that still needs to be approved by shareholders at the company's annual meeting. Roughly half of that award will vest immediately if Take-Two is acquired in the near-term and various other conditions are met.

Having speculated on the ramifications of this news earlier in the week, we caught up with Electronic Arts vice president of corporate communications Jeff Brown to see if it had any way impacted EA's plans. Here's what he told us over email:

1. EGO...trip: the Apostrophe Defense Force comes to our rescue
2. RUM...ors of PC Gaming's death greatly exaggerated? Or Cliffyb held hostage?
3. VSM...on EA/Take-Two, cont'd: "I want big companies to innovate"
4. MMO...We can be heroes, for ever and ever...if we plan from the outset
5. OUR...milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, says Take-Two...
6. BUT...Activision's CEO says he's not one of the boys that are waiting
7. SUP...ertoys last all summer long, and other stories of future pets
8. SCi...and fourteen of its games go into a room. Only SCi comes out.
9. APB...Kotaku puts Phil Harrison on milk carton; videogaming247 finds him
10. CDC...may want to investigate the pandemic at this month's GDC
11. RND...Random Gawker post comments section taken over, turned into blog

1. DIE...I want you to shoot me as hard as you can
2. LOL...Nerd rage-fueled flame wars find an interactive home
3. VSM...Corporate games still suck: why Passage is better than Portal
4. VSM...EA and T2: "a very bad deal for us" or a move to "competent, stable management"
5. RND...Our sister company gets hip. Will Newsweek follow suit? We hope so.

UPDATE: A better link for item #3 can be found here at the blog Grand Text Auto.

1. EGO...trip: Hate It or Love It? Cool. But this is still How We Do (Fresh '99)
   
2. MTV...goes hog wild on EA's bid for Take-Two. Now, where's Sumner Redstone?
3. PS3...maintains its open philosophy when it comes to in-game advertising
4. RND...Forgive them, for the Daniel Day-Lewis haters know not what they do

 

Why haven't we yet written about the EA and Take-Two kerfuffle, which you can follow here and here in glorious epistolary form? It's not because we don't have anything to say (and say, and say, and say), but because we're working on something opine-y that's going to require a little more time in the lab. However, we came across a post by one of our favorite bloggers, Bill Harris of the blog Dubious Quality, with the title "Skullduggery." Upon reading it, we felt we had to bring to you, our Dear Readers. In Harris' post, he quoted a perceptive piece of analysis by MarketWatch columnist Herb Greenberg, who writes:

 

Sony Computer Entertainment International has just announced that its worldwide studios boss Phil Harrison is stepping down. Here's the release; we'll have more in the days to come.

*** 

TOKYO, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), will resign from Sony Computer Entertainment Group as of February 29, 2008.  Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of SCEI, will immediately assume responsibilities as president of SCE WWS, in addition to his current duties.

Prior to the launch of the original PlayStation, Phil Harrison joined Sony Electronics Publishing, Ltd. in 1992, which later evolved into Sony computer Entertainment Europe, and since then, he has made a tremendous contribution to the company playing a strategic role in the launch of four PlayStation platforms, as well as building strong relationships with game developers and publishers throughout the world.  Since his appointment to the position of president, SCE WWS, Harrison applied his considerable skill, knowledge and expertise to lead SCE Group's first party game development as well as aggressively pursuing the development of new online entertainment experiences.

"As one of the founding members of SCE, Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry," said Kazuo Hirai.  "It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors."

"The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far," said Phil Harrison.  "I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their incredible support, guidance and friendship.  It has been a privilege to serve as part of the team and be inspired by them on a daily basis.  I am so proud of everything PlayStation has achieved and will continue to support its future in every way I can."

###

1. ART...or simply bad game design? Holocaust-themed DS game debated, discussed
2. XNA...am cry? How SimsCarnival--ugh at that name--truly democratizes development
3. NHL...08 from EA Sports inspires near-rapturous praise from our favorite curmudgeon
4. FLA...me on! A look at Forumwarz, a satirical, browser-based adventure game
5. WHY...can't Far Cry 2 be about tears? Check out GDC's Game Designers Rant
6. RND...Linking about posting about talking about talking about Japan. For real.
   

1. NMP...Can the Wii60 alliance survive Nintendo zipping into the pole position
2. HMM...Phil-osophical differences between Europe and Japanese at Sony?
   
3. PSP...Sony, iPwned: Harmonix reveals that Phase was originally for PSP
4. NOT...quite YouTube--creators and gamers must pay to play--but still very cool
5. RND...Previously, on "24": the stuff of which conspiracy theories are made

 LostWinds, a WiiWare game developed and published by Frontier Developments

To get a sense of the thought process behind making a WiiWare game ahead of the service's May 12th debut, we spoke by phone with Frontier Developments founder David Braben. His company's first such title, LostWinds, aims to put "the power of the wind in the palm of your hand" (using the Wii remote) as you guide young Toku (using the nunchuk) on a series of adventures to lift an evil curse placed on the land of Mistralis. Also on the call: Nintendo of America director of project development, who began to chime in halfway through the interview with some explanations that clarified the differences between how Nintendo has chosen to approach original downloadable games as compared to Microsoft and Sony. Read on.

David, what is your WiiWare project?

David Braben: It's a game called LostWinds and it's about the idea of a wind spirit that has been hidden away by a nasty guy called Balasar. But essentially looking at it as a game, it really allows us to do new things on the Wii. We now have Wii in the marketplace for a year and as a developer it takes a while to come to grips with a new system like the Wii; the wonderful combination of the remote and the nunchuck. It's an opportunity for us to do great things with the game.

It's the first game to come out of a process that we have internally. One of the great things about working as a software developer is it's full of really enthusiastic people who really love games and so they're itching to try out new ideas. And so we created this--what originally started off as a Game of the Week project where people would propose games and as our managing director described it, it's a bit like dipping a piece of meat into a piranha tank and anything that's left has to be pretty tough. [Laughs.]

So in that sort of fantastic but critical atmosphere, we put out these game ideas, and people suggest ways of doing it better and ways to modify it and all that sort of thing. This is the first game that survived, if you like, that process, but also had grown from lots of people's suggestions about how it can be made to work really well. And the Wii is absolutely perfect platform for it.

Who's the main character? What's the goal and what's the game play?

Where did you first find out about Nintendo's WiiWare service for original downloadable games? Yep, right here on Level Up, where North American president Reggie Fils-Aime exclusively revealed the company's intention to create a way to allow developers of all sizes, from garage band programmers to corporate behemoths, to develop games for digital distribution. Well, here we go again, eight months later, with another scoop: the first Q&A with Nintendo that delves into specifics about the WiiWare service, which will debut in North America on May 12th. During a phone interview late last week with Frontier Developments founder David Braben about his WiiWare launch title LostWinds, Nintendo of America director of project development Tom Prata sat in on the call to answer any questions that went beyond Braben's purview. You can read that interview in its entirety here, but we'd like to include in this post a few of the things that Prata had to say about WiiWare. Excerpts:

On file size restrictions for WiiWare titles: We are encouraging developers to make a game that is more compact in nature, and not have to let's say compete on--as it relates to the very large volumes--filing up maybe lots of disk space like you would see in a conventional retail type of product. The reason for that is that we want the WiiWare development to be more cost effective and have low barriers to entry to allow the content creators to create with that type of risk.

On WiiWare's pricing structure: WiiWare, like Virtual Console will support a variety of different prices for the consumers in terms of Wii Points. So we'll have content that is--just like we do with Virtual Console--for let's say NES or Super Nintendo 64 at different price points.

On whether or not there will be downloadable WiiWare demos: The intention is that the creators will create the game and we'll make it available on WiiWare after it passes certification. But we really don't want to impose kind of too many restrictions on developers, or too many requirements. As an example, in many cases we don't want to say just because people can connect to the Internet that they have to make a multiplayer via the Internet version, or Wii Connect 24 modes, or take advantage of all the types of features that are available. The key for us is not to impose too many restrictions on the content creators and allow them to create the content that and the features that they think are more suitable to express their vision of the product. And creating demos or having demos as a requirement is a very costly type of endeavor, so it's not a requirement from Nintendo.

Note: Nintendo's PR agency, Golin Harris, followed up with the Level Up staff after the Q&A to add: "We do not intend to have a ‘try-before-you-buy’ model that requires developers to create expensive demos. Nintendo plans to provide information on games similar to what Nintendo in Japan is doing with the Everybody’s Nintendo Channel where creators can share information on their game directly to Wii consumers."

To read Nintendo's press release in its entirety, click on the link below.

1. EGO...trip: Our "fourth-string teams" Miyamoto quote continues to make the rounds
2. EGO...trip: Games, comics and cultural relevance posts keep flowing in
3. BRO...thers in Television, or, Gearbox's foray into linear entertainment
4. USA...American McGee unveils his latest partially eponymous title
5. NOM...enclature and interactivity: how do you name when you game?
6. D&D...designers of the 4th edition rulebook step into the digital hot seat
7. YOU...Tube, slowly declaring death to the venerable walkthrough?
8. F2P...The art, craft and business of free to play games, considered
9. BBB...How the Conan videogame failed to embrace the power of pulp
10. RND...Singing for her supper: the opera chanteuse on the Journal's board

 GDC's Jamil Moledina 

In Part I of our two-part Q&A with Game Developers Conference executive director Jamil Moledina, we discussed what makes GDC tick; whether the lines were blurring between core games and casual games; and whether both the short session games market on consoles and the indie game phenomenon on PCs are fixtures or fads. In today's second and final portion of our interview, Moledina talks about whether it's legitimate to compare the PC and console markets; why game industry scold Jack Thompson won't be speaking at this year's conference; and what lessons should be learned from the Fox News/Mass Effect debacle. Enjoy.

Speaking of pessimism, you know, towards the end of the year it seemed like there were a number of flagship shooters on the PC that were not performing as well as people had expected. Unreal Tournament III, in particular doesn't seem to be selling as strongly as it has in the past. I think Crysis seems to be underperforming. Orange Box, I think did solid to strong numbers. You have Call of Duty 4 which actually did pretty decently on PC but those numbers were significantly less than it did on PS3, which was in turn, insignificantly less than what it sold on the Xbox 360. And this was a franchise that began on the PC. Shooters were the Jerry Bruckheimer summer movies of the PC, but the energy around them seems to be increasingly moving over to the console. Are you seeing the effects of that in the development community? Where should we expect to see the PC going? Are we pretty much going to be seeing free ad supported games, MMOs and RTS games on the PC while the rest of the flagship stuff moves over to the console?

Well, one season is perhaps not necessarily the best gauge for the long term viability of a particular style of play. It's the same season--correct me if I'm wrong--that Halo 3 came out in, right?

Uh-huh.

So that was something that certainly did some numbers that brought up the first-person prospective shooter genre. The interesting thing though that you bring up is the difference between PC and console. And I think it's hard to compare the two largely because the PC is constantly in flux. Everyone has a different PC. There isn't standardization as there is with console. And more and more you're seeing people find pros and cons to that. The pro with the standard platform, of course, being that the game will always work. But at the same time it may require an initialization process. There's still perhaps some time that goes into it. Whereas on the PC side, you have a much lower threshold for initially creating the game. So there's a greater diversity. You may see more unique or interesting types of titles. And so they don't necessarily need to do the same numbers as you see on the console.

Once you start comparing number of PC sales to numbers of console sales, I'm not sure you'd get a reliable trend out of that. The thing that we're really excited about PC though is that it has this kind of capability like I was talking about with indie games to create really off the wall types of titles. People have the ability to express themselves in a wider variety of ways. So by doing that and by setting lower targets in terms of what they ultimately hope to sell or have available by download, people still are making a living and doing so quite successfully.

I'm not sure it's that easy, but I'm not sure that I have a way to help parse it. Although it's something that I think is worth having an ongoing conversation about. There are a couple of PC developers that I know that we talk generally with about this idea, but you should definitely meet them and figure out how they're able to stay very comfortable and very satisfied and very creative.

Are there any sessions that are going to speak to this need?

 1UP Network editorial director Dan Hsu

Two weeks ago, Ziff-Davis' 1UP Network, which publishes the magazines EGM, Games For Windows: The Official Magazine and 1UP.com announced that it had reorganized its editorial group around three silos--Videogames, PC Games and Video--spanning both print and online. Simultaneously, the company revealed that its review scale would shift from its familiar ten point scale to letter grades, a la Entertainment Weekly. To get a better understanding of the changes that were afoot, we pinged 1UP Network editorial director Dan "Shoe" Hsu with a few questions over email, which he graciously took time to answer--but only after he finished closing the next issue of EGM. Now that's dedication. Here's what Hsu had to say.

What were the main reasons behind the recently announced reorganization of the 1UP Network? When do they go into effect?

We integrated the print and online teams because we recognized this is the direction that media's going. It's no longer just about print or just about online; it's about both. This reorganization lets us tackle our editorial duties more efficiently, because all our editors are constantly working in both print and online. We really think our readers will notice and appreciate this move, too, because it will translate into better, more well-rounded coverage from us.

Presumably, Jeff Green, who was just named the 1UP Network's editor-in-chief for PC games, will remain the editor-in-chief of Games For Windows magazine. But the press release wasn't clear about whether Jeff's 1UP Network counterpart for videogames, James Mielke, will also be the editor-in-chief of the corresponding magazine, EGM. Is Mielke now in charge of EGM, or are you still the editor-in-chief?

Jeff Green is the editor-in-chief, PC games, so he's running Games For Windows: The Official Magazine as well as the PC coverage on our online properties. James Mielke is Jeff's videogame/console counterpart, so yup, he's the editor-in-chief of EGM (as well as the console side of our online sites). I'm now full-time editorial director for the 1UP Network.

Over the past few years, video has moved from the periphery to the center of Ziff-Davis videogame coverage. You've also got a number of popular and/or influential podcasts, like 1UP Yours and the Games For Windows podcast. What plans do you have going forward for video and audio under this new management structure?

1. THE...killer awoke before dawn, or, meet me at the back of the Blu bus
2. PHD...revoked: how can we in the MSM hate what we don't understand?
3. DOC...tor Evil wants more than $1 billion for the house that Gears built
   
4. GOD...of combat Eric Williams expounds on the use of cancels
5. RND...Desperately in need of some stranger's hand/in a desperate land?

 GDC's Jamil Moledina

In the run-up to last year's Game Developers Conference, we published a wide-ranging three-part exchange with GDC executive director Jamil Moledina, covering everything from our concerns about the approach of console manufacturers to the GDC keynotes to the controversy swirling around the Slamdance Film Festival over the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! Moledina graciously agreed to return to the Level Up hot seat ahead of this year's show--which kicks off today in San Francisco--for a Q&A that we'll be publishing in two parts. In today's Part I, we discuss the amount of time and planning that goes into GDC; whether product casualization or audience stratification best describes a recent trend in videogames; and the commercial prospects for short session game developers. Read on.

After a conference is finished, how soon do you start planning the next one? Do you get a little break, or do you roll right into sketching out the next conference the following Monday?

I roll right into it six months before. The GDC has about an 18-month product cycle. So at this point in time, we are deep into GDC '09. even though we're just three weeks away from GDC '08. And although I do take a few days off after GDC there's so much preparation that needs to go into this show. I mean, it's a multi-million dollar, 16,000 person live, five-day show. And there's a sense of responsibility that we all have to deliver the largest professional-only industry show that there is. So there's a lot riding on it--there's so many moving pieces involved that we need to have a lot of work done way, way, way in advance.

What are the key components to making something like GDC work?

There are several key disciplines involved. The core of it is the conference itself. So we put a lot of energy into developing an experience that fits the core values of the show: learning, inspiration, and networking. That's the central foundation, and everything that we put into the GDC has to reflect one or more of those components, so we build the show from there.

Now, there's a lot of nuts and bolts involved as well, given the scale of it. We have 400 sessions, 25 concurrent tracks--meaning 25 rooms running at the same time with different content all the way through the three days of the main GDC. The Monday and Tuesday content is very specialized, drilled down summits and tutorials.

The first thing we need to do is make sure that all of our content is locked in, accurate and feels right. That's a combination of having an open call for submissions from the industry; having an advisory board composed of industry veterans, as well as those with their sleeves rolled up digging through--and making--the best games of our time so that we have a sense of judgment that is accurate. Because internally we have an editorial perspective, but essentially the GDC is built as something by developers for developers, and has to be reflective of those interests and concerns and values.

As best as you can tell, what two or three things characterize the major concerns--the collective concerns--of developers in 2008?

 The 1UP Yours crew: (left to right) Bryan Intihar, Shane Bettenhausen, Andrew Pfister, Garnett Lee and Shawn Elliott

Last Thursday, the staff of Level Up made a guest appearance on the Ziff-Davis podcast 1UP Yours. Though the lineup has changed a number of times since hitting its stride--so long, Luke! Farewell, John! Happy trails, Mark!--it has nevertheless remained our videogame podcast of choice; its Friday afternoon availability confirming the onset of weekend freedom. On last week's show, topics included:

• --The cult hit No More Heroes (not all it's cracked up to be, according to Shawn Elliott)
• --Army of Two (noticeably improved, with a cool new multiplayer co-op mode, says Garnett Lee)
• --The Club (better than some of the reviews would indicate, swears Level Up)
• --The January NPD sales figures (we'll wait to see if PS3's victory over Xbox 360 represents a blip or a trend, says the entire panel)
• --Some interesting tidbits about Xbox boss Don Mattrick and his right hand man John Schappert, who's delivering a GDC keynote this week 

1. EGO...trip: Comics, videogames and the cultural ghetto prompt online chatter, debate
2. ALO...ne in the Dark: so promising, Atari should ditch the aging IP, give it a new name
3. CAN...you create an interactive game about teen dating violence?
   
4. NIP...slip: Bared breasts in Conan MMO--fidelity to the license, or just cheap thrills?
5. HOT...Flash game's unique gameplay mechanics demand that you play it right now
6. PHD...Why the mainstream media hates your favorite pastime--hey, wait a minute...
7. HOW...a videogame developer struggles with the question, "What do you do?"
   
8. VSM...The U.K. Guardian vs. the U.K. Guardian on the literary merits of games
9. CHE...aters never win: when is it permissible for reviewers to seek help?
   
10. RND...How an obscure junior college coach is revolutionizing modern basketball

 A cover for the comic book "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill

In Part I of our critique of level designer and blogger Steve Gaynor's assertion that "video games will never become a significant form of cultural discourse the way that novels and film have," we talked about how any medium requires a certain amount of learning in order for it to be approached and engaged. We also suggested that as more people grow up playing videogames, even conventional controllers like those of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 become far less of a barrier to entry, to say nothing of newer interfaces such as the Wii. But Gaynor believes that there's something even more essential, even more fundamental about videogames that will forever wall the medium off from truly widespread participation:

[T]he very nature of interactive games bars them from ever truly gaining mass acceptance, and therefore mass cultural relevance. The strength of video games, what makes them unique, interesting, and affecting, is that they engage in a dialogue with each individual player. They ask you to invest yourself in the experience, to explore and understand the logic of their gameworld, and to activate the experience by doing. Video games require you to be involved, to take responsibility for your actions onscreen. They expect more out of you than film, television, the internet or a book does. You get from video games what you're willing to put in. The audience at large only wants to take.

The very thing Gaynor decries--a lack of willingness among the audience to work for their entertainment--isn't inherent in to this medium. It's almost intractable among mass audiences no matter what the medium. Popular fiction generally outsells literary fiction. Summer blockbusters generally out-gross arthouse films. Is this any different from, say, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat out-NPD-ing BioShock last year, or Madden doing the same to Shadow of the Colossus in 2005? Does it truly matter that in aggregate television is more mass a mass medium than videogames, when on an individual level, its practitioners are faced with the same challenges that plague those who work in other media? The creator of "The Wire," David Simon, in explaining the advantages of working on TV shows for premium cable described the problem as follows:

 A cover of the acclaimed comic book "Planetary." Written by Warren Ellis; illustrated by John Cassaday

The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says a whisper, arise, arise
Tomorrow belongs to me
--"Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from the musical "Cabaret," music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb

A bet is a type of game, one with which we here at Level Up have become intimately familiar. So when we got wind of a brand new wager of sorts, between bloggers Borut Pfeifer (at The Plush Apocalypse) and Steve Gaynor (over at Fullbright), our antennae perked up immediately. And what was it that prompted this bout of gambling? It was level designer Gaynor's admittedly pessimistic assertion that "...I'll bet you that video games will never become a significant form of cultural discourse the way that novels and film have. I'll bet you that fifty years from now they'll be just as mature and well-respected as comic books are today." To which the more optimistic Pfeifer, who's working on one of Electronic Arts' Steven Spielberg games, replied, "I’ve certainly had days where I’d agree with most everything he says. I get where it’s coming from. Whether it was a frustrating day at work, or sometimes just going to a particularly rough GDC, I am not immune to that brand of despair. But, overall, I gotta say, games still have much more to achieve as a medium--if I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t be working on them."

One sees the glass as half-empty, the other sees the glass as half-full. But both are largely proceeding from the same set of assumptions when they subject videogames to a close examination--in terms of their accessibility; required level of engagement; maturity of subject matter; visual realism--and find them wanting. Take the issue of accessibility, of which Gaynor says:

Video games are hard for people to get into. The barrier for entry is higher than perhaps any other popular entertainment medium. To read a book, all you need to do is go to a library, pick one up, and start reading (which isn't usually an obstacle considering the high literacy rate in the modern world.) At the advent of popular film, you only needed to walk to a movie theatre and pay your nickel (or nowadays, ten bucks) to see the latest release. Processing the experience isn't an issue: sit, watch, and you've received an experience equal to anyone else in the audience....

Over time, the technical and systemic complexity of video games have increased, while the barriers to entry have largely remained undamaged. Taking inflation into account, the cost of a home console unit has stayed largely constant since the mid-80's (and the price of a competent gaming PC has similarly kept pace;) controllers have sprouted more buttons, gyroscopes, and analogue sticks than ever; and it's still extremely common for games of high quality to be too difficult for a non-gamer to play effectively.

1. $$$...Does Obama need to spend more time wooing the game industry?
2. WoW...Blizzard finds even more ways to make it rain on them gamers
3. GH3...Musician and open mic lover protests the ersatz replacing the real
4. RND...From local to hyper-local, courtesy of the startup EveryBlock

1. WAR...ren Spector casts one eye on gaming's past, and the other on its future
2. RAP...ping with Masaya Matsuura about Wii, DS and music games
   
3. RED...Xbox claims 360 shortages; reports and speculation are, uh, dubious
4. SAN...dbox games and storytelling: one man attempts to bridge the gap
5. FAL...ling off a cliff: Epic's Bleszinski on the declining PC game market
6. ONE...BigGame charity names industry vets to its board of directors
7. MET...acriminals: Ubisoft, Activision and Eidos huddle in critical cellar
8. LUV...Would these be your Top Five videogame romances?
9. BRO...David Jaffe's connection to the next Indiana Jones movie
10. RND...To all the lonelyhearts, this new Kanye West video is for you

1. WOW...Blizzard on its mobile ambitions and the still-not-deceased Starcraft: Ghost
2. LEA...gue of Extraordinarily Geeky Men: can this alliance save PC gaming?
3. BOO...231 years later, the U.K. gets the last laugh on its former colonial subjects
4. H2O...Crysis' editing tools let modders put the Bellagio's fountains to shame
5. RND...Cut off one of MTV's heads, and 32 will grow back in its place

Not content to simply bring you the news of Spore's release date (September 7th, 2008) or the reasons why the game has taken so long to develop (like numerous Facebook relationships, it's complicated), the staff of Level Up has brought you one more exclusive. When we found out yesterday that the PC edition of Spore would be accompanied by versions for the Nintendo DS, Macintosh computers and mobile phones, we again reached out to Electronic Arts to get the scoop. Maxis vice president and Spore executive producer Lucy Bradshaw was kind enough to promptly answer the questions we sent over via email--thanks!--and the answers demonstrate the amount of care that Maxis has put into trying to make sure that each instance of the game is worthy. Below, Brashaw tells us whether Mac and PC users will be able to share content with one another; which Japanese artistic tradition inspired the look of Spore for DS; and which single stage of the original game has been blown out for mobile phones. Intrigued? Keep reading.

What challenges have there been in developing a Mac version of Spore?

We're working with a company called Transgaming on our Mac version of Spore, and the effort is going very smoothly. When we set out to do this, it was to make sure that we have a simultaneous release on both the PC and Mac; too often our Mac versions ship months behind the PC. Just recently we were able to show the Creature Creator at MacWorld. We really feel that the creative nature of Spore will appeal to the Mac audience so we are excited to bring the game to both platforms.

Will Mac and PC users be able to share content with one another?

And, yes, the content that players create on the Mac version can be shared with PC players as well as other Mac players. All of the building blocks that are available in Spore's Creature, Building, Vehicle and Spaceship Creators are the same for both the PC and Mac versions, so we can now populate the galaxies of both Mac and PC players with the content that other players create, which makes exploring your own personal galaxy always unique and surprising.

How do the features and gameplay in the Nintendo DS version of Spore differ from those of the PC and Mac versions? Will the DS version have any unique content?

 The Cell stage from Spore, developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts

In Part I of our world exclusive Q&A with Maxis chief designer Will Wright, we discussed what caused Spore to overshoot his original projected release date by nearly two years; how Facebook, YouTube and Flickr became metaphors to navigate user generated content withing the game; and why hardcore gamers shouldn't worry that Spore isn't "game-y" enough for their highly advanced palates. In the second and final part of our interview, Wright shares some tidbits on the Wii version of Spore; explains the machinima tools; and reflects on the irony of building a revolutionary title on the back of classics like Pac-Man and Civilization. Enjoy.

Once someone has their initial toy box experience, they then decide, "Okay, I'm going to start at Cell and progress through." How much time did people collectively or individually want to spend in each of the stages before moving onto the next? Especially because like you said, there's an arc of evolution, but at the same time they're separate genres, and as you already said, different people respond to each of genres differently.

One of the things that we also decided not that long ago, based upon a lot of this focus group testing, is that we were actually going to put in difficulty levels in that the player selects, so when you start playing you can start at easy, medium or hard. We found that a lot of players that preferred playing with their toys in the world, where the world was pushing back at them less hard--those were closer to Sims players. Whereas the gamers wanted to go in and really play some hardcore fighting games in Creature or Civ.

We decided that it when you select the planet at the very start of the game, you select a difficulty level, so players can surf that as well. That's going to influence not just difficulty, but also the pacing in some of these games. Some of them are like a lot of RTS games or empire-building games, where you start out very lean on resources and you're digging yourself out of the hole; on the hard setting, it's going to feel a little bit more like that. On easy, I think the pace will go a little bit faster through a level. So it's going to depend primarily on the difficulty level. And once you get to Space, that's the point at which you can sit there and play the thing for 30 hours if you want, and it feels little bit more like an MMO at that point.

A Wii version has already been announced. What can you say about what that's going to play like in terms of structure, control, etc.?

In 2005, we first sat down with Maxis chief designer Will Wright--creator of SimCity and The Sims--to discuss his evolutionary epic Spore. Shortly thereafter, we said of the game in the pages of NEWSWEEK, "Non-gamers often ask when videogames are finally going to get their 'Citizen Kane.' But when Spore ships sometime next year, this infant medium might receive its Torah, its 'Origin of Species' and its '2001: A Space Odyssey' all rolled into one." Ignore the somewhat breathless prose and reflect for a moment upon the game's original ship date: sometime in 2006. But when we consider the scope of the gameplay (it's Pac-Man at the bottom of the evolutionary food chain, and "Star Trek" at the top); the magnitude of its technical ambition (large slices of Spore are procedurally generated, from the creatures animations to the musical score); and the challenge of designing a simple-yet-flexible interface to control it all (Facebook, Flickr and YouTube are among its influences), we're loath to begrudge Wright and his team at Maxis the time they needed to get it just right.

You'll feel the same way after you read our world exclusive interview with Will Wright. We caught up with him last week via phone, a couple of days before he and his corporate overlords at Electronic Arts settled on the date of September 7th, 2008 to release the PC, Mac, DS and mobile phone versions of Spore. Even though we only spoke for just under 40 minutes, Wright dropped so much science that we had to break the Q&A into two parts, both of which will run today. In Part I, Wright explains in greater detail why the game has taken so much longer than he originally anticipated; how his team hit on social networking as the metaphor for navigating the vast amount of user generated content that Spore will almost certainly inspire; and whether there was any pressure from EA execs to ship the game before its time. Read on.

When we first met in your office to talk seriously about this game it was some time in 2005. It's now 2008, and you guys are finally set to announce a release date. What happened? What's been taking so long in making this game?

Oh gosh. It was so many challenges to overcome. A lot of them initially were technical challenges: procedural animation; can we do these levels of detail enough to have zoom on the models; etc. Once we nailed most of those, it became a very large design challenge. And probably the biggest design challenge was keeping it very accessible to players so that every bit of the game was intuitive, easy and approachable. At the same time, we were going to mix all these genres, so we wanted to have one kind of control scheme, camera scheme, feedback system, rewards, across these different game genres. That probably overall was the biggest challenge, I think.

We've had all the game levels up and running for quite a while now. Initially it felt like five different games kind of stuck together. We basically did pass after pass, bringing these things into alignment, kind of like aligning the Intercontinental railway, digging into the rails with a sledgehammer, slowly getting closer and closer and closer until pretty soon it's a seamless fit across the rail.

 The Tribe stage of Spore, developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts

The wait is almost over. The end is nearly in sight. Electronic Arts has just announced a release date for its eagerly anticipated game Spore, in which players work their way up the evolutionary ladder from single-celled organisms to space travelling powerhouses. On September 7th, 2008, the game will ship on Windows PCs, Macintoshes, DS and various mobile phones. No word yet on a ship date for the Wii version, or whether Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will be able to join on the fun.

We've also conducted a pair of exclusive interviews with Maxis chief designer Will Wright and Spore executive producer Lucy Bradshaw. Wright gives us some detailed insight into why Spore has taken so long to develop; why social networking sites like Facebook and Flickr are serving as guiding lights for the finished product; an whether he's got anything left in the tank after pouring his all into the game that some people have referred to as SimEverything. Bradshaw, for her part, explains what's been involved in creating the Mac edition of Spore, along with never-before revealed details about the versions for DS and mobile phones. You won't want to miss either one.

To read Part I of our two-part interview with Will Wright, click here. For Part II, click here. For our Q&A with Lucy Bradshaw, click here.

For the full press release, click on the link below.

1. @&!...Zero Punctuation's profane creator, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, interviewed
2. FRO...m the window/to the wall!  A look at whether Wii games get low scores
3. BOY...The child-man meme makes its way across the pond
4. ABS...Nintendo's president, chief design guru discuss the origins of Wii Fit
5. MMO...NCSoft's exclusivity deal with Sony suggests PS3 MMO in the works
6. NPD...plans to track game subscription fees; incumbent shows no fear
7. HOW...does it feel? Toshiba and HD-DVD face another Blu Monday
8. ART...and games: the eternal discussion and debate continues
9. RND...What's beef? Obama laced the streets with a hot joint; McCain claps back
10. RND...Frances Bean Cobain is 15, and suddenly, we feel rather ancient

 

Note: This email exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo originally ran on N'Gai Croal's Level Up and MTV's Multiplayer blog, in four separate installments, from January 28th-February 1st 2008. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

Note: This email exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo originally ran on N'Gai Croal's Level Up and MTV's Multiplayer blog, in four separate installments, from November 12th-November 19th 2007. We now present it here in its entirety, under a single permalink, for easier printing, emailing and archival purposes.

1. INT...imacy, not action: how developers should think about sexuality in games
2. YOU...Higuri and Hideo Kojima team up on mobile storytelling for girls
3. KRS...ONE would approve: EA smartypants Neil Young preps new Blueprint
4. IAM...woman, hear me score: why one guy loves to street fight like a girl
5. LUV...and hate, or, returning to PC games after a prolonged absence
6. THE...coming crisis in casual games: more knockoffs than new ideas
7. DAM...n you, Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Damn you all to hell!
8. RND...The Economist Vs. Newsweek. Round 1--Fight!

 NanaOn-Sha founder Masaya Matsuura 

There are a number of ultra-talented game designers, but how many of them can plausibly claim to have invented an entire genre? With PaRappa the Rappa (1996), UmJammer Lammy (1999) and Vib-Ribbon (1999) to his credit, it's not a stretch to declare NanaOn-Sha founder Masaya Matsuura the father of the rhythm game, to whom the creators of such varied franchises as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero owe a tremendous debt. Matsuura stepped away from music games for a few years, focusing instead on the Tamagotchi Connection series for Bandai Namco, before returning to the genre with the iPod game musika. More recently, the U.S. publisher Majesco announced that Matsuura would be reuniting with artist Rodney Greenblat, with whom he had collaborated on Parappa. Their purpose? To create an original rhythm game for the Wii called Major Minor's Majestic March, where players gesture with the Wii remote to control the tempo of a marching band.

Later today, Matsuura and Robot Sound president Ryo Watanabe will be giving a talk at the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit titled "A Sense of Fun: Anybody Could Be Your Player 1." We got the jump on some of the things that Matsuura plans to discuss by speaking with him via phone last week from his native Japan. In our exclusive interview, he explains the controls for Major Minor's Majestic March, why Nintendo should ignore him rather than share any insights gained from the still-in-development Wii Music, and why he's so happy to see Harmonix succeed. For our part, we potentially influence the direction of the game with our suggestion that Matsuura explore the world of historically black college and university marching bands as a source of inspiration. Read on.

Where did the idea for Major Minor's Majestic March come from?

Let me try to remember. [Laughs] We had been thinking about the possibilities to make some new games for Wii. We were focusing on a music-based game, but he first rhythm-based game on the PlayStation from us had already been a decade ago. I wanted to make much more sophisticated and advanced types of things for the new environment. So maybe controlling the marching band and marching music sounds a little weird, but I thought that would be an interesting for everyone. This is where we started.

What was it about marching bands that you thought could work well as a game?

At the start, I thought that simply controlling the band by defining the tempo, or the BPM [beats per minute] by shaking your hands--it's like conducting a band. But after that, I started to think about much more game functions. Certain instrument players love a faster BPM and other instrument players may not like that. So the conductor has to concentrate on all of his band members and figure out what kind of BPM will be suitable for the current membership of the band. Of course, the player can control the BPM, so you can play with very slow tempo or a very fast tempo. But if you play the very slow tempo then maybe some members will disappear from your band. So these kind of things were the basic start of our game function ideas.

How would you describe the structure of the game? Where do you start and what's your goal?

1. MAS...s Reject: The case against entertainment media convergence
2. KEE...ping it real: Guitar Rising marries videogame heroics with a genuine axe
3. MAD...den producer raises up, blogger Metacriticizes his replacement
4. DLC...Guitar Hero III, more units sold. Rock Band, more sold per capita
5. RND...David Spade drinks your milkshake--drinks it all up!

 Mass Effect, developed by BioWare and published by Microsoft

Ever since we first saw the train wreck that was Fox's coverage of its hyped up "SeXbox" controversy surrounding a love scene in the RPG Mass Effect--redeemed only by Gametrailers TV host Geoff Keighley's withering rebuttal--followed by Electronic Arts vice president Jeff Brown's forceful defense of his company's studio, we've had a nagging question in the back of our minds: why didn't BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk or Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson lead the charge on behalf of their artistic creation? Yes, Keighley and Brown did a more-than-admirable job cutting through the ignorance and explaining the facts, much to the joy of videogame enthusiasts tired of seeing their medium of choice dragged through the mud. But at the end of the day, Keighley is a journalist, and Brown is a publicist. Shouldn't the artists be the ones issuing a full-throated, unrelenting defense of their art?

There are certainly some game developers who wouldn't be able to make a strong case for their work under the hot lights in a TV studio; live television can be a white-knuckle exercise that isn't for everyone. But in our experience, the BioWare founders in particular are not only whip-smart, but highly prepared. When we moderated a panel at the 2007 Game Developers Conference on "Early Lessons In Digital Distribution," not only did Muzyka turn up with a sheaf of documents that he periodically referred to throughout the discussion, he also took copious notes as other panelists spoke, then proceeded to deliver focused, penetrating remarks when it came his turn to speak. Surely he or one of his colleagues could have faced off against the self-admittedly uninformed child expert Cooper Lawrence on Fox News; penned a point-by-point rebuttal in lieu of EA's Brown; or published a statement and/or video response on the Mass Effect community site, rather than the single quote from Muzyka that appeared in the New York Times.

We asked Muzyka about this during last night's D.I.C.E. Summit cocktail party.

 Director Gore Verbinski and Level Up's N'Gai Croal, backstage at the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit

The Level Up staff is back in the city of sin for this year's D.I.C.E. Summit, described on its fact sheet as "a high-level interactive entertainment conference that brings together the top video game designers and developers from around the world and business leaders from all the major publishers to discuss the state of the industry, its trends and the future." We've always particularly liked this conference for its small scale (there's just a single track, so it's possible to see all of the presentations) and its corresponding intimacy (hanging out just outside the conference auditorium is a who's who of videogame luminaries, each generally both personable and accessible). The sessions can be hit (we still remember Marc Ecko's 2005 talk, which began as bad standup before quickly evolving into a terrifically inspired presentation) or miss (we're trying to remember the bad ones, but we must have blocked them from memory), which is more noticeable in a single-track conference, but we've never failed to get something valuable out of attending.

This year's keynote speaker, "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski, gave a prepared talk that was inspiring and occasionally poetic, if somewhat light on game-specific content. Verbinski made it clear, however, that a non-stop series of movies had kept him away from games for a number of years, so we'll forgive him as he slowly works his way through such modern classics as BioShock and Halo 3. Less forgivable is his critique of another game--thatgamecompany's flOw--telling us during the post-keynote Q&A (moderated by the Level Up staff) that while he enjoyed it, he found his attention wandering because there wasn't enough action. Gore, Gore, Gore. Can''t you see that flOw is one of the most violent games ever released? Don't let the soothing soundscapes and hypnotic visuals fool you--it's a kill-or-be-killed game where you eat eat everything in sight, including, on occasion, creatures of your own species. If flOw were a movie, it would undoubtedly be rated NC-17 for "relentless undersea mayhem." Hmm. That sounds like something we'd like to see. And since Verbinski and thatgamecompany are both represented by Creative Artists Agency...well, maybe this pipe dream is an example of the "madness" that Verbinski says the game industry needs more of.

1. EGO...trip: Level Up initiates couple's PixelJunk Monsters addiction, sort of
   
2. BIO...wary: Mass Effect DLC coming. Which porn classic will Fox News compare it to?
3. MMO...The genre gets the documentary treatment in "Second Skin"
4. RND...Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige set to tour; somewhere, R. Kelly grits his teeth

1. FIN...ally, sidetalking is back the N-Gage platform launches
   
2. PER...ry Farrell would be so proud: Team Fortress 2's Pyro, candlestick-style
   
3. YOU..know what they say: when you assume, you make an...
   
4. RND...Diggbrow: a look at what Internet denizens perceive as art

1. RIP...The MMO is dead. Long live the PMOG.
2. MID...core or hardcasual? Same concept, different manifesto
3. THE...re can be only one: blogger's bake-off among Kotaku, Joystiq, Game|Life
   
4. CIV...il war: British Columbian devs want Quebec-style tax breaks
5. TRD...Why a hard drive is necessary for full online play in Burnout Paradise
6. BAL...ls don't lie: researchers show why men find games more addictive than women
   
7. WAF...Kotaku editor basks in warm glow of scoring high on the Wife-O-Meter
8. HOT...Do want: Rock Band guitar mod uses actual guitar string for ersatz bliss
9. MOH...EA's chief visual officer reflects on working with Spielberg on Medal of Honor
10. RND...The Bourne Reinvention? Soap operas freshen up for modern viewers

 The board for Hasbro's Risk: Black Ops. Photo by Gamers With Jobs

Last August, Electronic Arts announced that it had entered into a long-term agreement with Hasbro, allowing its EA Casual division to develop and publish the videogame versions of such classics as Monopoly, Yahtzee, Nerf, Tonka and Scrabble, the latter title making headlines recently because of brewing legal battles over the successful copyright infringing knockoff Scrabulous. The deal was even a reunion of sorts, with former EA exec Mark Blecher, now a Hasbro senior vice president, put in charge of that Hasbro's digital gaming initiatives, opposite EA vet Chip Lange, who was named vice president and general manager of EA's Hasbro games operation. And as we wait to see what will emerge from the agreement, a tantalizing possibility has reared its head in recent days. Gamers With Jobs revealed last week that an updated version of Risk, titled Risk: Black Ops, would be coming to store shelves this year.

The re-envisioned Risk isn't simply cosmetic, though we do like its new artistic direction, as shown in the photo above. Designer Rob Daviau has added a new resource system based around Capitals and Cities, which give the player that holds them additional troops. But the core of the revamp, according to Gamers With Jobs, is its new Objectives system, which not only adds variety to the gameplay, but also streamlines the duration of individual gameplay sessions. Here's how Gamers With Jobs described it:

1. THE...dirty little secret of downloadable console games, examined
   
2. FUN...deconstructed: a dissection of Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy
3. NIX...on to China: Geoff Keighley, videogame ambassador?
4. IDO...Inside the long, halting courtship of Vivendi and Activision
5. HMM...Brits repudiate terrible slander of American gamers
   
6. DIY...Would it be good if game creation was simple enough for anyone to do it?
7. CON...troversy waiting to happen: Rockstar braces itself for GTA IV's April release
   
8. 2ND...What would F. Scott Fitzgerald have made of voice actors in games?
9. BUG...Super Bowl outcome exposes flaw in Madden NFL codebase?
10. RND...See Jane text: can the mobile phone save the novel?
    

In Round 2 of our Vs. Mode exchange with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo (also featured on his blog Multiplayer) on Burnout Paradise, Totilo bravely challenged Nintendo fan orthodoxy to assert that Burnout Paradise had--apologies to Alex Ward for our terminology--beaten Animal Crossing at its own asynchronous multiplayer game. We took that ball and ran with it, inventing on the fly such acronyms as SOS (Shared Open Spaces), MMSS (Minimally Multiplayer Sandbox Simulators) or SSAOWG (Simultaneously Synchronous and Asynchronous Open World Games) to describe the genius of Paradise. In today's Final Round, Totilo challenges our distortion of one of his pet theories, then partially smacks down our idea that Burnout Paradise could or should lead to a One Game Future; we concede the point on satirical grounds, but issue a full-throated defense of our belief that Criterion's racer represents a design approach best described as the Everlasting Gobstopper of Interactive Entertainment. And if you have no idea what the heck any of this means, just read this post and let us enlighten you. Some excerpts:

Stephen Totilo: You did acknowledge that you were contorting my original theory. I'd like to re-iterate it, so that we can build off it or contort it again. My big idea, which you've never agreed with before, is that the only games to cross over to a mainstream audience and become cultural phenomenon are the ones that were made to be played--or could be played--in satisfying short periods of time. You could knock through a game of Pac-Man or get a thrill causing mayhem in GTA 3 in five minutes flat. You can feel like you've actually experienced the essence of Tetris, Wii Sports and Guitar Hero in just as short a span--which isn't to say you won't get hooked for much longer. But that's why I don't think Final Fantasy, as popular as it is, has ever crossed over to the point where it gets mentioned on CNN when a new one comes out. It's why I think, while Zelda games are beloved, they do not matter to the world the way Mario games do. Almost all of Mario's adventures can be fun and satisfying in short bursts, which gives them a crossover appeal that can attract the attention of people who only play games in that casual way.

N'Gai Croal: The Everlasting Gobstopper of Interactive Entertainment, however, is the logical outgrowth of the dialogue we've been having in this Vs. Mode exchange....You wrote a post earlier today about Halo 3 and its content expanding features like Forge and Arcade scoring. What if Criterion and EA not only released a downloadable file establishing circuit races, but also let you create your own circuit races simply by driving through the city, automatically blocking off the surrounding streets, as if two "Tron" lightcycles were tearing side-by-side through Paradise City? What if Aftertouch and Pursuit were one of many modes that you could turn or off, like the game-modifying skulls in Halo 3? What if Criterion added a car customization mode, letting you swap out not only Boost Types, but also paint jobs and decals--or design them yourself, as in Rock Band? What if they--gasp--brought back classic Crash Mode? That's what I mean by the Everlasting Gobstopper approach to game design.

To read the Final Round of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below. 

1. BEE...n caught stealing: Epic charges consoles with audience theft
2. SOY...un perdedor? Suda 51 lays bare the geeky heart of gamer culture
3. WAG...gle rock: EA confirms Rock Band in development for Wii
4. LIN...k to the past: reflections on scams involving Zelda cartridges
5. HMM...Brits claim 90 percent of U.S. DS users are pirates
6. JAM...Who will steal license this idea first: Actiblizzard or MTVEA
7. RND...Two girls, one cup and seven reaction videos, from Slate