Another short episode, because really, summer game news is typically slow. A lot of interesting stuff this week, however.
All this and Listener Feedback.
When you’ve had a bit too much to drink, there are two choices: move on to tequila shots or… Mario Party for the Wii! Mario Party is amazingly fun when you’ve had a few too many drinks while sober it’s mearly “meh.”
Now, Ubisoft is trying to capture the drinking demographic, or more appropriately, the party crowd. The goal is to create a mini-game set created for partying and having fun with your Nintendo console. Enter, Play Zone, a new mini-game collection for the Wii.
Do we need yet more mini-game collections for the Wii?
“With our new Play Zone party titles, the Wii gamers who like to spend time with friends and family will have fun with the Wii through innovative and involving mini-games,” said John Parkes, Ubisoft’s EMEA marketing director. (next-gen)
Again, more “innovative mini-games” in our future? Ubisoft knows how to make a quick buck on casual games, no doubt, with their Petz franchise doing a killing for very simplistic games (which my daughter finds extremely fun).
The idea of more mini-games is slightly cringing but we do so enjoy a drunk game of Mario Party… maybe this is a good move.
Gamers around the world are going to feel the pain in the 2009 holiday season after the economy shakes apart many great development studios. Electronic Arts feels the pain of being a public company as their investors complain about lackluster revenue, THQ deals with closing studios to extend their runway and other firms will lose more headcount in the coming months.
It’s not all bad. But, it’s going to get ugly before it gets better.
The financial market has played tricks on everyone in our global economy and companies across all industries are going to feel a bit of a tightening around the belt. Investors are shaken and doing their best to protect their investments and cutting loose those that aren’t projecting profits in the near future. Game studios are going to slow their financial burn rates, trim a bit of the fat and hunker down the long term. The end result, next years holiday season will have a few less games because those games are being dropped to the floor now.
Mid-sized studios within larger firms may find their projects canceled or put on hold and their employees re-structured or let go while big studios assess what projects will make the long haul. This is the ugly side of the business, having to make a decision on what games stay and what games go with the grief of having to tell some of your best talent “goodbye.”
The bad part of the industry is occurring today, with publishers posting mediocre profits and trying to convince their investors to be patient and trust they’ve got a firm hold on their destiny. The game industry is not alone in this, many firms are reducing head count and many startups are finding themselves without series A or B funding; they’re closing their doors because the money is being directed to more stable ventures.
What’s the good in all of this?
Although I would have thought different, apparently people are clamoring over the “hype generator” tool called Spore Creature Creator. “The best part is that these creatures will be part of the main game, Spore, as user content will populate a lot of the galaxy in each player’s game,” says Falcon at GameStooge.
Will Wright and the team driving the Spore game is right on target to create the hype needed to send this game into the top game seller. If TheSims woke us up to crazy sales figures, Spore might just beat the demand; imagine creating a tool to help create a world for your company and make money while doing it?
The Creature Creator, in my mind is a genius move to get people interested in the main title and drive pre-sales figures through the roof.
(Thanks, GameStooge)
