Industry misc. news

[Julio Franco]

Transmeta Efficeon Notebooks Put Into Action, Celebrate Efficeon First Design Win.

Coca-Cola is launching an Internet music download service in Britain next month, the first consumer brand to jump into Europe's crowded Internet music market.

SiS, VIA to sample PCI Express chipsets next month, Q2/04 launch likely.

Black Isle Studios lost to mankind, enters wasteland.

 

[NoisySilence]

Oh damn !!!!!!!

Black Isle is closed !!!

It says in their article their last game sold a million copies, why would you want to shut down a successfull developper ???

To think those are the guys that put out Fallout.

Couldn't they have sold it to another edtior instead of breaking of the studio ????

 

[Krugger]

Black Isle Studios is closing?? Icewind Dale I and II AND the Baldur's Gate games... jeez. those games had some issues maybe but they were awesome and have a pretty strong following. That's the Biz though I guess.

 

[MoRulez]

Coca-Cola and file-sharing? Who'd a thought. Well it's a mega-corporation so I guess it shouldn't be a suprise to some. Almost every corporation these days have branched off into any industry it can, to diversify.

But Black Isle being laid completely off by Interplay!?
That is just sick. I totally agree with the Inquirer article, this is a dark day for game creators who make games that force people to think. There are still other companies who have develpers that release games that force you to think but Black Isle was a very identifiable one. I never played any of their games but I always read reviews of their games, and the BG (Baldurs Gate)and Fallout series were both consistently critically-acclaimed. This comes just after movie critics lambasted the Matrix trilogy for it's same attempt at making the viewer "think", with it's philosophical sci-fi storyline.

What a worrying trend, especially with Doom coming along.

"Moronic, myopic, management driven by an insatiable urge to dumb down everything to barely interactive cutscenes. Profiteering monkeys with no sense of art, style or class." : sounds like most developers and non-gaming companies in the markets today to me.

HOORAY FOR PCI-EXPRESS! Q2- WOOHOOOOOO!

 

[khosw]

I can see it now, free cell phones for your kids and a cheap activation and monthly service contract. Only catch is that Coca Cola banners and ads will plaque your cell phone screen...

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by MoRulez
This comes just after movie critics lambasted the Matrix trilogy for it's same attempt at making the viewer "think", with it's philosophical sci-fi storyline.

I for one didn't like the new Matrix movies, not because they tried to make me think but mostly because they had no idea how to make me think & ended up just throwing nonsense making it look like intelectual dialogs.

The Black Isle closing raises another issue in the sense that game studios are almost forced to develop for consoles now ( bigger market, easier to program ).

Console games "tend" to have a different audience then the one playing PC games. They tend to be less patient, have a smaller memory as far as controls go & do not want too much dialogs. It's a cliche though. Morrowind came out on the Xbox & that game has a huge amount of litterature. You spend 50% of the game reading stories about the Morrowind lore.

DeusEx is another example or a PC game being brought to console. The original was ported to the PS2 but I don't believe it really made an impact. The sequel has a dumb-down feel to it, at least that's what I felt from playing the Demo. I know a few people who recieved the final game ( you can order it from the US since it won't be released here before February ) & say that it's not as bad as it would seem.

It's a bit like the music industry. If we don't go out & support things that are worthwhile, the gaming scene will be full of the equivalents of Britney Spears & sorts.

PS. After the demise of Looking Glass Studios, I have a pretty cynical view of the gaming world in general.

 

[MoRulez]

About the Matrix trilogy: It did make sense. The parts that didn't seem to make sense were parts that were vague on information. Like the achitect, who we don't know too much history on. But the 2 last movies used much less philosophical theories compared to the 1st film. And those last 2 could have used more detailed info. But other than the Architect, I don't know what could be difficult to get. There's alot of symbolism in the film though, and I mean alot.

 

[agrav8r]

Originally posted by MoRulez
About the Matrix trilogy: It did make sense. The parts that didn't seem to make sense were parts that were vague on information. Like the achitect, who we don't know too much history on. But the 2 last movies used much less philosophical theories compared to the 1st film. And those last 2 could have used more detailed info. But other than the Architect, I don't know what could be difficult to get. There's alot of symbolism in the film though, and I mean alot.

I believe if you followed their money milking scheme and watched both the animatrix and played through the awful matrix game, you recieved a lot of backgroung info that gave a bit more information of the whole thing. Roughly it sought to challenge our idea of free will, and whether choice is truly that, oh and really cool special effects :grinthumb

 

[agrav8r]

Originally posted by Didou
I

The Black Isle closing raises another issue in the sense that game studios are almost forced to develop for consoles now ( bigger market, easier to program ).


PS. After the demise of Looking Glass Studios, I have a pretty cynical view of the gaming world in general.

If we are lucky Bioware will pick up them up and all might not be lost. If that happens we may have a new gaming revolution

did looking glass make Alice, becaues if so megee is making an OZ game last I read ( I hope it is still a go)

 

[Didou]

American McGee's Alice was done by Rogue Entertainment.

I know that Rich "Zdim" Carlson ( who worked for Looking Glass Studios ) has also done some work on Alice, but that's about it.

Alice certainly didn't feel like a Looking Glass game. The only common point would be that a lot of work had been put in the atmosphere. Otherwise it was very regular as far as gameplay goes.

Games from Looking Glass often didn't look very spectacular compared to other games out at the time, but they generally made up for it with story & gameplay ( by far ).

PS. http://www.rogue-ent.com/ is down, but I hope it's only a temporary situation. I haven't heard much news from it as of late though.

 

[MoRulez]

I just watched the 3 movies; didn't play or watch anything else Matrix related. But it was definitly a cunning way to milk viewers of their doe for sure.

 

[agrav8r]

Originally posted by Didou


PS. http://www.rogue-ent.com/ is down, but I hope it's only a temporary situation. I haven't heard much news from it as of late though.

I had read that he was attempting to get OZ into a movie format, similar to (if i remember correctly ) dues ex and duke nukem. i had also read of a Doom movie as well, but I typically find these cross over stories to be poor quality (tomb raider anyone?). Oz may be an exception, but then again there was "the wiz" with mr jackson, so any evil is possible.

 

[Didou]

Every single movie based off a game that I have seen was really, really, really bad. Those include Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tombraider, Resident Evil. There are probably more, but I think at this point my brain has decided to make me forget them.

I don't see why they feel it's necessary to do that conversion. When a game is good, it just is. They always think turning it into a movie will do it justice or something.

Very often these games are inspired by movies or TV Shows ( like the X-files for example ) & as much as they might seem original in a game, since you're actually much more a part of the story, they hardly offer anything new as far as movie goes.

A DeusEx movie would prolly be a mix of Robocop, Nemesis, Cyborg, Matrix & so on. It would just feel like another B-series flick.

 

[agrav8r]

Originally posted by Didou
Every single movie based off a game that I have seen was really, really, really bad. Those include Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tombraider, Resident Evil. There are probably more, but I think at this point my brain has decided to make me forget them.

I don't see why they feel it's necessary to do that conversion. When a game is good, it just is. They always think turning it into a movie will do it justice or something.

2 things i can think of 1- pre sell- they already have an "audience" even without a script and if they can get a famous actor or actress to get crediablity to the project, even better.
2-they lack creativity. the veterens of the movie world have been isolated from the real world for so long, they have to make guesses ( star warts 1 , 2 , and soon 3 ) on what the public will like. While newbies sometimes lack skill, the movie IMO seems to have more depth ( Memento is a good example, but Reservour dogs will work as well), these veterens ( producers and directors) stick to sequels and flashy FX laden junk to draw us in.
a third possiblity , but i choose not to give it credance, would be under paying of script writers. I can't remember the last time I heard someone say " you know I really want to write a script for little to no pay, and i will pour my soul into it"
This, however , is off topic so I apologize

 

[Krugger]

As a follow up, it appears the rumors of Black Isle's closing appear to have been false.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/446/446757p1.html

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by Krugger
As a follow up, it appears the rumors of Black Isle's closing appear to have been false.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/446/446757p1.html

I always found it odd that their mainpage never said anything about it, not even denying the "rumour".

Here's the original thread that started everything -> Farewell, but not goodbye

Here are a few pics of the Fallout they were working on -> The Game

 

[Masque]

I'm not sure.....Interplay may be trying to cover their tracks "because" they are a publicly-owned company. I'm sure at this point they'd hate to see their stock go down the crapper.

 

[agrav8r]

Originally posted by Masque
I'm not sure.....Interplay may be trying to cover their tracks "because" they are a publicly-owned company. I'm sure at this point they'd hate to see their stock go down the crapper.

Last i checked getting rid of people increased stock prices. that's why so many companies lay off "earier" than anticipated. Whenever they annouce layoff the stocks move up.

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by agrav8r
Last i checked getting rid of people increased stock prices. that's why so many companies lay off "earier" than anticipated. Whenever they annouce layoff the stocks move up.

Still odd that Interplay didn't release a news press for rumour control. If there are rumours of a closing floating around, it can't be good for the stock value.

All this talk makes me wanna re-install Fallout2.:blackeye: