|
 News
Week
of February 7- February 13, 2000
[Thursday,
February 11, 2000]
Bonnel
Takes Over At GT
Infogrames chairman and CEO Bruno Bonnell has taken up the reins at GT
Interactive as chairman and CEO. Bonnell is filling the positions left
vacant by the departure of GT CEO Thomas Heymann and COO John Baker from
GT's executive management team. Los Angeles residents Heymann and Baker
both decided to leave in part because of the company's decision to remain
headquarted in New York. The moves follow Infogrames acquisition of a
70 percent stake in GT, and could signal the start of Bonnell's efforts
to merge the two companies. Bonnell has proposed that GT Interactive and
Infogrames merge their North American operations, and GT has appointed
a special committee of outside directors to consider the proposal.
Connectix
Wins Appeal
Playstation emulator maker Connectix has won the reversal and remand of
court injunction banning the sale of its Virtual Game Station for Macintosh.
Sony had contended that the Virtual Game Station infringed on Sony copyrights,
especially in relation to the Playstation BIOS, and tarnished the Playstation
reputation. Connectix, backed by software makers and trade associations,
argued that they had the right to replicate non-copyrightable functional
elements included a reverse engineered BIOS. The court agreed, and recognized
Connectix as a legitimate and innovative competitor. Connectix plans to
begin shipping the Mac Virtual Game Station immediately. Further, the
company plans to offer a Windows version of the Playstation emulator in
the near future. "The court has recognized that reverse engineering is
a common, legitimate, and valuable development practice, protected under
law,'' stated Connectix CEO Roy McDonald.
MIT
Hosts Conference on Cultural Significance of Games
By Dan Teven The Computer and Video Games Come of Age conference
opened today, giving Massachusetts Institute of Technology students the
chance to hear an impressive list of guest speakers. Although the conference
is free and open to the public, it was not widely publicized. About half
of the approximately 450 attendees seemed to be from MIT, with a minority
contingent from Boston-area game development houses like Looking Glass,
Turbine, GameFX, Stainless Steel Studios, and Harmonix.
The
conference is co-sponsored by the Interactive Digital Software Association
and MIT’s Program in Comparative Media Studies, a first-year department
that’s not to be confused with the famous Media Lab. There were no holographic
game interfaces or wearable computers to be found. In fact, it felt more
like a "GDC Lite", with an overly long keynote by 3DO’s Trip Hawkins but
without the technical sessions or the hangover.
Trip’s
big theme? Computers need to become more natural to use – and they will.
For both content and style, the speakers from academia acquitted themselves
better than those from our industry. However, many respected developers
have yet to speak, such as Hal Barwood, Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, David
Perry, Bruce Shelley and Warren Spector.
The
best session of the day belonged to Geoffrey Goldstein, a psychologist
from the University of Utrecht. After debunking the notion that games
are addictive, Goldstein explained the difference between aggression and
mere aggressive play. Boys running around and yelling on the playground
are engaged in aggressive play, because they don’t really mean to hurt
each other. On the other hand, girls who say “let’s have a party on Friday
night and not invite her” are actually the aggressive ones!
Doug
Lowenstein of the IDSA talked about demographics, revenues, and piracy.
Lowenstein’s best moment was his story about walking into a software store
in Singapore, realizing that everything around him was pirated, and noticing
a “Shoplifters will be prosecuted” sign by the register.
MIT’s Henry Jenkins introduced the conference by citing Gilbert Seldes.
In the 1924 book, "The Seven Lively Arts,” Seldes argued that comics,
jazz, and cinema should be taken as seriously as ballet or opera. Jenkins
drew many parallels between video games and these forms of expression,
and in particular, between games and cinema. (We’ve all heard the movie
comparisons before, but I suppose we should be grateful, because Seldes
also tagged vaudeville and musical revues as “lively arts”.)
The
conference concludes today, with sessions on the Aesthetics of Game Design,
Games and Education, Games as Popular Culture, Games as Interactive Storytelling,
and The Future of Games. More information and proceedings from the event
can be found at http://web.mit.edu/cms/games/.
Losses
Mount, Cavedog Closes
GT Interactive's third quarter results were short on bright spots, as
the company announced that net losses for the third quarter reached $118
million. Revenues slipped to just $102 million for the third quarter versus
$246 million for the same period last year. Though GT blames the quarter's
slump on a light release schedule, as much as $89 million of the quarters
loss can be attributed to charges related restructuring and reorganization
related to the company's acquisition by Infogrames. GT's reorganization
includes an end to its European operation, folding its budget publishing
business, and the closure of Total Annihilation developer Cavedog Studios.
[Thursday,
February 10, 2000]
Sega
Names Two VPs
Sega of American has hired new vice presidents to oversee the company's
quality assurance and information technology departments. Munawwar Ali
Daimee, joining Sega from Sun Microsystems, will be responsible for establishing
quality control systems for all aspects of Sega's business with an emphasis
on outgoing product quality. Taking on the role of vice president of information
technology will be Steven McIntosh. McIntosh was previously director of
information technology for Hitachi PC Corporation. Sega also promoted
eastern regional sales director Tim Flynn to the position national sales
director. Flynn will service both e-commerce and traditional retail sales
channels for all of North America.
Playstation
2 Compatibility Problems
Sony Computer Entertainment is reporting some possible problems with the
promised compatibility of existing Playstation software with the upcoming
Playstation 2. While the company insists that most older games will function
perfectly, several older Playstation titles may have problems with images
or sound when played on the newer console. Sony has yet to nail down the
exact nature of the problem, hinting that most of the difficulties are
with third party games that bypass Sony's APIs and write directly to the
hardware. Sony has promised more details, including a list of incompatible
games, when it has better determined the nature of the problem.
Egames Responds
At least one defendant in a video game intellectual property suit filed
by Hasbro is vowing to fight. Jerry Klein, CEO of budget game publisher
eGame has called the allegations of copyright infringement without merit
and has promised that his company will defend it right to use the fundamental
game play concepts that are at the heart of the classic games Hasbro is
claiming were infringed upon. "Hasbro is unfortunately trying to control
the ideas behind certain video games when such ideas are free for others
to use and improve upon," said Klein.
Activision Gets Tesh
Activison has signed on with Viacom Consumer Products to snag one the
oddest interactive entertainment licenses around. Under the terms of the
agreement, Activision has worldwide exclusive rights to develop and publish
titles based on Paramount Television's Entertainment Tonight. While ET
is the number one syndicated entertainment magazine, it is unclear exactly
how it will translate into an entertaining title. "Now is the optimum
time to bring a popular television show with worldwide recognition like
Entertainment Tonight to the PC," said a suitably vague Kathy Vrabeck,
VP of global brand management for Activision. The first Activison product
based on the license should ship this year, to coincide with Entertainment
Tonight's 20th anniversary.
[Wednesday,
February 9, 2000]
S3
and Nvidia Settle
Rival 3D chipmakers Nvidia and S3 have come to a settlement in their ongoing
patent infringement battle. The two companies settled their differenced
by entering into a seven year agreement to cross license a broad range
of the companies respective patents. As part of the deal, both companies
will drop their pending patent infringement suits. "Based on our intellectual
property strengths, S3 and nVidia rank as possibly the only two companies
positioned to win long-term in the PC graphics market," said S3 chief
technology officer Andrew Wolfe.
Dreamcast
Network in March
Sega first fully networked Dreamcast game will arrive three months earlier
than expected, but later than many gamers had hoped. Puzzle action hybrid
Chu Chu Rocket will make its debut on March 2, featuring full multiplayer
online gaming via the Dreamcast network. Sega consider the game to be
the complete of the fourth phase of its online game development strategy,
with the next phase involving a move towards providing 3D online games
by the fall of 2000. Sega promises more first and third party online games
will appear throughout this year.
Acclaim
Promotes Cook
Acclaim Entertainment has announced the promotion of Nigel Cook to the
position of vice president and studio head at Acclaim Studios Austin.
Cook had previously served as Acclaim Austin's vice president of product
development. "Having been at the studio for the past eight years, I know
that Acclaim Austin will continue to evolve as one of the best game development
studios in the industry," said the newly appointed studio head. Cook will
be responsible for managing all aspects of the Austin facility.
[Tuesday,
February 8, 2000]
Rage
Acquires
Acquisitive Rage is expanding further to position itself for a push into
handheld, Internet, and mobile games. The company has spent $5.5 million,
which is to be financed through the issuing of 6.5 million Rage shares,
to acquire new studios in Scotland and Leeds, while also taking a 20 percent
stake in newly formed handheld developer Denki Ltd. Rage has signed DMA
Design founder David Jones to oversee its new Scottish operations. Rage
also formed a new Leeds studio in a $3.2 million deal with conversion
specialist house RGB Tree. "The development of on-line Internet gaming
platforms and [wireless application protocol] devices provide us with
significant new opportunities to ensure mass-market penetration for our
titles," says Rage's Paul Finnegan.
Hasbro Earning Up
Despite a $53 million dollar loss on the year from the company interactive
division, Hasbro managed to ride strong sales of popular Pokemon and Furby
tales to fourth quarter earnings 18 percent better than same period last
year. Hasbro reported $155.4 million in the fourth quarter, compared to
$131.8 million in the fourth quarter last year. Net earnings for the year
increased 30 percent to $286.6 million, compared to $220 million in earning
the previous year.
AIS
Buys Zombie
Game maker Zombie has been acquired by Advanced Interactive Systems, a
company specializing in video based simulators for law enforcement. AIS
President Al Davis explained the reasoning behind the acquisition, "Zombie
gains by accessing our global sales force, resources for future growth,
international presence and skill at marketing simulator technology. AIS
gains immediate access to the international gaming market, as well as
Zombie's applied research and development capabilities in such areas as
computer graphics and gaming via the Web." Zombie will become a subsidiary
of AIS and will operate independently under the management of Zombie founder
Joanna Alexander. Zombie will continue to create original game titles,
the next being a new chapter in the Spec Ops series using the Lith Tech
engine.
Favorite
Game Nominees
Nominees for the first ever videogames awards in the sixth annual Blockbuster
Awards have been announced. The line up for the coveted Favorite Videogame
category are Army Men: Sarge's Hereos, Super Smash Bros., Driver, Resident
Evil 3: Nemesis, and Pokémon Yellow. Favorite Playstation contenders
include Driver, Gran Turismo 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Syphon Filter,
Tomorrow Never Dies and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Winners will be announced
as at the Blockbuster Awards ceremony in June.
PC
Data's Top Ten
PC Data has let us in on the best selling game PC games for the week of
January 23-January 29, 2000.
1. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Disney
2. Centipede, Hasbro Interactive
3. Parker Brothers Classic Card Games, Hasbro Interactive
4. Milton Bradley Classic Games, Hasbro Interactive
5. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon, Hasbro Interactive
6. Final Fantasy VIII, Electronic Arts
7. Microsoft Age of Empires II: Age Of Kings, Microsoft
8. MP Roller Coaster Tycoon Corkscrew Follies, Hasbro Interactive
9. Microsoft Flight Simulator Pro, Microsoft
10. Starcraft, Havas Interactive
[Monday,
February 7, 2000]
Reynolds
Leave Firaxis
Firaxis has announced that game designer Brian Reynolds has decided to
part way with the company that he co-founded. Reynolds was involved with
both of Firaxis' works in progress, a new chapter in the Civilization
series for Hasbro and dinosaur strategy for game Electronic Arts, but
the company reports that his departure will not affect the development
of either title.
Hasbro
Files Suit
Hasbro Interactive has filed suit against several game companies over
unauthorized versions of some well-known videogames. The suit, filed in
Monday morning in United States District Court in Boston, maintains that
eGames, GT Interactive, and several other game makers alleging infringement
on Hasbro copyrights to games like Centipede and Asteroids. Also named
in the suit are Xtreme Games, MVP Software, Webfoot Technologies, and
Varcon Systems. The games in question are largely low cost games, with
titles like TetriMania or Mac-Man, that are rip-offs of classic game titles.
Hasbro acquired the exclusive rights to many of these games as part of
its purchase of Atari, and in the past year has become more interested
in enforcing its copyrights as it has released new 3D versions of Centipede
and Missile Command. "Content is Hasbro's core business and other companies
don't have the right to profit from the success of our intellectual properties
and our ability to make them successful. We're committed to protecting
our brands and licenses to the full extent of the law," said Hasbro general
counsel Barry Nagler.
Blockbuster Adds Game Award
The Sixth Annual Blockbuster Entertainment Awards will, for the first
time, honor the year's top videogames. The new category will join the
awards current slate of awards for movie actors and actresses in top performing
movies and musical artists based on top selling albums. Presumably, the
new video games will also be based upon game sales. The awards will be
presented live from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on Fox television in
June.
Quantum
3D Appoints CEO
Quantum 3D has announced the appointment of Jeff Edson as the company's
new CEO. Edson spent 17 years at Intergraph Corporation, where he was
involved in the launch of Intergraph's Digital Media Division before becoming
Intergraph's president of visual computing. Edson replaces acting CEO
Gordon Campbell, who has served as Quantum's chairman of the board since
the company's founding in 1997.
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