Posts tagged Thorsen
Visceral execs defect to Activision
Jul 22nd
Sources say Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey have left the studio formerly known as EA Redwood Shores for positions at EA archrival’s new Bay Area studio.
Yesterday, job listings revealed that Activision is building an all-new games studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late today came a report that the megapublisher, one half of Activision Blizzard, has successfully wooed two senior developers away from its archrival, Bay Area-headquartered Electronic Arts.
According to sources close to Electronic Arts, this afternoon the staff of Visceral Games were informed that the internal studio, formerly known as EA Redwood Shores, was losing two of its senior members–general manager Glen Schofield and COO Michael Condrey. The pair then reportedly let it be known they were going to work at Activision’s new studio, which remains unnamed.
Schofield is best-known for being the driving force behind Dead Space, which was pitched internally to EA executives by a group of dedicated developers. Most recently, he has been promoting Visceral’s upcoming project, Dante’s Inferno.
As of press time, neither EA nor Activision corporate communications reps had responded to requests for comment. However, a source which wished to remain anonymous told GameSpot that today’s news capped several weeks of rumors of the pair’s departure. These were fueled by intense recruiting by Activision of many staffers at Visceral, which had just been rebranded as EA’s core gamer label earlier this year. “It’s not a very happy day here,” said the source.
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Modern Warfare 2 controller in works, World at War maps top 4M
Jul 22nd
Infinity Ward community manager twitters about custom controller for upcoming shooter; last year’s Call of Duty DLC goes quadruple platinum.
Last week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 made headlines thanks to it being bundled with a pair of fully functional, Infinity Ward-branded night-vision goggles (pictured). Now, it appears another custom piece of hardware is being readied for the recently retitled game. Once again, the news came via the Twitter feed of Infinity Ward director of communications Robert Bowling.
“In a design meeting for a MW2 controller,” declared Bowling. “Need your advice–concave or convex grips for the Analog sticks? What’s your preference and why?” Though no specific platform was mentioned, the Xbox 360 controller has concave thumbsticks, while the PlayStation 3’s DualShock 3 has convex ones.
Bowling also did not confirm when–or if–a custom Modern Warfare 2 controller would be mass produced. However, it seems likely given Activision’s continued enthusiasm for making peripherals, as evidenced by the Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard and recently redesigned Guitar Hero 5 drum kit.
In other Call of Duty news, the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: World at War hit another retail milestone this week. As part of an announcement that a third map pack will arrive in August, Activision revealed that the previous two map packs for the game had reached 4 million units.
World at War itself has sold over 11 million units to date, and may possibly be the last Call of Duty to take place during World War II. Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Treyarch was toying with a Cold War setting with Vietnam War-era music from Cuba, Africa, and the USSR.
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PC Alan Wake’s fate TBD – Remedy
Jul 16th
Finnish studio rules out simultaneous launch with 360, says decision to bring game to Windows systems at all is Microsoft’s; publisher remains mum.
Last month, Alan Wake was extensively demonstrated at Microsoft’s media briefing during the Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, the fact the game was shown off during a section of the presentation reserved for Xbox 360 exclusives raised a variety of questions. Had the previously announced, Vista-only PC edition of the Remedy-developed game been canceled? Or was it misplaced in the Xbox 360 exclusive section like Metal Gear Solid Rising, which Konami later revealed is also coming to the PlayStation 3 and PC?
Now, it turns out both options are partially correct. This week, Remedy confirmed to GameSpot that, as had been hinted at, the Xbox 360 version of Alan Wake is its sole focus. “It is accurate that we are currently working exclusively on the Xbox 360 version of Alan Wake,” a rep for the suburban Helsinki, Finland-based studio said. “It’s safe to say that at least a simultaneous launch with the Xbox version will not happen at this late stage.”
However, when it came to the status of the PC edition of the game, Remedy was much vaguer in its response. “PC plans are currently open,” a rep said. “Remedy has a deep heritage in PC gaming and would love to see a PC version available to its PC followers. Ultimately, however, this decision lies with our publisher [Microsoft Game Studios].” Requests for comment sent to Microsoft Game Studios had not been returned as of press time, leaving Alan Wake followers in the same place as the horror game’s flashlight-wielding hero–in the dark.
Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.
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Command & Conquer 4 preemptively announced
Jul 9th
EA UK’s Twitter feed touts banner headline officially revealing long-rumored next installment in EALA RTS series.
This morning, the UK office of Electronic Arts posted a banner headline via its private Twitter feed, which is open only to members of the games press. The 105-character tweet speaks for itself: “EA_UK_PR New release: EA LOS ANGELES ANNOUNCES THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMAND & CONQUER 4 http://bit.ly/LOk6R.” The compressed link, however, does not speak for anything, leading merely to the Electronic Arts press site where the most recent announcement is for the forthcoming Fight Night Round 4 downloadable content.
When contacted by GameSpot, EA reps declined to comment on the apparently preemptive tweet. However, the existence of C&C4 has been an open secret for weeks, following another apparent leak out of the UK. in June, British market research firm 2CV, which lists C&C publisher Electronic Arts among its clients, posted a customer survey that outlined the game in detail and featured a picture of C&C series villain Kane on the front underneath the EA logo.
The survey revealed that C&C4 will incorporate a class system akin to a role-playing game and “MMORPG-like player progression.” The modes will be persistent in both the game’s single-player and multiplayer modes, which include full campaign co-op and five-on-five competitive online play. The game will also apparently feature what the survey calls “the first mobile base in RTS games,” the crawler.
For more details on all the C&C games leading up to C&C4, check out the video retrospective below.
Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.
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Gearbox confirms ‘War Hero’ IP
Jun 26th
After trademarking “World War II Hero,” “Brother In Arms War Hero,” and “Modern War Hero,” Texan studio confirms new project could arrive post-Borderlands and Colonial Marines.
Currently, most game titles ending in the word “hero” concern playing a plastic instrument. However, that may soon change, as Gearbox Software has trademarked a series of “Hero”-suffixed titles, which in all likelihood won’t involve big rock finishes or five-finger hammer-downs.
The game-info amalgamator blog Superannuation has uncovered not one, but four titles Gearbox has registered with the US Trademark and Patent office: “World War II Hero,” “War Hero,” “Brothers In Arms War Hero,” and “Modern War Hero.” The quartet of titles were all filed on June 18, and cover use of the names in “computer game programs and computer game software.”
Gearbox is already plenty busy putting the finishing touches on its sci-fi action role-playing game Borderlands (seen below) and still developing Aliens: Colonial Marines. However, the Texan studio’s CEO, Randy Pitchford, took the time to plug the new project to GameSpot.
“The news of the Gearbox Software ‘War Hero’ related trademarks exposes a bit about our interests in the development of another original intellectual property. As people following gaming news know, Gearbox is really motivated right now to take some bold risks and do exciting new things that no one has ever seen before, such as Borderlands. War Hero is something down the road for us– it’s not signed with a publishing partner yet as we haven’t even talked to any potential partners about it. So we’re certainly not ready to talk about it publicly at the moment.”
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Penn and Teller to debunk game myths
Jun 23rd
Teaser for next season of magic-comedy duo’s profane Showtime series Bullsh**! features clips of Jack Thompson comparing Grand Theft Auto as “the worst assault on children since polio.”
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Choplifter to fly again?
Jun 18th
Bard’s Tale creator Brian Fargo’s InXile Entertainment trademarks name of classic Broderbund action game for “downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices.”
Long-in-the-tooth gamers who can still remember the early 1980s will likely have fond memories of Choplifter! Partially inspired by the disastrous 1980 attempt to rescue US hostages from Iran known as Desert One, the Broderbund-developed had players rescuing hostages from a fictional evil empire and fighting off air attacks in a helicopter.
First released in 1982 for the Apple II, the 2D airborne action game was eventually ported to the Commodore 64, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, MSX, NES, and Sega Master System. Sequels and remakes would eventually make their way to the SNES, Game Gear, Game Boy, PlayStation 2, and arcades.
Now it appears Choplifter may be once again taking to the virtual skies. Yesterday, developer inXile Entertainment filed a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office for the title “Choplifter.” The filing locked down use of the title for “downloadable electronic games via the Internet and wireless devices,” raising the possibility of a digitally distributed version of the game for consoles, handhelds, or possibly the iPhone.
If a Choplifter remake is in the works, it will be the second time inXile has resurrected an Apple II-era classic. Started in 2002 by Brian Fargo following his exit from the once-mighty publisher Interplay, the California-based shop was most famous for its comical 2004 remake of the dead-serious 1985 role-playing game The Bard’s Tale. The company is currently developing the retro-action game Hei$t, due out this fall, for British publisher Codemasters.
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MGS Rising PS3, PC-bound, new PSP MGS revealed?
Jun 2nd
Industry-standard press release service lists just-announced Xbox 360 game as also coming to Sony’s console, Windows system; Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker apparently hitting Sony’s portable next year.
LOS ANGELES–Today at
Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference, one of the biggest news items was the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising for the Xbox 360. As teased by designer Hideo Kojima at his Game Developers Conference keynote, the all-new title will star Raiden, the acrobatic supporting character of Metal Gear Solid 4 and star of Metal Gear Solid 2.
However, no sooner was the game revealed than confusion set in about what platforms it was being released for. It was revealed during the portion of the Microsoft press conference which corporate vice president John Schappert said was reserved for Xbox 360 console exclusives. However, the product page on Games Press–the UK-based press-release service relied upon by much of the games industry–is listing the game as coming to the PC and PlayStation 3 with a “TBA” launch date.
Unfortunately, Konami’s ambiguously worded announcement of the game doesn’t clarify the situation. It only describes MGS: Rising as “the first Metal Gear Solid game to launch on the Xbox 360.” No mention is made of exclusivity of any kind, timed or not.
Adding to the Metal Gear Solid rumor gumbo is another Games Press listing for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. Other than a wide-open 2010 release date, no other information is listed about the game, which could possibly be the subject of a second teaser site put up by Konami.
As of press time, Konami reps had not responded to requests for comment on either title. However, earlier today, Games Press was also the source of the premature announcement of Crysis 2 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
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‘Call of Duty 7′ already ‘in production’
May 14th
Treyarch animator’s resume lists development of reportedly Cold War-set game as being “currently” underway; 2010 release date expected.
Last week, rumors surfaced that Activision was working on “Call of Duty 7,” the next chapter in the wildly popular first-person shooter series. It stemmed from a report on That Videogame Blog which said that the publisher was looking for “Vietnam War-era tunes, as well as Cuban, African, and Soviet Union music.”
Besides hinting that the game might be set in some of the many guerrilla-conflict hotspots of the Cold War, the now-pulled report also indicated that Treyarch was once again developing. The report made sense, given the annual alternation of Infinity Ward and Treyarch’s Call of Duty projects–and the fact the game formerly known as Call of Duty 6 is now the Call of Duty-less spin-off Modern Warfare 2.
Now comes further proof that Treyarch is already hard at work on a new entry in the series. According to the Linkedin resume of an animator at the shop (name withheld), “Call Of Duty 7″ is listed as “currently in production.” Activision reps had not responded to requests for comment about Treyarch’s current project as of press time.
The resume offers no other details on Call of Duty 7, including platforms, ratings, or a release date. However, given the fact Modern Warfare 2 is due out November 10, 2009, a fall 2010 release date appears likely. If the past two games are a precedent, an M for Mature rating and multiplatform release are also all but assured.
For more on Treyarch’s work on the Call of Duty franchise, check out GameSpot’s video review of the best-selling Call of Duty: World at War below.
Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.
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Duke Nukem Forever footage, screens surface
May 12th
Clip shows profanity-spouting hero battling giant aliens, wooing strippers; 3D Realms posts official “goodbye” message thanking supporters.
;)
Last week saw the 12-year Duke Nukem Forever saga come to an ignominious end when 3D Realms shut down. Though still not officially responding to press inquires, the Texas-based developer did post
an official farewell over the weekend along with a group shot of its soon-to-be-former employees.
“Goodbye. Thanks for being fans and for all your support,” read the brief message from webmaster Joe Siegler, who first confirmed the studio’s closure last Tuesday.
;)
The accompanying photo showed that at the time of its closure, 3D Realms employed around three dozen people. Those included several artists who have posted art assets from the game on their personal Web sites in an effort to find new jobs.
Shacknews spotted DNF assets on the blogs of artists showcasing alien opponents and desert locales from the game. However, all four former 3D Realms employees had either pulled the art assets or restricted access to their blogs as of press time.
;)
Another former 3D Realms employee also posted a highlight reel showing about three minutes of animation and gameplay footage from Duke Nukem Forever. Besides containing brief nudity and foul language, the trailer shows Mr. Nukem battling several enemies, ranging from pig-faced brutes to the tentacled alien shown above. Several boss battles are also shown, including one in a sports stadium where players must pelt a hulking armored beast with missiles to knock it down and then pry off its antennae to disable it.
[WARNING: Video contains coarse language and brief nudity--viewer discretion is advised.]
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