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October 6, 2009
Warren Spector's 'Epic Mickey' will be a Wii exclusive
Turns out the long-rumored Disney project involving Austin game designer Warren Spector will be a dark take on Mickey Mouse, in a Nintendo Wii-exclusive game called “Epic Mickey.”
Game Informer magazine broke the news, with a cover featuring the new-look Mickey.
Check out a video where Spector talks about his lifelong love of Disney to Game Informer magazine.
Spector, one of the game industry’s best-known developers, is behind franchises like “Deus Ex” and “System Shock.” The Walt Disney Co. acquired Spector’s Austin-based video game studio Junction Point Studios Inc. in 2007.
At the time Spector said he welcomed the chance to “mess around with some of the Disney brands and the opportunity to create some new ones.”
According to Disney’s Web site, Junction Point is currently hiring for two positions — a game designer and a lead designer.
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September 14, 2009
Austin developer debuts 'Weblings' game
Austin developer WebWars released its first game today, the free-to-play “Weblings.”
The browser-based game can be played via a toolbar while you’re surfing the Internet.
You start out with two Weblings and on any given site, you can battle evil bugs which are out to destroy the Internet (in the game’s story line, they’re the reason why you get broken links and 404 errors).
There’s also a collection aspect to the game — when you kill bugs, you can get various treasure and pieces of new Weblings. In Pokemon style, each Webling has his or her own particular strength and weakness, which you can use to combat an enemy’s weakness.
Designers say they wanted to create a casual game that players could play in the background of their browser.
“What we wanted to do is add a little fun factor to something they’re already doing,” CEO Cindy Armstrong said.
Here are some shots from the game:
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March 4, 2009
A new game company emerges
A group of seasoned game industry executives have banded together to form a new Austin game company called Thriller New Media.
Founded by Fred Schmidt, “Wild” Bill Stealey and Jim Bull — all of whom worked together at Baltimore-based MicroProse Software in the 1980s and early 1990s — created Thriller a year ago with an ambitious $100 million business plan. MicroProse published games such as the popular “Civilization” and “Railroad Tycoon.”
But Schmidt said the economic recession made it difficult to raise money. So the founders re-tooled their strategy, which had focused on using New York Times-bestselling authors to write books that would be converted into games.
“We started out a year ago when we were in a … very vibrant lending market to game companies and all sorts of companies,” Schmidt said.
“We had formed what was originally Thriller Publishing to raise $25 million to build a $100 million company over five years.”
“Suddenly September came and the bottom fell out of the world,” Schmidt said. So the company decided to focus on raising $8 million and building a $32 million company.
Now, Thriller plans to develop and operate online games - both multiplayer and massively multiplayer - through a Web site and social network that Thriller will create.
If the original book-to-games idea sounded hard to pull off, it wasn’t an impossible idea - MicroProse had done it before novelist Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising.”
Austin is considered a center for online game development and has a number of studios that work on online games. Thriller intends to do some of its own game development and publish games developed by other studios.
The company will be based in Austin, where Schmidt lives and runs the downtown retail shop Wild About Music.
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January 27, 2009
Austin game publisher Gamecock closes office
Gamecock Media Group has closed its Austin office following the purchase of the company by Dallas-based Southpeak Interactive last October, a Southpeak spokesman said the week. The purchase price was undisclosed.
It’s not clear how many employees were affected, but a Southpeak spokesman said about four employees were moved to the company’s Dallas area office.
The company was founded in February 2007 by Harry Miller and Mike Wilson, veterans of the gaming industry who had run a company called Gathering of Developers in Dallas. Miller and Wilson do not work at Southpeak.
Gamecock had been a game publishing house that worked with game developers to help them bring their games to market.
Miller and Wilson had spoken enthusiastically in the past about Gamecock’s business model, which emphasized publishing games developed by smaller game studios and giving these developers better terms and more control over the intellectual property.
But Gamecock’s success had been difficult to measure. One of its first releases, an Australian game called “Fury,” fizzled and the development studio shut down.
Gamecock worked with several Austin-based developers, including Blazing Lizard, which developed the “Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball” game.
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January 21, 2009
Bigfoot moving its headquarters to San Jose
Austin-based gaming hardware company Bigfoot Networks is moving its headquarters from Austin to San Jose, Calif., the company said in a statement.
Veteran marketing executive Michael Howse was also named chief executive.
The company plans to keep its tech development operations in Austin.
Former chief executive and co-founder Harlan Beverly recently moved into the role of chief technology officer and vide president of engineering.
Howse will work closely with Beverly “to drive the next phase of business growth with aggressive new product, technology and revenue plans for 2009 and beyond,” according to the statement.
“I’m joining Bigfoot Networks at an exciting point in the company’s history,” Howse said. “Online gaming is one of the hottest sectors of the technology market today and improving the player’s experience is critical to its future growth.”
Bigfoot makes a network interface card that reduces lag time for gamers.
Lag can cause a delay in game action that occurs when data from a company’s server is sent to hundreds of computers at once. The problem can be exacerbated by slow Internet connections and can mean the difference between life and death for serious gamers.
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December 29, 2008
NCsoft Corp. sued by virtual world developer
Merry Christmas, NCSoft Corp.
The South Korean game developer was sued on Christmas Eve for patent infringement by Massachusetts-based virtual world developer Worlds.com.
The patent sited in the brief four-page complaint, filed in the Eastern District of the U.S. District Court, is “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space.” That patent was issued in February of 2007.
NCsoft is a publisher of massively multiplayer online games such as City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, and Guild Wars. It has offices in Austin and Seattle.
(Both companies did not immediately return calls seeking comment.)
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December 19, 2008
Aspyr Media conducts layoffs
Aspyr Media has now become one of three Austin game companies that have laid off workers this year.
Aspyr, which focuses primarily on developing games for the Mac, said Friday that the “current economic environment” has forced “tough decisions.”
“The most difficult of which has been a reduction in staff and the loss of some very talented, valuable team members and friends,” Aspyr said in a statement.
The company did not disclose the number of employees involved. “We’d rather not discuss numbers at this time,” said spokesman Eric Duncan.
All of Aspyr’s planned titles for 2009 will continue without interruption, the statement says.
Previously, Midway Games and NCsoft Corp., game companies that have operations in Austin, conducted layoffs.
The game industry has long maintained that it is largely resistant to economic downturns, under the theory that in tough times, consumers look for the entertainment that delivers the most value for the dollar.
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November 20, 2008
Economy hurts attendance at Austin game conference
Is this a sign of the times?
I went today to the third-annual Austin Independent Game Conference at the Wyndham Hotel and was surprised by the lack of attendance from local game developers. Could it be they weren’t able to afford the conference fee in these tough times?
There seemed to be fewer attendees than last year’s conference. The Austin indie games conference never had the draw of the bigger Austin Game Developer’s Conference in September, but in year’s past it has focused on issues important to start-up game companies and mobile developers.
Conference executive director Steve Farrer said he was “a little disappointed” by the attendance and is mulling over whether to even have the conference next year.
There were 120 people who signed up for the conference this year, he said, slightly less than the number that had attended last year. He attributed this “to the uncertainty in the marketplace.”
He has plans to expand the conference to Boston and Long Beach next year.
Farrer pointed out that the cost (roughly $200, or $150 with a discount) was less expensive than the better-attended Austin Game Developer’s Conference. But the Austin GDC has a more robust panel schedule and draws more out-of-town visitors.
Farrer helped start the six-year-old Austin Game Developer’s Conference along with Chris Sherman, who now runs conferences focusing on virtual worlds. (Sherman sold the company that ran the Austin Game Developer’s Conference in 2006.)
Farrer said moving the independent game conference to a different time of the year, like May, is also possible.
The game conference business is tough, in part because there is lots of competition. The annual Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco draws thousands of people and so does E3, another game and electronics conference in Los Angeles.
In Austin, there are only three that have a gaming focus: SXSW Interactive, the Austin Game Developer’s Conference and the Austin Independent Game Conference.
(Picture is of Steve Farrer, left, and Chris Sherman, right. The two no longer work together.)
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November 11, 2008
Gaming legend Garriott leaving NCSoft
Richard Garriott, a pioneer and legend in the computer gaming world, said today he is leaving NCSoft.
Garriott and his brother, Robert, have run the Austin operations for the company since 2001.
Garriott announced the news on the Web site of Tabula Rasa, his latest game.
Last month, he spent 10 days aboard the International Space Station, fulfilling a lifelong dream of going into space.
On the Web site, Garriott said: “That unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCSoft to pursue those interests.”
An NCSoft spokesman said Garriott wouldn’t comment further.
Garriott, the son of an astronaut, is an investor in a company that promotes private space travel.
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October 30, 2008
Questions for Richard Garriott?
My interview with Austin game designer and amateur astronaut Richard Garriott is set for 8 a.m. Friday. Garriott is in London doing media interviews before he heads back to the United States after his recent trip to the International Space Station.
I’m soliciting ideas for questions to ask Garriott. If you’ve got a suggestion, let me know in the comments section or shoot me an e-mail at lrockwell@statesman.com
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October 24, 2008
Garriott's back on earth, but when will he talk?
As you’ve probably seen, Austin game developer Richard Garriott landed in Kazakhstan late last night after a 10-day jaunt to space, including a stay at the International Space Station.
Garriott was greeted by his father, Owen, a retired astronaut who went into space twice in the 1970s and 1980s.
Garriott booked the flight through Space Adventures, a company in which he is an investor.
We’re eager to talk with Garriott about his trip, which was included multiple conversations with school children across the world via ham radio (one of Garriott’s myriad hobbies), scientific experiments, and even opportunities to plug his computer game, “Tabula Rasa.”
We’ve asked a Space Adventures spokeswoman when we can talk with Garriott about the trip, which was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. The only answer so far: “In early November, after he is released from quarrantine.”
When I pressed for specifics on a time and date, I got no answer.
So how about it, Space Adventures? When can Garriott talk to his hometown newspaper about his adventure of a lifetime?
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October 14, 2008
Garriott docks in space
Austin game developer Richard Garriott arrived at the International Space Station early this morning.
The space craft, a Soyuz TMA-13, docked at 3:38 a.m. Central Time with Garrriott and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
“They were greeted at 6 a.m. by the Expedition 17 crew, which includes Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff,” a press release from Space Adventures noted.
Space Adventures sends private citizens into space. Garriott paid $35 million for his trip, but is being reimbursed by some of the scientific work that he’s doing in space.
His return trip is scheduled for Oct. 23.
For more information on Garriott’s trip check out his Web site.
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October 12, 2008
Austin game developer Richard Garriott blasts into space
Legendary Austin game developer Richard Garriott flew into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket at 2 a.m. Central Time.
It was 1 p.m. Sunday in Russia, according to a Reuters story that says his longtime girlfriend and father were there to cheer him on.
“I can see he is really enjoying it, like a little kid in the candy shop,” girlfriend Kelly Miller told Reuters.
In Austin, Garriott’s company, NCsoft, hosted a party to celebrate his space flight at Opal Divine’s. NCsoft is based in South Korea but has an office in Austin.
Garriott is paying $35 million to fly into space as a private citizen through a company he owns a stake in called Space Adventures. Some of that cost is being paid for by the scientific research he will be doing in space.
Garriott’s trip will last about 10 days, and he will return in a re-entry vehicle that has malfunctioned on its last two flights, the Reuters story notes.
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September 25, 2008
Austin game conference breaks attendance record
This just in: the Austin Game Developers Conference, which was Sept. 15-17, broke attendance records. This year, 3,000 people attended the conference, an 11 percent increase from the year before.
Culture and technology reporter Omar Gallaga and I attended the conference and wrote copious blogs and stories about it. Austin is considered a hotspot for game development.
Here are some of our stories/blogs:
What I learned about virtual law
The psychology of online gamers
Omar’s story on the keynote by Bruce Sterling
A story on the convergence of social networks and online games.
Check out this video I did on the conference.
Here are some photos Omar G. took at the conference.
And Omar’s summary of the first day of the conference.
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September 17, 2008
A new Austin game studio opens
It seems like there’s a new Austin game studio opening up just about every other week.
But this week’s new start-up is somewhat significant. Remember a few months back when I reported on rumors that Retro Studios was undergoing some kind of shake-up?
It turns out there was something to those rumors.
Three men from Retro’s studios, which develops games for Nintendo, have left to form their own studio called Armature.
The men, Mark Pacini, Todd Keller and Jack Mathews, who had held the titles of game director, art director and principal technology engineer while at Retro, worked on the Metroid Prime series.
Armature says it wants to develop “compelling new intellectual properties,” which I can only assume means a new game, with a “unique development framework” leveraging a small team and partnering with outside developers.
More importantly, the company has signed a long term, exclusive publishing deal with Electronic Arts, a large video game publisher. Electronic Arts also owns Canadian-based BioWare, which has a studio in town.
“We are very excited about trying to rethink how games are developed for this generation of consoles, and our partners at EA have been nothing but supportive in this pursuit,” said Mark Pacini, co-founder of Armature Studio in a written statement. “What really gets me going is that now, no platform is off limits. That is just something we didn’t have the ability to do before.”
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September 10, 2008
NCsoft reorganizes its Austin operations
The rumors have been swirling for some time that NCsoft’s Austin operations were going to undergo a drastic downsizing, which NCsoft has denied.
The rumors are half-true. Today we learned that South Korean-based NCsoft plans to relocate its North American headquarters from Austin to Seattle, calling it NC West. (That name is tentative, according to a press release.)
It will bring departments like marketing and public relations with it, but leave customer service and quality assurance testing in Austin.
It will also consolidate NC Europe, NC Austin and a studio it owns called Arena Net under the NC West banner.
Company spokesman David Swofford said this will likely impact about 12 people in Austin, one of them being Chris Chung, who was the president of the Austin operations and will now move to Seattle to become chief executive officer of NC West.
This is a blow to the Austin gaming industry which prided itself on having a game publisher based in Austin. Richard Garriott, the well-known local game developer, will retain his title as executive producer for the Austin operations.
Swofford said Seattle was as more attractive location for its North American headquarters because of its closer proximity to Korea and direct flights to London, where NC Europe is based.
Last month, NCsoft laid off 21 people in its Austin operations and in February laid off a small number of people from its Tabula Rasa team after the much-anticipated game failed to meet expectations.
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September 8, 2008
Colbert + Garriott= publicity tsunami
First Austinite Richard Garriott, a noted vide game developer, decided to travel into space as a private citizen this October, paying $35 million for the trip.
(Garriott works at South Korean-based NCsoft Corp., which has offices in Austin.)
The plan is to bring Colbert’s DNA, along with the DNA of several players from Garriott’s new video game Tabula Rasa, and several other high-profile people, such as Texas musician Joe Ely, into space and leave it at the International Space Station.
“I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my life-long dream of being the baby at the end of 2001,” Colbert said in a statement.
Here’s Garriott’s take:
“In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert’s DNA,” Garriott said in a statement. “Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?”
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August 25, 2008
Austin Game Developer's Conference unveils keynote speakers
The Austin Game Developer’s Conference, which is Sept. 15-17, has finalized its keynote speakers.
This year they are: Lane Merrifield of kid-friendly Club Penguin, Mel Guymon of Lively by Google, Sony Audio Manager Jason Page and novelist and futurist Bruce Sterling.
The conference had about 2,700 attendees last year. This industry conference has a focus on massively multiplayer online games, which is what Austin is known for.
But it has a variety of sessions, including several that focus on the emergence of game development for social networking sites.
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August 13, 2008
NCsoft to cut 21 jobs
NCsoft Corp. is cutting 21 jobs in its Austin operations, the company said Wednesday.
NCsoft is a South Korean game development company that has its North American headquarters in Austin.
It employs nearly 300 people. The cuts will be in the product development department.
“Primarily this is related to products which we have not previously announced and were in prototype phases,” said company spokesman David Swofford. “We are also cutting some positions on the Dungeon Runners team” after deciding not to convert the game to other platforms.
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July 30, 2008
Garriott will use space exploration to promote his game
Austin’s Richard Garriott sure knows how to mix business with pleasure.
NCsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that Garriott will take with an “Immortality Drive” with him to space, which includes a time capsule that has digital DNA of selected players of his massively multiplayer online game Tabula Rasa.
Garriott is taking a Russian Soyuz rocket into space on Oct. 12. The trip costs $30 million and it is Garriott’s life dream to travel into space.
Tabula Rasa players will have a chance to have their DNA sequenced, digitized and sent into space as part of this campaign.
Certain players will be sent a package in the mail to swab the inside of their mouths and send that back to have their DNA analyzed.
In addition, all Tabula Rasa players who have an active account on Sept. 2 will have their Tabula Rasa characters uploaded to the device, giving them the opportunity to go to space “virtually.”
“I’ve been able to do some very exciting things in the games business, but nothing of this magnitude,” Garriott said in a statement. “I”m thrilled we can offer the once in a lifetime chance to millions of gamers to virtually go into space with me.”
Garriott told me in an interview last week that the idea of taking the DNA sequences of players into space ties in with his Tabula Rasa game, because in it, aliens and humans are involved in intergalactic warfare for control of the universe.
If this should ever happen in real life, there will be some DNA sequences at the International Space Station that can be use to re-populate the Earth, Garriott said.
As an aside, Tabula Rasa missed expectations when it was launched late last year. NCsoft officials have since said it might have been a mistake to launch during the busy Christmas season, when several high-profile games are released.
Tabula Rasa makes money primarily through its monthly subscription service.
In the statement released Wednesday, Garriott said “the game world of Tabula Rasa has grown significantly since launch.”
What do you think, readers? Will this promotion help boost Tabula Rasa?
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July 29, 2008
Heatwave Interactive raises $7.5 million
Austin-based Heatwave Interactive has raised $7.5 million in venture capital to create a production studio that will develop interactive games.
Syncom Venture Partners, based in Washington, D.C., made the investment, which is the company’s first round of venture capital.
Heatwave was founded last year by gaming industry veteran Anthony Castoro, who said he will take a different approach to game development. The company will fund the development of new concepts and screen them to decide which to back. When a concept makes it through the process, Heatwave will raise development funds and partner with developers to bring it to market.
“The game industry is notorious for missed deadlines, excessive ‘crunch,’ and formulaic licensed games. Heatwave has taken lessons from the game industry… to create a new model that is more disciplined and provides a more productive creative environment,” he said.
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May 19, 2008
Perry to speak at E3 game conference
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is speaking at the E3 Media and Business Summit on July 16.
For years, E3 was considered the top video game conference, with an overwhelming array of flashy exhibits and game demos.
In the last two years, E3 has toned down to a much smaller affair. This year it takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center July 15 to 17 and is invitation only.
“The governor’s keynote address is especially timely given the high concentration of entertainment of entertainment software developers and publishers in Texas as well as the state’s long-standing support of our industry,” said chief executive of the Entertainment Software Association Michael Gallagher, in a written statement.
Texas passed legislation in 2007 that would give economic incentives to game companies located in Texas, capped at $250,000.
While several game companies have captured state grants through this legislation, many said they are hoping next legislative session they will get more aid. By comparison, movie projects are given up to $2 million if filmed primarily in Texas.
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May 16, 2008
In a busy week, here's some news worth noting on gaming and advertising
This week I’ve been deluged with news, from Whole Foods Market’s disappointing earnings to the surprise storm and its effect on business.
Now that I can come up for air, here are a few items worth noting:
Gamecock Media, an Austin video game publishing company, has opened a European office. The office is located in Queens Park, London and will be headed up by Graeme Struthers. Gamecock is known for backing quirky games by independent game developers and its outrageous parties and stunts.
Austin advertising agency McGarrah/Jessee has launched a new print campaign for longtime client Frost Bank. The campaign is intended to focus on Frost’s full range of services, such as banking, investments and insurance. The ads will run in major Texas newspapers and The Wall Street Journal, and magazines such as Texas Monthly, Fortune and BusinessWeek.
NCsoft, a South Korean game company that has its North American headquarters in Austin, posted its first quarter numbers earlier this week. NCsoft made profit of $7.7 million and $84.3 million in revenue. This is a big slide from the $13.6 million in profit NCsoft posted the same quarter a year ago. NCsoft took a one-time write-off in development costs associated with its Spacetime Studios “Blackstar” project, which was cancelled. The North American region had sales of $8.5 million this quarter. Curiously, when NCsoft broke out its sales by game titles, Tabula Rasa, highly anticipated game developed by Richard Garriott, was not included.
Speaking of Spacetime, the Austin game development company says it is going to try and publish Blackstar again, after obtaining the intellectual property rights to the game from NCsoft. Co-founder Gary Gattis said earlier this week they are currently meeting with publishers to try and secure a new deal. They’ve been working on Blackstar since 2005. “It was our baby,” Gattis said in a phone interview. The terms of the IP rights were not disclosed but Gattis said NCsoft was “very reasonable.”
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May 7, 2008
Name that game! What should Aspyr call its SAT prep game?
I had a breakfast meeting today with Eric Duncan, the public relations manager for Austin game company Aspyr.
In between groaning about where to find games for Macs and sharing bits of gossip about Aspyr and other Austin game companies, I learned that Aspyr has teamed up with local advertising agency Door Number 3 on a new game that it’s developing on the Nintendo DS for Kaplan. It’s an SAT prep game. (Click here to read the Statesman story on it.)
They’ve asked Door Number 3 to help them come up with a name for the game. Something more, well, interesting than “SAT Prep Game.”
What do you say, readers, let’s help Aspyr and Door Number 3 brainstorm some names for their new game. Something catchy, something that will make 16-year-olds want to buy a learning game rather than, say, Grand Theft Auto.
Put your ideas for the name in the comments section below.
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April 25, 2008
What's happening at Retro Studios?
Several blogs are reporting a rumor I heard two days ago. Some of the top people at Austin’s Retro Studios, which makes games for Nintendo, were “escorted out of the building,” presumably laid off.
You can read more about the Retro news here.
The last time I wrote about Retro was in November 2006, when they were working on the third installment of “Metroid Prime.” At the time, the studio had about 50 employees.
There are lots of questions about what this means. Is Retro leaving Austin? Why were they asked to leave? Are they starting another studio?
I tried placing a call to the Retro offices to speak with their chief exeuctive, but the phone rang and rang, with no opportunity to leave a voice mail.
If you know more about this news, let me know in the comments section.
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January 14, 2008
NCsoft severs relationship with Austin's Spacetime Studios
NCsoft Corp., whose U.S. headquarters are in Austin, has canceled its plans to develop a massive mulitplayer game with another Austin company — Spacetime Studios.
This decision means South Korea-based NCsoft will no longer fund Spacetime’s project, called “Blackstar.” As a result, Spacetime has laid off 12 employees.
“Though not an easy decision, NCsoft believes the move is in the company’s best interest as we continue to assess the multiplayer game market and weigh the risks and rewards in that market with our current product portfolio,” NCsoft said in a written statement. The company included that it still has a “high regard” for the team at Spacetime and wishes it the “best of luck.”
The Statesman first reported on the Spacetime/NCsoft partnership in 2006. At the time, the deal heralded as one that could stoke the city’s growing video game industry.
NCsoft’s Jeremy Gaffney had said the deal was “a good combination of Austin talent and bringing in national-level and international-level” expertise.
Spacetime was started by four former Sony Online Entertainment Inc. employees.
On Spacetime’s Web site, the company said it had to lay off 12 employees, but remains committed to the IP, and that there are no bad feelings between them and NCsoft.
“Regardless of how you look at it, we won’t be entering production in the immediate future, so we are retrenching and unfortunately had to let 12 folks go,” the Web site says.
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December 18, 2007
Second Life development company lays off employees
A company that develops content for virtual world “Second Life” has laid off several employees, including Austinite Joel Greenberg, who was profiled in this Statesman story in April.
The Washington-based Electric Sheep Company, which develops content for virtual worlds such as Second Life, has laid off 22 employees, according to published reports.
Greenberg, the vice president of marketing innovation, was hired to develop an ad network for Second Life, a virtual society in which online role players act out alternate lives.
Greenberg had left his job as senior planner at Austin ad agency GSD&M in March to work at Electric Sheep, which helps corporations market their brand and products online. He worked out of his home, or used his laptop at coffee shops like Austin Java.
In April, Greenberg said he wanted to help Second Life residents to sell their own ad space, turning ordinary people into moneymaking publishers.
Some wonder whether Electric Sheep’s layoffs are indicative of a broader problems with Second Life. TechTurn addresses this in a recent post.
There are some indications that the heavily hyped “Second Life,” isn’t as popular among marketers as it was when it first debuted. Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and Toyota clamored to set up virtual lands in Second Life. Dell sells customized virtual computers or allows customers to jump to its Web site where they can buy a real computer. Toyota created “Scion City’” where it sells virtual Scions.
Companies saw the society as an opportunity at cheap publicity and a shot at wooing the hip, computer-savvy Millennial generation.
But now some companies have left Second Life and other sites remain empty. A July 2007 story in The Los Angeles Times reports that shopping for real world products on Second Life isn’t a “main activity.” And that “some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they’ve put into it.”
The L.A. Times reports that Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to a nonprofit. The article goes on to mention that many of the sites that remain on Second Life sit empty. Best Buy Co.’s Geek Squad Island was “devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.”
It also points out there might not be enough Second Life citizens to sustain this business model. Forrester Research says at peak times there are only 30,000 to 40,000 users logged on.
To read more about Electric Sheep, check out the company blog here.
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December 13, 2007
First game by Austin publishers hasn't done well
The first game put out by Austin publishers Gamecock Media Group isn’t doing very well.
Auran, the Australian developers of “Fury,” is closing up shop, GameSpot reported online. They are laying off all employees due to the lukewarm response to the game.
Gamecock CEO Mike Wilson confirmed this Thursday, saying the game “didn’t do well.”
Gamecock, which is a game publisher founded in Austin last year, promotes itself as a champion of independent game developers. Gamecock marketed and distributed Fury, but did not develop the game.
Wilson said Gamecock will likely recoup the entire investment it made in publishing Fury. “Would have loved for it to have been a hit, but all in all, not a tragedy from Gamecock’s point of view,” Wilson said.
But he added that Auran had much more at stake. “Those guys had everything invested in this game, and really gave it a great effort.”
Gamecock has released two games so far: the PC-based “Fury” and “Dementium” for the Nintendo DS. “Dementium” was created by Austin developers Renegade Kids. But the company has about 10 games in the pipeline, with seven to be released in 2008.
“We tried to get Auran to hold the game and release it in” January, Wilson said, saying the massively multiplayer online game wasn’t ready for prime time. It was released in October. But he said the company only handled the North American marketing and didn’t have much say on the release date.
Wilson said the head of Auran sent Gamecock a note Thursday morning explaining that the company was winding down, but that they have set up Fury as a separate busienss and will continue to support it.
“The game is actually pretty great now, but they’ve lost a lot of momentum from people who tried it earlier,” Wilson said. “We are lowering the reatil price to 20 bucks to keep it in the channel and alive, and hopefully people will get a chance to experience the finished game now.”
Wilson added that Dementium is doing “great.”
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November 27, 2007
Video game companies growing
The video and computer game industry grew by 17 percent in 2006, according to data released in a study by the Entertainment Software Association.
The study called “Video Games in the 21st Century: Economic Contributions of the U.S. Entertainment Software Industry,” says Texas game companies added $395 million in inflation-adjusted dollars to the state economy last year.
That’s up from the $337.5 million Texas contributed to the local economy in 2005.
The state also ranks third in terms of computer and video game personnel with more than 7,500 employees. That includes “direct” and “indirect” employees.
There are six publishers and 47 development companies in Texas, the report concludes.
It doesn’t say how many are in Austin, but a study commissioned by the city last year indicated that the industry employs 1,100 people in the Central Texas area.
The average compensation per employee in Texas is $91,879.
Texas has been trying to court this industry for the past year, including game companies in a $22 million incentive package it passed for the film and television industry earlier this year.
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October 31, 2007
Lord British visits Gamestop
Lord British, er, Richard Garriott will be at the Gamestop in the Arboretum on Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. signing copies of “Tabula Rasa,” his new massively multiplayer online game released in stores this week by South Korean-based NCsoft Corp.
The sci-fi game has been in development for over six years. It was largely created in Austin by a team that at its peak reached 150 people. It’s a departure for Garriott, who made his name under the “Ultima” franchise of computer games.
Fans have been eagerly awaiting this next chapter of MMOs from Garriott, which he has said will answer some of the chronic problems in other MMOs, including better storytelling, more intense action and allowing characters to clone.
For more information, stop by Gamestop on Friday and ask Garriott himself.
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October 5, 2007
Will he or won't he?
Rumors circulated today saying that legendary game developer Richard Garriott wouldn’t be going into space after all.
A story based on a Russian newspaper report said Garriott would not be traveling into space as a tourist because he was replaced by Vladimir Gruzdev, a member of the ruling United Russia Party and a wealthy businessman.
But Garriott himself weighed in via e-mail Friday: “That false rumor has circulated for some time. I reconfirmed with Russia just now to be sure.”
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October 4, 2007
NCsoft annouces it bought another studio
The North American headquarters of NCsoft Corp., which is based in Austin, has bought another game development studio called Carbine Studios.
The 17-person development team includes people who have worked on the enormously popular “World of Warcraft” franchise. It is based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., which is in Orange County. The team won’t say much about the massively multiplayer online game it is creating, saying only it will “break new ground,” but touts its experience working on other big titles — besides Warcraft, that includes “Fallout,” “City of Heroes” and “Asheron’s Call.”
Carbine will be only one of two outside development studios NCsoft owns. The other is ArenaNet in Seattle, which develops its “Guild Wars” franchise.
NCsoft spokesman Mike Crouch said the company actually bought Carbine two years ago, but is announcing it now because the studio is more established.
NCsoft is a publisher of online computer games that is based in South Korea. It’s North American headquarters is run by Richard and Robert Garriott, legendary names in the game publishing business. Their last Austin venture together, Origin Systems Inc., was sold to Electronic Arts for $35 million.
Like a major record label, NCsoft looks for outside development studios that actually make the games, equivalent to signing recording artists, to build its portfolio of games.
Some of the development work is done in Austin, and some is done in other cities. NCsoft is in charge of publishing and marketing these games.
In North America, NCsoft publishes “Lineage,” “Guild Wars,” “City of Heroes/City of Villains” and “Dungeon Runners.” One of its titles, “Auto Assault” was shut down in August due to low subscription rates.
Click here to see the full news release.
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September 21, 2007
The Lililax
It’s every Generation Y girl’s dream come true. I have a monster. Or rather, a monster that is named after me in a video game: The Lililax.
Touring Austin game company NCsoft Corp.’s offices last week, I stopped inside a darkened room filled with game designers hard at work fixing bugs and adding last-minute updates to NCsoft’s latest massively multiplayer online game “Tabula Rasa.” One such designer, Berenger Fish, was explaining his job to me, showing how he adds various creatures to the game, giving them what sounded to me like entirely arbitrary sounding names like “Cainyix.” Just add an “ax” or an “ix” at the end.
“Hey,” he said. “I can make one named after you.”
Intriguing. After all, the title character of Tabula Rasa is a bosomy virtual woman named Sarah Morrison, who was actually featured in Playboy magazine this month. She’s plastered all over marketing posters for the game, and she’s featured on the game box itself and on pretty much every marketing material ever made for “Tabula Rasa.”
Let’s see what Fish could do.
Fish started by using a software program to select a name. It seems this is left entirely up the designers. Another designer joked that creatures in the game are named after friends and families and the entire Chicago Bears football team.
He then scrolled down a massive list of various attributes to select the size, shape and color of the creature. Want it to be three times bigger than everyone else? Why not! What’s your favorite color? Blue. What weapons should it have? Let’s give it this fierce-looking gray laser gun and plop it on Level 34. Sweet.
When it was born on to the game 10 minutes later, Lililax was a huge, slobbery beast, lumbering along at about five miles an hour.
I learned later she was a “boss” creature that can be found patrolling the hills of Valverde Pools on the planet Foreas. Whatever that means. The Lililax apparently is a much larger and more powerful version of the Thrax Rifle Soldier and “should only be engaged by a group of players that are at least level 34.”
But while I was there, Fish took pleasure in gunning it down with one of his own virtual characters, swiftly off my Lililax, where she died a slow, defenseless death.
The lililax.
OK, so she was no Sarah Morrison. But she was my Lililax.
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September 5, 2007
Video Game Archive Fundraiser
Last night, game developer Richard Garriott held a fundraiser at his lakefront property for UT’s video game archive. The university is one of the first in the country to establish an official archive of the earliest days of this burgeoning entertainment field.
The Austin game industry has come out strong in support of this venture, donating hundreds of items. Garriott, game developer Warren Spector and game sound man George Sanger have all pledged to donate most of their collections from their history in the game business, everything from the first games they ever programmed to old PC gaming magazines.
More than 100 people Tuesday night arrived at Garriott’s estate, where he is building a second home, braving intermittent rain to bid on silent auction items, munch on free food and play old-school arcade games like “Donkey Kong.”
Tickets to the event ranged from $75 to $2,000. Guests included game developers Spector and Garriott, Sanger, also known as “The Fat Man,” and even State Rep. Dianne Delisi, R-Temple. Texas Film Commission game guru Katy Daiger hobnobbed, as did Starr Long, the producer of the long-awaited new game from Garriott called “Tabula Rasa.” Don Carleton, the director of the Center for American History was granting press interviews, and the head of the university’s computer science department was seen perusing the silent auction table.
All in all, it looked like a success.
Here are some photos from the event.
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September 4, 2007
World of Warcraft's Mike Morhaine Talks
Mike Morhaime may not be a huge name, but his game sure is. “World of Warcraft” is the biggest massively multiplayer game in the world, with 9 million registered users.
It’s incredibly popular with its devoted players logging in hours a night to play the game. Its unique business model with players paying $20 to buy the game, or $40 for the recent game expansion, and a $15 monthly subscription fee, has game companies clamoring to mimic its success.
Austin, especially, is known as a hotspot for companies trying to develop massively multiplayer games that can top the success of “World of Warcraft.” So, far, none have.
Morhaime, the president of Blizzard Entertainment, is delivering a keynote address at the Austin Game Developers Conference Sept. 5 through 7.
He’ll also stop by Blizzard’s new offices in Austin, where a 400-person customer service call center just opened.
We spoke to him about his first visit to Austin, any advice he has for game developers, and how he got into gaming.
Have you come to Austin before? And why are you coming to the Austin Game Conference? No, but I’ve been to Dallas. The short answer is I’m coming because they asked me nicely multiple times. They don’t take no for an answer.
Does this coincide purposefully with the opening of Blizzard’s customer service center in Austin? It doesn’t. We have already opened the office. So this will be my first time to visit the office. It really isn’t to that, but it is convenient for me because I can two things at once.
How does Blizzard plan on keeping its content fresh and innovative? We do have regular content updates that we will be doing as well as additional expansions. We just announced our next expansion “Wrath of the Lich King.” We also have a pretty important free content update. We are actually adding voice chat in world of Warcraft. So you can talk with your party members. The testing is going really well.
But the other thing I’d like to say is a lot of us at Blizzard love World of Warcraft and play World of Warcraft we’re eager to keep it exciting and fresh.
Why do you think World of Warcraft was so successful and other MMOs have failed? I think there are probably a few reasons for that. I think for one, we had a pretty loyal following of Warcraft players that were familiar with our universe and really liked it. So when we came out with WOW there were a lot of people out there that played our past games and played Warcraft and gave it a chance, even they hadn’t previously played this style of game before.
We really tried to make the game have a very shallow learning curve. A lot of the games before World of Warcraft targeted the hardcore player. Our philosophy was this style wasn’t a mass-market game, that your audience was really limited to the hardcore. It only catered to the hardcore players. We try to build our games under the easy to learn, but difficult to master philosophy. We try to make it so anybody, even if they aren’t that familiar with online role-playing games, that it is pretty easy to sit down and within a short period, figure out what the payoff is.
I think a combination of those things, and then of course once people try the game and understand it, that they do enjoy playing it. Our development team really did a fantastic job.
Do you have a certain character you like to play? I have a night owl hunter.
What other games is Blizzard working on besides World of Warcraft? We are working on a sequel to Starcraft, Starcraft II. We’re really excited about that. We just announced that in Korea at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in May. We are really excited to return to the Starcraft Universe and do a sequel; we’ve been wanting to do that for quite a long time now. Design Starcraft II in keeping the spirit of the original game, but taking advantage of a lot of innovation in real-time strategy genre.
What sort of advice would you give to beginning MMO developers? That’s a tough one. An MMO is probably the largest and most complicated type of game you can make right now. I wouldn’t enter into that lightly.
If you are going to do it, I think you have to do it with your eyes open and understand all of the different elements that go into making a fun, compelling MMO. An MMO is kind of, it’s kind of a marriage. A commitment. You have to, you have to be prepared to support the game after you lease it both with content and customer service.
Do you think customer service and content is something companies are failing to consider? I don’t know if they fail at it or not. They don’t fully comprehend what that means until you go and try to do it.
Tell me a little about what an average day is like for you.
My days are different depending on the day. I’m in a lot of meetings. I would say e-mail and meetings. I talk with a lot of people. I do a lot of traveling. Most of the time I am in California and we have offices in multiple countries now. An office in France, Korea, an office in China. An office in Taiwan. And we just set up an office in Austin.
How involved are you in the game design? I don’t get really involved in the low-level game design decisions, just high-level design decisions. Should we do in-game voice chat? Should we charge for that? Should we do it as a free feature?
You started Blizzard in 1991. What were you doing before that? Immediately before that I was at Western Digital. I was testing software for network cards. Right before that I was in school at UCLA in electrical engineering.
Were you a big gamer at the time? I have to say, I spent most of my time studying. We were playing a lot of Tetris, Air hockey at the arcade, and there were various computer games, I probably logged of my time on Tetris.
So where did the idea to form Blizzard come about? It was really my friend’s idea. I became friends with a guy, Allen Adham at UCLA. We became really good friends and he recruited myself another UCLA student Frank Pearce and convinced us to join him in a computer game start-up.
It was completely his idea.
What was it like in those early days? Well it was a lot smaller. When we opened the door and there were three of us. We had an 800 square foot office in Irvine. We started out doing conversions for larger, more established companies like Interplay. We’d take one of their games and convert it over from the PC and Macintosh. The year we founded the company, 1991, was the same year super Nintendo came out in the Untied States. We developed a racing game for the super Nintendo. That’s how we got started. We did a lot of other conversions and also started designing our own console games.
That’s really how we learned how to make games. Learning from other companies and how they learned game design.
When did you start working on World of Warcraft? We started development of World of Warcraft after we released the expansion of Starcraft 1999. We always thought of it as an MMO. One idea was to actually have a free MMO and have single-player component.
We realized that to be competitive meant providing a really high quality level of service and continuing to evolve the game world. Have all of those resources stay on the game after you launch I, and you have a revenue stream coming in to support that. We knew that if we went to a more free model we wouldn’t be able to afford those kinds of resources.
Were you prepared for the success of World of Warcraft? Once you go to 24/7 staff in multiple regions and you have to support a couple thousand employees you have to be prepared to grow that quickly and we weren’t. We scaled up the whole business. We staffed up, we hired some experienced managers, some experienced human resources people. I think we’ve got a fantastic team now. If we had to go back and do it over again, I would have that management infrastructure in place prior to releasing World of Warcraft.
I was surprised by how quickly it took off. I think we all knew we had something very special but I don’t think any of us expected the quick or just how rapid it was that people went out and bought the game.
What is your biggest challenge now? I’d say our biggest challenge is to continue to try to meet and exceed the expectations that our players have of us and that we have of our ourselves.
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July 13, 2007
Disney Interactive buys Austin gaming studio
A news release from Disney Interactove
BURBANK, Calif. - Disney Interactive Studios announced that it has acquired Austin, Texas-based Junction Point Studios, a video game development studio led by industry luminary Warren Spector. Junction Point Studios will create new video game franchises and will also bring some of Disney’s most beloved franchises to next generation gaming platforms. The studio is currently working on a yet to be announced next-generation development project.
“Warren Spector’s unique talents as a leading creative force in the world of video games, his knowledge and passion for Disney, and his legacy of story telling and character development adds a unique creative dimension to our portfolio,” said Graham Hopper, general manager and executive vice president, Disney Interactive Studios. “Our shared visions on creativity, innovation and storytelling will allow us to touch individual players in ways never before possible.”
A lifelong Disney fan, Spector recognizes the opportunity to overlay Disney content and resources on top of exceptional game design to create unique experiences for players. Junction Point Studios’ creative team brings to Disney a powerhouse of gaming talent.
“I believe that the creative talents of our two companies and our shared ambition to bring distinctive, compelling experiences to gamers make this an ideal alliance,” said Warren Spector, president, Junction Point Studios. “We look forward to bringing exciting, innovative and entertaining new experiences to gamers and Disney fans alike.”
Junction Point has become the fifth studio in Disney Interactive Studios’ growing portfolio of development creative centers of excellence. As a talent hub for video game development, Austin adds another region to Disney’s internal development studio growth strategy.
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November 20, 2006
FBI closes down computer game operation
A news release from NCSoft Inc. in Austin
FBI Agents working in conjunction with officials from NCsoft’s® North American business successfully closed down a computer game operation alleged to be reaping profits by providing a fraudulent service to its players. The operation was closed down after multiple raids and interviews were conducted in various cities from California to Virginia.
Federal search warrants were served on owners of L2Extreme who were also questioned during the raid. L2Extreme was providing its users with unauthorized service and code for NCsoft’s online computer game, Lineage® II. The warrants enabled officials to halt L2Extreme’s operations while collecting further evidence in the course of the investigation.
The FBI estimates L2Extreme has up to 50,000 active users on its service. NCsoft estimates that monetary losses and damages from the operation are costing NCsoft millions of dollars per year.
L2Extreme advertised on its website, www.l2extreme.com, that more than half million registered users had subscribed to play.
“Operations like this essentially are defrauding customers by stealing from companies like NCsoft,” said Matt Esber, NCsoft North America general counsel. “In the end those losses impact our customer support, product development, operational areas and ultimately they impact our player communities, most of which are trying to play games legitimately. This group in particular was downloading our version of the Lineage II software from our servers, costing us close to a million dollars in realized bandwidth costs during the period it was operational.
“We’ve taken this action because we strongly believe in defending the intellectual property rights that we’ve worked so hard to create. We’re extremely pleased that the FBI has worked with us so diligently to bring this particular case to its current state and we want our customers to understand that we will continue to fight similar operations in the future in order to maintain the integrity of all NCsoft games.”
The investigation into the L2Extreme operation is ongoing.
