VESTI iz industrije igara

IDG World Expo today announced the official name of its newest event: "Entertainment for All(™) Expo" (E for All(™) Expo), scheduled for October 18-20, 2007, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The name replaces "GamePro Expo" - a placeholder while the company held a naming contest. More than 3000 entries were submitted on popular video game site GamePro.com. The winning entry was proposed by California resident Dante Padre.

Young professional gamers grossing six-figure salaries

JUPITER, Fla. - Tom Taylor is anything but a computer geek.

Yeah, he spends hours a day behind a screen obliterating little green men or "master chiefs," but this self-professed ladies man has made more than $450,000 "fragging" sinister agents since becoming a professional video gamer in 2004.

In August, Stuff magazine featured him on "The Power List: the Top 20 under 30" alongside LeBron James, Ashton Kutcher and other celebs. He was on a 7-week reality series on USA Network, and also competing for a $100,000 purse at the world championships in Las Vegas.

Taylor, or "Tsquared," is a far cry from the stereotyped computer nerd trapped in his parent's basement. He's one of a handful of teens who have made their own fortunes in the $7 billion a year industry in the U.S. - a sales figure that's almost doubled since 1996, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Thanks to the Internet, a handful of magazines, a cable network devoted to gaming and corporate-sponsored tournaments attended by tens of thousands, the video game industry has cemented its place in pop culture. And by promoting the best gamers as professionals, the industry helps push its product - much the same way the visibility of pro golfers sells clubs and balls.

The financial rewards of video games are immense. For example, Halo 2 grossed $125 million during the first 24 hours of its release, according to Microsoft sales statistics. At a retail cost of $29.99, that's more than 4 million units sold.

"The folks that grew up with games are now getting older, and having kids who are growing up in an environment where it's a preferred entertainment choice," said John Davison senior vice president of 1UP Network, a multimedia network for gamers. "Culturally it will have an impact across the board with expectations from entertainment and pop culture, and potentially beyond, too."

In South Korea, where the industry has boomed for years, the pro video gamers are celebrities mobbed by screaming fans at contests.

A similar movement is sweeping the U.S., and a handful of emerging pros enjoy rock star treatment, with world tours and six-figure paychecks.

Like poker and skateboarding, some say gaming is the next big sport - or cybersport.

Major League Gaming or MLG recently signed five players to some of the biggest professional contracts ever awarded gamers, including one four-person team to a $1 million, three-year contract. Taylor, 19, signed a $250,000, three-year deal in 2006.

After practicing three hours a night, Taylor runs 3 to 5 miles a day and lifts weights, which he said clears his head and boosts his focus.

Once you get past his typical teen bedroom - with a belly baring Britney Spears poster and rap music pumping in the background - it's easy to see he's serious about his craft. Three flat screen TVs with Xboxes line the walls. On the floor is a stack of "playback footage," more than 40 hours of "game tape" he watches at night.

"I record what I do so I can watch it later, just like football tapes," said Taylor, who launched a video game tutoring business last year and counts NBA stars like Richard Jefferson among the clients. He charges $65 an hour.

Like every professional sport, there's always a prodigy. In video games, it's 8-year-old Victor De Leon III.

He doesn't travel with an entourage and prefers playing with his dwarf hamster, Cortana, and watching Star Wars.

But put him in a Halo 2 tournament and "Lil Poison," as he's known, is venomous. His father, also named Victor De Leon, said the gaming whiz already has earned enough money to buy a luxury car and pay for his college tuition.

Throngs of fans surround the Long Island, N.Y., resident at tournaments. He's signed a sponsorship with 1UP Network, has a product line that came out in December and a clothing line debuting this year.

By the age of 4, De Leon was placing in local tournaments. His father, a video game junkie who taught Lil Poison to play at age 2, has watched the industry morph.

"I'm trying to go to the pro circuit like MLG," Lil Poison said shyly.

Though men dominate the pro ranks, the industry attracts plenty of women.

Pro gamer Bonnie Burton said she plays for the social scene.

"Its not only about competing, it's also about all the friends you have. Tsquared and I have grown up together through the gaming community," the 15-year old Burton from Carlisle, Pa., said.

Considered one of the fiercest players in the league, 17-year-old Chris Smith or "Shockwave" said shows like the one debuting on USA prove the industry has gone mainstream.

"I do feel like we are the face of the industry," said Smith, who lives in Philadelphia. "I feel real proud of myself that I can be a part of something growing as fast as pro gaming."


Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 010707

XNA Magic is the first all-in-one game development system designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the brand new Microsoft XNA platform.

Providing an extensible game engine, level editor, particle system design surface, logic editor, script editor and a great deal more, XNA Magic is designed to be both complete and easy to use.

Ever wonder why Microsoft hasn't released an HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, or whether the AV port was really capable of digital out? Well, here's your answer: we landed pictures of what appears to be the second Xbox 360 -- the Xbox 360 v2, if you will -- codenamed Zephyr. (The original Xbox 360, if you recall, was codenamed Xenon.) The long rumored about and awaited update to the console won't just feature a new, cooler 65nm processor, it's also finally added an HDMI port for full digital 1080p pleasure, as well as a 120GB drive, just what the doctor ordered. The 120GB drive may or may not come bundled with the kit, we don't yet know, just as we also don't yet know how much a Zephyr 360 is going to run (we imagine it'll go for the same price as currently so they can keep up a little on their expanding margin). But our very kind Xbox insider seemed happy to let us know we'd be able to get them "soon."

Call Of Duty: Finest Hour - The Contract
The following article reprints the entire development contract for Spark's November 2004-released console game Call Of Duty: Finest Hour, which debuted for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube following Infinity Ward's first Call Of Duty for PC. We have asked three leading game attorneys - Tom Buscaglia, Chris Bennett, and Dave Spratley - to comment on the entire document, which even includes milestone payment specifics, and was released to the public as part of a legal battle between Spark and Activision.

China's Online Games Industry Sees 74 Percent Yearly Growth

According to a new report, the online games industry in China has recorded massive growth in 2006, with revenues up 73.5 percent over 2005 to a total of 6.54 billion Yuan ($839 million), 65 percent of which came from domestically developed games.

Apart from the 4.24 billion Yuan ($544 mil) brought in by domestically developed games, $20 million in revenues was recorded for Chinese games exported overseas in 2006. Casual games were also reportedly responsible for 18.8 percent of the yearly growth, with a total revenue of 1.23 billion Yuan ($158 mil).

GS: Japan and North America have traditionally been identified as the powerhouses of game development. What are your thoughts on the state of European game development, specifically in Eastern Europe?

BT: Europeans--Eastern and Western--acutely suffer from quasi-intellectualism. It seems we just cannot grasp the concept of entertainment. We keep getting bogged down with weird games about micromanaging a hotel chain, or setting a gun on a tank for 10 minutes and then eventually shooting once. It's a tremendous handicap that we'll have to get rid of as soon as possible if we want to compete with North American and Japanese developers. It seems European designers are creating games for themselves, not for the playing public. I guess it's the egocentrism of Europeans--that's why we have 10 different types of wall sockets.

Zootfly Shows Off New XBLA Game

Zootfly Shows Off New XBLA Game Well my fellow gamers, we’ve all been had. Remember earlier this week when we all got really excited about the sweet videos for the new Ghostbusters game? Well now that game has been put on the shelf pending licensing disputes and Zootfly (re: the game’s developer) is saying “Hey but look at all of our other games! We’re the guys doing Ghostbusters!”

In a move of what can only be described as sheer marketing genius, Zootfly has turned itself from unproven into elite developer. It’s time to face facts. Ghostbusters was probably stalled long before they released the videos. They were only used to get the Zootfly name into your cranium. See, if they released screens for their new game TimeO, or their XBLA game Toy Wars before this whole Ghostbusters thing, nobody would have given a crap.

This isn’t to say I don’t like what I see from Zootfly, the Ghostbusters game looked promising and TimeO looks to have some decent inspiration/ingenuity, not to mention the newly announced Toy Wars seems like it shows off the lighter side of the little yellow hat that is Zootfly.

Since we’re slaves to the emerging media, whether it dupes us into covering their stories or not. We here at Cinemablend will be on the front lines for all emerging stories about these games, so stay tuned as more information makes its way down the grapevine.

Concern at rush to study for degrees in computer games

AMAZED at the rush of enrolments for new degrees in computer games, Queensland academics are "terrified" that some students believe they will spend three years finessing their PlayStation skills.
The Queensland University of Technology's Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment has been so popular with school leavers that the head of the campus's IT faculty fears students have been misled by a catchy course title.

"One of our terrible fears is that we're going to have this cohort of students who imagine that they're going to be allowed to play games 50 hours a week for three years and then be handed a degree," the dean of information technology, Simon Kaplan, said.

"This is something that terrifies us because computer games at university is no more about playing computer games than aeronautics is about flying fighter jets."

Although students will learn the technical and creative aspects of design, animation and software development, QUT's decision to market the course via computing magazines and FM radio has resulted in a flood of interest, with some of the state's top students applying. School leaver Douglas Cook passed up a chance to study law and medicine to sign up for the games degree. "I could have possibly been a doctor or lawyer (but) I just wanted to do something with my life that I would enjoy for a long time," the 17-year-old said after winning a scholarship into the course.

"I've always loved playing games and I just thought the next best step was to be making them for a living. I would prefer to create them myself."

Professor Kaplan said there was a risk that student interest would decline once classes began.

"We are very concerned that a lot of the kids have signed up with the complete misapprehension and that we're going to suddenly find ourselves with a huge attrition rate," he said. "It's our hope of course that students are intelligent consumers. An ad is intended ... to pique someone's interest and we hope that they do something between hearing the ad and signing up at the tertiary admissions centre."

More than 700 people applied for the 163 places on the QUT degree, which added to a growing list of computer games courses on offer from universities including Bond, Southern Queensland, Charles Sturt and Swinburne, which this year recorded its highest growth in first preferences for a BA in games and interactivity, increasing by 128 per cent.

The universities take advantage of Australia's $110 million interactive entertainment industry. "The two hubs for games development in Australia are Melbourne and southeast Queensland," QUT's director of undergraduate studies in IT Ruth Christie said.

Companies have gone from employing five staff five years ago to employing up to 70 or 80 people, she said.

Professor Kaplan expected more universities to cater to the demands of the games industry. "They're not looking for an average programmer," he said. "They're looking for the superstar designers and animators."

Beaumont's marketing prowess has already pushed Lost Planet to near-blockbuster status: Capcom shipped 1 million copies before the game went on sale Jan. 12. A game that sells 3 million units globally is generally considered a smash hit. Capcom has spent $20 million developing the game and will spend another $20 million promoting it. In the past that ratio tilted heavily toward development. Lost Planet anchors Capcom's quest to capture share in North America and Europe, which account for 80% of the world's $16.3 billion game market.

Unseen 64 is just a simple archive where to have a collection of screenshots for beta & unreleased videogames, like a little online-photo album, nothing really special. We decided to make this site just in case there where others fans of beta videogames, like us.

Istorija Commodore 64 igara

Uskoro će se u prodaji naći knjiga “The Commodore 64 Games Book 1982-199x” u izdanju izdavačke kuće Hiive Books. Knjiga će pokriti preko 200 igara za najprodavaniji kućni računara 80-tih, sa zanimljivostima vezanim za igre, programere i kompanije. Svaki opis igre biće propaćen screenshotovim i ilustrovan slikom pakovanja. Knjiga će biti podeljena na sekciji po godinama od 1982. do 1992., sa posebnim osvrtom na sadašnjost ovog kultnog računara. Više detalja na http://c64goldenyears.com/ a ako vas zanima istorija ZX Spectruma posetite sajt http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/.