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Avatar movie producer interested in Avatar MMO
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Avatar_movie_producer_interested_in_Avatar_MMO'; It probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise. James Cameron's Avatar caught the attention of gamers from the moment the first trailer was released. Its appearance alone was extremely familiar to anyone who's spent more than a few minutes in any number of fantasy MMOs, and the movie's plot centered around what could be called the most immersive MMO ever. The movie has already been turned into a single player game, and now our friends at G4TV report that Producer Jon Landau says he's "very interested" in the creation of an Avatar MMO. Before you groan in despair, hear him out. The focus doesn't seem to be on shoving something out the door right away while the money machine is still running at full speed: "it's something we'd want to do, would be very interested in doing, but we'd have to do it right. To create those worlds is sometimes a long time endeavor." Landau continues by exploring the concept of 3-D gaming -- a feature that would be almost a given in an Avatar MMO: "I think that the addition of 3-D in gaming tends to be more transformative than 3-D is to movies. [...] I think we're starting to see the start of 3-D becoming commonplace in gaming." Follow along after the jump to see the full video of Landau's talk with G4TV.
Avatar sets Blu-ray sales record, sells 2.7 million in four days
Unsurprisingly, Avatar has done extremely well during its home video run. In fact, James Cameron's movie has claimed the honor of best-selling Blu-ray movie ever, beating the previous title-holder, The Dark Knight. According to a report by Variety, 2.7 million Blu-ray discs were sold in the four days since its retail release in the US. (In comparison, The Dark Knight took 18 months to sell 2.5 million discs.) Perhaps a testament to the growing demand for Blu-ray content, Blu-ray accounted for 40% of total home video sales for Avatar in the four-day window. That's a significant increase from the 25% market share The Dark Knight claimed over a year ago. Avatar will most likely represent yet another sales benchmark when it is re-released on 3D Blu-ray next year. Thankfully, PS3-owning movie fans are already equipped with one of the few Blu-ray players on the market that will be capable of playing that disc.
The Sea Monkey experience of avatars
So, as you may recall last week Linden Lab responded about what appeared to be Second Life advertisements that capitalized on the recently-released James Cameron film, Avatar. Linden Lab implied (though didn't actually state plainly) that the advertisements were not intended to cause confusion between Second Life and Avatar. Since about Christmas (just after previews showing the blue-skinned Na'vi began to become available to the general public) IMVU started running some blue-skinned ads of its own. It was when we saw the blue-avatared IMVU advertisement that sprung up during the same period that we inevitably started thinking about Sea Monkeys. There's more similarities going on here than just the visible, so let's rummage around and see if we can't find one of the old advertisements in our files.
Avatars blue, Second Life concurrency and transactions rise
The Second Life user-concurrency and user-to-user transaction figures took a bit of an unexpected jump this week, rising sharply after a year of relatively little motion. Through 2009, user-concurrency has been on a slight, though not terribly significant decline, while user-to-user transactions remained flat and rather unexciting. The sudden rise coincided with an advertising campaign by Linden Lab, where James Cameron's Avatar and Second Life were rather strongly linked in a series of banner advertisements run on YouTube and as a part of Linden Lab's affiliate program.
Cameron entertaining possibility of doing more games with Ubisoft
Though it sounds intriguing and exciting on the outside, there's something about the X-Play interview with James Cameron we put after the break that kind of bums us out. The director recently told the show, "I've got a lot of stories and I don't have time to make them all as movies. That's something I'm exploring with Ubisoft, to see if there's maybe a relationship around just getting some of these story and world ideas into games." It's good news if you're a fan of Ubisoft or Cameron, but bad news if you're not a fan of watching a man entering his twilight years, fully aware that his own mortality may keep him from sharing all the stories he wants to with mankind. That's kind of a total bummer. Look for James Cameron's Grim Realization and Acceptance of the Inevitability of His Own Death coming to PS3 and 360 in 2011.
Avatar uses smoking as a metaphor for (online) gaming obsession
For all of you who saw Avatar (and we're pretty sure that's a lot of you) we imagine the analogy between James Cameron's sci-fi techno masterpiece and our beloved genre of gaming didn't fully escape many of you. So, when anti-smoking outfits began to boil over about Sigourney Weaver's character lighting up after "logging off" from her big blue cat woman for the evening, Cameron took to the defense. According to the mastermind behind Avatar, the character of Grace was never meant to be a role model. "We were showing that Grace doesn't care about her human body, only her avatar body." Cameron continued by saying her destructive behavior "is a negative comment about people in our real world living too much in their avatars, meaning online and in video games." The message is clear, although not too overbearing. We love our online games, there's no doubt about that, but getting the occasional exercise routine or two in doesn't hurt, either. It's all very interesting given the ending to Avatar, which we won't spoil for those of you who somehow haven't yet seen it. Still, regardless of whatever "anti" sentiment you think Cameron was sending, there's no doubt plenty more MMO metaphor to be found within Avatar -- a movie ostensibly about a real life fantasy world and avatars to play within it. [via Wired]
Avatar: Why does this movie look so familiar?
If you're one of the few people who has not heard the buzz about Avatar yet, we'll catch you up by saying that the film's beauty is all anyone can talk about. MMO players discussing the movie will follow that observation up almost immediately with "...and did you notice how much it looks like [insert game of choice here]?" Quite a few comparisons have been drawn, with World of Warcraft and Guild Wars being the two most frequently mentioned. Film and music review site In Review Online was quick to point out that James Cameron is a big fan of WoW, and Guild Wars fans noticed the similarities as soon as trailers showed up way back in August. So James Cameron is stealing all of his ideas from MMOs, right? Of course not. Magically floating rocks, mountains in the distance, and lush, green landscaping have been a part of the fantasy genre for some time now, and anyone involved in a creative process is bound to be influenced by the things encountered in daily life. While (we hope) nobody seriously thinks that Cameron looked at a game load screen and said "Yeah, I'll use that," there is certainly a strong influence there. Whether he was influenced by games or everyone has the same general underlying theme of a fantasy world is anyone's guess. In the end, we'll just enjoy the movie and its strange sense of familiarity.
Metareview: James Cameron's Avatar
Here's a dreary, uncomfortably true comment about the state of movie-licensed games: When we saw the average that James Cameron's Avatar currently sports on Metacritic, our first thought was, "Wow, a 65, not bad!" Here's how it was sized up by a few outlets: VideoGamer (70/100): "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is easily one of the best movie licensed games I've ever played, but at the same time it's not good enough to stand alone as a must-own title. While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired - and there's little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises." IGN (68/100): "There's nothing disastrous here, and the RDA shooter side of things performs well enough to be occasionally enjoyable. The quest design, including both the main and side tasks, is about as generic as they come. Go here, collect this, plant these bombs, or kill this and then return to me." Game Informer (65/100): "These shortcomings are a shame considering the game's interesting gameplay twists. Avatar features a solid RPG element that unlocks new armor and upgraded weapons at a steady pace. Players also unlock new skills (i.e. buffs) that help spice up combat a little, but can't overcome the gameplay imbalances." GameSpot (55/100): "It's not a bad game, and portions of it are competent, if not quite remarkable. But Avatar wears thin quickly, and the story is too fragile to compensate for the deficiencies.
Avatar's third dev diary is all about choices
Okay, okay – we'll admit that the transparent dry erase board thing is a bit on the "too much" side of things, but Avatar's third dev diary contains enough interesting information about the game in it otherwise that we feel okay forgiving the clip's director. The emphasis here is on the game's many choices, and, more specifically, the one major choice which mirrors the movie's plot. Will you choose the path of the human and murder a tall blue alien ... thing, or stand up for all that is righteous and good in the world? The choice is yours (you monster!). %Gallery-70590%
Avatar gameplay trailer shows off blue guy's athleticism
We finally understand why James Cameron spoke for nine-and-a-half hours about his upcoming film/game, Avatar, during Ubisoft's E3 press conference earlier this year. Without the context provided during his lengthy diatribe, we'd have absolutely no idea what was going on in the above gameplay trailer for his long overdue film's video game adaptation. However, now we understand perfectly: A blue alien guy is murdering humans with primitive weapons. Now wait just a second. Let's forget the fact that when one brings a knife (or in this case, a long, spiked club) to a gun fight, one rarely claims victory. Instead, let's focus on the fact that Mr. Cameron wants us to root against humanity. "Oh, but they're polluting their planet," you might cry. No, they're doing their job. That's a thing humans have to do from time to time. They don't have the freedom to skip around lush jungles all day, riding around on pterodactyls. They have responsibilities, and we're not really comfortable with playing as the turquoise-toned authors of their eradication for that reason alone.
James Cameron's Avatar launches for everything Dec. 1
Ubisoft's website lists James Cameron's Avatar as launching across all platforms -- Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS, Wii, PSP, Wifi-enabled Toilets and Toasters that also cook hot dogs -- for December 1. As we're often skeptical with what we read on the Internet, we decided to find out if the listing was accurate. According to Ubisoft, the game will indeed launch in North America on December 1. The date thrusts gamers into the Avatar universe more than two weeks before the film hits theaters on December 16. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players -- with the proper set up -- will also be able to experience the game in 3D. Whether or not James Cameron will record what seems like an hours-long video introduction outlining every detail of the game and movie experience to accompany the launch is unclear. %Gallery-70590%
Avatar: The Game: The Developer Diary
Ubisoft has released the first of its developer diaries for Avatar: The Game. This video mainly covers the Avatar universe and how the game will be directly related to the film. Avatar: The Game is not your typical licensed game -- at least in respect to its story, by being officially recognized as canon in a larger universe.Those of you looking to see some gameplay will notice some snippets above, though the video is mainly developers and Cameron talking about the game. Don't worry, though: Cameron doesn't pull another Cameron.
James Cameron's Avatar gets PSP incarnation with PS3 connectivity
Not much is known about the upcoming PSP version of Avatar: The Game. Heck, we didn't even know it existed until just now. According to PlayStation: The Official Magazine (via IGN), the handheld game has you taking up arms as the film's blue-skinned Na'vi aliens after their village is destroyed by the human RDA force. Based on the plot similarities, it's likely that the PSP game is based on the Wii version and not the PS3/360 game.Like Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, the two PlayStation Avatar games will be able to communicate with each other. One feature revealed so far is the ability to transfer "Effort Points" from the PSP game to the PS3. That's not immediately exciting stuff, but we're hoping that more interesting connectivity features will be revealed at a later stage.
Avatar's first gameplay trailer unsurprisingly full of blue people
We imagine you're just as excited for James Cameron's upcoming film, Avatar, as we are. How can you go wrong with blue people, right? The game's first trailer though -- it unfortunately lives up to our expectations for games based on licensed properties, including cheesy rock music right on cue at the one minute mark. We're hoping a demo lands before the game's planned December release window.As pointed out in our hands-on with the game, the visuals certainly do pop with color, but the action itself seems to lean toward the generic side of things. That being said, we hear the blue giants are playable in the game. That's something different, right? Right?!... where are you going?
Impressions: James Cameron's Avatar
Today being "Avatar Day" (what, didn't your calendar tell you?), we figured it's the perfect time to fill you in on what we've seen of the gaming side of James Cameron's much-talked-about mega-project, James Cameron's Avatar. The Game, as it's subtitled, is split into two distinct products on consoles. (Additionally, there will be portable versions for DS and PSP.) The games aren't typical movie-license rehashes and tell their own stories, separate in plot from the movie, in turn contributing unique elements to the Avatar universe.Ubisoft likens Avatar to Harry Potter, "an incredible entertainment phenomenon." Understandably, you might not have made the same connection, but then, the marketing push is only now beginning to rev up (did you catch the movie trailer yet?). Excuse us then, if we prematurely deflate some air out of the tires: Xbox 360(PS3/PC) Wii Jump to a platform-specific preview above or read both after the break.
Ubisoft sees Avatar as 'world-changing,' compares to Harry Potter
Having left EA and joined Ubisoft, Murray Pannell is finally getting out and about to promote Ubisoft's upcoming titles. One of its biggest is the tie-in to James Cameron's upcoming movie, Avatar. Pannell recently spoke about the IP to MCV, commenting, "Avatar looks set to be a world-changing kind of cinema given its pedigree and elements like the 3D." Pannell also compared work on the game to his time spent working on the first Harry Potter game for EA, which he described as "an incredible entertainment phenomenon." Obviously, Ubisoft hopes to attain the same success with Avatar as EA did with the Harry Potter games, which have become a staple for the games giant. If that's going to happen, we have one suggestion: don't give James Cameron any monologues.
'Avatar' game requires HDMI for 3D effects
Avatar, the upcoming Ubisoft title based on the film James Cameron could not stop talking about during E3 2009 will require an HDMI port for 3D effects, leaving early Xbox 360 owners out in the cold. Luc Duchaine, senior international brand manager for the game adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar confirmed to MTV Multiplayer that a full 1080p setup will be required to play the game with 3D effects. Although all Xbox 360 consoles are now capable of upscaling content to resolutions as high as 1080p, the Avatar game requires a native 1080p output which is only achievable through HDMI (something that is common knowledge for 3D geeks, we're told). Users with an HDMI equipped console now only need a pair of 3D glasses included with the game and a compatible 3D 1080p, 120Hz TV set! If 3D isn't an option, the game is still playable the old-fashioned way; however, the 40-minute introduction video starring James Cameron explaining the entire Avatar universe that we expect to see when the game inserted into our console will be slightly less awesome. %Gallery-64755%
Avalook at James Cameron's Avatar
Acclaimed -- and quite verbose -- director James Cameron today revealed the full extent of Ubisoft's involvement in the creation of his latest film, Avatar. In what's possibly a further sign of synergy between Cameron and Ubisoft, the very first glimpse of what Avatar actually looks like comes in the form of three images ... from the video game. We thought the shot of winged beasts attacking the human gunship looked a little ... Halo; then we saw the Warthog Jeep-like vehicle with a soldier behind the wheel and -- well, have a look yourself at the gallery below.%Gallery-64755%
