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Toy Story 3: The Video Game: The Developer Diary
You probably don't want to write off Toy Story 3 just because it's a licensed title. We actually had a lot of fun with it and the latest dev diary above shows that Disney and Avalanche are committed to putting out a quality product. It's not simply a slapped together title attempting to cash in on the movie. There's an actual deep experience here, from the promising platforming shown in the video above, down to the unique character abilities and meticulously recreated environments. And let's not forget that "Toy Box" mode our inner child yearns for. Toy Story 3 launches on June 15 for pretty much everything.
Hands-on: Toy Story 3: The Video Game (PS3)
Disney Interactive Studios has been making a lot of noise about refining and improving its approach to licensed games, and while Toy Story 3: The Video Game is still meant for the younger members of Pixar's vast following, it's the best evidence yet that Disney is serious about trying to use licenses right. I got to play the game at a recent pre-E3 event, and it was a solid, kid-friendly experience, with bright and beautiful graphics surrounding intuitive racing and platforming mechanics. With innovative features like a very dynamic difficulty system and lots and lots of collectibles and game modes, Disney's Avalanche Studios has created something here that you, as someone who enjoys fine game design, can actually be proud to have your kids play. %Gallery-93421%
Disney Interactive reports increased revenue, $55 million loss
Disney has posted earnings for its second fiscal quarter ended April 3, 2010, and there's good news and bad news. The good news is that revenues are up in its Interactive Media segment (which houses Disney Interactive Studios). Specifically, Interactive Media revenues are at $155 million, up from $129 million in the same period last year, a 20 percent increase. The bad news: the Interactive Media segment still reports a loss of $55 million, though that loss is an improvement over the $61 million loss reported during the same quarter last year. Disney pins the improvement on growing Club Penguin subscription revenues as well as "lower video game inventory costs." The company added that gains were offset by "higher internet product development and sales and marketing costs." The report makes little note of Disney Interactive's prospects for the rest of the year, though the publisher has more than a few big projects on the horizon. Split/Second is only a week away, while Toy Story 3, Disney Sing It: Family Hits, Disney Guilty Party, a new Pirates of the Caribbean and Disney Epic Mickey are all on the horizon this year. And let's not forget Marvel -- which Disney owns -- has a title or two on the way, as well.
Toy Story 3 on PS3 features Move support, exclusive character
As with most major children's films, Toy Story 3 will have a licensed video game counterpart, releasing on nearly every platform imaginable -- including platforms from the future. Disney Interactive Studios has confirmed PlayStation Move motion controller support for Toy Story 3. Like Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, the game won't offer motion controller support out of the box. The reason? Toy Story 3's release date -- June 15 -- is months before the Move controller is even available. A press release clarifies that "players will be able to download mini-games that will be playable with the PlayStation Move when the new motion controller is available." Excellent, motion controller mini-games! We can't wait! Until then, PS3 owners will be able to enjoy additional content exclusive to the platform. As with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Sony has secured exclusive rights to yet another playable villain. The slightly less disturbed Emperor Zurg will be playable in the game's "Toy Box" mode, a sandbox mode that allows players to create and play free-form challenges.%Gallery-92107%
Toy Story 3 trailer explains the customizable 'Toy Box' mode
We've got to hand it to Avalanche Software: You guys sure know how to inject a modicum of ingenuity into an extremely tired genre. For instance, the upcoming game adaptation of Toy Story 3 was off our proverbial radar moments after it was first announced -- however, a recent trailer for the game's "Toy Box" mode, which allows its (presumably juvenile) players to make their own levels and missions, it's now taking up a tiny place in our minds. (And our hearts.) Check out the highly customizable trailer above.
iPhone 4.0 OS: Now with iAds
Today at the iPhone 4.0 preview event, Apple announced that one of the new features coming in 4.0 is the iAd network. According to Steve, an average iPhone user is on their phone using apps about half an hour a day. So at one ad every three minutes, that's 10 ads on each device each day, and with almost ten million devices out there, Apple claims they'll be serving a billion ad opportunities every day. And yet this isn't the huge news about iAds. Here is what makes it a big deal: Apple built the network and is offering it up to developers to use how they'd like, with 60% of the revenue made on those ads going to developers themselves. That's up a bit from the standard "Apple gets a 30% cut" rule of thumb, but more than half seems more than fair. Apple hosts and sells the ads, and developers take home over half the revenue. The ad demonstrated live actually looked cool: they showed off little Toy Story 3 ad at the bottom of a news app. Tap the ad, and it comes up with some options (a character list, sounds from each character, etc) and even a game to play, including an option to buy a game from right within the ad. Steve even asked if anyone had seen anything like this before, and among the gathered press, he got silence in response. Currently, the most educated of guesses is that the AdKit API will be a developer source as well as an iTunes source (iTunes sources are where the App Store and Music Store get their content.) After the event in the Q&A session, Steve said they attempted to buy AdMob and got sniped by Google, so they bought Quattro and are trying very hard to come up to speed on what web advertising is like, presumably so they can change it. As long as they aren't trying to get me to refinance my mortgage or whiten my teeth, I'm looking forward to the future of advertising on the iPhone.
Toy Story 3, Brunswick Pro Bowling added to PlayStation Move lineup
Sony has added two titles to the PlayStation Move's launch lineup that we haven't seen before. Not only will you be able to get your Move on in Slider, Sports Champions and all of the other announced launch titles, but we can now add Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 and Brunswick Pro Bowling into the mix as well. Toy Story 3 is of course a tie-in to the movie, and Brunswick is in there because you can't have a motion controller in 2010 without a bowling game attached. No seriously, you can't. Which is weird, because the future of gaming sure does look a lot like the 2007 of gaming. Only with better graphics. [Via PSLS]
Yes, there's a Toy Story 3: The Game for that console
Did you expect any less? Did you expect that there would be a movie called Toy Story 3 and that there wouldn't be an Avalanche Software-developed tie-in game available on Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, DS and PSP? Oh, yeah, there's an iPhone/iPod Touch app too that should arrive with the others on June 15. For all our macho posturing, we're actually intrigued by a touted "Toy Box" mode which is supposed to be an "open-world, sandbox style of play." What does Disney mean by that? Well, according to the release, it's "designed to replicate the universal experience of playing with toys as a kid" and "brings cowboys, space rangers, dinosaurs, and little green aliens together to create adventures only possible in a child's imagination. Kids, families and fans will dive into Andy's toy box with creativity driving their own stories and adventures." ... Guys, if you haven't designed that part yet, just say so. It's OK, you've got plenty of time.
Toy Story 3 and the Mac
One of the things I missed in the news last week due to being so busy at Macworld (along with most of the Olympics, though we did get to watch the opening ceremony at a post-show dinner) was the brand new Toy Story 3 trailer -- Pixar's latest movie has Buzz and Woody in a third adventure, and while I won't spoil the details, it does appear that Apple plays a big part in the movie. Macenstein has a quick breakdown of all of the places that Macs appear in the new trailer, with cameos by both Safari and iTunes, and director Lee Unkrich actually tweeted a picture of his editing session for the movie on a MacBook Pro (in Avid Media Composer) at 36,000 feet! Of course, Steve Jobs was the owner and CEO of Pixar for twenty years, and he now is the largest individual Disney shareholder with a seat on the company's board of directors. Pixar always produces excellent films -- Toy Story was the studio's first big feature as a studio, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with the franchise after moving on to more mature pictures like Finding Nemo and Up. As always, when the movie comes out on June 18th, we'll have to keep an eye out for nods in Apple's direction.
