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Kotick to keynote DICE Summit Sessions
Last time we heard from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, he was explaining how terrible one of his company's franchises was. He's previously joked about increasing prices even further. If you want to be there when he issues his next great Quotick, you should go to the DICE summit -- or, barring that, wait five minutes for shocked journalists to pass it along. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced that Kotick will open the Summit Sessions with a talk about "how creative talent drives the video game industry." That is, creative talent who is not having any fun. "Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most talented developers in our industry and we are thrilled to have Bobby's insight on how great games are built upon great talent," AIAS president Joseph Olin said. Kotick's talk will take place Thursday, February 18.
Nathan Drake hoping to take home more shiny trinkets at AIAS awards
We're in the thick of awards season, and video games are no exception. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its finalists for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ("The 'Racties" -- we're kidding but that's what they should be called), and, as you might have guessed, award hog Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the pack with 15 nominations. The rest of the nominees include more of the usual suspects from 2009: Assassin's Creed II with 10 noms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight. This year's awards also features three new categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Portable and Social Networking Games of the Year. You can find a list of selected categories and their nominees after the break, or check out the Academy's full list in PDF form. The awards will be given out at the DICE Summit on February 18 in Las Vegas, where Activision's Bobby Kotick is scheduled to keynote. We can only guess that he'll go all Kanye on the podium if Modern Warfare 2 doesn't win.
Marble Madness creator Mark Cerny to be inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
It may have been a quarter century since Mark Cerny's groundbreaking arcade game Marble Madness was first developed, but this year the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will give the influential developer an induction into its Hall of Fame. On February 18 in Las Vegas, Cerny will become the 13th member of the AIAS' small club -- a club that includes development bigwigs like Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto, among others. For those of you who don't know, Cerny's been hard at work behind the scenes of some of our favorite games throughout the years. The developer's had a hand in everything from Sonic 2 through God of War 3, with his influential "Cerny Method" of tenacious development being passed down to modern day big boys like Insomniac's Ted Price and Naughty Dog's Evan Wells. "Mark has left an indelible mark on all of the games he's been a part of, the developers that he's collaborated with, and most importantly the individuals that he's worked along-side of," Wells said in the press release (warning: PDF link). For Cerny's part, he said he's "thrilled to accept this award" and humbly offloaded some respect to past colleagues that he's "had the pleasure to work with over the years." We're looking forward to witnessing the "Cerny Method" in action during his acceptance speech, wherein he only allows himself 30 seconds to catch our interest before reevaluating the entire thing.
Matias Myllyrinne answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Matias Myllyrinne is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2010. He works for Remedy, and told Joystiq that the developer's latest game, Alan Wake, is "done" and is just being "polished" before its "Spring 2010" release. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Matias Myllyrinne: Shipping. We are so close with Alan Wake and it has taken a while. I would really like to share what we have done with the world. No other feeling can match the exhilaration of seeing years of work come to closure. How do you measure success? As for, success in games. it's easy – units sold and Metacritic. In any form of entertainment, if the audience likes what you create and it sells – that's what counts in the end. Professionally, success is defined by the success of those around me. Are my partners aligned with me and taking part in good business, is my team creative, empowered and financially secure and are my shareholders seeing good long term strategic direction. Personally, I am successful if I am doing new things, enjoying a balanced life with the job I love and all the other interesting things the world has to offer.
Brian Reynolds answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Brian Reynolds is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will speak at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2010. After working with Sid Meier at both MicroProse and Firaxis, Reynolds went on to create Big Huge Games, where he served as CEO until the sale of the company to 38 Studios earlier this year. He now heads up the newly established social gaming team at Zynga East in Baltimore. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Brian Reynolds: The last 25% of the project, when you're polishing and tuning the thing to make it perfect for release. Of course it's never actually "perfect," but the game starts to feel like a real game rather than a prototype – all the parts start working well together and you finally realize "hey now we have something I want to play!" What game are you most jealous of? Half Life 2 – totally wish I had meaningful skills for making games like that. It's got such an amazing combination of good writing, good technology, good level design, and just overall great craftsmanship.
Mike Capps answers 10 Questions from the Academy
And now, 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Mike Capps is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as one of its board directors. He is the President of North Carolina-based Epic Games, the developers behind the Unreal and Gears of War series, and the seemingly ubiquitous Unreal Engine. AIAS: What's the biggest challenge you see facing the industry? Mike Capps: Game development has grown so fast as a business, but not nearly so fast as a profession, and you see the growing pains regularly. What's your favorite part of game development? I love the people; so many fascinatingly cool people are in game development. I really enjoy playing a game, and then meeting the people behind the game, and understanding how they think. Shipping a game, developing a game engine, and running a company... they're all insanely complex maximization problems. What do you with your time and your money, every day, to make the best game, the most profitable company, the best technology? It's a blast.
Jay Cohen answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Jay Cohen is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as chairman of its board directors. Cohen left Ubisoft earlier this year, after serving as the company's North American vice president of publishing, and now works for Jerry Bruckheimer Games. AIAS: How do you measure success? Jay Cohen: Review scores and unit sales! What's your favorite part of game development? Sitting around the table and seeing a spark of an idea ignite into creative wildfire that rallies the team to go the extra mile. Then, seeing that idea implemented into the game and having it actually work as imagined!
Bruce Shelley answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Bruce Shelley is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, where he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. He has helped design classics like Sid Meier's Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, and Age of Empires. He mostly recently waved goodbye to Ensemble Studios, where he remained a key figure until Microsoft closed the developer earlier this year. AIAS: How do you measure success? Bruce Shelley: Do people tell you that they liked the games you worked on and do they sell well enough that you can make a living at it? For most of the last 30 years that has been true for me. What's your favorite part of game development? When a game is just getting started anything is possible. The brainstorming is fun. At some point we have to become more practical and start building something that is not only fun but technically doable and commercially viable. Then the process becomes more like work. But early on we are truly thinking up ideas with little constraint and that is exciting.
ESA founder Doug Lowenstein receives AIAS Lifetime Achievement Award
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has chosen the third recipient for its prestigious and reportedly quite heavy Lifetime Achievement Award in Doug Lowenstein, founder of the Electronic Software Association (ESA). Lowenstein served as the organization's president for 13 years until 2007, after which he became CEO of the Private Equity Council (PEC). The AIAS has deemed Lowenstein a video game industry champion, noting his achievements in combating various forms of piracy, unfriendly legislature and anti-game sentiment. According to AIAS Board chair Jay Cohen, "It was under Doug's leadership that the industry fought off dangerous efforts to impose restrictions on video game content, in the process establishing unequivocally that video games are entitled to the same First Amendment rights as any other entertainment content." He added, "For those of us in the AIAS, it is no exaggeration to say that the artistic freedom we now enjoy stems directly from Doug's efforts." Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Nintendo of America founders Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa, as well as PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi. But do any of them know Jack as well as Lowenstein does?
Alex Evans answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Alex Evans is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and spoke at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2009. He's worked for Lionhead Studios, co-developed Rag Doll Kung-Fu independently, and co-founded Media Molecule, developers behind the award-winning LittleBigPlanet. AIAS: How do you measure success? Alex Evans: The number of hand written fan letters from 4 year olds showcasing scribbly artwork they've re-imagined from your game. What's your favorite part of game development? Top'n'tail – the really fertile bit at the beginning, just messing around; and the final, final, tunnel of light where you actually ship the damn thing. The middle bit itself has phases: wherein you lost site of your initial good idea; realise what you've made sucks in several significant ways; rebuild it (several times); lose sight once more of the original idea; (hopefully) eventually recapture something of the original seed, by now actually usable; and finally enter the glorious 'tunnel of light' towards the end. All of these middle phases effectively only happen because of many, many hours of grind – or 'turning the handle' as my old math professor used to call it.
Masaya Matsuura answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Masaya Matsuura is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He spoke at the D.I.C.E. Summit in 2008 and the D.I.C.E. Summit Asia in 2009. He works for NanaOn-Sha, where he created the pioneering rhythm titles PaRappa the Rapper, UmJammer Lammy, and PaRappa the Rapper 2. His most recent title is Major Minor's Majestic March. AIAS: How do you measure success? Masaya Matsuura: By the number of people who felt happiness through my creations. What's your favorite part of game development? Making totally new experiences into something tangible. Naturally a great effort from the development team is essential. In addition, there is a moment in development (usually later in the cycle) where the game finally becomes fun. A lot of developers say that this is the moment when a new experience is born, although I'm unable to properly put the sensation into words.
EA's Rich Hilleman answers 10 Questions from the Academy
Introducing 10 Questions from the Academy: A weekly feature from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences wherein significant figures in the video game industry provide their input on past trends, current events, and future challenges and goals for the entertainment software community. Rich Hilleman is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences where he serves as one of its board directors. He's worked for Electronic Arts since 1982 where he was one of the first twenty employees, and was one of the creators of the original Madden football game. He currently holds the title of Chief Creative Officer. AIAS: What's your favorite part of game development? Rich Hilleman: Discovery of Fun. I think you can understand how elements combine to be successful, in the same way that you can create a recipe by chemistry. There are many elements, and as a result nearly infinite possibilities. The Art is in anticipating the results of a new combination and understanding what that means for feedback systems, game mechanics and marketing concepts. Those second order effects are where the magic is... How do you measure success? Impact = change x the number of people impacted.
WotLK nominated for BAFTA, wins one out of three at AIAS
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been nominated for yet another award -- this time, Wrath has received a nod for Best Game of the Year by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Videogame awards. UK residents can vote for the game right now over on their site, and a nice set of prizes, including a big TV, a Playstation 3, and copies of all ten nominated games going to one lucky voter. Voting is closed on March 9th, and the winners should be announced soon after that.And in case you've been wondering about the AIAS nominations we mentioned a little while ago, Blizzard is going about 33%. While they did win the award for best MMO game of the year (beating out Warhammer Online), Wrath of the Lich King lost its other two categories -- Left 4 Dead was awarded Best Computer Game, and Metal Gear Solid 4 won for Best Music over the Lich King's silky tones.Guess you can't win them all. But considering that the second expansion of a years-old MMO is still garnering honors, Blizzard has nothing to be ashamed of.[via WorldofWar]
LittleBigPlanet sacks AIAA, wins 8 awards
Last night at the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas, Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet walked away with 8 awards. Not only did it win both game of the year awards (overall and console), but it also snagged awards for visual engineering, art direction, character performance (gotta love the Sackboy!), and innovation. Basically, the AIAA just repeated all of the reasons we loved the game. Other games that scooped up some AIAA awards include Left 4 Dead, Braid, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and God of War: Chains of Olympus.The full list of winners is presented after the break.
Gabe Newell to keynote D.I.C.E. Summit
When the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences kicks off this year's D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas it will do so with opening remarks and a keynote address by Gabe Newell. The Valve supreme commander will join the show's laundry list of other industry luminaries when the event takes over Sin City's Red Rock Casino the week of February 17.Among the more interesting scheduled talks include a presentation by Resident Evil 5 creative director Jun Takeuchi, who plans to address the challenges devs face when creating games for a global audience. Another by Ensemble's Bruce Shelley will see the game designer look back on the studio's history as well as discuss what may have led to the company turning out its lights for the final time. As for what Newell himself will be talking about, nothing has been announced, though our Magic 8-Ball says it will be PC-centric and not particularly flattering towards DRM.
AIAS nominates Wrath of the Lich King for three awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has honored Wrath of the Lich King with three different nominations in their yearly awards. The game was nominated for both the Computer Game of the Year and Massively Multiplayer Online Game of the Year (both of which are pretty obvious choices, though as an expansion pack, it's probably not a complete shoo-in for either category), and also for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. That one's not really a surprise either, though, when you consider that the music in the game is terrific, and Wrath's music especially is great.At this point, considering this is an expansion pack to a four year old game, it really does seem like it would be an honor just to be nominated for these. But we'll see -- the winners will be announced at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, on February 18th-20th in Las Vegas. Good luck to Blizzard and their teams.[via WorldofWar]
LittleBigPlanet leads in AIAS award nominations
The game industry's closest approximation of Hollywood's Academy Awards has to be the Interactive Achievement Awards. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has revealed its nominees for 2008, and LittleBigPlanet has managed to run away with ten category nominations, the most of any game this year. Ahem. And the nominees are: Overall Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Grand Theft Auto IV Left 4 Dead LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 Console Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Gears of War 2 Grand Theft Auto IV LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 See the rest, after the break.
AIAS rolls the D.I.C.E., 2009 speakers announced
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences today announced its initial roster of speakers for the 2009 D.I.C.E. (Design Innovate Communicate Entertain) summit, being held February 12-17 in Las Vegas. The lineup includes figures from all corners of the video game space; from product development to journalism.Headliners will include Jun Takeuchi, producer of Resident Evil 5 ("the most anticipated game of 2009," says the AIAS), Todd Howard, lead designer of Fallout 3, Ensemble Studios' Bruce Shelby and EA CEO, John Riccitiello. Insomniac Games president Ted Price will also be on hand to moderate a panel discussion between journalists from G4, Newsweek, USA Today, and the New York Times. (Sadly, the AIAS has informed us that, while we are bioluminescent, we are not "luminary" by its standards.) Take a peek after the break for the full list of speakers, who each emit more than 100k lumens.* *Not really.
GameStop to label Interactive Achievement Award winners
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences president Joseph Olin has recently announced a unique partnership with American games retailer GameStop. Following the 2008 Interactive Achievement Awards held alongside DICE, GameStop and AIAS will work together to place labels on winning titles, raising awareness of the awards, as well as raising sales of the games.At GameStop locations, copies of games like Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy, and The Orange Box will bear labels informing consumers of the categories in which they won at the Interactive Achievement Awards. Rock Band, for instance, will be labeled for "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming" as well as "Family Game of the Year."Admittedly, a lot of the winning games certainly don't need any help moving copies on shelves, but the recognition will help to further legitimize the Interactive Achievement Awards. Check out our coverage of the awards to see a full list of games which will bear the AIAS label.
WoW: The Burning Crusade wins MMO of the year from the AIAS
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has placed another feather in the positively avian cap of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. A final list of the nominees and winners from AIAS' 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards has been released, and of the five shortlisted games in the Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year category, it is the WoW expansion in particular, The Burning Crusade, that took the top honor (as Mike Schramm predicted when the nominations were first announced). Blizzard executives also gave speeches on the strategies behind their success -- unrelated to the award -- at the D.I.C.E. Summit, where the awards took place.There were four other MMOs that deserve a mention for being nominated, and these are a mix of new titles and expansions. In no particular order, they are: EVE Online: Trinity, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, and Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. The Overall Game of the Year went to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and you can check out a discussion of this, and some of the other AIAS' gaming awards outside of the MMO focus, at Joystiq.
