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Halo: is it the TV you're looking for?
The custodians of Halo have considered "what it means to move television forward," says executive producer Kiki Wolfkill. It's an unusual line coming from 343 Industries, maker of Halo 4, but it shows a more practical streak than Microsoft's own (and now defunct) Xbox Entertainment Studios. 343's Halo Channel is an Xbox One and Windows 8.1 app that works like a giant web for the Halo franchise, ensnaring original TV programming, games, news, Twitch streams, social activity, franchise fiction and, by the looks of it, any Halo fan who uses it. Tapping into your Xbox profile, it'll recognize you and suggest content based on what you've played, watched and read before. "We will always curate a stream," Wolfkill says.
Death is not the end of Ninja Theory's other original IP, Razer
Hellblade is the next game from UK developer Ninja Theory, but it wasn't the only original IP intended to follow up on the studio's early 2013 release of DmC: Devil May Cry. Speaking - and tweeting - at GDC Europe, Ninja Theory revealed Razer, an original IP that unfortunately died during the greenlight process. In the game, players would have joined forces to fight a monster that had taken over the planet. The concept featured online melee combat, but was not picked up by publishers. Ninja Theory lamented the status of the AAA market, stating that, "The conditions of the AAA market mean that creativity can be restricted." Hellblade, for comparison, is being independently produced. Not all hope is lost for Razer, though. Ninja Theory will be releasing all design documents for the game sometime next week, meaning anyone with the talent and means could, theoretically, finish it or create a spiritual successor. [Image: Ninja Theory]
GDC Europe survey finds devs flocking to PC, mobile
The European wing of the Game Developers Conference has unveiled the second annual European State of the Industry Survey, a study that suggests most European game developers see their future on the PC or mobile devices. According to the survey, PC and mobile platforms boast the lion's share of active development projects. 58 percent of developers replying to the survey had PC projects in the works, while 65 percent were developing mobile games. On the console side of things, the PlayStation 4 holds a minor advantage over its Microsoft counterpart. 18 percent of those surveyed claimed to be working on PS4 games, while that number drops to 13 percent for the Xbox One. That gap may be widening though, as 33 percent of respondents believed their next project would appear on PlayStation 4 while only 23 percent said the same of the Xbox One. Before you visit the comments, keep in mind, this survey is not an objective judgement on which hardware is best for gaming. GDC Europe did not just dictate that your iPhone is a better gaming machine than your PlayStation 4, or that your Xbox One has no value. These findings say nothing of technological quality, only where game developers feel they might be able to make money employing their skills. [Image: Rovio]
Microsoft's Perry on F2P the wrong way
Today's winner of the most provocative post title award is this little ditty about Age of Empires Online. But hey, don't blame Massively! It's actually the title of a speech given by Microsoft's Kevin Perry at GDC Europe 2013. Gamasutra has posted video of the event, and it's well worth watching if you've got 45 minutes to kill and you're interested in what goes through a developer's mind as he thinks about continually evolving monetization schemes. Perry says that this particular speech is on its third iteration. It initially started out positive when he shared it with an internal Microsoft audience some time ago. He then reworked it based on newly collected data about the game for GDC San Francisco earlier this year. And then he reworked it again for GDC Europe based on even more data. If you're sensing a trend here, you're right: game devs often don't know how well their business models are performing at any given time. As Perry says, "it's an ongoing conversation." There are a few other choice quotes as well, including the notion that PvP players are small in number but "very, very loud" in terms of influence as well as the supposition that you can launch incomplete games under the F2P business model and "sort it out on the fly." This last bit isn't always true, Perry says, "especially for a large, branded title."
GDC Europe enjoys record attendance
GDC Europe, which occurred right before Gamescom, had approximately 2,250 visitors attend from 56 countries. This is an increase from the "around 2,000" attendees in 2012. The talk of the show was the uses of the Oculus Rift VR headset. We also went over some virtual reality challenges we picked up from the show during our final Super Joystiq Podcast episode of Gamescom (1:54:00 - Oculus Rift development considerations). Okay, there was also plenty of chatter about the Achtung Arcade at GDC Europe. GDC Europe returns next year from August 11-13, right before Gamescom 2014, which will take place August 13-17.
Ridiculous Fishing reels in 300,000 sales at $3, but it was almost F2P
Ridiculous Fishing has sold 300,000 copies on the Apple App Store, Vlambeer founders Jan Willem Nijman and Rami Ismail announced during their GDC Europe presentation. Ismail pointed out that the game sells for $3, so ... "It's nice," Nijman said. Ridiculous Fishing made a statement on the App Store by ditching the popular freemium model and simply charging $3 for a full game, rather than nothing (or close to it) for part of a game. When the game turned into a breakout mobile hit, its price point became a talking point and Vlambeer championed the full-game pricing approach. But Ridiculous Fishing was almost a freemium game. During brainstorming stages, developers Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman considered offering the game for free and then selling a $1,000 in-game boat. In this version of Ridiculous Fishing, players could see their friends' boats sailing around in the background, and they'd theoretically be tempted to collect all the cool boats they saw, even that $1,000 one. In the end, that didn't work with Vlambeer's development style. Nijman also wanted to add a feature that had some fish wearing hats, and when players shot those fish they could collect the hats and wear them. While the hat idea stuck, the rest of that pipe dream was flushed. In the end, it was all for the best, it seems.
Why Age of Empires Online failed
Since the beginning of this year, Age of Empires Online has shifted into stagnation and decline -- and done so intentionally. So why did Microsoft Studios decide to all but abandon the future of this game? In short, the title launched with far too little content, a bad business model, and couldn't crank out the goods fast enough to retain an audience. This resulted in a sharp drop-off from 100,000 players to 15,000 in a few months. Executive Producer Kevin Perry criticized the game's launch at GDC Europe, pointing at its skimpy features (including only two civilizations at launch) and bad public perception: "You don't get a soft launch for a branded title. Players come there for your brand. You only get word-of-mouth once. Whenever we got new players, they always came in with the overhead, 'but I heard this game sucks.' That hill was extremely difficult to climb." Even after tinkering with the game's cost, adding in more content, and figuring out ways to allow players to spend more money, the company ultimately realized that the players were mostly demanding new content which couldn't be generated to make a profit. "The content itself was too expensive to create," Perry admitted. "We did do a lot of things right, but they weren't enough to actually save the game."
Secrets of Rætikon dev: Console launch titles are too risky
Broken Rules doesn't want to develop another launch title for any console. Its most recent game, Chasing Aurora, debuted with the Wii U last year and that experience colored the studio's approach to developing its next game, Secrets of Rætikon. "We just won't risk another console launch," Broken Rules co-founder Martin Pichlmair told Joystiq at GDC Europe. "PS3 and Xbox 360 are not interesting anymore – when we launch, the new consoles are going to come out, and it's just too much of a risk. After the Wii U launch, we just don't want to risk another console launch. I think both of them will be fairly successful; I just don't want to bet the whole company on one of them succeeding. We can't do three ports at the same time and I don't want to make it a betting game." Secrets of Rætikon is a PC, Mac and Linux game in three chapters. The first chapter is due out this year; Broken Rules recently pushed back its internal launch window, bumping it to "after September" but before the holiday release rush, Pichlmair said. It may still hit the new consoles – after they launch – and Broken Rules is already in talks with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The studio's first game, And Yet It Moves, launched on PC, Mac, Linux and Wii, and has so far sold 500,000 copies. It's keeping the company afloat financially – with the help of a $200,000 grant from the Vienna government – while Chasing Aurora was more successful in terms of PR, not sales. Nintendo won't allow Broken Rules to share Chasing Aurora sales numbers, possibly because they're embarrassing, Pichlmair said.
Far Cry 3 creative director discusses JRPG-inspired Child of Light
As expected, Far Cry 3 Creative Director Patrick Plourde revealed a few details on his JRPG project Child of Light at GDC Europe. Described as a mix between Limbo and Final Fantasy 6, the game will feature both turn-based combat and side-scrolling gameplay. The Ubi Art Framework will be the foundation of Child of Light, the same engine used for Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends. Child of Light will explore a woman's "coming of age" story, using fairy tale-like art inspired by artists such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. While he didn't list which platforms the game will arrive on, Plourde noted it will be downloadable and will not be on mobile devices, nor will it be free to play.
GDC Europe 2013: SOE talks game shutdowns, The Matrix Online
Sony Online Entertainment's Linda "Brasse" Carlson took the stage at this year's GDC Europe to talk about SOE's approach to community management, and in the process delivered a little insight into how studios can (and should) approach shutting down MMOs with waning or nonexistent player populations. Carlson used Monolith Productions' The Matrix Online as an example, explaining that the game's population had dipped down to fewer than 500 players by the time the decision was made to take it offline in 2009. The breaking point where cost of maintenance just to keep the game up was ridiculous. Sometimes you just have to shut these games down. Determining when and how to sunset an MMO is never an easy task; Carlson noted that a studio should never "belittle the people who are deeply emotionally upset" about their favorite title shutting down. The talk wasn't all about shutdowns, however; Carlson also discussed Sony's community management philosophy, which includes showing empathy to players, protecting developers from abuse, and using the player-driven community council to make more educated and agreeable decisions about the future of its games. Gamasutra has a nice collection of quotes from the presentation, if you're into that sort of thing.
Far Cry 3's creative director to unveil Child of Light at GDC Europe
Far Cry 3 creative director Patrick Plourde will unveil his current project, Child of Light, during an upcoming session at Game Developers Conference Europe in August. During his talk, Plourde will discuss "the unique challenges and opportunities of producing a small title within the walls of Ubisoft Montreal." Contrasting Plourde's previous work with the Rainbow Six and Assassin's Creed franchises, Child of Light is a smaller-budget game with an "intimate scope," designed with an indie mentality and produced with Ubisoft's support. Details regarding Child of Light's target platforms have not been revealed, and a release date is not yet known.
Watch the entire GoldenEye 007 postmortem from GDC Europe
We've already covered ex-Rare developer Martin Hollis' GoldenEye 007 postmortem presentation quite a bit, but the GDC Vault has now made the entire presentation available for free. We managed to note the highlights in our previous piece, but Hollis covered much more ground in the hour-long talk than we could condense into a single article.The GDC Vault version also features direct feed of all the presentation slides, which include heaps of behind-the-scenes (and in some cases never publicly shared) information about the landmark N64 shooter. If you're a game history buff, or just a dedicated GoldenEye fan, it's definitely worth a look. Find the presentation after the break (note: video will automatically play).
GDC Europe breaks record in 2012 with 2,100 attendees
It may sound adorable and small next to Gamescom's record attendee count of 275,000 people, but the concurrent GDC Europe also celebrated its own attendance record in 2012. The much less public, much more intimate GDC Europe counted "over 2100 game professionals" as attendees in 2012.The breakdown of that group includes "100+ European and international speakers, 65+ exhibitors and sponsors, and more than 290 media representatives." To see what happened during the event, we invite you to follow our GDC Europe coverage (don't miss the cute video that led to GoldenEye 007).
Gamescom, GDC EU dates announced for 2013
The more than 275,000 attendees of this year's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, were the first to see the planned date for the 2013 convention -- if they noticed the large banner hanging overhead, that is. Folks wanting to get a headstart on planning for the event can mark their calendars: The fifth annual Gamescom will be held August 21st through the 25th, 2013. To get in on GDC Europe, plan to get to Cologne a few days earlier as this convention will run August 19th through the 21st, 2013. The 2012 Gamescom saw the introduction of mobile and social titles to the usual line-up of console and PC gaming. Organizers noted that 83 different countries were represented between the exhibitors and trade visitors of the con. GDC EU 2012 broke previous attendance records with over 2,100 game industry professionals attending the event. For more about this year's conventions that just wrapped up, check out Massively's 2012 Gamescom and 2012 GDC Europe coverage.
GDC Europe 2012: Funcom's Morrison says focus on the why, not the what
MMOs as a rule tend to have a focus on providing content for us, the players. It makes sense; they want us to play their games, so they give us as much stuff to do as possible so that we'll keep playing. But why do we want to do that stuff in the first place? Craig Morrison, creative director at Funcom Montreal, posed that question at his GDC Europe talk, saying that MMO design needs to shift to consider that option. Gamasutra covered what he has to say: "Everytime a player logs in, they need a 'why'," noted Morrison. "What we really need to be thinking about is the why -- it's the bit that we don't really consider enough. Players need a reason to be playing it. What is motivating them?" Referencing both Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Simon Simek's work on motivation, Morrison's talk ranged from discussing how games go wrong by focusing on only one kind of player to encouraging the development and fostering of community. "Unless you expose the players to the community and encourage community interactions, there's not that much difference between your game and a single-player game," he opined.
GDC Europe 2012: Designer says American gamers can't handle failure
Game designer Don Daglow turned a few heads while participating in a GDC Europe panel this week. The industry veteran and co-designer of AOL's 1991 Neverwinter Nights MMORPG said that Americans don't deal well with failure, particularly in gaming. "The idea of failure has been dramatically reduced," Daglow said, before going on to opine that this stems from an educational system where failure has been removed from the curriculum. He also said that many gamers blame their failures on the game itself instead of analyzing their mistakes and trying again.
GDC Europe 2012: F2P developers should expect 70 percent initial user drop
Batting .300 is the gold standard for free-to-play games, according to former Empire: Total War designer Jan van der Crabben. He told listeners at a GDC Europe keynote that free-to-play developers should expect to lose 70 percent of their initial registered users. He said that player retention is the key issue facing the new business model, and despite the fact that most players leave F2P titles shortly after registering, those who stick around for a few days will usually keep playing. Van der Crabben, who is currently designing browser-based F2P games at Travian, pointed to World of Warcraft as a model, noting its mechanical effectiveness at retaining users by presenting them with cyclical gameplay. This amounts to "kill[ing] stuff to get better to get more abilities to kill more stuff," he said.
World of Tanks was rejected by publishers as 'cheap Asian stuff'
Since its release at the end of 2010, Russian tank MMO World of Tanks has grown to become a global sensation with over 35 million users worldwide. The incredible success of this free-to-play giant has gone on to spawn upcoming offshoots World of Warplanes and World of Warships, but you might be surprised to hear that western publishers initially rejected the game. At GDC Europe today, Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi revealed that Western publishers originally didn't accept the game because of its free-to-play business model. "They were very arrogant," Victor explained, adding that the game "was described as cheap, Asian stuff." The rampant success of World of Tanks and the free-to-play business model has since grown Wargaming.net from a studio with 120 employees into a global business with over 1,000.
Battlefield series celebrates 10 year anniversary: over 50 million served
DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson took to GDC Europe today to celebrate his company's 20-year anniversary and the 10-year anniversary of its "core franchise," Battlefield. He revealed that the series has "served" more than 50 million players, and added that DICE is "still in love."Battlefield's latest franchise entry, Battlefield 3, shipped over 12 million copies as of last November. Battlefield 4 is up next, expected in holiday 2013.
GDC Europe 2011: Freelance designer identifies key problem with MMOs
Sometimes we don't stop and think about just how strange our games are from a logical standpoint, but freelance designer Ernest Adams has, and he's not that pleased. Speaking to a crowd at GDC Europe, Adams said that the biggest problem in MMOs is that there's a disconnect between what the game tells us it's doing and what is actually happening. Mobs can never truly be "killed" since they respawn; NPCs don't perform any promised actions after you complete their tasks; and quests can be abandoned without any consequences. Adams feels that player actions should be able to change the world in a real, significant way and be permanent (including the possibility of, yes, permadeath). Player choice should trump developer intentions, he says, quests should be unique to each player, and the game should ultimately have an ending. Using the concept of a fictitious MMO called The Blitz Online, Adams hypothesizes how this might be accomplished. The game would take place during the attacks on London during World War II, and players would have to take action to shore up the city's infrastructure and defenses lest the situation grow worse. If enough players pitched in using their various skills, morale in the area would increase and the Nazis would eventually give up the attacks, causing the "win" condition for all. By focusing on player choice and a dynamic game world, Adams hopes that the experience would become much more real and personal for players. However, he admits that such a project might be a long shot: "I realize this game breaks almost all the rules."
