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El Shaddai will be 'divisive' in America, says Ignition
During last weekend's Anime Expo 2011, Ignition Entertainment showed off the PSN/XBLA demo of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron to an anime-hungry crowd of convention-goers and cosplayers. Shane Bettenhausen, Ignition's Director of Business and Marketing, told Gamer Gaia that Ignition "always knew [El Shaddai] was going to be divisive, because the graphics are so abstract." He went on to say that Anime Expo's reaction was more receptive than the mixed bag of emotions he encountered at this year's E3, claiming that anime fans are "more willing to take more of a chance on things that are a little different and refreshing." Bettenhausen doesn't think, however, that the title's Judeo-Christian origins will cause similar problems: "We actually wanted to take this text and treat it in a new way, to give it to a team in Japan that doesn't have any connection to that. They're not religious in that way, so they could treat it as just mythology and create a new graphical style and a new gameplay style." He hopes El Shaddai will avoid the negative connotation usually given to other biblically themed games, which he feels were created "just to try and sell" religion.
Ignition ceases internal game development; confirms Austin studio layoffs
Eccentric, unapologetically angelic action game El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron will debut on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next month, and make for a strange conclusion to Ignition Games' internally developed lineup. The company will move forward with a new studio based in Marina Del Rey, California, and shift its focus to publishing games and seeking out more partnerships with independent developers. From an announcement this morning: "In order to facilitate shifting the publishing focus to more effectively work with innovative independent developers and explore new platform possibilities, Ignition Games has taken the strategic decision not to continue with internal development of games." New Business Development Director, Shane Bettenhausen, also confirmed a round of layoffs at Ignition's Austin location, which excised an internal console development team working on a unannounced project. According to a Gamasutra report, "around 15" people are believed to have been let go. We're told the status of the studio's first-person shooter, Reich, remains unchanged from when it was last mentioned (and said to be alive). Ignition's externally sourced range of games -- including an upcoming 3DS version of twin-screen platformer Fractured Soul -- should remain intact while the company slides out of its development jeans.
Word game Quarrel rescued by Ignition, now headed to iOS and consoles
Last year, developer Denki was forced to cut staff when it couldn't find a publisher for Quarrel, an XBLA word game that combines anagram-searching with very light Risk-style territory battles. But over a year later, the developer finally did find the right partner for Quarrel, one who "values good games," as a frustrated Denki blog post put it last year: Ignition. It was the XBLA version of Quarrel that Ignition showed off in its E3 booth, but Ignition's Shane Bettenhausen explained that the word game will actually launch on iOS first this summer, followed by console versions later in the year. Quarrel pits two players against one another as they attempt to capture each discrete chunk of territory on a map. To do so, players must challenge the opponent to, essentially, a word jumble. Eight letters appear on screen, and the number of those letters that can be used is determined by the number of soldiers in the particular group you're controlling. So, for example, if a regiment of four soldiers attacks a territory manned by six, the attacking player can only make up to four-letter words, and the defender can make six-letter words. Each letter has a point value, like Scrabble, and the player with the highest score wins. Proving its implied commitment to value -- "good games" -- Denki added some interesting educational extras. At the end of every match, the best possible word, one that uses all eight letters, is presented on screen, and even defined. When it comes to games that increase our word power, there'll be no contention from us.%Gallery-125923%
'Collapse' game site registered by Ignition
Domain hound superannuation has dug up pending website domain Collapse-TheGame.com, registered to Ignition Entertainment. The discovery would fit nicely with recent comments made by Ignition's Shane Bettenhausen, who told SideQuesting that there's a "99 percent chance" the company would be announcing a new project at E3. Of course, there's no evidence yet linking the so-called "Collapse" to the potential E3 reveal. Bettenhausen added that the publisher's next project "might be" for NGP and suggested that Ignition's E3 announcement was dependent on Sony's press conference plan, according to SideQuesting. Ignition's latest release, El Shaddai, was developed by its Tokyo-based studio and debuted in Japan a month ago. It's expected to be released in North America and Europe later this year. The company's recently consolidated Austin branch is said to be working on the long-delayed FPS Reich. Additionally, Ignition's website (pictured above) indicates that the publisher has "more coming soon" to reveal.
1UP's Shane Bettenhausen heads to Ignition Entertainment [updated]
First, a confession: our original headline for this post was "Shane turns down Sony PR job, goes with smaller publisher" – that is, until we heard the kids at Rebel FM jokingly suggest that blogs would use exactly that as a headline. Oh yeah, smart guys? Well, we didn't! Moving on. So, 1UP's Shane Bettenhausen did turn down a Sony PR job ... several years ago. [Update: Shane writes that he "misspoke" and "never interviewed for the position" – so you can stop writing those scathing forum posts, platform conspiracy theorists.] Right now, the recently laid-off Bettenhausen has taken a gig as Director of Business Development (we call that BizDev, folks) at "smaller publisher" Ignition Entertainment. Says Bettenhausen: "they're not on the map as much as other big publishers." Then why take the position, when fellow 1UP alums have moved onto places like Bungie and 2K Boston? At Ignition, Bettenhausen would get to "choose which games to publish" – in other words, he'd rather be a big fish in a smaller pond. Not a bad plan. Up next from Ignition: Blue Dragon Plus for the DS.To get the full story straight from Shane himself, tune into the latest Rebel FM podcast at around the one hour 21 minute mark. (Bonus: Listen for Shane's comment that the "rise of blogs – Kotaku and Joystiq – completely reshaped the landscape." Great! Now we can add "landscaper" to the old CV).
Rumor: WiiWare sales for third-party devs in the hundreds?
Apparently overheard by 1UP's Shane Bettenhausen at the recently concluded TGS08, third-party developers on WiiWare haven't been raking in the cash. Supposedly, they've only sold "hundreds" of copies of their digital wares, meaning it's largely been a bust for them. We're not sure how valid this is, hence the rumor label.When you think about it, how could stellar titles like LostWinds, World of Goo and Mega Man 9 sell only a few hundred copies? Perhaps the shovelware that is Protöthea and SPOGS Racing only sold a few hundred, if that, but we're thinking that the good games have done pretty well. Hey Nintendo, how about some sales data?Of course, this could all be moot. It's not like there's much of a source on this one (we've checked the latest 1UP show and the latest podcasts, but we haven't been able to find it there), so feel free to apply salt where needed. We're always looking for new games to enjoy. We've got plenty of other WiiWare reviews, if you're into that kind of thing.. If you're so crazy that you want to go to the store and buy something when you could be playing World of Goo or Mega Man 9, we can help with that, too.
RSS this!
Every week PSP Fanboy brings you a great new podcast that you can use your PSP's RSS feature to subscribe to. We like to call it RSS this! This week's spotlight is one that many gamers probably already subscribe to, but that doesn't make it any less worthy of praise. 1up Yours is 1up.com 's premiere weekly podcast. A typical episode can consist of developer interviews, rumors, news, community features and general conversation about games. The cast usually consists of John Davison, Garnett Lee, Luke Smith and Shane Bettenhausen. One of the most listened to and respected video game podcast around, 1up Yours is a passionate, informative and humorous journey into what makes gaming great and what it needs to do better. When the podcasters aren't attacking their separate viewpoints on gaming, they mock their sexuality. The best part though is since everyone is so honest, you get to know them and even if you don't agree with them, they stay endearing. If you haven't yet heard 1up Yours and you want to add it to your PSP's RSS, just bring up this site with your PSP through our mobile version at m.pspfanboy.com and click on this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/1up/podcast. Then you can exit your web browser and the show should be in your RSS channels. From there you can set a timer for auto-download of episodes or stream them so you don't take up memory stick space. Got something you have RSS'd and would like us to feature it? Just let us know in the comments, or let other readers know what you think of 1up Yours.
