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Kojima to show new Metal Gear Online at The Game Awards
Just because legendary super spy Solid Snake tends to fly solo doesn't mean you have to: Metal Gear Online is coming back, reintroducing the deadly game of cats-and-also-cats to the Metal Gear series. To go along with this revelation, there's some good news and bad news. The bad news is we don't know anything else about this new version of MGO yet. The good news is we won't have to wait long to find out more, as series creator Hideo Kojima will premiere Metal Gear Online at The Game Awards, which will air December 5. We assume there will be plenty of ! in the audience. [Image: Konami]
Bayonetta 2, Hearthstone among first Game Awards nominees
The maiden voyage of Geoff Keighley's new video games awards show, the cleverly titled "Game Awards," won't kick off until December 5, but today we've learned which games are up for recognition. You'll find a rundown of the key categories beyond the break, but the big one, the Game of the Year field, includes such notable standouts as Dark Souls 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Hearthstone, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Bayonetta 2. You can peruse the other categories at the Game Awards website, though at the moment the site is only sporadically functional. The Game Awards will take place on December 5 at the Axis theater in Las Vegas. If you can't attend the event in person, you can watch the spectacle live on Twitch. [Image: Nintendo]
The Game Awards 2014 debuts December 5
The Game Awards 2014, a new independent video game awards show, will take the stage in December. Produced by former Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, the show will debut on December 5, airing live from the AXIS Theater in Las Vegas. The Game Awards 2014 will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT) and will be livestreamed globally "across a record number of gaming devices, platforms, media partners and services." The ceremony will include "world premieres, musical performances, and appearances by game developers, eSports players and online content creators" in addition to shiny awards for some of the year's finest works in the gaming world. The Game Awards' advisory board includes Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, EA COO Peter Moore, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer. Tickets to The Game Awards 2014 start at $45 and will go on sale through Ticketmaster at 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT) tomorrow. [Image: The Game Awards]
Former Sony boss Jack Tretton covering E3 for Spike TV
Jack Tretton, former president of Sony Computer Entertainment America and man who literally dropped the mic at E3 2013, will be back for E3 2014. Instead of operating under Sony's banner however, Tretton will join forces with Spike TV's Geoff Keighley as a "special correspondent" during Spike's "All Access" program, weighing in with his thoughts about the various announcements, reveals and news coming out of E3 2014's press conferences. "Since I dropped the mic last year on Spike I thought it was only appropriate to pick it back up for E3 this year," Tretton said in a statement to Kotaku. "I've been to every E3 but this year I'm excited to see the show through a different lens with the team at Spike. I'll be watching the news and announcements unfold alongside the fans and the rest of the industry, and I can't wait to see the new games that everyone is bringing to the table." In light of his employment history, it'll be interesting to see if Tretton takes Stephen Colbert's approach to his analysis, i.e. "Sony's press conference: great conference, or greatest conference?" [Image: Joystiq]
Watch PlayStation's E3 2014 conference on the silver screen
Sony is looking to grab additional eyeballs by broadcasting its E3 2014 press event to more than 40 movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The "PlayStation E3 Experience" on the silver screen will include a special 30-minute show after the press event hosted by Geoff Keighley, featuring extended video game footage and interviews with developers. Without spoiling the surprise, Sony also teased door prizes for those that attend the viewing at one of the theaters. PlayStation's E3 press conference is scheduled for Monday, June 9 at 8:30 p.m. ET (5:30 p.m. PT), with the show itself slated to begin a half hour later. Tickets are free, but those interested in attending should register soon before spaces fill up. The PlayStation Blog has a list of the venues hosting the viewing parties. By comparison, while Nintendo is ditching the live stage show format for a second year in a row in favor of a Nintendo Direct stream for its E3 press conference, it is inviting 3,000 fans to Los Angeles to watch its Super Smash Bros. tournament. [Image: Sony]
Behind-the-scenes 'Final Hours of Titanfall' app now available
The Final Hours of Titanfall, an in-depth look at the development of Respawn Entertainment's first game, is now available to download on iPad, Windows Surface as well as PC and Mac via Origin for $1.99. Versions of the app are also planned for Android and iPhone, and both a text-only version for Kindle as well as an audiobook version are being considered. Created over a four-year span by Geoff Keighley, the app is a 25,000-word deep-dive on Titanfall's development and the legal issues that Respawn co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella settled with Activision in May 2012 pryor to West's departure from the developer in March 2013. Keighley conducted interviews with over 80 people to chronicle Respawn's beginnings, which cover the "toxic mix of office politics and creative struggles the build the next great videogame franchise." It also features concept art and videos from the early days of the game's development. This isn't Keighley's first foray into longform app development, as the behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series includes an episodic webseries on Square Enix's Tomb Raider reboot, an app for Portal 2 and one detailing the creation of Mass Effect 3. [Image: EA Games]
VGX 2013 drew 1.1 million views, 'exceeded' expectations
The 2013 VGX show provided more than 1 million people with entertainment and/or fodder for Twitter jokes and angry forum posts, depending on who you talk to. According to a Polygon interview with Executive Vice President of Digital Media for Viacom Entertainment Group Erik Flannigan, Executive Vice President of Event Production Casey Patterson, and show host Geoff Keighley, the show "exceeded expectations," despite an abundance of negative responses. "There was a lot of great feedback that came out of it," Keighley told Polygon. "Sure, there were people calling for the date and time of my suicide, but there were people who also were saying very constructive things about the show." Keighley said that he believes such feedback is reflective of a passionate audience. Flannigan meanwhile said that apathy would have been "death" for the show. People from 109 countries tuned in to view the three-hour long VGX, with the average viewer spending 32 minutes watching. We imagine that was long enough to catch at least one snarky comment about how many layers of clothing Keighley was wearing from co-host Joel McHale.
Joel McHale co-hosting Spike VGX live show tomorrow
The Spike Video Game Awards, this year called VGX probably because it's so extreme, will be co-hosted by Joel McHale, the lovably sarcastic guy from Community and The Soup. He's not entirely new to the gaming circuit, having hosted Ubisoft's E3 press conference in 2009 and starred in Nintendo's pointedly viral 3DS ad last year. McHale joins Geoff Keighley on stage for a barrage of new game trailers and announcements, starting at 6PM ET on Spike TV and across a number of streaming services, including Steam. We'll be liveblogging the entire show and posting the news as it breaks, so think of us as another group of co-hosts. Less famous, silent, but still really cool co-hosts.
Steam to debut Big Picture beta soon, make couch potatoes of PC gamers
Early last year, Valve mentioned it was working on something called Big Picture mode for Steam, an alternative user interface with controller support designed specifically for use on televisions. According to Gabe Newell, the distribution services' couch-ready UI is almost upon us. "We should have both Linux and 10-foot betas out there fairly quickly," he told Geoff Keighley in the latest episode of GTTV, noting that the interface would be available on both the current iteration of Steam and the upcoming Linux version. Newell said that Valve has been showing the interface to hardware manufacturers, but ultimately feels that the community will decide its fate. "I think customers will say 'this is really great,' or they'll say it's another interesting but not a valuable contribution, fairly quickly." Check out the interview for yourself (and the full episode) after the break.
The 'Final Hours' of Tomb Raider documented in March, first episode out now
Geoff Keighley's behind-the-scenes "Final Hours" series is taking on Tomb Raider, and he's getting video help from Zachary Levi. Square Enix enlisted Keighley for a "Final Hours" Tomb Raider entry – which Keighley says he's "especially excited" about, due to it being "a tale about the act of reinvention, both of a studio and of a franchise." But Square also nabbed Levi for a video documentary supplement, which kicks off today, a full eight months before the game launches. Those are some long final hours, eh?The completed entry will launch in March 2013 alongside the game, and will once again be available on iPad and PC. Kindle Fire owners can also snag it via Amazon. Check out the first Zachary Levi video entry above.
'Project P-100,' a Wii U launch title from Platinum Games
It seems the folks at Platinum Games have enough bandwidth for something beyond Metal Gear Rising: Reveangence. Following Nintendo's E3 press conference, we saw mentions on Twitter of Project P-100, a Platinum Games title destined for the Wii U's launch window, yet oddly absent from Nintendo's press conference.The art style is highly reminiscent of Viewtiful Joe, but the gameplay looks to be inspired by Pikmin – players find citizens in distress on the stage then recruit them to grow in power.%Gallery-157137%
Final Hours of Portal 2 app talks possible level editor features
Earlier today, when Geoff Keighley tweeted that his own app for the iPad (also now available on Steam), The Final Hours of Portal 2, had been updated with a new (and free) 2,500 word chapter, we rushed to our iPad to check it out. After wrestling over the company iPad for a while, we finally came to an agreement: Justin would read it aloud in his best southern accent. It was the only peaceful solution, you see. While we can't relay the news with the dapper draw of a southern gentleman, we can confirm this new chapter focuses on Valve's attempt to make an easier-to-use level editor and an in-game level browser -- Valve even hopes to bring the latter to console versions of the game. The company is also looking at the possibility of adding GLaDOS to the editor. We can already imagine her berating us for how long it takes to rotate a ramp. Those who previously purchased the app get free access to the new chapter. The app itself is currently available on iPad and Steam for $1.99.
Hideo Kojima talks life, influences at USC presentation
Legendary game developer Hideo Kojima took the stage at the University of Southern California last night to talk about his life as a game developer, and give a few thoughts on the current state of gaming and game development. During an interview moderated by Geoff Keighley, the creator of Metal Gear Solid spoke honestly about his past as the son of two pharmaceutical executives, his current work/life balance, and what he thinks the future of gaming looks like. Kojima told a few cute stories from his past -- he said that he started writing as a young man, and early on wrote a long story called "Survival Battle" that had everyone in its world fight at the age of 14, earning extra time in their lifespan for each victory. He said that in college, he was an economics major, and thus the "only oddball in my class that wanted to make movies or novels." His economics thesis even included a short story "to surprise my professor, and he was very surprised," said Kojima through a translator, "but it didn't help my grade much." Kojima also talked about his gaming influences, starting with the original Famicom, and mentioned titles like Super Mario Brothers, Xevious, and the Japanese text adventure Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken as early influences on his work. "I felt great potential in the medium," Kojima said about discovering video games, adding that the interactivity was what really drew him in early on.
Wii U third-party sizzle reel composed of 360/PS3/PC footage
When Nintendo showed off a reel of major third-party games currently in development for its newly announced console, the Wii U, the footage wasn't actually playing on Wii U hardware. Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Aime casually admitted as much in a post-presser interview with GameTrailers, excusing it by saying, "We're talking a year away from when the system's gonna launch" -- a hard to argue point, considering developers probably need some time to, ya know, actually make games for it. We're hoping to see some actual third-party game footage soon, but aren't exactly expecting it in the upcoming weeks. Nintendo's Wii U is expected to launch at some point in 2012, with Nikkei predicting the latter half of the year.
Keighley's app showcases Portal 2 development
You tried to make it last. Like Teddy's plan to eat his lunch for a whole bus trip you parsed out the exact bites of Portal 2 you'd need to take to savor it for a full week. But here we are, just seven days and one overnight, 15-hour bender later and all you've got to show for it is a big belly fulla nothing. If you've got an iPad, two bucks and the urge to make the hunger pangs go away, you might wanna pick up The Final Hours of Portal 2, Geoff Keighley's fascinating interactive feature story on the creation of Valve's latest. What kind of revelations can you expect? Well, how about the fact that Portal 2 might be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player component (what about poor Episode 3)? Or the details of Erik Wolpaw's sleep schedule? Yeah, we thought that one would sell you. Oh, and good news for non-iPadders out there: Keighley says that at least the text of the app will come to other platforms soon.
No Kinect in Gears of War 3, Bleszinski assures
Cliff Bleszinski has curb-stomped the rumor of Kinect functionality appearing in Gears of War 3. Responding to a report by IGN that suggested motion-control features would emerge in a Gears of War game, the Epic Games developer said on his Twitter: "No Kinect in Gears of War 3." The IGN piece did leave some wiggle room for itself, noting that it "cannot clarify whether or not this is an all-new Gears of War for Kinect or if it's an existing Gears of War game, retro-fitted for the camera controller." The reveal will apparently be made at the Spike TV Video Games Awards. Master of WORLD EXCLUSIVES, Geoff Keighley, has already started to hype the show's "world premiere announcements," teasing two earlier reveals set for Wednesday. If Microsoft wants to combine Gears of War with some optional Kinect functionality, it seems like a perfectly reasonable way to get more core gamers interested in the peripheral, which is a little too family friendly with its catalog at the moment. However, if we don't get a Tickle-Me Dominic™ minigame, we'll consider any Kinect/Gears crossover a failure.
Next Call of Duty to be announced on GameTrailers TV this week
If you're looking for Call of Duty news that isn't related to the Infinity Ward fiasco, you're in luck. This week's GameTrailers TV will feature a brand new teaser trailer that promises to "put all the rumors to rest." We already know that the next iteration of Activision's FPS franchise will be developed by World at War's Treyarch, but this week's GTTV should finally confirm the long-rumored Vietnam setting. GTTV will air on SpikeTV on Friday night at 12:40AM. (And don't worry, we'll post details immediately after they air.) Check out a promo after the break.
Keighley: L.A. Noire coming this September [update]
We always assumed that Geoff Keighley's ability to secrete world exclusives only applied video games, but his power/curse seems to extend even to magazines about video games. Keighley says he got an early look at Game Informer's recently teased piece on Rockstar's L.A. Noire and let slip via his Twitter feed that the game is apparently slated to arrive in September. According to legend, Keighley is often able to see pieces like this even before the electrical impulse makes its way from the "typing synapse" of the brain to the writer's fingers. That's our accurate, scientific way of saying we haven't seen the piece for ourselves yet, so we're going on Keighley's word at the moment. We know, we know, we dislike trusting a guy who misspells "Jeff" too. Update: A representative from Game Informer confirmed to us that the L.A. Noire issue of the magazine does list a September 2010 release window for the game. And now, we play the waiting game.
Platinum Games' fourth game to be announced on this week's GTTV
Here were are again, folks, for another edition of "Turn a Tweet Into a Full Post." This time we've got word from the always exciting Twitter feed of Geoff Keighley that this week's episode of GameTrailers TV will reveal the fourth game from Japanese developer Platinum Games. So far, after inking a publishing deal with Sega in 2008 for four games, all we've heard of the mysterious fourth title is that it will be headed up by Resident Evil designer Shinji Mikami. Considering the somewhat confusing wording of Keighley's tweet, we asked the man himself to clarify what we're going to see on Thursday evening. "It's an exclusive reveal trailer for the game inside the show this week. The news breaks during GTTV on Thursday night. We're really excited to have the Japanese developers/publishers working with us on reveals like this." He also pointed out that this countdown on Platinum Games' Japanese website has been counting down towards Thursday's reveal -- aha! For all the steaming hot scoops, you'll have to peep the show when it airs this Thursday evening/Friday morning at 12:30AM ET.
Halo: Reach premiere at VGAs will be actual gameplay, says Keighley
To clear up any misconceptions with "the kids on Twitter," Spike Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley took to Major Nelson's podcast this weekend and explained that the Halo: Reach trailer on next week's show will be "actual gameplay." That's right, folks: none of that live-action or CG mumbo jumbo. "You'll get a first glimpse at the world of Reach," Keighley told the Major during this week's show. "I think it's going to be the biggest game next year by far." When addressing the contents of the trailer -- something Keighley claimed to have not seen just yet -- he noted that he thinks people will be shocked by the direction than Bungie is taking, calling it a "huge leap forward." So, Mr. Keighley, it could be said that the studio is reaching new ground then? ... Hello? Where are you going?!
