Andre-Vrignaud
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The Game Archaeologist: Dark Sun Online
Computer RPG players in the late '80s and early '90s were surely familiar with Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and its now-infamous Gold Box series. The series, so named because of their distinctive gold packaging, ran on a solid engine that helped the company churn out over a dozen titles within a five-year span. From Dungeons & Dragons' Pool of Radiance to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, these titles quickly became revered among the gaming community. I personally have very fond memories of playing both Buck Rogers titles, despite not having ever watched the show. While the Gold Box series has not become as timeless or replayable as late '90s classics like Baldur's Gate and Fallout, they definitely had a huge impact on the PC scene and helped elevate the CRPG genre. Following the Gold Box engine, SSI went on to produce another engine that it used for a completely new series set in the D&D campaign setting of Dark Sun. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager (1994) were both modest hits, and when it came time for a third game in the series, SSI decided to make the leap to the then-untested realm of online gaming. What followed was a wild two-year experiment in MMOs that happened prior to the Ultima Online and EverQuest generation. While ultimately unsuccessful in achieving its potential or gaining a large audience, Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands made a valiant attempt at achieving the inevitable future of gaming.
Microsoft game platform director scooped up by Amazon
Microsoft director of game platform strategy Andre "Ozymandias" Vrignaud is departing from his position after eight years on the job, apparently taking up a new position at Amazon. In a post on his personal blog announcing the career change, Vrignaud says he "can't really talk about details at this point," but adds that "it'll become pretty evident soon enough ... and you all know where my passions lie." Considering Vrignaud's recent work on bringing Xbox Live to Windows Phone 7 and given the news earlier this year of an as-yet-opened app store for the Kindle, we're betting his talents are being applied to gaming on the Kindle. Vrignaud also lamented leaving the Xbox Live platform team, noting the "thousands of times when I've watched or engaged in a passionate debate in a conference room about some arcane subject where the platform teams (who are all also gamers) fought hard to do the right thing for the consumer." Regardless, with Amazon's promise of a Kindle app store launching before year's end, it'll likely be sooner than later that we hear more about what Vrignaud is up to.
Amazon steals Microsoft's Director of Game Platform Strategy for some reason
Amazon's gaming related job postings are starting to bear exotic fruit having just nabbed Microsoft's Director of Game Platform Strategy, Andre Vrignaud. Vrignaud started with Microsoft in 2002 as Director of Xbox Live Platform Strategy and more recently helped manage Microsoft's overall gaming platform strategy with a hand in figuring out how to roll out Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7. Obviously, this leads to speculation that Amazon is looking to expand further into digital games as it's already done with music, video, and digital books. And with Amazon working on non-Kindle hardware with ambitions for dual-screen readers, well, we'd say the question isn't what, but when?
Microsoft doesn't think Sony can stick to single PS3 SKU
Since Microsoft apparently didn't suffer enough indignity with the whole J Allard-in-dreads happenings -- we were sure our caption contest sealed the deal -- another Xbox exec has gone on record making predictions on Sony hardware, unfortunately without similarly high stakes. Xbox director of technical strategy Andre Vrignaud is betting a steak dinner with the staff of Level Up that Sony's going to hit the market with a $399 PS3 SKU by Black Friday 2007. His thinking is that Sony won't want to stick with a $599 80GB PS3 as its sole offering, and therefore will drop the 80 gigger to $499 and supplement it with a stripped down $399 40GB PS3 that skips out on WiFi, a memory card reader and backward compatibility. Of course, Sony's not talking much about SKUs ever since its total PR disaster on the 60GB price cut during E3, but that doesn't necessarily mean the company is ready to take a page out of Microsoft's book and go all PS3 "Core" on us.[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
