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Foundation 9 CEO: 30% of 360 owners buy XBLA games
Estimating the global Xbox 360 install base to be somewhere between 40 and 50 million units, Foundation 9 CEO James North-Hearn has suggested that around 30 percent of owners are "not only online and using Xbox Live, but all those and buying games." In a recent interview with Eurogamer, he claimed, "Certainly XBLA is past tipping point now." He also stuck up for XBLA's competition, the PlayStation Network. "Even though it's a smaller user base, and even though it's generally accepted as currently not being as successful or popular, it's definitely growing," he said. "There's less competition on PSN, but currently a smaller user base." As for the future, North-Hearn believes "the market will move to both online and to digital distribution at some point, almost exclusively." And Foundation 9 likely hope that's the case -- its six studios developed roughly 15 percent of the games on XBLA, including Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. North-Hearn even seems to believe "cloud solutions" could come to XBLA and PSN at some point in the future, saying that's "where the market's going to go" and that both channels are "in a great position."
Vampires rejoice, Harker on "indefinite hold"
After a brief burst of early hype, The Collective's Harker -- a vampire slaying action game -- completely disappeared. Of course, that makes sense when you factor in the fact that The Collective (who have now been combined with Shiny to form the new Double Helix studio) was later handed the reins to the latest entry in the Silent Hill series. If Konami decided to let us make the next Silent Hill (note to Konami: not a good idea), we'd drop whatever we were doing too. Unfortunately, it looks like Harker might be buried in an early grave, as Double Helix's parent company Foundation 9 has announced that the project is on "indefinite hold." Frankly, we were looking forward to killing vampires using the game's environmental hazards and brutal combat engine.Here's hoping Harker gets another chance to prove his undead-slaying worth.[Via Joystiq]
Foundation 9 melts together Collective and Shiny into Double Helix
Whatever last remnants of identity clung to by both Shiny and The Collective were lost today as the duo were merged together by owner Foundation 9, creating a new, wholly unfamiliar entity known as Double Helix. Studio head Michael Saxs Persson calls the new name and logo, which were chosen from a pool of employee submissions, a "perfect" match for the company, adding that "making games is in our DNA." The founding follows the initial merger, announced last October, and according to Foundation 9 creates a studio "that is now able to build upon its previous experience to gain new heights in quality and efficiency." And all it cost us was our fond memories of a simpler time spent playing the likes of MDK and Earthworm Jim. While the company remains coy regarding what it's up to currently, today's announcement notes that Double Helix is developing a trio of multi-platform licensed games, one of which we assume to be the already announced Silent Hill V.
Foundation 9 to merge Collective and Shiny
Pour one out today for Shiny, which will soon be merged with another dev team, The Collective. Gamasutra's reporting that the developer collective that controls the two teams, Foundation 9, will be fusing them into one as-of-now-unnamed entity. ... May we suggest Shillective?Spearheaded by Dave Perry, Shiny was once a bastion of creativity in the industry, with titles like MDK, Earthworm Jim and Wild 9. The Collective is no slouch themselves, currently helming Silent Hill V, making them the first American company to develop a game in that series. While Shiny has lost some of its luster in recent years, and this new developer's going to be packing a lot of talent, it's hard for us not to be a little sad at the prospect of the house that Jim built finally being dismantled.
Min-E3 exhibitor list shows signs of shrinkage
Arriving like an obituary for the thoroughly deceased E3 of yore, the exhibitor list for the E3 Media and Business Summit 2007 (or Min-E3, if you prefer) provides an interesting glimpse of the event's new format. The list, as unfurled by Chris Remo of Shacknews, represents the exact opposite of E3 in many ways. It's short, manageable and entirely devoid of scantily-clad ladies. And we just lost half the readers with that last link, didn't we? For those that use tabbed browsing: Remo observes that the list has gone from bursting with over 400 exhibitors last year, to containing a mere 33 this year. Of those, two are independent developers (id Software and Foundation 9 Entertainment) and two are peripheral manufacturers (Nyko Technologies and Logitech). Despite the list being primarily filled with major publishers, the event will also host the IndieCade festival, an independent games showcase. While July's Min-E3 represents a welcome departure from the lax entry requirements and inhibitive masses of E3, its reduction to a series of meetings with a focused group of publishers still seems tragically dull when compared to the glitz and clamor of previous spectacles. It's clear that smaller industry groups aren't well represented either, but then, there's only so much room in an aircraft hangar. The full list of exhibitors can be found in the second part of the post.
Dirty Harry developer booted from project?
Foundation 9 developer The Collective is no longer working on a Dirty Harry game for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, according to a GameSpot report. Apparently the studio has undergone a significant downsizing, with an alleged 30 employees being laid off or in the process of being relocated to other Foundation 9 studios. An undisclosed source also told GameSpot that the WBIE team managing the project had "been dissolved."Despite the upheaval, WBIE senior vice president Samantha Ryan confirms Dirty Harry is still on, stating, "We are moving forward with the Dirty Harry next generation videogames and will be changing our development plans in keeping with the best interest of the franchise legacy." Part of that change involves transitioning the game into the hands of a new developer.The future of The Collective and its other title, Harker, are yet unknown.
Foundation 9 grows to Amaze-ing levels
Foundation 9 recently announced a merger with Amaze Entertainment, which will make them the world's largest independent game developer. Guess they were really impressed with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. F9E has been on a roll lately; their now-massive katamari recently picked up Shiny Entertainment as well. Now that F9E has so much muscle to throw around, we can only hope they will use their powers for good ... and maybe a few less licensed games. Then again, previews for Eragon haven't been terribly atrocious, so perhaps there's hope for this new combined power yet.
Watch out EA, Foundation 9 is behind you
When we hear about big developers, behemoths like EA normally pop into mind; however, there is a player in town looking to make waves. Meet Foundation 9. Foundation 9 -- an indie developer -- made the news last month after snapping up Shiny from Atari, adding another development house to its formidable arsenal. This time, Amaze Entertainment (think licensed handheld games) was caught handily in the buy-out cross-hairs. According to Jon Goldman, CEO of Foundation 9, the move was to better diversify F9's already large (725 employees over 11 studios) house. While we're all for seeing the indie crowd get bigger -- it should help make gaming less stale -- how big can you get before you lose that indie badge? If Foundation 9 gets big enough, they'll be able to wield some significant power over publishers and, if that happens, existing publishers will likely go elsewhere. The only options are to stop expanding or join the ranks of "The Man".
