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Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment begins 'Level 2' fundraising
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in San Francisco held a Kickstarter fundraiser last year to put money together for a public space, and that round of fundraising resulted in a successful gallery showing of some old early 3D games. Now, the museum is at it again, trying to raise money directly for the next six months.It's called the "Level 2" campaign, and the Museum is trying to raise another $20,000 for various events and programs. Anyone who donates more than $25 will be able to get a gift of a sticker or a t-shirt. If you don't want to go through PayPal, the museum is accepting donations directly at its Oakland location as well.The museum has been holding video game tournaments, programming classes (seen above), and open hours every week, and is now home to the GamePro archives. The donation campaign will run through March 31.
Protip: GamePro gives up on print and online
Gaming magazine icon GamePro announced that the November issue – its first quarterly installment – will be its last, after 20-plus continuous years of publishing. The website will also be closed, effective December 5, IndustryGamers reports. If you're looking for gaming content, expect to be redirected to "the PCWorld GamePro channel on pcworld.com," publisher IDG says. And that means that GamePro's editorial staff is out, while PCWorld's will attempt to make up the slack. But GamePro isn't going away completely; instead, it's "refocusing its US business exclusively on its growing custom publishing and solutions business." That means custom content, like the E3 show daily, which publisher IDG and GamePro historically produce. But for you, dear reader, GamePro is dead. So we leave you with the above video, of a simpler time, when magazines still ruled and jean jackets were still cool. RIP GamePro, and good luck (former) GamePro staff.
GamePro VP talks about the shift to quarterly mags
Last week, GamePro shocked the industry when the magazine mainstay announced it was changing over to a quarterly format. Julian Rignall, vice president of GamePro media, recently explained the decision to Gamasutra. In a market with dwindling circulation, Rignall believes there's still a place for print. According to the executive, the choice is either to become incredibly cheap and "disposable" or, as GamePro plans to do, become a more expensive, premium product. Rignall said their just isn't a place for "sort of six, seven dollar magazines that are kind of cheap and a bit crap with low production." Magazines, to him, are no longer an impulse purchase, and most gamers can get their info on websites (like this one) anyway. According to Rignall, today's magazines are sold to a different kind of customer, "sort of upper-middle-class NPR listeners," that have "a level of connoisseurism about what they like." In addition to targeting a different kind of consumer, GamePro will also reduce distribution, limiting to locations where "we know they'll sell." Also, thanks to the quarterly format, breaking news coverage will take a backseat to "more thoughtful" coverage. Rignall likens it to "a magazine that kind of celebrates gaming in the terms of its sort of context within history, what's kind of going on now and where it's going." Head over to Gamasutra for more on the new GamePro, including Rignall's belief that even if it fails, he hopes it will usher out the era of gaming magazines "in style."
GamePro magazine switching to quarterly schedule
One of the few active gaming publications that can truly be labeled "seminal" is drastically revamping how its physical version comes to consumers. Beginning with its Nov. 8 edition (Winter 2011) GamePro will become a quarterly magazine that will not only pack a bigger size per issue (15 percent larger and with 50 or so added pages) but a heftier price tag: $9.99. It won't just be bigger, though: GamePro Media says that the new mag will offer "a visually stunning, tactile experience and rich, engaging editorial." So, basically, quality over quantity, or (perhaps more accurately) quality and some quantity over frequency. We're looking forward to seeing the results.
LucasArts releases an official statement to Star Wars Galaxies fans
For a majority of MMO players, the announcement that Star Wars Galaxies was shutting down came as no surprise. However, many SWG loyalists have been extremely upset by the turn of events, blaming everything from the hacks on Sony earlier this year to the impending release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. SOE CEO John Smedley stated in his interview with us that the security breach and SWG's shutdown were unrelated. Furthermore, Community Manager of SWTOR, Stephen Reid, stated emphatically on the TORWars podcast that there was no relationship between the date of SWG shutting down and the release of The Old Republic. Lastly, GamePro posted a statement directly from LucasArts about the efforts put into keeping the MMO alive: The decision to shut down the game has not been an easy one. SOE and LucasArts investigated every option to keep the game open, including taking it to a free to pay model. However, that model just isn't financially viable. Changing the business model for an experience like Star Wars Galaxies takes a major investment and overhauling of the existing infrastructure of the game. We're unfortunately at a point in our life cycle where a change of this magnitude is just not possible. The harsh reality is that we've reached a point where the game is no longer a sustainable business. None of us wanted to see this point, but we're extremely proud of the last eight years of the game and the community that has supported it. We have a lot planned between now and December and we want to make sure that from now until then, we send off Star Wars Galaxies in a style befitting such a great game. We'll be right there in the game with everyone else, counting down until the end, making sure we connect with all the friends we've made over the past eight years. It may be bittersweet, it may feel like it's happening before it should, but we have approximately five months remaining where we can all enjoy the game together. We sincerely hope the community will join us. Read the article on GamePro and check out Massively's full interview with Smedley for more information.
Black Prophecy wins "Best of Free-to-Play" at Gamescom
Gaming publications Gamestar and GamePro were keeping an interested watch on the happenings at Gamescom last week, and earlier this week they handed out their own round of awards. Gamigo and Reakktor Media received top honors in the free-to-play category for Black Prophecy, beating out several other nominees including Battlestar Galactica Online and Mytheon, another Gamigo game. "We feel quite honored. This award is recognition for all the hard work our team has put in over the past few years," said Kirk Lenke, CEO of Reakktor Media. The full story can be read on Gamestar's site in the original German or an English translation.
GamePro leak reveals Killzone 3 will be in 3D
Besides sports and movies, videogames are expected to be another huge driver for 3DTV, and Sony is apparently ready to get behind it with one of its showcase franchises for the PlayStation 3, Killzone 3. Featured as a cover story in this month's GamePro the entire game is compatible with today's 3D HDTVs using active shutter glasses (of course) but there's no exact word on the formats being used. Check the Gamespot forums or look for the issue on newsstands June 1 for more info.
Killzone 3 revealed in next GamePro -- and it's 3-D
One of Sony's major E3 titles has been revealed slightly ahead of time. Sony and Guerrilla Games are delivering on Jack Tretton's impromptu promise: Killzone 3 is real, and you'll be able to see it for yourself in the July issue of GamePro, on shelves June 1. A subscriber spilled the Helghan beans on the GameSpot forums, also revealing that the game is playable in 3-D, with the effect requiring the use of glasses (oh, and a 3-D-capable television). GamePro has confirmed the cover story to Joystiq. That means that Killzone 3 is going to be a showpiece for Sony's 3-D technology, and therefore we should probably expect to hear a lot about it at the company's E3 presentation.
News article sparks debate among Community Managers
An article at GamePro caused a bit of a stir in the gaming industry yesterday, sparking discussion on a topic covered at this year's PAX East -- namely, that of the history of Community Managers and what their jobs entail. Now, there is a fair amount of background to AJ Glasser's article that we won't delve into, because the comment that many readers focused on was this one: "Before Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb -- who holds the ambiguous title director of programming for Xbox Live -- community managers were mostly forum moderators, people whose job entailed monitoring message boards and weeding out trolls. " Not so, said many current CMs. Familiar names such as Daeke and Aether began popping up in the comments section of the article, contending that Community Managers were much more than forum mods before Major Nelson came on the scene. The conversation began in the article's comments section and continued via Twitter with quite a few people in the industry lining up to join the debate. The discussion offers several varying opinions and is definitely worth following if you've got an interest in the role of community management.
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions teased by GamePro
We were busy ogling the suitable-for-framing cover art of the May issue of GamePro just posted by mag boss John Davison when we noticed a title we didn't recognize: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Considering how well-informed and handsome we all are, we were understandably stymied. Unfortunately, Activision declined to comment so we don't know any more than you do about it at the moment, though we have to assume this is the previously-announced upcoming Spider-Man game, which supposedly won't suck. Hopefully we'll have more for you when the issue starts hitting subscribers in the coming days.
iPhone Street Fighter IV has eight characters, will cost $10
GamePro has dropped some details on the iPhone version of Street Fighter IV, which is due out in March. The site has word that Capcom will sell the game for $9.99 on Apple's App Store, and that it will feature a total of eight characters: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, M. Bison and Abel. While it hasn't shared any gameplay impressions yet, it did post a video, which you can see after the break. Surprisingly, the game looks just like Street Fighter IV, with the ultra moves, same colorful art style and other graphical touches from the bigger console versions. We're still not sure about playing with the touchscreen "buttons," though -- while they aren't in the way as much as we thought from the original screenshots (most of the fighting takes place in the middle of the screen), not having that tactile feedback could be a problem. Still, the game looks good. No exact release date yet, but like all those people hanging out in the backgrounds of these fights, we'll be watching. %Gallery-86253%
Kill Screen gaming mag aiming for highbrow readers
Between John Davison recently promising a revitalization of GamePro, Steve Harris' purchase and subsequent relaunch of EGM (as EGM Now), and now the announcement of "Kill Screen" from Jamin Brophy-Warren and Chris Dahlen, it's been quite the year for gaming magazines. But Kill Screen seems to be taking a decidedly different approach to publishing, aiming its first print run at "2 or 3,000 copies," Brophy-Warren told us this afternoon. With an editorial directive to thematically tackle game writing -- and no obligation to the traditional reviews/previews/news format due to a donation/subscriber-funded, non-profit approach -- Kill Screen intends to avoid the mechanical nitty gritty that plagues game writing. "A great example of that is with Brütal Legend," Brophy-Warren said. "Tim Schafer had to come out and defend the RTS elements ... When we talk about games critically, it's not going to be in that sense." The first issue, the "test run" or "zero issue" as it's being called, will be finished in "the next week or two" and shipping by January. Brophy-Warren added that he's hoping the second issue will be ready for GDC, but he's not so certain. And as for the short initial print run, he says "Everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?" and encourages people to subscribe to insure they'll get a copy. We wish them the best of luck!
GamePro shutters BlogFaction websites, focusing on GamePro.com
For those of you visiting BlogFaction.com in the past day or two, the news that the handful of GamePro-owned sites aggregated there (including GameGirl and GamePro Arcade) are being shuttered isn't exactly fresh. The closing of the "BlogFaction" branded sites comes just weeks after the announcement of new leadership under ex-1UP/WhatTheyPlay owner John Davison. Joystiq spoke with Davison this afternoon about the change and confirmed that while the sites will remain online, they will no longer receive any updates. "We've invited all the BlogFaction contributors to pitch stories to GamePro," Davison told us. "A lot of my emphasis is going to be on building up online and really trying to think of GamePro as 'GamePro, the brand,' not just 'GamePro, the magazine' ... I started last week and the charge I was given was to help reboot GamePro as a brand." He explained that the reasoning behind discontinuing updates to the BlogFaction sites is to refocus effort on GamePro.com, and his next focus is on delineating between GP content that works online versus that which works in print. He left us with the hint that we'll hopefully be seeing the fruits of his labor by early next year.
What They Play's John Davison makes leap to GamePro
More and more, we're seeing evidence that the days of favorite faces being permanently associated with certain outlets are a thing of the past. GamePro announced today that John Davison (formerly of What They Play and 1UP) would serve as executive vice president of content at its long-running magazine and website, a week after Garnett Lee left 1UP to head editorial content for GameFly. Davison's most recent project was recently sold to IGN. In an official statement, Davison said he hopes to "reshape GamePro as a thoroughly modern integrated media brand," a strategy that we give five screaming happy faces out of five.
Metareview: Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
Did you know that Dead Space: Extraction landed in stores this week? It's true! We certainly dug it in our Snap Judgment, but in case that just wasn't enough for you, we've compiled a few other folks' opinions on the game just below. Worried about not seeing that beautiful screaming face in the future? We are too, folks. We are too. GamePro (100/100): "An experience that's more captivating and engaging than any light-gun game I've ever played before. [The story] mirrors Dead Space's thoughtful dialogue, characterizations and pacing which is a good thing all around." GameDaily (80/100): "Although we questioned EA's decision to do this, as well as bring Dead Space to the family centric Wii, everything clicks and the game's surprisingly enjoyable. Instead of conjuring up a cheesy narrative (as seen in other shooters like Ghost Squad), the developers put a lot of effort into the story and its characters." Eurogamer (80/100): "Gameplay is straightforward, yet it's a refined familiarity, borrowing numerous elements from the original Dead Space in abundance while wrapping them around the well-worn demands of a typical on-rails shooter ... One area that definitely benefits from the on-rails nature of Extraction is the overall pacing. Sometimes you creep along agonisingly, other times it feels like the enemy onslaught is never going to end. There are few occasions where you don't come away feeling like your scraped through by the skin of your teeth, and even on the game's lowest 'Normal' difficulty, there's a definite sense of achievement when you get through." Giant Bomb (60/100): "Extraction's marketing campaign would like you to think of it as a 'guided experience' that whisks you through the dramatic beginnings of the series' horrible space-monster outbreak, but in blunt terms, Extraction is an on-rails shooter. Blunter still: it's a light-gun game. These days, that's not a style of game serious game players usually gravitate toward. But keeping the genre's inherent restrictions in mind--not to mention the limitations of the Wii hardware -- Extraction is really pretty good, for what it is." %Gallery-49881%
Metareview: The Conduit (Wii)
While you're patiently waiting for the end of the week so you can cash that paycheck and pick up High Voltage Software's The Conduit for your Nintendo Wii, why not take a gander at what the rest of the interweb had to say about the game? Considering the lack of correlation between Metacritic scores and the sales numbers of Wii games, though -- at least according to Peter Moore -- you probably shouldn't let these numbers get to you too much. GamePro (70): "The Conduit is the closest you will get to recapturing the magic of Goldeneye ... To be blunt, The Conduit is a by the numbers shooter that offers a couple of thrills but ultimately doesn't make much of an impact ... anyone who loved Goldeneye will want to give a look as well if only to get a nice dose of nostalgia, but the rest of you shouldn't feel a need to abandon your favorite next-gen shooter for this one." GamesRadar (80): "The Conduit is fun, controls well, and is, at times, quite beautiful ... Both humans and alien drones are animated with competent physics and personality that puts High Voltage Software's Quantum3 engine outside the realm of the "GameCube 1.5" criticisms ... The truth is you probably wouldn't bat an eye at The Conduit had it appeared on PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 ... The solid, yet unremarkable single-player won't win any awards, but The Conduit still features the most finely honed online outings available on Wii." IGN (86): "The Conduit is not a revolutionary first-person shooter, but it's a damned good one ... the title features the tightest, most comfortable control scheme of any console-based first-person shooter to date ... The Conduit features a robust list of modes and maps to play online and nearly 20 weapons to use as you rip through arenas blasting foes ... it's not revolutionary, but The Conduit is a great first-person shooter designed just for Wii owners." %Gallery-33787%
BioShock 2's Big Daddy revealed on GamePro cover
GamePro is promising that its upcoming July issue will blow the doors off of the sequel to 2K's undersea shooter, BioShock. Of course, by the time it hits newsstands, you'll probably be full to the gills with all the the BioShock 2 details you can handle -- we're sure to hear a ton about the game during E3.Fortunately, GamePro recently offered a delicious morsel to its potential readers, uploading the Big Daddy-infused cover of the upcoming issue to the mag's online edition. You can check out the full cover -- and the design for BioShock 2's diving suit-wearing protagonist -- after the break. As a point of reference, here's the original Big Daddy. And here's a poster for the hilarious, heartfelt Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy. And here's professional wrestler Big Daddy V! Wait, we forgot what we were doing ...[Thanks, Storm Eagle!]
GamePro to publish indie games, free magazine
Set to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, GamePro -- and parent company IDG -- has made an unexpected announcement: it's getting into the business of publishing games. As reported by GameDaily, the newly formed label, GamePro Labs, will focus on publishing games from independent developers.The label's official site makes mention of Xbox 360, PC, Zune, iPhone and PlayStation Network platforms, but is light on specific release plans. Game submissions are being accepted, although GamePro does say it will only be publishing a limited number of tiles each year. The company will act as a sort of "middleman" between indie devs and platformer holders, in addition to handling payouts and "regular promotion in GamePro Magazine." The latter hopefully refers to ad space and not any sort of paid editorial consideration. Titles from three currently signed developers will be announced at GDC later this month.GamePro has also announced plans to produce a free, custom edition of its magazine for distribution exclusively at 7-Eleven stores. The convenience chain began selling games last year (and breaking street dates on them shortly thereafter).
Two GamePro executives leave amid news that everything is great
Two top executives at GamePro magazine, President and CEO Daniel Orum and SVP and Publisher Bob Huseby, have left the company. GameDaily reports that Huseby will be joining Wikia, and Orum's next position is unknown. Concurrent with these departures is the arrival of Ziff Davis's Marci Yamaguchi Hughes as executive vice president and general manager.GamePro Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director George Jones told GameDaily that the shifts were a "weird confluence of events that aren't related at all." He said that the publication is "in a really good place now," especially since the loss of major multiplatform competitor Electronic Gaming Monthly.Remember when Ziff Davis went bankrupt last year, and said it wasn't actually bad news for its magazines? We're hoping that this isn't a similar situation, and that those two executives really did leave at the same time for basically no reason.
See Resistance 2's Leviathan boss
While GamePro is sharing the goods on Resistance 2 in its latest issue, we know that not everyone is a fan of getting their game news off the rack so we thought we'd share the first couple of screens from the magazine's cover story. Posted by the PlayStation Blog, the shots give us a look at Chimera-occupied Chicago as well as the city's resident boss, a massive 300-foot Leviathan. Honestly, we don't know if we're more excited to collect the Trophy for dropping this baddie, or simply watch him rip through downtown, Cloverfield-style.%Gallery-26754%
