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Marvel not doing 'crappy' movie games anymore, says exec
Marvel Executive Vice President of Global Digital Media Group (wow, long title) Ira Rubenstein tells Joystiq that Marvel is done making "crappy" movie-based games. The executive told us that while the company would like to have games tied to the release of movies, each character should stick to their own worlds. He used the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine game as an example of what the company is looking to do. The M-rated Wolverine game was clearly not based around the PG-13 escapade in theaters. "We are not doing movie-based games anymore," Rubenstein said following yesterday's announcement of Digital Comics for PSN at Sony's GamesCom press conference. "Actually, wait ... we are not doing crappy movie-based games anymore. You can quote me on that." Oh, we did. Rubenstein tells us that work on Iron Man 2 has been in process since the first game wrapped. He wasn't involved in the first one, so he asked us not to blame him for that wreck. However, he swears the second one is going to be good. He's also really excited about the Thor game and seems proud with the team working on it. If Wolverine is any indication of future Marvel games, it seems that Rubenstein is doing his best to make sure fans of the comics won't be served watered-down Hollywood entertainment.
Palm and Verizon looking to take shine off Apple and AT&T
In a minefield of failed "iPhone killers" one is making some headway on fulfilling that murderous promise: the Palm Pre. Perhaps it's no surprise: the Palm Pre was conceived by a team that includes plenty of Apple alumni, including Jon Rubenstein, who was made Palm's CEO yesterday to replace Ed Colligan. (John Gruber reminds us of one of Colligan's more famous quotes.) Rubenstein used to be the general manager of Apple's iPod division. Not only that, but Fred Anderson, Lynn Fox, and Mike Bell are all connected (if not employed by) the re-energized Palm. Valleywag's Ryan Tate says it's no wonder, then, that the Pre syncs with iTunes right out of the box. Competition is good, though, right? We'll see improvements to both the iPhone and the Pre because of the products' competitive relationship with each other. Look at the rivalry between Canon and Nikon: The result? Awesome cameras both. In the end, the customer wins. This is true with carriers, too, as exclusivity agreements begin to expire. There were rumblings that the Pre would be released on the Verizon network around Christmas, but blowback from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse pushed the rumor mill's schedule back a month to January 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal. Watercooler talk suggests that the iPhone's exclusivity agreement with AT&T expires around the same time for U.S. customers, but the Magic 8 Ball says that we might not see an iPhone for Verizon until both they and AT&T finish their LTE networks. If you're using a Pre with your Mac, especially if you're taking advantage of the iTunes sync capability, let us know in the comments how it's going.
