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In delivering his company’s Q2 2010 financial results, CEO Reed Hastings stated, “Before our next [earnings] call in October, we expect to be launching a major new version of our Sony PS3 user interface which doesn’t require a disc, and is dynamically updated continuously with the latest Netflix UI improvements. Great news. Via Joystiq. Click for high-res photo
In delivering his company’s Q2 2010 financial results, CEO Reed Hastings stated, “Before our next [earnings] call in October, we expect to be launching a major new version of our Sony PS3 user interface which doesn’t require a disc, and is dynamically updated continuously with the latest Netflix UI improvements.

Great news. Via Joystiq.

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Beginning early May, I will join Apple as global editorial games manager, App Store. In a nutshell, I will be leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team. I couldn’t be happier.

Bye IGN, Hello Apple «  Mouth on Fire - Matt Casamassina, former editor at IGN of their N64, GameCube, Wii, and Wireless/iPhone channels. Hands-down my favorite gaming journalist in the business. Apple couldn’t have picked a better guy for this role.

Thanks to Gamasutra’s Twitter for the news and the story.

Transformers War For Cybertron Ironhide And Skywarp — Joystiq - I’m getting excited about this game from the simple fact that the art for it has been awesome. Coming June 22. Click for high-res photo

Transformers War For Cybertron Ironhide And Skywarp — Joystiq - I’m getting excited about this game from the simple fact that the art for it has been awesome. Coming June 22.

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Valve to Deliver Steam & Steam on the Mac Thanks to John Gruber of Daring Fireball for the link to the Wired story that includes a great quote from Dan Connors of Telltale Games: “We have games that run on the Mac and we have games that run on Steam, so our goal is to be there,” Connors said. “We think they’re going to do a great job with getting the Steam client over there and we want to continue to be a part of it.” I imagine a lot of other game developers are saying the same thing. Click for high-res photo
“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360.

Valve to Deliver Steam & Steam on the Mac

Thanks to John Gruber of Daring Fireball for the link to the Wired story that includes a great quote from Dan Connors of Telltale Games:

“We have games that run on the Mac and we have games that run on Steam, so our goal is to be there,” Connors said. “We think they’re going to do a great job with getting the Steam client over there and we want to continue to be a part of it.”

I imagine a lot of other game developers are saying the same thing.

Based on the teaser images, it seems likely that all of these titles will also make their way to the Mac. This leads us to believe that Valve has ported their Source game engine over to the Mac, which would allow any future games based on this engine to be easily launched for the Mac. Alternative [sic], Valve could be using Transgaming/Cider for the translation. The Significance of Steam and Valve’s Games for Mac - Mac Rumors This is a big deal for gaming on the Mac. If Valve has indeed ported or rewritten their Source game engine for the Mac, it’s an even bigger deal. Not only would Mac users have access to a great game distribution platform, but game developers would also have access to a game engine that could easily target Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and OS X. It would make the case for developing Source-based games for the Mac a no-duh proposition. Plus, I don’t see how Valve could justify this hype if all they’re doing is using Cider to act as a graphics translation layer. That’s nothing new, and anyway, who would want to base an entire business venture on another company’s inelegant graphics translation product? I hope Valve sees it the same way. Update 3/8/2010: They do. Click for high-res photo
Based on the teaser images, it seems likely that all of these titles will also make their way to the Mac. This leads us to believe that Valve has ported their Source game engine over to the Mac, which would allow any future games based on this engine to be easily launched for the Mac. Alternative [sic], Valve could be using Transgaming/Cider for the translation.

The Significance of Steam and Valve’s Games for Mac - Mac Rumors

This is a big deal for gaming on the Mac. If Valve has indeed ported or rewritten their Source game engine for the Mac, it’s an even bigger deal. Not only would Mac users have access to a great game distribution platform, but game developers would also have access to a game engine that could easily target Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and OS X. It would make the case for developing Source-based games for the Mac a no-duh proposition.

Plus, I don’t see how Valve could justify this hype if all they’re doing is using Cider to act as a graphics translation layer. That’s nothing new, and anyway, who would want to base an entire business venture on another company’s inelegant graphics translation product? I hope Valve sees it the same way.

Update 3/8/2010: They do.

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Perhaps that’s not the same as truly driving us toward faith. But perhaps more’s going on in modern, big-name games than I’ve given them credit for. Assassin’s Creed II (despite Ubisoft’s reluctance to talk about it) tackles real issues of religion and faith, even if I may not like the conclusions. Heroic fantasies like Dragon Age: Origins challenge me to be the hero, and perhaps as Wyatt suggests, I can carry that sense of heroism into the little things in my life — being a better parent, a better friend, and yes, a better believer. And maybe that’s enough.

GameSpy: God’s PR Problem: The Role of Religion in Videogames - I am genuinely surprised, and impressed, by this article’s exploration into the role religion plays in video games. Surprised that it’s asking serious questions (on a level I haven’t seen since Next Generation magazine, the best gaming publication ever), and impressed at the quality of the article and the designers’ responses.

This is good gaming journalism, folks. Good job, GameSpy, and thanks to Julian Murdoch for looking for meaning in today’s games.

What could I say that would be more awesome than this picture? Nothing. Except knowing that it’s art for this game. Click for high-res photo

What could I say that would be more awesome than this picture?

Nothing. Except knowing that it’s art for this game.

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3. Design from the heart.
Write / design around things you’re passionate about. Put yourself into your work and show the world who you are. What do you love? What do you hate? Why? All notable film makers have a stamp, something that appears in their work and speaks to who they are. These themes will always come through to your audience, giving your work a sense of your self.
IndieGames.com - The Weblog - Opinion: Indie Game Design Do-s and Don’t-s: A Manifesto - If you consider yourself a creative person, you owe it to yourself to read this list. Applies to any creative profession, really, not just making independent video games.
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Yet the truth is, Broussard’s financial freedom had cut him off from all discipline. He could delay making the tough calls, seemingly forever. “One day, Broussard came in and said, ‘We could go another five years without shipping a game’” because 3D Realms still had so much money in the bank, an employee told me. “He seemed really happy about that. The other people just groaned.

Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem | Magazine - It’s not about what other people are doing and outdoing them, it’s about doing something you love and making it great. Broussard clearly thought he had to outdo everybody to make something great, so he spent all his time outdoing and never did ship Duke Nukem Forever.

At least the talent that worked for 3D Realms are working on other projects now (hopefully).

Philip K. Dick’s Defense of Video Games < Columns | PopMatters

Solid article on the validity of video games as an art form. In my own opinion, we’re still in the nickelodeon phase of gaming, but games like Uncharted are showing us the Hollywood-style storytelling potential of games, while games like Passage are showing us something new that defies correlation or analogy. I think like film, there will be more than enough room for both styles of presentation and play. Which by implication means that I personally think video games are unquestionably an art form.

(via Instapaper)

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It’s ironic because it is precisely the hardcore Nintendo fan who is most influenced by the company’s changed practices. With the rare exception — a morsel of food for the starving — we are not getting the titles we want because Nintendo has hit upon a winning formula, which is to make quicker, cost-efficient software, sit back and then reap the rewards. The expanded audience doesn’t read every word about the next title in the Legend of Zelda franchise. It doesn’t care if New Super Mario Bros. isn’t as beautiful as it could and should be. We do. And yet many of us defend Nintendo even when its motives benefit the business, not the players. We celebrate its monthly sales victories and then we re-play Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and Smash Bros. while we sift through Nintendo’s cash-ins on the way to its next big thing.

Column: Nintendo is Lazy and You Don’t Care - Wii feature - at IGN : I couldn’t help but agree with Matt Casamassina’s article about Nintendo’s apparent disregard for making all their games truly exemplary. I caught my first whiff of “why-not?” suspicion when I couldn’t take Yoshi to other levels in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Think about it: in Super Mario World, once you got Yoshi, you had him as long as you could keep him. And not only could you take Yoshi to every level (except the castles, I know), but every level had something in mind for him.

Why couldn’t they do this with Mario Bros. Wii? Why couldn’t Nintendo make Animal Crossing look and play something like an actual new game? Why couldn’t Nintendo make a new version of Pikmin or Donkey Kong Jungle Beat rather than rehashing old GameCube titles with Wii controls (that sometimes don’t quite work)? Matt’s conclusion is they’re more worried about the bottom line than about gamers’ experiences. He sums it up nicely with this line, emphasis his:

And so what if New Super Mario Bros. Wii plays and looks like the DS title before it? Who cares if the game’s graphics aren’t dazzling? It’s fun, isn’t it? That’s what matters.

If the Wii is proof of anything, it’s that taking risks and making bold strides in a new direction are rewarded handsomely when executed right. Nintendo deserves respect for the gumption it took to make that move. But, as Matt’s article points out, what matters is that Nintendo shouldn’t just be making fun games, because lots of companies do that. What Matt wants, and what I want, is Nintendo to always make Nintendo games. And that means the very best that anyone can make.

Continuity: A Flash Puzzle Platformer

A puzzle game that involves rearranging the play window itself. Super cool idea.

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This coming Monday - November 23 - sees the release of the original SNES Mario Kart, for 800 Points. Good news. Better news is to come, though, as “sometime this holiday season” Nintendo will also release the original SNES Pilotwings and the original N64 Smash Bros. Exact release dates and pricing to come on those two.
Virtual Console: Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Pilotwings, All Coming - Virtual Console - Kotaku : The only game I’ve spent more time playing than Super Mario Kart is Goldeneye 007. We’re talking hundreds of hours.

Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter? - NYTimes.com

An all-around solid article on the independent gaming movement. Quote: “‘These games have used what is innate to games — their interactivity — to make a statement about the human condition. And we in the industry seem to not be able to do that.’”

Games, I think, have the most promise for true innovation in human expression. That’s the main reason I find them, and articles like this one, so interesting. That, and I grew up playing video games and love a good, fun video game. If you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360 (or both, like me), you really should check out Flower and Braid. Both are absolutely amazing and beautiful games that really function more as experiences—they each give you a very distinct feeling. Last I checked, that’s what art does, too.

Creative Uncut - Video Game Art Treasury

I was hoping something like this existed. Oh Internet, how you have it all.