Hello Games' Sean Murray believes that risk-averse publishers and their penchant for safe-bet sequels at the end of a console cycle means fertile ground for indie developers willing to try something different.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at the Eurogamer Expo, Murray said that publishers who aren't willing to endure a little risk for the reward of innovation are short-sighted, calling a lack of innovation "dangerous".

"The thing that I see is that we're approaching, strange though this sounds, the end of this console cycle. I think in the next three years we're going to see the end of this console cycle and the beginning of a new one. I think whenever that happens the last few years are filled with a lot of licenses, sequel etc," Murray stated.

"I'm really excited that there are these new ways to create games, like digital download, XBLA, PSN. A lot of the stuff on Steam is way more interesting to me than a raft of new sequels at next year's E3 for example. I'm a lot more excited for that stuff, and I think a lot of people are."

"You see the way that Minecraft, for instance, is on fire at the moment, you know? People want innovation, it's just that at this stage, publishers don't want risk - and that's what they're saying. I think that's really short sighted, to me, but then I'm a small developer. I think it would be really risky not to innovate at the moment. "

Ubisoft European MD Alain Corre summed up the attitude among AAA publishers last month when he told GamesIndustry.biz that Ubisoft feels safer investing big budgets in one solid franchise rather than spreading money on varied, smaller titles - precisely the gap that Hello Games and its contemporaries are filling.

"The games that are not triple-A are not profitable anymore," said Corre. "When you have a triple-A blockbuster it costs more money to develop, but at the end of the day there's also the chance of a good return on it because there's a concentration at the top of the charts.

"To a certain extent it becomes less risky to invest more in a single game or franchise than spreading your investment between three or four games. Because if those three or four games are not at the right quality level, you are sure to lose money," he added.

This has, however, left plenty of opportunities for smaller developers to fulfil the needs of gamers craving innovation and new archetypes. Hello Games own Joe Danger, a PSN exclusive made by a four-man team, broke even on its development costs on the very first day on sale.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...asy-for-indies ...

EA's share price fell by 6 per cent last night, apparently following the release of and critical reception to rebooted shooter Medal of Honour.

The game currently holds a 74 (PS3) and 76 (360) per cent review average on Metacritic - likely to be considered disappointing for a high-profile modern combat title intended to compete with Call of Duty.

Failing to achieve 85-90 per cent is "a black eye for EA management given the amount of focus and hype they have placed on the game," reasoned Cowen and Company analysts Doug Cruetz and Adam Noily, in a post-release assement titled "Early Medal of Honour reviews look decidedly Tier 2."

"We believe the mixed reviews could impact the title's legs as it will likely be competitively disadvantaged once Activision releases Call of Duty: Black Ops. We continue to believe MoH can achieve roughly 4MM units in first year worldwide sales but believe that the likelihood of upside to that figure is now significantly diminished."

Cowen felt EA's planned revenue recovery over the next year was endangered as a result of Medal of Honor's predicted performance, and rated the publisher's stock neutral.

In a statement to the LA Times, EA attempted to shrug off the lower-end reviews, drawing attention to a number of higher-scoring ones.

"Critics' scores are highly subjective," it said. "The game had the highest pre-orders in the 11-year history of the Medal of Honor franchise; this is an essentially big achievement considering Medal of Honor has been dormant for several years.

"This is the first year in rebooting the franchise. Medal of Honor is part of a larger EA strategy to take share in the shooter category. This is a marathon not a sprint -– today's Medal of Honor launch represents a step forward in that race."

Other analysts felt the share price drop might be due to artificial levels of inflation in the game's much-hyped run up to release.

Said Eric Handler of MKM Partners to The Wall Street Journal, "This is a high-profile game where EA owns the [intellectual property], which can result in above-average margins as no license fee or royalty has to be paid to another entity."

"As such, I think it's a situation where some of the air is being let out of the balloon following a nice run in the shares and high expectations."

Lazard's Colin Sebastian agreed, noting that EA's stock risen some 15 per cent over the last six weeks, but noted that the mid-level reviews were "certainly bugging people."

EA's initial share price drop of $1.05 had recovered by $0.09 at the time of writing.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...e-ea-share-dip ...

Sony has reportedly nullified the threat of PSJailbreak in its current form by locking new PS3 game code to the console's 3.42 firmware.


While recent releases like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Enslaved are still vulnerable to the USB-based hack, Digital Foundry suggests new PS3 games - beginning with this week's Medal of Honor - are not.

The site reports that the recent PS3 firmware release 'appears to include an all-new decryption key not present in earlier versions'.

It adds: 'Medal of Honor and all titles going forward are encrypted with the new key, meaning that the Jailbreak in its current form has been effectively nullified: the existing firmware it's based on simply can't read the code.'

It's good news for Sony ahead of major holiday season releases like Gran Turismo 5 and Call of Duty: Black Ops, although we wouldn't bet against the hackers fighting back in the near future. They're nothing if not persistent.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Following the leak of the news earlier this week, Sony has released the first official information about the upcoming LoveFilm service heading to PS3.
Described as “the most significant extension to date of LOVEFiLM’s direct-to-TV rollout”, the service will provide both instant streaming rentals over PSN as well as the capability for users to manage their LoveFilm account directly through the console.
It will all be managed via a dedicated app installed to the XMB.
“We know there is a huge interest within our audience for film, and so the addition of Lovefilm to our current range of services is a very natural fit and one which significantly enhances the value proposition of PS3,” SCE UK MD Ray Maguire stated.
“Lovefilm has a proven track record of success and innovation in the film distribution field and is a very welcome addition to the PlayStation family that I’m confident PlayStation gamers will embrace enthusiastically.”

LoveFilm’s chief executive Simon Calver added: “This is game-changing for LoveFilm and transformational for the UK home entertainment market as a whole.
“PS3 already has a very large installed customer base of all ages, all of whom will soon be able to benefit from our unique combination of instantly available content, streamed through their PS3, as well as DVD, Blu-ray and games rental by post. To become PS3’s partner for our service is a tremendous endorsement of the value, choice and convenience offered by LoveFilm.”
A launch date for the service has not yet been announced, though it’s expected to be some time in November.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41318/Sony...-LoveFilm-deal ...

Danish block building specialist LEGO has revealed an intriguing alternative to Nintendo’s standard WiiMote – the Play & Build Remote.
As is probably obvious, being a LEGO product the twist here is that users are able to build their own accessory. Well, partially at least. The unit comes more or less fully built, with buyers able to customise it by swapping around some of its decorative building blocks.
Kotaku says that the peripheral will be released in North America later this week for $40. There’s no word on a European launch as of yet.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41312/LEGO...tom-Wii-Remote ...

If you fancy yourself an Xbox Live Indie Games developer, you might have noticed a change to the XNA Creators Club today. In conjunction with the unveiling of Windows Phone 7, it appears that Microsoft has quietly changed the Creators Club to the much more generalized "App Hub." The site purports to offer resources for developers to create applications for both Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360, though the site currently seems to favor the former.

In fact, the Education Roadmap section -- which introduces would-be programmers to XNA Game Studio -- only offers tutorials for Windows Phone 7. Of course, it's understandable that Microsoft would want to recruit as many programmers as possible for its new baby. There are still examples and code snippets for Windows and Xbox 360 programming, but hopefully we'll see some more robust introductory tutorials in the future.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/11/mi...s-now-app-hub/ ...

It has come to our attention that one of Lord Vader's emotionally conflicted "Starkiller" clones has escaped. Again. We are currently unable to acquiesce to any transfer requests, and advise troopers who encounter Vader's twirling pet to remain calm, even in the face of his terrifying "dual-wielding" of lightsabers (see: ELEGANT WEAPONS chapter in "CIVILIZED AGES, THIRD EDITION"). Firing upon him is foolish and is not recommended under any circumstances whatsoever. Note: A self-inflicted wound from a deflected laser bolt will NOT count toward your appalling accuracy rating.

If an encounter is unavoidable and you somehow survive, you will most likely require medical attention. Be sure to bring any severed limbs to the medical bay along with your person. While it is preferable that arms and legs match the serial number of the torso, there is some degree of convenient interchangeability offered by the fact that you're all clones. Complaints of mismatched items being "gross" will not be tolerated.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/12/st...o-now-on-xblm/ ...

Disney Interactive Studios has sent us a note announcing a November 16 release date for the PlayStation Portable version of Split/Second, the demolition racer that debuted on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in May. The new game will introduce an additional track (for a total of 13) and challenge mode to the explosive proceedings, and offer four-player ad-hoc multiplayer. Hint: Don't worry about burning bridges so much as dropping them on your former friends and opponents.

We hope the art of catastrophe evasion translates well to PSP -- you'll note the graphics haven't avoided a significant downgrade -- and that Disney's promise of platform-specific control tweaks holds up. We don't need high-definition to spot the plane coming right at us, do we?

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/12/sp...this-november/ ...

Okay, now that we've got a bigger shot of this thing, we can definitely say that it's neither a Pre nor a Pre Plus... so assuming it's not some sophisticated fake, you're feasting your eyes on Palm's next-gen model here. Given how close it is to the model it'll presumably be replacing, we can't help but feel like the Pre 2 should've actually been the phone we call the Pre Plus today -- and it should've launched six (or more) months ago -- but in the event webOS 2.0 doesn't come to older devices, we suppose that alone will be the impetus some current owners need to upgrade. 'Course, the 1GHz processor should be nice, too. Hit up the source link for a few more shots of it slinking around the wild; meanwhile, we await Palm's move on an official announce.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/12/p...2-in-the-wild/ ...