Activision's Dan Winters, head of developer relations, has spoken out about what he feels are misconceptions of the company's image, telling GamesIndustry.biz that it's not so long since his company was the plucky underdog.
Winters' comments come as part of an exclusive interview about the general state of play at Activision, in which he is keen to point out that the company has a great deal of respect for developers, something he hopes is reflected in public perceptions of the publisher.
"I would like to think that we spend a lot of time, and I individually spend a lot of time thinking of ways to reach out to the development community and show that we have respect and complete admiration for what they do on a daily basis," Winters argued. "I hope that there aren't any hard feelings and I hope there isn't any reluctance - I've certainly not felt it directly.
Before our merger with Blizzard we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two.

Dan Winters, Activision

"A business is a tough thing to manage on a number of different fronts, especially when you're dealing with a creative community like video games or interactive entertainment. Any time that I do hear anything of concern I do try to dispel it. The overall message that I would love people to get out of any time they actually get detailed information about us or my personal approach is that we have admiration and respect for the talent in this industry.
"We recognise that the success we've had as a company comes from the talent of those individuals and those teams. We would like to think that we're able to compliment that talent and high-quality product with the ability to move things through the right channels, and that's great, I think that's part of our magic sauce. But without really high quality product, and without the passion and talent behind it, we recognise that the business is only the business. I hope there's no reluctance, I certainly haven't felt it directly."
Recently, in an interview in Edge magazine, three high level ex-Bizarre Creations staff spoke about their experience during the notice period and subsequent closure of that studio by Activision. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there was an impression that the process had been handled with a sensitivity and tact, with the offer sitting on the table to buy back the studio as an independent concern.
"I'm sorry that people were surprised by that," Winters responded when the interview was raised. "With all of our internal studios we have built a process, Bobby [Kotick, CEO] has really done this directly himself, built a process for the independent developer model, that allows them to retain their own culture, their own visibility, their own leadership, really to drive the stewards of the brands. I think those are important pieces of ownership, as it's loosely defined.
"I think that's an important part of people coming in and having a passion and being able to exercise that passion as opposed to going in and being called publisher's name plus location. That takes some of the individuality away from that studio, and maybe some of their ability to personalise, to put in passion and ownership into their studio process. So I think we've done a good job of that through the years."
A large part of the negative perception of Activision's behaviour doubtless comes from its success. As Winters points out, it's wasn't too long ago that EA was sitting in Activision's current position: number one in terms of revenue, and wearing the heavy badge of the 'Evil Empire'.
"It's interesting, before our merger with Blizzard, becoming the number one publisher from a revenue perspective, we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two. As soon as we become the number one and we develop broader perspectives, perceptions started to change a little bit.
"We've worked very hard, and continue to do so, to let people know that, you know, we're the same guys, we really are. We haven't changed! I'm the same guy that I was before the merger, as are most of us. We're the same organisation. We haven't gone out and hired 3000 people. Our ability to scale and move quickly is the same as it was before. We're not this big, monolithic empire that's making decisions in a dark room, we're still very collaborative. We still have the same healthy respect and appreciation for talent that we ever did."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...olithic-empire
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D3Publisher's Earth Defense Force franchise has earned itself another Japanese number one this week, although it does so with just 64,000 unit sales and amidst little competition.
The PSP title is a version of PlayStation 2 game Chikyuu Boueigun 2, which was never released in North America and only in Europe as Global Defence Force. However, it is the best regarded of the series by fans and part of a push by D3Publisher to promote other new entries in the franchise.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Professional on the Nintendo DS sold just 42,000 units at number two in the charts, with third-placed dating simulator Amagami selling just 24,000 units.
The only other new entry in the top ten is manga and anime tie-in Kimi ni Todoke: Tsutaeru Kimochi, which sold 11,000 in its debut at number seven. Number 10 title Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity on PSP sold just 9,000 units to secure its place in the top 10.
There is some positive news for the 3DS format though, with one of the three versions of nintendogs + cats returning to the top 10 at number eight. The system is unlikely to see a significant boost though until next week, when Pilotwings Resort is released.


http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...umber-one-spot ...

The PSP has again outsold the 3DS in Japan, with sales of Nintendo's new handheld dropping by 10,000 units to just 32,910.
All formats have seen a drop though in what has been a very slow week for the market in Japan, with the best-selling software title recording just 64,000 unit sales.
According to data obtained by Andriasang, sales of the PSP-3000 alone dropped by almost 22,000 in just the space of the week, to a total of 35,478. Combined sales with 356 units of the PSPgo stood at 35,834.
The PlayStation 3 experienced a drop of 5000 units to 22,431, but remained easily the best-selling home format. Wii sales fell by around 1500 units, dropping to a four digit total of just 8825.
The Nintendo DS family of consoles sold 16,935 units in total (DSi XL: 8386, DSi: 8035, DS Lite: 514) - a drop of just over 2000 units. The PlayStation 2 was down a few hundred to 1395, but the Xbox 360 was up slightly to 1906.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...again-in-japan
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A report by tech industry analysts Gartner believes that half of all organisations which 'manage innovation processes' will gamify those processes by 2015.
The study concludes that gamification in marketing and customer retention programs will be "more important than Facebook" by 2014, citing programs such as the DWP's Idea Street and recruitment tool America's Army as prime examples of the process.
"Gamification describes the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change," said Gartner analyst Brian Burke.
"Enterprise architects, CIOs and IT planners must be aware of, and lead, the business trend of gamification, educate their business counterparts and collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities within the organization."
Key points of gamification were identified in the study, which splits the advantages of the process into the four distinct branches of accelerated feedback cycles; clear goals and rules of play; compelling narrative and a successful challenge/achievement balance.
"Where games traditionally model the real world, organizations must now take the opportunity for their real world to emulate games," added Burke. "Enterprise architects must be ready to contribute to gamification strategy formulation and should try at least one gaming exercise as part of their enterprise context planning efforts this year."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...on-on-the-rise
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Following speculative comments from analystsreported earlier today, Game Informer has stepped up citing 'multiple sources' that claim Nintendo will indeed announce a new console this summer.

According to these anonymous sources, Nintendo is preparing to make the announcement at E3 in June 'if not sooner'. They also claim it will be a HD console comparable in power to Xbox 360 and PS3, although GI notes that it's unclear if it'll surpass or fall short of those consoles in terms of processing power.




According to the report, the system is headed for a late 2012 release, but Nintendo is already showing the console to third-party firms in an extra effort to drum up interest and offer plenty of time for development of launch games.

"Nintendo is doing this one right," GI quotes one source as saying, in regards to its support of third party firms on the new machine after being criticised for its lacking support of third parties with Wii and DS.

"[It's] not a gimmick like the Wii," they also added, although they shared no further information on any other features - whether it will be backwards compatible with Wii games, how it will support online and, crucially, how its controller will work.

Elsewhere, Kotaku says it's "heard" the new Nintendo console will be more powerful than the current-gen systems.

Nintendo has issued 'no comment' statements in regards to the rumours, although it apparently signed off an email to GI with "Stay tuned".

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

News via http://retroactionmagazine.com/retro...games-issue-3/

The third issue of C&A Games has been released. The spin-off from Polish publication C&A Fan is dedicated to Commodore gaming with news, reviews, interviews and more. This issue Polish readers – and others with patience to translate the articles – can look forward to reading the likes of Flimbo’s Quest, Predator, Night of the Ninja, Berzerk MMX, Final Fight, Uwol, as well as articles on the Boulderdash history, 64DTV and more. The magazine can be downloaded in PDF format for free from the C&A Fan website.
Weblink: C&A Games 3 page at C&A Fan ...

News via http://retroactionmagazine.com/retro...aniac-issue-3/

Another fine issue of RetroManiac has hit the virtual shelves. This is the third issue of Spanish language retrogaming zine, which covers both classic and modern retro with news, previews, reviews and more. Taking centre stage on the front cover and the main review is Donkey Kong Country Returns. There are also reviews of La Corona Encantada, Hard Corps Uprising, Final Fantasy II, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and more. Classic retrogaming highlights include Loading articles (mini reviews) of the original Donkey Kong, Fred (Spectrum), Wing Commander (DOS), Quackshot (Mega Drive), Contra (Arcade), Gynoug (Mega Drive), Moonwalker (Arcade) and more. Other articles include Visions of the past: Navy Seals (Game Boy), a two page news article on the MSXDev’10 competition, a look at the current homebrew scene, a build yourself an arcade cabinet, a Final Fantasy series lookback and a profile of Accolade. All this and more can be found at the RetroManiac page for free.
Weblink: RetroManiac issue 3 webpage ...

News via http://wololo.net/wagic/2011/04/12/r...-wagic-0-15-1/

Wow, I must say it’s been a while. Yes, the last Wagic release was almost 4 months ago. I’m the lazy one here. Between real life, the genesis competition, the whole HEN crazyness that happened, it was difficult to find time to put into Wagic. Thankfully, I’m not the only one working on Wagic anymore, and thanks to the incredible dev team, this update is impressive, as usual.

What is Wagic?
Damn, do I still need to introduce Wagic? Often compared to commercial games for its replay value and quality, Wagic is a heroic fantasy card game, in which you fight as a wizard against the computer. As you win battles, you unlock new game modes and earn credits that allow you to improve your army. Wagic is community driven, entirely customizable (you can create themes, mods, even new rules), available in several languages (English, French, German, spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Serbian), and open source. It currently runs on the Sony PSP, Windows, Linux, and N900 (maemo). We are also working on ports for other devices such as the iPad, and we are still looking for devs to help on that


What’s new in this release of Wagic? Well the major point is that more than 1000 unique cards were added. Wagic now supports more than 7700 unique cards (which, if you count the reprints, means more than 13700 cards), thanks to the incredible work of Zethfox, Dr.Solomat, and 840126. But that’s not the only new stuff in this release, check this out:

• More than 1000 new cards. Wagic now supports more than 7700 unique cards, 13700 cards total, including the new set MBS (thanks go especially to Zethfox, Dr.Solomat, and 840126)
• (Windows) Mouse version improved, some bugs fixed, overall controls have been improved (Xaw Otihs)
• Threading support for image loading. Overall this should make image loading a bit smoother (Mootpoint)
• Support for actual button icons instead of text (Mervin, Mootpoint)
• New Wallpapers by Kaioshin
• Translation updates (thanks to all translators!)
• Added new keywords/abilities for card creators. Hopefully we will find the time to edit the wiki and add documentation for these new keywords, for now you’ll have to look into the new cards to see what’s new
• Various performance improvements
• Many, many, many bug fixes

http://wololo.net/wagic/download ...

News via http://wololo.net/wagic/2011/04/13/t...big-interview/

Recently I interviewed Coldbird and Virtuous Flame, the creators of CFW Pro. It is now time to take a look at the other side of the force. As you may or may not know, all the Custom Firmwares / Homebrew Enablers for recent firmwares rely on the same base: a Kernel vulnerability discovered and exploited by Total_Noob a few months ago. Total_Noob used this exploit as the base for his largely used Homebrew enabler, TN Hen.
I had the opportunity to chat with Total_Noob about his ongoing projects for the psp, so read along if you want to learn about the upcoming features for TN-HEN E…
Read the rest of this entry » ...