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| Indian conglomerate cracks 50% of Codemasters
April 5, 2010 at 12:52 PM
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| Reliance Big Entertainment acquires half of Dirt publisher for undisclosed sum; racing, cricket franchises targeted. 
In June 2007, Balderton Capital expanded its holdings in Codemasters, building upon the 40 percent stake it had previously acquired to buy out the British game company's founders. Now, the venture capital firm will be sharing control of the publisher, as Reliance Big Entertainment announced today that it has acquired a 50 percent sharehold in Codemasters. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Reliance Big Entertainment is the media arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which is ranked among India's top three largest businesses. The entertainment company's Hollywood ventures include a partnership with Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider to form DreamWorks Studios, as well as development deals with production houses ranging from George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions to Brian Gazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment Reliance Big's investment in Codemasters will fall under the entertainment company's Zapak label. The Indian gaming company is primarily known as a provider of online casual games and boasts 8 million registered users through Zapak.com. Zapak also publishes a variety of massively multiplayer online games in India, including Runescape and Crazy Kart, creates mobile wares through its Jump Games division, and owns more than 100 Internet cafes. "We are excited to partner with Codemasters and believe its very strong technology, development, and distribution presence will complement our global gaming portfolio," said Zapak CEO Rohit Sharma in a statement. "Additionally, Zapak's global strength in mobile gaming will enhance Codemasters' ability to fully leverage its attractive franchises such as its racing and cricket games." Codemasters is perhaps best known for its racing franchises, which include Dirt, Grid, and Formula 1. Other franchises in the publisher's stable include cricket simulation The Ashes, Overlord, and Operation Flashpoint. The publisher also recently announced Bodycount from Black lead designer Stuart Black, which is due for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation during the first part of 2011. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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| Shippin' Out Apr. 4-10: Borderlands Add-On Pack
April 4, 2010 at 3:44 PM
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| Retail combo of Gearbox shooter's Dr. Ned and Underdome Riot DLC leads an anemic week of new releases. 
With many publishers' fiscal years ending on March 31, it's not entirely surprising to see a bit of a release schedule letdown to start April. That said, the letdown is more like a meltdown this year, as the week of April 4 is one of the lightest in recent memory, in terms of new retail releases. Even the biggest retail release of the week, the Borderlands: Double Game Add-On Pack, is just a sampling of already available downloadable content for Xbox 360 and PC. Take-Two's brick-and-mortar Borderlands expansion will sell for $10 and includes all the content from The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, the first two DLC packs. The package will not include February's Secret Armory of General Knoxx. The only other high-profile debut for the week will be downloadable only, as Electronic Arts is set to launch the Kasumi - Stolen Memory add-on for the Xbox 360 and PC editions of Mass Effect 2. As detailed in GameSpot's first look at the add-on pack from this year's Game Developers Conference, the pack's primary draw is the addition of the titular new character, Kasumi Goto. Described as a master thief, Kasumi comes with her own loyalty mission in which players aid her in stealthily retrieving information from the criminal mastermind Donovan Hock. The Kasumi - Stolen Memory pack also includes a new research upgrade and introduces the flashbang grenade, which temporarily blinds enemies. For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later in the week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change. April 4, 2010
No new releases announced. April 5, 2010
No new releases announced. April 6, 2010
Borderlands: Double Game Add-On Pack--X360, PC--Take-Two Interactive
Squishy Tank--DS--Natsume
Mass Effect 2: Kasumi - Stolen Memory--X360--EA April 7, 2010
No new releases announced. April 8, 2010
Satisfashion--Wii--Destineer
Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West--PC--Paradox Interactive April 9, 2010
No new releases announced. April 10, 2010
No new releases announced. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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| Sega scrapping Iron Man 2 developer
April 2, 2010 at 7:56 PM
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| Sega Studios San Francisco (formerly Secret Level) being shuttered after completion of feature-film-based multiplatform game.
Though Iron Man 2 won't even arrive in stores for another month, the fate of its developer has already been sealed. Sega has confirmed to Gamasutra the closure of its Sega Studios San Francisco outfit, previously known as Secret Level. Secret Level was founded in 1999, when it began work on the critically acclaimed Dreamcast port of Unreal Tournament. The studio was acquired by Sega in 2006 as part of an increased emphasis on Western development. Since that time, the studio has launched two titles for the publisher. The first was the 2008 movie tie-in Iron Man, which left reviewers cold but sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. Secret Level's encore later that year didn't fare as well, as Golden Axe: Beast Rider was a flop, drawing negative reviews and selling fewer than 42,000 copies in its first three months on US retail shelves. It didn't help matters that the game was launched the same day as heavily hyped hits like Dead Space and Saints Row 2. It's unclear how many employees were laid off as a result of the studio closure. Sega had already downsized its US operations in early 2009, with reports at the time suggesting as many as 30 employees had been laid off at Secret Level. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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| EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft tune in to tie-ins
April 2, 2010 at 5:28 PM
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| MI6 2010: Marketing reps explain the speed bumps and benefits when taking projects like Dead Space, Assassin's Creed, and Halo from the small screen to the big screen and beyond. 
Who was there: Frank O'Connor, franchise development director for Microsoft's Halo publishing label 343 Industries; Dan Morris, director of strategy and development for Electronic Arts; and Andy Swanson, senior director of consumer products for Ubisoft. What they talked about: Swanson began the session by explaining the difference between entertainment brands and game brands. He said entertainment brands like Spider-Man, Transformers, and Pokemon all expanded well beyond their original medium. Swanson was particularly impressed by Lego Star Wars, which is actually a combination of two existing entertainment brands that is in itself a unique, third brand. Swanson said what makes something an entertainment brand is that fans can interact with it in a variety of ways, from books and movies to theme parks and games. As for what makes for a good entertainment brand, Swanson said they need to have fleshed-out characters that consumers like and some storytelling potential, as well as be a shareable experience to foster discussion. Swanson said he looks to Marvel as an example of doing the brand-building task right. The company narrowly avoided going under entirely in 2000, in large part because it took a more active role in licensing and putting its characters in as many different forms as possible. While game companies dabble in this, Swanson said it could be done better. At the moment, he said gaming brand extensions are largely limited to book and comic publishing, apparel, toys, and higher-end collector's items. Morris took over to explain a change in EA's approach to brands in recent years. He said the publisher basically spent two decades creating original intellectual properties but never gave a second thought to extending those brands beyond the world of games. While there was a comic book here or a tie-in there, Morris said there was no coordinated effort and no opportunity for the company to learn from its past mistakes. To remedy that, EA centralized its brand-extension efforts. One small team now works with all of the developers to coordinate their project's leaps beyond the gaming screen. The publisher's slogan, as articulated by John Riccitiello, is IP Cubed: Create, Sequel, Extend. Morris is focused on the "extend" part of that equation and started going over the publisher's attempts to break onto the big screen. To get into movies, EA allied itself with people that knew how to make movies better than EA did. The publisher has an exclusive deal with United Talent Agency to set up motion picture deals for a variety of its key properties. Morris said the good news is that with UTA and the original IP EA owns, the publisher has been able to land a few deals, specifically Dante's Inferno, Dead Space, Spore, and Army of Two. Morris said EA is hands-on with all of those projects because the worst thing for the company would be for these films to get made--but get made poorly. While Hollywood film production is riddled with pitfalls, EA isn't waiting for those projects to get made before establishing itself in films. Morris pointed to the Dante's Inferno and Dead Space: Downfall animated features created with Film Roman as efforts to push their brands into different aisles of the local department store while the company waits for its Hollywood projects to come together. The company is also planning to release further animated projects to tide fans over and "act as the glue" between major releases of a series. Swanson discussed Ubisoft's recent experiments with short films, saying the publisher wants to keep control of its own IP but also learn about the process of filmmaking in the process. The effort started in 2008, when Ubisoft purchased Montreal-based Hybride Technologies to collaborate with its game makers on new projects. The first product of that union was Assassin's Creed: Lineage, an episodic series of short films created to promote Assassin's Creed II (the full film was also aired on Spike TV around the game's launch). The next step for Ubisoft is to bring in some filmmaking talent, Swanson said. The upcoming Ghost Recon: Future Soldier short film will be the test for that, as the company has Oscar-winning short film directors Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy helming the 30-minute film. Ubisoft has also teamed with Ridley Scott's Little Minx to produce the project. The Future Soldier project will set the stage for the game, which is scheduled for a fall release. A trailer for the short showed Ghost Recon troops equipped with an abundance of high-tech toys, including remote-controlled mobile artillery pieces, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, and light-bending active camouflage equipment. For his part of the presentation, O'Connor shared some of the lessons Microsoft has picked up after a decade of working on the Halo franchise. He said the most important thing for any franchise in any medium is that, "You have to own your own universe." He said Call of Duty is a bigger franchise than Halo at this point, but Activision doesn't "own" the universe. A Hummer appearing in anything Call of Duty would still need to be licensed, and there's no monopoly on historical events. Once a company has its own universe, O'Connor said it needs to understand that universe, as well as the audience for it. Nothing can stay the same forever, but knowing what the heart of the universe is and why people like it helps shape good decisions about what to change. O'Connor said that Microsoft has a long-term plan for the Halo franchise, but it has changed over time. While O'Connor said an opportunistic strategy is bad, it behooves a publisher to dabble in areas where it isn't an expert as it can pay dividends. In particular, O'Connor said Halo toys and pajamas turned out better than expected. At the same time, O'Connor stressed that "You have to do what's right for your franchise." Microsoft approved a version of the board game Risk for Halo Wars because the basic gameplay of Risk could be fairly easily mapped to the Halo universe. However, the company passed on Halo Monopoly because it just didn't make sense with the license. Another hurdle to clear is the ESRB age gate. Since the ratings board mandates that M-rated games not be marketed to children, O'Connor said Microsoft has to be very careful about what ancillary products it tries to sell and how it tries to sell it. Quote: "It's not the same as the video game industry in any way. They are not necessarily about selling things."--O'Connor, on the lessons learned from dabbling in the film industry with Halo Legends. Takeaway: Gaming is still at the tip of the iceberg as an entertainment medium. Examples of massive entertainment brands that sprung from games may be limited today (Pokemon, for instance) but should be significantly more common in the future. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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| BioShock 2 marketers on submerging users in viral campaign
April 1, 2010 at 5:42 PM
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| MI6 2010: Two of 2K's top salesmen talk about the mixed blessing of promoting a sequel to a blockbuster original with a rabid fan base. 
Who Was There: 2K Games director of marketing Tom Bass and VP of marketing Matt Gorman. What They Talked About: Gorman started off the presentation by acknowledging that following BioShock was both a blessing and a curse when it came to marketing BioShock 2. The original game's "rapturous" critical reception ensured the second game would receive attention but also made for a fan base that was suspicious of any extension or alteration of what they loved about the first game. The new development team at 2K Marin was also an issue for the first game's fan base, even though the studio was formed around a heart of key talent from the original BioShock team. The first step for Bass and Gorman was simply titled "Throw Out the Marketing Plan." They ditched everything that was done with marketing BioShock and started fresh for the sequel. The team started by focusing on the "new-ness," specifically the Big Sister character. At the outset, they focused heavily on the Big Sister. However, it quickly became clear that they couldn't just keep talking about the Big Sister for another year. That led to the second step: "Throw Out the Marketing Plan." Starting fresh, they tried to cram every new element of the game into a single panorama to convey how different BioShock 2 really was, from new characters to multiplayer. While it worked on paper, the execution was convoluted, so it was once again time to "Throw Out the Marketing Plan." The third time was the charm, as the team distilled the appeal of BioShock 2 down to a handful of key factors (the Big Daddy, the Little Sister, the deterioration of Rapture) that carried the marketing campaign through the final push. The BioShock 2 media blitz was focused on making everything "a destination." They introduced the launch trailer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (where Epic Games will unveil a new game next week). They created a wealth of high-quality renders and gave each to just one magazine for a poster insert, making each new piece of marketing something of an event. Another aspect working in the marketing team's benefit was the BioShock fan community, specifically the Cult of Rapture Web site. Bass emphasized the respect 2K's marketing team had for the community. Those fans are very sensitive to being marketed to, he stressed, so they created the "Something in the Sea" Web site, which told bits and pieces of a story about the fictional character Mark Meltzer, whose daughter was kidnapped and taken to Rapture. They showed some of Meltzer's mail on the latter site, and the first person to send in a letter to his real-life address received back a letter from the character asking for help with deciphering some clues. That prompted an avalanche of mail, Bass said, comparing it to a scene from Miracle on 34th Street. The marketing efforts continued to ramp up, with 2K sending out mock telegraphs on Meltzer's behalf to people who had written in, or sending out splicer masks, wine from Rapture, a record single of music from the game, and other props. Appropriately enough, Something in the Sea wasn't all smooth sailing. Bass said they had to call some narrative audibles in their Mark Meltzer promotion when the game was delayed to February, as their original storytelling schedule had to be stretched months longer than expected. There was also the issue of trying to register a P.O. Box using a fake name, something the government frowns upon. Bass didn't explain how he got around that, but he did say it was a story better told over drinks some other time. The Meltzer promotion ended with a virtual manhunt. Bass didn't mention the Halo 2 I Love Bees campaign by name, but the BioShock 2 campaign echoed it in some respects, with the community's collaborative online efforts helping to fill in parts of a larger story. That core community of rabid fans is one that needs to be catered to, Gorman said. They're starved for content, and a successful marketing campaign will provide them with as much as they need, even if that amount changes along the way. "Marketing plans are dynamic nowadays," Gorman said. "With the advent of DLC, we can't just market games like we did in the old days." Quote: "It's all bull**** to them. They hate marketing people. They hate all of us…We can't market to them, so this was our way of engaging that audience in a meaningful and sincere way." --Bass, on why the Meltzer campaign was needed in the first place. Takeaway: The BioShock 2 promotional campaign went far beyond 30-second TV spots, and it went further--and longer--than the marketing team originally expected. Gorman and Bass had to roll with a few punches along the way, scrapping things that didn't work and refocusing on the things that did. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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