Tom and I sit down with Johan Andersson of Paradox Interactive and Kim Soares of Nitro Studios to talk about Hearts of Iron 3, East India Company and what it’s like for a hardcore strategy publisher at the new E3.
Please excuse the background noise. E3 is a noisy place and Paradox had no ceiling on their meeting room.
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Since I still don’t know what the hell I am supposed to do to make the Crispy Gamer blog software work for me, I might as well post some early impressions here.
Battlegoat’s George Geczy tells me that France has a bimonthly print magazine devoted to strategy gaming, a magazine that gave Supreme Ruler 2020 almost a dozen pages over the course of year.
The editors of that magazine would be very lost at E3. Not only is strategy gaming – once a dominant genre – mostly absent, but the PC itself is a rare bird. The media guide/map, produced by GamePro, likens the golden age of PC gaming to the days when small mammals succeeded dinosaurs. If you are a PC gamer or from a place where PC gaming is still a central gaming development platform (like Europe), E3 is increasingly irrelevant.
Part of the problem is that the biggest PC gaming player is not here. Blizzard says that Starcraft 2 will be ready by the end of the year, but they have their own convention now. EA/Bioware’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic is the only PC exclusive to get any substantial comment in the wave of press conferences on Monday and Tuesday, and all we got was a cinematic trailer. We all know I love cinematic trailers.
Though I’ve been telling a lot of people recently that I think the PC will return as a major gaming platform, Geczy’s anecdote reminds me that platform really hasn’t gone anywhere. As global as the console business is, the console centeredness of gaming seems to be very much an American and Japanese phenomenon. Maybe I need to go to Europe or China if I want to have a convention that tells me all the neat new things I can do with my mouse.
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While I still wait on some replies regarding Rise of Nations, I have to get my E3 schedule straightened out. So far it looks like I have a billion things to see and no time for much of anything like relaxing or eating.
I’ll be there representing Crispy Gamer, so you can follow whatever I write there, mostly on their snazzy group blog. I want to get some previews written up, of course, but the bosses think the blogging will be more relevant and quickly updated. Still, in the evenings I’ll do what I can.
So if you want to follow what I write, you should go there first. If I can, I’ll update here when I update there but it’s just as likely that the posts here will be sporadic.
The highlights of my schedule?
1) An appointment to sit and see Supreme Commander 2 in action. Even though I’m not a huge fan of the original game, Gas Powered Games puts on a nice show and there’s always something interesting.
2) Getting hands on time with Paradox’s Hearts of Iron 3 and East India Company. Johan Andersson and Kim Soares will also join me and Tom for an on-site recording of Three Moves Ahead.
3) EA. Last year they had so much interesting stuff on the floor. Not all of it worked out that well (Red Alert 3 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest for example). But they have energy.
4) Meeting my fellow Crispy crew. I’ve only met a handful of my Crispy Gamer colleagues, and it’s always nice to establish face-to-face relations. As virtual as this business is, the real life meeting is still very important, I think.
5) Seeing old acquaintances and friends. Reconnecting is good.
So, if you plan on being at E3 and want to meet up, drop me a line. My schedule is packed, but I do hope to have a little fun.
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No gameplay shown, though I hope I’ll have some words from E3 next week on SupCom 2. Still, I would probably watch this if it were a movie since the voiceover hits every action movie cliche except “It was a time of war…”
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I played it for twenty minutes or so at last year’s E3 and wasn’t terribly impressed. I may be wrong, since Battlestations Pacific is getting some pretty decent reviews, including this thoughtful one from David Thomas at Crispy Gamer. (Apologies in advance for the persistent pop-up reminder of the upcoming site redesign.)
By the way, be sure to check out Jason McMaster’s videos of the the first 20 minutes of the game at his new video site Frame Rated. I love the idea of just showing how a game starts. Especially when McMaster crashes.
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Take a Hall of Fame level pitcher and a Hall of Fame level designer and maybe magic can happen.
38 Studios (www.38studios.com), an entertainment and original IP creation company, today announced the acquisition of Big Huge Games (BHG) from publisher THQ Inc. The acquisition is a critical step in 38 Studios’ strategy to deliver a broad range of entertainment products centered on its original fantasy IP, codenamed Copernicus. The purchase of Big Huge Games includes all of the company’s proprietary IP, tools, technology, assets, and works-in-progress. Specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Good news? Curt Schilling saves Brian Reynolds like he did the Red Sox a few years ago.
Bad news? It’s centered on “fantasy IP” so no Rise of Nations II, even under a new name, seems likely.
EDIT: Crispy Gamer has an interview with 38 Studios’ Brett Close. The purchase includes:
All rights (including associated code, development tools, and trademarks) to Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, the unnamed RPG and other products in process, and all BHG’s rights and interests in Catan and Age of Empires III: Asian Dynasties. All BHG IP, including registered IP, corporate name, and other non-specified development tools and code. Various software licenses, including Havok , PS3 dev kits, and Xbox 360 dev kits.
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