First off, the battle between Activision and former Infinite Ward workers has intensified, with Activision calling the former members 'self-serving schemers.' The lawsuit according to Activision, claimed that the company FIRED Jason West and Vincent Zampella because the two "morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain."
The lawsuit, according to the Plantiffs Jason West and Vincent Zampella, accuses Activision of firing them just so they deprive the developers of royalties earned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has generated more than $1.5 billion in worldwide revenue since the game launched in November.
When we get involved with Video Games, we don't have much reason to go after each other's throats other than to win, or to whine about how the opposing side cheated. When it comes to game development as a career, publishers and developers fight over who gets their fair share of cash. Reminds you of Goldman Sachs vs the People? But what about Wall Street?
So far, Wall Street has taken little to no notice of Activision's legal drama. The Santa Monica company's shares have steadily risen from $10.94 on March 1, when West and Zampella were fired, to $12.12 on Thursday.
Wait a minute. You mean Wall Street was in on Activision's firing of Jason and Vincent? IT'S A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU! RUN FOR THE HILLS FOLKS!
But enough funny talk. Next up, many owners of the Playstation 3 are upset that the new update will disable their right to use Linux on their systems. However, owners of the Phat PS3s are in for a shock when the new update BRICKS THEIR PS3s.
Some users are reporting infinite loops where the installation routine never completes, others are complaining about the inability to use a variety of different controllers during the process.
But what if your PS3 doesn't get bricked? What if your Phat survives the installation and is alright? It will be alright, right?
Plenty of people who have been lucky enough to get the install to work are saying that Internet connectivity after the upgrade is sluggish, non-existent or subject to frequent unexplained disconnections.
Others are reporting problems with random screen resolutions and HDMI connections no longer working.
OMG! You mean this update will Gimp my Phat PS3? Well I won't install. You can't make me and I have my right to do so.
Many users who have elected not to install the obviously broken update are complaining that they cannot connect to the Playstation Network or play online games. Some are even saying that the consoles will no longer play or eject Blu-ray disks.
Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you'll still *CENSORED* me with these updates regardless if I choose to install them or not?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
But enough of that. Finally, Gamasutra has reported on the Global Market of video game consoles. Those of you who hope the Wii to be in last place are gonna be shocked. According to the report, the Wii owns 47% of the Global Market. That means one thing: THE HARDCORE MARKET IS SHRINKING! But there is one thing that is growing
The report estimated average development costs for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games at $15-$30 million per title. With games that cost that much, game companies need to sell between 500,000 and 1 million units to break even, excluding overhead. Marketing costs can amount to as much or more than the cost of actual game development, the report said.
That's compared to Xbox, PS2 and GameCube games that cost around $3-$5 million to make on average, Ibis said, while Wii games cost $5-$7 million.
That's alot of moolah just to make a video game. I wonder how long till Development exceeds Movie development by more than twice that? But there's more bad news when it comes to Video Game Generations. The report also mentions the rise of Digital Distribution and what may be the end of Video Game Generations.
The report said that the Wii "dominates" the current console generation in terms of revenue share. Ibis said the Wii captures 47 percent of global platform revenue, followed by Xbox 360 with 35 percent and PlayStation 3 with 18 percent. 2009 console revenues were over $30 billion.
Ibis forecast $40 billion of global console-related revenue by 2013, driven by growth in North American and European markets and new "eighth-generation" platforms expected to arrive 2013-2014. Asian console growth is expected to be limited by piracy and MMO and casual games.
Beyond the next generation of consoles, Ibis speculated that digital distribution could eradicate disc-based consoles as we know them. "Digital downloadable content and game delivery reduce likelihood of a ninth generation console cycle, creating potentially significant long term issues for Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and GameStop," said the report.
Folks, this means one thing. IT'S THE END OF THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT! And yet I feel fine. So what will happen when the era of Physical Media in Video Games comes to an end? Stay tuned. And while you're at it, more information on the Global Game report is in the Gamasutra link below.
Works Cited:
LA Times
Thinq UK
Gamasutra
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