WHAM 1: The End of Irrational Games
BioShock’s developer Irrational Games
is officially shutting down after co-founder Ken Levine announced that
he has decided to form a new studio with 15 members of the former
workroom. The new venture will also be under the Take-Two Interactive
umbrella, but BioShock will continue at the same company, only
“in someone else’s hands.” Although the exact number of Irrational
Games’ employees has not been disclosed, the remaining staff will have
access not only to financial support, but also to a period of time to
organize the departure.The reins of BioShock will be handed over to 2K so that Levine can focus completely on “replayable narrative” and have a “smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavour at Take-Two.”
Although in an interview with Polygon last October, Levine stated that his plans did not go further than the completion of BioShock Infinite, it seems that Irrational Games will not live to see the day the game
is released, since it has shut down and a new studio is about to be
formed. The co-founder’s plans with the new team of 15 people is to make
“narrative-driven games for the core gamer that are highly replayable,”
and although the studio thrived for 17 years, Levine is going back to
the roots and now aims at indie games.Many believe that Ken Levine was getting tired of doing nothing but Bioshock. But many also point out that the push for big budget games are what caused Ken Levine to scale back. Nether the less, we wish Ken Levine the best of luck at his approach to a smaller audience.
WHAM 2: Nokia Boss Stephen Elope the new head of the X-Box Division
Stephen Elop may not be Microsoft's new CEO, but the former head of
Nokia is not going unrewarded for bringing the phone manufacturer into
the Microsoft fold. According to an internal memo, Elop will replace
Julie Larson-Green as the head of Microsoft's Devices and Studios
business, putting him in charge of Xbox, Microsoft Surface, and
Microsoft's game development efforts, in addition to the new cellular
handset business. A Microsoft rep tells us that Elop had been slated to
take over Devices and Studios ever since the Nokia acquisition, but
originally Larson-Green would have stayed with the team as a
subordinate.
Instead, Larson-Green is taking on a new role: she's becoming the Chief Experience Officer for the company's Applications and Services group, managing the look and feel of products like Bing, Office, and Skype.
It's hard not to see the move as a demotion for Larson-Green, who rapidly became the woman in charge of Windows after Steven Sinofsky left the company, but who was quickly shifted to Devices and Studios after Terry Myerson stepped up. Now, she's being shifted back to more familiar territory: she spent years working on UI design for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and eventually Windows itself before her rise to upper management. However, that doesn't mean her new role might not be just as important to the company. It was user experience that determined the consumer reaction to Windows 8, and it might be user experience that determines whether Microsoft's services catch on. Under new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was previously in charge of Microsoft's services push, Larson-Green may be literally shaping the look and feel of the company's future.
Instead, Larson-Green is taking on a new role: she's becoming the Chief Experience Officer for the company's Applications and Services group, managing the look and feel of products like Bing, Office, and Skype.
It's hard not to see the move as a demotion for Larson-Green, who rapidly became the woman in charge of Windows after Steven Sinofsky left the company, but who was quickly shifted to Devices and Studios after Terry Myerson stepped up. Now, she's being shifted back to more familiar territory: she spent years working on UI design for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and eventually Windows itself before her rise to upper management. However, that doesn't mean her new role might not be just as important to the company. It was user experience that determined the consumer reaction to Windows 8, and it might be user experience that determines whether Microsoft's services catch on. Under new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who was previously in charge of Microsoft's services push, Larson-Green may be literally shaping the look and feel of the company's future.
For those of you curious, this is the same guy who wanted to spin off the X-Box system from Microsoft. Will he succeed in doing so at this stage? Or will he somehow reverse his trend that he had with Nokia? Time will only tell.
WHAM 3: King's Candy Trademark blues
During the previous month, there were reports of King trademarking the name "Candy," causing a lot of ruckus from small developers and even the IGDA. But recently, it seems King has dropped his trademark of Candy.
The company behind Candy Crush Saga
has withdrawn their trademark application for 'Candy' in the United
States, according to documents they filed with the U.S. Trademark Office
yesterday.
King, the company behind Candy Crush, filed for a trademark on the word 'Candy' last year, which caused a bit of a stir in the world of gaming,
as, well, it's a bit silly to imagine one company owning the rights to
any application with the word 'Candy' in it. Last month, some cheeky
game developers launched the CandyJam, a game jam devoted to making video games with the words 'Candy' and 'Saga' in them.
Yesterday, King filed for abandonment of the trademark in the United States. When reached by Kotaku, King confirmed the trademark abandonment but declined to comment.
It's a darn shame I didn't cover this topic entirely. Imagine what I would do to rip this one apart.
But there is one last thing I do want to point out that is causing a bit of outrage itself.
WHAM 4: Good Ol Games using Regional Pricing(Again)
When the Witcher 2 came out on GoG, something was added that shocked gamers: it was priced differently in different countries. So with the announcement of 3 big titles, the people at GoG had this to say
If you've been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing. The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We're doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don't accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we'll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles. We wish that we could offer these games at flat prices everywhere in the world, but the decision on pricing is always in our partners' hands, and regional pricing is becoming the standard around the globe. We're doing this because we believe that there's no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that's standard for all of the gaming world!
A shocker indeed. But while the loss of a one-price policy is bad, they still have the DRM-Free policy. Let's hope they don't go retracting that.
We conclude the WHAMs in memory of Harold Ramis, who played Dr Egon Spengler on Ghostbusters 1, 2 and the Ghostbusters Video Game. Harold Ramis died yesterday in his Chicago-area home due to the complications from vasculitis. He was 69.
Works Cited:
Guardian Liberty Voice
The Verge
Kotaku
Good Ol Games
