Video Games
IndustryGamers – Interview with EA’s Media Play
Jul 1st
IndustryGamers spoke with EA’s Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice president of Global Media Sales to discuss with her about marketing real-life products using EA’s games. Topics brought up related to The Sims 3 is the Dr. Pepper controversy as well as the Toyota Prius download.
As for the previously announced Dr Pepper deal, Harz stressed that the deal will be “additive” and will not detract from gameplay in The Sims 3 (or future titles that will be announced as part of the partnership). “It’s important as marketers to be respectful of the user experience… We’re not just sticking a Dr Pepper [can] in a game,” she said.
Another recent example of EA’s marketing approach under Harz’s leadership was the Toyota Prius in Sims 3. Those of you who attended E3 may have noticed the Sims 3 branded Prius parked inside South Hall. The partnership with Toyota enabled Sims 3 players to download a Prius in the game, which she said got a very positive reaction.
Gaikai Test Demo – Spore streaming thru Firefox
Jul 1st
CVG reports of a new gaming service dubbed ‘Gaikai’ in which will allow the ability to play computer games setup on a remote server straight thru your Internet browser. He takes a moment to showcase some of the game’s, with Spore as his first demonstration. Personally, I think this is a huge step forward for gaming – those who know little about computer hardware but love to play Computer games would find the most use from this. No longer will they have to consider purchasing a new computer; as long as their internet connection is good they’ll be able to play games straight from the servers.
There are some questions that arise…Spore is mostly a game where you get the most out of it by using creations from the Sporepedia. No idea how this will work regarding this service…
Gaikai Technology Demo (JULY 1, 2009) from David Perry on Vimeo.
“Gaikai is a revolutionary new technology that lets you play any game online in your browser,” says Perry. “In the age of the cloud, when all your documents, email, photos and videos are instantly reachable online, it seems archaic that you still need to install gigabytes of game files on an expensive PC with an even more expensive video card. And even then you can only play from that specific computer.”
Perry continued: “We are not in competition with any other streaming company or technology. Our goals are really simple, to remove all the friction between hearing about a game and trying it out, to help reduce the cost of gaming, to grow videogame audiences, to raise the revenue that publishers and developers can earn, and (most importantly) to make games accessible everywhere.”
More information regarding this project can be found at the creator’s webpage, Dave Perry.
Mockups – Games that should never, ever exist…
Jun 30th
Not the best of the bunch, but hey at least someone had Sims and Spore on their mind when they were creating these. Check out GameSpy to catch spoof boxarts based on Left For Dead, Infamous, Portal and more!
Spore Mario Kart – what happens when you merge two great games
Jun 26th
This is insane! The talented Fotosynthesis literally created a Mario Kart race track using Spore Galactic Adventures! You too can enjoy the fun and excitement – download it here!
Dr. Pepper to operate and insert EA into their products
Jun 24th
IndustryGamer reports that tomorrow, EA will release an official statement about a marketing deal between them and Dr. Pepper. What’s the perfect game to use as it’s first victim? The Sims 3!
The first title to take advantage of the deal with be The Sims 3 (starting early 2010), and other titles will follow. The overall campaign will include co-branded retail initiatives as well as “unique gameplay enhancing items.” On the retail side, EA will work with Dr Pepper to put codes on more than 500 million specially marked Dr Pepper packages, which can then be used to unlock “exclusive premium downloadable content that may include one-of-a-kind beach party items or all the elements of a perfect fall tailgating party.”
“The Sims team is particularly excited about this offering because the Dr Pepper team shares our passion for introducing its brand to our player community in ways that will add to the players’ experience,” said Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Global Brand Development for The Sims. “This will include exclusive downloadable content available via our TheSims3.com community site. We have huge confidence that this ‘opt-in value add’ will have our players thinking very kindly of the Dr Pepper brand.”
I predict come tomorrow we’re going to here moans, groans, “EA’s a sellout” and many more complaints. I, however, am extremely happy as I drink Dr. Pepper every morning for breakfast! I’ll probably end up paying for it in cavities, but its okay – I’ll just find a dentist who is a Sims fan and give them some free content 
NintendoLife – SimEarth Virtual Console review
Jun 23rd
If you’re a veteran of the genre, then you may find enjoyment to be had in SimEarth. Everyone else would be well advised to think twice about delving into the game, as its overwhelming options and dated visuals can present a difficult to enjoy experience in the wrong hands. SimEarth is not a bad game, it just hasn’t aged very well. If you can get past that barrier then you may very well enjoy the unique ride provided.
As Will Smith said in one of his hit movies, Independence Day – “Welcome to Earf”
No more weekly NPD sales charts make kitty cry ;(
Jun 22nd
For some unknown reason, NPD will no longer release their weekly PC charts. Instead, they’re sticking with the monthly sales figures. This means we’re going to have a much harder time figuring out how well a game did – until a month of it’s release. Oh well, at least it’ll still leave the results from Direct2Drive and Steam – even though I don’t post them. Perhaps I should start to, as well as the UK Charts. Not right now, but I’ll consider it for next week.
Source of the bad news: Shacknews
SimEarth hits Wii’s Virtual Console (US)
Jun 21st
Yes! I never did have the chance to play the original game, so I’m going to try to download this to my Wii when I have some spare time!
Link here (thanks GoNintendo!)
IndustryGamers – Interview with Will Wright on Spore, Sims, Stupid Fun Club and more
Jun 17th
WW: I don’t think it was widely reported, but alongside this whole [Stupid Fun Club] thing, I also entered into a consulting agreement with EA. I’m spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions. So I will [still] be involved with EA on developing the Spore franchise as well.
IG: Well, fans will be happy to hear that. With that in mind, considering a theoretical Spore 2, what about the first Spore would you like to change or improve upon for a sequel?
WW: As soon as we released it, because we’re giving so much involvement to the players, we ended up learning a lot from seeing what the players do; we’ve already seen a lot of unexpected stuff happening in the player community that we’re learning from. We’re finding out cool areas the fans want to bring the game in, what direction they want the tools to go, what experiences they’re enjoying in the game the most, which levels they enjoy the most. So I think now we’re at a maximum learning where the fans are going to be steering the franchise as much as we will – they have their hands on the steering wheel too. We’re listening to criticisms of parts of the game, we’re looking at parts that were unexpected successes and we’re going to go in other directions with Spore.
I think part of it is stuff we wish we had done, but it’s more what we see the fans wanting us to do. We’re going to probably add more depth to different areas of the game – and we’re certainly already doing that with the Galactic Adventures expansion pack – and we’re also taking output from the tools in different directions, so you can take your creatures you made in the creature creator and bring them into different experiences.
When you get Will going, you get alot from the dude! He chats with Industry Games about many topics – the Stupid Fun Club, whether we’ll see Spore on PS3/Xbox 360, Artificial Intelligence – and more!
IGN’s Command Prompt Podcast: Episode 49
Jun 17th
The IGN PC team uploaded a new podcast – episode #49 – covering the E3 awards, The Sims 3 and other misc. topics.
The IGN PC Team was basically down to two people this week; unfortunately, we couldn’t find a kid to make this the Two and a Half Men podcast. This is what happens when Steve ditches us to go on vacation, but that’s okay. We’re still in the post-E3 doldrums, but at least we have the recent E3 awards to discuss. And, yes, we really, really liked Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Meanwhile, Jeff admits to trying to hunt down a copy of The Sims 3 (for his wife, he says), Jason discusses his favorite homeless sims, and we answer many of your questions. How do you leave a question, you wonder? Just go ahead and post one in the comments field below. And feel free to post a review or thoughts on iTunes, as well.
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