I was spending some time today finalising some of my new projects at the Consolarium for this year when I decided to have a final look at recent and forthcoming releases for all major games consoles. Lots of great stuff coming up but one title that really caught my imagination is the game of the film of the book by Neil Gaiman called Coraline. Now, For those of you into your graphic novels then you'll recognise Gaiman's name from Sandman. I've also read another of his books called Neverwhere which was bizarre and surreal but eminently readable so Coraline is now on my list for purchase this Saturday.
Anyway, although the release date is January 2009 it seems that it just can't be got yet! No sign of it at all on any of the major retailers sites. AS soon as it comes out a copy will be in my hands because I think that this has potential. Have a look and check out the black button eyes in the 'other people'...
In terms of bridging that gap between games and quality narrative I feel that this title might have something real to offer. It might be the case that the game and the book could be studied in tandem? Is this an approach that might work and even bring a new dimension into understanding and relating to the characters and plot? There is also the aesthetic of the stop-motion nature of the movie and the beautiful design which is most similar to The Nightmare before Christmas. Just think what something like I Can Animate by Kudlian could offer learnrs here: making their very own Coraline-esque short movie stop-motion animations. So much to offer here I think that this could be a new must try for schools.
The clips available so far online really look stunning and the short snippets, as well as the game trailer video clip, that I've seen have really made me want to stray into and getv lost in the narrative and mystery of Coraline's 'other world'. This short clip is quite disconcerting, particulalry when you're the last one downstairs and it makes me think that ther suspense that this book/game presents might just give it that edge for it work within an S1/S2 scenario! Will be more sure once I've read the book.
I think there is real scope for suspending learners disbelief with this resource and for taking them to this 'other world' when in class..where their creativity can be inspired by both the story/writing and the aesthetic of the movie adaptation. I'm sure the game will also help encourage and excite those involved. Looking forward to getting my eyes and hands on it.
Ten more stories for Wednesday including - shotgun fetish, a terrific rant about a dumb games-based news report, and a serious game that just might save your life...
Shares in Electronic Arts rose 12 percent to $17.36 in morning trading, following management's announcement of substantial cost-cutting measures.
EA said Tuesday that it would now be cutting 1,100 jobs, 10 percent more than previously announced. Management also has plans to shut down 12 facilities and narrow its product portfolio.
School and college students across the UK are being challenged to create a computer-animated one-minute film.
Using programs such as Alice or Scratch, UK students can either form teams or go it alone in designing their own short animation piece, with the winning entries being displayed at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry’s Animation Festival later in June.
Disney reported this week that its Interactive Media Group's revenues were up during the ficsal first quarter, though the segment incurred an operating loss.
The segment, which includes Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Online and mobile operations, generated $313 million in sales for the October-December quarter, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year. Operating loss was $45 million, down from operating income of $13 million a year ago.
LittleBigPlanet has been awarded a Platinum Sales status by industry group ELSPA, meaning the title has now sold over 300,000 units in the UK.
Videogame rental house Gamefly has acquired independent gaming website Shacknews and its file downloading site, Fileshack.
GameFly co-founder Sean Spector said in a statement on Shacknews, "We purchased Shacknews because it's a great site. We believe we can help expand its reach--we're not looking to twist and turn the site into something else."
“Clear and simple, our titles did not perform to our expectations,” said John Riccitiello.
The EA CEO spoke at the publisher's 2009 earnings call just moments after the firm revealed its third quarter results, which “significantly missed its numbers” by some $150 million.
Growth in the videogame business has intensified competition in the retail marketplace.
In the UK, specialist chains and independent stores are battling to defend market share as supermarkets and non-traditional outlets (NTOs) look to games to drive footfall, and home entertainment retailers step up their interest to offset stagnation in other categories.
43 jobs have been saved at Free Radical Design following Crytek’s successful acquisition of the group.
“The sale was relatively easy for us to achieve,” says Cameron Gunn, administrator at Resolve Partners, “there were several interested parties in the end, and we had to auction the business.”
Valve’s acclaimed Left 4 Dead sold over 1.8 million retail units in 2008, according to EA.
DICE’s Mirror’s Edge and Redwood Shores’ Dead Space both passed one million sales last year, according to EA’s well-documented financial report.
Despite EA’s gloomy financials for its fiscal Q3 – where the struggling publisher announced wider losses, bigger staff cuts and delayed releases for key titles – there was still positive news peppered across its report.
[Update]
Free Radical's future has been uncertain in recent weeks, but a new report claims the U.K.-based studio has secured a lease on life with a new owner.
1UP reports that German first-person shooter house Crytek, developer of Crysis, has agreed to purchase Haze developer Free Radical. If true, it would be Crytek's fifth location, and its first in the U.K.
EA in the past has expressed regret that it was caught flat-footed by the success of the Nintendo Wii, but the efforts to get caught up on the platform will soon emerge with the release of more core titles.
EA CEO John Riccitiello said that his company will be bringing games based on mass market Hasbro and Sims properties to the Wii, but also core properties that "have legs," such as a certain horror title that released in 2008.
In talking about big titles for EA's next fiscal year, CEO John Riccitiello dropped hints about the future of the epic space-themed RPG franchise Mass Effect.
"[In Q4], BioWare will release Mass Effect 2 on multiple platforms," he said during a Tuesday earnings call.
The original 2007 Mass Effect was initially an Xbox 360 exclusive published by Microsoft Game Studios. EA's acquisition of BioWare opened up rumors that the franchise could go multiplatform.
Mass Effect later appeared on PC.
Despite an increase in game quality, EA announced miserable financials for its fiscal Q3, along with further job cuts and a reduced outlook for fiscal 2009.
The publisher announced Q3 net loss of $641 million, up from a $33 million loss a year ago. Revenue was $1.65 billion, up from $1.5 billion for the comparable quarter a year prior.
Prior to announcing fiscal Q3 earnings, EA on Tuesday announced the delay of The Sims 3, Godfather 2 and Dragon Age for PC, leaving no hope for the titles to make the current fiscal year, which ends in March.
EA said The Sims 3, previously slated for release this month, is now due to ship on June 2 for PC. Other versions will launch this summer.
EA marketing VP Russell Arons said in a statement, "The June launch combined with the break-through game the team is building gives us the perfect runway to create awareness for The Sims 3
Desktop gaming advocates PC Gaming Alliance on Tuesday announced the addition of reps from Capcom and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University to the organization's board of directors.
The non-profit PCGA, which has the goal of spreading the gospel of the viability of PC gaming and breaking alleged misconceptions about the business, has members including Activision Publishing, Dell, Microsoft, Nvida, Epic Games, WildTangent and others.
Research firm EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research) finds that, at retail, "an increasing amount of games are being released below the standard points" of $59.99 for PS3 and Xbox 360 games and $49.99 for Nintendo Wii software.
Sega confirmed Tuesday that work has begun on Iron Man 2 at Sega Studios San Francisco.
The multiplatform action game is due in 2010, and is to debut alongside the corresponding Marvel Studios film Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2008 blockbuster starring Robert Downey Jr.
Sega's original Iron Man game sold 1.84 million units in Europe and the U.S. during its opening quarter last year.
Ubisoft has been one of the few major game publishers that continues to expand, while others are making cuts.
Just days after announcing the acquisition of a Brazilian studio, Ubisoft on Tuesday said it has acquired Vancouver-based Action Pants, the Paris, France-based publisher's first studio on the North American West Coast.
I had the very great pleaseure of contributing to the Orkney Learning Festival that took place at Kirkwall GS in Oct 2008. This was a great occasion and it showed the excitement and passion for teaching and learning that there is in Orkney’s schools.
I met Joanna McLeod, a teacher from Firth PS, and she expressed an interest in getting involved in one of the projects that I was looking to start. This project involved the use of a game called Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the DS. I had twenty DSs and 20 copies of the game to give to a teacher to see what, if any, use and impact on learning that this game might have. I had mentioned the obvious links to problem solving that the game offers what with there being over 180 maths puzzles but I also talked about the opportunities for imaginative writing, animation, art and design and other curricular areas to be explored. If you look closely at the beautiful animations in the game then you might see a style that is redolent of Sylvain Chomet’s movie Belleville Rendevouz. Joanna, as it turned out, has an animation degree and trained in this area so she was very aware of his work and of the history of animation and she was keen to see what she could do in this area as a result of using Prof. Layton as the stimulus.
A few months later and a return trip to Orkney was organised. Yet again I was deighted to see how a teacher had used this device to great effect and how it had been used to enthuse and excite a class full of children. The main work that had been done with the game involved the planning, storyboarding, design and sharing of animations based on the theme of Winter. The children used the Custom Animation function within Powerpoint and they used this to great effect. What was particularly pleasing to see was the zany and original ideas that the children came up with. One movie was called, The Good, The Normal and The Hairy! Where they got that name I don’t know but it certainly caught my attention. Each group had a ‘puzzlemaster’ and their job was to ensure that there was some maths puzzles in the game so that when others played it they were faced with a challenge as well as enjoying the narrative of the story and the aesthetic of its design.
The children also talked most eloquently about the maths aspect of the project. They talked about how engaging with the puzzles in the context of the game was really motivating and how, if they couldn’t solve a prob lem, they would work with their peers to see if they could solve it together. One child even said that it felt like he was having ‘adventures in maths’! Now, as we found with our Dr Kawashima work (still digesting this interesting claim from France, although there is not much available to read as yet it seems), here is yet another games based learning scenario in which schoolchildren are saying it’s cool do and be good at maths. Again I ask, is this not what we want?
Hopefully I’ll get al the video footage edited (along with everything else that I have still to finish) and get it online soon.
One last thing…if you ever get the chance to go to Orkney then you must take it. I managed to visit Skara Brae, Maes Howe and the Ring of Brodgar prior to catching the flight home today. Have a look and see what you make of this beautiful and mysterious place…
Thanks to all in Orkney and at Firth PS for
Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour sold twice as many copies in the US last year than its fiercest rival, Rock Band 2, according to data provided by NPD group.
World Tour, which was released in the US on October 26 – six weeks after Neversoft’s Rock Band 2 – is said to have amassed sales of 3.4 million units in the US last year. Rock Band, on the other hand, sold a total of 1.7 million copies.
A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game might beat the stigma surrounding licensed titles if the developer's track record is any indication of quality.
Ubisoft said Monday that it would be publishing an "all-new" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videogame for Wii, developed by Game Arts, one studio that played a major role in creating the multi-million-selling, critically-acclaimed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.