Ever wondered why the PG-13 rating is such an annoying middle-ground? Do you know the full history of the PG-13 rating involving Gremlins and Temple of Doom? If not, or maybe if you do already, then dive in and check out this intriguing animated video essay about “[the] Brief History of [the] PG-13 Rating“. Made by the folks at The Dissolve, this video explores why and how the rating came about, and how we got to the point today where one “f*ck” is acceptable, but most other language is not, and certain violence sets off red flags and so on. There’s also a fun making-of featurette embedded below to go with the video. Enjoy!›››
Now this is some great casting we can be excited about! Variety is reporting that an Oscar winning actress is likely going to end up starring in the next sci-fi creation from Alex Garland, a screenwriter turned director whose feature directing debut Ex Machina is playing in theaters now. The project is called Annihilation, an adaptation of the Jeff VanderMeer series of novels, about a biologist who signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition to “Area X” where the laws of nature don’t apply. Paramount is developing and Garland has been talking about it in interviews with the attitude of “let’s see if it happens”, but it sounds like the project is gaining momentum, especially with a star like Portman. This is very good news for the science fiction genre. ›››
“An astounding, crucial work…” Drafthouse Films has unveiled the full theatrical trailer for their upcoming release of The Look of Silence later this summer. Drafthouse has been holding onto this highly acclaimed documentary since it premiered at festivals last year, opting to wait until this year to give it a push. The Look of Silence is documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up to his Oscar nominated doc The Act of Killing, about the 1965 Indonesian genocide. Before that film was released, Josh returned to Indonesia and spent time with an optometrist who speaks directly to the killers, confronting the very men who took away and murdered his brother. It’s a harrowing, stunning, powerful documentary that you need to see yourself. ›››
Nintendo has announced that shipments of its Amiibo plastic toy line have now reached 10.5 million. This is up from 5.7 million units shipped worldwide by the end of the 2014 calendar year.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata explained that Amiibo may end up being an evergreen product line.
“Our assessment is that people purchase additional Amiibo figures without any seasonal bias, as they are relatively more affordable than video game titles,” he said as part of an earnings presentation.
Iwata also acknowledged that Amiibo supply shortages have led to headaches for many fans. Earlier this week, Nintendo apologized for supply issues, pledging to increase supply. Iwata reiterated this point in his remarks, but admitted that shortages are likely endure for quite a while.
“We are very sorry that we can’t promise at what point we will likely be able to resolve the current situation because figures such as these require a considerable amount of time to produce, store shelf space is limited, and it is difficult to precisely predict the exact amount of overall demand,” he explained.
Nintendo has also released a new pie graph that speaks to the popularity of Amiibo, based on region. As you can see, the United States & Canada make up the biggest piece of the pie by a wide margin.
Also during the presentation, Iwata revealed that new, less-expensive card-based Amiibo toys will debut later this year with 3DS game Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. On the same day that the game is released (Nintendo has not yet announced a release date), Nintendo will also launch the long-awaited Amiibo adapter for 3DS. This will finally allow legacy players to sync up their Amiibo toys.
The introduction of this adapter is expected to lead to “further growth in Amiibo sales” due to the toys becoming compatible with the massive install base of 3DS family systems relative to Wii U. The New Nintendo 3DS features a built-in NFC adapter, but older models do not.
Nintendo’s Amiibo toy line may be selling well, but it’s nowhere near Activision’s Skylanders series. The Call of Duty publisher has sold more than 240 million Skylanders toys by its latest count. Of course, Skylanders launched back in 2011, while Amiibo is not even a year old yet.
The current toys-to-life market consists of Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and Amiibo. A newcomer, LEGO Dimensions from Warner Bros., will debut later this year, featuring toys based on properties like Lord of the Rings, Batman, The Wizard of Oz, and many others.
Former Epic Games president Mike Capps–who oversaw the Gears of War and Unreal Engine properties at the studio–is now working for another major game engine company. Unity Technologies, the company behind the popular Unity engine, has announced that Capps has come aboard as its “internal advisor.”
Mike Capps
As explained in a blog post by Unity CEO John Riccitiello (the former chief of Electronic Arts), Capps will spend about one week per month working on behalf of Unity. His work will begin early this month with a trip to Copehagan, Riccitiello said.
“He’s a very strong supporter of Unity’s core principles of solving hard problems so our developers don’t have to, and the movement to democratize game development,” Riccitiello said about Capps. “He’ll be a huge boon to us in Unity continuing down that path.”
Capps also provided a statement of his own regarding his move to Unity.
“Unity is in such an enviable position in the industry,” he said. “I see so much exciting potential, and opportunities where I might be able to help, that this role was a logical next step. I’ll do my best to advise John and the leadership team to keep Unity’s tools driving innovation and creative self-expression in ways we can’t even imagine.”
Capps announced he would be stepping down from Epic Games back in December 2012, ultimately parting ways with the company for good a year later. He’s not the only prominent Epic Games figure to have left the company in recent years, as Gears of War creator and producer, Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson, respectively, also moved on.
In addition to his new role at Unity, Capps currently sits on the board of directors for a range of game industry companies, including the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the Game Developers Conference, and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment.
In just one week, Bungie has raised more than $400,000 to support the ongoing relief effort in Nepal following the terrible earthquake that hit last month. Bungie announced the new milestone as part of its latest Weekly Update. The developer launched the disaster recovery campaign just a week ago.
Bungie is raising money by way of a special $25 t-shirt (that comes with a free in-game Destiny item) that anyone can buy, with all proceeds going to Direct Relief charity. This group provides medical assistance to people affected by natural disasters.
The earthquake in Nepal has killed more than 7,000 people, and left thousands more injured, according to the latest estimates.
Bungie’s relief campaign will continue for at least another week. Now through May 13, the company’s Bungie Foundation will match an additional $15 for every shirt sold, up to $50,000, meaning total new funds raises could reach an additional $100,000 before the week is out.
The creator The Sims has released his first ever standalone app, a social media application called Thred.
In an interview with Business Insider, Will Wright revealed the inspiration for its creation, “My phone is how I’m consuming most of my content, but a lot of the content I’ve noticed wasn’t really designed for it.”
Thred features a variety of tools that allows users to customize their social media feeds. Wright said his initial interest in communities who shared their creations spawned from games like The Sims and Spore, both of which he’s worked on.
“‘Sims’ also had very rich storytelling, where people would use these little dolls and sets to tell these elaborate stories and share them and you’d get hundreds of thousands of stories–people did whole novels in there. I started thinking about how we can give people more creative content creation, and a lot of it comes down to there really isn’t any existing content format that I feel like was designed for the mobile phone, you know the one-handed interstitial, standing in line at Starbucks kind of thing,” Wright said.
Wright co-founded Maxis in 1987, where he designed classic city-building simulation game SimCity. Maxis was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997, after which the studio went on to develop SimCity 3000 and The Sims. Wright departed from Maxis in 2009 to form The Stupid Fun Club, a start-up backed by EA which Wright described as an “entertainment think tank.”
Metal Gear Solid publisher Konami has reported a net revenue increase of 0.3 percent over the previous year, as well as an increase in operating income of 87.8 percent.
However, Konami Digital Entertainment, the arm of the business principally associated with game development and publishing, posted a net revenue of ¥96,975 million (around $80,000), a decrease of 7.1 percent over its previous fiscal year. It is likely this decline can be attributed to the fact that it released fewer games and its shift in focus to mobile.
Mobile games were a key topic of analysis in its performance reports, with titles such as Jikkyou Pwafuru Puroyaku, Professional Baseball Dream Nine, the Crows x Worst series, Dragon Collection, and PES Manager highlighted for providing a stable income.
Discussing console games, Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, in particular the myClub mode’s online payment system, was said to have performed well. Konami admits that, despite the release of other games, “the number of sold titles decreased” during the fiscal year.
Looking forward, smartphones and tablets are highlighted as an opportunity for the company to diversify and reach greater audiences, which Konami intends to exploit by developing “ways of playing games that match the characteristics of each device.”
For console games, it is aiming toward including “sustained operation” modes that “utilize the operational expertise of mobile games.” PES 2015’s myClub is expected to continue contributing to profits.
Konami’s expectations for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain weren’t discussed in any detail, it instead opted to simply say the upcoming title has “garnered great response from home and abroad.”
As expected, Konami did not address recent high-profile rumours of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima‘s departure. Although Konami has not yet outright confirmed he has left, it is believed Kojima will depart following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5.
Konami has removed the Kojima Productions logo from official artwork for The Phantom Pain and Ground Zeroes. It also removed references to titles being “A Hideo Kojima Game” from marketing material. The Kojima Productions logo was also removed from the Silent Hills/P.T. website, before Silent Hills was outright cancelled.
Read GameSpot’s The State of Konami feature for a detailed exploration of the current state of the company.
Longtime Mario Kart producer Hideki Konno has been placed in charge of Nintendo’s efforts in mobile game development, according to a report from Japanese business outlet Sankei.
Translated by Nintendo Everything, the report states the reveal was made by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata during the announcement of the company’s latest financial reports. The information was provided as a brief update on the company’s mobile development plans.
Although Konno was not named specifically, he has been producing the Mario Kart games since Mario Kart DS.
During the financial briefing, Nintendo also revealed it plans to release five smartphone titles by March 2017, and it is aiming to give each one significant staying power.
“Regarding the number of the titles, you may want to know that we will release approximately five titles by the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of March 2017, said Iwata.
“You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been described by Franchise Development Director Frank O’Connor as a “black eye” for series stewards 343 Industries.
Speaking to Xbox Achievements, O’Connor addressed the tumultuous launch of Microsoft’s ambitious Halo anthology, which brought together improved versions of the first three games in the series into one package, but was unfortunately plagued by various matchmaking and other network issues.
“Halo: The Master Chief Collection is definitely a black eye for us,” he said. “We’re not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistake we made.”
O’Connor went on to attribute some of the woes to the complexities of bringing multiple engines together and trying to make them work harmoniously, as well as the multi-studio development effort.
“I will say that the nature of The Master Chief Collection – you’ve got five different game engines, you’ve got different studios working on it, you’ve got 343 working on putting it all together – the footprint and complexity was outrageous.”
Continuing, the 343 exec said having the game in the hands of players threw up hurdles that the studio “simply didn’t see in a test environment.”
O’Connor went on to provide assurances that the issues that contributed to The Master Chief Collection’s problems would not be stumbling blocks for Halo 5: Guardians.
“Halo 5 is being made by a completely different team. It’s a singular product,” he said. “It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console.
“The problem spaces are still very challenging but they’re radically different. I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don’t have the same problems.”
