Gabe Newell co-founded Valve in 1996. His first game at the studio, Half-Life, was critically acclaimed
Video game entrepreneurs Markus Persson and Gabe Newell have both joined an annual list which estimates who are the world’s richest people.
Newell, who co-founded Valve in 1996, has cultivated the company during its pioneering transition to the digital PC games business. Its flagship platform, Steam, has amassed more than 125 million active users since its launch in 2003. With Newell the majority shareholder at Valve, his net worth is currently $1.3 billion.
According to Forbes, which estimates his net worth, Newell is one of the 500 richest people in the US.
Joining him on the list is Markus Persson, better known by his online handle “Notch”, whose net worth is also put at $1.3 billion.
Persson is one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join the list. He founded the Sweden studio Mojang in 2009, when his breakthrough game Minecraft escalated into a phenomenon.
Elite: Dangerous, the modern day reboot of Frontier Developments’ iconic spacefaring game, will be released on Xbox One as a console exclusive later this year.
Phil Spencer, the Microsoft executive in charge of Xbox, announced the deal during a press conference held at GDC on Wednesday. Later in the day, Frontier Developments exec David Braben assured fans that the console port would be “the complete and authentic Elite: Dangerous experience”.
In a follow-up interview with GameSpot, Braben said it was not an easy choice to lock the game to one console platform exclusively.
“I think there were lots of factors – it was a hard decision,” he said, “they’re both great platforms.”
Braben suggested that his studio’s previous partnerships with Microsoft, such as with the Xbox One launch title Zoo Tycoon, gave him more reasons to partner with Microsoft.
“We’ve had a long relationship with Microsoft,” he told GameSpot.
“The Xbox audience has been very good to us. We’ve sold quite a few Xbox games with Microsoft. We also had a launch title for Xbox One, so our tools and technology has been battle-hardened on Xbox One already.
“We have a lot of experienced people at the studio who know Xbox One intimately, so it actually is a very logical choice for us. Also, Xbox One sales have been doing very well since the price went down, so it’s an exciting time. But it was a difficult decision.”
Elite: Dangerous shipped on PC in December, and drew a mixed response from critics. GameSpot’s Elite Dangerous review summarised: “simply existing in Elite: Dangerous is enough to drive home its incredible scale,” but added that “most of space is populated only by stale trading systems and fetch quests.”
Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison, a senior member of the Xbox leadership team, is planning to leave the company. That’s according to a new report from GamesIndustry International, which cites multiple unnamed sources with the information.
Phil Harrison
Microsoft has declined to officially comment on the matter. It told GameSpot that it does not discuss “rumor or speculation”.
Harrison, a former longtime Sony PlayStation executive, joined Microsoft in 2012. In his role as corporate vice president, he is responsible for leading Microsoft Studios Europe, overseeing UK-based developers such as Lionhead Studios, Soho Productions, and Rare Ltd.
Finally, the site claims Harrison issued an ultimatum to Microsoft, saying he would leave the company if he was not offered a new, better position.
Rumors of Harrison’s departure from Microsoft come on the same day that GamesIndustry International also reported that Microsoft’s Lift London and Soho Productions would merge. Harrison was instrumental is founding Lift London.
GameSpot will have more details on this story as they become available.
The 15th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and the 2015 Independent Games Festival were held tonight in San Francisco as part of this year’s Game Developers Conference.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor won overall Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards, while Out of Wilds took home the Seumas McNally Grand Prize award at the Independent Games Festival awards.
The full lists of winners and nominees are below. Did the right games get awarded? Let us know in the comments below!
Honorable Mentions: Never Alone (Upper One Games/E-Line Media), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts), Transistor (Supergiant Games), Broken Age: Act 1 (Double Fine Productions), Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Honorable Mentions: Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die (Access Games/Microsoft), Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo), Crypt of the Necrodancer (Brace Yourself Games)
Best Technology:
Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames/Bethesda)
Else Heart.Break (Niklas Åkerblad, Erik Svedäng, et al.)
Memory of a Broken Dimension (XRA)
Donut County (Ben Esposito)
Oquonie (XXIIVV and Kokorobot)
Honorable Mentions: Crawl (Powerhoof); Future Unfolding (Spaces of Play); Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine); Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club); The Sailor’s Dream (Simogo); The Vanishing of Ethan Carter(The Astronauts)
Excellence in Narrative
80 Days (inkle Studios)
Coming Out Simulator 2014 (Nicky Case)
Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration (Down to the Wire)
Pry (Tender Claws)
This War of Mine (11 Bit Studios)
Three Fourths Home ([Bracket]Games)
Honorable Mentions: Curtain (Llaura, Dreamfeeel); Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) (Upper One Games/E-Line Media); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds); The Fall (Over The Moon); The Sailor’s Dream (Simogo); The Talos Principle (Croteam)
Excellence in Design
Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)
80 Days (inkle Studios)
Framed (Loveshack)
Invisible Inc. (Klei Entertainment)
Killer Queen (Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros)
The Talos Principle (Croteam)
Honorable Mentions: Desert Golfing (Captain Games); Dungeon of the Endless (Amplitude Studios); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Helix (Michael Brough); Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games); Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club)
Excellence in Audio
Ephemerid: A Musical Adventure (SuperChop Games)
Phonopath (Kevin Regamey)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
The Sailor’s Dream (Simogo Games)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
Thumper (Drool)
Honorable Mentions: Deep Under the Sky (Rich Edwards and Colin Northway); Fotonica (Santa Ragione); Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios); Hotline Miami 2 (Dennaton); Nuclear Throne (Vlambeer); Smash Hit (Mediocre)
Nuovo Award
Tetrageddon Games (Nathalie Lawhead)
Become A Great Artist In Just 10 Seconds (Michael Brough and Andi McClure)
Bounden (Game Oven)
Desert Golfing (Captain Games)
Elegy For A Dead World (Dejobaan Games & Popcannibal)
How Do You Do It? (Nina Freeman, Emmett Butler, Jonathan Kittaka and Deckman Coss)
Plug & Play (Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei / Etter Studio)
Rooftop Cop (Stephen Lawrence Clark)
Honorable Mentions: Curtain (Llaura, Dreamfeeel); Ice-Bound: A Novel of Reconfiguration (Down to the Wire); International Jetpack Conference (Rob Dubbin and Allison Parrish); Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wiilds); Phonopath (Kevin Regamery); Push Me Pull You (House House)
Seumas McNally Grand Prize
Outer Wilds (Team Outer Wilds)
80 Days (Inkle Studios)
Invisible Inc. (Klei Entertainment)
The Talos Principle (Croteam)
Metamorphabet (Patrick Smith)
This War of Mine (11 Bit Studios)
Honorable Mentions: Donut County (Ben Esposito); Endless Legend (Amplitude Studios); Killer Queen (Joshua DeBonis & Nikita Mikros); Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games); The Sailor’s Dream (Simogo Games); The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
The Game Developers Choice Awards were held earlier tonight, and the winners have been announced. Leading the charge with the “Game of the Year” was a surprising winner in Shadow of Mordor, but there were other prizes handed out as well.
One of the coolest things about Alien: Isolation was how thoroughly it put players into the quaking space-boots of its protagonist Amanda Ripley. There was a button for re-focusing her eyes!
Just like its Steam Machine idea, Valve is teaming up with multiple hardware companies to release virtual reality systems. One of the first is this one, the Vive from HTC.
Some people who make (or made) video games are dirt poor. Others, however, could start campfires using $100 bills. In this post, we’re looking at the latter.
Would you take a life to live forever? After sending out phones to movie bloggers yesterday, today Focus Features has sent out a link that goes straight to the trailer for Self/less. Indeed, this was what it was all for – a promotion for the upcoming Tarsem sci-fi movie Self/less, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley. Kingsley is an old man who wants his consciousness transferred into Ryan Reynolds. So he goes to Phoenix Biogenic and begins the process. All seems to go well, except things get a little hazy part of the way through. Matthew Goode, Michelle Dockery, Natalie Martinez, Victor Garber and Derek Luke also star. This looks pretty good, though the visual look of the dual minds isn’t as trippy as I was expecting. Fire it up. ›››
