Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[Turbine: Easier to develop MMOs on the Xbox 360 than the PS3]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/19/turbine-easier-to-develop-mmos-on-the-xbox-360-than-the-ps3/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/19/turbine-easier-to-develop-mmos-on-the-xbox-360-than-the-ps3/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/19/turbine-easier-to-develop-mmos-on-the-xbox-360-than-the-ps3/#comments
Craig Alexander, Turbine's vp of product development, spoke at Austin GDC today in a panel called "MMOs to Consoles", which is no surprise since Turbine is working on a console MMO. It's investing heavily in the MMO console arena, and their current title, which remains unannounced, is in "active development."However, he did spend a lot of time pointing out how difficult it is to develop games on the PS3 vs. the Xbox 360. Duck your head as the fanboys go to it.

Here's the logic:
  • The Blu-ray drive on the PS3 is actually slower in seek and access time than the DVD drive on the Xbox 360. Once the Blu-ray gets up to speed, it can handle large amount of data. Just not in seeking and accessing, which is a pain for streaming when you're playing something like an MMO.
  • The memory architecture is different. When you're dealing with main memory, you work with "256ish MB" on the PS3 vs "512ish MB" on the 360.
  • The tools aren't as friendly on the PS3. That includes the performance monitor tools, the debugger tools ... everything.
  • Migrating a project from the Xbox 360 to the PS3 is much harder than moving from the PS3 to the 360.
Alexander recommends starting on the PS3 to get all of the heavy lifting done first, but using his same logic it sounds like developers will have a frustrating time during that process. Don't happy tools make happy workers? Gamers already feel like some titles suffer because they have to be developed for both platforms. Is this going to affect MMOs coming to both platforms?

There's more. Read on, Macduff.

Continue reading Turbine: Easier to develop MMOs on the Xbox 360 than the PS3

JoystiqTurbine: Easier to develop MMOs on the Xbox 360 than the PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAustin-GDCCraig-AlexanderdevelopmentMicrosoftMMOTurbineXbox-360Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Listen to Blizzard's "Universe Behind World of Warcraft" keynote from Austin GDC]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/listen-to-blizzards-universe-behind-world-of-warcraft-keynote/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/listen-to-blizzards-universe-behind-world-of-warcraft-keynote/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/listen-to-blizzards-universe-behind-world-of-warcraft-keynote/#comments
If you're wondering what the internal goings-on at Blizzard consist of, grab yourself something to eat and kick back. We've got the entire hour-long keynote speech at the Austin Game Developer's Conference down below. Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce were on-hand to walk a slightly hungover crowd through the way they make things work and how their teams are organized.

Click below for the full audio, or for those of you on the go, download it here.

JoystiqListen to Blizzard's "Universe Behind World of Warcraft" keynote from Austin GDC originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAustin-GDCaustin-gdc-2009BlizzardFrank-PearceJ-Allen-BrackWorld-of-WarcraftWoWThu, 17 Sep 2009 17:20:00 EST<![CDATA[A look at Blizzard's canceled squad-based sci-fi RPG: Nomad]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/a-look-at-blizzards-canceled-squad-based-sci-fi-rpg-nomad/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/a-look-at-blizzards-canceled-squad-based-sci-fi-rpg-nomad/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/a-look-at-blizzards-canceled-squad-based-sci-fi-rpg-nomad/#comments
At this morning's Austin Game Developer's Conference keynote, J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce of Blizzard took the stage to talk about the inner workings of Blizzard. Most of what they covered was stats and trvia. Did you know the Blizzard bug team is currently tracking over 179,484 bugs? Now you do. There are 7,650 quests in WoW since Wrath of the Lich King! Consider yourself informed.

Some of the trivia was actually pretty interesting, like the fact that when Blizzard releases a patch, almost half of that data is audio. Pearce also mentioned that BlizzCon is operated "at a substantial loss for Blizzard," but the value is that it's a huge marketing/PR opportunity for them. Considering how many tickets they sell (in only eight minutes), that's around $3.5 million that's written off. Plus whatever Blizzard spends above and beyond that. No wonder Blizzard employees have to buy their own tickets.

However, the most interesting part of the keynote was when they briefly spoke about Nomad, the canceled squad-based sci-fi game. Ten years ago, Blizzard put a lot of work in on the game, but eventually looked at it and said "Is this really the game we want to be working on right now? The answer ended up being "no," and the team went on to start work on World of Warcraft. Here we are ten years later with WoW going strong, and no Nomad in sight.

They'd mentioned this canceled game, along with a slew of others, at last year's DICE summit, but without any other information. Sadly, the only thing they had to show were pieces of concept art, including some by "The Bourbon Cowboy," Chris Metzen. The art itself isn't that exciting (the best one is above and there's a couple more in the gallery below), but the words "squad-based sci-fi RPG" are exciting. Could this be Blizzard's next game? Possibly mutated into MMO form? Who knows when we'll find out, since one of the stats they flashed onscreen this morning was "Number of Unannounced MMOs: 1."

Gallery: Nomad

JoystiqA look at Blizzard's canceled squad-based sci-fi RPG: Nomad originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAustin-GDCaustin-gdc-2009BlizzardBlizzConFrank-PearceJ-Allen-BrackNomadWorld-of-WarcraftWoWThu, 17 Sep 2009 16:20:00 EST<![CDATA[PSP minis lack network features for fast approval time]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/psp-minis-lack-network-features-for-fast-approval-time/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/psp-minis-lack-network-features-for-fast-approval-time/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/17/psp-minis-lack-network-features-for-fast-approval-time/#comments
Speaking at Austin GDC, Justin Cooney from Sony Computer Entertainment spoke about the upcoming PSP minis program to a crowd of developers eager to start creating games and applications for the system. They promise an extremely fast process to get onto the PlayStation Network: no stage one or two approvals, and very light Q&A. They're hoping to average three to five days for approvals, which contrasts with up to two weeks for normal-sized PSP games.

The minis program is also fairly limited. You can't develop network or online features for it (goodbye multiplayer), it doesn't support DLC, and you can't use it to work with peripherals. Developers will also have to have their game approved by the ESRB, which costs money. You can also release your titles in all three territories, but you need to sign agreements with each territory (North America, Japan, Europe) in order to do so.

Sony is definitely taking an iPhone App Store approach to this process, and Cooney himself dropped the iPhone name a few times. We're wondering if they've considered that there are over 20k games now on the App Store, and if they've prepared themselves for the onslaught and how they'll be devoting a lot of time to minis approvals. So, look for PSPFart to be available for download sometime soon.

Gallery: PSP and PS3 at Austin GDC

JoystiqPSP minis lack network features for fast approval time originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAustin-GDCaustin-gdc-2009Justin-CooneyminisPlayStation-StorePSNPSPpsp-minisSonyThu, 17 Sep 2009 14:20:00 EST<![CDATA[AGDC: The Bruce Sterling keynote - The Future of Entertainment]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-the-bruce-sterling-keynote-the-future-of-entertainment/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-the-bruce-sterling-keynote-the-future-of-entertainment/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-the-bruce-sterling-keynote-the-future-of-entertainment/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Bruce Sterling is a science fiction author, a futurist, and one of the founders of cyberpunk. He provided the tent-pole keynote for the Austin Game Developers Conference, although in all honesty it seemed more like a run through of a new short story draft. Several developers were walking out, scratching their heads and going "Wha... huh?" afterward.

The topic was "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," and Sterling came out not as Sterling, but as a time traveler from 35 years in the future and a graduate student of Dr. Sterling's. He provided visual demonstrations of nanotech networks and fiber-based computers, much to the amusement of the audience, and told us how the future might seem surprising to us at first, but it's old hat to someone like him. He bastardized a quote from Sir Arthur Clarke and said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from garbage." Words to live by.

Read the full text of the keynote after the break. It'll be interesting if web surfers in the future look back on this post and laugh.

Continue reading AGDC: The Bruce Sterling keynote - The Future of Entertainment

JoystiqAGDC: The Bruce Sterling keynote - The Future of Entertainment originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCagdc-08agdc-2008agdc08agdc2008AustinAustin-GDCBruce-SterlingCyberpunkfutureGDCkeynoteWed, 17 Sep 2008 20:00:00 EST<![CDATA[AGDC: Blazing The Trail For Hot Game Dialogue]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-blazing-the-trail-for-hot-game-dialogue/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-blazing-the-trail-for-hot-game-dialogue/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/agdc-blazing-the-trail-for-hot-game-dialogue/#commentsFiled under: , ,


The Austin GDC is focusing on audio and writing in games this year. While technology has made audio more and more important in making an immersive game experience, good writing has always been key to making a great game. Just travel back in time and ask the guys at Infocom, who had entire games consisting of nothing but writing.

The "Blazing the Trail" panel was meant to provide game writers with the tools that they would need to construct good game dialogue, although it quickly turned into a one-woman show. DB Cooper (not the famous hijacker) is a voice-over artist, actor and producer, and she's also quite a personality. You know the kind of person who could fill an airplane hangar with their voice? That's her. She was joined onstage by Maryanne Krawczyk who has written for television and video games, including God of War, God of War 2, and Area 51. She's also working on the upcoming God of War 3, but she vanished into the ether after the panel so we couldn't quiz her about it.

After the break you'll find out how the panel went, and get plenty of tips and tricks for aspiring game writers. Read on, Macduff!

Continue reading AGDC: Blazing The Trail For Hot Game Dialogue

JoystiqAGDC: Blazing The Trail For Hot Game Dialogue originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCagdc-08AustinAustin-Game-Developers-ConferenceAustin-GDCD.B.-CooperGame-DialogueGDCGod-Of-WarMarianne-KrawczykPat-FraleyWritingWed, 17 Sep 2008 06:00:00 EST<![CDATA[AGDC08: The Psychology of the MMO Gamer]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/agdc-the-psychology-of-the-mmo-gamer/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/agdc-the-psychology-of-the-mmo-gamer/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/agdc-the-psychology-of-the-mmo-gamer/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


The first panel we attended at Austin GDC was entitled "The Psychology of the MMO Gamer," which seemed to hold a mythical amount of promise. Sure enough, once the panel began it was clear that these people had gathered a couple of days before and said, "So hey... what can we talk about?" It was a bit disorganized, but some good stuff came out of it, particularly finding out how a six-year old can grief you with pudding. Read on to find out how you too can learn this devious and delicious skill.

Continue reading AGDC08: The Psychology of the MMO Gamer

JoystiqAGDC08: The Psychology of the MMO Gamer originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAGDC-08Austin-GDCGriefingMMOWoWTue, 16 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Joystiq @ the Austin Game Developers Conference]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/joystiq-the-austin-game-developers-conference/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/joystiq-the-austin-game-developers-conference/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/joystiq-the-austin-game-developers-conference/#commentsFiled under: ,


What, you thought GDC only happened in San Francisco? Well, so did we. But we've invaded the land of BBQ, music, and Shiner Bock to bring you the latest from the development-heavy Austin Game Developers Conference. This year the focus is on writing and game audio, so we'll bring you the best of the fest as we sit in on panels and talk to people in the game industry.

Austin is fast establishing itself as a mini-mecca of gaming companies; already places like Activision Blizzard, NCSoft, Vigil, and Sony Online have offices here, with more opening all the time. Texas Governor Rick Perry announced this summer at E3 that Austin would be heavily pursuing game companies and offering them tax incentives to set up shop here, so if you're wanting to work in the industry, you might consider a move.

JoystiqJoystiq @ the Austin Game Developers Conference originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>AGDCAGDC-08AustinAustin-GDCGame-DevelopersGDCTue, 16 Sep 2008 11:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Sci-fi author Bruce Sterling to keynote, predict future at Austin GDC]]>http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/23/sci-fi-author-bruce-sterling-to-keynote-predict-future-at-austi/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/23/sci-fi-author-bruce-sterling-to-keynote-predict-future-at-austi/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/23/sci-fi-author-bruce-sterling-to-keynote-predict-future-at-austi/#commentsFiled under: ,

Famous for groundbreaking science fiction novels such as Schizmatrix and Heavy Weather, author Bruce Sterling is also regarded as one of the world's leading futurists. That is, he's really good at predicting where everything from media to industry to consumer technology will be at in the near future. Now he's going to do the same with video games ... and what they will be like in the year 2043.

Sterling will deliver his keynote address, "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," at the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference being held September 15-17. It will certainly be intriguing to hear what one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement has to say about the future of our shared hobby, especially given the recent introduction of technology such as Wii MotionPlus. We also have to wonder if he's seen Sony's famous "PS9" commercial.

JoystiqSci-fi author Bruce Sterling to keynote, predict future at Austin GDC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>austin-game-developers-conferenceaustin-gdcbruce-sterlingkeynoteWed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 EST