| OP-ED: I’m Ecstatic Over Double Fine’s New Adventure Game, But I Feel Uncomfortable Donating Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:32 AM PST As if the creator of Minecraft funding a dream project from a veteran game designer was not crazy and exciting enough of an idea, Double Fine may have just topped it. One day after Markus “Notch” Persson proposed Mojang help to make Psychonauts 2 a reality, the developer of Psychonauts is turning to fans to bankroll a new, old-school adventure game. Using Kickstarter, a fundraising platform that has been employed by independent game developers and documentarians alike, Double Fine is looking to raise $400,000. $300,000 of that will be used to fund the PC game’s development, while the other $100,000 will be used to document the entire development process. 2 Player Productions, the same group that produced a documentary on the early development of Minecraft at Mojang, has already been tapped to create the documentary, which will be made available in monthly installments for those who back the project. Any money raised beyond the $400,000 will be used to pay for things like extra voiceover work or bringing the game to additional platforms like Mac and iOS. “Keeping the scale of the project this small accomplishes two things,” the Kickstarter page explains. “First and foremost, Double Fine gets to make the game they want to make, promote it in whatever manner they deem appropriate, and release the finished product on their own terms. Secondly, since they’re only accountable to themselves, there’s an unprecedented opportunity to show the public what game development of this caliber looks like from the inside. Not the sanitized commercials-posing-as-interviews that marketing teams only value for their ability to boost sales, but an honest, in-depth insight into a modern art form that will both entertain and educate gamers and non-gamers alike.” As with all Kickstarter projects, backers will receive different benefits depending upon how much they pledge. $15 will get you a Steam copy of the game once it is completed and access to the pre-release beta, video series, and discussion forums. Jump up to $250 and you can get a poster autographed by Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and the design team. Spend even more and you could have lunch with the two, a character designed after you, a photo of Ron Gilbert smiling, or even one of the four remaining original, shrink-wrapped triangle box copies of Day of the Tentacle. Of course, that last one will require a pledge of $150,000 or more, so you might have to settle for something less. While no guarantees can be made on an exact release date, the idea is to have development completed over a six-to-eight-month period, with a potential release happening in October. Both Schafer and Gilbert would be involved, which in and of itself is tremendously exciting news as the duo played critical roles in the development of The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and other classic adventure games. After spending years apart working on their own projects (Schafer with Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and Grim Fandango; Gilbert with Penny Arcade Adventures, Total Annihilation, and DeathSpank), Gilbert was hired by the Schafer-led Double Fine in 2010. 
Outside of Telltale Games and smaller, independent developers, adventure games are not given much of a chance these days. With publishers looking to release fewer games with larger upsides (and support for downloadable content), that doesn’t leave much room for a niche genre like adventure games. As Schafer himself puts it, if he were to pitch an adventure game to a publisher, he would be laughed at. But with fans always clamoring to see a new old-school graphic adventure, and Schafer and Gilbert working under the same roof, this is a rare opportunity to see a game produced that most publishers would pass on without a second thought. The only issue some may raise is that gamers are funding the title, but besides the bonuses and game itself, they aren’t reaping the same benefits the traditional backers of a game would — namely, profits. A publisher that provides money for a game to be developed does so knowing that it stands to make money off the final product. Bonuses aside, those who pledge money on Kickstarter do so to see a project come to fruition that otherwise would not be able to get off the ground — and, in this case, to hopefully prove there is still a market for adventure games. This presents a real dilemma for those in the media. Like anyone else donating, members of the press don’t stand to make any money from the game being created, but there is a question of whether those covering a game should be directly funding it. At the very least, those who do need to disclose as much, although some are sure to make the case that disclosure is not enough. Speaking for myself, I could not be more excited to see this project become a reality. If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Schafer and Gilbert, or only know their more recent games, I need only point you to recent episodes of Retronauts Lunch Break where we played Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle as evidence of what they can create. At the same time, while my immediate impulse was to donate as much as I can (because I both want to see the game made and to get an autographed poster), upon further reflection I’m not sure I plan on donating. Others have made the case that donating is akin to pre-ordering a game, an act no one would think twice about. But paying explicitly for a finished product simply feels different to me than funding a game from scratch. I’m not so vehemently against the idea that I would question those in the press who decide to donate; I simply don’t feel comfortable doing so myself. Even if I disclosed my donation, would you, as a reader, question my motivation for covering the game now and in the future? In time I may feel differently, and I do wonder if I’m hypocritical for taking this stand — if I knew my pledge were the difference-maker, I might be more inclined to shell out my money. With the Kickstarter generating over $130,000 in only a few hours, and the deadline for generating $400,000 more than a month away, the one thing I know for sure is it looks like this game is well on its way to being made.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/double-fine-adventure-game-donating Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Dragon Nest (KR) Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:32 AM PST 
With a blink of an eye, Dragon Nest Korea is nearing its 2nd anniversary! Korean gaming website ThisIsGame.com joined the game’s developers in a meet-the-fans session. The development team was in the mood to provide many details, with the report leaving with much new information about Dragon Nest’s immediate future. What are some of the major updates and content coming in 2012? Let’s find out.
1. New modified skills, new character class, new nest, new level cap. The developers are currently hard at modifying the skills, making sure all of them are balanced.
2. The new character class will be called Kali, a sexy female character born in the deserts and living in seclusion. Kali will be more charismatic and attractive than previous characters as well. 3. Kali is named after the Hindu goddess of the same name, and wields the chakram or a fan-shaped equipment as the main weapons. She is versed melee attack (with longer range than other melee weapons) and her other set of skills is to use magic to summon spirits. 4. Level cap and the major new content is currently 60% completed, with the scheduled release date to be in the summer or after, as Eyedentity Games are focusing on solving the bugs in the level 50 dungeons. 5. The next dragon nest will feature the Sand Dragon, and the content is in production phase now. The Sand Dragon has much purer dragon blood than the previous Sea Serpent and Green Dragon, hence it will be the toughest boss yet. 6. As mentioned above, the new main town and quests will take place in a desert-themed setting. There were other questions raised by the fans, but above are the main content which the developer panel covered. Pretty interesting eh? 
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/02/dragon-nest-kr-new-class-for-2nd.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Total War: Fall of the Samurai – New Weapons, New Units And Shogun 2 Compatability Posted: 09 Feb 2012 07:32 AM PST We recently visited Creative Assembly's studio in the heart of West Sussex to go hands-on with the upcoming stand-alone Shogun 2 expansion, Fall of the Samurai, and to find out exactly why the Total War series has remained in Japan for the second year running. You can read our interview with Fall of the Samurai's developers for more insight, but we've laid out our impressions and more on the game's considerable new features below. Shogun vs. Imperials – Tradition vs. TechnologyFall of the Samurai is set during the end of the Shogunate – 300 years after Shogun 2: Total War's endgame – which sees the arrival of three new factions on Japanese soil, the British, Americans and French. With them comes the onset of modern technology (gunpowder weapons, vehicles) and ideas (capitalism) which helps forge a brand new backdrop on top of which Fall of the Samurai plays out; an epic battle between tradition vs. modernity with the old school Shogunate clinging to power while the Imperialists attempt to overthrow it. Even the background music will become more western as time rolls on. New Map, Units, Weapons and TechnologyYes, the latest Shogun 2 expansion is still set in Japan, but that's not even the half of it – with the new foreign factions come the latest 19th century inventions; pistol and rifle-bearing cavalry rub shoulders with rapid-fire Gatling guns and cannons available in your tech tree along the line as the sword and spear age comes to an end, and the firearm era comes to Japan. There are pros and cons to the new technology though. With gold at the centre of all your endeavours (even farms are now income-producing assets) the most powerful weapons are also, naturally, the most expensive. During our hands-on we found horse-drawn heavy weapons slow to move and assemble, meaning even low tech, fast moving units have their place. And as usual, if you can use the terrain – such as a deserted town in the historical battle we played – you can overcome the odds. 
Steampowered JapanWith the arrival of Western technology comes a genuine campaign-changer – a railway line which snakes up the middle of Japan through specific territories, enabling the holder of said areas to improve trade and move units large distances across the map far quicker than usual. Control the railway, and you'll have a huge asset at your disposal. A powerful navy can win the warModernisation hasn't just hit Japan – it's hit the water around Japan too. While Shogun 2 included naval engagements, the ensuing battles were fairly tame. At least they were compared to the gunpowder-fuelled fights in Fall of the Samurai – we played a mission that called on us to defend our destructive ironclad ship while it underwent repairs, and required us to fire volleys of standard, explosive or armour-piercing rounds across long distances. Brilliantly, it's now possible to aim and fire your artillery from a new centre-of-the-ship, third-person perspective – ship mobility is suitably sluggish (depending on your vessel), so you'll probably want your fleet to simply follow your orders, but the rush of firing the killer volley from your ship's guns in third-person mode is a welcome touch. You'll also be able to take third-person control of artillery weapons on the battlefield too. More importantly, increased firepower and range also means your ships can rain-down projectiles on some in-land settlements too, adding additional strategic opportunities. 
Fall of the Samurai will improve Shogun 2With Fall of the Samurai set for backwards compatibility with Shogun 2, Creative Assembly has promised a huge update for last year's Total War entry – it won't only make all of the new and old units work together for cross-game multiplayer, but also massively improve the AI in the older game. In addition, both games will also require you to think much faster with improved AI speed in the turn-based part of the campaign map. Fall of the Samurai is bigger – and betterFollowing our extensive hands-on with Fall of the Samurai, we're convinced that there'll be plenty here for existing fans and newcomers alike to sink their teeth into. Creative Assembly has taken the time to ensure that not only does Fall of the Samurai integrate perfectly into Shogun 2, but that it includes all the little tweaks, ideas and a ton of new features that the developer has been saving up. We're not sure 'expansion' will do Fall of the Samurai justice, either – it's stand alone, yes, but almost all of the changes double as improvements: 40 vs. 40 battles instead of 20 vs. 20, multiple new units, 24 campaign-map turns a year and an estimated 100 hours of gameplay ensure you won't be finishing it anytime soon. 
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/previews/total-war-fall-of-the-samurai-new-weapons-new-units-and-shogun-2-compatability/ Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic Has a Release Date Posted: 09 Feb 2012 01:28 AM PST  We truly have a Star Wars Holiday Special this year. Earlier today as reported by IGN UK at the Eurogamer Expo, Bioware co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk revealed that December 20th is when we can expect Star Wars: The Old Republic to hit retail. Subscription details were also revealed and it’s pretty standard compared to other MMORPG’s. The first 30 days will be free with $14.99 being the price-per-month fee. Alternate plans will be available such as paying $41.97 for three months and $77.94 for six months at a time. There’s still no word on when The Old Republic’s beta will go live, but those who pre-order the game will have access to not only this beta, but will be able to start playing the game a few days before it’s available for everyone else, presumably three days early. There’s still no word if we’ll be celebrating Life Day in the game — the Star Wars equivalent of Christmas — but we’ll have more details as they happen.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/star-wars-the-old-republic-release-date Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| OP-ED: How Vita Can Avoid The PSP’s Fate Posted: 08 Feb 2012 07:30 PM PST  Read the latest in portable gaming news, and you might think it’s 2005 all over again — but not quite. Though Sony’s higher-priced-and-powered piece of tech is once again up against a Nintendo product with a retail head-start, the former handheld doesn’t seem like the destined winner this time around. For Vita, competition is stiff: Nintendo’s 3DS took only eight months to match the shaky first year of DS sales, and, unlike the PSP’s early days, the smartphone market currently provides a multitude of cheaper options for gaming on the go (not to mention multimedia features matching Sony’s offerings). And while Vita’s hardware fixes many of the PSP’s flaws, power alone won’t win this arms race; instead, Sony will have to rely on strategies beyond pushing the HD angle. ![]() Don’t Rely on Technical Showpieces Yes, Uncharted: Golden Abyss stands as an amazing achievement, one the industry has been trying to reach for quite some time: a portable game nearly on par with its console counterparts. But few developers have the resources to produce such an elaborate experience, especially on a platform yet to establish a sizable chunk of market share. Remember, back in 2004, we all ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the sheer beauty of the PSP’s graphics and its lovely screen, which made the DS look fairly dated in comparison. But soon afterwards, multi-million sellers like Nintendogs and Brain Training proved that experimentation ultimately trumped graphical prowess. This isn’t to say that Sony should focus primarily on the quirky, but rather, that visuals alone won’t convince an audience to invest in a Vita. Though games like Tiny Tower and Angry Birds make for relatively simpler affairs, the umpteen people who downloaded these games (and many like them) don’t seem to mind graphics and gameplay not far removed from the 16-bit era. Games like Escape Plan and Sound Shapes are a good start, as long as Sony promotes them with the same gusto as their big guns. Don’t Turn the Vita into a Console Wannabe In other words, let’s have some new IP. It may seem novel to take authentic versions of our favorite games out on the road, but this approach isn’t exactly new — just check out the PSP, which often saw semi-sequels of popular PS2 games. Sure, some of these turned out fine — like the handheld God of War entries and Peace Walker — but there’s always the risk of a busy publisher outsourcing a beloved property, and resulting in an uninspired effort. There’s no reason why some of our favorite Sony characters shouldn’t land on the Vita at some point, though their respective games shouldn’t just be console experiences displayed on a smaller screen; instead, developers should think about the features of the Vita and reshape the content to fit the format. Some of Nintendo’s biggest hits started out on their handhelds, so there’s no reason why Sony can’t aspire to the same goals — remember, last gen’s Monster Hunter-mania showed that the PSP could be more just a PS2 Junior.  Don’t Forget PSP Owners Not long ago, Sony stood as one of the few purveyors of backwards compatibility — until the company realized cutting this consumer-friendly feature could slightly boost their bottom line. Given the fact that the Vita lacks a UMD drive, playing physical copies of PSP games on this new hardware proves impossible — which is why Sony’s providing a UMD conversion program for their Japanese customers (at a price). But history has shown that such a program isn’t guaranteed: Europeans had a PSP to PSP Go upgrade program in the past that wasn’t duplicated for the United States. So unfortunately, again, we Americans get jack. Though the program has its issues — namely, the price of re-purchasing digital versions of your UMDs — giving PSP owners access to their old library provides an incentive to transition from past to present handheld. For a system designed with backwards compatibility in mind (you can play your digital PSP purchases on the Vita, after all), it’s easy to see how Sony’s betrayal could leave PSP fans feeling slighted — especially those who supported the platform in its darkest days. Don’t Ignore the Possibilities of Social Networks At the moment, video games and social networks haven’t had the best history; think about how often you’ve hidden or deleted tweets of Facebook updates from friends informing you of their latest Trophy and/or purchase — and let’s not even get started on the games that prey on your feed, polluting it with demands for pumpkins and farm animal aid. But there has to be more to social network integration than just self-promotion and annoyance! Imagine a new entry in the Souls RPG series, where leaving your summon sign didn’t just inform people on the same server of your desire for multiplayer action — it also sent out this message to everyone on the social network of your choice. An idea like this would expand multiplayer beyond those with their Vitas turned on and signed into SEN. Of course, this is just one hypothetical concept, but the Vita has much more to offer than simply providing access to your network of choice. The Near service seems to be a step in the right direction, as it’s far more useful than the locked-down, child-friendly networking features of the 3DS, giving the Vita a wealth of social options too “dangerous” for their main competitor to expand upon.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/op-ed-vita-avoid-psp-fate Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Artic Combat Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:28 PM PST 
(Game website) Also known as BATTERY: Artic Wind in Asia, Webzen released the very first official trailer for Artic Combat, a new upcoming warfare online shooter. Having played the recent China closed beta (link), Artic Combat is shaping up to be a really nice new online shooter to start 2012 off.Note that this is the global server, hence no IP block is in place. Man, I am getting paranoid after the TERA North America IP block announcement.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/02/artic-combat-trailer-debuts.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Hanbitsoft Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:27 PM PST 
(Source) GameBanshee recently held an interview with Hanbitsoft’s project manager, Namo Kang with regards to Hellgate Global. If you remembered, Hellgate: London was developed by the now-defunct Flagship Studios and the Tokyo patch was in early development phase before Hanbitsoft bought over the game’s rights. Currently being IP block in various countries, Namo Kang also sheds light on a sequel.
Namo: Everything (source code, monsters/items for a future patch) became our asset. Namo: We can't give you the specific population numbers and revenue figures. When we launched Hellgate Global, we were surprised at how many people were trying to access the Hellgate Global server. To keep up with user expectations, we have been working tirelessly. Namo: Some Asia territories are not in service. (For example, China, Singapore, etc.) But we can provide almost all the countries including Australia or Canada with Hellgate service. Namo: Currently we don't have plans to release more expansion packs. If we develop the expansion pack, we will notice about that. Namo: Those things are being considered in the close future. Namo: Developers are about 20 and operating personnel is about 10. They are working on bug fixes and new contents. Namo: Many users send us their opinion and bugs. Our developers are still working on fixing them. Namo: We send it to another local team for translating before sending it out to other territories. We've finished the development of Hellgate Global. Korean build is fixed considerably. So these fixed core things are reflected. Currently we are launching the new contents of Hellgate sequentially. Namo: We just developed game item for users to play Hellgate easily. We don't think these types of items will cause some dissent because if users don't want to buy the items, almost all the items are made for convenience. User can play Hellgate without the items. Just when users want to be high level faster than other users, some items help them grow up fast. Even skill points is for people who are difficult to grow up. Just playing longtime, they can obtain the skill points as the level goes up. Namo: Of course we've considered developing a Hellgate sequel in-house. Now the developing is ongoing. For more information, we'll notice about that over time.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/hanbitsoft-hellgate-sequel-is-in.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| How Can We Fix Skyrim? Posted: 08 Feb 2012 07:28 AM PST Love it or hate it, the latest Elder Scrolls epic, Skyrim, continues to hold gamers’ attention. Almost three months after its release, people are still trading tips; sharing their confessions of how they love Lydia (even though she doesn’t quite grasp the importance of moving out of the way of massive swinging doors covered with spikes); and creating viral videos featuring startlingly accurate sports predictions and lamentations of knee-embedded arrows. We can all agree that Skyrim is hardly perfect. In fact, it could use a lot of improvements. The Skyrim lovers may never convince the game’s detractors of its greatness, but at the very least we’d have an easier time selling others on the game’s greatness if Bethesda would take the time to fix the following issues — and we’d welcome your input, too. 
Make Up with PlayStation 3 Owners Those who have played Skyrim on Xbox 360 or Windows have had, by and large, a respectable experience. Yeah, the game has its share of inexplicable glitches, and while we may not like them we’re willing to forgive minor bugs like flying rabbits and even the occasional minor side quest that “breaks” and can’t be finished; they’re unavoidable results of Bethesda’s desire to create such an absolutely enormous game with so many interlocking parts. We realize that the cost of thorough bug-testing for a game like that would bankrupt any company… and in these days of creative stagnation, it’s nice to play a game so ambitious it can’t keep up with itself. On PlayStation 3, however, it’s a different story. Due to what we’ve been told are incompatibilities between that console’s memory distribution and the way Skyrim’s engine handles its dynamic, persistent content, anyone who plays more than 30-40 hours of Skyrim — a game meant to span hundreds of hours — will inevitably reach a point at which the game simply becomes unplayable. The action slows to a crawl, items disappear, quests stop working. This, despite Bethesda’s assurances that Skyrim would resolve Fallout 3′s PS3-specific issues; even more infuriatingly, they made the press complicit in covering that version’s flaws by distributing the 360 and Windows versions for review, “neglecting” to ship PS3 copies until Skyrim’s launch. If Bethesda is to prioritize any single task, it should be putting things right with PS3 owners. We’d like to see all the glitches across every version resolved, but simply giving a significant percentage of Skyrim owners the ability to finish the game at all should be mandatory. A patch, a fix, a new disc release of the game: Whatever it takes. It’s not just good manners, it’s good business. Skyrim has been a breakthrough hit for Bethesda, but for many people it’ll be the only Elder Scrolls game they ever buy after seeing dozens of hours lost to these glitches. And if the intersect between system architecture and game engine makes Skyrim beyond repair on PS3, well, there’s always the refund route. It’s not a cheap solution, but publishers like Nintendo have long benefitted from being proactive and honest about their products’ failures. 
Make Dialogue Matter Outside of Plot People sure do talk a lot in Skyrim. The extensive emphasis on lore is a big part of The Elder Scrolls’ charm, even if it’s a little jarring to hear the same handful of voice actors spout dialogue for different citizens in every town on the map. Unfortunately, most of what’s being said is either bog-standard “why-are-you-telling-a-stranger-this?” NPC chatter or else exists only to serve the plot by launching or tying into a quest. Now, we love the fact that practically every named NPC seems to have a quest associated with them (although it does make the Dragonborn the realm’s biggest busybody), but we’re less sold on the simplistic division between quest-giving characters and enemies. Skyrim draws inspiration — often nakedly — from pen-and-paper RPGs, but it too often falls into the common video game RPG trap of creating a sharp divide between NPC combat and NPC interaction. While the latter can often result from the former, in many cases the former is never even an option. Within minutes of venturing out into Skyrim after the explosive introductory sequence, I unwittingly stumbled into my first hostile encounter with a human NPC simply because I’d dropped down from an overhang without realizing I would land near the mouth of the cave he was using as a hideout. Rather than warn me away or take a moment to talk and learn that my character was also an aspiring thief, the bandit simply went after me with a sword. I took him out and wiped out all his buddies in the cave for good measure, but before long the satisfaction of slaughtering bandits and hostile mages evaporated and I found myself wishing for more interesting ways to interact with Skyrim’s nameless bandits. They do, after all, comprise the bulk of the land’s populace. By what if? Freelance banditry could be an interesting alternative to the Thieves’ Guild. Maybe you could organize some of the rogue wizards living in various fortresses to become insurgents against the College of Winterhold. Perhaps you could parlay with giants to lead them in a charge against dragons, or to help take down a Stormcloak camp. Maybe you could barter with free-roaming daedras and atronachs to create a demonic coalition, or befriend the Thalmor patrols. Sure, these things would only add to the game’s complexity (and therefore its glitchiness), but a true role-playing game should offer alternatives to combat. Skyrim offers a ridiculous wealth of player choice, but in the end you still interact with most of the world as a disembodied weapon (or a hand wreathed in eldritch elemental fury, if you prefer), just as in almost every other action game on the market.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/features/how-can-we-fix-skyrim Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Eve Online website revamped and new trailer launched Posted: 08 Feb 2012 07:28 AM PST This winter has been a fantastic period for Eve Online veterans and newcomers alike. With the introduction of a new and revamped ship class, rebalanced weapons and items, a brand new interface and many other new features. Continuing on from their promise to ensure Eve keeps getting better CCP has today unveiled an all-new Eve Online website that features some cool web-tech to play with, not to mention an all new Community subdomain. Topping the bill is the Ship Viewer which lets you take a 360 degree tour around all the main ships and classes on offer. Elsewhere players can also get to grips with Eve's sprawling 8,500 square light year universe with the Starmap. Using the tabs along the top and bottom of the interactive map you can get a handle on Eve's infamous political powers or learn more about science and industry among other things. Other cool touches including the personality analyser (for new players to find their niche), the new pilot enrollment page and the new forum, which now includes dedicated Corp sub-forums should players want them. The icing on the cake, though, is an all-new trailer, which includes some sound advice for new players…
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/eve-online-website-revamped-and-new-trailer-launched/ Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
| Indie Dev Defends Tax Incentives for Videogame Developers Posted: 08 Feb 2012 01:26 AM PST 
We often hear brief mentions of the tax benefits granted to videogame developers in Canada — it’s no coincidence that so many companies have opened up locations in Toronto and Montreal. A recent New York Times report on tax breaks for videogame developers prompted a decidedly negative piece on the subject from Canadian publication Maclean’s. This in turn has led to a fairly in-depth piece from Capy’s Nathan Vella explaining why these tax breaks are handed out and the positive effects they can have. Capy is an independent developer located in Toronto that created both Critter Crunch (above) and the iOS hit Superbrothers: Sword Sworcery EP (below). Vella was among the company’s co-founders, and his extensive response to the Maclean’s piece explains how tax breaks helped Capy to go from a work-for-hire developer that contributed to third-party projects it had no real say in to creating original games that it controls. In his words, “Tax incentives helped us take Capy from another faltering licensed game maker and turn it into something that I believe has real value in both the game industry, and in the provinces’ economy.” Vella went so far as to have an economics expert break down the purpose of such incentives, which was provided in convenient bullet-point form. Essentially, providing a tax credit to a game developers leads to the firm expanding (i.e. hiring more skilled workers or creating its own content), which in turn leads to expanded output (or more employees) that the government can collect taxes on/from. That’s in addition to the money that these new employees spend at local businesses, which can generate more money for the government. It’s a simple way of looking at it, but it shows that the incentives aren’t simply a way of handing out money without getting anything in return.
This is further shown by Vella as he explains the actual process for obtaining such incentives: “Tax incentives are not upfront monies. They are not cash dolled out directly into company accounts to reduce labour costs on the fly. To receive money via OIDMTC (Ontario’s tax credit) you have to go through a long process which cannot start until you complete development of a title. Before the long process of receiving tax incentives can start, you have to pay salaries, rent, and even taxes. To be clear: you must spend your entire development budget before you can even apply. Further, after you apply, you wait in excess of a year before you receive your credit.” “The second much-needed clarification is that whenever the tax issue arises, everyone is quick to point to Ubisoft Toronto as some sort of tax vacuum lighting rod. ‘They got $250m,’ everyone shouts,” he continued. “However, almost all of the people shouting have a strong tendency to ignore critical components of the deal. They tend to ignore the part where Ubisoft, in turn, is committed to investing $500m+ in the same time period. They blank on the impact 800+ new highly skilled jobs will have economically, socially, and culturally. They manage to gloss over the fact that the games being developed at Ubi TO involve one of Ubi’s biggest franchises. They miss the influence that landing a giant like Ubisoft has in luring other companies, as Montreal has shown us time and time again. “Perhaps most importantly, they also seem to forget (or not know) that Ubisoft’s $250m has nothing to do with tax incentives whatsoever. The $250m was an investment directly from the province of Ontario — something that’s been done for almost every substantial industry in Canada (and the US) at one time or another. I will happily admit I am not in love with Ubi getting $250m, but although the distinction may not be huge, I still view government investment and tax incentives as separate issues altogether. So should an article written explicitly about tax incentives.” For those interested in this aspect of the business, which typically goes without being heard about much, you can read Vella’s entire post here.
Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/tax-incentives-videogame-developers-defense Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. |
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
