AMD is trying to make buying a game PC more like selecting a game console. The company’s new AMD Game campaign will put badging on game PCs and set minimum standards for PCs that carry these badges. The idea is to allow gamers to select a PC like they would an Xbox 360 game console model and to drive home the point that an integrated graphics chip (from Intel, for example) is not good enough for a decent gaming experience. AMD’s specifications will target mainstream PC gamers, not high-end enthusiasts necessarily. Initially, the specifications will cover only desktops, with notebook standards coming later. About a dozen resellers will launch systems with the badging, including Acer, Alienware, iBuypower, and Velocity Micro. Microsoft and Logitech will also support AMD Game. AMD has good reason to revisit its game PC strategy. The PC gaming alliance estimates 263 million gamers worldwide, with global PC game (software) revenues estimated to be $9.6 billion in 2008. But more importantly, AMD’s acquisition of ATI has put it in a unique position to be the only chip supplier in the x86 PC market that offers both a CPU (central processing unit) and a discrete, high-end GPU (graphics processing unit). The company also wants a larger presence in the game PC market. Most of the game PCs from resellers like Falcon Northwest and Voodoo come with Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs. An equally dangerous trend is the proliferation of PCs using Intel-based integrated graphics: These PCs are not capable of playing games the way they should be played, according to AMD. “We’re not doing a good job of getting that balanced solution to people,” said Brent Berry, product marketing manager for AMD. By “balanced,” Berry means a cost-effective solution that offers a more precise balance of CPU and GPU performance. Nvidia calls this the “optimized PC.” “Consumers are not getting a great gaming experience with IGP (Integrated Graphics Processors),” Berry added. AMD Game badges will direct consumers “to solutions that are specifically validated for gaming,” Berry said. The standard AMD Game “user experience” target will be a system with 1280×1024-pixel high-definition (HD) resolution that can achieve 30 frames per second, Berry said. The AMD Game Ultra will be “beyond HD” at 1600×1200 pixels and 30 frames per second. “In North America, about 60 percent of consumers say they plan on using their PCs for video games,” said Berry. “But when you do a check on what people actually did on their PCs, you find out that 80 percent actually played games on their PCs.” AMD Game minimum requirements are an AMD Athlon 5600+ X2 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics, and an AMD 770 chipset or Nvidia nForce 500 series chipset. AMD Game Ultra minimum requirements are a Phenom X4 9650 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics, and an AMD 770 chipset.
Gamers have been waiting a long time for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Originally slated to be released in the first half of 2006, the game has finally gone gold after repeated delays, and is now due in stores on May 20 in the US and May 23 in Europe. Funcom today boasted that the limited Collector’s Edition, which includes two in-game items, a map of Hyboria, a 124-page art book, and an exclusive documentary DVD, has now completely sold out, despite 110,000 being sold after a second print run due to popular demand. A total of 700,000 copies of the game are being shipped on day one, and Funcom says that due to “equally impressive preorder numbers” and “server capacity limitations,” it has not been able to fulfil all orders for the game. It has ordered extra servers to make it possible for more players to join. Funcom also added that the copies of the game shipping will not support DirectX 10 at launch, saying, “As Microsoft’s DirectX 10 is undoubtedly the future of PC gaming, Funcom has decided to ship only the DirectX 9 version at launch, giving the team more time to focus on building a DirectX 10 version worthy of Microsoft’s great vision for the future of PC gaming.” Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy-action MMORPG developed by Funcom, which also developed Anarchy Online, for the PC and Xbox 360.
The release of Halo 3 was monumental not just because of its then-record-setting debut, but also because it signaled the end of series developer Bungie as an internally owned Microsoft studio. Shortly after the game shipped in September, the Kirkland, Washington-based outfit said it would be parting ways with Microsoft, which acquired the studio in 2000, to “expand both creatively and organizationally.” For Bungie, one of the casualties from that move is long-standing Halo scribe Frank O’Connor. In a post to Bungie’s Web site today, the writer said he would be departing the developer to continue working on the Halo franchise under the employ of Microsoft. Explaining his decision and talking up his former employer, O’Connor said, “It was very hard for me to make the decision to move on, but one thing that made it just a bit easier, was seeing the amazing work that’s coming down the pipe. I was busy working on a story for one of our next games, an experience that is destined to surprise, amaze and entertain like nothing we’ve ever made before. That game has an amazing team invested in it, and one that will be tasked with building the Next Big Thing.” “And there are other things rumbling at Bungie, just as secret, just as epic and just as incredible,” continued O’Connor. “And the thing that turns all that rumbling into incredible gameplay experiences is, has always been and will always continue to be, the people. The brilliant, talented, industrious gang of geniuses who brought you everything from a monochrome Pong clone to the staggering vistas and vision of Halo 3. Though Bungie has said that it is “actively engaged” in creating new Halo games, Microsoft has also been licensing out the property to other studios. Those currently working on games set in Bungie’s universe include Ensemble Studios with Halo Wars and Peter Jackson, who said in 2006 that his film studio is creating an interactive division to make a Halo game.
Following the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the Entertainment Software Association’s annual trade show has been in a state of flux for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being an indefinite location and flagging support. As part of its efforts to retune the show last year, the ESA did away with the show’s traditional conference program, where industry luminaries gathered to share insight into the industry. While the ESA hasn’t explicitly stated the conference program will return for this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit, it indicated as much when it detailed this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit in December. Today, the industry representative body gave a further indication that the track would be returning, saying Texas governor Rick Perry would deliver a keynote address at this year’s show. E3 is scheduled to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 15-17. “Governor Perry and the E3 Media & Business Summit are both great success stories. The Governor’s keynote address is especially timely given the high concentration of entertainment software developers and publishers in Texas as well as the state’s long-standing support of our industry,” said ESA CEO Michael Gallagher. “The Governor’s forward-thinking leadership in encouraging the growth and development of our $18 billion industry is a roadmap for other state executives who want to transform their state economies for the 21st century.” Earlier this month, soon-to-be merged publishers Activision and Vivendi left the ESA, and subsequently decided to skip this year’s event. Following that announcement, previous E3 exhibitors NCsoft and Foundation 9 said they too had scuttled the event from their calendars, while LucasArts said they would be attending the show, but would not be renewing their membership with the ESA. Helping to clear up some of the confusion surrounding who’s in and who’s out, the ESA today released a complete list of companies that have committed to exhibit at this year’s E3. Noticeably absent from the list is id Software, which previously said it would be attending, before recanting its statement. A list of announced attendees is as below. The ESA said it expects additional exhibitors to sign on in the near future.
Akella
Atari
Bethesda Softworks
Capcom USA
Crave Entertainment
Codemasters
D3Publisher of America
Deep Silver
Disney Interactive Studios
Electronic Arts
Eidos Interactive
Fox Interactive Media; Indie Games
Jagex
Konami America
LucasArts
Majesco
Microsoft
Midway Games
MTV Games
Namco Bandai Games America
Natsume
Nintendo of America
Novint Technologies
Nyko Technologies
Rebellion
Sega of America
Serious Games Initiative
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Sony Online Entertainment
Southpeak Interactive
Square Enix USA
Take-Two Interactive
Tecmo
THQ
Toshiba America
Ubisoft
Valve Software
Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment
At the 2008 Game Developers Conference in February, Nintendo announced that Wii Fit would launch on May 19. The Japanese game giant’s proclamation led many gamers, technophiles, and health enthusiasts to mark their calendars under the assumption they could get their hands on the $90 balance-board based, exercise-centric title on the third Monday of the month. However, confusion began to erupt when Nintendo’s nationwide advertising campaign for Wii Fit began touting the game as going on sale on Wednesday, May 21. When asked last week, a representative for Nintendo of America insisted the game would go on sale on May 19. “It may take a few days for shipments to reach every part of the country and the ads you saw may have considered that,” said the rep. Today, Nintendo is holding a Wii Fit launch event in New York City, where it sold the game to a select few. The rest of the country won’t be as fortunate. Nintendo made a last-minute announcement today that the May 19 date only applies to only one location, the Nintendo World Store in New York City. According to a “Nintendo World ambassador” manning the phones at the store, the game sold out there in under an hour this morning. Calls to more than a dozen other retailers throughout the country (I’m lucky I have unlimited long-distance minutes), including ones just blocks away from the Nintendo World Store, produced an uniform result. “The game doesn’t come out until Wednesday,” was the oft-repeated reply from more than 20 clerks and managers at GameStop, Best Buy, and Target locations on both coasts and in the Midwest. One GameStop employee in San Francisco seemed particularly glum, saying, “We won’t even know if we are getting any quantity until Wednesday.” GameSpot queried Nintendo reps about the confusion surrounding the Wii Fit launch, as well as the prospect of shortages, shortages which apparently have led to online retailers such as Amazon ceasing to offer preorders. As of press time, no reply had been received. Wii Fit is already on sale in Europe, Australasia, and Japan, where it has already sold over 1 million units to date.
In Take-Twenty of the saga in which Electronic Arts is attempting a buyout of Take-Two, the Sims publisher has extended the deadline for its tender offer a third time. It is the second time EA is offering a price of $25.74 a share; on April 18, it pushed the deadline to May 16, but dropped the share price from $26. This came after Take-Two executives approved a “poison pill” measure which would dilute the stock in event of an attempted takeover. The official reason given for the extension is so that the Federal Trade Commission can complete its investigation into the deal. EA’s senior vice president of corporate development, Owen Mahoney, commented, “EA’s offer price remains unchanged at $25.74 per share and our offer is still subject to conditions that include regulatory approval. As stated earlier, we retain the right to terminate the offer if the conditions are not satisfied.” Take-Two was quick to issue a statement following the announcement, advising stockholders once more not to sell their shares. Chairman Strauss Zelnick said, “We said we were willing to begin formal discussions with interested parties on April 30, following the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, and we have in fact begun that process.” Zelnick did not name names, although he has stated before that EA was not the only suitor wooing Take-Two. EA so far has 6,210,261 of Take-Two’s outstanding shares as of May 16, only around 8 percent of the total. Since the launch of its flagship game GTAIV, Take-Two shares have been fluctuating, rising to $26.63 on the day of the game’s release, dropping to $25.74, and closing on Friday at $27.10.
aliengroups
VIPsharpshooter
Sounds like an excellent idea to me. I’d love to have game PCs specifically tailored to my liking. Only problem is the money issue. Yeah..
Age of Conan rocks, though- even if I can only play it on min. settings