Currently Listening To:
Queen
You're My Best Friend
Hello everybody. It's November 6th and that means the election has officially come to close. Barack Obama is our new president elect and everyone is spouting the tunes of "change". But I'm not going to write about that. I'm actually here to address a few other subjects. First, I was informed that my friend Nelly (aka Psyche, the Frag Doll to all you gamers) is moving out of the city and to San Francisco to take an office job at Ubisoft. Go Nelly! So the NY FD crew gave her a send off of sorts.
Good Luck In San Francisco Nelly!
An article on 1up.com caught my attention and had me thinking, what the fuck? It was titled as "Activision CEO Explains Why Ghostbusters and 50 Cent Were Dropped." If you keep up with gaming news, it was no secret that Sierra Studios, which is owned by Activision had stopped development on the new Ghostbusters game. They dropped and it and the game was ostensibly passed onto another company whose name currently escapes me. Activision had dropped not only the Ghostbusters game, but also Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend and 50 cent's new game.
The article, shown here, explains the motive behind dropping the games. "[Those games] don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. ... I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus... on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we'll be working on them 10 years from now."
The Article goes on to say: "It's a fair point given that Activision is, after all, a business, but it's easy to be upset with that sort of strategy". I am of the opinion that this is the mentality which ruins games and their franchises.
A perfect example of this is the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, which hits me as a skater and a gaming enthusiast. Year after year, they would produce the same game with a couple more features and extras. 9 games later (not mentioning ANY rendition of Tony Hawk's downhill jam) without changing the formula totally ruined the experience. Well it ruined it for anyone who dared to play after the third or fourth game, that is. I also feel it makes it easier for competitors to horn in on that little corner of market you've exploited. EA's Skate is a perfect example of the case. I don't know the future of that franchise, so I can only be hopeful. I also feel that if they're not careful, Guitar Hero will become the next Tony Hawk or Spider-man Franchise. In the end, I guess we can take solace in the fact that they aren't planning to make 1001 shitty Ghostbusters games.
A perfect example of this is the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, which hits me as a skater and a gaming enthusiast. Year after year, they would produce the same game with a couple more features and extras. 9 games later (not mentioning ANY rendition of Tony Hawk's downhill jam) without changing the formula totally ruined the experience. Well it ruined it for anyone who dared to play after the third or fourth game, that is. I also feel it makes it easier for competitors to horn in on that little corner of market you've exploited. EA's Skate is a perfect example of the case. I don't know the future of that franchise, so I can only be hopeful. I also feel that if they're not careful, Guitar Hero will become the next Tony Hawk or Spider-man Franchise. In the end, I guess we can take solace in the fact that they aren't planning to make 1001 shitty Ghostbusters games.
That concludes this one. Anyone Else picking up Gears of War 2 tomorrow?
Or even tonight at midnight!
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