Gamenews Weekly
Production Pages
14 June 2005 Gamenews Weekly: Production Pages - games in development in Australia. To get the next issue, and lots more, subscribe to Gamenews Weekly today!

Dissecta 22 November 2005: Heroes of the Pacific!

In the mainstream
60 Minutes Game Story
The Australian version of 60 Minutes ran an American item last night, on computer and video games 'for adults'. The introduction to the item stated "The biggest hits at the moment are blockbusters full of explosions, violence, scantily clad women and secret agents in tuxedos. No, they're not movies. They're video games, video games for grown ups. Playstations and X-boxes are now no longer just for kids. The average player these days is in his or her late 20s. And they're playing the sort of games that would give granny a heart attack. Not only that, Bob Simon reports that this R-rated business is now raking in billions of dollars every year. No wonder the world's richest man wants a slice of the action." See the story here. Even though the item has been produced in America, the words used by the Australian host are pretty clear, that the computer games are "R-rated" and that they are presumably available on the Australian market. Very interesting considering there is no 'R' classification category in Australia for computer games. The Office of Film and Literature Classification provides that the ratings for computer games go to MA15+ and anything falling outside the available classifications will be labeled 'RC" for Refused Classification. See the OFLC ratings system for computer games here. [30 June 2003]

In the mainstream
Business Breakfast Looks at Games
The ABC's Business Breakfast took a very cursory look at the game industry on Friday 27 June 2003, speaking with Pascal Brochier, MD Vivendi Universal Games, and John De Margheriti, of AIE/Mirco Forte. For the transcript, click here. [30 June 2003]

Gamenews.com.au Newsletter
Exclusive: International View Point from John Chasey, Iomo UK
"While my background is the PC/Console industry (started programming at CRL in 1988) for the last three years I've been running IOMO a mobile games company and so have moved slightly away from the mainstream PC/Console side of things, and my views definitely have a mobile slant to them. The drive towards established genre's and licences is still as in evidence as ever and as the risk …" [for the full article subscribe to the GameNews.com.au email newsletter - email us here info@gamenews.com.au] [25 June 2003].

Industry News
Xbox Mod Chip Design Put Online
The Age IT reports that "Australian firm Hibana has released the design for an XBox modchip under an open source licence". The design has been released on Hibana's 'AussiChip' website with managing director Grant Sparks noting in the Age IT article that "the question of whether such a device was illegal rested entirely on the purpose for which it was used." For the article, click here. Link: www.aussiechip.com.au. [25 June 2003]

Industry News
Financial Times: Game Regulations
The Financial Times takes a look at how government regulations in different markets require games to be modified, and the cost to publishers: "For the bloodthirsty gamers of Britain and Germany it was all hugely frustrating when the Carmageddon series appeared in the late 1990s. For SCi Entertainment, the London-based company that publishes the Carmageddon franchise, it is more than an annoyance. The changes and patches and last-minute tweaks add up to one thing: money." The article is available here. The issue has lead to Dr Terkeurst ("head of research at the International Centre for Computer Games and Virtual Entertainment (IC CAVE), based in Scotland at the University of Abertay Dundee" coming up with a possible solution called a localisation engine, "to help automate the sensitive task of tweaking the game for each market's tastes and legislation." By Tim Richards [23 June 2003]

Industry News
International Ratings Conference 2003
The upcoming International Ratings Conference 2003, presented by the Office of Film & Literature Classification, will include what looks to be an interesting presentation of original research into games content in the context of classification. The presentation, entitled "The Diverse Worlds Project: Narrative, Style, Characters and Physical World in Popular Computer and Video Games," seeks to demystifying games content and is based on a university-funded analysis of the content of the most popular 130 game titles in Australia. Four dimensions of computer and video games content were analysed including narrative, style, characters and physical world. The presentation will be made by Jeffrey E. Brand, Associate Professor at Bond University and the conference will be held late September in Sydney. Links: http://www.iceaustralia.com/oflc/home.htm
Tim Richards [19 June 2003]

Education
New site for the The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE)
Game school the AIE has released a new and improved website at www.aie.act.edu.au providing new course information, 3D resources, links, and student work for former and current students. Links: www.aie.act.edu.au
Tim Richards [18 June 2003]

E3 News
Sony PSP: PlayStation Portable
Sony has released details of a portable game unit it plans to release next year. Accoridng to various sources, the unit will contain a miniature optical disk (60mm in diameter) with a 1.8 GB capacity, a 4.5 inch back-lit LCD, Memory Stick slot, and USB interconnectivity port. The developer kit will be released later this year. For the Financial Times article click here. For the Australian IT article click here. For the Sony press release, click here. The Financial Times reports "Saturo Iwata, president of Nintendo, which recently launched a new-generation Gameboy, said his company dominated the market for hand-held game players. "There is no need to be overly concerned right now," he added." By Tim Richards [14 May 2003]

Industry News
Sega Proposed Merger Off
Sega, which was to merge with fellow Japanese company and pinball maker Sammy, is on its own again. The Financial Times reports from Japan that on Thursday last week Sega "suddenly found itself without a merger partner after it broke off integration talks with Sammy…The collapse of talks with Sammy, which comes just three months after the deal was announced, was followed immediately by an announcement from Namco [another merger contender] that it would withdraw its merger proposal made on April 14." For the article, click here. By Tim Richards [13 May 2003]

Industry News
Technology Australia: Games Downunder at E3
For an overview of the current state of the Australian game development industry you can't go past the Game Developers Association of Australia marketing information put together for the upcoming E3 in LA. The GDAA is co-ordinating an exhibit called Technology Australia: Games Downunder, and has produced a glossy brochure, also downloadable from their website, which summarises the current state of play. For the brochure, click here. By Tim Richards [13 May 2003]

Industry News
Infogrames Renamed Atari
Infogrames announced last week that it would be changing its name to Atari the name of "the legendary creator of the first mass-market arcade and console games" comments the Financial Times. Infogrames bought the name two years ago. While the parent company based in France will require a majority vote of shareholders for the name change to go through, to be held in September, the company is changing the name of all its subsidiary businesses and has changed its Nasdaq stock exchange abbreviation to "ATAR". The Atari name goes back to 1972 when the company released 'Pong' the first commercially successful video game and the FT reports Bruno Bonnell, Infogrames founder and CEO as saying "In any language, Atari is synonymous with video games and it's recognized for transforming entertainment." The FT goes on to state that "if shareholders approve the name-change for the French parent company it will spell the end for the Infogrames name, which Mr Bonnell invented using a computer programme when he founded the company in 1983." For the article, click here. By Tim Richards [13 May 2003]

Industry News
March Interactive Game Stats - Australia
Interactive Entertainment Research Company Inform, reports that data for March 2003 shows that the interactive games market outperformed February by 5% "but it was still down on year on year figures." Inform reports that the only format to suffer a fall in sales was the PC format "with shipments of its games falling by 6%" although remaining the "dominant gaming platform with a 33% market share." Inform remarks that March 2003 failed to better March 2002 due to March 2002's competitive market as the Xbox went on sale and competitors provided value packs. Inform also reports that Xbox and Gamecube benefitted from double digit sales growth, particularly the Gamecube with a 44% game sales increase, while PS2 "had already seen a spike in its games sales in February." Meanwhile Gameboy Advance saw increasing sales due to the release of the Gameboy Advance SP version, which sold "almost 6,200 units for an average price of A$198". For the report, click here. By Tim Richards [1 May 2003]