Friday, August 20, 2010

Media blowout: Louis Castle, Matias Myllyrinne, Warren Spector, David Cage, Josh Sawyer and more



I am extremely happy to share with you the 3sat Neues expert panel featuring Louis Castle (InstantAction, formerly Westwood Studios) and Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment) discussing the current state and future of the games industry, hosted by myself. Here is the video stream of the 30 minute debate.

Why does a movie license to be used in games cost millions while a game license to be used in movies costs a few hundred thousands? Is Hollywood still not taking the videogame industry seriously?

Are services like OnLive, Gaikai or Louis Castle's InstantAction posing a threat to traditional games distributed the traditional way?

And can the videogame industry ever emancipate itself as a medium of art? Comic books managed to win Pulitzer prizes and deal with topics like the Holocaust. Will videogames ever be able to do likewise? Please check out the interesting debate of two industry visionaries on these questions.



We also bring you two GDC Europe lectures in full:

Heavy Rain: How Far Are You Prepared to Go to Develop an Original Project? by David Cage (Quantic Dream)

Chilling Tales from Red Steel 2: How Motion Control Will/Won't Change The Future by Jason VandenBerghe (Ubisoft)



Finally, 3sat Neues presenter Yve Fehring conducted a series of interesting interviews, which we also host on YouTube.

Warren Spector (Junction Point) speaks about ´Epic Mickey´, his slightly undeserved legacy of being a dark developer as well as why he loves German board games and what we can learn from them.


Josh Sawyer (Obsidian Entertainment) talks about the upcoming ´Fallout: New Vegas´ and whether it is a trend to give established series to new developers.




There are further interviews in German:

Olaf Wolters (BIU association) and Franko Fischer (koelnmesse) discuss this week's gamescom in Cologne, the current industry trends and why Canada was chosen as the first host country.

Heiko Klinge (IDG) and Stephan Reichart (GAME association) discuss how the financial crisis has affected the industry, how to get a career in gaming and how the career pavillion at the gamescom can help.

Finally, Lars Buttler (Trion Worlds) talks about the company's new MMO which will be developed alongside a TV series.

Andreas Lange talks about the computer game museum in Berlin opening later this year and shares one extremely rare item from the collection, as well as old footage of Ralph Baer playing the Magnavox Odyssey.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Join Louis Castle, Matias Myllyrinne and myself



I am very happy to invite you all to a very special event taking place alongside the GDC Europe, the first 3sat Neues expert panel. Join Louis Castle (InstantAction, formerly Westwood Studios) and Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment) in a discussion about the current state and future of the games industry, hosted by myself. Here are the details:


Monday, 16th of August 2010
Offenbachsaal
Congress-Centrum Ost Koelnmesse/KölnKongress
Deutz-Mülheimer-Straße
50679 Cologne / Germany
7pm - 7:45pm


Registration for GDC Europe will not be necessary. Fifteen minutes will be reserved for Q&A. Here are all the travel details. I very much hope that all of you attending GDC Europe can come. If you are unable to attend, you may want to check out the on-demand stream of the session, provided by my television network ZDF/3sat. Check back for the link Monday evening.