Welcome to another exciting edition of The Rundown. We start out the week with a rumor about layoffs at Warhammer Online developer Mythic Entertainment, a new WiiWare game from Aksys Games, Sony Online Entertainment’s latest acquisition and much, much more. Find out more after the break.
(Contributors: Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)
Crispy Gamer wraps up its Top 21 News Stories of 2008 with our top 7 news stories. See what stories were the most interesting and had the most impact on the game industry and gamers in 2008. We start with #7 right now. Also be sure to check out #8 - 14 and #15 - 21, if you haven’t already.
Last night, G4 viewers got a bit of a surprise during X-Play’s Gaming Update segment, when host Adam Sessler announced exclusively that upcoming DLC for Pandemic’s popular game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will include a couple of surprise guest stars: Presidential candidate Barack Obama and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The segment included video of the duo wreaking havoc in and around the game’s Venezuelan setting.
Pandemic’s Tom Stratton commented about the news saying, “Mercenaries 2 is a game seemingly ripped straight out of today’s headlines and fueled with the same type of over-the-top action found in the best summer blockbuster films. It only makes sense we inject the game with a spin on current affairs. The timing was too good to let pass.” Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps it is just anecdotal evidence but the latest political ad from Barack Obama telling citizens to take the day off to vote and knock on doors isn’t sitting very well with some gamers. From sites like Kotaku, Game Politics, and more, readers are sounding off about the political process invading their gaming culture – and it’s not all sunshine and roses.
The latest ad (which you can watch in the Crispy Gamer Community) shows a still of a couch, an office workspace and a Wii Remote, each followed with a comment that “you can’t make history from here.” The ad goes on to encourage everyone to take Election Day off to vote and make phone calls for the campaign. The general tone has been one of mild anger; some gamers find this particular ad insulting because it lightly insinuates a notion that gamers are lazy creatures.
Why, oh why, can’t they just leave us the f**k alone? They harass us on network television, assail us in email, and call us incessantly on the phone.. and now they remind us in our video games that there is an election going on. sure, it’s a big election year with tons of big issues to deal with but can we just have one sacred place to get away from it all? Nope.
See, when money is to be made, companies like EA have space to sell in their games. EA has put up billboards featuring presidential candidate Barack Obama in several of its top sports games like Madden NFL 09 and popular games like Burnout Paradise. EA spokesperson Holly Rockwood would not say how much the ads cost, but said that they are running on the Xbox Live versions of the game through Nov. 3. They began earlier this month - according to an Associated Press report.
“It reaches an audience that is typically hard to reach—young males, roughly 18 to 34,” said Rockwood. “That’s very appealing to our advertisers.”
Rockwood declined to say how much revenue the company generates from selling ad space in its games, but chances are like network and Cable Television, the camp is paying a low cost rate that conforms to national election laws.
While some may see this development as “exciting,” “a breath of fresh air,” or very tech savvy on Obama’s part, I see it as just another way for game companies to monetize something we have already paid for. We paid for the game already and we pay a subscription fee to Xbox Live, so why should we be forced to see any ads - let alone political ads that some of us are trying to get away from in the first place?
Kudos to Obama for finding new ways to reach voters, but shame on EA for re-monetizing a product we’ve spent our dollars on. It’s this kind of behavior that caused the Boston Tea Party, folks.
Source: breitbart.com
