Konami E3 press conference notes

Konami Digital Entertainment made a couple of important announcements during its press conference this afternoon at E3 worth noting. Amidst all the Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution stuff, Konami revealed five keys franchises that active gamers will want to know about. Most of them you already know about and one is kind of questionable but I’ll mention it anyways for the sake of completion.

Kojima Productions’’ Hideo Kojima announced that his company is working on four games: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Metal Gear Solid Rising, Metal Gear Solid Arcade and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

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The Rundown: Feb. 6, 2009

The screen above is from the excellent Left 4 Dead parody, Left 4 Speed - you can check it out on YouTube. Just wanted to share. Now onto today’s news:

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Brash Going Out of Business?

When Brash Entertainment first hit the video game scene, it looked like the company could be a big player in the industry, bridging the creative gap between developers and Hollywood. They had the talent, the drive, the connections, and most importantly, the money to make it all come together. Then it all seemed to just come apart at the seams.

Starting the downhill slide, Brash’s first three projects, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jumper: Griffin’s Story, and Space Chimps, all performed way below expectations, critically and financially. Meanwhile, projects listed as “in development”, such as Saw and Night at the Museum, were suddenly MIA. Sure, we were told work was continuing on the projects, but nothing solid ever seemed to come about. Then, there was a mass exodus of the top brass at Brash, with rumors that execs weren’t happy with the overall direction the company was taking.

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Thomas Tull Leaves Brash Entertainment

Development studio Brash Entertainment was dealt a blow today, as board member Thomas Tull resigned from the company. Tull, the chairman and CEO of film studio Legendary Pictures, was one of the co-founders of Brash when it was founded year, and was a major factor in helping to raise Brash’s initial $400 million in private funding.

No official word was given for Tull’s decision to leave Brash, though it’s been reported that he was unhappy with the performance of Brash’s initial releases: Alvin & the Chipmunks, Space Chimps, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story. Tull was also apparently unhappy with the overall direction the company was taking. Even so, Tull still apparently remains one of Brash’s major investors.

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Saw Game and the ESRB

Yesterday Brash Entertainment announced a few more details on the Saw game, based on the popular and oftentimes graphically violent movie franchise. Today I solicited some comments from the company about the game’’s nature and how it would reconcile the copious amounts of shock and gore with an ESRB rating system that is much more strict than the MPAA’’s movie ratings system.

Given the game’s stage of development, Brash wasn”t willing to say much, but a company rep gave us the following one-liner: Brash has an experienced team of producers that have years of experience in managing ESRB ratings.

Well, it ain”t much, but it”ll do. We”ll follow this game as it develops and let you know whether it’’s shaping up to be something unique, or if it’s another title taking a dip in potentially controversial waters.

Saw Game Details

When Brash Entertainment announced its existence in June 2007, one of the odd properties that it revealed was the Saw movie franchise. Only odd in the sense that it would be difficult to bring the graphic nature of the film to a medium that does have its own set of limitations (like ratings guidelines). While I am not sure how the company will handle that delicate balancing act, it at least offered new details on the vision of the videogame today.

Brash announced that the videogame’s release would coincide with the next Saw film’’s debut, Halloween 2009. Brash also said that it is working closely with Saw creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan, to make sure the game experience is authentically horrifying and provides all the puzzles, shocks and suspense of the films. The game will also feature its own storyline that promises to answer several lingering questions, and will use Epic’’s Unreal Engine 3 technology to provide the eye candy and atmosphere. Saw is being developed for the Xbox 360 and Wii.

Finally the official site for the game went live today — but it doesn”t offer much beyond a sign-up form. Still, you can check that out at www.whoisjigsaw.com.

Hopefully the game will jump off the mediocrity train that the last few Saw movies have been riding and use the source material to create something entertaining. We”ll see.