GTA: Chinatown Wars Sales Analysis Update - I Was Right

Not to tout my own horn or anything, but it looks like I was right about Chinatown Wars' sales.

Quick recap: the game sold slightly under 90,000 units in its first two weeks at retail and everyone from analysts to "game journalists" jumped right on the "third-party sales on DS/Wii" bandwagon. I cited two major reasons behind the game's "slow" start: people holding off on buying until the launch of the DSi, and DS games selling through word of mouth over a period of time. Turns out, I wasn't wrong.


Here as some nice quotes from Nintendo, Gamestop and Take Two concerning the two-week sales period:


First up is Nintendo's vice president of licensing, Steve Singer. Says the man in charge of third-party relations to MTV:

“‘Chinatown Wars’ is performing in line with AAA titles that have come to our platform like ‘Spore‘ or ‘Lego Star Wars,”

“Those games went on to have very different life-to-date sales numbers.”

Nintendo then points to the sales of Call of Duty 4 on DS...an amazing 500,000+ units sold life-to-date.



Next up is Denise Kaigler, Nintendo's VP of Corporate Affairs. Says Kaigler:

“Remember that many games for Nintendo DS have a nontraditional sales pattern. The trend is toward ‘evergreen’ games that sell well over an extended period of time instead of in a one-month spike. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Nintendo DS is a good example. In its first month (November 2007), it sold only 36,000. To date, it has sold through nearly 500,000. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a great game that has received tremendous reviews. We expect that with continued backing, it will follow the same long-tail/evergreen sales route that other top sellers have taken.”

And now, on to Alan Lewis, Take Two's VP of Corporate Communications, who had a whole lot to say about how T2 sees GTA's performance on DS:

"Chinatown Wars received critical acclaim and is the highest rated DS title of all time,

"In terms of performance, we think it is performing in line with other triple-A games on the platform.

"We are very confident in Chinatown Wars long-term potential for success," he said. "We think it will have a long life in the market.

“We have and we will continue to support the platform. We think the mature segment of the DS market is growing.

“We’re confident in the game, and we think it has long-term potential for success. We’re trying to pioneer mature games on the platform.”

Huh. Seems like Chinatown Wars didn't do so badly after all. I wonder what the retailers think.

Oh, here's what:

“‘GTA: Chinatown Wars’ is exceeding our expectations and illustrating the power of the franchise on a new platform. We’ve seen a solid lift in sales of ‘Chinatown Wars’ following the launch of the DSi and believe that the product will continue to enjoy a long life at our stores as the buzz around the new handheld gaming experience continues to grow.”

That's Chris Olivera, representative of Gamestop in this whole analytical mess, proving once again that most people outside of retail still don't know how the DS and Wii markets work, or have yet to come to terms with them.

For all their research and numbers and stats, analysts always seem to be the first ones to jump the gun when it comes to spreading wrong information. It's sad, really, because this kind of trolling does hurt the image of the companies involved.

I always think it's funny how we, as an industry, actually pay heed to the words of people who don't know the first thing about game development and the costs involved when it comes to talk of sales and performance. Do any of these analysts know how much it cost to develop and publish Chinatown Wars? Have any of them been observing sales patterns on the DS and Wii for the past two years? Do they know what T2's expectations for the games were?

Top-tier publishers like Take Two aren't stupid, and they don't need uninformed parties suggesting to them what to do. It's about time we learnt this. I'm just amazed we haven't already.

[ADVANCE]

GTA: Chinatown Wars' Retail Performance Analyzed

I haven't had much time lately, so I've been playing the hell out of two games. GTA: Chinatown Wars on DS during slow hours at work and in bed, and Rune Factory Frontier for the Wii on weekends.

While I don't know how well RFF is doing at retail (certainly hope it's well enough to warrant a sequel), Chinatown Wars is off to a bit of a slow start. I have a few theories on why this may be, but since I can't really back these up with any concrete evidence, I'm going to be ranting here instead of penning them in an organized manner on Siliconera.


Theory #1: Pokémon

Chinatown Wars launched around the same time as Pokémon Platinum (aka suicide). However, considering the target audience for both these games is pretty different, this may not be the biggest reason behind GTA's slow start.


Theory #2: Charting time

This one is a little more valid. EEDAR have been predicting around 200,000 units sold, while my personal favourite Michael Pachter predicted around 450,000. I'm willing to bet Pachter would have been right on the money had it not been for theory #3, but theory #2 is that GTA only sold 88,700 because it only charted for two weeks. Another two weeks and it would probably have met EEDAR's 200k projection.


Theory #3: DSi

People planning on buying a DSi are holding off on buying GTA until they have their new handheld. Buying the two side-by-side would make sense, and DSi launched on April 5. Going by this theory, Chinatown Wars should see some nice sales in April. NPD numbers for April and the following months will tell if I'm right or not.


Either way, people shouldn't be writing Chinatown Wars off as a flop. I'm willing to bet 90k in the U.S. + European sales means it will be a profitable title for T2 and DS games are known to have long legs. This is without factoring in Japanese sales where DS and PSP games dominate the charts each week and GTA happens to be one of the select few Western developed games that Japanese gamers are warming up to.

It's GTA, it's on DS where software tends to sell well through word of mouth over a long period of time. Let's give it some time before we start proclaiming gloom and doom for a third-party game on a Nintendo system.

[ADVANCE]

Jak's Personal Ten Best Anime of 2007

Everybody loves a good list, right? I will list the ten best anime I've watched this year. Now, the views expressed hereafter are not exactly the same as the rest of the writers. These are my personal favorites; one's I enjoyed the most.

So, let's get started.

10. Lovely Complex

Why?:

Okay so, I really only had about eight shows I thoroughly enjoyed this year. I was thinking of some others to make a complete ten, so I chose Lovely Complex. If you've ever read anything written by me, you would know I am pretty biased towards romantic comedies. But LoveCom was extremely over the top in it's expression of emotions and dialogue. If anything, I watched it just to hear the characters yell at each other with a Kansai dialect. I did get really annoyed at the show many times, and even stopped watching it about two-thirds of the way through. But when I finished it I was somewhat surprised that I did enjoyed the series as a whole.

9. Shigurui

Why?:

Shigurui is truly a unique show. I've yet to see anything else like it. It's also a show I'd never recommend to a typical anime fan. The show is very - no - extremely slow paced. Watching one episode seems as if it takes an hour to watch, but it is not as if it was boring. The show has the most dramatic contrast, both in style and in content. The color is almost all black and white; dark and bright. Slow moving shots of the characters, and then in an instant, a fight breaks out and is over quickly. I'm not sure how historically accurate this show is, but if samurai could truly do some of the things portrayed in Shigurui then I find that absolutely astounding, both the actually technique and the torturous training it takes to perfect it. This show also definitely not for the faint of heart. It is extremely gory.

8. Minami-ke

Why?:

Minami-ke was a show I was really surprised I enjoyed. What exactly did I like about it? I'm still not quite sure. The complete randomness mostly. You never knew what to expect and more often than not, the outcome was hilarious. The personalities of the individual characters as well. From the tenderly and loving Haruka, to the mischievous Kana, and the critical, unamused, yes still very naive Chiaki. One truly became accustomed to these characters and continued watching to see how they would conflict next.

7. Claymore

Why?:

I'll be honest, the first third of this show was immensely boring. I don't know why I forced myself to watch it, but I'm glad I did. It started off really slow and typical. Then is slowly started to build momentum all the way up to a certain point, and then it slammed on the gas and never faltered the rest of the show. The ending was pretty disappointing which can easily be cured by a sequel. Some say Claymore will have a sequel, others say they won't. My favorite aspect of the show was how the Claymores had to use restraint when fighting, other wise they would lose their humanity. Each fighter had to use a immense amount of self control when conducting themselves, even when it seemed logical to let it all loose.

6. Baccano

Why?:

Baccano is the best show of 2007 that no one watched. It's also the most confusing. The show has a huge cast of characters that is hard to follow. I think I was familiar with them only half way through the whole show. And then we have the confusing story and time line. Baccano's greatest strength is it's story and how many events from long ago to just a few years ago are affecting the current events happening in the the show's present time. It hops between 1930-1933 so much one has no clue what's happening a majority of the time. And then we have Isaac and Miria. Two vigilante bank robber's determined to put the mafia out of business. They are hands down the best comedy duo I've seen in a long time. They were a major reason why I watched the show and why you should too.

And the ending is absolutely classic.

5. Ghost Hound

Why?:

I'm only half way through with Ghost Hound. If I had seen the whole thing, I'm certain it would be higher, but things didn't turn out like that. I've said it before, I love the audio aspect of the show. The style is somewhat simplistic in certain places, and thoroughly complex in others. I find it interesting how everything looks so pastel when the characters are inside and at school and when outside, they look bold and colorful. The supernatural aspect is finally starting to show itself in true form and the discovery of abilities and their full potential is piquing my interest immensely.

I'm sorry for using such extravagant words to describe something so simple and insignificant.

4. Toki wo no Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)

Why?:

This isn't a series, it's a movie. And it is one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life. That includes animated movies and one's with human actors. It's a movie about high school life and a subtle romance with a sci-fi twist. It's also a bit tragic, but not something that leaves you depressed. I recommend this movie to everyone I come across. It's going to be in stores in North America soon, so I'd recommend everyone that can to buy it. I am confident you will not be disappointed. The style, the music, the animation, the feeling, it is all truly amazing.

3. Seirei no Moribito (Guardian of the Sacred Spirit)

Why?:

I am biased towards this show because of Production I.G. This was a show I was begging for more action to happen in. What few fights that did occur, were nothing short of spectacular. I hate characters with pacifist attitudes when they are an amazing fighter, but I love Balsa. She's more noble then most men and could beat any of them in a fight. The art in the show is probably the best I've seen in any anime. The music was eerie and truly reflected the feel the creators want to portray. It also has an interesting fantasy twist towards the second half that sort of threw you for a loop. Towards the end , I was wondering if I had been watching the same show this entire time. The plot does move pretty slow (similar to Ghost Hound, another series by Production I.G.) so if you are patient, I recommend you give this a try.

2. Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann

Why?:

This show was almost my favorite of the year. Personal bias kept it from that spot. While I loved every aspect of the show, the stereotypical anime fan service and their typical scenario's sort of irked me. That aside, the sheer epic-ness of Gurren Lagann easily eclipses any flaws it has. If you like action, this show is definitely for you, if not perfect. If you like relationships, both that of romance, and of friends and mentors, this show might be for you as well, but be prepared for the worst. Gurren Lagann evokes emotions, both positive and negative. I can not ever recall me hating a fictional character the way I hated Rossieu, or ever felt down because of a certain characters death. Gurren Lagann only had one lowpoint, which was intentional. The protagonist rose above it. Gurren Lagann will give you goosebumps. Unless you are completely insane and hate anime, watch it as soon as possible. Tell all your friends about it and make your (male) children watch it so they'll know how to behave like a real humans.

1. Darker Than Black

Why?:

Here is where the bias comes in to play. Before I saw one episode of this show, I already was in love with it. BONES is my favorite studio. Yoko Kanno is my favorite composer. Watching this show felt like watching a movie because the production value was so high. If any anime could ever get me to buy a high definition media player, Darker Than Black would be it. Not many shows do this, but Darker Than Black has two episode arcs. So in reality, you are watching one forty minute episode. I like long episodes like that. I've seen a few OVA's and short movies that follow this timing format and enjoyed them. It really shows talent in the writing because sometimes it's hard to fill up the allotted time required for even a normal twenty two minute episode.

The show has an unusual cast of an ex-special agent with the power of electricity, an emotionless blind girl who can give intel to her team just by touching water, a black cat who has a human soul trapped in him, and an alcoholic. The show has a serene sense of humor combined with quick and fast paced action where the ones involved have unusual powers. And then the whole process of regenerating that power after the fights is intriguing, and sometimes funny. The first half of the show is confusing since each set of episodes introduces a new set of characters. Towards the end, it all comes together smoothly. The true ending did leave more to be desired. But like Claymore, we'll just assume it's because a sequel will be in the works. BONES does like to make their shows fifty or so episodes.

Conclusion:

And that's the end. If you know me personally, you should be surprised. At anything in this list. I won't recommend a lot of these shows to other people simply because some are just shows you either like, or you could care less about - if that makes any sense.

If you disagree with anything I've said, just chill out and remember it's just one person's perspective. These are the shows I enjoyed personally for various reasons - some which I've listed. If you do watch any of these shows based on my word, that would really make me happy. It's not to be expected however.

[ADVANCE]

Pictures: The staff at Exigent

Finally got them damn pictures developed. The quality of the shots isn't really very good, but I was in a hurry and there were tube lights everywhere. Not easy taking decent photos with a crappy camera and surrounded by white light. Thank God for Photoshop.

Hit the jump to check them out.


Here they are. Click for larger versions.

Jesse and Paul, refusing to look at the camera. Don't be so shy, guys!


Chief Operating Officer Chris Whaley, however ... he loves the attention.


...And so does the one known to you all as "my friend".


Anthony Whitaker, Chief Technology Officer at RZ2 Games. He worked on some of my favourite titles, including X-Men Legends, Star Wars: Jedi Knight. Overall awesome guy ... I really wish I could tell you some of the "off-the-record" stuff he told me. Hilarious.


(From left to right) Jesse, a member of the staff we weren't introduced to, Paul, Albert and Nisha.

[ADVANCE]

FWA Feature: Exigent and the future of gaming in India - Part 2: Jesse Rapczak

Following our conversation with Paul Steed, we were introduced to Jesse Rapczak, the VP of Production at Exigent. Jesse was the co-founder of Artificial Studios, who developed the Reality Engine, which was licensed by Epic in 2005. With him, were Albert and Nisha (two of the lead artists on the team).

Quick summary of everything we cover in this interview:

- The relationship between video games and technology.

- Evolution of art design in games.

- The ugly truth behind screenshots.

- The decline of console gaming.

Read on if you're interested!

[My friend begins by bringing up the Reality engine and asks how well technology is being implemented in games today.]

Jesse: I think games push technology more than anything. When you have a computer, you are always pressuring upgrades in preparation for the next big game turnout. You have Nvidia, ATI, AMD … they are always trying to bring about faster processing for the consumer market. So there’s always a curve because when a new console comes out, there’s always more power than developers know what to do with, so as the games go buy you’ll see all the games on PS3 and Xbox 360 look better than they did originally. That’s also true of PC games ... you know, DirectX 9 games look better now than when it first came out.

So, when Direct X 10 comes out, there’s going to be just a few games that really stand out because people have had the technology for a while that they’re going to implement in their engine. Then, the market’s going to catch up with lighting stuff. You know, Unreal Engine 3 was the first big Direct X 9 engine and everybody started using it.

[We start to get into the old PS3 vs 360 debate and whether or not the 360 will be able to do Crysis as well as the PS3 or PC.]

Jesse: Well, one reason that it would is because Crysis is a Windows Direct X game. So in order for that to be ported to the PlayStation 3, it’s gonna take a lot of work. Even though the PlayStation 3 is more powerful than the Xbox 360, it still may not run as well because of the amount of change that is required to run that game.

The Xbox 360 has three processors. Crysis is built to support graphics processors, the Dual Core processors and probably physics processors. That’s very few processors compared to the PS3, which has nine. So, completely different development process.

Ishaan: Do you think DX10 is just an excuse to get people to upgrade to Vista?

Jesse: Oh, it’s totally an excuse.

Ishaan: I just don’t like how earlier, a game said “PC CD-ROM” on the cover and now it says “Games for Windows” and on top of that, you need all this permission from Microsoft to put that logo on there. I remember reading about how someone in the industry said Vista was good for Microsoft but not good for the industry as a whole.

Jesse: Well, what else are people going to play PC games on? How many people own Macs?

Ishaan: Well, that’s my point! Why don’t we use Macs? They’re so much more efficient when it comes to processing.

Jesse: [laughs] That may be true, but they’re also more expensive. You know, that’s what matters to developers. I’d never make a game solely for a Mac or Linux. I would always put it on PCs because those have the largest user base. Unfortunately, whether you like Mac or Linux doesn’t matter ... it’s where the market is.

Personally, I think Vista’s a horrible operating system right now just like Windows XP was when it first came out. Everybody stayed with Windows 98 for game design. But, over time I think it will get better.

[My friend asks why screenshots always look better than the actual ingame looks of a game.]

Jesse: Well, a lot of it comes down to interactivity. When you add interactivity to anything art-related, it becomes much more complex. A lot of the time, you don’t have time to make it perfect. I mean, we’re talking about not just visuals but animation, effects. Also the programming and AI that’s going on. You know, a lot of times you see stuff you don’t expect. So, when you’re designing games from a developer’s perspective, it’s almost like playing video that could have a number of things happening. You could control it in some way, but ultimately it’s left in the player’s hands.

Aside from technical limitations, it comes down to the sheer workload that is required to make art look good interactively. That’s why games never look as good as screenshots. The thing about the gaming industry is, screenshots are just that. I have a friend at a game studio and I pinged her on instant messenger one day and asked, “Hey, what’re you workin’ on?”

“Oh, I’m touchin’ up screenshots in Photoshop.”

So, you know... [laughs] it’s not exactly people just taking screenshots. Sometimes they’ll go paint over it in Photoshop, add stuff here and there. That’s what you do in movies. In movies, every frame is rendered and you go edit it by hand to make it look as good and exactly as you want it to. You don’t have that luxury in games because you don’t know what the screens are going to be ahead of time … they could be anything. Crysis is a good example of using technology that enables the artists to do whatever they need to make it look as good as possible. So, a lot of it comes down to technology.

Ishaan: As everyone’s aware, with each new “generation” there’s a huge spike in the visual quality of games and the old graphics versus gameplay debate sparks up every single time. In the midst of all this fuss over “next-gen”, what do you, as a designer feel is more important? Polygon count or art style?

Jesse: It’s been proven over and over again that style and just solid game design are far more important. I mean, look at the Wii. The games on it don’t look anywhere as good as the 360. But even my mom plays the Wii. She’s in her fifties. So, it just comes down to what’s fun for the market. That’s why casual games are booming right now, what with the DS and the Wii and stuff.

Ishaan: Do you think games are doing more justice to art now than they were before? With high-res graphics and more powerful systems and engines, do you think the art is better depicted now than it was on a system like – say – the SNES? You know, the artists on Final Fantasy VI might have drawn some really detailed concept art, but when that made the transition over to a game, it was in the form of these little sprites. That doesn’t have to happen any more.

Jesse: What do you guys think about art and technology and expression?

Albert: Well, one factor is time. It wasn’t like right now, where you’re working for three weeks on one model. Back then, they probably pumped out ... I don’t know ... five models in two days? So, on the one hand, yes. I can express myself better. But on the other, back then; you could pump out more games and more “art” in less time.

Nisha: We just have a lot more tools to work with and it’s a lot more complex than before.

Albert: Right. A while ago, you might have used 6000 triangles to create an entire character but now you use those many polygons just for the head.

Ishaan: Does this affect the amount of effort you put into games? Do you think you work harder now than you did a few years ago, or did the limitations of technology back then still force you to work as hard as you do today?

Albert: Well, physical effort and time, yes. Mental effort, no.

Ishaan: Could you give us a little insight into the development process? How does it usually work … does a developer come to you with their pitch and ask you to design for it, or do they provide you with concept art or samples and say, “Hey, make this look good.”?

Jesse: It depends on the client. Some clients have a specific look in mind that they’re trying to achieve. Some clients give us assets and say, “Make these look better.” Some clients want us to provide them with content, which we don’t do too much of, but sometimes they just want illustrations to be made to base a game around.

It also depends on whether if it’s for a full game or a demo or just a trailer or an ad for a magazine. But due to the expertise of our studio, especially with Paul, a lot of people come to us looking for advice. We get a lot of requests for art direction and overseeing the entire process.

Ishaan: How many people do you usually have working on a project?

Jesse: Well, it depends. A lot of the time, when we’re working on a full-fledged game, the size of our studio is much larger than the game studio’s own art team. In that case, we run the game, look to test it in-house, get a feel for the engine so we can learn how best to export our stuff to it.

Ishaan: How long do projects typically take?

Jesse: [laughs] No.

Ishaan: No average time per project or anything?

Jesse: No, it’s crazy. [laughs] Sometimes it’s like six months, sometimes it’s just two weeks ... sometimes it’s a lot more.

[We ask why Boanerges Studios’s Armageddon was shelved.]

Jesse: [grins] Uhh ... the publisher...

Ishaan: Atari?

Jesse: ...was ... not in a position to continue funding the game. So, we stole their Creative Director, and uhh...

[Everyone laughs]

Jesse: It was this first-person shooter set in a sort of ... pre-apocalyptic world. There were a lot of spiritual elements to it. You know, we were a small team. We were working on a prototype for the Xbox 360...

[My friend asks if they would pick up the project again, now that they have the resources.]

Jesse: Yeah, we still think it’s a good concept. So, because of that, we don’t want to talk too much about it at this point.

[My friend asks if they feel games are “digging up a dry well”]

Jesse: I don’t think so at all. I mean, look at Nintendo. They’re really making an effort to push innovation. There’s always those people who aren’t afraid to innovate. And on the other hand, there’s other people who are just trying to make sure money off things. If you think about it, the PlayStation 3 is really innovative in the sense that it has nine cores but the Xbox 360 is innovative because it has three cores. It’s just another degree of innovation. I mean, those are innovative for consoles, but they aren’t that innovative.

Nintendo does this all the time. Sometimes they fail miserably. I mean, look at the Virtual Boy! [everyone winces all around] Yeah, let’s not... [laughs]

But the thing about Nintendo is that they always try. Even their stranglehold on the handheld market allowed them to try out different stuff. I really like Nintendo, even though I don’t have time to play many Nintendo games. They’re doing a lot for the gaming industry in general.

[My friend asks whom Exigent would develop for if they had to stick to one system.]

Jesse: Whichever one’s going to make the most money. [laughs]

[My friend asks if games on the Xbox were hard to develop.]

Jesse: Games on the Xbox were some of the easiest to develop because it was basically Windows.

[We then started to talk about the current generation generation of consoles.]

Jesse: Everything I’ve read says the PS3 has been struggling, but who knows? I think ... personally, I think PS3’s too expensive. Way too expensive. Personally, I would buy a 360 and a Wii. Although, Albert’s different. [laughs] He wants a PlayStation 3.

Ishaan: I’m with him. I play a ton of Japanese games and I just know there’s no way Microsoft’s ever going make much headway in Japan, try as they may.

Jesse: I just like the 360 because of Xbox Live. They’ve done a really good job with the online stuff. Xbox Live is huge. People are motivated to play games on 360 because of Xbox Live. Because of the gamer scores. It ranks you against other gamers. It’s all about competition. I’m not one for single player games too much.

I don’t have that deep-rooted loyalty like some people. I just don’t care who wins. I buy the systems with the best games on them.

[My buddy asks Albert why he wants a PS3.]

Jesse: As far as Albert’s concerned, everything starts with “Final” and ends with “Fantasy”! [laughs]

Albert: I’d like to see the PS3 succeed because some months down the way, there will be more games for it and I’ll have a chance to work on some of them. Does that make sense?

Ishaan: Yeah.

Albert: Though, I don’t think the PS3 will have the same luck as the PS2.

[Paul steps in. My friend asks if he can join us.]

Paul: Hey, I have a company to run here! I’d love to sit around and talk, but … well, what’s goin’ on?

[My friend replies that we’re talking about technology in games.]

Paul: Oh. Boring! [steps out]

Ishaan: We were told we couldn’t ask about Exigent’s projects just yet, but could you at least tell us what system you’re focusing on?

Jesse: Mmm. Hmm. [laughs] Let’s just say that 90% of our projects are next-gen. That’s all I can say!

[We now start to talk about development costs. My friend asks if they’ll continue to go on the rise, thus, eventually increasing game prices.]

Jesse: Not with outsourcing. [laughs] We’re the solution to rising costs. What it comes down to … like the PlayStation 3, no one wants it because it’s too expensive. Why make a console that’s too expensive?

The real question is, what’s going to happen to consoles when India and China become world powers in gaming? Because, the console market is strictly geared at U.S., Europe and Japan. I mean, there’s not a sizeable console market in China and India. But, China and India together have majority of the world’s population, almost.

The numbers say that console gaming is going to go down. And PC, online and mobile gaming is on the rise, and all this will happen in India and China over the next five years. Come 2010, some people might not be playing game consoles. Doubtful, but…

Ishaan: I think the appeal of a console is in that you aren’t required to upgrade them every single year.

Jesse: Yeah, and the other thing is piracy. That’s another reason, online and mobile gaming is going to be huge. It’s a way to circumvent piracy.

Ishaan: Do you really think mobile gaming is going to be that huge? I can’t stand mobile games, personally. Mobiles are for making phone calls. I think dedicated devices are always better for this kind of thing.

Jesse: Oh, me too. But that isn’t what the market is saying. The market is saying people would download and play mobile games before handheld games, especially in India.

Ishaan: Globally?

Jesse: China and India skew the global numbers! I’m not kidding! You gotta admire the number of people you got in this country! [laughs]

A little idle banter followed and the interview ended a couple of minutes later. I have to say, this has been a total blast. Being in a room full of so many talented people. Incidentally, Exigent shares an office and staff with RZ2, which consists of extremely talented people who worked at Raven and Id and … God, it was awesome. I’ll be heading down there again sometime soon to cover RZ2 as well. They’re an independent developer already and some of the stuff I heard (off the record, of course) was really interesting.

I’m really, really excited that people think India’s going to be such a huge power in gaming in the future. I never would have thought it, but honestly; being in a studio with industry veterans trying to convince you not to leave the country can make you think twice!

[ADVANCE]

FWA Feature: Exigent and the future of gaming in India - Part 1: Paul Steed

“Exigent. It comes from the Latin root exigens and means both demanding and absolutely necessary. If you’re reading this then you’re thinking about using an offshore art outsourcing studio or looking for help with all that next gen content you need to create. Consider Exigent for one reason: experience.”

That’s an excerpt from the little box of text on Exigent’s website. Exigent is an outsourcing company that deals in video game art. See that last line about “experience”? They’re not kidding. Blessed with a tightly-knit staff of people from the teams of the Quake games, NFL Gameday and X-Men Legends games (to name a few), these guys know what they’re talking about.

Earlier today, a friend of mine and I got invited down to visit Exigent’s new office in a neighbouring city (Noida) here in India. Spending nearly five hours at the studio at a stretch, we got to shoot the shit with a ton of talented people about the gaming industry on a global scale as well as with regard to India. Our first meeting was with Chief Creative Officer, Paul Steed, who’s an industry veteran and has worked at Origin Systems, EA, Id Software, Wild Tangent and Atari. Paul’s credited with a lot of awesome games, including Quake and Wing Commander. He also developed Betty Bad and is not only a regular speaker at GDC, he’s also on the advisor board for the event.

An extremely smart and interesting individual, Paul’s discussion with us was a mix of both, serious talk regarding the industry and Exigent itself with regard to the PC and mobile gaming scene (which he thinks are the future of gaming) and other gaming topics in general. Oh, and Bullet Witch. (Yes, I still love it)

Before you go any further, I’d like to point out a couple of things.

1. No one held back. There was no PR bullshit of any sort. People called things as they saw them.

2. This blog’s name is Flame War ADVANCE.


Ishaan: What is Exigent and what exactly is it that your company does?

Paul: All right, here’s what we do. I’m based in the States. I left Atari in September. Now, here’s the thing: While I was at Atari, I would meet people like me [now] who worked at outsource companies, and when I had to ask them a question, a lot of the time, they wouldn’t be able to answer it, and I’d be like, “Why can’t they answer my questions? Why am I not speaking to someone like me?” They had a ton of problems with inconsistency and stuff.

Later, my partners spoke to me and said that they had infrastructure in India, so I met with a few folks in June and I was blown away by how dedicated you folks are to gaming. Now, we’re an outsource company. We hire people who love games. If you don’t love games, you can’t work here. Here at the office, we’ve got a mega-projector and systems and stuff. You know, you have to play games, you have to watch movies and stuff. We’ve got a PS3 coming soon, too…

But to answer your question, gaming is new to India. So, we have to teach Indians how to make games for an American audience. And it’s complicated because what makes good Indian art doesn’t make a good American game. There’s this cultural difference. So, our focus is to teach our staff about these cultural differences. Our ultimate goal is to have a game made by Indians that Americans buy. It’s sad, but most games are made either in America or in Europe.

Ishaan: What about Japan?

Paul: Japan is like ... you’ll never get into that market. It’s extremely tight. They don’t do online. They do mostly console gaming and handheld gaming. The future of gaming is really mobile games and PC games. There’s more computers in the world, there’s more cell phones in the world than there are consoles and that’ll never change. India’s interesting because the government’s really supporting broadband users. So by 2010, there’s going to be 20 million people with broadband. For me, the future is the global market not the U.S. market. I want to create a game for multiple cultures. The first step to this is creating an outsourcing company. I can use my reputation to get us some attention and get Indian gamers in a place where you can represent this dream.

Ishaan: So, does that mean we’ll be seeing something based on Indian mythology as well? Are you working at that?

Paul: Not yet, no. Right now, we’re just working on building up a reputation. We’re working on some pretty high-profile games for around 8 different publishers. Unfortunately, right now I can’t show you, but by this time next year, you’ll see a lot of it.

Ishaan: You’re a regular speaker at GDC. Would this tie in with that in any way?

Paul: Some of our titles have already been announced publicly but some haven’t. Well, strategically, it’s not a very good idea for one company to know if we’re working on something for another company. For example; I might be working on a project for SOE that EA doesn’t know about, or I might be working on a project for Activision that Midway doesn’t know about. They might think it’s weird. Everything is about security here. The games, you don’t say the name of games. Project Orange, Project Blue ... it’s kinda cool.

The difference between us and other companies is, we’re an outsourcing company that’s trying to beat China. China’s the country with the largest outsourcing, so it’s our main competition. And most importantly, my goal is to make a company that people go to because we’re good, not because we’re in India. So, we focus on training and hiring the right people with the right attitude. It’s all about the attitude. To me, you don’t need to go to through college. You don’t need a degree to work here.

Ishaan: Back in ’01, you said the same thing in an interview with Melanie Campbell. Do you still think that holds true today, especially in a country like India where formal education is arguably the most important step in shaping your career?

Paul: That has to change. If you want to make games, it has to change. Or you’ll need to open schools that support a substantial curriculum for making games. People are taking games seriously, but in the entertainment space, people often confuse games with movies. When you make games, you gotta be a little bit of a rebel. You need to be different.

The reason I’m in India is there’s this growth in India and China. A lot of analysts believe that India and China will be the top economies in the next five years. I mean, think about it. There’s more English speakers in China than there are in the U.S. because of their population.

The one thing about India is that there’s this newness in the game industry. It’s the same newness I felt when I first got into the industry.

Ishaan: Kind of like going back to your roots?

Paul: Exactly. I just got back from this gaming event, Chaos; and it was just this huge LAN party with a bunch of people playing games. I was really surprised by the amount of organization there … I mean, I could see this growing into another GDC. I’m on the advisor board for GDC, so I’m trying to get them to have a GDC India and a GDC China. So, they are going to be trying for the first time, a GDC China. If GDC China takes off, we’ll set up a GDC India.

[At this point, the effects of my friend’s joint (or whatever it was that he’d so obviously been smoking before we met up kicked in and he started to rave about how much video games today suck and sequels suck, using the MGS, Half Life and Tomb Raider games as examples.]

Paul: Well, there’s two factors to take into consideration. The thing about sequels is, when a game is being developed, no one knows if it’s going to be a success. When a sequel is planned, sometimes it doesn’t happen until the first game is nearly done. You get comments from the press before that. Then, the designer has to think, “OK, how do I top myself?”

Like, in the Matrix, you can kind of tell the second and third were just added on. They weren’t initially planning on sequels.

But there’s also you as a player. You change. You get used to the tricks. They don’t make you go “Woah!” any more. It’s harder and harder to make you happy. And you know what, sometimes people only have that one good game. They only have that one good character. Lara Croft was one of the first female characters out there. Now you’ve got tons of characters out there that are deeper. I mean, Lara Croft’s just really this big-chested ... almost a cliché. A bimbo that tries to sound smart because she has a British accent.

You gotta admit, sometimes your expectations – especially people like you guys, considering what it is that you do – your expectations can be sky-high.

Ishaan: Well, I’ll admit that the gaming community – and yeah, sometimes the press – has this habit of hating on a sequel before it’s even out. Like, take the Chrono series for example. No one would ever say that Chrono Cross was the better game. They all prefer Chrono Trigger, whereas Cross is probably one of my favourite games of all time.

Paul: Although, would you say it’s your favourite game because it’s nostalgic?

Ishaan: Oh, definitely. But don’t you think that’s a good thing? Don’t you think nostalgia can be used by developers to their advantage?

Paul: The thing with nostalgia is, it’s considered a thing of the past. You know, Atari has this habit of re-releasing all their old games and when people see it, they go, “Woah, dude! I remember playing this game!” You can’t take that game and compare it to a modern game because the graphics suck. But I know exactly what you mean … my favourite game is Warcraft II. It’s like comfort food to me! Or even the original Doom. You want to go back to that, but it’s hard to go back to it because you already know the entire game.

I think nostalgia’s good if you’ve got it on handhelds. It’s a small screen; you have these Doom 2-like graphics…

Ishaan: It’s more personal.

Paul: More personal. And I don’t think people do that enough when they make their mobile games. They don’t make them nostalgic enough. When you ask a publisher to make a game that’s nostalgic, they’re skeptical, because they think there’s maybe 10% of people who are going to buy it. The rest probably won’t care because they’ve never played the original.

Ishaan: It’s interesting you should say that because Nintendo’s been thriving off nostalgia for years. Their games practically ooze with nostalgia.

Paul: Yeah. Now, do you think they do that through the characters they re-use in some ways?

Ishaan: Definitely. You know how after Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask came out...

Paul: Now I feel nostalgic! [laughs]

Ishaan: ...and people liked it. Not loved it, but they liked it. And then you had Wind Waker, and everyone went, “What the heck is this?!” Not many people saw it as a true Zelda game. But it was.

Paul: Yeah, I think that way about games like Halo 2. I mean, you look at the game and you think, “It’s Halo, right? Hey, this time around, I want to kill things faster!” The future ... the real future of games – like what you’re touching upon – lies with the users. I mean, you guys dictate the content. You dictate the level of customization that you want.

You know, I was at GDC and Phil Harrison was giving his demonstration on Home and Little Big Planet? I was blown away. I could tell immediately where they were going with it and it was so effortlessly cool. You could make this game, get your friend to playtest it and publish it to the web. And that’s just brilliant. Brilliant. Because what’s going to happen is, the way people get hits on their YouTube ... that’s how many hits you’re going to get on your game.

Can you imagine going to school and suddenly; this one kid’s a rock star because everyone’s playing his game? Enabling the community to have access to making games is what it’s about. And that’s why we’re here, too. In India. It’s not that you can’t find good designers in the U.S., just that it’s so intellectually competitive here. We’re here because we want to teach as well as work on new game designs.

Ishaan: You said you quit Atari in September, right?

Paul: Yup.

Ishaan: I just happened to be going through the Exigent site and I saw a Bullet Witch poster around here somewhere. Were you involved with the game?

Paul: Yeah. Yeah, I was the creative director from the publisher’s side. We created the cover for it. It was my parting gift to Atari. [laughs] So, Bullet Witch is cool because, the way Atari works is, they take this existing title and they release it somewhere else. People come in, they try to fix it up for the American audience and you sell it.

Bullet Witch is a really cool title because it just came out of nowhere. At first, it didn’t look very good, then all of a sudden, it starts looking good and people like it. And it’s really fuckin’ hard.

Ishaan: I have the strangest obsession with that game.

Paul: Well, you know, just the general concept of a witch gunning stuff up … I love it. There’s some other cool ones. You guys have played Ico. Do you like Colossus ... Shadow of the Colossus?

Ishaan: Oh, hell yes.

[My buddy says it’s the closest Sony’s ever getting to Zelda. I say that might be Okami, not SoC.]

Paul: Is the PS2 dead?

[We both answer “NO!” in unison. Paul grins. My friend says that the PS2 is in fact lasting us for what looks to be ten years, just like Sony said it would.]

Paul: What happened to the PSP? In your professional opinion, why is the PSP not a hit?

Ishaan: In my opinion, what happened was that Sony just lost focus. They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and you’re like, “Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as Nintendo’s next-gen home system?”

You have iPods for media and you have the DS for games. Why would you want a PSP? Dedicated devices are always better than all-purpose devices. The PSP was all set to kick the DS’s ass. And it would have, had Nintendo not released their tech demo of Nintendogs. No one knew what to do with two screens and a touchscreen before Nintendogs showed them.

Paul: That’s really interesting ... so, content. OK, would you guys like to meet some of our artists we have here now?

Ishaan: Just a couple more questions, if that’s OK with you.

Paul: Sure.

Ishaan: Gaming is an expensive hobby. And in India, it’s a hobby that not many people can fund. How does this affect you, and is there a solution for it?

Paul: Well, it affects me in a couple different ways. First I have to deal with the piracy. My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I can’t stop it, so I don’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book ... my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, “Well, at least they put my name on it!” I don’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just don’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

Another way to see it is that we should focus our development on PC games and mobile games. You know, some day in the future, we’re going to go from Exigent to Exigent Interactive. And when that day comes, we’re going to be focusing solely on PC games. That’s what’s most accessible for audiences. You know, people talk about making the perfect game, but is there a perfect platform? What if you had the perfect game on the wrong platform? How many people wish they could take those SNES games and put them on your cell phone?

Taking piracy into consideration, you gotta pick your platform wisely.

Ishaan: Do you plan to pursue handheld games as well?

Paul: You know, that requires a certain expertise that I’m not sure I have. My expertise lies in telling stories. That’s my kind of game. I want you to laugh, cry and get pissed off when you play my game. Because if you’re not going through that range of emotions, it’s like, why am I wasting your time? Why are you playing my game?

And it’s not easy to do. Kojima-san, Itagaki-san ... they know how to get that feeling of… [trails off] You know, I partied with Itagaki in Tokyo, and he refers to his games as his children. Dead or Alive is his daughter. Gaiden ... Ninja Gaiden is his son. And I was so confused about his three-year old daughter and his other son, and I was like, “Dude, what is this from like, another wife or something?” and everyone else is like, “Shh, shh!” and I’m like, “What?”

“He’s talking about his games!”

“What? No!”

[Much laughter ensues.]

[My friend asks about cinematics and atmosphere in gaming. Why is it that games seem to be lacking in this area of late?]

Paul: In the past, cinematics used be rewards. They used to be pay-offs. Cinematic alone isn’t enough anymore.

Ishaan: Interactive cinematic.

Paul: Yeah, I want to be interactive. Like in Half Life, you can look around at the street and cars and in the cable cars. I think cinematics are still important. But now, there’s more of more ingame cinematics. Like in WarCraft III, you’ve got the game art cinematics and you’ve the rendered cinematics. That confused the crap out of me sometimes. When I was at Origin, our slogan was “We create worlds.” Wing Commander, Star Commander ... had tons of cinematics. You couldn’t reach that level of animation in real-time. I don’t think game developers are using cinematics as they should. I want to make games that are epic. I don’t think a game like Gears of War is epic. It’s so overrated.

[My friend says he thinks Halo is, too.]

Paul: Everything about Halo is ... so done before. Just that it was the only thing available for the Xbox, so it developed this cult following of fourteen-year olds who don’t know any better. I mean, think about it. You’re fourteen ... Doom’s already gone. Nobody’s playing Quake any more. And who the hell is Duke Nukem?

[Paul reminisces joyfully about Duke3d. Thankfully, there are no tears in his eyes.]

Ishaan: You know, it’s strange ... as far as FPSes are concerned; I’ve always been a PC gamer. I’d never touch a console shooter. But when Metroid Prime hit the GameCube, I played it extensively. I loved it.

Paul: Have you seen the one on the Wii? I was in Seattle and they gave us a special demo of it. Basically, you run around like this [motions with left hand to indicate the nunchuk] and you point your gun like this [moves his right hand to indicate the Wiimote].

Ishaan: Did you like it?

Paul: Oh, I liked it. Just that you gotta do it like this [rests both hands on his lap]. At first you think it’s this [stretches both arms out forward], but you just get tired. Oh, I like Wii Bowling. It’s so much fun. It’s stupid fun. You can turn the ball … you can twist it…

That’s the power of the Wii. You have a great tactile experience.

Ishaan: I just hope they manage to remain loyal to the core gamer, not just the casual ones.

Paul: Well, you gotta understand, the casual gamer is like, 44-year old housewives who don’t want to pay for anything. So how do you market a game to a 44-year old housewife who doesn’t want to buy it? A real casual game is at a mall, where you’re just hangin’ out, you know? And for years, my friend’s been going, “Let’s do the mall game and get all the girl gamers!”

And I’m like, “Number 1. Do you really want to ask your girlfriend if you can play on her PlayStation 2?” You don’t want your girlfriend on your Wii. I don’t want my wife or girlfriend gaming. I want her to go shopping. In the real world. You know, leave me with my games!

Following this, we wrapped up the interview quickly, so Paul could introduce us to his team of artists. With them, we discussed the relationship between technology and games, the decline of console gaming and the ugly truth behind screenshots.

As much fun as this interview might have been, I really doubt you guys want to read any more, so I’ll save that for part two. Stay tuned to Flame War ADVANCE!

[Update: Click here for Part 2.]

[ADVANCE]

FWA Feature: Bioware teases with upcoming DS game info

Game announcements for the DS are made nearly every other day. If it isn't about a new Square Enix game heading to the DS it's about a wild indie title. If it isn't about a wild indie title it's about a crazy, ambitious PC port. And if it isn't about that, it's probably about homebrew hentai games.

Amidst all this news and the speculation that follows it, one often tends to miss or forget some of the announcements that actually go on to have a major effect on the handheld in due time. BioWare's in-the-works game for the DS is one such announcement. Having first heard of this over at Kotaku a few months back, I'd been keeping an eye out for any new info on the game that turned up.

Alas, the gentlemen over at BioWare find it fun playing hard-to-get and no further mention of the title was made again. Feeling the need to extinguish the flames of curiousity that burned deep within my gamer's soul, I got in touch with BioWare's Handheld Game Group Project Director, Dan Tudge to see if he couldn't throw us impatient BioWare fans a bone. While Dan didn't reveal much about the game directly, he did answer some questions a few of you might have on your minds regarding this ambitious project.

So, without further ado:

Q: What drew BioWare’s attention to develop for the DS? Have you put any thought into developing games for the PlayStation Portable?

A: We’ve been looking at getting into the handheld space for quite a while now, but we were waiting for the right time, the right technology, and of course the right ideas to develop into a quality game. Both the DS and the PSP have very compelling capabilities, but ultimately the DS was better suited to our ideas for creativity and innovation. We may decide to develop something for the PSP down the road, but for now we’re quite excited about what we’ve got planned for the DS.

Q: With the success of the DS, major franchises (such as the Dragon Quest series) shifting over to the portable market, and the significantly lower development costs associated with the platform, do you see your company putting a larger focus on handheld titles?

A: We’ve got a long and successful history of making great games on both PC and console, so I don’t see us putting any less of a focus on those platforms. As long as we stay focused on making the best story-driven games we can, we’ll develop for whatever platform allows us to do just that, and of course it may vary from game to game.

Q: Coming to the topic at hand, what setting will the game use? Medieval? Futuristic?

A: I could tell you, but BioWare would kill me. We’re not revealing anything about the game just yet, but stay tuned…!

Q: Would you call this project an action/RPG or a "traditional" RPG?

A: Again, I really can’t talk about that right now. I can tell you that BioWare is committed to delivering the best story-driven games in the world and as such you can expect a rich and enjoyable experience.

Q: Is BioWare planning a format comparable to Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR or neither?

A: Again, I can’t really comment on what the game format will be, however the DS does provide us with the opportunity approach design in ways we previously have not considered.

Q: What can you tell us about the title? How do you plan to utilize the DS's capabilities?

A: We haven’t announced the IP yet so like I say, we can’t reveal very much about the game at this point, but I will say it’ll be a terrific debut for BioWare in the handheld space. As for how we plan to use the DS’s capabilities? In order to provide the experience BioWare fans have come to expect, we are pushing the DS hardware to levels people have never seen. We have an extremely experienced team of BioWare and industry veterans working hard on squeezing everything we can out of the DS.

Q: Do you plan to use both screens?

A: Of course, it wouldn’t be a DS game otherwise, right? Just don’t ask how we plan to use them, because we’re not revealing that just yet.

Q: How do you plan to tell the game's story on the DS? For example; Mass Effect really seems to be pushing interactivity in story-telling and going with a cinematic approach. What can we expect to see on the DS?

A: Obviously the Xbox 360 is a much different system both in design and hardware, and Mass Effect is taking advantage of that in a really big way. BioWare has always looked for ways to innovate and deepen the story-driven experience and we have some fantastic ideas planned for story-telling on the DS.

Q: Will there be a multiplayer component to the game? If so, will it use Wi-fi?

A: We haven’t announced any plans for multiplayer or WiFi, but we’ve talked about it and agree there are some very compelling opportunities there. We’ll see…!

Q: What unique challenges have you encountered working on a portable platform and what specific challenges has the DS presented you with?

A: The DS is a very sweet piece of hardware that continues to provide us with opportunities to be creative. We are obviously working with a much lower system spec than the other projects in development at BioWare, however for a large majority of the team, the system specs are very reminiscent of our early years in the industry.

Q: Finally, what will the game look like in terms of style? And will it be 2D or 3D?

A: The DS provides us with the freedom to choose from a multitude of styles as well as the ability to use either 2D or 3D or even a combination of both! At BioWare, design is the driver and any decision on style (2D, 3D etc.) will be determined by our desire to build the best story-driven games in the world.

There you go. Not much information about the game itself but more than enough to fulfil the needs of any good speculator. Also, note they never mention if it's an RPG or not. Everyone just assumed it was. Many thanks to Dan and BioWare's Public Relations Coordinator, Erik Einsiedel! May the force be with you both.

[ADVANCE]