Singing can be a very fun-filled activity particularly if you know the lyrics. Well this isn’t the real lyrics but it at least sounds correct.
Sing with me now!
It seems that U.K.’s rather tight grasp on local video game companies is starting to backfire. Companies once stationed in Britain are now starting to move to Canada bringing with them billions of dollars of potential revenue.
“The Canadians have driven a tank over the French Citroen and have now parked on our lawn,” Paul Jackson, head of the industry organization representing British games studios said to the Financial Times. “It is becoming very challenging to keep core development studios here.”
U.K. is not letting this go unabated. The U.K. Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport has now initiated an investigation of Canada’s trade practices via the European Commission.
According to the commission, “the U.K. government is concerned that state aid offered to computer games companies by a number of federal institutions in Canada may not be compatible with World Trade Organization principles.”
Working against them is Canada’s very forgiving tax system. Companies there can write off a whopping 45% of labor costs at Manitoba, while Quebec and Ontario give up to 37.5% and 30% respectively. A bit hard to beat when you consider Britain does not give tax credit for labor expenses. Instead, investors can get a 30% refund totaling to a maximum of $60,000 for new media ventures.
[Source: The Vancouver Sun]
Whether we like to admit it or not, ripping off is an integral part of the video game industry — well that and innovation. From that natural pairing of contradictory ideas comes the most coveted concept of all: originality.
So if John Carmack and John Romero didn’t rip-off Super Mario Brothers to make Commander Keen, then childhood videogame memories wouldn’t be as vivid now would it? Heck, Pokemon spawned a lot of catch-monster-train-and-duke-it-out-with-other-wanna-be-trainers games such as Digimon and to some extent, even Monster Rancher.
And they still garnered success.
So what’s the point in all of this?
I was cruising Gametrailers today and found THIS:
Hmmm… Okay sure. Obviously, the game looks like World of Warcraft up close and a whole lot like Diablo from afar. Although honestly, if you were going to rip off a game formula, why not steal from a company whose games have become industry landmarks (it’s BLIZZARD by the way in case you didn’t know). Regardless, I was intrigued enough to look into the game some more. It turns out that Mythos is a free MMORPG that is still under closed beta.
Hmmm this game looks promising. Let’s just hope that Mythos doesn’t go down the toilet like most Diablo wannabes..
When EA screwed up, they gave away free games. To say that Activision screwed up the Wii version of Guitar Hero III is pretty accurate, so what are they doing? They are giving away freebies of course! Don’t expect a game though, all they are giving away is a Guitar Hero guitar controller faceplate.
The faceplate also comes with a nice love letter from RedOctane and Activision. Here’s how it looks like:
If you are one of those waiting for a replacement CD, should you be happy with it? You should. It means Activision hasn’t forgotten you. The fact that this was not publicly announced gives a little more credibility to their sincerity. Maybe they really are sorry.
In the spirit of Easter (albeit 2 days late), when the world celebrates Jesus’ resurrection and finally kicking Death in the face, this video from Gamespot made a video about which video game titles SHOULD be brought back to life like a phoenix rising from the roaring flames.
In my humblest opinion, Squenix should allocate all the resources they could muster to resurrect Chrono Trigger. Why? Because it’s…
CHRONO
effing
TRIGGER
It was the very first RPG I’ve ever completed that also evoked a lot of emotion. Sure Chrono was a mute but he was as memorable as heck…. I cried when he died in the game. REALLY.
Lol @ guy with the Fallout 3 shirt.
As for Baldur’s Gate coming out of retirement, well, I couldn’t agree more. BUT instead of making a logical next-step to 3D, it’d be better that they kept the isometric view and render everything 2D HAND-DRAWN.
Yep, that’d be sweet… a hand-drawn Minsc… SUWEEET.
Evil, meet sword. Sword, meet evil!
Maybe something like that but more… polished.
It wouldn’t hurt if Blizzard brought the Diablo franchise back… but the way things are swinging, it’s highly possible. Wooohooo!
Other things I want to see reincarnated:
1. The MechWarrior series
2. The Dune series
3. Battlecity (holy balls)
2008 is shaping up to be 2007’s contender… you’ll never knooooow 
Let me ask you a question, do you know what a EULA is and have you ever read through the many EULAs you had to agree to? If you don’t know what a EULA is, it stands for End-User License Agreement. It’s those long contracts you have to agree to before you can install or use software and chances are, you never read one to the end.
I wouldn’t blame you though, I don’t read most of them either. Somehow, I’m beginning to think that they were written that long so that you can miss some important and rather alarming provisions; provisions that curtail consumer rights.
