Gearbox Software prez Randy Pitchford says upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter Borderlands will "blow your mind." After issuing the game's daring cover this past week, the development studio head talked to IGN about it and claimed, "The motive is about the goals of a box cover - you want to evoke something, get attention and have something honest to say about the promise of the game."
Though he admits some were worried at Gearbox as well as at publisher 2K Games, he believes it was the right decision to choose that cover in the end. "Judging from the response so far, it looks like it was the right call." We absolutely agree, Mr. Pitchford. Will gamers pick it up at the store this October next to Brütal Legend and other AAA titles? That remains to be seen -- but all these games that have been pushed back to 2010 couldn't hurt, right?
Let's try something a little different. While unscientific, I've long toyed with the idea of a tracking poll of our readership's posture over time on certain games.
And while this method of feedback is open to spamming, fanboy manipulation and all sorts of other bad behavior, let's put it out there and see what happens. If it proves useless or gets abused, we'll end the feature.
Approval ratings are a concept most closely identified with, of course, politics, and how the governed feel about the job being done by their leaders. I'm not going to ask your opinion of publishers, as nearly everyone has some negative feeling toward them, but rather about games.
Kotaku Approval Ratings will examine, at at least attempt to, your mood about certain games prior to their release, immediately after their release and review, and then periodically thereafter.
Additionally, it will ask for the readership's long-term posture on certain games, exclusive (or with content exclusive) to a single platforms, and some multiplatform games, all of these more than two years old.
Like the question "Do you approve of the job so-and-so is doing," this doesn't ask for anything deeper than a gamer's feeling about a title, either long established, or currently in the news. The results have been hidden from view to discourage voting for a specific result. I'll report the percentages next week when the tracking poll continues.
As certain games enter the news, or as certain trendlines become uninformative, other games will be rotated in and out.
Already then, time for the first Kotaku Approval Ratings polls. These polls will close in 24 hours 7:30 p.m. U.S. Mountain time, tomorrow.
For starters, your feelings about Wolfenstein - the game that is being released this week, not previous versions.
And now, your feelings on some older games:
Thank you! These results will be reported next week, with another set of questions.
Update: Harmonix has issued a clarification of the statements through its forums, saying that quotes were "mischaracterized by some in the press" and the development team was "tremendously grateful that she gave us the gift of her attention." We'll update this post further if we hear more from Harmonix or MTV Games on the subject. (Thanks, James!)
The late John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, is notorious for a number of somewhat less than pleasant experiences related to The Beatles' career. According to Wired, she's still offering a controlling hand in The Beatles' affairs -- notably, The Beatles: Rock Band. "She gave the designers hell," said Paul DeGooyer, senior VP of electronic games and music at MTV.
Harmonix exec Alex Rigopolous chimed in, saying that Ono "held our feet to the fire" and asked for changes to things that had long been finished. "We were like, 'Oh, gee. Thanks.' It would have been nice to know that six months ago, but yes, 'Thank you very much.'" Though we didn't get a chance to ask during our interview with Harmonix this past week, we doubt that Ms. Ono will be appearing in The Beatles: Rock Band in any form when it arrives this September.
Let's recap the Lionhead homepage countdown. First, Ché Guevara next to a six; then Maximillian Robespierre, leader of the Reign of Terror, next to a five. Today, it's Abraham Lincoln, brought to you by the number four.
OK, this very definitely is about a Gamescom announcement, but the choice of historical figures is quite intriguing. Guevara and Robespierre are men of considerable controversy; Lincoln, for his time (it was a civil war, after all) was, too, but definitely is remembered in a much better light than the other two. I mean, the guy's on money. End of argument.
Honest Abe's quote is about revolution, reinforcing that theme. Any clues what we're dealing with, other than yet another homepage countdown?
Programmer extraordinaire John Carmack threw cold water earlier this week on the idea that id's popular free shooter can survive without charging some users something.
Carmack made those comments on Thursday, during the id co-founder's QuakeCon 2009 keynote speech in Dallas (aka the event that spawned the Longest Liveblog In Kotaku History).
Early in his address, he admitted that Quake Live, the multiplayer in-browser web re-make of Quake III Arena that went into open beta early this year, was not up to id's standard yet. Leaderboards and more community functionality around the game need to be improved, he said. Later, he fielded a question from the audience about the future of the game.
Carmack said he did not think the game could survive on Internet advertising alone, the only revenue-generator currently in place. Instead, he believes it will be necessary for the financial well-being of the project to offer a premium version of the game, which might allow players to host games on their own servers. Web ads won't suffice.
The Quake Live project is grander than Carmack said he had envisioned, which may be as much a factor in spurring this need for player payment as a weak online ad market. But the game, at its base, will remain free, he noted.
Carmack said the "beta" tag will be removed from the game soon, as problems with leaderboards and other tech are resolved. Mac and Linux versions are planned to go live this coming week.
Early in his talk Carmack said that the next year would prove whether Quake Live is a success. Later, when answering that audience question, he said the game wouldn't be able to be deemed a failure for two years. He hopes such a pronouncement won't be necessary, of course.
He said the game has been popular, with half of those who register for it returning to play it at least once a month.
This experiment will continue, with some tinkering that users may need to pay for.
It's nothing too surprising, but 2K Marin artist Colin Fix has posted on his personal blog the final concept art of BioShock 2's Big Daddy.
Since you'll be playing as this guy, it looks like the design was shifted over to make him appear more human and certainly less imposing. The design conforms not only to the GamePro cover back in May, but also to one of the early concepts for the original BioShock. And also to this well-known image of the original.
In addition to announcing support for Quake Live on Mac and Linux, John Carmack admitted that the current ad-based model wasn't exactly working for the game. To assuage the problem, id Software will soon be offering a subscription model in addition to the free-to-play model currently in place.
"The in-game advertising stuff has not been big business .... [it's] not going to be able to carry the project," Carmack said. Dually, he noted that while a subscription service will be offered, the game will never go exclusively "pay-to-play." According to Shacknews, the subscription model will allow players to create and host private server matches.This all sounds good to us -- now maybe all the hardcore Quake Live players will play in private servers and allow us to get a single shot off.
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What's better? A list of those. Here's a roundup of the rundowns out there.
•Fifteen Classic Game Console Design Mistakes [Technologizer] Many of these fixate on poor controller design, even the good ole lovable Duke from the original Xbox. The Virtual Boy owns two of the 15, but one of them is not "That The Thing was Even Made." Notable absence: Uh ... the ... 360?
• Top 25 Most Explosive Video Games [GameDaily] GameDaily bravely tackles the subject of stuff getting blown up in games, somehow managing to barely find a scant 25 of them that feature explosions. This would be like putting together a "Top 25 Most Shootiest Games." Your number one pick is Crysis. Mine is Pole Position II. I love how the car exploded and flung off its tires.
• The Most Accurate/Inaccurate Comic Book GamesNot a top 10 per se, but Games Radar does examine which comic book games took the most liberties with their stories, which by nature, take liberties with everything from U.S. geography to particle physics. My most inaccurate game? Spider-Man for the Atari 2600, because you couldn't wall crawl without shooting a web.
• The 10 Worst Video Game Systems of All Time [Network World] Seems like every week someone does this, but Network World hauls up some really obscure failures to populate its hall of console shame. The Apple Pippin? Oh man, I totally forgot about that horrid excretion from the Gil Amelio days.
• Classic Novels Turned Into Games [IGN] Since Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy just got its game adaptation with Dante's Inferno, IGN turns its eye toward other deserving classics of literature. I like it that Of Mice and Men is a beat-em-up for some reason. The Catcher in the Rye as a DDR game - "If you fail to keep Holden's interest meter above a certain point, he shrugs his shoulders and goes to his parents' house." - is likewise inspired. Me, I'd go for Slaughterhouse Five, as a kind of SCUMM-based adventure through time. The Tralfamadorians for some reason remind me of the Purple Tentacle.
Question in book seller's survey asks customers about digital reading devices and whether they plan to buy one of Apple's "iPAD" large screen devices. Hmmm.
Twitter reveals the story of Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco's afternoon today, in which the Bengals receiver boasts of his gamer cred, can't configure his wireless, fulminates at the lack of avatars that look like him, and finally tweets his gamertag.
At about 2 p.m. Ocho, apparently in the mood for some Madden, touts his gamer bonafides to warn off someone looking for trouble:
My, Mr. Ocho Cinco, that's an impressive console resume. How much time have you spent on the 360?
What the hell? He claims to beat this much ass at games, and he doesn't even have a 360 account?! And Black Mexican? Yeah, that won't get moderated.
Alright, OK, fine. He's a busy guy six months out of the year (seven, if they ever made the playoffs). Chad then gets down to hooking up his wireless adapter. I can identify with him here, because it can be a bitch. But I didn't call my ISP to get a freaking WEP password to a router I owned.
Then ESPN's Jemele Hill pops in the door, and Ocho Cinco makes sure she knows, despite all this trouble hooking everything up, he's still a bad man online.
Finally! Chad Ocho Cinco is online to beat ass galore! After he picks a Gamertag and an avatar. Ruh roh ...
Never mind, he settles on another homage to his jersey number and Spanish heritage.
And then, after pretty much everyone retweeted it (including Electronic Arts), the predictable conclusion to this afternoon psychodrama:
For the record, I tried to friend Ochocinco and got the mailbox-full notice.
Ryota Niitsuma, producer for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, says the company did have plans to put the famed juris doctor in the lineup, but ran into problems because his OBJECTION! was just too powerful in English.
Niitsuma told NGamer magazine that Capcom wanted Phoenix Wright, and Franziska von Karma (for her whip), in the game, but ran into trouble with Wright's move set.
Because Phoenix Wright only has one move, 'Objection!', we struggled. We designed a move for him: when he says objection, the actual writing attacks the opponent. However, 'objection' in Japanese is 'igiari' - it's four characters, whereas 'objection' becomes ten [sic. It's nine, actually.] When we localize, the balance of the game gets destroyed because the move becomes bigger. There'd be no way of avoiding it! We had to remove him for these reason. In the future, it is one of our aims to get him in.
Sure, we could chastise the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are game for being a cash-in on the upcoming Spike Jonze movie. And yes, the first trailer (found after the break) could be as unexciting for you as it was for us from a gameplay standpoint. But hey, it's Where the Wild Things Are. We're kind of giving it a pass based on the sheer adorability of it all.
Go ahead, try not to smile at all the 'wild rumpusing' taking place. We may not be super interested in running around whacking stuff as the book's main character Max, but we sure do like all the nods to the eponymous book. Please excuse these rose-tinted goggles, but we'll be needing to keep them on until October, thank you very much.
Go punch up pspgo.co.uk. That's not exactly the product being being flogged there, is it. A Chinese registrant picked up the domain name in late April, and has plastered it with a replica of the DSi's product page.
Now, as Destructoid points out, there ain't no page forpspgo.com, so maybe Sony really doesn't give a crap here. It looks like this guy went squatting on a domain he thought they'd want, and has gotten really spiteful now that no money has changed hands.
Doubtful the number of people who deliberately type in "pspgo.co.uk" and visit this site - as opposed to going to a correct page via a Google search - troubles Sony that much. But it is kind of a cheap shot. PSPgo.co.uk Shows Off the DSi [Destructoid]
Water Cooler Games, a standard-bearer for intelligent discussion of video games over the past six years, has been shuttered, according to co-founder Ian Bogost in a final post made today.
Bogost, who started the blog with Georgia Tech colleague Gonzalo Frasca, attributes the closure to two things. One is the mainstreaming of the discussions Water Cooler Games sought to start back in 2003, when games' relevance to politics, advertising, education and the news were not common topics in the overall conversation.
"The very idea of our project was novel then, in a way that it is not now. Isn't that what we wanted all along?" Bogost wrote.
And two, it sounds like the man's made his arguments, and is resting his case. And himself. He says that closing WCG will open up new opportunities for his writing.
"While I'm sure I'll continue to write occasionally, on Bogost.com, in my Gamasutra columns, or in other articles about political games, advertising and games, and other topics covered on WCG, the truth is that I've said most of what I want to say about them, generally speaking," Bogost says.
The blog will remain online and archived, but no new contributions will be made to it.
"From my perspective, the Water Cooler Games project was very much a success. The fact that so many venues now exist for discussing of what we coyly called 'video games with an agenda' speaks at least in part to the influence we exerted," he says.
Well put. Water Cooler Games had a long and rich life and contributed tremendously to video gaming's many communities. And this isn't the last anyone will hear from Bogost, for certain.
Today is the day that comes after Friday, which means one thing here at Joystiq: another fun filled (and librarian approved) Swag Saturday!
This week, we're giving away ten copies of the recently released Gears of War Jacinto's Remnantnovel. While we can't be sure how entertaining the copy reads, we are certain that the novel's Marcus Fenix artwork oozes badass. He has an intimidating glare that can both kill his enemies and make women weak in their tree limb-sized knees. (Get a room, you two! -Ed.)
Leave a comment telling us who your favorite character is within' the Gears of War universe.
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada, excluding Quebec.(Nous sommes désolés, Québecois!)
Limit 1 entry per person.
This entry period ends at 3:31 pm ET on Sunday, August 16. We'll randomly select ten winners at that time to receive: one copy of Gears of War Jacinto's Remnant (ARV $15).
In the Treyarch official forums, Josh Olin, the community manager, confirms that Map Pack 3 for Call of Duty: World at War is coming to the PC, and a patch is also in the works.
This is what he had to say:
As with the previous two Map Packs, Map Pack 3 will indeed be coming to the PC – the team is hard at work on it and I'll let you know when it's in test.
As such, there will be a Patch 1.6 as well, which will address some additional game issues. When I have details on what else will be included in the patch I will be sure to post them.
We appreciate your patience as always, and look forward to its release as much as you do!
We always thought the Leguizamo-infused Super Mario Bros. film had the propensity to be amazing, if only a more visionary director had grasped the reins of the adaptation. The video we've posted after the jump gives a look into a parallel universe of what could have been -- a universe where Quentin Tarantino had control of the plumber's first silver screen excursion.
The video was produced by the folks over at GamerVision. You might want to brush up on the trailer for Tarantino's upcoming film Inglourious Basterds before you check it out -- their video is a shot-by-shot remake of said trailer, only it takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom instead of Nazi Germany. We never thought about it before watching the video, but the similarities between these two regions are actually rather striking.
A truckload of details and features, alleged to be included in the as-yet unnanounced World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, has made its way out to the interwebs. This gets both spoiler alert and rumor treatment in the strongest terms possible.
MMO Champion has put together this list, saying it comes from multiple sources. One of them is a thread on Something Awful, so caveat reader. And this sort of thing almost always precedes a Warcraft expansion.
But the list is much deeper than the earlier speculation on two new playable races. If you're interested and don't mind ruining the surprise, go check out MMO Champion. Highlights - spoiler alert - are said to include;
• Level cap raised to 85.
• No new classes, but some classes will be made available to races that weren't before.
• Two new races, Goblins and Worgen, as has been speculated.
• A remake of classic Azeroth
I've emailed Blizzard to ask if they have any comment. If they do, I'll update back here.
TIE Fighter was released in 1994, a time in which serving as the instrument of an oppressive, corrupt government against insurgent forces didn't raise the kind of uncomfortable questions such a game would after Sept. 11, 2001.
But, however uncomfortable, there are similarities between the Empire's prosecution of its war on the Rebellion and hegemony in the Galaxy, and the United States' campaigns in the Middle East, writes L.B. Jeffries for PopMatters. They become especially relevant if TIE Fighter or the X-Wing franchise is due for a reboot from LucasArts, as has been rumored.
In TIE Fighter, you spy on your own, under secret orders. You attack both sides of a civil conflict ostensibly to project neutrality, then undermine both to impose your side's authority. You are engaged in a more symmetrical warfare, relying on strength of numbers to execute single tasks, than in X-Wing, when your spacecraft is taken up against larger odds and for multiple purposes. Overall, all of your missions are done in the name of a society grievously wronged by an attack of "terrorists." The very word is used in TIE Fighter's opening crawl.
This game would have a completely different meaning, and would probably be more controversial, and deliver more of the point Lucas supposedly intended to make with Star Wars: Episodes II and III, released in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Here is TIE Fighter, refracted through the prism of 9/11.
The thing about the Rebels in this series is that their tactics are the same as any insurgent group. A collection of cutscenes from X-Wing shows them planting a bomb in a cargo shipment by using fake imperial codes. This is similar to how the insurgents have operated in Iraq. An article for TIME interviewing insurgent leaders explains that they often use fake papers, IDs, and government sanctioned vehicles to sneak weapons and explosives past checkpoints. Flying suicidally into conflicts is also a common strategy in the X-Wing games. A standard tactic for taking down heavier ships is to drive a Corellian Corvette straight through the bridge of such ships. Although not quite the same as suicide bombings (the pilots usually eject before impact), both cutscenes show the Rebel's willingness to destroy capital ships by flying their craft into them. This tactic is even employed in the films, such as the memorable scene in Return of the Jedi when an A-Wing crashes into the bridge of a Super Star Destroyer. Noticing the connections between these two groups is not much of a stretch since many insurgencies work like this but only becomes harrowing after one examines the game's depiction of these groups in contrast to real world politics. After all, the Rebels are the heroes in Star Wars.
However, Tie Fighter has you working for a technically superior force trying to establish defenses and maintain order against an insurgency. The Empire builds their ships for one combat purpose unlike the Rebel's multi-tasking ships. The TIE Fighter and TIE Interceptor are for dogfighting. The Bomber and GUN Boat are useful for raiding larger ships. They are very good at these single functions. Imperial fighter craft abandon shields for the sake of speed, which almost always gives you the advantage in the game. Far from being a handicap, not having shields mostly teaches you to avoid getting shot at by always approaching a ship from behind. The basic maneuver of a TIE is to roar past the target ship, flip around, and match speed while you light up their tail pipe. The thing that gets you killed the most often is not enemy fire but just getting too close to ships that you engage allowing debris smash into you. Although some missions force you to work with ships outside their intended role, flying for the Empire for the most part means only engaging with ships that you have an advantage over. When flying a TIE you don't go near a capital ship because you won't last a minute against their turrets. When flying a Bomber you call in a Wingman to handle the faster A-Wings. Unlike in X-Wing, the game design teaches you to only engage with opponents you have an advantage over.
The Empire's reliance on sheer power is a theme present throughout the Star Wars canon. Enormous ships such as the Death Star are emblematic of the solution that the Empire employs: overpower your opponent. The game's cutscenes explore this theme in a variety of ways: after the repairs on an Imperial stronghold have been completed, the Empire discusses new weapons, Thrawn's promotion to Grand Admiral, or the constant tension of defecting officers selling or destroying technology. What is constantly at stake in each scene is power, whether it be represented by rank or technology.
[...]
While your commanding officer speaks with a stern British accent and rarely betrays any emotion, most of the game's strange parallels to a government besieged by terrorism comes from the instructions of the Secret Order. Prior to missions, a robed figure can be approached to explain your secondary mission objectives. One example of such secondary concerns is when you are assigned the task of inspecting a ship. Like an elaborate version of tag, you must fly extremely close to a ship to scan its contents often in the middle of heavy fire fights or simply by racing to catch the ship. It's a weird experience because it creates what EDGE Magazine describes as a sort of "bureaucratic joy." It's fun and thrilling to tag ships, yet the narrative defines this as the most mundane of activities. You will be inspecting ships all the time, sometimes without any real cause, and it remains engaging as another mission objective to be ticked off in service of the Empire.
What's disturbing about this task is how much it involves eavesdropping on fellow officers. In the second battle (the game consists of several battles each of which contain five or so missions), the Secret Order commands you to inspect cargo ships whenever you can. Essentially, you are tasked with spying on people for the Emperor. It's hard to not be reminded of the Patriot Act and warrantless wire tapping while doing this. Just as evidence emerged that Bush had been tapping phone calls since 2004 and possibly even before 9/11 without a warrant, the game's snooping missions become an awkward reminder of post-9/11 politics. Often your commanding officer will ask why you're deviating from the flight path for an inspection. In the Fourth battle, there are several instances where your spying turns up nothing. The representative of the Secret Order simply shrugs and says that it's always a good idea to check.
Another example of the results of these secondary goals is how capturing prisoners for the Empire becomes an exercise in careful phrasing and tiptoeing around the consequences. The very first mission of the game involves inspecting cargo ships and discovering Rebels fleeing from Hoth. In this mission and subsequent battles, you are always instructed to disable the craft and defend the boarding parties. When your commanding officer or the Secret Order explain what will happen to these people, they use phrases such as "interrogation" or imply that they will be sending them to prison. Yet at the end of the fifth battle when a defecting Admiral is captured, we see what really happens. Vader uses the Force to lift the screaming Admiral into the air and then all we see is a closing fist and the sound of bones crushing. As more and more documents are disclosed about the US waterboarding suspected terrorists, it's hard to not remember similar wordplay being employed in the media.
[...]
Ten days after 9/11, President Bush announced to the nation, "Freedom itself is under attack…[they] hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to assemble and disagree with each other." Lynne Cheney chastised Humanities professors who did not teach that society "[was] best exemplified in the West and indeed in America." A publisher's ad for Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great About America claimed that anyone who disagreed with him sowed the seeds of terrorism. William Bennett's book Why We Fight, claimed that everyone that he quoted and argued with "sowed widespread and debilitating confusion" and "weakened the country's resolve." Today, politicians still defend or attack a bill because it is an enemy of "freedom."
In TIE Fighter, the Emperor rallies his followers after the destruction of the Death Star by proclaiming, "The Empire is on the verge of success. Soon, peace and order will be restored throughout the Galaxy. Even now, our capable forces, led by Darth Vader, are striking back at the Rebel insurgents." As an Imperial pilot, you are constantly assured that you are spreading peace and order with each battle. Rebels, pirates, unruly aliens, all of them are lumped together under the general designation of being the enemies of that noble cause. In America, numerous unfavorable groups were labeled terrorists in the wake of 9/11. Even marijuana growers were referred to as terrorists. Buzzwords like "freedom" or "socialism" are replaced with the need to maintain "peace" and "order" in TIE Fighter. The Imperial government is consistently depicted as a political entity relying on both rhetoric and power.
Jim Ward is best known for being the no-nonsense president of LucasArts from 2004 to 2008 -- a period where the company seemed to dust itself off, and start making good games again. His claim to fame might change in the near future, however -- he's currently running to represent Arizona's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 Congressional Election.
Ward's fairly conservative viewpoints are evident in his campaign website, but regardless of how you feel about his policies, he's got to be a staunch supporter of the gaming industry. Plus, he might just be the only person who can push legislation through mandating the re-release of Day of the Tentacle.
William David, a former designer for Ubisoft, felt he should finally take the plunge and strike out on his own. This week he left Ubisoft and uploaded this flash game as part explanation, in part thanks to his friends and co-workers.
As someone who's quit a lot of jobs, and part of a generation increasingly ADD about its career choices, I can sympathize. Sometimes, even when it doesn't make any sense to others, you do have to make this kind of change, to reset your creativity, motivation, professional growth. Or for whatever reason Mr. David did choose to take the plunge. Based on the ending screen, it sounds like his departure was amicable. Best of luck.
The "Raygun Gothic Rocketship" is a retro space ship "built" in 1944. In reality, it is one of the biggest art projects for the forthcoming Burning Man festival.
Bethesda's Todd Howard delivered a heart-crushing blow to fans of Oblivion (and the Elder Scrolls series as a whole) during a recent speech at QuakeCon 2009. When pressed about the company's next big project, Howard told the audience not to expect "Elder Scrolls V" any time soon. Amidst wails of anguish from the Tamriel enthusiasts in attendance, Howard followed that statement with a minor concession -- he joked that "there's always a chance" for an Elder Scrolls MMO.
Flash forward to this morning, when stalwart internet lookyloo Supererogatory noticed a startling trend. A number of intriguingly named web domains use Zenimax's nameserver as their host -- domains such as ElderScrollsOnline.com, ElderScrollsMMO.com, TheElderScrollsMMOG.net, etc. This is so very far from a confirmation of the project -- but definitely food for thought following Howard's QuakeCon remarks.
Time was, EA Sports' Madden franchise released on the weekend, not a Tuesday. "Madden Football Friday" predated the "Madden Holiday" of the past dozen or so years, and it returned again this week. But is it back for good?
No, said Nathan Stewart, the EA Sports Director of Marketing. What took place this year was an unusual confluence of circumstances that Electronic Arts can't really count on in years to come, Stewart said. In March and April, as EA was deciding on its cover athletes - Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu and Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald, sharing a Madden cover for the first time - the NFL was also hammering out its schedule. Both sides have a close marketing relationship, and when the NFL pointed out it had scheduled EA's cover athletes to play each other in a pre-season game the second week of August, traditionally the time Madden releases, EA Sports jumped to ressurect Madden Football Friday.
"When I first changed the date, this year, for Madden's release, a V.P. who's been here about 12 or 13 years said, ‘Oh, we're going old school, like Madden Football Friday again,'" said Stewart, whose career at EA Sports was preceded by six years with Microsoft's Xbox division, and so he was initially unaware of the Madden release history.
Console Madden, from its Genesis and Super Nintendo days up through the PlayStation, went out on a Friday - before the entertainment industry, through a decision sort of made by acclamation, proclaimed Tuesday the day of the week for video game and DVD releases. EA followed the shift with its major titles, Madden included, so the game's release day then became known as the "Madden Holiday."
In the gaming community, a number of titles each year will be worth skipping work or ditching school to buy and play. But none provides an annual incentive - covered and celebrated in the mainstream media - like Madden. The fact that for the past decade this "holiday" fell on a Tuesday - where it can't be made into a three-day weekend, makes its cultural effect all the more remarkable. Truly, if there was ever a national permission slip to play hooky, eat junk food, and play a video game all day, EA Sports and Madden wrote it first.
"We coined the phrase a few years ago, ‘Madden Holiday,' and we even got it declared an official holiday in Pennsylvania one year," Stewart recalled. "It's been widely recognized that the day Madden comes out is the day you call in sick and taunt your friends because you're home playing Madden."
Yet just because this year it was moved to a Thursday night/Friday - days more ideal for taking time off - don't expect to see that going forward. Madden Football Friday in 2009 was more the luck of the draw than marketer engineering, Stewart said.
"A lot of the things about this year are a one-off," he said. "But we're not necessarily going out to create a new tradition. If [this year's launch] is successful, I think [a Friday release] will be in the consideration set, but by no means have we locked it in for a trend moving forward."
EA pounced on the coincidence with an advertising blitz throughout the Steelers-Cardinals game, plus sponsoring a "Pigskin Pro-Am" flag football contest among NFL greats that ESPN2 broadcast from 11 pm EDT - right after the end of the game - up to midnight. Even though a down of pro football won't be snapped for another month, EA Sports wanted the day to feel special.
But much of the festivity of the Madden Holiday, or Madden Football Friday, is felt and generated at the local level. Thousands of retail partners, GameStop and Walmart most notably, stayed open late to sell the game at 12:01 a.m., and gave gamers reason to show up and wait for it, with free food, tournaments, and sales promotions
The Game Crazy in Springfield, Ore., where I live, put up a tent in its parking lot and ran a PS3 Madden tournament on two screens. Gamers decked out in their favorite players' NFL jerseys played one another, noshed on tailgate food, and socialized, happy to be a part of another gaming Midnight Mass right up to 12:01, when Madden 10 would be street legal.
"I like getting it right when everyone else gets it," said Grant Willis, 20, of Springfield, Ore. Willis works for a bank and was going to use his flex scheduling to come in late Friday, so he could attend the midnight launch.
As for Friday releases, as opposed to Tuesdays, "I like the feeling," Willis said, "Thursday nights are just fine."
Harley Smith, also 20 and from Springfield, said a Madden Football Friday made the release "a little more significant, because we have more free time on the weekends."
Was he going to buy Madden NFL 10 once the ball dropped at midnight?
"Nah, I didn't get paid tonight," Smith said. "I play it just for the online, mostly, and I haven't hooked up Xbox Live since I moved back in with my family,"
He said he'd pick up Madden later.
On Friday.
Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays at 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain time.
It's August, so marketers will try to hook you for your back-to-school/college nostalgia, or use it to cross sell you some things you really don't need, but probably want. Let's have a look.
Hardware: • Target's targeting the beginning of back-to-college migration as a pretext for putting all sorts of study aids on sale. Basically, as they apply to games, you get a $20 gift card when you buy a Wii. Tell yourself you need it for Physics 101. [Target]
• Vizio has a 32-inch 1080p LCD model, sort of uncommon, and it can be found for $399 through Dell, which is more than a hundy off its list price. Comes recommended as "a great TV for a console gamer setup." [TechDealDigger]
• What should you hook to that tv? A refurb PS3, 160GB model, would be nice. That may be grabbed through NewEgg for $309.99 - $140 off the usual price and, you guessed it, free shipping. [TDD]
• Gaming laptops, love 'em or hate 'em, have their market and there's a swell rig for $250 off, down to $949. It's the 18-inch HP Pavilion HDX18T, use coupon NZR91524 to get it through HP. It comes with $ gigs of RAM, Blu-Ray drive, Core 2 Duo processor. Good screen, good CPU, good RAM configs. [TDD]
• If you're looking for a second instrument for your rhythm game, remember, don't ever pay full price without looking first. Something's on sale. In this case, a PS2 Shredmaster carbon-fiber git-tar for $34, which is more than half off it's $79.99 list. Get it through Amazon. [Amazon]
Software • Cheapy's got a few coupon codes for games you might actually want. God of War, Chains of Olympus is $9.99; Little King's Story is $36.99; Persona 4 is $24.99, Gallop Racer 2006 is $29.99. The codes are in Cheapy's post. [Cheap Ass Gamer]
• Steam's sale this weekend: the entire Half-Life catalog, for $16.99. HL, HL2, HL2 Ep 1, HL2 Ep 2, all the fixins, you know the drill. [Steam]
• If that passel of games didn't blow up your skirt, GamersGate also is offering S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for 50 percent off. And you get all those periods for free. [GamersGate]
They happen every year: QuakeCon, the Woodstock of Gaming. Totilo's in Dallas, bringing back the peace and love. Madden also dropped this week; with a splurge of coverage and controversy. And console price rumors? Oh, right, they happen every day.
There's some hot footage of Serious Sam HDavailable on GamesTrailers (embedded past the break for your convenience) right now and, well, if you've played through Serious Sam before (or ever watched a Lord of the Rings trailer), this is going to be old hat to you. Still, despite the footage's lack of completely new things to look at, it's still a good primer for folks who have no idea what all of the fuss is about (hint: it's the crazy, non-stop funs).
Pitchford on Borderlands cover: The game 'will blow your mind' originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What's better? A list of those. Here's a roundup of the rundowns out there.
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Twitter reveals the story of Chad 
A truckload of details and features, alleged to be included in the as-yet unnanounced 
It's August, so marketers will try to hook you for your back-to-school/college nostalgia, or use it to cross sell you some things you really don't need, but probably want. Let's have a look.
