Video Game Saga *

Zelda for Wii this Year?, Activision's Biggest Franchises, Random House Moving Into Video Games, Dead or Alive: Paradise Under Attack

From Wired.com:

Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway: One of the things that’s true for Nintendo is that we’re not driven by a calendar for our release dates. When the games are ready to go, when the quality is perfect, that’s when we release. We all benefit if we can keep a pretty steady pace, so the development teams have worked hard to make sure that we’ve got a full lineup this year. If you compare the first half of 2010 with the first half of 2009, it’s night and day. And from some of the things that Mr. Iwata has talked about, and that we will talk about at E3, like Zelda, you know that we’re going to have a good back half of the year, as well.

Wired.com: I think people were really interested to know, are they going to release Mario and Metroid and Zelda all in one year?

Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway: And you said we wouldn’t. You bet no, right?

Wired.com: I bet no. Are you going to hold me to that? Do I owe you a steak dinner?

Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway: I think you do.

Wired.com: I’m happy to lose that bet. Those are the kind of bets that I try to make.

HOLY...  The next Wii Zelda game is projected to come out this year, presumably in the beginning of November for a Christmas release.  Like the interviewer, I have my doubts.  But this may well be a massive year for Wii owners—my suggestion is to play it safe and start saving up now.

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From 411 Mania.com

"A significant portion of our revenues has historically been derived from products based on a relatively small number of popular franchises and these products are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of our profits," the report said.

Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft--Blizzard had 98 percent of their revenue come from WOW.

"Due to this dependence on a limited number of franchises, the failure to achieve anticipated results by one or more products based on these franchises may significantly harm our business and financial results," the report said.

World of Warcraft is still the number one MMORPG game.  Successful franchises are so important to gaming companies, so you have the money to take chances and ride out times with lower sales.  All companies have their "sure winner" that they crank out once every year or two.  But it's pretty funny to see just how important WOW is for Activision, when most people don't even associate the game with any other company than Blizzard.

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From 1UP.com:

Novels based on video games are nothing new, but Random House wants to do more than novelize existing games -- they want to have an active hand in creating them. Hence the creation of a new group responsible for creating story content for media including "video games, social networks on the web, mobile platforms, in print and on film," which was announced today.

The new group will work in conjunction with other media companies in creating their content. Their first deal is with Stardock, with whom they are working on the story content for the upcoming Elemental: War of Magic. In addition, Random House will be publishing a novel by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell titled Elemental: Destiny's Embers.

"A good story doesn't necessarily have to begin and end with a game; it can and should encompass as many creative mediums as possible in order to provide fans with the most complete rendering of a fictional place or time," said Wardell

"With Elemental having an incredibly rich back story to tell, partnering with Random House allows us to create the most immersive universe possible for our fans."

This is very smart from Random House.  The video game business is the fiscally strongest entertainment media right now.  If they had a huge blockbuster like the Harry Potter series, it makes sense to take out the middle man and make the game yourself--as long as it's a decent game.  If you succeed, you reap all the rewards--but if you fail, you get the idea.

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From 411Mania.com:

The director of Dead or Alive: Paradise, Yoshinori Ueda,  is defending the game from critics who say the title is degrading to women.

"From our perspective, we're trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus - we want our characters to be beautiful." Ueda said. "The DOA characters are strong and that they look the way they do is based on trying to bring out the beauty of women."

The strength of the Dead or Alive women have been shown off in the numerous fighting games, but does having the girls play volleyball and minigames show it off as well?

"We're certainly not trying to degrade women," he said. "They have beautiful bodies. We're trying to show off the beauty of their bodies but we're not trying to be degrading about it - we're trying to show that they are beautiful characters. It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn," he added. "That's definitely not the goal."

If you are not familiar, here's the gist of the game.  Proportionately ridiculous female characters from the Dead or Alive fighting game series must battle it out in mini games and volleyball, in their swimsuits.

What do you think?  Does this title go too far trying to intentionally sexualize their game?  Or is it harmless fun?  I'd love to hear what you think!

See you next week!