January 2004
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JANUARY 2004 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE www.gdmag.com 600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 GAME PLAN EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief ✎ Jennifer Olsen [email protected] Managing Editor LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Jamil Moledina [email protected] Departments Editor Kenneth Wong [email protected] Product Review Editor Peter Sheerin [email protected] China: Art Director Audrey Welch [email protected] Over One Billion Underserved Editor-at-Large Chris Hecker [email protected] Contributing Editors Jonathan Blow [email protected] verybody talks about der initially. However, the liabilities of Noah Falstein [email protected] videogames going global, entering China would remain significant Steve Theodore [email protected] Advisory Board but when a single country for Microsoft for the foreseeable future. Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large such as China represents The cultural oceans between China and Ellen Guon Beeman Monolith Andy Gavin Naughty Dog one-sixth of the world pop- the West are vast and deep, including a Joby Otero Luxoflux Eulation, new forays into vast underserved virtually nonexistent conception of intel- Dave Pottinger Ensemble Studios George Sanger Big Fat Inc. markets have industrywide implications. lectual property ownership such as most Harvey Smith Ion Storm Such is the case with both Nintendo’s Westerners have. The communist govern- Paul Steed Microsoft ADVERTISING SALES and Sony’s entrées into the Chinese mar- ment involves itself heavily in business Director of Sales/Associate Publisher ket: Nintendo has unveiled a China-spe- matters, reserving — and exercising — Michele Sweeney e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6217 Senior Account Manager, Eastern Region & Europe cific piracy-resistant console system, the right to alter economic regulations Afton Thatcher e: [email protected] t: 404.658.1415 while Sony has announced plans to intro- drastically and without warning, which Account Manager, Northern California & Midwest Susan Kirby e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6226 duce the Playstation 2 there. can wreak havoc on any company’s long- Account Manager, Western Region & Asia Sony is launching the PS2 in China at term business strategy there. Furthermore, Craig Perreault e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 Account Manager, Target Pavilion, Education, & Recruitment around 1,988 yuan, or $240 (relative to American companies face the unique Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 per capita GDP, it’s as if a PS2 cost an challenge that the Chinese government ADVERTISING PRODUCTION American $2,000). While the system is keeps the yuan’s valuation artificially Advertising Production Coordinator Kevin Chanel extremely expensive, the software will be pegged (which is to say, undervalued) rel- Reprints Terry Wilmot e: [email protected] t: 516.562.7081 GAMA NETWORK MARKETING much cheaper than software sold else- ative to the now-sagging dollar. This tilts Director of Marketing Michele Maguire where, being subject to different market the Sino-American trade imbalance far in Senior Marcom Manager Jennifer McLean forces in China, namely those of the black China’s favor, evaporating the potential Marketing Coordinator Scott Lyon market. It’s well known that the piracy for U.S. companies conducting business CIRCULATION rate in China is near-total (94% according there to profit from favorable fluctuations Circulation Director Kevin Regan to Harvard’s Center for International in an open currency exchange market. Circulation Manager Peter Birmingham Development), compared with a relatively Citing loss of American jobs to artificially Asst. Circulation Manager Lisa Oddo Game Developer Circulation Coordinator Jessica Ward manageable 37% in Japan, 24% in the cheap Chinese exports, the U.S. is putting is BPA approved U.S., and 26% in the U.K. increasing pressure on China, both via SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES For information, order questions, and address changes The piracy issue is just one example of direct talks and through the World Trade t: 800.250.2429 or 847.763.59581 f: 847.763.9606 why entering, much less succeeding in, Organization, to revalue and ultimately e: [email protected] the Chinese market is more complicated float the yuan. Still, the Chinese govern- INTERNATIONAL LICENSING INFORMATION Mario Salinas than simply deciding that if every person ment maintains that it cannot stabilize its e: [email protected] t: 650.513.4234 f: 650.513.4482 in China bought your product for $1, currency on its own for at least 10 years. EDITORIAL FEEDBACK you’d have $1.3 billion. For starters, two- Certainly there are western corpora- [email protected] thirds of the population still ekes out a tions that have blazed trails, persisted, CMP MEDIA MANAGEMENT President & CEO Gary Marshall rural existence; on the flipside, more than and become successful in China, and cer- Executive Vice President & CFO John Day 60 million Chinese now sport disposable tainly the gang up in Redmond are Executive Vice President & COO Steve Weitzner Executive Vice President, Corporate Sales & Marketing Jeff Patterson incomes greater than $10,000, a total hatching some plan for the Chinese mar- Chief Information Officer Mike Mikos that continues to rise rapidly. ket. Then again, following Sun’s President, Technology Solutions Robert Faletra President, CMP Healthcare Media Vicki Masseria Is Microsoft at a disadvantage by not “Shanghai surprise” announcement at Senior Vice President, Operations Bill Amstutz bringing Xbox to the Chinese market at Comdex that it had struck a deal with Senior Vice President, Human Resources Leah Landro VP & General Counsel Sandra Grayson the same time as Sony and Nintendo? the Chinese government for its open- VP, Group Publisher Applied Technologies Philip Chapnick Yes and no. On one hand, market share source software, Microsoft might just VP, Group Publisher InformationWeek Media Network Michael Friedenber VP, Group Publisher Electronics Paul Miller is power, whatever the market, and arriv- consider turning its attention to India’s VP, Group Publisher Enterprise Architecture Group Fritz Nelson ing third is not a strong position. On the billion folks, hoping for the better. VP, Group Publisher Software Development Media Peter Westerman other hand, Microsoft, as an American VP & Director of CMP Integrated Marketing Solutions Joseph Braue Corporate Director, Audience Development Shannon Aronson company, faces steeper obstacles to trade Corporate Director, Audience Development Michael Zane in China than China’s Japanese neigh- Corporate Director, Publishing Services Marie Myers bors. If Nintendo and Sony can pave a path for a Chinese videogame market, Jennifer Olsen Microsoft would have less risk to shoul- Editor-in-Chief 4 WWW.GAMANETWORK.COM INDUSTRY WATCH ; KEEPING AN EYE ON THE GAME BIZ | kenneth wong Videogame middleman closes shop. Capital the games intended for the N-Gage hand- Entertainment Group (CEG), founded by set can now be played on any cell phone Xbox’s co-creators Seamus Blackley and or mobile device using the Symbian oper- Kevin Bachus, disbanded, citing a lack of ating system, also used by N-Gage. Club- funding to keep its operations going. Siemens, an unofficial site run by a Blackley, Bachus, and a few other video- Norwegian duo working in London, post- game veterans envisioned CEG becoming ed screenshots of what it claims to be N- the middleman between developers and Gage games running on a Siemens AG publishers. As the industry’s first inde- SX1 handset, reportedly without any lag pendently funded production company, or operational deterrence. CEG planned to develop high-quality The motion pod for WILD EARTH, an interactive games — including original but risky WILD EARTH goes to theme parks. WILD motion simulator. projects — and then find publishers who EARTH, the 2003 Independent Games would market, sell, and distribute the revealed that the product is not related to Festival Game of the Year, will soon be games for a share of the profit. CEG dis- either the Game Boy Advance or Game- available as a motion simulator at covered its first publishing partner in cube successor. The announcement came selected zoos, amusement parks, and Sega of America. Bachus observed that soon after the company posted its first- other entertainment environments, the industry will likely adopt CEG’s busi- ever loss ($26.8 million, in the six according to developer Super X Studios, ness model in the next three years, but months ended in September) since going which created the game. The adventure the challenge is “finding investors who public in 1962. will allow two visitors to vicariously go share the appetite for risk.’’ on a photo-safari trek through the Unauthorized N-Gage-ment. Nokia’s mobile Serengeti. While demonstrating the tech- Nintendo to debut new machine in Japan. gaming device N-Gage, which drew criti- nology at the International Association Nintendo declared its plan to debut a cism from the press for its high price of Amusement Parks and Attractions new videogame machine in Japan next ($299) and limited game offerings, took (IAAPA) conference this winter, produc- year. It did not specify whether the new another blow as hackers began reporting er-developer James Thrush commented machine, scheduled to be unveiled at E3 on web sites and bulletin boards that they that zoos are particularly interested in 2004, will be a handheld; however, a had cracked Nokia’s proprietary N-Gage the “motion pod” for its interactivity, a company statement software. This raises the possibility that step beyond the current crop of passive ride films. The worldwide availability of the WILD EARTH ride is slated for THE TOOLBOX early 2004. q P DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE HARDWARE , , Send all industry and product AND OTHER STUFF release news to [email protected]. Gamepak for Truespace 6.6. Caligari interactive Quicktime VR viewing, B recently released Gamepak, a game- enhanced interface and workflow man- UPCOMING EVENTS development extension for its general- agement. Stitcher is available for Mac purpose 3D modeling software True- as well as PC for $499.