Wired's Game|Life reports:
"Tell your blog that I'm really a genuinely smiley, nice person. Because people think I'm fake, smiling up there," Nintendo's new executive vice president said in an interview during last week's E3 Media & Business Summit. Dunaway was referring to the company's poorly received E3 press conference days before, in which she served as the lead presenter. Gaming fans watching at home, and even some in-person attendees, thought her exuberant performance sounded like false enthusiasm for the company's lineup of mostly casual games.
Personally, I think Dunaway, a former Yahoo executive who joined Nintendo of America last year, is a convenient scapegoat for angry gamers disappointed by Nintendo's lack of hard-core content. That's a real issue, of course, one we tackled right off the bat in the interview."
Read on for more info on Nintendo's business plans, including:
* Where all the hard-core content is
* Why Nintendo won't be surprising us with last-minute 2008 game announcements
* The official answers on Virtual Console's scaled-back schedule and lack of storage
* What's up with Professor Layton
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
"The sudden closure of several video-game studios at Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox division was the result of a widespread cost-cutting initiative that still isn’t finished.
This week, Xbox began offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers and other staff at ZeniMax, which it purchased in 2020 for $7.5 billion, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Others across the Xbox organization have been told that more cuts are on the way.
Speaking about the closures more broadly, Booty said that the company’s studios had been spread too thin — like “peanut butter on bread” — and that leaders across the division had felt understaffed. They decided to close these studios to free up resources elsewhere, he said.
Game Pass has not seen the massive growth that Xbox boss Phil Spencer may have been hoping for."
"Speaking about the closures more broadly, Booty said that the company’s studios had been spread too thin — like “peanut butter on bread” — and that leaders across the division had felt understaffed. They decided to close these studios to free up resources elsewhere, he said"
So what you're saying is...you bought all these studios and you guys can't run them.
Jesus.
Reports are suggesting that Game Pass will be getting a price hike soon and that Call of Duty may not be added to the day one offering. I honestly have a hard time believing this but it does beg the question why exactly did GP fail? I think the answer is that it just didn't get the growth that it anticipated. Jim was right but I wish he wasn't because at the end of the day, its gamers, devs and other front-line workers who have to absorb the blow for Spencer and team's miscalculations.
For all the armchair executives who were calling for Sony to release its big-budget AAA games on PS+, the same exact thing would have happened at PlayStation. Game Pass has killed Xbox. Congrats.
"While the 20 year anniversary edition of Nordic Game, NG24 Spring's homepage on 21-24 May in Malmö, Sweden, is getting closer, the organizers announced that more than 150 speakers are now lined up for the show." - Nordic Game.
Sarcastic Gamer had it best with this lady about the E3 Nintendo Keynote.
(It`s like being told what`s cool in gaming by your mom.)
She does seem nice though, just not the best person to tell a roomfull of geeks what`s in or out in gaming imho.
The one thing I caught that was fake:
They were demonstrating Wii motion plus with Wii resort. She was saying it was sooooo accurate. She threw the frisbee like any normal gamer would holding a wii-mote. Her first attempt failed with her hand movement. She then said:
"See, Wii motion plus is so good it recognized my bad hand input"....
Give me a break! :)
I had to check on my remote if I was not actually watching Comedy Network instead.
Example: 'That's why they call me the Reggienator'. I mean comon,that was gold. He even beat Kaz with this one. Reggie still scares me though....his eyes...he has that terrible look,now I know how Darth Vader is behind his mask.
She seems like a really nice person. Whether or not her personality clashes with the gaming community well is another story, but you don't meet a lot of people like that. At least I sure as hell don't.
"Wired.com: Rhythm Heaven is your under-the-radar, Professor Layton-style announcement for this E3. Speaking of which, we need more Professor Layton.
Dunaway: Yeah, I agree. I played all of Professor Layton, it's a fantastic game."
That doesn't count you lamers.
EDIT: Oh, and that's what she said. haha!