by Chris Noll on Mar 09, 2010
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Big news from 38 Studios and big news from GDC. It's a big
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Great Big Week.
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Biggest
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Upcoming
Events
38 Studios comes back into the light today with some
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">pretty
big news. They've teamed up with Electronic Arts Partners to
distribute and publish their first title, codenamed
style="font-style: italic;">Project Mercury.
This is a separate game from
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/883">
style="font-style: italic;">Copernicus
but it will share the same universe and will be available on PC, Xbox
360 and PS3.
Why is this cool? 38 Studios has been drawing a large group of
major designers and developers. They haven't revealed any real
information about the game(s) yet, but one needn't look any further
than their staff roster to see they've got some huge names behind the
projects. A lot of these people left very good jobs in favor of working
for the game studio, and to me, that says something about their plans.
But, I guess we'll have to wait to see.
GDC is upon us this week, and 38 Studios won't be doing any reveals
there, so we'll have to focus on other games. And do we ever have a
lineup.
This year Ethec approached me about covering GDC and of course, I was
more than willing. I started making some plans and spoke to some devcos
to figure out who was going to be there. Shortly after I started
setting up some loose schedules I realized that I may have gotten in
over my head. It started off innocently enough--a couple emails here, a
couple phone calls there, and the schedule was starting to look pretty
well rounded. Then the floodgates were opened and my inbox was filling
up faster than an Aion
Kinah
farmer spamming global channels. I was getting emails coming in from
127 countries in 49 different languages from thousands of gamers,
publicists, developers and designers. On top of it, there were soooo
many cool things that I wanted to check out. I was a tad overwhelmed.
"How's GDC looking, Ben?" Ethec asked at one of our meetings.
"I'm a tad overwhelmed," I responded candidly.
"Need a hand?" he asked. I broke down.
"You... you do
care, Ethec," I
sobbed uncontrollably. "I felt so alone, so scared. I.. I wanted to do
it all. I wanted you to be proud of me. You were never there when I was
growing up, but I always knew you cared... inside."
"Right," he replied, a touch of discomfort in his voice. "Ok, so I'll
bring the camera and we'll ask Medawky to join us."
"I... I love y..." I started.
"On to content plans!" Ethec interrupted. But I knew he felt the
magical connection too. No one could deny it.
So, now we have a nice sized team to cover the nice sized event. There
will be a couple of reveals that I can't get into right now, but be
sure to watch the Ten Ton Hammer pages for the hot news as it unfolds.
We've also booked time with Funcom (The
Secret World, AoC: Rise of the Godslayers), Sony Online
Entertainment, True Games & Petroglyph (
style="font-style: italic;">Mytheon), Cryptic
Studios (Champions
Online, Star Trek Online), Realtime Worlds (
style="font-style: italic;">APB), CCP (
style="font-style: italic;">EVE), BioWare and
EA (Star Wars: The Old
Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2), En Masse (
style="font-style: italic;">TERA), gPotato (
style="font-style: italic;">Aika, Allods), and
many more. It's gonna be busy, it's gonna be big, and it's gonna be
cool.
Truth be told, we could have sent the entire Ten Ton Hammer staff and
still not have had enough time to see everything. GDC is huge so there
are some other things we won't get a chance to see. For instance,
NeuroSky sent me a little bit on their
href="http://www.ballantinesbiz.com/mailer12a/lt/t_go.php?i=182&e=NDQ5NTg=&l=http://www.cnn.com/video/--Q-/video/tech/2010/02/04/sr.baldwin.mind.control.cnn">new
technology today. This thing lets you control things
style="font-style: italic;">with your mind.
It's real Jedi stuff, and major awesome factor of x10. I may have to
break
in after hours to check it out. And hey, if security catches up to me,
I can just wave my hand and say "this is not the editor you're looking
for. Move along."
Anyway, I should head out to catch a plane, so I'll wrap it up here.
But before I go, if you're a
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/membership">premium member,
don't forget to swing by the forums to
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=49982">ask
your own questions
at GDC. No Jedi tricks here, simply post your questions, and we'll ask
them on your behalf.
And if you're not a premium member, let us know what you're looking
forward to this week from GDC in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50031">Loading...
forums.
EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS
EA to Publish First 38 Studios Title
http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury
38
Studios has just announced a publishing and distribution partnership
with Electronic Arts Partners (EAP) to publish its first title. The
game, codenamed "Project Mercury" in 38 Studios' typically tight-lipped
fashion, is the first title to be published by Big Huge Games--the
Maryland-based studios responsible for the Rise of Nations series and
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, plus a number of XBLA games
including Catan--since its acquisition by 38 Studios.
FEATURES & GUIDES
Supplying Minerals Through Market Acquisitions In EVE Online
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/
When you're running a production business in EVE Online, there are
always supply issues to iron out. Space Junkie shows us a
slightly less common method of mineral acquisition.
WoW Weekly Report - "Microtransaction Revolution"
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue57
The
World of Warcraft Weekly Report is here this week with all of the
latest news plus a deep look into microtransactions in both WoW and
online gaming in general. Is the microtransaction revolution as evil as
the Burning Legion or is it something that's helpful to gaming as a
whole? Find out in the Weekly Report, and be sure to subscribe.
WoW Loremaster's Corner #5: A Steampunk Paradise
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/steampunk-paradise">http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/steampunk-paradise
World of Warcraft has a lot of steampunk themes and we take a
look at them this week in our Loremaster's Corner. What kind of
technology is in WoW, how will things change in Cataclysm with the
Gnomes and Goblins, and what do the various factions and races think
about technology? All of this and more in this week's Loremaster's
Corner.
Microcosms Issue #8 - Dare to Compare
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81851
While
it's natural for gamers to compare their current game with a past one,
and even more so with MMOGs, it is often times a misguided folly of the
proverbial apples vs. oranges type. Eschewing common sense Ten Ton
Hammer's Jason Bolton has dived feet first into the game resemblance
discussion with a look at how two free-to-play MMOGs stack up against
their AAA counterparts. Can there ever be equity between the two
styles? Read this weeks column to find out.
Today's Hottest Articles and Guides
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/preview/multiplayer_1stimpressions">StarCraftThanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!
-Benjamin J. de la Durantaye
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team