December 22, 2004
Just Letters
Just Letters is a free browser based Flash game. Here is what BBC's Clickonline said about it:
We've all seen those fridge magnets that allow you to spell out words from a group of individual letters right? Well FlashcomGuru have made this work for the web. Just open the page and start moving the letters about to create whatever words you want. There is a catch though - you will be doing this with up to 74 other players all working from the same board - hence the title 'Someone keeps stealing my letters'.
It gets hectic with everyone going for the same key letters as they build a word from scratch. I found a better strategy was to hijack someone else's nearly completed word and change a few letters around to create a different one. I hope you have as much fun with that as I did, but do please bear in mind that the content is uncensored, so viewing alongside your little ones is probably advisable.
Check out the site.
Posted by richard ting at December 22, 2004, 07:42 PM
December 15, 2004
Electronic Arts Acquires Exclusive NFL License
[from gamasutra]
Further tightening its stronghold on all things related to video game football, Electronic Arts made the surprise announcement today that it has acquired the exclusive rights to the NFL teams, stadiums, and players for use in its video games. Through deals with both the NFL and Players Inc., EA will control the license for the next five years.
In addition to these cosmetic aspects, EA also has exclusive rights for online console features in its football games, as well as access to NFL Films and the NFL Network for the company's titles, which includes the Madden, NFL Street, and Fantasy Football franchises. However, EA is not limited to the above franchises in the use of the NFL licenses; the deal also allows EA to develop new football titles using the assets if it chooses. The one facet the deal seems not to cover is web-based or mobile games, such as titles for cell phones.
With Take-Two's recent announcement that the company was considering raising the price of its ESPN Football line again, after some successful cut-price competition with the Madden series earlier this year, it looks like EA's sales slip of 2004 is something the company is determined to never let happen again.
In fact, now this presumably massive financial deal now in place, further Visual Concepts-developed, Take-Two/Sega published football titles will not be allowed to use any 'name' players or teams, likely rendering them a much less potent competing force, despite a competitive graphics and gameplay engine. Should Sony or Microsoft decide to resume their own sports line after this year's hiatus, they may also have an uphill fight on their hands.
Posted by richard ting at December 15, 2004, 10:01 AM
December 01, 2004
Online Games Quarterly
The IGDA's Online Games SIG is proud to announce that the inaugural issue of the Online Games Quarterly has been released.
http://www.igda.org/online/quarterly/1_1/
The idea for this e-publication grew out of a discussion at the 2004 GDC among members of the SIG. The group felt that a smaller publication released at more regular intervals would compliment the annual papers and serve as a place to highlight industry peers throughout the year. In this first issue, you'll find interviews with developers and industry analysts. In the future, letters to the
editor, opinion pieces, and feature articles will be added.