Posted by: Drew Sikora at February 19, 2009 1:32:54 AM
It's time for another no-nonsense-getting-straight-to-business GDNet Daily.
The Doom and Gloom Report: Jobs. Somewhat of a job-cut headlines reprieve has come about this past week thankfully. Besides the few troublesome reports from earlier in the week, all that's left to mention is strictly on a related note. The gaming show network G4 has recently confirmed that it will be cutting staff as a result of reducing the airtime for two of its shows, they plan to use the savings towards more original programming this year. Meanwhile a minor upset in the workforce occurred over at the US Future Publishing offices, where 19 staff were let go. Future Publishing is behind publications Nintendo Power and the official Microsoft and Sony mags.
Square Enix to acquire Edios. The biggest hubbub of the past week besides the Midway bankruptcy (which wasn't much of a surprise) would be the bid in development by Square Enix to acquire Eidos. While such a move would require support from shareholders, it seems that's an obstacle easily overcome as major shareholder Time Warner threw in their vote almost immediately, and more support has come out from other shareholders as well as the week progressed. The USD$117 million deal is calculated to be 129% over Eidos' current market value (although shares have spiked since the announcement), but Square Enix has their reasons for wanting the numerous franchises that Eidos has control over.
The ongoing Midway saga. We'll start with the "good" news first, which is that Midway won't be kicking people out (at least not all of them) for the time being, as it's received permission from the U.S. bankruptcy court to continue operations. And now this is where things start to turn nasty once again. Besides being de-listed from the NYSE after their shares fell to under $1 and having to abandon the ESA (whether they left or were kicked out is still unclear), creditors are up in arms over the mysterious Mark Thomas, who was practically given the company by its previous owner Sumner Redstone. Apparently Mr. Thomas is set up to make some big moolah as a result, before even the companies whom Midway owes money to get paid. Craziness. And in case you need a reminder of the kind of deep pockets that Midway has managed to crawl into, check out the huge list of people to which Midway owes money. Lots of it.
More industry legal action arises. In addition to Activision clawing at EA over Brütal Legend, two additional legal battles have come about this past week. First up is a rather messy patent matter between Viacom/Harmonix and Konami over Konami's Rock Revolution title. Apparently last year Konami sued Viacom/Harmonix for infringing on two of their rhythm game patents, and Viacom/Harmonix are smacking Konami back for a guitar peripheral patent. Meanwhile Activision pulled the smart move and pooled patent resources with Konami. The second legal action is brewing over the recent announcement of Need For Speed: Shift. It seems a spurned development house is allegating that Shift developer Slightly Mad Studios said some nasty and incorrect things about them. It's all very vague at the moment, the case is still under review.
I've been pretty big on the game soundtracks lately, most recently with World of Goo and Legend of Princess. I love them both. If you're a fan of Double Fine's Psychonauts game and also like soundtracks, then let it be known that they've released the soundtrack and cinematic score online for digital purchase.
UnconnectedMember since: 6/21/2003 From: Kelowna, British Columbia
Posted - 2/19/2009 5:54:40 PM
Great call on the soundtracks.. I have never in my life found more powerful music than video game OST's.
Some of my favorites in my player:
Elder Scrolls IV
Fable 1&2
WoW
Video Games Live CD1
Alone in the Dark 2008
Icewind Dale
Jade Empire
Mass Effect
Gears of War
Myst - Jack Wall's Stuff is unbelievable
Poison Pink
Crysis
and the list goes on and on, but man talk about amazingly powerful music
Trapper ZoidGDNet+Member since: 5/20/2005 From: Melbourne, Victoria
Posted - 2/19/2009 5:57:49 PM
Quote:
Original post by BLiTZWiNG
I think I have a new game idea. It involves searching for the Patent Lord and slaying his vile unholy patent creating butt.
Yeah, I'm against patents.
Ah, c'mon. The concept of patents isn't the problem. I know a few inventive types who have created a few, and they deserved them. It's hard to fund a start-up based on innovative new technology if you can't get the patent on your new idea. Everyone loses in that situation.
It's the patents that are awarded for the blindingly obvious that are the problem. Technically, patents shouldn't be awarded for anything an expert would quickly suggest as the solution to a problem, but that doesn't seem to stop them being awarded. Software patents are extremely bad offenders at this.
Plus I'm not entirely sure how software became patentable in the first place. And triple my confusion for patents on business practices.
Original post by BLiTZWiNG
I think I have a new game idea. It involves searching for the Patent Lord and slaying his vile unholy patent creating butt.
Yeah, I'm against patents.
Ah, c'mon. The concept of patents isn't the problem. I know a few inventive types who have created a few, and they deserved them. It's hard to fund a start-up based on innovative new technology if you can't get the patent on your new idea. Everyone loses in that situation.
It's the patents that are awarded for the blindingly obvious that are the problem. Technically, patents shouldn't be awarded for anything an expert would quickly suggest as the solution to a problem, but that doesn't seem to stop them being awarded. Software patents are extremely bad offenders at this.
Plus I'm not entirely sure how software became patentable in the first place. And triple my confusion for patents on business practices.
Well yes, I agree with you 100%.
Patents or rhythym games? Patents on MMO's .. like none of us ever thought of connecting more a few computers together and playing in a virtual world long before MMO's became reality.
frobMember since: 3/12/2005 From: Salt Lake City, UT
Posted - 2/19/2009 7:01:17 PM
Quote:
Original post by BLiTZWiNG
Quote:
Original post by Trapper Zoid
It's the patents that are awarded for the blindingly obvious that are the problem. Technically, patents shouldn't be awarded for anything an expert would quickly suggest as the solution to a problem, but that doesn't seem to stop them being awarded. Software patents are extremely bad offenders at this.
Plus I'm not entirely sure how software became patentable in the first place. And triple my confusion for patents on business practices.
Patents or rhythym games? Patents on MMO's .. like none of us ever thought of connecting more a few computers together and playing in a virtual world long before MMO's became reality.
The difficulty is that the patent office rules work against it.
The patent office workers are going to check it against other patents and the industry's major publications. There are no other patents or literature on it because it is obvious to skilled workers. Since they aren't programmers, they don't know that it is an obvious application. They find no prior art and grant the patent.
The patent office does have rules about the first round of common offenders. Their policy has been adjusted so that hooking stuff up to a network, adding additional computers, and moving an external process to an internal process are all invalid claims.
Thankfully the EFF and other groups are making inroads at technology patents, and stemming the tide of really bad technology patents.
In regards to soundtracks, I also have a Mirror's Edge MP3 pack of 5 remixes to the theme song "Still Alive". It's pretty badass (and "Still Alive" itself is awesome) if you can find it, I think the official link is dead now so torrent it.
ShrapnelMember since: 4/27/2008 From: Fort Smith, AR
Posted - 2/24/2009 8:19:04 AM
The worst thing about patents is they can be renewed indefinitely. This goes against the original intent of patents. Also, some patents are granted because of either lazyness or ignorance. i.e. not wanting to really research it (sometimes this is because of workload and mandated quotas) or have no knowledge of the subject/material/idea being patented whatsoever.
Copyrights aren't much better as they can be transferred/sold and kept alive indefinately as well using this method.
I'm not against either one of them, just the abuse.
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Trapper Zoid GDNet+
Member since: 5/20/2005 From: Melbourne, Victoria
Posted - 2/19/2009 2:07:29 AM
Posted - 2/19/2009 4:24:46 PM
Posted - 2/19/2009 7:35:20 PM
