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The Daily GameDev.net

Posted by: Oli Wilkinson at September 30, 2009 6:50:17 PM

It's Wednesday - that lovely place in which it's a free run downhilll to the weekend. Unless you work weekends, in which case you're probably not a fan. Enough ramble, on with the show.

There's been a fair few rumblings in the UK Game Development industry this week. Canada may be the promised land for Game Development companies, but at the cost of losing talent in the UK. In an interview with Develop, Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson talks of the huge losses of talent to Canada, especially in the Sports field. Nobody can blame Game Development companies for doing this with the up to 40% tax breaks offered there. With groups like Tiga campaigning for similar breaks over in the UK, the pressure is mounting from companies like Realtime Worlds who have threatened a move to Ireland if nothing is done about it. We'll see what happens.

It seems like another week goes by and yet another story in the Time Langdell/EDGE Games saga pops up. In this latest episode publishing giant EA Games have petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel five trademarks held by EDGE Games by claiming that they have been effectively abandoned. Speaking to Kotaku, Langdell hits back by claiming Edge are being bullied by EA. What colour is the pot again?

The push to digital distribution has taken another step forward with Microsoft upping the limit of games on XBox LIVE Arcade to 2Gb, a move that is sure to appeal to developers targetting the platform.

People following the OnLive service may be interested that they've received backing from A&T, Autodesk and Warner Bros and that they may be launching this winter.

iPhone game developers will see that their market on the AppStore is becoming more crowded. In fact, according to Mobclix, games make up 20% if AppStore content - in real terms this means that your game will be competing with around 16,600 other game-apps. The news comes as Apple announce 2 billion app downloads on the service.

PSPgo Mini developers would be interested to hear that they'll be offered a discount on Vicious Cycle's engine tech. GameIndustry.biz has an interview with the UK's PSPgo product manager which talks about the planned launch of the system, which aims to have 15 Minis at launch and 50 before the end of the year. It's a shame those upgrading from the regular PSP have been stung by the lack of a decent UMD upgrade package.

Nintendo DSi users may be annoyed to hear that all downloaded content is system locked, meaning you can't move it onto other devices you may own. This appears to include all content, not just games - ouch.

Microsoft MVP and Indie Game Developer Nick Gravelyn has posted a post-mortem series on his blog about the recent release of his game "PixelMan" on the XBox Live Indie Games Portal. The sales stats are interesting and show that in ten days a nice profit can be made even at the low 80MSP price point. I'm sure people looking to target the platform will be interested in Nick's findings.

If all that talk of digitally distributed games has left you wanting more, why not check out GamaSutra's round up of last week's best downloads.

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"The Daily GameDev.net" Discussion

lmelior Member since: 6/16/2008 From: Phoenix, AZ

Posted - 9/30/2009 3:37:48 PM

Quote:
In this latest episode publishing giant EA Games have petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel five trademarks held by EDGE Games by claiming that they have been effectively abandoned.

I called it! (Sort of.) What do I win?

The Kotaku article makes EA out to look awesome. The cynical part in me is saying that EA would abuse a general trademark like "edge" just as badly, but hopefully the USPTO won't accept it anymore. I'm so pleased that those trademarks are going away, though, that I tend to believe their reasoning:

Quote:
"While this seems like a small issue for EA, we think that filing the complaint is the right thing to do for the developer community."
...
"A lot of small developers who are faced with this situation settle claims because they don't know how, or can't afford to fight for their rights," said Brown, the EA spokesman. "We hope that as a result of this action, other developers will be less intimidated by unwarranted legal threats."

I'm usually the last guy to say anything good about EA, but that's some good stuff there. My favorite part is Langdell's quote at the end though:

Quote:
"The key dispute for the past two to three years ... has always been between the multinational conglomerate EA and Edge fighting for its rights as a relatively small indie developer up against the giant corporate bully, EA," Langdell wrote. "It is a great pity that another fellow indie developer, Mobigame, got caught in the crossfire, but at least EA are now out in the open with their fight, now openly trying to stifle the legitimate rights of indie developers."

I laughed out loud. I bet he was very sorrowful that he had to have Mobigames' app removed, and that he regretfully had to collect a big chunk of change from Fuzzyeyes after trademarking the exact name of their game before they could.

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frob Member since: 3/12/2005 From: Salt Lake City, UT

Posted - 9/30/2009 4:23:11 PM

Quote:
Nintendo DSi users may be annoyed to hear that all downloaded content is system locked, meaning you can't move it onto other devices you may own. This appears to include all content, not just games - ouch.

How is this news?

It was something known before the Japan release of the system almost a full year ago.

They announced all this in October 2008. You can't transfer money (points) between the Wii and DSi shop, and you can't transfer games from one DSi to another DSi. (Just like you can't transfer games from one Wii to another.) This is nothing new.

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evolutional Moderator - Alternative Game Libraries Member since: 1/25/2002 From: Leeds, West Yorkshire

Posted - 9/30/2009 4:26:42 PM

The thing I find most amusing is EDGE Games' attitude that THEY'RE now the defenders of the Indie Games community. Oh come on now.

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