Alright, I'm totally calling you out video game industry, I want someone to come up with a mode for Call of Duty or Half-Life or some PC shooter that makes this happen. Get to it.

Check out the video on the jump.

Steamworks is the online back-end used in both Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box.

"Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing."

"As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve. "Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners."

Now that most gamers are used to single services for online gaming in consoles, I suspect that's where we will be heading for PC gaming too. Currently there are almost a half-dozen or so back-ends including Live for Windows, Steam, GameSpy and others. Personally, I don't like GameSpy because it feels too intrusive to me, but I may be in the minority. If I had to pick a service today I'd go with Steam, but I probably don't play enough online PC games to really speak to the long-term support of the different services.

Here's what Steamworks will be giving away.

Steamworks offers:
• Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Log into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data.
• State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it's released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released.
• Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region.
• Auto updating: Insures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games.
• Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game.
• Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world.
• Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world's best professional and amateur players of your game.
• Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies.

Feel free to chime in on which service you think works the best.

Ubisoft confirmed today that they were at one time interesting in picking up Lara Croft publisher SCi, but are now totally over her the company and want nothing to do with purchasing it.

"Ubisoft has no intention to make an offer and will not make an offer on SCi." Ubisoft reps told Thompson Financial News. Ouch, sounds like someone got hurt.

Ubisoft Ends Interest in Acquiring SCi [Gamasutra]

The Playstation blog entry is a 13 question Q&A about the game and the upcoming E3. In it Ninja Theory co-founder Nina Kristensen talks up the game's storyline and distinctly artistic approach to over-the-top sword combat. A selection:

4. What do you think is the coolest aspect of this game? The super-style moves are the coolest. They're big and dramatic, you have to work quite hard to get them (especially the level 3 ones) and they completely annihilate the enemy. It's just so much fun. My personal fav is the one where you drag a guy massively up into the air, ride him back down, slam him into the floor, and while you're cart wheeling off him, a huge shockwave from his impact with the floor wipes out everyone else.

5. Describe it in five words or less.
Big Sword, Hot Girl!!

The IGN Heavenly Sword blog talks a bit more about play mechanics, in particular they break down and explain the different stances you can use in the game:

In play, your main weapon is the Heavenly Sword itself. It comes in three stances which you can switch between on the fly to create your own combos and fighting style.

Speed Stance has the sword split into two blades. It's fast, technical and has a lot of depth to it. It's good in one-on-one fights against skillful opponents but deeper combos hold the key to unlocking defenses and delivering massive damage.

Power Stance has the sword blades join to form one huge powerful sword. It's slow and powerful and great against tougher enemies or to break enemy defences.

Range Stance has the sword's blades extend from its handles with chains. It's the weakest of the three stances but it covers a large and wide area. It's great for taking out lots of enemies or knocking them into the air for follow-on aerial combos. It can also be used to sweep debris at enemies.

My indifference and concern over the game's progress is steadily decaying. I just hope they deliver at E3.

By: Brian Crecente

First things first: Mike Wilson wants you to know that he didn't take the money and run.

When he helped found Gathering of Developers back in 1998 he did it with money that came with some significant strings attached and those strings, he says, choked the life out of the company.

"We sold to Take-Two with a gun to our heads," he said in a recent phone chat. " It was more of a foreclosure."
While the absorption of Gathering of Developers by Take-Two and its slow death may seem like a footnote to the history of the game industry, it's important to note because Wilson promises that this time around that's not going to happen.

Gathering of Developers was founded with the idea of bucking the big name publishers, he said. The idea was to create a truly indie publishing system and leave the creative process and a good chunk of the money in the hands of the developers that made the games.

But that never really happened, instead of igniting a revolution in game publishing, they were more a flash in the pan, publishing a handful of notable new titles before vanishing.

Now with secret investors, a larger bankroll and a handful of developers backing him, Miller and Wilson are back to give it another go, this time as the head of the Gamecock Media Group.

"The industry is totally creatively starved right now and it we also have a bit of unfinished business," Wilson said. GOD president "Harry (Miller) and I felt we failed on that great crusade. It was heartbreaking to sell the company to Take-2 and we tried to make it work, but there was no way it was going to. We didn't have enough money to do it right and we didn't have the experience."

Wilson shrugs off the fact that so many gamers have forgotten who first published games like Max Payne and Serious Sam.

"Part of the reason we are calling this company Gamecock, other than to amuse me, is because I don't think gamers care who the publisher is, I don't think they should care," he said. "People don't have favorite record labels or book publishers."

Earlier this week Wilson and Miller announced that Gamecock is backing five games from a variety of developers, most notably Wideload, headed up by Bungie Founder Alexander Seropian.

"Wideload's business model centers around creating and owning new IP," Seropian told me today. "That's something pretty fundamental and that's part of Gamecock's strategy as well."

Seropian says it also helped that Wideload and Gathering of Developers were "bastard step-brothers", a bond forged from similar distribution deals Bungie and GOD had with Take-Two.

"That's how I know Mike," Seropian says.

Wilson says a big part of how he was able to land the likes of Wideload and Firefly Studios, the team behind Stronghold, was by asking them to work on their dream projects instead of sequels or safe bets.

"With several of these guys, the unifying thing was that they are working on the games that the developers really wanted to work on," he said. "They're their babies

"The Stronghold guys, those guys made megabucks and then heard we were back in business and came to us. They said we could do Stronghold 3 for us or they could do this original game they've been dying to do. I told them to do the one they want to do."

The developers are coming to Gamecock, Wilson says, because they industry is becoming increasingly risk averse. Many publishers would rather have a developer squeeze out a sequel then work on an original title.

"Even guys like Alex have to fight to get their games published."

Wilson says Seropian knew that Gamecock was coming and sat on his game, Hail to the Chimp, for about a year so he could sign it with them.

"They have a very similar model to us," Seropian says.

Both companies do the core work themselves but outsource the "dirty work."

Seropian points to Wideload's Hail to the Chimp, which Gamecock will be publishing, as a good example. They still only have a core team of 16 people working on it, but outside groups are doing some of the heavy lifting for them.

The same was true with their last game, Stubbs the Zombie.

In the press release Hail to the Chimp is described as a next-gen party game set in the animal world. Seropian declined to further detail it saying only that it will be easy to understand, be very funny and have broad appeal.

While he declined to say what console or consoles it might hit, he did say that he isn't adverse to distributing games through the Xbox 360's Live Arcade or Playstation 3's online store.

"I think we will digitally distribute stuff at some point," he said. "XBLA, and even look at something like iTunes, they are just these mammoth distribution channels."

Episodic content is also something Seropian is looking at. He says he likes the idea of being able to deliver a gaming experience that ends with a cliffhanger and then follows up quickly with the next episode.

And yes, Seropian says, there is a good chance Gamecock will be involved in future Wideload games.
While Gathering of Developers published computer games, Gamecock will focus mostly on console titles, Wilson said.

"The PC business, while we think it's going to enjoy a little resurgence, is clearly a shrinking business," he said. "Clearly console is where the market is. The pc is still a better platform and a richer experience, but it's just not as big a market anymore."

Wilson says he expects there will be a lot more interest in Gamecock and its indie approach to game publishing after the first games start to hit.

" I think more money will follow when we prove out this model," he said. "There is this perception out there that games cost $20 to $30 million to make, you can do that, but you don't have to."

"We believe indie developers out there will bring the most innovative stuff to the industry and we want to be the path of least resistance for those guys."

Mike Wilson, former CEO of GOD, and Harry Miller, former GOD president, have teamed up once more to form independent game publisher Gamecock Media Group.

You might not care about this, but you should. If it weren't for GOD we may not have ever seen games like Max Payne, Serious Sam, Stronghold, Railroad Tycoon II and Tropico.

Gamecock describes itself as a "well-funded, independent, artist-driven game publishing company, and is already looking to make friends in the game industry, which they describe as "bloated and originality-starved." The Austin-based company plans to publish games for the 360, Live Arcade, PS3, PSp, Wii, DS, PC and even DVD games.

"The major publishers have been focusing on safe bets - large budget games often attached to major licenses or sequels," said Mike Wilson, CEO of Gamecock. "This insufficient emphasis on the creation of original game properties has created major dissatisfaction among the industry's most talented game designers and has made the current system unpalatable. In other words, things are getting stale. We aim to change that."

Personally, I think this is just what the industry needs. GOD was formed back in 1998 and quickly shook up the industry with their eye potential smash hits and ability to blend gaming and pop culture. Sure their games based on Heavy Metal and Kiss may not have been well received, but they still managed to have 80 percent of their titles attain profitability.

The company was also well known for their wild E3 parties, which they conducted outside the halls of the big show in a nearby parking lot. The shows featured exotic dancers, the school-girl clothed GOD Girls and occasional appearance by Mini Kiss.

GOD died in 1999 when they were bought out by Take 2 and eventually rebranded 2K Games. Yes, 2K Games.

Straight out of the shoot, Gamecock already has lined up five games for publishing, including one by Wideload Games.

"These guys have a stellar track record and a reputation for producing innovative titles," said Alex Seropian, of Wideload Games. "Their ability to identify and develop new hit properties from new teams and then market them successfully worldwide is virtually unmatched."

Judging by Wilson's intro page for his new company, it sounds like Gamecock is going to shake things up in the industry as much as GOD Games did. Brian Crecente

Gamecock

Earlier this week it was revealed that there was some alleged cheating going on in Eve Online. The kicker was, the cheating was being credited to the game's development team. Yesterday, on EO's developer's blog, a dev known only as CCP t20 comes forth and admits that he/she was actually the perpetrator of the nefarious deed.

I'm here, laying out the facts of what happened in June 2006 so this whole issue — which jeopardized my colleagues, my company and our community — can be put behind us, I hope for the better.

The blueprints in question will be returned to CCP and reintroduced through a new raffle in the future. Specifically, these are:

* Flameburst Precision Light Missile Blueprint
* Phalanx Rage Rocket Blueprint
* Havoc Fury Heavy Missile Blueprint
* Bloodclaw Fury Light Missile Blueprint
* Spike L Blueprint
* Sabre Blueprint

Regrettably, my actions inevitably led to a shadow of suspicion being cast on a number of my co-workers, as well as Reikoku and Band of Brothers. I wish to make it clear that I acted alone and my co-workers and corp/alliance mates have been cleared of any alleged wrongdoing.

As much as this is a confession it is also a request for your forgiveness for events of which I'm truly sorry.

While I think it's great this guy came forward and cleared the names of his fellow colleagues and players, it really doesn't take a lot of balls to admit you're wrong when you don't have to print your real name. Flynn De Marco

on recent allegations [Eve Insider Dev Blog - Thanks, Doomstalk]

A little more than a half year after Take-Two shuttered Rockstar Vienna (formerly known as neo Software), the founders have announced that they are forming a new company.

Games That Matter Productions will pursue a "visionary game production business model."

14 years and 14 days after establishing Rockstar Vienna (formerly known as neo Software) Hannes Seifert, Niki Laber and J rgen Goeldner are proud to present their new company: Games That Matter Productions GmbH.

A new company with a visionary game production business model.

The press conference to announce the goals and business model of Games That Matter will take place on January 25th, 2007.

I hope that by "matters" they mean to something other than the bottom-line. It would be refreshing to see an experienced group of developers putting their efforts into making games that aren't about just better graphics and more money. Brian Crecente

Games That Matter [Via PlayThrough]

It appears the news we broke last week of Slamdance removing the Columbine game from their lists of finalists and why has created quite the shitstorm, for lack of a better word.

Ian Bogost reports over on Water Cooler Games growing list of reactions to the decision:

Kelee Santiago pulled Slamdance finalist and future PS3 title flOw from the competition in protest.

To hear that the game had been pulled was deeply discouraging. As a group, our opinions on the quality of the game itself range, but we can all agree on one thing: it deserved to be there.

We also agree that the act of pulling SCMRPG is one we cannot condone. But how best to protest this action? Going to the festival, at which prizes are awarded, only to criticize its organizers seemed unfair at best, and hypocritical at worst. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw flOw from the competition. We agree with Jonathan Blow:

Jonathan Blow, creator of finalist Braid, has also pulled his game from the competition.

The game lacks compassion, and I find the Artist's Statement disingenuous. But despite this, the game does have redeeming value. It does provoke important thoughts, and it does push the boundaries of what games are about. It is composed with more of an eye toward art than most games. Clearly, it belongs at the festival.

So, in protest of game's expulsion, I have dropped Braid out of the competition as well.

Raph Koster has spoken up on the subject.

Dismissing the game "on moral grounds" essentially argues that it is exploitative; yet we do not necessarily consider clearly issue-driven films or books as exploitative. Rather, the sensitivity of the subject seems to be what is pushing the needle here. Can games, which some allege caused Columbine, then comment on Columbine without being regarded as exploitative?

SCMRPG is no great shakes as a game in its own right. It doesn't even try to do something new on that front. Instead, it's incurring controversy based on artwork, content, and most importantly, the medium that it happens to be in. Were its RPG plot excised and written out as a book, would anyone raise an eyebrow? Probably not.

As has Slamdance Game Fest sponsor Greg Costikyan, of Manifesto Games. Costikyan, while continuing to support the fest, has created a permanent place for the game on Manifesto's site.

As gamers, and those who love games, our reponse to this game, and to the criticism of it, should not be to hide, or run away, or hope that it goes away. Instead it should be to say: You do not understand, nor are you attempting to understand. This is not a glamorization of the murderers, nor yet a trivialization of the tragedy; it is a work of serious artistic intent and accomplishment, based on considerable research, that in fact illuminates and reflects the horror of that day. Just as there are novels of the Holocaust, there can be a game of Columbine, and neither need trivialize a tragedy.

Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas, winners of last year's Slamdance Grand Jury Prize, have written an open letter to the festival, asking for the reinstatement of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

We give no judgment here about how successfully "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" addresses its topic. However we feel it is extremely important that the game community, including high-profile festivals such as Slamdance, support such experimentation. Games, as a medium, are as fully deserving and appropriate as film and other more established media forms, to deal with such subject matter.

And how can we forget Newsweek's N'Gai Croal.

This is a recipe for the continued infantilizing of a young medium whose potential, for all of the compelling works already released, still remains largely untapped. We haven't played Super Columbine Massacre RPG, but from what we've read, it strikes us as a fairly serious and well-intentioned attempt to grapple with the shootings and suicides through an interactive medium. And while we certainly recognize that many will see SCMRPG as ghoulish, offensive and trivializing of a horrific event, we reject the premise that it is inherently so—any more than Art Spiegelman's "Maus" or Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"—and any attempts to paint Ledonne's game as inherently so should be firmly and loudly repudiated. For those of us who care about the future of videogames, this is a time to stand up and be counted.

If you have any interest in gaming besides the playing of them, you must read all of these links. Seriously. Artistic expression in video games is the most important topic that will likely be faced by developers, perhaps ever. The fact that the game that seems to be bringing this topic to a head happens to be one that many find repugnant is incidental to the bigger issue here.

To be clear: This is not about SCMRPG. This is about whether video games will forever be relegated to the position of mindless entertainment and child's play or whether gaming as an industry can make that final leap into artistry, expression and tackle topics that evoke something more than fun.

This is why I finally decided to become a games journalist. I enjoy writing reviews, but what finally pushed me to make that leap from police reporting to features writing is the chance to be covering a medium at the cusp of becoming something so much greater. Brian Crecente

Update: Jan. 9
Three more finalists have dropped out of the festival. Bringing the the number of finalists no longer in the competition to five, six if you count SCMRPG, or nearly half.

Once Upon a Time withdraws from the finals.

"We are very saddened by the news of Super Columbine Massacre RPG being pulled from the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemakers competition due to loss of financial backing.
Regardless of the merit of SCMRPG being a finalist in the SGG competition, having chosen the game and then only removing it when pressured by outside influences brings the impartiality of the competition as a whole into question. Who is truly judging these games: the Slamdance judges or their financial backers?
We unfortunately feel that we cannot be part of a competition that does not rank artistic expression and free speech as priorities and would therefore like to withdraw our entry of Once Upon A Time from the competition.
We thank you for your support of our game and wish you continued success."

Finalist Toblo withdraws from festival.

We cannot condone removing Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from the Slamdance Festival on moral grounds. Along with the developers of Braid and flOw, we are pulling our game from the Slamdance Festival. In the unlikely event that Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is re-admitted to the festival, we would be happy to participate.

Fest finalist Everyday Shooter withdraws

As you may have heard, Peter Baxter, the president of Slamdance, decided to pull Super Columbine Masscare RPG! from the competition.

I do not agree with his decision. His action is part of a the ball and chain that continuously represses the games medium from advancing beyond superficial entertainment. Because the Slamdance games competition now carries the sharp undertones of this sad repression, I am withdrawing Everyday Shooter from the competition.

Grand Text Auto Publishes Letter of Protest from Finalists

We object to this decision and strongly urge the festival organizers to reinstate the game in the festival. It is legitimate for games to take on difficult topics and to challenge conventional ideas about what video games can do. No game should be rejected for moral or other reasons after a panel of judges has found the game to be of artistic merit and worthy of inclusion in the festival. We find it very unlikely that a similar decision would have been made about a jury-selected film, and see this decision as hurting the legitimacy of games as a form of expression, exploration, and experience.

Grumpy Gamer Calls for Finalists to Put Up or Shut Up

Apparently some people in the game industry are pretty upset by this, but my question is: Why haven't the other finalist pulled out in protest?

Seems like it's for one of two reasons:

#1 - They agree the game should have been pulled.
#2 - They don't want to lose the chance of winning the award to stand up for something they believe in.

Lastly, but not leastly, our formerly very own John Brownlee breaks down the argument for both sides and asks for help writing his Wired piece on the subject. Go... help.

It's bleak just to look at those questions: perhaps I'm too cynical, but for me, it's clear that the progression there signifies the complete death of art as a medium of deep personal expression.

I need your help. I'd like you guys to help me brainstorm and bring alternate perspectives to the table. Questions and viewpoints I haven't considered. Maybe you can try to answer some of the questions and give me a better idea on what people besides me think the logical progression is. The intention is that you guys will help me think about this n a wider and more three-dimensional complex, which will hopefully make my story at Wired News richer and better thought through.

What do you guys think? Hit our comments and let us know.

From the listing:

Requirements Recently shipped at least one AAA game in a producer role for one of these console platforms: Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, or GameCube.

Plusses
Localization experience on a shipped console title.
Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii production experience.

It's no surprise Blizzard is looking to develop next-gen titles, but it is a pleasant surprise to see that it will most likely be for all three consoles. Brian Crecente

Senior Producer [Blizzard, via Nintendo Revolution]

Someone is renting their game developement studio for 90 days on eBay. The Buy Now price is $200,000 USD, and makes you the head of this anonymous UK studio for about three months. All you have to do is come up with a game idea, and crack the whip to get your team to finish it in an unheard of time. Hey if Iwata can get Brain Age finished in a few months, why can't you get your dream game done in the same time?

Modern Savant believes the mystery developer is Tesseraction Games.

Your Own Personal Game Studio [Modern Savant]

Hyboreal Games announced its existence in the wake of the holiday. The company, formed by former Blizzard North and Diablo-team members Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura and Steven Woo, has yet to release any information on its current project (called Project Starfall on the official site). The pictured image is called "Starfall agent," but that really doesn't offer any good hints, does it?