At the ongoing GDC event, Rob Pardo of World of Warcraft studio Blizzard has confirmed that they are in talks with Microsoft over the next iteration of the Xbox console. He also suggests that Blizzard may be vying for a more RTS-friendly console.

Details after the link.

Well it's about time we heard more on Deus Ex 3. For those who are worrying for the third installment of the controversial series, put your minds at ease: the creators of the original game gave Deus Ex 3 their blessings. The latest issue of PC Zone reveals details on the game's story, protagonist, and gameplay. Details after the link.

Disney recently announced that it has officially acquired the fifth studio under its portfolio in the form of Junction Point, which was founded by industry veteran Warren Spector.

Under the deal, the creative minds at Junction Point will be developing next-generation titles starring Disney franchise stalwarts. No titles have been revealed  so far but plans for development are underway.

Disney Interactive's Executive VP Graham Hopper regards Spector as a visionary in gaming and comments "Warren Spector’s unique talents as a leading creative force in the world of video games, his knowledge and passion for Disney, and his legacy of story telling and character development adds a unique creative dimension to our portfolio."

Spector, on the other hand, expresses his elation with the deal and admits that being a big Disney fan helped sweeten the deal. "I believe that the creative talents of our two companies and our shared ambition to bring distinctive, compelling experiences to gamers make this an ideal alliance," he says.

Based from a new intellectual property of Warren Spector, the new movie conceptualized as "Ninja Gold" will be directed by action film director John Woo. In addition, Woo's production assistant, Terrence Chang, also mentioned that they were thinking about bringing Stranglehold to the big screen.

 

The game concept of Ninja Gold is based on actual facts happening today. It revolves around the control and theft of South African gold by the Japanese Yakuza and the Russian Mafia. Warren Spector, creator of games such as Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows and the more phenomenal System Shock, admitted that it was Woo's hope to create a movie about ninjas in a modern setting that spurred the idea of Ninja Gold.

"The idea just resonated with me. I was intrigued with the idea of what happens when the traditional and the contemporary come into conflict," said Spector. Woo already has involved himself in the selection of the cast for the movie, and Spector noted that his choices required minimal assistance from the game developers.

Normally movies based off from games often don't do well in the eyes of fans, but Spector and Woo's new approach to game and movie production takes a step sideways from the common practice. "I know that my thought from the start was to develop something that would work just as well in games as in movies, and I know John was thinking along the same lines," explained Spector.

In essence, the concept for Ninja Gold took into mind the facets and qualities of both game development and movie making, while considering the option to produce both media products simultaneously. "That's something new for games - and for movies," said Spector.

Woo has already had primary game development experience with John Woo's Stranglehold (for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), which is based off from his popular action flick "Hard-Boiled" starring Chow Yun-Fat. He has been intimately involved in the motion capture process and happened to even create his own game studio, dubbed Tiger Hill Games.

But that's not all. According to Chang, there's a possibility that Stranglehold may hit the cinema nearest you - after the game launches. Chang commented:

We would definitely bring Stranglehold to the big screen. We want to be very selective about producing games. We would like game titles to have all kinds of possibility. Having a movie made from them is certainly a major consideration for deciding on a title.

 

In an effort to revive the franchise that originated on the PC, 40-man strong Eidos Montreal studio will go straight to work on a new title for Deus Ex  by September as speculated by blog Le Nirvana Du Joueur. Unfortunately, this information only came from Eidos France's general manager Patrick Melchior, who spilled this revelation in an interview on MusiquePlus.

Combining elements of the age-old action and RPG in the early years of the PC, Deus Ex was one of the games that Ion Storm actually did right - in the most significant way. The original Deus Ex was succeeded by equally great Deus Ex: Invisible War, but its creator Warren Spector and Ion Storm never added a new installment to the franchise due to less than stellar sales.

After Ion Storm left and Warren Spector jumped ship to Junction Point, the feeling that Deus Ex was laid to rest finally sunk in and Eidos kept quiet about it. The last news about Deus Ex was when both titles became available on Valve's Steam. But now Melchior claims that fans of the franchise will be able to learn more about the new title in the coming months.

Apparently there were no other details spilled on the new installment, so we are unsure as to which platform the game will be targeted for. We've flagged this game on the next-generation consoles and the granddaddy PC, but this is subject to change in the coming months as more details are revealed.

CNET News reports that Stanford University Libraries">Henry Lowood, curator of the Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University Libraries have in their collection 25,000 plus videogames. The said curator is also in charge of archiving the electronic gems.

The 25,000 games originally belonged to former Stanford student Steven Cabernetti who passed away recently. What's noteworthy about this collection is that most of the titles are still in their original shrink-wrap. The games were gifted to the Stanford Library for use in their history of science and technology collections.

Henry Lowood, together with game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky and academic researcher Matteo Bittanti and journalist Christopher Grant also came up with a list of the ten most important games of all time. The chronological list has been submitted for review and potential permanent preservation to the U.S. Library of Congress.

The ten games are: Spacewar (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), the Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

CNET has a video report of the Stanford University Library collection and can be viewed via our "read" link below.

Despite recent reports to the contrary, it looks like the Vivendi-Junction Point deal isn't true at all. Former ION Storm stalwart and current Junction Point president Warren Spector has just categorically denied reports that the World of Warcraft publisher, Vivendi, has signed one of Junction Point's to-be-revealed titles.

"Well, don't believe everything you read," said Spector in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz at GDC in San Francisco last week. "If you want a scoop, that actually is not true. I'm not exactly sure where that came from. So you're the first person to hear that."

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Spector apparently told Game Developer magazine just before the GDC that, "You don't want to know how many projects I've been told to 'just go make a shooter'. I had one publisher tell me 'you're not allowed to say 'story' any more'. Luckily Vivendi seems to get it." Many sites apparently got the wrong idea and proclaimed the news that Vivendi had signed a Junction Point game.

Junction Point is currently working on at least two major titles, both of which remain unannounced. Spector does note that a big announcement will be made sometime soon, but specifics are still unclear.

 

Warren Spector of Thief and Deus Ex fame delivered an hour long address at GDC 2007 criticizing the state of storytelling in today's videogames.

His address, entitled "The future of Storytelling in Next-Generation Game Development – repeatedly emphasized how compelling, player-driven narratives are key to reeling in those who make up the sizable "non-gaming" population.

Spector stated that he was less than impressed with linear narrative models in games, and though he does truly enjoy games with linear narrative, he says that he feels that it has to go, even though he admits that it won't. He emphasized that a shared authorship model – where developers give players limited freedom - could be best. Examples of the shared authorship model include games like Grand Theft Auto.  Bottomline: he wants more player involvement in today's video game's story lines.

Some of us here at QJ agree with this. For one thing, multiple game endings as a standard instead of a bonus would be nice. What else would all the extra space in next-gen formats be for?

Spector also takes time to note that creating more believable characters, and not just prettier character graphics and designs should also be a goal for next-gen games. He cites the characters from Indigo Prophecy, Final Fantasy XII, Mass Effect, and the lovable Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2.

Spector urged video game developers to "Tell stories with players," to let them have part in the creation experience, and to push storytelling forward. Spector explains: "How can we be satisfied with just letting players jump from cover point to cover point so they can kill somebody. ...How can we settle for that?"

He also goes on to say:

The best way to do this is to get over yourselves. It doesn't matter how cool or creative you are--don't tell your story, work with players to tell our story. Let players off the rails. And let them explore the inner life of their characters

...If you think that story has no place in games, you're crazy. If you think story is everything in games, you're just as crazy. It's all about balance.

 

The GDC 2007 is proving to be a veritable gaming who's-who, with Miyamoto recently announced to hold the keynotes speech. And if that isn't enough, the GDC has just announced another line-up of high-profile developers making their presence known for this March 5 event.

• First up is Warren Spector, who will be delivering his lecture "The Future of Storytelling In Next-Generation Game Development." The lecture will be tackling the implications that next-gen technology have for interactive storytelling.
• For the PC and Xbox 360 scene, Remedy Entertainment's Lasse Seppänen will be presenting  "The Future of Innovative Studios: Team and Tools Behind Alan Wake." Insomniacs may want to look at this one.
• For PS3 fans, we have Evolution Studios' Scott Kirkland with "Programming Applied Physics: MotorStorm." The lecture is aimed to explain physics effects in their title, such as deformable terrain and destruction effects - they're noted to be especially good with the latter.
• Electronic Arts' Robin Hunicke will also be joining the lectures, with a segment titled "Big Results: Redefining a PC franchise for Nintendo Wii," which will be examining The Sims franchise's past incarnations, as compared to its transition to the Nintendo Wii.
• Also to be expected to be there are Mark Healey and Alex Evans, with the lecture "The First Year Of Media Molecule," and former Microsoft Microsoft and Infinium exec Kevin Bachus with "Adventures in Fundraising: Lessons Learned on the Cutting Edge of Capital."

Make sure to catch up on the other developers offering their two-cents in this major event going down in San Francisco.