CGI Archive

After being revealed earlier today, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling made an appearance on Major Nelson's weekly podcast earlier this evening to discuss the upcoming Stimulus map pack. On it, Bowling confirmed that the pack will be comprised of five maps (three new maps and two "slightly reworked" maps from Call of Duty 4) and also announced the price: 1,200 Microsoft Points, or $15. That's right, the map pack will actually cost one quarter of the game's price itself. The Battlefield guys are going to have a field day with this.

You could argue that the map pack being just $5 more than the price that most people were expecting (800 points) isn't really that big of a deal. But Activision and CEO Bobby Kotick have continued to amass a reputation as a company that cares about nothing more than money, and this decision isn't going to help that perception one bit.

Will you be buying the maps when they're released in just over two weeks? If not, is it because of the price or other reasons? Let us know in the comments.

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At the Game Developers Conference, which just wrapped up yesterday, many attendees wondered about one of the final sessions held at the show. Little was known about it, except its title, "Metaphysics of Game Design," and its speaker, someone called "Phaedrus."

It turned out that the mysterious session was being headed by none other than SimCity and Spore creator Will Wright.

"I am not Phaedrus," Wright said, as he made his way to center stage amid thunderous applause. He said that the reason the panel was under a pseudonym was because he wasn't entirely sure he could attend the conference.

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When a small studio is shut down by their big publishers, it's easy to jump to a reactionary conclusion that the big publishers are to blame. But speaking at the Game Developers Conference (via Eurogamer), staffers from two recently shut-down studios didn't blame their owners -- they blamed themselves.

Paul Bettner, who worked at Ensemble Studios for 12 years before it was shut down by Microsoft in 2008, blamed their own internal "crunch culture" on the studio's demise. "The reality is that every single game we shipped took twice as long as we said it was going to take, and cost twice as much to make," Bettner said. "Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive."

Part of the problem, Bettner explained, was that a culture grew in Ensemble where "everyone was a workaholic" and "addicted" to repeated successes with the Age of Empires series, leading to high project costs and poor quality of life for employees. And, he argued, it's a problem that's industry-wide: "This is a horrible vicious cycle. We burn out all our best people. We destroy these precious artists, we wreck their families and we sacrifice their youth. So they leave, and they take all their experience with them," he said.

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Thanks to an early posting on the Xbox Live Marketplace website (via Joystiq), we now know what to expect from the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 DLC add-on, apparently called "Stimulus Package." The DLC will add five maps, but only three are actually brand-new -- the other two are returning favorites from the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The returning maps are Crash (you know, the one clearly inspired by Black Hawk Down), and Overgrown -- no doubt two of the most popular maps from the first game. The new maps, according to the description of the map-pack, include Bailout, "a multi-level apartment complex;" Storm, "an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery;" and Salvage, "a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars."

Infinity Ward has announced the Stimulus Package is set for release on March 30 on XBLM, but no PS3 or PC dates have been announced yet, nor has a price been set.

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After being unceremoniously fired by Activision last week (and responding with a lawsuit alleging breach of contract), what's next for now-former Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West? To find that out now, you might have to have your people call their people. The LA Times reports Zampella and West have signed on with Creative Artist Agency, the biggest talent agency in Hollywood.

To be sure, high-profile developers joining with a Hollywood talent agency is an unusual development. Whereas agents and managers work to negotiate deals between studios and talent in the film and television industry, the gaming industry is, as you surely know, drastically different: Developers almost always are full-time hires with a studio and have no representation.

As such, this is a fascinating move for Zampella and West and also demonstrates just how serious Hollywood takes the gaming industry these days (as if the countless questionable video game film adaptations in recent years didn't demonstrate that enough). Will it open the way to revolutionize how the industry works with talent agents representing every developer in the biz? Maybe not, but if you were just responsible for making a billion-dollar-grossing game and find yourself looking for a new home, having an agent sure couldn't hurt.

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