Video Games’ Team Coco Moment [Feature]

Billions of dollars? Got it. ” Astonishing arrogance and unbridled greed “? Alleged. Video games are so close to being Hollywood, that we must celebrate a breakthrough: A possibly boring contract dispute that could be as juicy as Leno vs. Conan. We’ve got an executive that the Internet fans love to hate . We’ve got not one, but two top creative guys kicked out of a job that they seemed to be doing well. The analogy fractures if we add that these two men, Jason West and Vince Zampella, are more successful in their field than Conan ever was. They crushed more competition than Leno. They have run a development studio called Infinity Ward that just created the other billion-dollar entertainment spectacle of the fall , Modern Warfare 2. That’s the one without the blue cat aliens; it’s the single-player and multiplayer game of war loved and played by millions on Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s day after day, the game Ice-T loves and the one that had a midnight launch attended by James Gandolfini, who just stopped by to see if he could grab a copy for his son. You’d think they would be the kings of the world after creating a game like that or even guests on somebody’s Tonight Show. No, they were fired on Monday. Given that they were fired — given that games are supposedly an enormous cultural force — then you might expect an Internet uprising. Changed photos in your Facebook feed. Virtual pep rallies in Twitter. If video games were as huge as the video game people say they are, you’d expect the entertainment world to be buzzing that two more Conan-like nice guys whose work is loved by 18-34-year-olds got (allegedly) screwed by a big corporation. Shoved aside after a job seemingly well done. Replaced by some interloper who will sit in their chair, behind their desk, handling their coffee mug and entertaining their audience. ” Insubordination ” the company says, but not yet making public any insubordinate acts. For at least 10 years, maybe 20, video games have been on a quest for Hollywood-level respect. The millions in sales and the billions of dollars have helped the entertainment world’s little brother get some proper credit. But the whole effort’s been a little weird, because the gaming world doesn’t play out the way the rest of the entertainment world does. Take the sex scandals. They don’t involve anyone sleeping with anyone. They involve where there are naked bodies in a game a kid might play. The awards shows get red carpets full of people People wouldn’t recognize or Kiefer Sutherland accepting his award for voice-acting in a game, complaining about how dreary the work was. Games are still figuring out how to be big-Hollywood. Maybe this week’s events can help, if we can just frame them right. Attempt: Bobby Kotick is Jeff Zucker, the guy who brought Leno back and let Conan walk. Well, Kotick is the Darth Vader even, though, he recently said that, despite saying he wanted to take fun out of game-making, he thought of himself as Luke Skywalker . Kotick’s company bought Zampella and West’s Infinity Ward about a decade ago. The two developers had already brought Steven Spielberg’s World War II video game series Medal of Honor series to dominance with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Then, for Kotick’s Activision, they and their team created a Medal of Honor competitor, Call of Duty, and beat their old series. Their second Call of Duty trumped the first. Activision let a different one of its studios make the third Call of Duty. West and Zampella’s made the fourth, a phenomenon that sold 13 million copies. The next events in this saga would be contract stuff and rivalry . Itching to make something of their own, West and Zampella carved out an agreement with parent company Activision, one of those oddly specific deals like giving somebody the Tonight Show in five years. Their understanding , written out for the lawyers, wasn’t public, but this week’s lawsuit described an arrangement that permitted only West and Zampella’s team at Infinity Ward make a Call of Duty set after Vietnam. And, according to a lawsuit, it would entitle West and Zampella creative freedom, say-so over the Modern Warfare branch of Call of Duty games and royalties. The ousting of these guys would be the thing that make fans rally, but only if fans knew who Jason West and Vince Zampella are. They are extraordinarily successful game developers with a typical game developer trait: Their presence in the public spotlight is only slightly more pronounced than J.D. Salinger’s. They and the rest of their studio refrained from press attention, even in the fall when TV news stations became interested in their last game letting players, as an undercover CIA officer, participate in a terrorist act. West and Zampella are out. Infinity Ward has a new boss. And Call of Duty continues to have other people in the kitchen Infinity Ward and Activision built: a new Activision studio called Sledgehamer and an old one called Treyarch. The latter had been making Call of Duty games during Infinity Ward’s off years — it takes two years to make a Call of Duty game — and Infinity Ward’s feelings about someone else working their stove were poorly masked . When Conan got the offer he could refuse, to move his Tonight Show to midnight, he became a brighter pop culture star and the most widely-supported unemployed millionaire of the current recession. The firing of West and Zampella, the dismissal of the top two men from the top series in video games today, has caused smaller ripples. It’s big news, but not pop culture buzz. The NBC suits may have been right about Conan. Leno was back this week, beating Letterman just as he did when he left. Conan’s on Twitter joking about French Fries. But Conan fans can at least rest assured that those NBC suits felt some heat. West and Zampella don’t have many people Tweeting their names or even knowing them. Their studio, Infinity Ward, is in transition under new leadership. And Call of Duty soldiers forward. With this one there may not even be a change in quality. It’s too early to say and therefore too early for Modern Warfare fans to panic. But if there’s a time to protest, this is it. If there’s a time for video games to prove they are big enough that even their scandals and contractual disputes can generate buzz, that is now. We might not have even figured who the bad guy is yet. Perhaps Darth Vader really is Luke. Perhaps the “insubordination” was indefensible. But are Zampella and West the new Conan? Check Twitter. [West and Zampella PIC ] [Team Coco modified image by Kotaku]

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Video Games’ Team Coco Moment [Feature]

Footballers Pray For Heavy Rain [Europe]

Over the weekend, French football powerhouse Olympique Lyon gave opponents Sochaux a serve, whupping them 4-0. And they did so with a little help from a certain PlayStation 3 exclusive. The latest craze in football sponsorship in Europe is the “one-off”, where instead of sponsoring a team for an entire season, a company or organisation has its name on a jersey for just a single match. We’ve seen a video game do this before . But that was a football game. Makes sense. This is for Heavy Rain, a narrative-heavy crime thriller with a side serve of boobs. Doesn’t seem like it’s as good a fit, but Lyon are French . And Heavy Rain creator David Cage is also French. So it makes more sense than you’d think. [Thanks Ilker!]

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Footballers Pray For Heavy Rain [Europe]

Nintendo Reminds Us DSi XL Makes Games XL [Clips]

After a slow pitch to the old people, Nintendo has launched a new DSi LL (XL in the West) ad campaign in Japan. This one’s for the gamers. The voice-over says, “Because the screen is big, Dragon Quest is big. Final Fantasy is big. Mario is big. Love Plus is big. Zelda is big.” And the ad also points out that the big DSi comes with a big touch pen and pre-installed software. The interesting thing about this ad isn’t that it’s a DSi XL commercial (the advert itself is dull and not clever like this French poster ), but that Konami’s Love Plus romance simulator continues to worm its way into the mainstream Japanese zeitgeist.

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Nintendo Reminds Us DSi XL Makes Games XL [Clips]

The Search For The Video Game Auteurs [Feature]

As with movies, big time video games need huge numbers of people. Hundreds of developers toil away on AAA titles. With all those hands in the development of a game, is it possible to pin the title to a single author like critics have for films? Traditionally, film producers and directors get their names at the end of the opening credits. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that a group of film critics and later New Wave directors like Fran

Project Natal Meets Superman (Well…Superman’s Supporting Cast) [Clips]

In case you missed it – and let’s face it, you probably did – over the weekend, Microsoft decided that the perfect place to promote Project Natal was…on TV show Smallville. Here it is, complete with French subtitles, which make it look a lot sexier than it actually is. What’s best about it is not the French; it’s the way the whole segment avoids subtlety to such an extent Microsoft would have been better off just screening a proper Natal commercial during the ad break instead. [thanks everyone!]

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Project Natal Meets Superman (Well…Superman’s Supporting Cast) [Clips]

How Many Game Logos Can You Spot In This Oscar Nominated Short? [Clips]

Animated short film Logorama is the intertwining story of the Michelin men police taking down Ronald McDonald while two Pringles logos hit on a curvaceous Esso oil mascot. With some 2500 logos, which game companies make cameos? On my first viewing, I spotted some of the more obvious, including Sega, Nintendo (three appearances), Xbox and EA Games. While actively looking, I noticed the Street Fighter II logo, plus, oddly enough, the Guerrilla Games logo. A handful of others, like Coleco and Bandai, are arguably valid spottings. This Oscar nominated animated short from French design collective H5 is amazing, definitely worth the watch if you don’t mind the NSFW language and fast food mascot on fast food mascot violence. Logorama has been making the film festival rounds for a while now, but you can watch it in its entirety online . A trailer is below, with a link to watch the full thing on Facebook . Logorama [Facebook]

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How Many Game Logos Can You Spot In This Oscar Nominated Short? [Clips]

Seven More Screens to Showcase the Pageantry of the World Cup [Sports]

EA Sports released another seven screenshots of its upcoming FIFA World Cup 2010, offering a look at the Italian, Spanish and American sides, and some wacky French fans. French fans. That’s not a glitch, just some confetti floating across their faces. Italy and Spain walk on to the pitch. The Italian and Spanish sides are introduced. Italy are the defending world champions. Forza Italia! The Americans are grouped with England. England’s looking for its first World Cup victory over the United States since an embarrassing 1-nil defeat in 1950, the only time the two nations have met in this tournament.

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Seven More Screens to Showcase the Pageantry of the World Cup [Sports]

2010 Music, 1992 Graphics [Clips]

French electronic artist Danger’s upcoming EP, titled “09/17 2007″, will be out later this month. To tease it, he’s using 16-bit-themed game intros. Which are amazing . Makes you wish developers (*cough* Capcom *cough* ) would leave the 80’s 8-bit stuff be, and get their hands dirty on some 16-bit homages. Like a new-old Streets of Rage. Or, better yet, a new Skitchin’. [via Tiny Cartridge ]

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2010 Music, 1992 Graphics [Clips]

Heavy Rain DLC Puts You In The Shoes Of A Killer [PS3]

Speaking with French site gameblog, Heavy Rain creator David Cage has revealed just what you’ll be getting up to as part of the game’s downloadable “Chronicles” episodes. Running for around an hour in total, one of them will see you playing the part of the Origami Killer, a key character from the main game. Another will put you in the shoes of FBI agent Norman Jayden in a prequel tale, while a third will focus on photographer Madison Paige. Note, these aren’t all the episodes that will comprise the game’s DLC; just some of them. Heavy Rain : le tueur aux origamis jouable en DLC ! [gameblog, via Eurogamer ]

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Heavy Rain DLC Puts You In The Shoes Of A Killer [PS3]

Heavy Rain Stars In European Console Bundle [PS3]

Looks like Europe isn’t just getting a collector’s edition of PS3 adventure Heavy Rain ; the Old World will also be seeing some hardware bundles, in which the game is packed in with a 250GB PlayStation 3 console. A listing, complete with box art, has appeared on Amazon’s French portal. That pic up there is it. We’d be very surprised, however, if this was a France-only deal. The bundle is priced at €350 (USD$500), with a release date of February 23. Of added interest is the fact Amazon France also has listings for God of War III and MAG bundles, though since those are lacking box art, they may simply be Amazon-specific offers. [via PlayStation Liefstyle ]

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Heavy Rain Stars In European Console Bundle [PS3]

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