Today it was announced that tickets for PAX East 2010 (in Boston, MA) are now on sale for early bird prices as follows:

Friday Only: $25 (Save $5)
Saturday Only: $25 (Save $5)
Sunday Only: $25 (Save $5)
3 Day Pass: $45 (Save $5)

The 3-Day pass is the way to go on this obviously — just get it done before December 31, 2009 when the early bird prices disappear. “At the door” prices are significantly more so plan ahead! Register here.

If there’s one thing that Peter Moore is good at it’s quotable quotes.  The “burning platform” as he calls disc-based media referred to in the headline is pretty awesome but the fact he follows it up with “do you stay on the platform and face certain death, or do you jump into the water and face probable death? Most of you would choose probable death.”

I love visual metaphors like this but, hey, Mr. Moore, why so much doom and gloom? Things change but that doesn’t mean it’s all about death! It doesn’t help much when he refers to digital distribution as a “cloud”, which any chest-beating English major will point at as a reference to Heaven. More death or the promise of better things in the next life? You can read that however you want. Here’s the full brief from GamesIndsutry.biz:

EA Sports president Peter Moore has compared the traditional videogames sales model to a sinking ship.

“The core business model of videogames is a burning platform,” said Moore, speaking at the 5th annual PLAY Digital Media Conference.

“Look at the platform we’re on, it’s a burning platform,” said Moore. “As a concept, do you stay on the platform and face certain death, or do you jump into the water and face probable death? Most of you would choose probable death, so you start moving towards a hybrid model of digital distribution.”

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The official Brodeo Reunion posters were exclusive to those that attended the panel at PAX but now you too can own this piece of CGW/GFW Radio “The Brodeo” memorabilia at the very reasonable price of $5.00(US).

Created by EGM contributor Bill Mudron, this poster features the cartoon likenesses of Jeff Green, Sean Molloy, Robert Ashley, Ryan Scott, and Shawn Elliott, all flanked by twin cudgels.

All profits will be donated to Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play Charity.

http://brodeo.storenvy.com/products

Thanks to Ben Cuzza for arranging this!

Rather than have many, many separate news entries, we’ll just lump all of today’s releases here:

• The Wizard of OZ: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road (DS) from XSEED
• Motorstorm: Arctic Edge (PSP) from SCEA
• Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga (Wii) from XSEED
• DECA Sports 2 (Wii) from Hudson Entertainment
• Beaterator (PSP) from Rockstar
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) from Square Enix

In a post on Double Fine’s Action News blog, Tim Schafer has noted the passing of 20 years in the gaming industry with notes and scribbles of his efforts to get into the games industry ‘lo those 20+ years ago.  Since being hired at LucasFilm’s games division, Tim has been involved in some of the most critically acclaimed games of the last 20 years including Day of the Tentacle, a few of the Monkey Island games, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and, what is surely to fall in the category as “best game since forever”, the upcoming Brutal Legend. Check the link for the full blog entry but here’s a preview (Tim’s cover letter to LucasFilm):

Gamepolitics has posted a quote from Capcom’s Ken Keiji Inafume (Dead Rising, Mega Man): “Japan is over. We’re done. Our game industry is finished.”

No doubt upper management at Capcom will have some comments of its own for Mr. Inafume.

There were a lot of people involved in bringing the GFW Radio Reunion together at PAX this year.  Though I was the guy that gave the boulder the first push down the hill, I still need to thank the folks at Reed Expos, particularly Khahil White and Bill Butler, for letting us use the room for free (and for way longer than originally planned); Ben Curran was instrumenntal in getting Bill Mudron involved in the creation of the awesome artwork and getting the posters printed for the event; and I also want to thank 1UP’s David Ellis for taking video of the whole event.  And, of course, thanks to all of those who were able to make it to the show!  It was a great night! NOTE: If you’re not familiar with GFW Radio, most of what you’ll see is completely alien (and occasionally, really gross) so consider yourself warned.

In case you missed it, video of the reunion is available from 1UP and it’s also available in a two-part podcast form on Geekbox.net.  Here are the quick links:

Part 1 of the Video:

Links to Part 2 and 3 of the video:

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26294

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/26293

Part 1 & 2 of the audio podcast (also available on iTunes and Zune Marketplace):

http://media.libsyn.com/media/geekbox/GeekboxRadio_Brodeo2009_part1.mp3

http://media.libsyn.com/media/geekbox/GeekboxRadio_Brodeo2009_part2.mp3

And in case you missed the downloadable artwork here’s that too.  It’s slightly different than the posters that were available at PAX.  The PAX poster features the Cudgel of Xanthor and will be available online sometime in the very near future:

1280×1058:

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3000×2480:

Why is Jade Raymond’s appointment as head of Ubisoft’s Toronto studio such a big deal? Probably because I can’t think of any other women that hold a position like that in the games industry. Congrats to Jade — we expect great things!

Montreal, Canada – August 31, 2009 – Ubisoft® announced today the appointment of Jade Raymond as head of its recently announced Toronto studio. Under the governance of Yannis Mallat, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft’s Montreal and Toronto Studios, Raymond will oversee day-to-day operations of the Toronto studio’s work on video game projects.

Raymond joined Ubisoft’s Montreal studio in 2004 as a Producer on Assassin’s Creed® and is currently Executive Producer on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed® II among other Ubisoft projects. Prior to Ubisoft, Raymond spent eight years on video game development for Electronic Arts, IBM and Sony Online.
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Bill Mudron has created a great piece of artwork to commemorate the CGW/GFW Radio Reunion at PAX, which will be available for download next week. More specifically, August 5, 2009 but we’re giving you a sneak preview right now:

PLEASE NOTE: Thanks to some hard work by Ben Cuzza, keepsake posters of the artwork will be available at PAX for approximately $2.00US.

Ever wondered what events transpired behind the scenes to make the GFW Radio “The Brodeo” Reunion at PAX happen? Well, at least one person did. Andrew Hiscock, frequent contributor to Bitmob, recently conducted an email interview with me about the inspiration behind the vision, the donation drive, PAX stepping in with a free room, and even some comments on the legacy of GFW Radio.

Just a teaser:

“The donation drive got underway just fine — more than $1,200 was donated in a few days — but then PAX stepped in and offered the room for nothing. It turns out there are GFW Radio fans in positions of power at Penny Arcade and the company that, as far as I understand, organizes PAX, Reed Exhibitions.

That was like my own personal Field of Dreams moment. Well, minus Kevin Costner. It was that whole feeling of, “If you build it, they will come.” Everything was falling into place.

And really it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Fans of GFW Radio include people that sent socks to Jeff Green and hooked him up with a Wii or sent copious amounts of candy to Shawn Elliott (a phenomenon I will take credit for initiating).”

The full interview can be found
here.

With much contraction happening in the game industry, it’s always good news when companies announce expansion. This time it’s Ubisoft, on-track to open a studio in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) in late 2009 — the third Canadian studio for the company. It’s “expected to result in the creation of 800 net new jobs within the province over the next decade. The government of Ontario is investing CA$263 million over ten years in the company and Ubisoft’s net investment will be over half a billion CAD in the new studio, which will begin operations in late 2009.”

Here’s more from the official release:

“Today’s announcement marks a strategic move for Ubisoft as we continue to expand our internal development force,” said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “We are in an excellent position to grow and after extensive analysis we are thrilled to have reached an agreement with the government of Ontario to found our new studio in Toronto. The city is one of North America’s economic and cultural epicenters and our expectations are high. We’re excited to be able to count on the exceptional local talent, who will contribute to our accelerated growth and will have a profound impact on the video game industry with the excellence of their creativity.”

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Current Creative Director at Hothead Games right here in Vancouver and games industry legend, Ron Gilbert has been announced as the keynote speaker at PAX 2009 (Sept. 4-6 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center).

Legendary storyteller, game designer, programmer and producer Ron Gilbert has created countless classic video games, including the seminal LucasArts works Maniac Mansion and first two installments in the Monkey Island adventure series. His more than 20-year career in the games industry encompasses co-founding three game studios, creating the famous SCUMM scripting language and being inducted into the Computer Game Hall of Fame. He is currently creative director at independent development studio Hothead Games in Vancouver, Canada.

“This is an unbelievable moment for us,” commented Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo. “I wasted an entire family vacation one year trying to figure out how to win that stupid spitting competition.” Gilbert joins an illustrious group of past PAX keynote speakers, including noted geek icon Wil Wheaton and innovative game designer Ken Levine.

And the press release also offers a quick synopsis of what will be happening at PAX, which will include the GFW Radio “The Brodeo” Reunion LIVE!

In addition to the highly anticipated keynote address, numerous panels and game demonstrations, Omegathon and The PAX 10 independent games showcase, PAX 2009 will offer attendees an unparalleled musical experience with performances from Freezepop, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, Anamanaguchi and Metroid Metal. As if all of this weren’t enough, PAX organizers further confirmed that this year’s Exhibition Hall is down to its final availability.

This information has been running in limited circles the last few days so I thought I’d make a news post.

It has been “tentatively confirmed” by the folks at PAX (and partner Reed Expos) that the GFW Radio “The Brodeo” Reunion is booked in the Raven Theater on September 5, 2009 (starting at 8:30PM and running until 9:30-ish) at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. The capacity of the room is 350 people, which could mean one of two things: there could be plenty of empty seats or get there early because seating is limited. Hopefully, it’s the latter.

In what can only be called a miracle along the lines of dogs suddenly learning to drive, our News section has been updated to WordPress 2.8. This means we’ve re-opened the ability for registered members to post comments! So, comment away!

Over the last number of years, We’ve toyed with producing an official Armchair Empire podcast, but we’ve never really had the equipment to do so, especially for the kind of show that I’d want to produce — lots of “on the spot” interviews and reactions.  But with the recent release of the Samson Zoom R16 Portable 16-Track Recorder there could be an AE podcast on the horizon. For $399US, the price is certainly reasonable and with the kind of whiz-bang tech included a podcast wouldn’t sound like we were talking through combs while sitting at the bottom of an oil well. Continue reading for more details. (more…)