Here at Level Up, our inbox is chock full of press releases, PR pitches, notes from my editors, a fan mail or two, and the occasional bit of Viagra spam that slips through our email filters. But every so often, something genuinely compelling comes across the transom--so compelling, in fact, that we have no choice to share it with you. In February, we appeared on the G4TV show X-Play to discuss Electronic Arts' bid to acquire Take-Two. A viewer of the program, Justin Blankenship, is also a regular reader of Level Up, and he wrote us to share his thoughts about the deal. His words were sufficiently compelling that we asked him to shape them into a formal post, which we present to you following our introduction.

What made Blankenship's opinions particularly intriguing is that from Fall 2001 until early 2004 he was employed as a lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. More specifically, he worked in the Mergers 2 division, which reviewed mergers in the chemical, technology, and entertainment fields for potential violations of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, in search of potential anti-competitive concerns that would hurt consumers. So as part of his division's jurisdiction, Blankenship examined similar mergers while at the FTC, and in his email to us, he expressed his opinion that the FTC would take a hard look at the EA Sports/2K Sports part of this deal for antitrust reasons. " Although you've yet to see antitrust law rear its head in a videogame merger, this is the best case I've seen where it could happen," Blankenship says below. Read on to find out why EA could have more problems on its hands than just Take-Two's wily CEO Strauss Zelnick and the merry band of arbitrageurs holding out for a higher sale price.

There seems to be a lot of chatter in the videogame industry about the inevitability of Electronic Arts' takeover of Take-Two. Although EA's offer may eventually prove too lucrative for Take-Two to pass up, I wouldn't assume that this deal will get a rubber stamp from government antitrust regulators. I'm specifically referring to comments by Wedbush's Michael Pachter, who stated: "Currently [EA and Take-Two] compete in pro basketball, college basketball and hockey. So by taking out all of that, EA has a monopoly in sports. If these guys have a monopoly, they're not going to cut pricing on sports games as quickly. We've been seeing sports games come down [in price] before Christmas the last couple of years. That'll never happen again."

Until 2004, I worked in a division of the FTC that spent a lot of time looking at technology-related mergers, and had at least taken a good look at mergers like this one. I also have every reason to suspect that my former colleagues would give this deal a hard look, especially in light of Mr. Pachter's comments, of which I'm sure they're aware.

Section 7 of the Clayton Act forbids the acquisition of stock or assets when "the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly." (15 U.S.C. § 18) This case, like most merger cases in antitrust, would likely be resolved by the definition of the market (anyone interested in the details of this analysis can refer to the Joint DOJ/FTC 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines). If a given market is defined narrowly, it means there are fewer competitors, and concentration levels are consequently likely to be much higher. In a broader market, more competitors are included, concentration levels are lower, and competitive issues are far less likely.

 Zoonami CEO and founder Martin Hollis at the 2008 Game Developers Conference 2008 

One of the great things about the Game Developers Conference is that you never know who you'll run into. As we hung around the conference room following Dylan Cuthbert's illuminating talk about the methodology behind his PixelJunk series of games for Playstation Network, we spotted none other than Martin Hollis, director and producer of the classic Nintendo 64 shooter GoldenEye 007. Hollis, who after leaving Rare went on to found a new development studio named Zoonami, was kind enough to chat with us for a few moments. We asked him what he thought of the current state of videogames, and he replied that the last three-quarters of 2007 and early 2008 represented a Golden Age of gaming, led by BioShock and Portal. Prior to that, the pioneer of great console first-person shooters confessed that he'd been suffering from FPS burnout.

After that bit of small talk, we went in for the kill: what was Hollis himself up to next? Because while the smaller, more casual games that Zoonami has been developing are all well and good--Zendoku, Go! Puzzle and the as-yet-unreleased Funkydilla--what GoldenEye and Perfect Dark fans really want to know is if he'll ever swing for the fences again. Smiling, he said that 2007's bumper crop had reawakened his interest in making games that require big teams. But he added that we should not take that statement to mean that he was in fact working on a big team game. Nor could he tell us what he was working on. Could he, we wondered, tell us when he'd be able to tell us what he was working on? He thought about it for a second, then said that even if he knew when he could tell us what he was working on, he wouldn't be able to tell me that either. Faced with Hollis' unyielding secrecy, we gave up and said, "It seems as though you're going back to your 00 roots." At that, he laughed, and our entertaining but fruitless conversation came to a close.

1. BON...us Round's panel of talking heads takes on GTA IV
2. Wii...Live by the mainstream, die by the mainstream
3. PAR...amount gets interactive, plus a cheat sheet for studios and games
4. ROB...ots and NPC AI have more in common than you think
5. ADS...In-game advertising: bane or boon? The debate still burns
6. RND...Is Yelle the French answer to M.I.A.? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

1. PRE...fix: what kind of "core" gamer are you? Hard? Soft? Retro?
2. DON...t hate the scribe, hate the game: The Great Writer War of 2008, cont'd
3. GGG...G-Unit! MTV hits mean streets of Farmingdale, CT to parlay with Fitty
4. ARI...stotle's Poetics as applied to Super Mario Bros? It's all Greek to us
5. RND...Cooper "Mass Effect" Lawrence on dumping guys who game too much
6. RND...Nerds of steel, or, washboard abs are a dish best served cold
7. RND...The mixtape is dead. Long live the Muxtape

1. EGO...trip: another week, another panel seeks the Level Up staff's participation
2. EGO...trip: our first Vs. Mode entry on Patapon wins over blogger. Formidable!
3. BAD...for you? Report may bring "cigarette-style" health warnings to games in U.K.
4. COU...ld the Wii's success herald the last hurrah for bleeding edge consoles?
   
5. PSN...suffers security breach. Unleash the Blu Rays of death on thine enemies, Sony
   
6. FAT...Joe: if you're looking for a gig, 50 Cent may need a final boss. Holla at ya boy!
7. HOW...to rethink piracy and copy protection for today's videogame aficionados
   
8. HMM...We like the hero of this PS3 demoscene prototype. Click here to see why
9. YOU...just keep on trying till you run out of cake: how Valve perfected Portal
   
10. RND...Cooper "Mass Effect" Lawrence's nerd foes may like her new message a lot

 Marvel Comics' Punisher #1, courtesy of Comic Collector Live 

After we got our answers back from Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten regarding its newly announced punishment for people determine to be cheating its Gamerscore and Achievement Point systems (but before we saw your comments on the previous post), we saw a couple of areas that still hadn't been clarified to our satisfaction. So we whipped up a couple of additional questions and shot them over to Whitten via Microsoft's PR agency. Here's what Whitten told us in response to our follow-ups.

How long is the period of time during which Microsoft will affix the label of "cheater" to offending Xbox Live members?

We intend to remove the label over time, although the original achievements will remain reset. We don’t have a specific time frame that we are detailing right now. In the end, it is up to the individual player to prove that they won’t do it again.

Is the rescindment of Achievement Points done on a per-achievement basis or a per-game basis? In other words, if someone cheated their way through half of the campaign of Halo 3, but never finished the game before your punishment was handed down, can he or she complete the rest of the game fairly and still receive the corresponding Achievement Points for the second half of the game? If not, why not?

 Poster for "The Star Chamber," courtesy of Moovies

There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick-chamber. It had even thrown its gleam, in the sufferer's hard extremity, across the verge of time. It had shown him where to set his foot, while the light of earth was fast becoming dim, and ere the light of futurity could reach him.
--from "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new form of rough justice for those who would dare to cheat its system of Achievement Points and Gamerscores. Offenders would have their gamerscore--a mark of their progression through various Xbox 360 games--reset to zero; their specifically forfeited achievement points permanently removed, never to again be regained; and their gamercard emblazoned a tag indicating that "They've been caught cheating." Intrigued by the frontier mentality behind such public shaming of scofflaws, we reached out to Microsoft with some questions that hadn't fully been answered by their FAQ. Here's what Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten told us via email.

When did you decide to take the steps that were publicly outlined today to punish people who are determined to be tampering with their game saves?

We have always invested in upholding the Live Terms of Use through penalizing violations with user and or console bans. The method of having the individual's gamerscore reset is a more measured approach that addresses this particular form of behavior.

What percentage of Xbox Live users have you determined to have tampered with their game saves?

More than 1 billion Achievements have been unlocked since Xbox 360 launched in November, 2005 and only a small percentage of Xbox Live members have cheated to gain more gamerscore. While we cannot release the number of gamers who will be affected by this, we can tell you that the number is very small.

What steps, if any, had you been taking in the past to address this problem? If so, why did you determine them to be insufficient?

1. CLM...Chicken? Metanet's evisceration of XBLA lineup now a dead link
2. Wii...got problems: what needs to be fixed to make WiiWare better
3. TRI...force feedback: reflections on how Zelda must evolve
4. RND...Let him go!/This center, we will not let him go!

1. BLO...wback: a defense of the writer's importance in crafting good games
2. HOW...to win friends and influence people: more Metanet on Xbox Live Arcade
3. BOO...Thank heaven for little Miss Bimbo? We don't think so
4. FAT...her and son: the continuing saga of Eli's Great Adventure
   
5. YUP...a Wu-Tang reference in a blog post? Movin' on your left!
6. HMM...no love for Kill.Switch, or, how Cliffyb made the world safe for cover
   
7. RND...Dewey Defeats Lippmann: the newspaper's long day's journey into night

 Patapon, developed by Pyramid and published by Sony Computer Entertainment

When you last tuned in to our monthly feature, it was only appropriate that sparks were flying fast and furious as we sparred with MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo over the racing game Burnout Paradise in Vs. Mode (also featured on his blog Multiplayer). Right now, it's too early to tell whether tensions will similarly rise as we discuss the strange, sublime Patapon, a "side-scrolling rhythm-based real-time strategy game for the PSP," as we describe it below. Why? For the simple reason that both sides very much enjoyed the game. But rest assured, we'll look for honest points of contention as this installment of the series goes on.

In today's, Round one, we raise three points for discussion: the power of indirect control; the importance of feel; and the thrill of iconic design. For Totilo's part, he addresses the topic of gamer guilt and considers the difference between games that you control and games that you orchestrate. Some excerpts:

N'Gai Croal: There's a mistaken belief that permeates much of the industry, which is that "realistic" graphics will enable videogames to break on through to truly mainstream audiences. But when we consider the success of Bejewelled, Peggle, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Wii Sports, it's clearly not the case. As graphics technology improves, the exploration of non-photorealistic rendering techniques should go hand in hand with the quest for verisimilitude. Unfortunately, too many developers and publishers would rather focus on the latter, even on the PSP, a platform whose titles could use a complete deign rethink. Thank goodness Sony, at least, is motivated to do so, with games like Loco Roco and the forthcoming Echochrome. Just because it's roughly the power of a PS2 in a handheld doesn't mean that we should be playing PS2 games on the go.

Stephen Totilo: Let me tell you my favorite memory of playing Patapon. I was on the subway, my troops marching to the right, throwing spears and slashing swords against their enemies of war. I kept them fighting by tapping out a rhythm that I could hear in my headphones. I tapped it consistently and repeatedly enough that they became super-charged with "fever." A complex, lovely mix of drums and whistles swirled as I stamped my fingers. I kept tapping the rhythm. They kept fighting. And my subway screeched into my home station. Without breaking the rhythm of my button taps, I stood up. I took my eyes off the game and I walked onto the subway platform. I looked down on the game again, but for just a few seconds, maybe two loops of the four-note Patapon rhythm, my little troops were fighting without me seeing them. I had given them charge, swept them up with music. They acted away from me.

To read Round 1 of our exchange in its entirety, click on the link below.

1. THR...ee in the back, two in the head: more shots at game writing
2. XNA...Can Microsoft export the "democracy of innovation" to Japan?
3. HMM...GameTapas, or, using mini-games on Facebook to build awareness
4. PUN..k is dead: a close reading of the cult fave No More Heroes
5. RND...Ice Cube or The Anomalies? We know which "Predator" we prefer

1. EGO...trip: If you flame us, do we not sear? If you Lolcat us, do we not lol?
2. HEE...eeere's Johnny! Jack Thompson's courtroom antics, detailed
3. I'll...take Extremely Provocative Statements for $1000, Alex
4. FIR...st, let's kill all the scribes: why writers are not essential to games
5. SEX...if you win, sex if you lose: bishojo games embrace teh win-win
6. VSM...Apple vs. Activision over digital Beatles? We can't imagine that
7. UMM...did id Software not get the PC Gaming Alliance's memo?
8. ARG...a father designs a small alternate reality game for his son
9. RND....Why some white people don't like Stuff White People Like
10. RND...Welcome back, Portishead. How we've missed you

 

As soon as the news popped up in our inbox, we shot out a couple of queries to industry observers to get their take on the deal. First up was the ubiquitous, loquacious and perspicacious Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. Here's what his initial reaction was to the press release, published with his permission:

It's a great deal, at any price.

They had the rights to the ancillary books (ghost written and co-created with Clancy), but didn't have rights to Clancy-authored titles or to movie titles. They now have the rights to both, and the term is expanded to perpetuity instead of 15 years (was going to expire at end of 2013). This means that if Clancy comes up with anything that works, they have the rights. Also, they were paying a small royalty (I think it was 1-2 percent of sales) on the games, and that is going away, so they should have incremental profits going forward. The press release says operating profit contribution of 5 million Euros per year, and Clancy sales were likely around 250 million Euros annually [$386 million U.S. dollars], so the 2 percent royalty figure is probably closer to the mark.

My guess is that they used the overvalued Euro to buy these rights for around $100 million.

Recalling that Ubisoft had previously announced plans to open a digital animation studio in Montreal, we followed up with Pachter to see if he thought there were any similarities between the Ubisoft-Clancy deal and how comic book companies like Marvel, DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics were approaching Hollywood. He replied:

 The cover for the first edition of Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October," from FirstEditionPoints.com

This just came across the transom: Ubisoft has purchased the intellectual property rights to best-selling author Tom Clancy's name and intellectual property, in perpetuity, free of all future royalty payments, for use in videogames, related books, movies and merchandise. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Ubisoft did state that it was an all-cash transaction that will reduce its expected net cash position to roughly 130 million Euros ($201 million U.S. dollars) by the end of its fiscal 2007-08, compared to a prior expectation of around 150 million Euros ($232 million U.S.), with additional payments to be made in in fiscal 2008-09 and fiscal 2009-10. Given the anemic state of the U.S. dollar, we wouldn't be surprised if Clancy opted to take his payment in Freedom Fries Euros as well. For the complete release, rclick on the link below.

 The song list menu for Rock Band PS3 

Despite the PlayStation 2's utter dominance during the previous console cycle, we began to notice a trend emerging from casual conversations with developers: many of them were doing the bulk of their gaming on the Xbox. When asked, said game makers cited a variety of reasons, including better graphics, a wider selection of first-person shooters, and, of course, the superior online functionality of Xbox Live. This developer gap has only become more pronounced with the Xbox 360's yearlong head start and Sony's shockingly un-integrated Playstation Network feature set. We've spoken with a number of developers who don't even own PS3s; among those who do, several use it as nothing more than a Blu-Ray player. What's more, we've been to countless press events where third-party publishers are demonstrating their multiplatform games with nary a PS3 in the house. And when inquiries are made about its absence, we're greeted with a look that's either sheepish or knowing, as if it's now simply taken for granted that the PS3 version is of course lagging behind its Xbox 360 counterpart. Such is the state of PS3 development among third parties today.

We bring this up because, in our persistent state of naivete, we made yesterday what we thought was a simple request of Harmonix's PR firm.

To read the rest of this post, and to see the remainder of the screenshots for the PS3 version of Rock Band's in-game store, click on the link below.

 

At last month's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Harmonix invited a handful of journalists to its suite at the W Hotel to check out its long-awaited in-game store for Rock Band. Until now, players have had to use the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store to purchase new tracks and song packs for the hit game. No longer. Harmonix has officially announced an update that will offer you what we were shown: a music store that is fully integrated into the game itself. The Rock Band music store will let you listen to audio previews of each available track, which means no more searching YouTube to figure out if a song you've never heard is worth your hard-earned Microsoft Points dollars. You'll also be able to check out the album artwork that accompanies each track; see a ten-point scale difficulty rating for each part (guitar, drums, vocals, bass and overall); and sort songs by multiple categories, including genre.

We were suitably impressed by this much-needed improvement. (See below for screenshots of the interface.) With a current catalog of just over 125 songs both on the disc and available for download through the store, Harmonix's interface makes zipping through its song library a snap. That said, we're not convinced that it will suffice when the database hits 1,250 songs, 12,500 songs, or 125,000 songs. On a computer, text searches are an effective way to navigate large databases of content. The same could be said for consoles, but on-screen keyboards quickly become annoying after an extended period of use, and not everyone is going to buy a wireless keyboard or keypad attachment. That's why we've long believed that speaker-independent voice command will be required as the amount of content on consumer electronics devices like consoles and personal video recorders grows. And based on conversations we've had with folks at Harmonix, it wouldn't surprise us at all to discover that they're investigating the possibility of such a solution.

To see screenshots of the Rock Band music store on the Xbox 360, as well as information about additional announcements that Harmonix made this morning, click on the link below. For exclusive screenshots of the PS3 version of the Rock Band in-game music store, click here.

 NCsoft executive producer Richard Garriott

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All. Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is the legendary Richard "Lord British" Garriott, justly celebrated for his pioneering work on the Ultima series of role-playing games and the equally visionary massively multiplayer online game Ultima Online. His most recently released project is NCsoft's MMO Tabula Rasa. Here's what he told us.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

I remember it well. I was spending a summer in high school in 1977 at the University of Oklahoma. Some students who had arrived for the summer classes before me gave me the nickname British, as they thought the accent I picked up growing up next door to NASA was British. (Thus many of my early characters were named British, which became my eventual pen name.) I was simply amazed by this wondrous fantasy game. That same summer I set myself to writing fantasy games on the computers of the day.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

My mother was the neighborhood den mother and helped host our Friday and Saturday evening games, which often included games going on in several rooms at once. She would often play with us, or make food for the all-night affairs.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

 EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All. Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs, best known for his work on massively multiplayer online games like Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Here's what he told us.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

In 1977, I was in college at Syracuse University. One evening I was sitting in the basement of my girlfriend’s house, and I saw a magazine article about gifts for Christmas. The article singled out Dungeons & Dragons as a particularly incomprehensible game. Well, that was all I needed to hear, and the next day I went searching for the game. I found it at a local gaming store in Syracuse--I believe it was called Nebulous Books--and from the moment I bought the white-boxed set, I was hooked. 

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

They both hated it with a passion and thought that, quite frankly, I was wasting my time and losing track of reality by playing the game. Of course, they said the same thing about my desire to make computer games two years later in 1979, so you can see how well I listened to them.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

1. EGO...trip: Our "Long Goodbye" series of RPG Q&As gets notice, so...
2. FAM...one good turn deserves another: a heartwarming father-son tale
3. JAM...ming on the go: Activision unveils Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS
4. BOO...The case against the Xbox 360's "useless" D-pad, argued
5. ARG...Mind Candy vets, at new startup Six to Start, launch We Tell Stories
6. HOT...damn: GRID and WipEout HD movies are pure racing fire
7. 2nd...opinion? Gamasutra's take on "Second Skin" documentary is mixed
8. UMM...No mention of Kenta Cho, but a thoughtful column nonetheless
9. HMM...is good advice and genuine flow too much to ask for?
10. RND...The last five years of America's war in Iraq, in words, pictures, video

 Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All . Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is Silicon Knights president and Level Up guest contributor Denis Dyack, best known for his work on such titles as Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness, and the upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Too Human. Here's what he told us.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

I remember breaking open the Monster Compendium and spending time looking at the different types of dragons and marveling at the different complexities of their attacks and variations--everything from acid to poison. I really liked the systematic breakdown of the different creatures from mythologies to other folklore.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

My parents were completely fine with it. In fact, they were fine with everything I did when delving into hobbies like D&D. If anything, they encouraged and taught me when I was young not to believe in many of the stereotypes and fear mongering that occurs in society. They also made sure, of course, that I not only played these types of games, but also participated in sports and kept up in school.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

 Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard 

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All . Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard, whose projects have included the 2006 hit Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the forthcoming Fallout 3. Here's what he had to say. 

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

My earliest memory was going with my brother to a game store called Conflicts and my parents dropping us off on a Tuesday night to play this “D&D” game. The next three hours were a revelation. It was like a new gateway into awesomeness was opened for me. This was the summer of 1978, if I remember right, and I was eight. I can recall counting the days until each Tuesday. It’s one of my favorite memories, of real bonding time with my brother and others.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

They encouraged it, maybe to get us out of the house. They didn’t seem scared of the whole “demons and hell” thing, despite that horrible Tom Hanks movie "Mazes and Monsters". They spent more time trying to stop me from listening to Kiss and asking for a “Kiss Army” shirt.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

1. EGO...trip: Mom Mom would be so proud proud of this writeup
2. HMM...A very long post that you should nevertheless all read
3. ALL...hail the Kings:Rockstar revisits the past; teases with glorious future
4. WOW...Rock Band tracks, accompanied by a real drum kit? Very cool.
5. PRO...fanity: emphasis, or the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly
6. POR...tal wars: when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you
7. RND...Sorry, Henry, but "The Wire" is just plain better than "Lost"
8. RND...Thus Spoke Thanatos: Arthur C. Clarke has passed away

 Independent videogame designer, writer and creative director Harvey Smith

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All . Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is independent videogame designer, writer and creative director Harvey Smith, who parted ways with Midway after completing Blacksite Area 51, but is better known for his work on such titles as Deus Ex and Deus Ex II: Invisible War. Here's what he told us.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

I was camping on the night of my 11th birthday. I'd been hearing about the game for months and could not stop thinking about it. Late at night, I joined a group of guys who played together regularly. We were sitting at a picnic table under an awning out in the woods. I was utterly captivated: imagining the visuals, savoring the story, thrilled by the game mechanics, feeling completely immersed in the virtual environment. One of the guys had to work, so he showed up at the campsite around midnight with a to-go container full of steaks, smothered in mushroom gravy. We sat there playing all night, eating steak with our hands, as I turned 11 and experienced a life-changing moment.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

The morning after each game, my redneck dad used to ask me, "Did you win?"

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

 John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment

When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All . Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. First up: Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley, whose company publishes such games as EverQuest, Untold Legends and Pirates of the Burning Sea. Here's what he had to say.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

There are few experiences in my childhood that impacted me as much as my first time playing D&D. One of my good friends growing up had a copy of the old basic set and taught me how to play. It was like being transported to another world. I remember staying up all night that same night and reading that book cover to cover.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

They were fine with it--in fact they bought me some of the AD&D [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons] rule books for my birthday. They never freaked out about any of the stupid stuff people spread about D&D. However, I think it's fair to say they were less than pleased about Iron Maiden blaring in the background while we played.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

1. GUI...lty as charged? Blogger takes on "bitter," "contemptuous," "self-important" journos
2. NOW...you're cooking with Mama: Majesco's so red-hot, it's back in the black
3. FOU...dation 9 founder steps down as CEO; puts a Sumo in his place
4. RND...No laughing matter? "120 Funny Swastika Cartoons," considered

1. EGO...trip: providing inspiration, basking in praise--it's just another day for Level Up
2. UBI...soft and GameStop/EB Canada, sitting in a tree? T-R-A-D-I-N-G
3. BEA...uty is in the eye of teh beholderz, or, turning malware into art
4. BOO...The New York Times' misleading story on a Holocaust-themed DS game
5. WHO...watches the watchmen? A former ESRB rater's critique of the ESRB
6. THE...sweetest perfection, or, how does a developer know when a game is done?
7. SIL...ver screen meets interactive design in High Moon's The Bourne Conspiracy
8. WHE...n Videogame Journalists Attack, or, The Thunder From Down Under
9. SPY...hunter homage on display in sweetly nostalgic Pontiac commercial
10. RND...It's all fun and games until Michael Haneke remakes "Funny Games"

1. KAZ...Hirai's empire expands as the Playstation chief takes over Sony Online
2. 80%...of success is showing up, or, B.I.G. VIP on how the dog ate his consoles
3. ARR...gh! Verbinski's ox gored by Variety blogger over L.A. Times interview 
4. RND...Cooper "Mass Effect" Lawrence on how nice girls drive kinky men to hookers

In Part I of our two-part Q&A with Australian writer-director-producer George Miller, he discussed why he wanted to step up his level of involvement in videogames; how he met Cory Barlog; and what areas of common ground he sees between the two media. In Part II, Miller explains why he's starting work on the Mad Max videogame long before the movie goes into production; why he believes the game will benefit from his longtime process of workshopping new creative endeavors; and whether he'll be seeking a leadership role on the videogames for all of his future movie projects. Read on.

Do you already know the first game project that you and Cory will be working on?

Well, the first one will be a "Mad Max" game. Because what happened was, we were all ready to go, within eleven weeks of shooting the next "Mad Max" movie, "Fury Road." This was way back when the war in Iraq started, and that really threw this out for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which was that the American dollar crashed against the Australian dollar. And apart from that, just insurances, getting vehicles and stuff there on container ships--all that slowed down around the world. So we had to move on to "Happy Feet," because that was going to take a long time.

We were all ready to go on "Fury Road," but instead of going off and shooting "Fury Road" straight away, I said "Okay, now that we've got that whole world prepared, let's work together with somebody, if there's someone out there." And that started off on the path of trying to get together with Corey. Not handing it off to some third party game developer as we did on "Happy Feet," but to try to do it all as a piece, in the hope that we overcome that problem of making bad films from good games or vice versa.

I realize that the schedule for making a live action movie, even one like "Mad Max" which I'm guessing these days would now have a lot of CG in it--

Yes.

--those schedules for movies and games are very different. What stage of production is the movie in? Would it be apt to say that it's in an advanced stage of preproduction?

The movie was in a very highly advanced stage of preproduction when we stopped it. It's all prepared, but now I want to stop and do the game and get those schedules in sync.

Okay.

In other words, I'm delaying the movie in order to do a really good game. Normally what happens everyone's scrambling to finish a game so it can coincide with the release of the movie. In this case, because I've got another couple of movies to make, we can wait and do it properly. That's the theory.

 Writer-director-producer George Miller

After a few weeks of mutually-instigated international phone tag, spanning mid-December to mid-January, we finally caught up with writer-director-producer George Miller. Our mission: to get his take on how he'd come to be mobbed up with God of War II director Cory Barlog. And, more importantly, what they would be working on first? Could it be a "Justice League of America" game, set to tie in with the movie which had been put on hold because of the writers' strike? A "Babe: Pig In the City" game for Nintendo's still-sizzling Wii? The answer, when it was revealed, still managed to thrill despite the nonchalance of Miller's delivery: "Well, the first one will be a 'Mad Max' game."

An interactive "Mad Max" epic? With Cory Barlog at the helm? Game, set, match. Or at least that's what legions of fanboys will be thinking--until they remember that licensed games are often less than stellar. But quite aside from the talent involved, our interview with Miller reveals not only the appropriate measure of respect for the medium, but also an understanding of the need to give this game the time it needs in order for it to be good or even great. In Part I of our Q&A, Miller explains how he became interested in working on videogames; the differences and similarities between action sequences and action games; and what it was like watching Barlog play God of War II in their agent's offices at CAA. Enjoy.

How did you become interested in working in video games?

Well, it sort of crept up on me almost imperceptibly. I realized that the kind of filmmaker that I am, I unconsciously try to make films that are as immersive as possible. I tend to use very wide angles and move the camera through space rather than zoom. My cutting patterns and compositions try to exaggerate--well, not exaggerate, but try to enhance a kind of three-dimensionality and an immersive quality to my storytelling. That of course is what games do so well.

The realization was, as I started to work in the digital realm, that film suddenly is able to do things that you weren't able to do before. And once I got into that, like everyone else, I saw the obvious convergence of film towards games and games towards film. So, I got swept along and found myself sort of in a current that was heading towards games.

The other big thing for me was the fact that film is a pretty closed narrative--it moves along at 24 frames a second, it's extremely linear, and in that sense rigid, whereas games bust that open. So in a way, with games being more exploratory, it's closer to what a novelist can do in many ways. A novelist can stop the forward momentum of their story and go explore little cul-de-sacs and then come back again. Games allow you to do that as well. Basically, games and films and just about everything else comes from the heading of storytelling. So it's just another way to tell stories, I think.

It's interesting that you say that, because looking at one of the films you've made in the past like "The Road Warrior"--it was an extremely well-received film, but I think critics would say compared to certain other stories that that wasn't necessarily the most complicated or richest of stories in a movie. Yet, that story and storytelling is probably more involved and more sophisticated than what you get out of most games, if that makes sense.

Yes.

If you look at games as a medium overall, for a lot of games--particularly action games--the story's almost an afterthought. It's almost like a premise; a set-up; an excuse for the action, and then it goes into something else. So it's interesting for someone like yourself, coming out of a storytelling medium, to say this. When you look at storytelling in games, how far along do you feel games are relative to other media when it comes to storytelling?

 Mel Gibson as Mad Max in the 1981 post-apocalyptic film "The Road Warrior"

Coy time is over, Dear Reader. Yesterday, we told you that God of War II director Cory Barlog--who'd left Sony Computer Entertainment last November partway through the development of God of War III--had formed a creative partnership with writer-director-producer George Miller. Today, we can finally reveal what they'll be working on first: a "Mad Max" action-adventure game, inspired by the "Mad Max: Fury Road" movie that Miller had been preparing to shoot in 2003 before the war in Iraq forced him to put everything on hold. Specific details on the gameplay are still fuzzy, as Barlog and Miller are still early in the planning phase, but we can confirm that melee weapons, projectile weapons and vehicles will all be present, just as you would expect. We spoke with Miller by phone in January, who personally informed us that Mad Max would be his first serious videogame venture. Here are some excerpts from our hour-long conversation:

1. EGO...trip: should PS3 ever be the lead platform for multiplatform games
   
2. GTA...for girls? Coolest Girl In School delights and enrages Down Under
3. Wii...Ware games in Japan priced at $5-$15 for March 25th launch
4. RND...Ghostbook? PolterSpace? Spielberg set with spooky social site?

In Part I of our multi-part Q&A with videogame director Cory Barlog, he explained how he met and clicked with Australian writer-director George Miller (of "Mad Max," "Babe" and "Happy Feet" fame), told us why he felt he had to leave Sony Computer Entertainment, and ducked our questions about his first videogame project with Miller. In Part II, he takes us deeper inside his decision to part ways with his previous employer and why he feels that the dominant employer-employee model under which most videogame directors labor is in dire need of change. Read on.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounded like what you were saying is that you were having a hard time seeing yourself scaling the same mountain that you had scaled twice before--with God of War and God of War II--under the same conditions. Is that a fair description?

Yeah, yeah, The concept of actually doing the game was definitely not anything that I would feel all that leery about. I wasn't nervous about doing it all, but it was about whether to do it under the sort of same conditions. You know, it's not something that was ever really about money. I know there's been some speculation about that, but it's not necessarily about money. The reality that we live in is that when you look at the idea that you are a pretty large influence on something that has turned out to be a several hundred million dollar franchise for a company, but at the same time you're still not feeling like anything more than just a cog in the machine. And that you're still just, "All right, whatever, they're telling you to do; there's nothing different that can be done; go do that, go do that." You're really feeling like you're not [financially] invested fully in it whereas creatively and mentally and physically you're totally invested in it. Definitely for me, it was not something I wanted to see happen to the rest of my career especially me, getting with all these directors on the film side and seeing the way that they sort of run their careers.

Like I said before I know that the industry can't change overnight; videogame directors are never going to be of that same stature of film directors. That's not even the point. The point is just from a creative standpoint, you've got to be in charge of your own direction and really feel comfortable and happy with each of the things you're doing. And I think that also comes from diversity.

The reason I'm asking this is that David Jaffe said exactly the same thing when I was talking to him about leaving Sony and putting together Eat Sleep Play.

Right.

The larger point is obviously the situation that you've described and your search for freedom, but is there something specific to directing a God of War game that takes people and turns them into these ambassadors for change? Is it like the drummer in "Spinal Tap" or something? What is it about the process of directing a God of War game that makes people finish it and say, "I've got to leave. I've got to control my destiny. I've got to start my own thing. I've got to do my own thing."

 Videogame director Cory Barlog

We first met Cory Barlog in 2005, just before the original God of War was set to arrive in stores back in 2005. Over a soul food dinner at The Shark Bar in Manhattan, we discussed how his role as lead animator on the original game had grown to the point where he'd been tapped to fill David Jaffe's shoes by serving as the director of the inevitable sequel. It was clear from our conversation that he was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to work on a truly great franchise rather than some of the games he'd worked on in the past. And after he knocked God of War II out of the park, we were eager to see what he would do with a potential God of War III on the Playstation 3.

So it came as something of a shock last November when we got a call from a source informing us not only that Barlog would soon announce his departure from Sony Computer Entertainment, but that he would be working with veteran film writer-director-producer George Miller--best known for the "Mad Max" series of movies that starred Mel Gibson--on some videogame projects. We immediately began negotiating with Barlog's representatives to secure on-the-record interviews with Barlog and Miller about their collaboration. This resulted in three interviews that we'll be publishing all week on Level Up. First is our Q&A with Barlog, in which he remains tight-lipped about precisely what he and his new partner's first game would be, but goes into great detail about why he felt he had to leave Sony Computer Entertainment. Next up is our conversation with Miller, who gave up the goods and explained why he's become fascinated with videogames. And finally, we'll publish our follow-up with Barlog, who, freed of the burden of secrecy, provided some terrific insights into how he plans to approach his first post-Sony project. Strap in, sit tight and enjoy.

So Cory, how did you get approached by George Miller? Give me the back story on how you ended up working with him.

Wow, it was a while ago that I got connected with CAA, through other people at [Sony Santa Monica]. I think it was just a random emailing from people that somehow got me connected with Seamus [Blackley, head of Creative Artists Agency's videogame division] and Ophir [Lupu, an agent in the same group]. They just wanted to have a meeting, to talk and hang out, and from that it was kind of like, "Well all right, it would be interesting to get you connected with different people." There was never any specific person that we were talking about connecting with; it was just like, "Let's try talking to some people."

So I met with a bunch of different people and one of them was George, when he was in town. It was funny because when I first met him the first thing I said was, "You know, you really messed me up as a kid, flying, because of that 'Twilight Zone' thing that you did." I don't know if you ever saw that, but the whole thing was very, very, very freaky for me and from that point on I hated flying,because of the whole Jon Lithgow, crazy guy, monster on the plane wing.

You mean the "Twilight Zone" movie?

 

When news broke last November that God of War II director Cory Barlog was leaving Sony Computer Entertainment with God of War III, everyone wanted to know what he planned to do next. Thanks to a well-placed source, we knew half of the story, which we can reveal to you exclusively today: he'll be working with the noted Australian film writer-director-producer George Miller--the man behind such features as "The Witches of Eastwick," "Babe," "Happy Feet," and most notably of all, the "Mad Max" series of movies that starred Mel Gibson--on one or more videogame projects.

What we didn't know, even after an hour-long, previously unpublished interview with Barlog that we conducted last December, is what the two men would be collaborating on. That's because Barlog was being coy, so we held off on publishing anything until we could get more details. A January phone interview with Miller took care of that--as did a subsequent follow-up conversation with Barlog--but we're going to take a page from Barlog's handbook and be coy with you, Dear Reader. Why? To let you experience this epic series of wide-ranging chats as we did, in chronological order, and absorb the implications of this partnership and the potential for others like it as more top videogame creators consider throwing off the shackles of the employer-employee relationship for the promise and peril of the independent contractor.

So tomorrow, we'll publish our world exclusive details of the first collaboration between Barlog and Miller, alongside a Q&A with Miller himself. (Trust us--you won't want to miss it.) But today, we're going focus on our initial December interview with Barlog, which centered around his decision to break away from Sony after the success of God of War and God of War II. Some excerpts:

1. KYO...to, Wii have a problem: Super Smash Bros reveals Nintendo hardware issues
2. JAM...ming with thatgamecompany's Gravediggers, created in 24 hours on PS3
3. ALL...your next-gen game revenues are belong to Microsoft--well, 42 percent, anyway
4. DIE...or skate? Can the "Tony Hawk Innovation Plan" save the fading franchise?
   
5. RND...This rough magic/I here abjure: High Score's bittersweet farewell to HBO's "The Wire"

 

Corporate earnings calls can often be a fount of information and insight into a videogame publisher's practices. Last month, during Electronic Arts' earnings call for the quarter ended December 31st, 2007, CEO John Riccitiello was asked by an analyst whether the company had gotten over the hump as far as the challenges in developing for Playstation 3 were concerned. Here's the exchange, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha:

Doug Creutz, Cowen & Company: It seems to me one of the minor themes of last year was that a lot of publishers had difficulty completing PS3 titles on time and I wondered if you think that you are at the point now where the PS3 development process has caught up to the 360 development process and we’re less likely to see those kind of delays in 2008. Thanks.

John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts: Not quite. There’s no doubt that Electronic Arts, along with many publishers, had some challenges essentially meeting the technical specifications effectively on the PlayStation 3. Games where we essentially led development on the PS3 platform like Burnout, which is doing very well in the market today, we had no issue at all. But in circumstances where we either led with the Xbox 360 or we ran parallel production, for the most part we are still experiencing some delay on the PS3. It’s a little bit more challenging a developing environment for us.

If the problem was sort of of a certain size as much as nine months, it’s probably a third as great a problem today as it was then, but there still remains some catching up to do on the engineering side for the PS3.

Riccitiello's response suggests that the best technical solution to the difficulties with EA published titles--which ranged from Madden PS3 running at half the framerate as Madden 360 to the PS3 version of Valve's Half-Life 2: The Orange Box shipping weeks later than its 360 counterpart--is to lead development on PS3. But does EA intend to mandate such a plan across its collection of city-states?

1. INF...oslap: Atari's parent company proposes stock buyback--with no premium
2. GAF...the armchair analysts are at it again: PSP piracy rates, explored
   
3. NEG...ate? Vociferously? Level Up hails fellow word lover Mohit Anand
4. T2$...Take-Two ready to take care of recompense fired employees if acquired
5. EGM...should reconsider its three-reviewer format in light of teh intertubes
6. GTA...the storied franchise's brief history, recapped, in words and in numbers
7. WE3...kings are stealing the gold oil leisure time: three "ham-fisted" shooters
8. ARS...Gratia Artis: Sexy Videogameland seeks safe for work banner art
   
9. DDD...What Would Benny Hill Say: should Nintendo make Wii Sports bras?
10. RND...Is Skype the aspiring Avon, Stringer or Marlo's best friend?
    

1. COX...1UP Network's vp of content explains why Ziff went Chapter 11
2. SCI...ence club unites to beat up the Bully that took its lunch money
3. HOW...will the Colossus of London respond to this insolence?
4. RND...We slept on Jay Electronica for far too long. Big mistake.

It's been eleven days since Electronic Arts made its shocking but not surprising $2 billion offer to purchase Take-Two, and along with it, 2K Sports and Rockstar Games. We've spoken to representatives from both sides: EA's spokesperson spitting occasional blasts of hot fire, while Take-Two's reps chose to flow like water--even when confronted with our source's contention that future Rockstar releases will be delayed because all hands were reassigned to assist with completing Grand Theft Auto IV in time for its April release. (Take-Two denied the charge.) We also got Civilization creator Sid Meier, who's also the co-founder of the Take-Two owned Firaxis studio, to go on the record with his thoughts about the possibility of working for EA. With no end immediately in sight--we hear that EA is having trouble convincing Take-Two's institutional investors that its $2 billion, $26 per share offer is the best deal available--the only things serving as a deadline is EA's thinly-veiled threat to pull the offer if Take-Two doesn't accept prior to GTA IV hitting the streets on April 29th.

Still, despite CEO Strauss Zelnick's insistence that Take-Two "has a really bright future as an independent company," we believe that by hook or by crook, EA will end up acquiring the company, meaning that it's time for us all to prepare for the inevitable. So we turned to the same man who handled our proposed redesign of the Wii controller, commissioning Level Up Xbox 360 correspondent and Newsweek.com art director Rolf Ebeling to craft a logo for the combined entity. The resulting hybrid, which is almost Mendelian in the naturalness of its design, has been produced in a handful of colors to suit the Level Up staff's whims and moods. You can see a single version above along with the mathematical equation that produced it, and the rest will be rolled out in the days and weeks ahead. Let us know what you think of our work in the comments below.

1. DIE...patents, die: how this practice may be stifling game development
2. RUM...ble: emotional power of vibration explained in academic terms
3. THE...y're just not that into you: ardent suitor Jack Thompson spurned by EA
4. RND...Battle of the Davids: "Deadwood" vs. "The Sopranos" vs. "The Wire"
   

 Freelance journalist Evan Narcisse

It goes without saying that when we play single-player games, we usually do so by ourselves. But while staying at a friend's in Los Angeles over the Thanksgiving break, we were introduced to the singular pleasures of passing the controller back and forth so that two players can, um, jointly progress through a game's solo mode. Upon discovering that freelance journalist Evan Narcisse likes to indulge in the same recreational activity, we knew we had to persuade him to write about this phenomenon--and its implications--for Level Up. Narcisse, whose work on videogames appears in the Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly, also writes the Thought/Process cultural criticism column for Crispy Gamer and moderates the site's podcast, Blazing Prattles. Here's what he had to say.

Evan Narcisse: I started noticing that my experience of Portal differed from other titles I'd played recently. By my lonesome, I might've chalked up my occasional frustrations to poor design, frazzled reflexes or my own cognitive bottlenecks. Playing co-operatively with B allowed me to take some of the pressure off of myself and let the game seep in. The way I heard GLaDOS's snippy commentary changed completely. Were I playing Portal solo, I would've asked myself if I'd heard her snark correctly, shrugged and gone back to solving the puzzle of whatever room I was in. With B by my side, whoever was playing would pause, we'd look at each other and break out into guffaws when GLaDOS's dry condescension or blatant panic made itself known. By the time the camera careens through the underbelly of Aperture Science and the first gentle strains of "Still Alive" start up, we both were dizzy from flinging Chell through Room 17 and aching from laughing through GlaDOS's final rant. (For my part, I started to well up a little bit, too.)

To read Narcisse's essay in its entirety, click on the link below.

1. RES...pect the grind: Activision CEO on merger, plans for growth
2. USE...my name? In the street? Talk, mother--hush yo' mouth!
3. RIP...Pour a little mead out for D&D co-creator Gary Gygax
4. RND...The plaintive ballad of the studio gangster

 Infogrames president Phil Harrison (upper left) and CEO David Gardner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in NYC 

The rumors, it seems, were true. Former head of Playstation's worldwide studios Phil Harrison has indeed joined Infogrames--the parent company of Atari--as its president, reporting to newly-minted CEO David Gardner. We got our first sighting of Harrison in his new role this morning when he took the floor to say a few words before Atari's press event for the survival-horror game Alone in the Dark. (We hope that's not a metaphor for the herculean task that lies ahead for Harrison and company in restoring Atari to its former stature.)

"As you may know, I had a different job [two Fridays ago]," Harrison told the crowd of journalists, who greeted him with applause. He went on to say that while he had very much enjoyed his long tenure with Sony, what got him excited was the future of videogames, which in his opinion lies in connected communities of networked gamers. "David and I have been talking about this for a long time," Harrison added, which could suggest that he and Gardner had been talking about him making the move to Infogrames prior to the January announcement of Gardner's appointment as CEO.

Before Harrison took the stage, we chatted briefly while waiting for the event to begin. We congratulated him on his new position, and asked him what sort of feedback he'd received once the announcement had been made official. The ever-wily Harrison demurred, saying that he'd been on a plane and hadn't been able to see the reaction, before turning the question back on us. We told him that we hadn't seen much in the way of informed reaction, but that the fanboys seemed confused by his decision to jump ship from Sony to Infogrames. "That's understandable," Harrison replied, smiling a knowing Mona Lisa smile as he spoke. You might say, what's he got to grin? If all goes well, Level Up may soon be in a position to know, so stay tuned.

1. EGO...trip: the tale of your humble moderator and his panelists. recounted
2. THE...Colossus of London lands at Infogrames; reactions run the gamut
3. STE...al This Childhood? A new book examines youth and violent videogames
4. RES...istance is futile: cultural assimilation and domination as game mechanics?
5. PSP...as a tool to teach ABCs? Plato to launch educational game software
6. BLU...lash from Toshiba: the company's CEO on life after Betamax HD-DVD
7. JOH...nny Dramaturg: is there a role for this theatrical staple in games?
8. GAN...gsta, wanksta or pranksta: will GTA IV leave room for Saints Row?
9. RND...Tongue in cheek? Or is this more a case of foot in mouth?
10. RND...The most charming Web page we've seen in many a moon

 The album cover for Eric B. & Rakim's 1987 classic "Paid In Full"

The eagle-eyed sleuths over at Gamasutra dug into the latest SEC filing from entertainment conglomerate Viacom and unearthed an interesting tidbit. Former shareholders in Rock Band creators Harmonix, which Viacom acquired in October 2006 for $175 million in cash, have recently received a $208.7 million bonus from parent company Viacom for results that "exceed[ed] specific contractual targets." Here's how it was described in the SEC documents:

In October 2006, we acquired Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero and Rock Band and other music gaming titles, for initial cash consideration of $175.0 million. To the extent financial results exceed specific contractual targets against a defined gross profit metric through 2008, former Harmonix shareholders will be eligible for incremental earn-out payments with respect to the years ended December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008. At December 31, 2007, a liability of $208.7 million has been recorded in Other liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet for the expected earn-out payment. We expect to have a final payment with respect to the year ended December 31, 2008 done in 2009.

We proceeded to do some back of the envelope calculations to put this in perspective.

Firaxis co-founder Sid Meier at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City

Last Friday, Civilization creator Sid Meier held court before a handful of journalists at New York City's famous Algonquin Hotel. Because of a previous engagement, we arrived unfashionably late, just ten minutes before the event wound down. But tardiness, it turns out, has its rewards. As the Vicious Circle assembled journalists filed out--and as we ate our filet mignon lunch at Meier and his wife's insistence--the legend of turn-based strategy games agreed to remain a while longer and answer some of our questions. That's how we secured this exclusive, in which Meier explained his diplomatic reaction to last week's news that Electronic Arts is seeking to purchase Take-Two. Here's what Meier had to say:

How are you being affected by the news of the possibility of Electronic Arts acquiring Take-Two, and by extension [Meier's company] Firaxis Games? How do you feel about those prospects, especially in light of the recent remarks by Electronic Arts executives about its new organizational structure--

Right.

--and this whole city-state model, in which Firaxis presumably would be, I don't know, a province in ancient Rome.

[Laughs.] Those are good words. We worked with Electronic Arts ten years ago. We respect them highly as a company. They're a great company. We enjoy working with Take-Two. We'll let them sort that out [laughs]. Take-Two has been very good about giving us the creative freedom to do the best games that we can, and I think what Electronic Arts is saying is really along the same directions. That's really our priority, to really be able make the best games that we can. And both those publishers would give us that opportunity. We'll let them work that out.

So you have to wait and see, but at least you feel as though EA is saying the right things publicly.

Yeah. I think they have a commitment to great games, and that's what's important to us.

 Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg and reggaeton producer Nely

All work and no play makes the Level Up staff very dull boys indeed. So when we got word that our favorite Xbox kingpin Aaron "B.I.G. VIP" Greenberg was rolling through NYC, we agreed to jump in for a Friday night of debauchery good-natured fun. We kicked things off at an after work cocktail party at the offices of Kinetix Integrated Communications, a lifestyle marketing company that both Microsoft's Zune and Xbox divisions are employing to reach out to urban and Latino communities. According to Greenberg, the group product manager for Xbox 360's Live and lifestyle programs, a number of key influencers and media in the urban and Latino markets are still playing videogames on their PlayStation 2s. To remedy that situation, he spent the latter half of last week being driven from meeting to meeting in an SUV, taking Xbox 360 Elites out of the back of the vehicle and dropping them off with late-adopting gamers like a big city Santa Claus.

At Kinetix's Manhattan offices, we witnessed Greenberg dispensing post-holiday cheer to an influencer of particular note: reggaeton producer Nely "El Arma Secreta," the mastermind behind such hits as Wisin Y Yandel's "Rakata" and R. Kelly's "Burn It Up." The charming twentysomething studio wizard was pleased as punch to receive his Xbox 360 Elite. Why? All the better to put the hurt on opponents in his current favorite game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur--tooling around the city after 11:30 PM trying to find a suitable restaurant for late night dining; Greenberg hollaticking with his Miami crew via cell phone; the de rigueur bottle service (Belvedere, of course) that accompanied the breaking of bread at Pop Burger in the Meatpacking district--but it was clear from our night on the town that Microsoft is sparing no expense in its broad-based pursuit of console dominance.

1. EGO...trip: thank goodness, no signs of baldness are imminent
   
2. THE...enemy of my enemy is my friend: why Jack and EA are BFFs--for now
3. PAX...Seattleana: the Penny Arcade Expo announces indie games showcase
4. BLU...Ray meets its match in Metal Gear Solid 4: Gigabytes of the Patriots
5. DON...t believe the hype man? Disney brings that hip-hop staple to rock
6. BED...room coders, rejoice: Xbox community games creators speak up
   
7. SEE...ing red: the ignominious end of a one-of-a-kind Xbox 360
8. GET...at me, dog: Trion founder barks back at Activision CEO's claims
9. CON...trols as art, examined, by way of Shadow of the Colossus
10. RND...Cut to the chase: book reviews that focus solely on the naughty bits