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Following in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg, director of 300 and the new Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder, has signed a deal with EA to make three original video games. He’ll also work out of their Los Angeles studio, same as Spielberg. Under this deal though, EA will have the option to turn any of these games into movies, which would then be produced by Snyder’s Cruel & Unusual Films. No word yet on just what sort of games he may be looking to make, but EA is hoping his ideas will resonate with their core audience of young males, much like his films.

Sounds like a good idea to me. So far, none of the recent games made by film directors — like Spielberg’s Boom Blox or John Woo’s Stranglehold — have sold all that well, but they’ve at least been entertaining and worth playing. And Zack Snyder’s been riding a strong wave of success for the past few years, so who knows what could happen when he dips into the world of video games?

Via Variety

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I’m a big fan of Boom Blox; it’s one of my favorite Wii games, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with any third-party title on the platform. The overall reaction to the game was quite positive, as the game garnered solid reviews. But according to the NPD Group (via GameDaily), the game sold only 60k copies in May, coming in at #25 for the month — surely that’s not what Electronic Arts had in mind for their Steven Spielberg-branded game had in mind, particularly in a month where sales of the system were so high at just over 675k.

Analysts have been split about what this means. Ben Schachter said, “While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” before adding, “To-date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market.”

Anita Frazier disagrees and simply believes the game was caught in a month where the attention was directed to things like Wii Fit and GTA, which is the theory I personally subscribe to. “It’s still really hard for new IP to breakthrough the noise in the market, and there has been a lot of noise so far this year. Between Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 (to name a few), there have been some really high profile game releases. The game was really well reviewed so I’m suspecting the marketing just didn’t break through the clutter to the extent that they were hoping for,” she said.

Earlier this week, however, EA CEO John Riccitiello told the audience at the William Blair Investor Conference (via MTV Multiplayer) that sales were actually on target, and that it had actually “met our expectations internally.” He also remains hopeful about the game’s future, saying, “A title like this one — can it do several hundred thousand or a million or more units? Sure, it’s just gotta keep selling.”

Despite Electronic Arts optimistic backing of Steven Spielberg’s latest product Boom Blox, hardcore gamers are not impressed. Color me not surprised. Boom Blox is a casual puzzle game. There may be exploding blocks, but no one is shot or killed in gameplay.

However, many hardcore gamers don’t reserve their ire only for Spielberg. Its a common belief that Hollywood crossovers rarely make good video games; and sadly it holds true in most cases.

“I don’t like film directors’ games,” said Kanelly Reyes, a 20-year-old New Yorker who plays video games daily but prefers games that are more “original” than those typically produced by film directors.

“The game play is not that great in directors’ games. It’s just two different mind-sets.”

Just why is it that most games based on movies stink so bad? Of course the reverse seems to be true as well, especially with Uwe Boll slaughtering game after game on the big screen. If we can figure it out, maybe gamers will never again be subjected to anything like the Superman game.

via The Columbus Dispatch.com

Looks like one of the gaming world’s favorite places to get the inside scoop on gossip, rumors and other nonsensical gaming related fallacies is retiring. I am talking about Surfer Girl of course, and even though in her last post, she stated that she did not not want coverage on her departure, I just could not help myself.

Here are her final words pulled directly from her site:

• Please don’t devote coverage to this–focus on any of the plethora of more important things such as QoL issues.
• Industryites, bad QoL situations will not get better by telling no one about them.
• What was the point of this blog? Force folks to pay attention to important things going on in the real world and encourage them to become activists for social and political progress. I probably failed miserably, but at least I tried.
• You cannot honestly be surprised that Doom 4 was announced, can you? I’m guessing you are the kind that will be shocked when things like Call of Duty 6, Diablo III, Hitman 5, Onimusha 5, Max Payne 3, the non-wagglefest starring those Rabbids, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3, Sniper Studios’ Capcom title, Dynasty Warriors 8, NBA Street 5 and Turok 2 are announced.
• Yeah, Boom Blox is one of the best games to hit a Nintendo platform in years and some folks at NoE/NoA lotcheck think so too.

Whether you liked her or not, it is always sad to see another gamer becoming disenchanted with the industry. What ever her reasons for leaving it, we wish her all the best.

Thanks for the heads up: Videogaming247

EA has announced that Boom Blox, the first game released in collaboration between EA and director and producer Steven Spielberg, has shipped in North America and will be available May 8 in Europe, May 13 across Asia, and May 22 in Japan for Wii. Perfect for kids 8-99 years old Boom Blox offers action-packed destruction that takes Wii play to a new level of enjoyment and creativity.

“Boom Blox was designed to be interactive, pure escapism, and fun for kids of all ages,” said Steven Spielberg. “My hope is that it will be a great shared family experience.”

In Boom Blox, players make their way through almost four hundred levels of strategic destruction where they can destroy their way through brain-twisting challenges with single player, co-op, and versus multiplayer options. Joined by a cast of more than thirty wacky characters with distinct personalities and behaviors, such as Marion “Fluffy” McCluck, the bomb blox-laying chicken and Boots Beaverton, who likes to make the bomb blox explode. These fun characters bring personality to the Tiki, Medieval, Frontier, and Haunted themed worlds.

Equipped with an easy-to-use in-game editor, Boom Blox allows gamers to express their creativity by building and bringing to life their very own levels in Create Mode. Players can even remix any existing levels in the game using any props, blocks, or characters that have been unlocked throughout the game. Plus, their designs can then be shared with friends or used to challenge others to solve their newly created puzzle via WiiConnect24.

Boom Blox is also available for mobile phones where players will slide on ice blocks, blast blocks with bombs, and bounce off springs to solve brain-twisting puzzles and level the playing field. Players will advance up to forty levels to reach a target score and once the in-game puzzles are mastered, the game will then expand to a new arena. Custom creations can then be posted online directly from a mobile phone. Players can challenge a global community with their dynamic puzzles, and rate other players’ works. For more information on the mobile version visit eamobile.

For more information on Boom Blox for the Wii, check out our previous posts and more of the new screens.

Via: Press Release 

EA has unveiled a new trailer for the upcoming Wii-exclusive, Boom Blox. The game may look cutesy, but it certainly seems to have enough features to give it a fair amount of depth. Besides completing various puzzles and objectives, you’ll also be able to craft your own elaborate levels and then destroy them. I’ll reserve judgement until I get my hands on it myself, but for now it looks like the coolest game of Jenga ever.

We’ve certainly heard a lot about the upcoming Wii title, Boom Blox, but we haven’t really seen the gameplay in action before. Thanks to this video someone made of the European demo though, we can finally get a sense of how this game is supposed to work exactly. It mostly runs through the tutorial, but the game still looks like it could be a lot of fun. Kind of reminds me of Jenga, if Jenga involved lobbing balls at stacks of blocks and triggering explosions (which would be a much more exciting board game, come to think of it).

GoNintendo has revealed a list on upcoming Nintendo games for 2008. Some of these have already been released, but if you look past those you will see many a title that has not. Granted, the majority of them have vague release dates and are for Europe, but at least you get an idea of what to expectThe good news though is that WiiWare and Super Smash Bros. Brawl have been dated for Europe. WiiWare - May 20th and SSBB June 27th.

You can get the full list of Nintendo titles headed our way (and ones that are already available) after the jump.

Thanks: Videogaming247

Read the full article

1UP just happened to attend the Nintendo Media Summit, being the lucky bunch that they are, and they got to get their hands on a variety of games coming to the Wii.

• Boom Blox
• FFCC: My Life as a King
• Guitar Hero: On Tour
• LostWinds
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• Samba de Amigo

Personally, I am most jealous of them getting to come within 6 feet of The Force Unleashed let alone getting to get their hands on a demo of the game. Too bad it made them feel a bit lukewarm instead of impressed, but hopefully the rest of the game will make up for the only bit that was shown to them.

Via: 1UP

Amir Rahimi, the senior producer for the game Boom Blox has stated that he is impressed with “gamer” Steven Spielberg. Well, to say that someone would be impressed with Spielberg is like saying they are impressed with Pamela Anderson’s “charms” but I digress.

“I was actually pretty surprised to find out how much of a gamer Steven Spielberg is. He - regularly, when we meet with him - makes references to games that a lot of us game developers haven’t played or haven’t played in years. But also recent games, like Crysis, he talks a lot about.”

Amir Rahimi also when on to say that he was impressed with Spielberg’s dedication to Boom Blox despite shooting the new Indiana Jones flick:

“He came up with the original concept, but he also - when he wasn’t off shooting Indiana Jones or doing other big projects out of town - I’d say he was in the office on average every week.”

He went on to speak on the other Spielberg/Electronic Arts project which that is expected to i”stimulate deep emotional experiences, and in places move people to tears”.

“We’ve partnered with Spielberg to develop three games that are totally new IP,” he said. “Two of them are currently in production. This is technically the second of the Spielberg games, but it will be the first that hits the market.They’re working on another one code-named ‘LMNO’ that, I think, is what most people would expect out of a partnership with Spielberg - the epic storyline, the action/adventure game. But that one takes a little longer to make, so that one will come out later”.

Over the years, may of Spielberg’s movies have been (without much input) been turned into videogames, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Minority Report, etc. and when asked about the possibility of him having more of a hand in the development of games based on his movies now that he has gotten involved in the industry, Rahimi had this to say:

“He’s a huge gamer and he’s really interested in making games, but he hasn’t talked to me personally about anything like that, so I don’t know his plans.”

Well hopefully he will, because those games sucked.

Boom Blox is scheduled for a May 6 launch.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

At the end of the GDC “Creating Boom Blox” presentation, Louis Castle,executive producer  and Vice President of Creative Development at EALA, revealed that gamers can use the homebrew Wii-mote head tracking technology to control the game’s camera.

According to Joystick, he clarified this news after the session saying the capability was more of an easter egg inclusion and wasn’t going to be marketed. Gaming Today has featured a couple different ways of using head tracking technology. Check out the video demonstration of the do-it-yourself head tracking using the Wii-mote and a improvised LED headset. There’s also a version using the PS3 eye with a virtual reality desktop.

For more information on Boom Blox, check out the FileFront trailer on Gaming Today.

via Joystiq 

Electronic Arts has released the first trailer from Boom Blox, and if you are looking for a puzzle game that is like Tetris and standard Legos on acid complete with explosions and funny looking blocks - look no further. Zany and fun, Boom Block will indeed include something for everyone, especially parents looking for something fun to play with their younger children. You can tell that parents are the ones EA and Spielberg are appealing to with Boom Blox, but anyone who likes fun and colorful puzzle games, should like it as well.

Boom Blox is a Wii exclusive and is slated for a May release.

EA and Steven Spielberg have confirmed that BOOM BLOX, a 300-level puzzle game for Wii, will be available in May. They plan on showcasing their latest collaboration at the Game Developers Conference which will be held in San Francisco February 18 – 22.The title will feature over 30 “wacky characters” with block-laying chickens and baseball-throwing monkeys within four different themed environments called Frontier, Haunted, Medieval and Tiki.

“We developed BOOM BLOX with endless combinations of gameplay in mind,” saidLouis Castle, executive producer. “With over three hundred levels, built upon a full real-time physics model, your experience can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be - there really is something for everyone to enjoy.”

“My inspiration for this game came while I was playing the Wii for the first time,” commented Spielberg. “From the initial concept to what the game is today, it’s always been built around the innovations the Wii brings to playing games. BOOM BLOX plays on the enjoyment of building and knocking down blocks, something that can appeal innately to kids and adults of all ages. I am a gamer myself, and I really wanted to create a video game that I could play with my kids. BOOM BLOX features an enormous amount of fun challenges and cool scenarios for your kids to solve or for you to master together.”

Spielberg announced back in May that he would be donning the game developers hat and when E3 2007 rolled around, he and EA made an official announcement regarding their joint venture on three titles, which included BOOM BLOX.

You can get more screens for the game by clicking here.