This is great, after last weeks analysis of why British papers hate video games we get another piece of shite ‘journalism’ from The Times regarding the banning of Kane and Lynch ads here in the UK.

Advertisements for Kane & Lynch were accompanied by the claim that the game is “grittier and nastier . . . than anything you’ve seen before, the violence . . . visceral, brutal and very, very real”. The ruling yesterday by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) comes after the report last month by Tanya Byron, the psychologist and television parenting guru, who proposed cigarette-style health warnings on video games to protect children from unsuitable material.

(my highlighting)

I really find this hilarious that The Times in continuing with their theory that the Byron Review was planning to impose cigarette-style health warnings even though anyone who reads the Byron Review knows this is an absolute lie.

Goodness, well fair enough that the ads got banned, they were for Kane and Lynch so I have no issues with it. Though the fact that it took…well quite a few months for this to take place is just a sign that the UK really is going down the shitter.

One last thing from The Times article. Julian Brazier the Conservative MP for Canterbury had this to say;

“This is one more example of the ASA showing leadership and cracking down on the glamorising of violence when the BBFC is dragging its feet and the Video Appeals Committee has failed completely.”

News to me that the BBFC and VAC are involved in managing and controlling what kind of adverts are allowed to be shown on TV and in magazines. I always thought that was the job that the ASA was meant to be doing anyway…

In a worrying sign for fans of the Madden NFL sports games from EA, and in fact fans of any EA Sports games the latest version of Madden has not been scheduled for a PC release.

What does EA Sports head honcho have to say about this, well according to his blog, Peter Moore says that the PC presents serious business challenges.

Read the rest of this entry

The Senior Producer behind Battlefield Heroes the upcoming Play 4 Free game from DICE and EA has weighed in with his thoughts on the recent debate surrounding the PC and the grave. Ben Cousins has some strong feelings on this issue and he is adamant that the PC is not dying, in fact he is of the school of thought that thinks the PC is leading a new major stage of growth for video gaming.

“If you look at the amount of PCs that are out there, we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of millions; if you look at the amount of PS3s and 360s, we’re talking tens of millions, barely. So, absolutely, people think that the PC is dying, but that’s a crazy idea…

it really feels like, to me, that we’re on the cusp of another expansive period of growth, between the DS and the Wii audiences, and there’s also an opportunity on the PC now.

PCs are everywhere — there are hundreds of thousands of internet cafes in India, and this is a poor country that soon will have a completely global, online connected world, for which games will be completely different.”

Read his extremely detailed interview with Gamasutra right here.

Most people now have had time to sit back, relax with a cup of tea or a pint of beer and read through it all. So just a few follow ups regarding the Byron Report.

First off I would like to direct everyone to John Walker’s very good piece regarding the Byron Report on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. With a rating of 8/10 John thinks that the report is pretty darn good!

I have to agree with John, the report does make a lot of sense and presents a good balanced take on the issue of video gaming and the internet in todays society. That is unlike The Times which lost credibility in my eyes for being pretty crap in their coverage of the report.

Secondly we have Seniath who takes a look at the increasing confusion that will occur with the dual-rating system that Dr Byron recommended in her report.

And I agree with young (or slightly older) Seniath, the plans that Dr Byron has set out for using both the BBFC rating and PEGI rating systems are just going to further confuse parents. This is where the report falls down in my mind as Dr Byron sets out in the report to help stop the confusion for many parents, but yet makes a recommendation which will just further the confusion.

But still, the report was generally very good, but as we all know it is up to Gordon Brown et al to pick and chose what they want from the report and use it to their own ends. Hopefully they don’t ruin it all.

The long awaited Byron Review has been published. This report has been carried out by Dr Tanya Byron and was commissioned by the UK Government.

The report is entitled ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’ and takes a look at the internet and video games and their impact on society and children today.

Dr Byron has presented a string of recommendations to the government on both the internet and video games.

Read the rest of this entry

It seems that the company once most closely associated with the PC, id Software, have realized that the console market is where the money is nowadays. Steve Nix of id has revealed that the company can no longer afford to ignore the ever increasing console market for FPS games. However, they are still determined to support the PC.

“So you still have PC players, and some players are just console guys, but have players moved over? Absolutely. We love PC gaming, and we continue to support PC gaming - but you can’t ignore the market realities and the size of the console market these days.”

The PC-Console and the ‘PC is dying’ debate seems to be hotting up by the day now, can we expect to see Gabe and Co. at Valve turn around next and abandon the PC, well no, but the trend is there among many developers.

GamesIndustry.biz

Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley has talked with GameDaily here about the state of the PC gaming industry to add to a debate that seems to be getting ever more intense as the weeks go on.

Smedley is decidedly of the view that the PC is a strong platform and the growth of the MOG is a key factor in this. He is also critical of the NPD for not covering MOG subscriptions and digital distribution methods.

“It’s ridiculous and foolish to say that PC gaming [is in decline]. I’ve seen some of the dumbest quotes out there about the business [falling apart]. It’s just not true. The simple truth is the online business is picking up in a huge way. If you’re able to add in – and NPD is beginning to track this stuff – the digital sales and regular sales and subscription money and all that stuff, the PC gaming industry is at its strongest point in its history period.”

Read the rest of the article here.

In a very frank interview with Gamasutra Valve’s Doug Lombardi takes the time to talk about the success of AudioSurf, continued indie game support, Steamworks and on how he views the PC market as overtaking the console market.

Recalls Lombardi, “I can remember this story coming around in the mid ’90s… and then 3D accelerator came out, and Carmack released that patch for GL Quake, and everybody shut up, because all of a sudden PlayStation looked like crap. There’s a big shift about to come in the post-GPU space… all of a sudden PC will leapfrog what’s going on on the consoles, in many other ways besides graphics.”

In fact, continues Lombardi, the question mark might be floating squarely in the console’s future, as their prices continue climbing and more post-purchase purchases are becoming necessary. “How much longer will that story still have credibility?” He posits.

“Somebody go back and look at next-gen console install base numbers since launch time, and compare it to PSone and PS2. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we saw these guys stuttering out at 25,000 — nobody’s going to get to 100 million, which we saw from Sony on the last 2 [console generations]. I don’t think anybody’s even thinking of this.”

This is a very in-depth interview and it presents a fantastic insight into how Doug views the PC gaming market and the future of the console industry. Check it out here.

PEGI is better than the BBFC when it comes to games classification according to Microsoft’s head of corporate affairs in the UK, Matt Lambert. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Matt was at a recent Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee which is focusing on the effect of violence in videogames and is running parallel to the Byron Report.

“If there’s going to be one ratings system, it should be PEGI,” he said. “With PEGI, they think very carefully about age appropriacy…but the BBFC is set up to rate films, and it takes that approach for games when a different approach is required.

“PEGI breaks it down to a different level. If there’s bad language it will give you a specific symbol, if there’s gambling there’s another symbol, and some games will have a whole raft of symbols on the back. It’s a different depth, it’s more sensible, and it also has a European aspect to it.”

This is a very interesting story, read the whole thing here.

In a recent Press Release from the Department for Culture Media and Sport it has been revealed that the software and computer games sector are the biggest sectors and contribute the most growth among creative industries in the UK. Creative industries contribute £60 billion to the UK economy according to the report and the software and computer games sectors contribute massively to this.

Software and computer games comprise the biggest sector and contribute most to growth, accounting for over 50per cent of turnover growth between 1995 and 2005.

The report which can be found here also indicates that NCSoft, the company behind games such as Guild Wars and City of Heroes, has signed an agreement to help provide 5,000 formal apprenticeships by 2013 from the entire creative sector.

In a related report entitled Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy a Centre of Excellence for Computer Games is due to be set up. The report also details that there are over 100 further education courses in the UK dealing with computer games, it goes on to say that University courses dealing with computer games are looking for students with a mix of Maths and Art A Levels. This is an unusual mix and the Government plans to increase awareness of the skills required to University computer games courses.

Further the report says that;

The Government will also increase awareness of the current R&D tax credit scheme and investigate how to make it more user friendly for small business, with a particular focus on the computer games industry.

These are two very interesting reports, it will be very intriguing to see if they have any effect on the Byron Report. For now, we must wait and see what the next few weeks and months bring in what is sure to be a crucial time for the games industry in the UK.