B.C. government announces tax credit for video game developers · 3 February, 08:47 PM
The B.C. government has finally decided to support the video-game industry with tax credits. It’s good news for Vancouver’s developers, even if the government still doesn’t appear to fully appreciate the video-game industry.
This afternoon, B.C. finance minister Colin Hansen and minster of tourism, culture, and the arts Kevin Krueger, who called the video-game industry “inspiring”, announced that the province will support game development with a new tax credit.
With the next provincial budget set to be announced on March 2, Hansen also announced an increase in the tax credit available to the film and television industry, as well as to the Digital Animation or Visual Effects (DAVE) tax credit bonus, from 15 to 17.5 percent. Those increases will take effect on March 1.
But the new B.C. Interactive Digital Media tax credit, for 17.5 percent of qualifying B.C. labour costs, won’t take effect until September 1. Hansen said this is because there was “implementation work” that needed to be done. It may be because the B.C. government still doesn’t understand the interactive industry.
In his comments during the briefing at Vancouver’s Rainmaker Entertainment, Hansen kept talking about the importance of film, television, animation, and visual effects companies. “Film and video and digital production and animation are becoming increasingly intertwined,” he said. “There is a growing convergence of technologies.”
True. And you can add video games to that list. But in his remarks, Hansen consistently mentioned video games last, when he mentioned them at all. That may not seem important, but it indicates that video games are not at the forefront of the finance minister’s mind.
The Straight asked Hansen why the government had waited so long to introduce financial support for the video-game industry. “It’s only now that we’re really starting to see that convergence,” he said, “and the inter-relationship between the video-game industry and the film and motion picture industry and the animation sector.”
Which suggests that the video-game industry on its own is not deserving of support. When the Straight put that to Hansen, he simply said that “there has been a lot done for competitiveness and job creation in British Columbia. This is one additional measure.”
Not much of an answer.
Hansen also suggested that B.C. game developers will have to choose between the new tax credit and the existing Scientific Research & Experimental Development (SR&ED, commonly pronounced “shred”) incentive program that is administered by the federal government. He said that the new B.C. Interactive Digital Media tax credit does not replace SR&ED, “but companies can determine which of the two programs actually best meet their needs”.
While Vancouver is a hub in the video-game-development industry, studios have had a rough time in the past couple of years.
Leaving aside the impact of the economic slowdown, provinces such as Quebec and Ontario have been ratcheting up the tax breaks being offered to developers—Quebec’s labour tax credit is 37.5 percent and Ontario’s is 35 percent—and foreign markets such as China have a wealth of skilled and cheap labour.
Vancouver’s development community, led by larger studios Electronic Arts Canada, Propaganda Games (a division of Disney Interactive), Radical Entertainment, and Relic Entertainment, have been actively lobbying for government support that is required, they’ve argued, to put the Vancouver and B.C. scene on equal footing with competing regions.
Without success. Until today.
Howard Donaldson, vice president of studio operations for Disney Interactive Studios and head of Vancouver’s Propaganda Games, is also the chair of the B.C. Interactive Task Force. In his remarks during the briefing, Donaldson said the new tax credit was an “important first step to creating the next-gen digital media hub” in B.C.
Speaking with the Straight afterwards, Donaldson admitted that the 17.5-percent credit was more than the B.C. video-game industry expected when the task force was created late last summer. “Now that the task force has been established,” he said, “we will continue to work to grow the industry.”
In the past two years, studios that were considered for Vancouver have instead opened in Quebec or Ontario. Being compensated for a third of employees’ wages and salaries is a big incentive.
Donaldson said he hopes the new B.C. Interactive Digital Media tax credit will encourage companies to look at Vancouver more seriously. “B.C. has some definite advantages,” he said, invoking the province’s geographical location and the highly educated and skilled employees that are so interchangeable with the film, television, and animation industries.
So while the tax credit may seem small in comparison to other jurisdictions, B.C.’s video-game developers are not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. And the new tax credit could be just the shot in the arm that the sector needs to return to the levels of success and prominence it was celebrated for only a few years ago.
Hansen said he hopes the new incentives will lead to “continued growth” in the various industries. The appeal internationally, he said, will be that B.C. has strengths in all those sectors. “If you’re developing a new production…Vancouver and British Columbia will be one-stop shopping.”
Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight
Steve Jobs unveils Apple's iPad tablet device · 27 January, 05:08 PM
Apple CEO Steve Jobs today unveiled the highly anticipated iPad, his company’s latest consumer-electronics gadget. Priced starting at only US$499 — some analysts were expecting a price tag of $999 — the touchscreen tablets will be available worldwide in late March.
Jobs took to the stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center saying, “We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.”
After talking about Apple’s success in the mobile space — the company has sold 250 million iPods since that device was first introduced in 2001 — Jobs said, “Everyone uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. The question has arisen lately: is there room for a third-category device in the middle?”
The iPad, he said, is “so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone”.
Weighing only 1.5 pounds, the iPad is very thin, coming in at half an inch. It looks like an enlarged iPhone, with a black rim around the 9.7-inch IPS (in-plane switching) screen and an aluminum unibody case, much like the newer MacBooks.
There is a single “home” button at the bottom of the device, which is all the iPad needs, because it uses the precise Multi-Touch technology used in the iPhone and iPod Touch. The gestural interaction popularized by those devices — swiping, pinching, and flicking — are how you’ll navigate the iPad applications, and as with those gadgets, when you rotate the iPad, the screen automatically orients to its new position. Up is always up, down is always down. When the iPad is in landscape, the on-screen keyboard is large enough for two-handed typing.
Apple designed its own chip for the iPad. Called the A4, it is a 1-GHz processor. Battery life maxes out at 10 hours, and the devices come with Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. Some models also include 3G cellular connectivity. It comes with 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB of solid-state storage.
That makes for six iPad configurations: Wi-Fi 16 GB ($499), Wi-Fi 32 GB ($599), Wi-Fi 64 GB ($699), Wi-Fi + 3G 16 GB ($629), Wi-Fi + 3G 32 GB ($729), Wi-Fi + 3G 64 GB ($829).
However, only the non-3G models will be available worldwide at launch. In the U.S., Apple has arranged for two no-contract, prepaid data plans with AT&T: $14.99 per month for up to 250 MB, or $29.99 for an unlimited plan.
The 3G iPads will be made available in other countries as carrier deals are put in place. Jobs said he hoped those would be ready to announce this summer. The 3G models are all unlocked, and because they use GSM micro SIM cards, Jobs said, “If your carrier uses micro SIMs, there’s a very high likelihood it’ll just work.”
The iPad syncs over USB like iPhones and iPods, and was built to be able to run software already available in the App Store. If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you’ll be able to sync most of those applications with an iPad.
Apple has also released a new iPad SDK (software development kit) to allow developers to take advantage of the iPad’s larger display.
Showing off iPad applications during the media event were Gameloft, showing an iPad version of the game Nova; the New York Times, presenting in-line video within articles; Brushes, demonstrating painting on the iPad; Electronic Arts, with a version of Need for Speed: Shift; and MLB.com, with a “whole new experience” including replay video, live-updating box scores and statistics, and even digital baseball cards.
Software incorporated into the iPad includes similar maps functionality as the iPhone, Apple’s Mail, and the Safari Web browser. Photos are able to leverage the “events, places, and faces” sorting features from iPhoto. And the iPad features complete integration with iTunes for sampling and purchasing audio and video content.
Apple also revamped iWork — its suite of business applications including Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheet), and Keynote (presentation) — for the iPad by rethinking how users would interface with the software. The iPad versions of those programs are compatible with their Mac counterparts, and are priced at only US$9.99.
But it is Apple’s new iBookstore that could be the game changer. The significance of the iPad — coming from the company that revolutionized the music business with the iPod and iTunes — is as much about content and distribution as it is about the gadget itself.
In introducing iBooks, the e-book reader software available on the iPad, Jobs said, “Amazon’s done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle. We’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a little further.”
Apple’s decision to support the ePub open book format is the biggest threat to Amazon, as its Kindle uses a proprietary, DRM-restricted format. What is unclear is what the experience of reading text on the iPad’s LED-backlit display will be like. The Kindle uses E Ink for its display, which more closely resembles ink on paper.
Presented as a bookshelf, iBooks permits the purchase and download of e-books directly to the iPad from the iBookstore. Titles purchased appear on your own digital bookshelf.
The iBookstore will only be available in the U.S. to begin with, and participating publishers include Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette. Separate deals to license books for various territories are being made.
Apple has also designed some accessories for the iPad, including a dock, a keyboard dock, and a case that makes the iPad into what looks like a digital photo frame.
What’s missing? There’s no camera, either for photography or video-conferencing, and it appears that the iPad is not able to multi-task, so you can’t run multiple programs at the same time.
In closing the press briefing, Jobs said the iPad is “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price….The reason we’ve been able to create products like this is because we’ve tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.”
Rhetoric aside, there’s no doubt that the iPad is nicely designed and extremely functional. The question is whether it’s different enough from the alternatives — smartphones and laptops — to make a difference.
Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight
Mass Effect 2 raises the stakes · 21 January, 12:25 PM
Next week, Electronic Arts releases Mass Effect 2, the second game in the planned trilogy from Edmonton’s BioWare.
This week, in the Georgia Straight, I feature the game – which I am eagerly awaiting – in a preview/review and a sidebar with comments from executive producer Casey Hudson, and BioWare’s two founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.
Now excuse me so I can get back to work. I’m trying to get all my work done so when the game arrives in my mailbox, I can turn my full attention to it.
Trust me, you’ll want to do the same.
Killing the competition · 21 January, 12:07 PM
In today’s edition of Fast Forward Weekly is my latest “Joystuck” column, which this month includes reviews of Assassin’s Creed II, Borderlands, DJ Hero, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Black Box forges on with Skate 3 · 7 January, 03:24 PM
Late in 2008, Electronic Arts announced company-wide layoffs, and venerable Vancouver studio Black Box was hit hard.
In today’s Georgia Straight is my conversation with Jason DeLong, executive producer of the upcoming Skate 3 about how his team fared after the layoffs and the move from the swank downtown Vancouver studio to the large EA Canada campus in Burnaby.
He was candid and honest, and what I learned is that things may have been rough, but they got better.
How Mass Effect 2 uses your Mass Effect save file · 17 December, 09:57 AM
One of the burning questions being asked by fans of BioWare’s Mass Effect is how saved game files from the first game will be used by Mass Effect 2, which will be released exclusive to the Xbox 360 by Electronic Arts on January 26, 2010.
In a press tour hosted by BioWare at their Edmonton studio in November, executive producer Casey Hudson said that fans have been expressing on forums their concern that the feature would get dropped.
“But that is actually the key defining feature about the Mass Effect trilogy that you can’t get in any other game,” said Hudson. “The save game at the end of Mass Effect 1 can be loaded right into Mass Effect 2 and then you continue that game. Inside the game, all of the choices that you made affect other things that happen later, those things continue to exist in that world.”
It was a promise made by Hudson when the first game of the planned trilogy came out in the fall of 2007. But he doesn’t expect that they’ve set a trend because keeping that promise was difficult.
“It is completely ridiculous how complex it is,” he admitted. “It is almost impossible to manage, within one game, the choices and the way they cascade, is almost impossible. But then you take that and multiply it by what happens in the second game and all these things can affect it. I would be really surprised if anyone tried to do this. “
When you start the import process in Mass Effect 2 you’ll see an annotated list of all your completed play-throughs that are on the Xbox 360 hard drive. The data shown — your character name, your class, your alignment — will help you identify which play-through you want to import.
But only completed play-throughs, those saved files in which Mass Effect was beaten, can be imported. Lead designer Preston Watamaniuk said that was because players made so many decisions in the first game, and BioWare didn’t want to make those decisions for players who hadn’t finished the game. “We want to make sure you have full ownership of the choices in your play through so that they carry forward, and they are all yours.”
Some content, added Christina Norman, lead gameplay designer on the game, is only available to those who import a saved game. “You don’t get to make all those choices if you aren’t starting from there.”
Importing a saved game brings in your Commander Shepard character from Mass Effect 1. You’ll have a chance to make adjustments to physical features, and you’ll be given an opportunity to reselect the class for your specific Shepard.
That decision was made, Hudson said, because the improvements made to Mass Effect 2, which include a new combat system, have made the different classes play much differently. “Being a Vanguard in Mass Effect 1 is a radically different experience than being a Vanguard in Mass Effect 2,” said Norman.
You’ll also be able to import a Mass Effect 1 Shepard more than once, added Norman, so you can take your one favourite play-through and import it several times to create multiple Mass Effect 2 characters with different classes.
The new combat system also meant that level progression in Mass Effect 2 needed to start over, so high level characters from Mass Effect 1 do not keep their same level. But high level characters from Mass Effect 1 will get bonus experience at the beginning of Mass Effect 2. “If you’re level 60 you’ll get the most possible bonus experience towards your Mass Effect 2 play-through,” said Norman.
“Power gamers will want to reach level 60,” she advised.
Looking ahead to Mass Effect 3, which has not been announced but is easy to anticipate, BioWare’s promise still holds: your Mass Effect 2 saved game will be used by Mass Effect 3.
Hudson said he’s looking forward to developing that title. “It’ll be easier because we have to bring everything to fruition.” Managing the story in Mass Effect 2 was difficult because the BioWare storytellers had to deal with everything that happened in Mass Effect 1, and have those things affect the game, and have threads carry through so there is continuity with Mass Effect 3.
“So I think the next one will actually be easier and kind of a lot more fun for us,” said Hudson, “because things can blow up and people can die and that’s that. We can put the exclamation point on a lot more stuff.”
Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight
TRON, True Crime reboot in development in Vancouver · 17 December, 09:53 AM
I reported in the Georgia Straight this week about two video games currently in development at Vancouver studios.
Propaganda Games is working on TRON: Evolution, which will bridge the two films, the 1982 original and the sequel, coming next Christmas. The game is for Disney Interactive.
Meanwhile, we’ve finally learned the title of the second game in development at United Front Games (the first announced was ModNation Racers). True Crime will reboot the action franchise for Activision, and is set in Hong Kong.
Review: LittleBigPlanet PSP · 17 December, 09:46 AM
As with its PS3 cousin, LittleBigPlanet PSP is a kaleidoscope of delight.
The play is fun and simple: run, jump, grab. It’s accompanied by a bright, poppy soundtrack and Stephen Fry as a friendly narrator.
While it seems like this handheld version is just a port of the original console version, the levels designed by Cambridge are completely new and the developers there wisely opted for only two levels of depth to the play, foreground and background, as opposed to the three of the PS3 edition.
The only thing I found lacking is that while the PSP and PSPgo screens are bright and crisp, they are small, so you can’t really see the details and expressions that make Sackgirls and Sackboys so cute and charming. They are rendered mere objects as a result.
LittleBigPlanet PSP (Sony; PSP; rated everyone)
Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight
Review: The Saboteur · 17 December, 09:44 AM
Everything about The Saboteur is cinematic. That’s both good and bad.
Good because the game is looks and sounds wonderful.
The characters are crisply defined and engaging, even if they are cliched. Sean Devlin, the protagonist, is an Irish mechanic turned race car driver who becomes a member of the French resistance.
The setting, Nazi-occupied Paris, is recreated with flair. The superb art direction makes use of black and white – with flashes of red, blue, and yellow – a bold choice that works. As Sean liberates the city colour seeps into the environment.
The perfect score is ’40s-era big band and jazz, ranging from all-out fanfare to the muted horns that I associate with Montmartre of the time.
Unfortunately, while The Saboteur is presented with cinematic polish, it does not provide a satisfying game play experience.
The display on the screen is cluttered with icons that seem to have been scattered all over the place, the controls are clumsy, the animation stutters. Making Sean run around, sneak, and climb is more frustrating than fun.
It wants to be an open world action game, a racing game, and a stealth game all at the same time, but the action lacks, the racing is sub-par, and the stealth is mostly a lark.
The Saboteur has style and panache, but it’s not much of a game.
The Saboteur (EA; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; rated mature)
Cross-posted at the Georgia Straight
Joystuck's holiday gift guide for gamers · 17 December, 09:40 AM
This week in Calgary’s Fast Forward Weekly is the annual Joystuck holiday gift guide for gamers. It’s true that buying for those interested in video games is easy. You just need a little guidance, is all.
