Dead Space feature film in the works

Electronic Arts is adding another medium to its Dead Space project.

The survival horror game - inspired by films such as Alien, Event Horizon, and The Thing - is slated for release this Halloween for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Dead Space is a new intellectual property developed at EA, and the game is preceded by a six-part original comic book series written by Antony Johnston (the excellent Wasteland) and inked by Ben Templesmith (the equally excellent 30 Days of Night). The first issue is now available.

EA has also teamed up with Starz Media to develop an animated feature film that will bridge the plots of the comic series and the game. Starz plans to license the feature for television broadcast as well as release the project on DVD. The film is expected to be released at the same time as the game.

It's looking to be a very cinematic - and very creepy - project.

It's about a parasitic alien race that inhabits the bodies of other species. Like humans. Nice.

Remember the tag line for Alien? "In space, no one can hear you scream."

EA says collaboration with Thompson 'impossible'

Gamasutra today published the contents of an e-mail letter in which Electronic Arts tells Jack Thompson to stay away from them and their business.

Jack Thompson, in case you don't know, is a U.S. conservative activist (read: wacko) who has tried to make a career out of preaching his backwards opinions as facts. He continually misrepresents aspects of the video game industry in his one-man crusade to try and rid the industry of violence.

Thompson's nemesis is Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of Rockstar Games titles such as Manhunt 2 and Bully. Thompson has repeatedly tried to get those games banned in any territory where a judge will actually grant him court time.

Now Thompson has taken his personal battle against Take-Two to Electronic Arts, and offered his assistance in helping EA succeed in their takeover bid for Take-Two.

In an e-mail letter sent to EA shareholders and media, Thompson makes bizarre statements about the character of Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick:

Strauss Zelnick is not a 'Boy Scout' as he actually hilariously described himself in The Wall Street Journal this week. Strauss Zelnick is a "Boy Scout" like Jeffrey Dahmer was a gourmet cook. Zelnick proved that with his Take-Two golden parachute scam.

How did EA respond to such an interesting offer?

Well, they essentially told Thompson to take a hike. But they did it very politely:

In response to your offer to assist in the proposed acquisition of Take-Two, we would strongly prefer that you not get involved in this matter.... EA is a strong supporter of creative freedom for game developers. We feel that your past statements – including false claims about content in our games – make any collaboration with you impossible.

Nice one, EA.

GDC 2008: Will Wright in person

Will Wright has been conspicuously absent from the media spotlight in the past couple of years. A media comrade and I were speculating as to exactly why this might be happening while we waited for Wright to come on stage last night. We decided we didn't know why he's been so hermit-like.

Electronic Arts, the publisher of Wright’s games, staged this exclusive party at a San Francisco nightclub as a chance to get everyone together for a party, duh, but also to give Wright a chance to do a public event. He did not disappoint.

In his 40-minute talk, Wright ranged from Star Wars to James Bond to Gilligan’s Island to Godzilla to Walt Disney. His central theme was talking about “worlds,” his word for franchise or brand or entertainment property.

In the middle of it all was a “Russian Space Minute” in which Wright told us the incredible story of a failed Soviet rocket launch.

What Wright did not talk about, though, was Spore, except to mention it as an example of something he had worked on.

At the end of his entertaining ramble, what Wright left us with is that “the value of worlds and play experiences is they help us refine our world view.”

For Wright, the best worlds (and therefore the best stories) can be deconstructed. In this way, they lead to play. The example Wright gave was the thought experiment in which you wonder which would win a battle between the Death Star, a Cylon Battlestar, and a Borg cube.

The other side of this is that the best play is generative, and therefore leads to a myriad of stories that can be told.

Bringing this all together means that worlds/story leads to play, which leads to worlds and story, in this precious and neverending cycle.

Spore, by the way, will be available for PC, Mac, and Nintendo DS on September 7.

What happened with Rock Band in Canada?

I should have realized something was going on when I didn't receive a review copy of Rock Band last November. But because there are so many games that end up in my mailbox at that time of year, I didn't, actually, even notice it was missing.

It wasn't until I was talking with some gamers over the holiday break that I realized something had really snafued the release of Rock Band into Canada.

It seems that MTV Games just couldn't make the games fast enough to meet demand. And, as is often the case, the Canadian market got shorted as a result.

My investigation into what happened was the focus of my video game column, "Trigger Happy," that publishes in the Georgia Straight. You can read the entire article here.

Despite the claims of many consumers who are angry at their local games store, the fact that Rock Band never appeared on time or in quantities to meet demand was not due to any error by the retailers.