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Bit more of a techy one then an arts one this time, possibly more of a news then an activist set, but definately an announcement of sorts:

Disney to open new Wii development studio

What does this mean to you? Probably not much. One thing you might however want to consider with this new games console, is Nintendo's desire to bring back the bedroom programmer/coder. As someone who grew up in a time when the internet was science fiction, and the reality was dialing up home built bulitin board systems with a text only interface, I know the value of the bedroom programmer. It is something quite close to my heart. Indeed with the advent of the open source movement, and in particular, the linux based operating system, there is a steady movement back to programmings roots. Which is great, but the desire to write your own games from scratch and be able to play them on your favourite console, for some at least still holds a great deal of desirability.

Nintendo are offering fully licenced development kits for doing just this for about $2000 (rumoured). Seems a lot, however, this includes all the hardware and software as well as the full licence to develop for the console.

Truly, a good year for the grass roots developer.

Now that is bloody interesting stuff Alan. I've got my 'politics-head' on right now. What happens if someone buys this kit and designs a game that goes on to become a best seller? Do they own the rights to it or do Disney?

upstate wrote:Now that is bloody interesting stuff Alan. I've got my 'politics-head' on right now. What happens if someone buys this kit and designs a game that goes on to become a best seller? Do they own the rights to it or do Disney?

The person writing the game will, what's interesting is that Disney are putting this much stock into Nintendo - the Gamecube was a nice little console, but it had virtually no 3rd party support, that is to say that nearly no one except nintendo produced games for it.

The Wii is gathering pace in this department, both in terms of the hobbiest and from professional third party development studios.

the_leander wrote: The person writing the game will, what's interesting is that Disney are putting this much stock into Nintendo - the Gamecube was a nice little console, but it had virtually no 3rd party support, that is to say that nearly no one except nintendo produced games for it.

The Wii is gathering pace in this department, both in terms of the hobbiest and from professional third party development studios.

Excellent. I would be really grateful to you if you kept this thread updated Alan.

Cheers man ...

So expect to hear of new titles in the near future such as "Badger Baiting 3D", "Pub Fighter II" and "M25 Rush Hour".

Laughing my head off at Pub Fighter II. Classic Dave ...

It will be the first of many games in the "Pub" series. "Pub Soccer 06/07" is already on the boards. "Sim Pub" should appear next year.

I can't wait until they release Bar Room Doom ...

Or a "Pub" first person shoot 'em up based around delivery of consumables such as crisps and nuts called "Shelf Life".