You are here: Home / Team Blog
We've just got over the jetlag after a week in Los Angeles at E3, the year's premier games convention.
Like most boys, when I was a child I went through a phase of wanting to be an explorer. My aspirations were knocked one day when I realised that most of the world had already been explored long before I was born.
I've spent many evenings engrossed in Uncharted 2 recently, and it has prompted some interesting debate here at nDreams. At first glance, it's an incredible game which doesn't innovate at all; it simply does lots of things that other games have done before, but does them brilliantly well. Great story, great cinematics, great action sequences, great gunplay...
It has now been a few years since I left my previous role at a large publisher, so I finally feel able to get a rather big chip off my shoulder. And the chip in question is the truly horrible way that film studios and games publishers have worked together over the last decade.
If nDreams appears to have gone a bit quiet lately, it’s because we’re working. Behind our calm exterior, there is a frenzy of activity as we work on a number of new projects – one of which is an ARG. But more about that in a second.
Making and running our first ARG, Xi, was a huge undertaking and took well over a year to complete. For most of that time, we stayed under the radar. It wasn’t until Xi went live that people really noticed nDreams and now, well, many are keeping an eye on us, not least because they want to know how we aim to top Xi.
Xi is coming to an end. Its three-month run as a live ARG is over, but we’re keeping the puzzles and games open for a few weeks yet, so people can finish collecting all the butterflies and fragments they want before submitting themselves to the final assessment that concludes their individual experience.
Wow - what a week. E3 is definitely back to its best. Lots of celebrities (Beatles, Spielberg, James Cameron, Jay-Z, Eminem), big crowds, some exciting news from the platform holders and a handful of truly impressive new games.
Pick of the games for us were:
- Splinter Cell Conviction (a stunning demo; best looking game at the show)
- Split Second (the best racing game, awesome in multiplayer)
- Avatar (word of mouth from people who saw the VIP demo in full 3D say that it's jaw-dropping. Managed to get a VIP ticket, but a day too late!)
nDreams finest, Patrick O'Luanaigh and Chris Nuttall, bring a quick E3 preview from Los Angeles the day before E3 begins:
On Monday 23rd March, at 2pm GMT, we finally launched Xi. It’s an unusual game – the kind sometimes called an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) – and we’ve been quietly working away at it for a very long time. It’s a relief to finally talk about it. Before I go on, I should say that there will be no clues or spoilers here. It’s a game filled with suspense and secrets and I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun.
Mike Hayes, President of SEGA Europe was interviewed by gamesindustry.biz this week. He highlighted a trend which I think has been going on for some time now, and is rapidly increasing.
He said, "What we're actually doing is getting rid of the bottom tier of titles that we were putting in to get an extra bit of market share, of money. We're getting rid of those, and we're going to focus on the biggest titles.."
nDreams Charity Transport Relay
Secret Lewis Bahrain Launch video
Spirit of Adventure: Behind the Scenes
The Making of Xi
(c) nDreams Ltd 2008- Designed by ThemeSnap.com | This site is valid XHTML 1.0
