Some more swedish xbox 2 games

thorns

Banned
There was an article on a swedish technical newslatter called "Ny teknik" on swedish game studios.

According to the article:
Starbreeze: PS3 and Xbox 2 game for Majesco
Grin: Secret Xbox 2 project
Bad Robot: Action game for Xbox (or probably Xbox 2)
Southend Interactive: Secret Xbox(most likely Xbox 2) game for Ubisoft.
 
DICE are working on several as previously announced.

Amuze - do they still exist?

Avalanche might be doing something as well.

Very surprised to see Grin on the list. They did Bandits a couple of years back didn't they?
 
Starbreeze and Southend could code on the friggin Intellivision and I'd still looking forward to their games. Man, Sweden is truly rocking the gaming scene.
 
Funky Papa said:
Starbreeze and Southend could code on the friggin Intellivision and I'd still looking forward to their games. Man, Sweden is truly rocking the gaming scene.

IAWTP. Heja Sverige :)
 
B E N K E said:
Amuze - do they still exist?

From their site:

"Recruitment

Amuze is currently recruiting for a hugely ambitious title being developed for next-generation gaming platforms. If YOU have what it takes, click here"

So apparently, yes. :P
 
For a couple of weeks ago I had a chat with one of the designers at Amuze. He said that he never wanted to work for SEGA again, never ever! Under the development of Headhunter:, SEGA just pushed them too hard. They worked like 16-20 hours a day, but was only paid for 8 hours.
The deadline was so freckin´ hard to follow up, when SEGA wanted new things all the time, and with just a couple of weeks left, they were "forced" to build up a whole new graphic engine for the game. Amuze kinda split up, and many people left unnoticed.

Way to go SEGA you bastards!
 
Grin did Bandits I guess.. Didn't they do Ballistics too (or was the engine confusingly named to Grin3D or something like that)?

What's Bad Robot done?

Damn Swedes... pretty good stuff coming from you, gotta admit. Oh well, Finland will rise one day... just wait! :)
 
IgeL said:
Grin did Bandits I guess.. Didn't they do Ballistics too (or was the engine confusingly named to Grin3D or something like that)?

What's Bad Robot done?

Damn Swedes... pretty good stuff coming from you, gotta admit. Oh well, Finland will rise one day... just wait! :)
Grin did Ballistic too!

Trust me Grin is doing some UBER-AMAZING stuff, you would not believe it, even in present state. SouthEnd just plain rocks and their stuff will be equally impressive at the least. These companies have some of the most talented and creative people in the games industry.

The sad thing is, like the Amuze story, publishers wouldnt know talent if it bit them in the gonads and danced a jig in front of them. They consider you a 'talent' if you are a part of a multimillion selling franchise, like Activision's NeverSoft. They create OK games, granted, but they look like ass, are never polished and lack originality on many levels. Not their fault, Activision wants them to make those kinds of games and thats what they do.

But at the companies where credit is due, SouthEnd, Grin, many others, people are working SO hard, maing NEW, ORIGINAL and exciting products, but publishers just walk all over them without respect and flip them the finger.

I've been paying attention lately, to company statements, and I can throuroughly say that Activision and Electronic Arts are absolutely paving the way for destruction of creative games. All they care about is 'predictable franchises'. Something that you just KNOW will make money. Something that has proven itself before. Thus automatically not giving (many) new things a chance. Cutting production costs down to bare minimum, resulting in less time to flesh out creative idea's or visuals on multiplatform, it's a shame.

Plus, they want to raise game pricing in the future, and they talk about online, and micro management money transactions, as if it's future music. While all of it is implemented today in the Xbox Live service. Yet they ignore that cutting edge piece of online revolution. When did these companies turn into any other company wanting to compete and get more money instead of focussing on keeping your feet up and everyone in the company happy while producing quality content? it's that the more gratifying thing to fight for instead of inmediate material statisfaction?

Crazyness, this industry is so demotivating from the inside. SouthEnd and Grin, as well as the other independant companies who just don't get any recognition for their amazing work; you guys rule, and will always be the moral winner. Fight the Man!

Alrighty then...sorry 'bout the rant. :)

Regardless, their stuff is (and will be) amazing.
 
Yeah I know what you mean. It's the same here in Finland. Bugbear is damn talented (they just finished FlatOut for Empire, hope it sells) but they had a lot of trouble finding a publishing deal. Housemarque is stuck on prototyping games for the big boys, not sure if they have landed a deal yet or not (probably not). Remedy is probably the only one who can do whatever they want (same with DICE in Sweden I guess).

Finland's got some rising talent coming up, especially RedLynx (just finished Pathway to Glory for Nokia). Interesting to see if they'll try to do a console game sometime in the future. There are some smaller companies as well, and some real good tech stuff.

What we need is a big Nordic publisher. Pan Vision/Toptronics might become one in the future, so here's hoping... I believe that if we could gather all or most of the Nordic dev houses under a Nordic publisher, the payoff would be good.
 
I guess MS is not going to acquire more first party studios, but they should have looked into some of the very talented swedish studios IMHO. Starbreeze for example has the potential of becoming a new bungie.
 
Are there any big developers in Norway or Denmark? I recall a Danish developer making Freedom Fighters...IO Interactive, I think. And didn't they make the Hitman series as well?

I agree that it would be great with a Scandinavian publisher. There's enough talent among Scandinavian developers to make it a success game-wise I think. But maybe it would be hard for a Scandinavian publisher to reach out to other markets, and push games with ads etc in the US for example? Could they afford it?
 
You'd have to be crazy to start a publisher in Sweden, the tax capital of europe, when you can just start up in a more welcoming enviroment elsewhere in the EU.
 
Ghost said:
You'd have to be crazy to start a publisher in Sweden, the tax capital of europe, when you can just start up in a more welcoming enviroment elsewhere in the EU.

Sweden is not Scandinavia, only a part of it. ;)
And yeah, they could start a publishing company somewhere else, my point was that it would be cool with a publisher focusing on Scandinavian titles.
 
Kiriku said:
Are there any big developers in Norway or Denmark? I recall a Danish developer making Freedom Fighters...IO Interactive, I think. And didn't they make the Hitman series as well?

I agree that it would be great with a Scandinavian publisher. There's enough talent among Scandinavian developers to make it a success game-wise I think. But maybe it would be hard for a Scandinavian publisher to reach out to other markets, and push games with ads etc in the US for example? Could they afford it?

There`s one pretty big developer in Norway atleast, i don`t remember their name atm but they made Anarchy Online for the PC. I think they also made The longest journey.
 
Kiriku said:
Are there any big developers in Norway or Denmark? I recall a Danish developer making Freedom Fighters...IO Interactive, I think. And didn't they make the Hitman series as well?

Yes, Io made the Hitman series. And yes, they're Danish. And yes, all Danes should die and burn in hell. And yes, I'm dead-serious.

I'm gonna go eat some pancakes now.
 
Weren't DICE bought by EA?

They've already probably undergone their EA lobotomy and are slaving away on NFSU3.
 
COCKLES said:
Weren't DICE bought by EA?

They've already probably undergone their EA lobotomy and are slaving away on NFSU3.

I think it was Milhouse who put it best - they're now probably EA Sweden, doing Need For Speed Rally.
 
That Need for Speed Next Gen teaser had a real RSC2 vibe, so I wouldn't be surprised if DICE is going to handle the development. Might be a good decision, Black Box will stick to the Underground shit again, it's TOO successful.
 
Kiriku said:
Are there any big developers in Norway or Denmark? I recall a Danish developer making Freedom Fighters...IO Interactive, I think. And didn't they make the Hitman series as well?
Yeah, Hitman and Freedom FIghters. But they are bought by Eidos, and DICE is pretty much from EA...
 
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