Ah, slow news weeks. Don't you just love them? There's not a ton for us to cover this week—a new Halo project, some promotions, and maybe some cannibals. But don't get too comfortable—this is just the calm before next week's PAX East storm.
Halo on celluloid
Poor Neil Blomkamp. Despite his amazing test footage, he's now been passed over for a Halo project not once but twice since the cancellation of his planned Halo movie (assuming Microsoft didn't approach him only to have him say where they could shove Master Chief's helmet, that is).
In addition to the already-in-the-works, Steven Spielberg-helmed Halo TV show, Microsoft announced this week that another Halo project is underway—this one helmed by Ridley Scott. There's a quick turnaround on this one; the so-called "digital feature project" should be out by the end of the year, so expect to hear more details soon.
Judgment Day
Amazon is integrating Metacritic scores into its product pages, displaying it alongside Amazon's standard user reviews.
On the one hand it's not a huge deal. Metacritic is a common starting place for many consumers anyway, and the same scores are already displayed on Steam. On the other hand, I worry about the effect such prominent display of those scores has on games with mixed reviews—say, Alpha Protocol, which was a love-it-or-hate-it game with a 72 rating on PC and a 63 on the Xbox 360. How many people won't buy those titles because they see the mixed rating?
Oh well. The number is there if you want it.
Xbox is for games
Phil Spencer is now Head of Xbox at Microsoft, after a promotion earlier this week. "It’s been a remarkable year for Xbox and I am honored to lead the team at this incredible time for Microsoft and the games industry," wrote Spencer on the Xbox Wire.
The promotion also comes with a refocusing of the Xbox brand, which left E3 last year tarnished and bruised. "Games and gamers have always been at the core of Xbox and the core of my work—and gaming will be our core as we take Xbox forward," wrote Spencer. After a year of Microsoft pushing the Xbox as an "all-in-one-entertainment-device," that's quite a bold statement for Spencer to make.
It's still early in the console generation, and thus a good time for Microsoft to make a change. Now to see whether the Xbox can win back hearts and minds.
Oculus canabalizes Valve
In the wake of last week's Facebook/Oculus news, one of my leading concerns was what would happen to the relationship between Oculus and Valve. If you'll recall, Valve was doing a lot of research and then handing it off to Oculus free-of-charge. After the Facebook acquisition I assumed this agreement would cease.
But maybe it doesn't matter. In the last week both Michael Abrash and Aaron Nichollshave left Valve to work at Oculus. At this rate, Valve's VR department must look pretty slim.
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