EVERY PUBLISHER SHOULD GET A SAY.

I couldn't believe how poor that piece was. It was the most god awful pr piece I have ever read. If I were running Aspyr, I'd "re-assign" whomever is responsible to duties not involved in any contact with the public.

Not to mention the fact that IMG actually posted it. If you are going to post pr pieces, either make sure all publishers have the same access or just don't post the crap that you've posted here.

if you want in depth, honest, and through discussions about gaming development you can't go beyond gamasutra.com. it's the american cinematographer and cineflex of gaming :)

"yeah, we screwed up. we did this wrong. and this wrong. oh, and this".

IMG does seem to have a bit of a love fest with aspyr,. then again, looking at the four games I've bought this year - three of them have been ported by aspyr and the other one was Fallout 2 which is a few years old.

personally, i'd like IMG to promote mac-only development a bit more. First to Fight is in the right direction, but its not mac only. IMG needs to champion the Mac as a gaming platform with its own unique titles, not also-rans. i remember the days when the Mac had absolutely great games that you couldn't get on another platform. or, if you could, the mac version was vastly superior.

for e.g. why no word on Swoop Software (the Deimos' Rising guys) new game Kitty Spangles? (yeah, i'm biased. if you type h'biki into the high score section of Deimos, it changes it to something amusing :))

"...ou do a search on IMG for different features with Aspyr employees, specifically the Glenda Adams and Brad Oliver interviews, you'll be able to find answers to some of your questions."


I'm not actually all that interested in the answers beyond idle curiosity. But an actual interview with an Aspyr VP would explore them as much as possible, at least in general terms if not with regard to a specific title. If this were actually about giving readers a look "inside" a successful porting house/developer, anyway. Instead, it seems mainly about selling KOTOR.

Which is fine with me (I bought a copy the other day, it's great, by all means tell people so), I just wish IMG weren't kind of shilling for Aspyr while _pretending_ to bring readers useful and interesting information about the company.

"I mean, for a piece purportedly about licensing, there's amazing little about licenses (what titles slipped out of your grip? how did it happen? who exactly sits around the table and negotiates? is there actually a table or is it all done in e-mail? how much does a typical title cost, and what goes into determining the price? is it a flat fee or a royalty-type structure?"

I suspect that this information is confidential in nature. As gamers, we don't need to know Aspyr's financial margins, what their profits are, etc... This information I'm pretty sure Aspyr doesn't want its competitors to know either.

However, if you do a search on IMG for different features with Aspyr employees, specifically the Glenda Adams and Brad Oliver interviews, you'll be able to find answers to some of your questions.

"Lucas Arts, not only offers Skywalker Ranch and Star Wars, they are amazingly cool and easy to work with. This was in the 'easier' category."

Let's hope Battlefront is around the corner then! ;)

You know, on top of the GA Q&As, it does seem like a bit much to have another Aspyr segment. The same information could be relayed through her.

For it to take so long, I would guess it would have to be a new develloper (as it was with BF1942) and they had to earn their trust.

... don't be another FPS. :^)

"It took over a year to negotiate a title we'll announce next month."

I think they're referencing the time spent porting Blood Rayne to the Mac! Oh YEAH- I went there! lol

Who thought THIS up? Good idea! ;) Kudos- with chocolate chips...!

Found the below statement to be interesting---I wonder which game they're referring to?

"It took over a year to negotiate a title we'll announce next month. The fastest one was within 20 days. The 20 day'ers we like, but usually take dirty cash to complete:) "

Couldn't Aspyr's press releases be hosted on its own Web site?

I'm not looking for hard-edged investigative reporting from a Web site I get to read essentially free, but taking stuff actually written by Aspyr's PR staff and publishing it straight seems like a bit much.

The Q&As with Glenda Adams are softball enough; at least with them, the reader has an advocate seeking info that might deviate a tiny bit from the professional flack's crafted message. I mean, for a piece purportedly about licensing, there's amazing little about licenses (what titles slipped out of your grip? how did it happen? who exactly sits around the table and negotiates? is there actually a table or is it all done in e-mail? how much does a typical title cost, and what goes into determining the price? is it a flat fee or a royalty-type structure? the guy might not answer these questions, but someone trying to serve the reader would have asked them) and an amazing lot about Aspyr's brand-new release, Knights of the Old Republic.

Aspyr's publicity material all has its place, but not posing as real content.

great idea. maybe it helps against pirates to know more about the people behind a company or a game.