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Technology Stocks : Activision....Returns! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Burlitis who wrote (1508)	10/6/1999 10:50:00 PM
From: Scot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1992

More on Lionhead avault.com Wednesday, October 6, 1999 - 14:22 CDT DemiGod and B.C. Coming From Lionhead With the cost of development increasing with each rotation of the earth, clever companies are innovating more and more ways to extend resources across multiple titles. One such company is Lionhead Studios, which recently announced that Activision would publish two upcoming games from the studio. The titles are the first to be created using Lionhead's new development model, under which fortuitous third-party developers are given full access to Lionhead's technology, creative resources, testing, sound and administration. Both games -- DemiGod from Big Blue Box and B.C. from Intrepid -- are in the early stages of production and headed by individuals with extensive experience in the industry. Big Blue Box is led by brothers Dene and Simon Carter, and the London-based development team, Intrepid, is led by Joe Rider, Terry Cattrell and Matt Chilton. Lionhead selected the two teams from over 100 groups that applied. We approached game designer Peter Molyneux, who will serve as executive producer on both projects, about the things that attracted Lionhead to these two design studios. Molyneux said the reasons were complex, but could be boiled down to the enthusiasm of the team, followed by past accomplishments, technical prowess, and the depth and vision of the game idea. ?The idea of external teams is that they grow and expand, so in addition to the points above, we had to consider how they would handle the process of becoming full scale game developers,? Molyneux explained. We also wanted Molyneux to be a more specific about the meaning of "full access to Lionhead's technology, creative resources, testing, sound and administration." Does this mouthful indicate the studios will be using the Black & White engine to create their games? Yes, but there is more depth to the arrangement than that, commented the veteran developer. In fact, the relationship will be more complementary than most companies' standard third-part relationships. ?The idea is that we share all the technology pioneered for Black & White in such a way that it inspires the teams. They get the 3D engine as well as all the source code, enabling them to introduce enhancements they may pass on to Lionhead. This includes 3D graphics, AI, sound and game engines. Technology sharing is not a wholly new idea, but one I had when I was at Bullfrog. I cannot bear to waste technology, which is why Dungeon Keeper was written on a hybrid of the Magic Carpet engine," said Molyneux. The external teams also have full access to one of Lionhead?s most important resources -- game testing. In fact, Molyneux revealed that DemiGod has already been played and tested by the testers at Lionhead. Activision and Lionhead will be announcing further details on the games once the dust has settled on the recent announcement.