March 4th, 2010 @ Sway Bar, London
UK studios converge to battle over who's the cleverest - have you booked your place yet?
Thursday April 22nd, 2009 @ The Brewery, London
The countdown to the MCV Awards 2010 has begun – with date, venue and categories announced.
July 14th, 2010 @ The Hilton Metropole, Brighton
The Develop Industry Excellence Awards is the only event which rewards the work done by Europe’s leading games development companies.
Yet Atomic Games is looking for opportunities to finish development
US indie outfit Atomic Games, developers of the divisive Iraq War title Six Days in Fallujah, has responded to Konami’s surprise decision to withdraw from publishing the game.
On Monday it was revealed that Konami had abandoned a publishing deal with Atomic, following sustained public criticism of the game’s content and setting.
In a statement released to Develop, Atomic President Peter Tamte that the studio “was informed on Thursday night [April 23] that Konami had decided to pull out of Six Days in Fallujah.”
He added that the decision had “caught us by surprise.”
On Monday a Konami spokesperson said that “after seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States, and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell [Six Days in Fallujah].”
Despite the withdrawal from Konami, Tamte was optimistic about the game’s future, stating that development of the game had been “progressing very well and on schedule” before Konami pulled out. He added that the team “would very much like the opportunity to complete the game.”
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When unveiled early in April, Six Days in Fallujah had been subjected to public outcry for centring a game on the Second Battle of Fallujah, a conflict that took place in Iraq only five years ago, and saw the deaths of numerous US Marines, Iraqi insurgents, and local civilians. The battle saw extensive damage to residences, mosques, city services, and businesses.
The game was quickly bashed by the Daily Mail, while British war veterans as well as British peace group, Stop the War Coalition, called for the game to be pulled.
The outcry was of equal enormity in the US, where bereaved families of soldiers and citizens' groups lashed out at the game’s content.
Now the title may not make its planned release schedule for next year. The game was not announced for a European release.
Glad to see they're still pushing ahead with it - awesome news. Surely someone will have the balls to pick this up?
It's pretty bad for a publisher to just drop a title in the face of criticism - they should have the balls to carry out what they set to. Hopefully someone else will come along and have the guts to see it through, rightly or wrongly. Rockstar? :)
Shame on Konami - but then it is to be expected that the larger publishers bow to misplaced criticism (don't remember this type of furore on the release of Black Hawk Down in the cinema a few years ago - similarly based on harrowing real world events).
Hopefully an indie will pick it up.
Perhaps this shows that there is still quite a way to go before videogames are seen as art or able to 'do' social commentary by the larger world.
That said - 6 Days in Fallujah really didn't sit well alongside Konami's portfolio of existing titles - a jumbled collection of mainstream survival horror, sports and arcadey games.
Perhaps Atomic should have thought about this and instead went with a publisher with at least SOME form in the military FPS field.
Actizzard? EA/Dice or even Valve would have been more fitting imho. After all - you wouldn't expect Laura Ashley to sell ballistic vests now would you?
