VGC | John – Page 19 – Video Game Canon

The E3 Expo is Changing: What Will it Look Like After 2021?

The future of the E3 Expo is once again on shaky ground.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo split off from the Consumer Electronics Show in 1995 and originally served as a place for the game industry to show retailers what they had in development for the holiday shopping season. But mainstream media attention soon followed, allowing the event to grow in size and spectacle over the next decade.

After a 2007 rebrand as the slimmed down “E3 Media and Business Summit” failed, the event continued to hum along as an important date on the Summer calendar for yet another decade. Even after the introduction of a wide range of digital showcases from the major publishers (including all three consolemakers), as well as the rise of player-focused events such as PAX, E3’s importance as a one-stop-shop for major announcements is only somewhat on the wane.

But that hasn’t stopped game journalists from musing about the future of E3, even before the 2020 event was canceled in the face of the coronavirus pandemic…

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Nintendo Will Build and Open a Museum Dedicated to Their History in 2023/2024

You’ve probably heard it before, but did you know that Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card manufacturer? Nintendo was known as The Nintendo Playing Card Company for much of its early history, and though they’ve spent the last 40 years as one the best video game developers in the world, they still produce playing cards and hanafuda cards to this day.

All this history will soon be on display for the public as Nintendo has announced plans to repurpose one of their shuttered manufacturing plants in Kyoto to construct the Nintendo Gallery, a museum dedicated to all their wonderful toys and games.

Scheduled for completion during Nintendo’s 2023 fiscal year (which runs from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024), the Nintendo Gallery will feature “exhibits and experiences” that highlight the company’s “product development history and philosophy.”

Nintendo doesn’t have any specific plans for the museum as of yet, but an artist’s rendering of what the facility might look like is pictured above.

Someone Found a Director’s Cut of 1993’s Super Mario Bros. Movie on an Old VHS Tape

That headline might sound like some kind of bizarre April Fool’s Day hoax, but I promise, every word of it is true. Someone (two someones, actually) found an extended director’s cut of the Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation from 1993 on an old VHS tape.

So who managed to sniff out such an odd piece of cinematic history? That would be Ryan Hoss and Steven Applebaum, the operators of Super Mario Bros.: The Movie Archive and the caretakers of an extensive collection of production material related to the film.

Trust the fungus and read on to learn more about Super Mario Bros.‘s almost-mythic place in the video game movie canon and how this extended cut will give fans a glimpse at a version of the movie that’s even crazier than what we got in 1993…

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Sega and Dark Horse Will Release a “Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia” This November

Sonic the Hedgehog spin dashed his way into our hearts nearly 30 years ago, and Sega is celebrating in style with a hefty range of new projects featuring their “Blue Blur,” all of which will launch throughout the year and into 2022.

One of those new projects, which is being produced in conjunction with Dark Horse, is a history book punningly titled Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia:

Dive deep into the extensive lore and exhaustive detail of each game in Sonic’s ever-expanding universe–from the beloved Sega Genesis to the most bleeding-edge video game consoles. This tome leaves no stone unturned, showcasing in-depth looks at the characters, settings, and stories from each exciting installment!

This encyclopedic retelling of Sonic’s adventures will be written by Ian Flynn, who has plenty of previous experience with the character. His career began at Archie Comics, where he penned more than 130 issues of their Sonic the Hedgehog series from 2006 until 2016. Flynn is currently the Head Writer for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, a job he’s held since they picked up the license in 2017.

Dark Horse will publish the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia in hardcover and as an ebook on November 24.

Embracer Group is Starting a Games Archive

Embracer Group, the many-tentacled parent company of THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, Gearbox, and a half-dozen other publishing labels, has announced plans to open a video game archive in Karlstad, Sweden.

While lots of publishers are extremely thorough about preserving production assets, prototypes, and source code for the games they create, what Embracer is doing with their archive is fairly unique.

Using CEO Lars Wingefors’s personal game library as a starting point, Embracer has built a collection containing over 50,000 different games, consoles, and accessories. You can see the “secret” underground vault that houses the collection (and a portion of the games) in this new video featuring the archive’s Game Historian, Martin Lindell:

The archive’s collection currently stretches all the way back to the launch games for the Magnavox Odyssey, and Embracer’s goal is to obtain the European, American, and Japanese editions of every game ever made:

For us, games are more than just games. It is culture. It is something created by great people with creative ideas. By building a large games archive, we want to preserve and tribute the gaming culture for a long period of time.

The journey has already begun and it is time to take the next step. Our goal is clear – We want to archive and display as much of the video game industry as possible. Hopefully you will join us on our journey.

The Embracer Group Games Archive isn’t open to the public yet, but they hope to welcome researchers in the near future as the archive becomes more accessible.

The Four Inductees from the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2021 Have Been Announced

There usually isn’t a theme associated with the World Video Game Hall of Fame‘s annual induction ceremony, but a desire to explore new destinations seems to be at the core of each of this year’s selections. We’ll probably never know if this is just a coincidence or a reaction to last year’s pandemic-related lockdowns, but it’s certainly something to think about it.

On that note, fresh off the success of last year’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the first member of the Class of 2021 is Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, a game where players move to a new town and meet a wide variety of colorful characters as they build their home. Likewise, the 2020 launch of the newest edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator probably helped the original 1982 release succeed in its bid for Hall of Fame immortality.

The Class of 2021 also includes Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, an “edutainment” classic where players follow the clues and chase a master thief across the globe. And finally, Blizzard’s StarCraft was inducted this year after it sent players hurtling across the galaxy for an RTS space opera that also rewrote the rules for esports.

Historians and curators from the World Video Game Hall of Fame shared their own thoughts about what made each of these games special in a short video, which can be found after the break.

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Gold-Plated “Royal Wii” Created for Queen Elizabeth II is Being Sold on eBay

Like Acclaim and Sega before it, no marketing stunt was ever considered too outlandish for the original incarnation of THQ.

Before the publisher went bankrupt in 2012, it used its marketing budget to hire expensive Hollywood talent like Guillermo Del Toro (who consulted on the story for the never-released Insane), while also doling out a few bucks to hire an army of porn stars to promote Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third. But THQ’s marketing department had to get extra creative when promoting the company’s more family-oriented titles.

Sticking with the “family” theme, THQ tried to recruit Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the Royal Family in the marketing effort for 2009’s Big Family Games, a budget title that was similar to Wii Sports. While they were likely hoping for a slew of “Royal Wii” headlines, it was not to be, as Her Royal Highness was obviously not going to just stop off at the studio for a commercial shoot. So THQ went to her…

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Hideo Kojima Will Talk About the Inspirations Behind Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding in “The Creative Gene”

The ideas that have sprung from Hideo Kojima’s head throughout his career are often baffling… just look at the mindbending plot twists found in Death Stranding and the entire Metal Gear Solid franchise… but you have to admit that his games are always interesting.

The developer gave fans a peek inside his creative process in The Gifted Gene and My Lovable Memes, a book of essays he published in Japan in 2019. And now, this collection will be translated into English by Viz Media as The Creative Gene this Fall:

Ever since he was a child, Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima was a voracious consumer of movies, music, and books. They ignited his passion for stories and storytelling, and the results can be seen in his groundbreaking, iconic video games.

Now the head of independent studio Kojima Productions, Kojima’s enthusiasm for entertainment media has never waned. This collection of essays explores some of the inspirations behind one of the titans of the video game industry, and offers an exclusive insight into one of the brightest minds in pop culture.

Viz Media will publish Hideo Kojima’s The Creative Gene on October 12.

Supergiant’s Hades Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2020-2021 DICE Awards

Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima, Supergiant’s Hades, and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II dominated the conversation among players in 2020, and all five were in competition for the big prize at this year’s DICE Awards.

The Last of Us Part II lead the way with 11 nominations, but it was Hades that won “Game of the Year” during last night’s ceremony. The well-reviewed roguelike also claimed four other trophies, including “Action Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.”

Though Hades was the big winner, each of the games nominated for “Game of the Year” won something at this year’s DICE Awards.

Ghost of Tsushima sliced its way to victory in four categories, including “Adventure Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.”

The Last of Us Part II picked up a pair of trophies, including “Outstanding Achievement in Story” and “Outstanding Achievement in Animation.”

And finally, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (“Family Game of the Year”) and Final Fantasy VII Remake (“Role-Playing Game of the Year”) each won a single prize.

A complete list of all winners and nominees from the 2020-2021 DICE Awards can be found after the break, along with a video replay of the ceremony, which was hosted by IGN.

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Bite-Sized Game History: Prince Travels The Oregon Trail, Six Degrees of Ryu, and the Secret Origin of Mortal Kombat’s Secret Characters

Demographers love to refer to people born between 1977 and 1985 as the “Oregon Trail Generation.” Born on the borderline between Generation X and Millennials, members of the Oregon Trail Generation grew up using analog technology like rotary phones and rabbit ears, but they also became proficient in using computers and the Internet (often thanks to The Oregon Trail) while still in school.

However, an even earlier generation got a chance to play The Oregon Trail before it was immortalized in the glowing greens of an Apple IIe. So let’s travel back to 1971 and meet one of the game’s first players in this edition of Bite-Sized Game History.

And stick around to explore the connection shared between Ryu and Kevin Bacon, as well as the secret origin of Noob Saibot.

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