On the eve of E3, it seems only fitting to post about a slate of successfully launched “connected” games. As this is being typed, dozens - if not hundreds - of “coming soon!” games are being hyped to death in all their pre-rendered glory. So, it’s deeply satisfying, amidst all the hoopla, to spotlight several games that actually crossed the finish line.

Notable this month: we’re smashing records like Quentin Jackson smashes faces. With the help of THQ’s UFC 2009: Undisputed (PS3 and Xbox 360), GameSpy Technology partners shipped 14 titles shipped across 6 platforms this month, doubling our previous May best of 7.

Here’s the full list:

• 3* Celsius (WiiWare) Kemco / Cool & Warm
• CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars (PSN) Ubisoft / Timeline Interactive
• DamNation (PC / PS3) Codemasters / Blue Omega
• Ekorisu 2 (DS) GungHo Works / Head Lock
• FX Training DS (DS) Genki
• Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (Wii) Activision / Red Octane / Beenox
• Lost Magic Wii (Wii) Nintendo / Taito
• MySims Racing DS (DS) Electronics Arts / A2M
• Puffins: Island Adventures (DS) Majesco / Other Ocean Interactive
• SBK 09 (PC / PS3) Blackbean Games / Milestone
• UFC 2009 Undisputed (PS3 / XBox 360) THQ / Yukes

In a recent interview about their upcoming racing title Blur, Bizarre Creations Design Manager Gareth Wilson mirrored something that we at GameSpy have been preaching for some time now to our customers: leader boards have evolved from an epic, and for most people, ultimately doomed struggle to hit the top 100 of tens or hundreds of thousands of players to a personal, contextual battle against your friends. Rather than advancing from rank 54,237 to 53,867 out of 253,941, it’s much more satisfying to know that you have the best time on a given track among your friends.

I don’t think the majority of people really care that much about being number one in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, [in Blur] we’re still going to have leaderboards of who’s the best on certain tracks. But PGR3 was a good example of this; you could download the world’s best ghost, and you could race against it and at the first corner, it’s gone. Mere mortals such as me couldn’t keep up with that sort of thing.

I think the whole leader board thing is a bit of a red herring… What’s going to be much more interesting is in time attack, if you’re in my friends list and you do a best lap, [Blur’s inbuilt] social network will inform me that you’ve just done a fastest lap on this particular track.

Using GameSpy’s own ATLAS competition system, developers are free to both track stats in a greater amount of detail and then later create a friends only view of that data, finely boiled down to specific scenarios. The more detail you capture, the easier it becomes for someone to excel in at least one specialty and dominate their friends. They may not have the highest score on a map, but their accuracy ratio may be the highest amongst their online buddies, or they excel at knife battles.

Leader boards shouldn’t just be restricted to the traditional leader board view either. When a match is over, tell players right then and there (while they’re waiting for the next map to load) if they’ve just leapfrogged buddies for that particular map or game mode. That way if they’re online, taunts can fly over a GameSpy powered in-game buddy list with our Presence & Messaging system.

Another fantastic example of this is Valve Software’s use of stats in Team Fortress 2, where the same concept is applied to single player usage. The game forgoes ranked leader boards altogether, opting instead to encourage the player by reminding them of their progress in certain class or weapon based scoring over time. A good player would continue to see reports of incremental improvements months after month, giving them warm fuzzies that will keep them playing. You’re also reminded when your score is up to par with a previous record high, which will drive you to continue to play, so you can finally set a new record. For more of their thoughts on this, see one of their developer commentaries included with the game.

Bottom line, developers are seeing the value in next generation statistical analysis that takes into account psychological player motivations and their social network. If you’ve got ideas of your own for your game that you consider ‘crazy, far out stuff’, contact us. Chances are, we’ve already been thinking about it too, and it’s not as hard as you may think to implement with GameSpy tech.

At the 2009 Game Developers Conference, GameSpy Technology announced “GameSpy Indie,” a new pilot program designed to make GameSpy’s full suite of online gaming services more accessible to independent developers.

Today, we’re proud to note that the first title released under the program, Buccanneer: Pursuit of Infamy from Blitz Games & Stickman Studios, is enjoying a high profile, low price Memorial Day sale on Direct2Drive. Players can now grab Buccaneer for just $9.95 (50% off its normal cost). That’s a helluva bargain – and it comes with high profile promotion on Direct2Drive heading into a holiday weekend (typically a high traffic period for games retailers, and particularly for D2D).  We think that deserves a hearty, “Yaaaarrrrr!”

If you haven’t picked up the game yet, and want to see the power of GameSpy Indie in action – from integration of online tech to delivery in the digital distribution sales channel—this is a great chance to do so.  Hoist the Jolly Roger and spend your long weekend ruling the Caribbean.

Want to know more about GameSpy Indie? Contact us now for information!

The GameSpy Tech crew has apparently had its fill of beautiful Southern California weather - because we’ve packed up and headed to the Pacific Northwest to attend the Login Conference in Seattle, Washington. GameSpy Technology’s Senior Director Todd “Tungsten” Northcutt, Senior Product Manager Sean “Spiff” Flinn and Senior Director of Sales & Marketing Drew “TarponHunter” Curby will all be at the show May 11 - 14, joining FilePlanet’s Jill “karategirljill” MacFarland for 4 days of hardcore online game idea exchange.  If you’re attending the conference, please drop us a line to let us know—we would love to spend some time catching up.

We’ll also be hosting a few special events while at the conference that all attendees should absolutely check out:

Opening Reception sponsored by FilePlanet & Direct2Game: Monday, May 11, from 8 - 11 p.m., FilePlanet & Direct2Game are picking up your drink tab as they host the conference’s kickoff party at the Seattle Waterfront Marriott. Drop by, throw back a few and get to know your fellow conference attendees—and your friendly IGN Entertainment hosts!—before the conference kicks off in earnest on Tuesday. Bonus points for participating in the obligatory round of Jaeger shots.

Panel Discussion: Online Game Communities - The Only Thriving Industry in America? GameSpy’s resident lion tamer Todd Northcutt moderates a panel on the growing importance of online communities to the gaming industry as a whole.  Just how are the throngs of fanboys, forum posters, stats fiends and guild leaders actually driving real revenue across all segments of the industry?  Watch as panelists spar over the answers.

As always, we have a lot to talk about when you track us down: Direct2Game, our new DLC and in-game commerce engine; Brigades, our new team / clan / guild management service; and the complete suite of GameSpy Technology now available on the iPhone.  We’ll see you at the show!

They say March comes in like a Shambler, but goes out like a headcrab.  We’re not quite sure if that’s true or not … but we do know that March 2009 set another new record for titles shipped with GameSpy Technology’s connected gaming services.

Standout games for the month include Activision / Red Octane’s Guitar Hero: Metallica, currently melting faces and shredding controllers on the Wii; and THQ / Yukes’s WWE Legends of Wrestlemania, which makes use of GameSpy’s “Sake” cloud storage services to enable players to create, store and share custom gameplay videos online.

Here’s the full round up:

• 3D Picross (DS) HAL Laboratory
• Age of Booty (PC) Capcom
• Codename: Panzers - Cold War (PC) Stormregion
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Mac) Electronic Arts
• Darts Wii Party (Wii) Alpha Unit
• Excite Racing (Wii) Monster Games
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (Wii) Red Octane
• Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu NEXT (Wii) Konami
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Wii) Konami
• Pro Yakyu Famista DS 2009 (DS) Namco Bandai
• Red Baron Arcade (PSN) Stainless Games
• Space Invaders Extreme Remix (DS) Taito
• Tecmo Counter (WiiWare) Aspect
• Texas Hold’em Tournament (WiiWare) Digital Leisure
• WWE Legends of Wrestlemania (Xbox 360 / PS3) THQ
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D Stardust Accelerator World Championship Tour (DS) Konami

Additionally, we unveiled three new services in March:

• GameSpy Brigades: We’ve added team / clan / guild management to our suite of connected community services. You can read more about it in the blog or in our ”Services” section.
• GameSpy Indie: GameSpy is making its services available to independent developers. Read the news and contact us to find out more!

All that, and we still found time to have our best Game Developers Conference ever!  It was great seeing so many of our partners at the show. If we missed you in San Francisco, you can bet a phone call, local visit or connection at a future conference is imminent.

At the Game Developers Conference this year I was stunned to see the distinct lack of Wii or DS focused sessions during the conference.  Both have huge install bases (the Wii has twice as many units as the Xbox or PS3) and Nintendo seems to be single-handely responsible for the industry’s growth.  Where was the love?

With that in mind, I gave a presentation on the excuses we commonly hear developers and publisher give for not doing more interesting, innovative things online with the Wii and DS.  For those of you unable to attend - and I’m guessing this is most of you reading this - we’ve made the presentation available here.

No More Excuses: Taking The Wii (and DS) Online

Tired of sending your gamers into battle alone? GameSpy’s got their backs.

GameSpy Technology announces the availability of its newest connected gaming service: GameSpy Brigades, a complete team / clan management solution for games on every platform.  Utilizing GameSpy’s extensive experience building custom team-based gaming implementations for titles such as Warhammer: Mark of Chaos and the Command & Conquer franchise, Brigades packages an easy-to-implement suite of features to help your players organize, socialize and track their progress as persistent groups within a game or game franchise.

With Brigades, developers can build a team system in-game and on the Web that builds community around games of any genre – FPS, RTS, even sports and co-op action games can benefit from persistent social gaming. In addition to the requisite “create, manage, message” components of a viable team system, Brigades features easy-to-implement advanced functionality normally found in custom projects that take months to build – from granular team customization to team-based stats tracking and competition.

In addition, all of the functionality in Brigades can be implemented from within the game and through a game’s official or community Website, enabling developers to pick the features they want and implement them on any timeline.

Ready to keep that long-dreamt-about, always-cut clan system in your next title’s featurelist?

• Learn more: Download the Brigades product brief for more information
• Start building: Download complete code and documentation from the GameSpy Technology secure site
• Let’s chat: Send our Developer Relations team a note to talk more about what GameSpy Brigades can do for your next title

If you’re attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, March 25-27, schedule a meeting now for a live demo at our booth – North Hall #5621

At GameSpy, we’re all about newfangled ways of connecting to people, so you can now follow the technology services group on Twitter via @gamespytech. For starters, we’ll be cross-posting the latest Online Matters blog posts, but we’ll also use Twitter as an outlet for brief bursts of industry commentary from the Powered by GameSpy team. If you’re lucky you might even catch some GDC shenanigans from us this coming week.

While you’re at it, give the GameSpy editorial twitter account a follow too along with FilePlanet and Direct2Game’s.

New Services, new platforms, and more - hear about it all at the show!

The 2009 Game Developers Conference hits San Francisco. March 25-27 and GameSpy Technology will be there in full force, ready to talk to you about new connected gaming services, new platform support and much, much more.

Ready to chat about big ideas, discuss new business or just snag a stylish new t-shirt?

• Schedule an appointment now with your account manager
• Use our contact page to set up a meeting
• Visit our tasteful, yet luxurious booth: North Hall #5621

BIG IDEAS!

GDC Sponsored Session: “No More Excuses: Taking the Wii Online”—Wednesday March 25th, @ 2:30pm, 3rd Floor Room 3016
The Wii is here to stay. Get used to it. Skeptical? With over 45 million units sold, it’s the biggest of the big three. More telling, the NPD Group recently reported that 29% of online gamers played online on the Wii in 2008 (up from just 18% the year prior) - more than the PlayStation 3. With stats like these, the Wii has become the Glenn-Close-in-Fatal-Attraction of consoles: it won’t be ignored.

Yet few developers, other than Nintendo, are taking advantage of the platform’s full capabilities. Sure, some major publishers have announced their intention to “do better on the Wii” in the year ahead. But what does that really mean?

We have a few ideas. Join us for a look at concrete examples of how to take advantage of the platform’s connectedness, giving your Wii games a fighting shot at sustained success.

Games as a Service: Powered by GameSpy Technology
The days of fire-and-forget game releases are officially over. Successful games now serve as an entry-point to a rich array of services, accessible in-game and on the Web, that gamers interact with over long periods of time (often across multiple titles in a franchise).

This new model is creating huge opportunities for developers to more deeply engage with their users and to build new revenue streams built around more than just retail sales. GameSpy Technology has long list of services ready to help you realize that potential.

NEW SERVICES!

GameSpy Direct2Game: In-Game DLC & Commerce
http://www.poweredbygamespy.com/services/view/category/commerce/

Available for integration now, Direct2Game enables you to distribute and sell downloadable content (DLC) from directly within your game’s user interface - without sacrificing flexibility or your user relationships.  Powered end-to-end by GameSpy Technology, it’s a complete solution for billing, catalog management, fulfillment, authentication and customer support.

Ready to put on your money hat? See us at GDC for a live demo!

GameSpy Brigades: Team / Clan / Guild Management
GameSpy Technology’s newest service - GameSpy Brigades - enables developers to build organized, persistent team play into their games. Call ‘em what you like: clans, guilds, mobs: all can now be an integral, persistent part of your game, accessible to users both in-game and on the Web.

Built on GameSpy’s experience with team-based gaming (demonstrated in titles like Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and Command & Conquer 3), Brigades delivers an easy-to-implement, flexible and barrier-busting new standard for what was once a time-consuming, custom feature.

Contact us now for more info or to schedule a live walkthrough at GDC!

NEW PLATFORMS!

iPhone: Connected Gaming is Calling YOU
Building games for Apple’s mobile gaming platform? GameSpy Technology can help you make them more exciting. We are now providing complete connected gaming services to our partners, enabling you to deliver the same online features to your iPhone games as you would on any other platform. Store stats, track buddies, match players—even upload screenshots and custom data.  We’re ready to help you do it all.

Our first iPhone game ships this month - ask us how you can be next!

GameSpy Technology was up to its old tricks in February, busting records for titles shipped and continuing to spearhead the connected gaming takeover of Nintendo’s platforms.

Key titles for the month include the much anticipated F.E.A.R. 2, a multiplatform follow-up to Monolith’s 2005 sleeper shooter. And 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, about which we really don’t know quite what to say, other than, “It must be played to be believed.” Folks wondering if the Wii or DS should be taken seriously as “online” platforms need only look to the 12 titles released this month with connected gaming features.

• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (PS3) Swordfish Studios
• Bubble Bobble Wii (WiiWare) Taito
• Crystals - Defender W2 (WiiWare) Square Enix
• Evasive Space (WiiWare) High Voltage
• F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC / PS3) Monolith
• Kororinpa 2 (Wii) Hudson
• Major League Baseball 2K9 Fantasy All-Stars (DS) 2K Games
• McDonald’s DS Crew Development Program (DS) McDonald Japan
• Men of War (PC) Best Way
• Metal Fight Beyblade (DS) Hudson
• MySims Party (Wii) Sega
• Necrovision (PC) The Farm 51
• Onslaught (WiiWare) Shade
• Snowboard Riot (WiiWare) Rakujin
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii) Sega
• Sukashikashipanman (DS) Kamui

A hearty gratz to all the developers and publishers who shipped this month! We’ll see you at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, March 25-27.