Our partners on the PlayStation team at Sony have released their highly anticipated 2.41 firmware upgrade on the PS3, adding support for 2 much requested features that have already become a staple on other online multiplayer platforms: ubiquitous access to your friend lists through the in-game XMB and a trophies concept that encourages gamers to get the most out of their games by setting individual, increasingly difficult challenges, thus giving them more accessible goals that don’t require them to slug it out against thousands hardcore gamers to reach the top of a leader board.

Encouraging gamers to build up large buddy lists, strengthens ties to a particular platform, opens up more matchmaking opportunities, provides a viral promotional avenue for newly released titles and overall builds a stronger community for your game, allowing friends to see when all of their buddies are online, issue challenges, talk smack about a match they just played or simply revel in the shared experience of playing that hot new game on launch day just like 10 of your buddies are.

PlayStation Network Director of Operations Eric Lempel calls it a big leap forward for the service, and we couldn’t agree more. This is an exciting update for us at GameSpy too, because it opens up further opportunities to use some of our own middleware offerings. Trophies provide an opportunity lock gamers into a specific title and for a developer to issue a challenge and say ‘I bet you can’t do this!’. Suppose you needed to track your progress towards a specific trophy qualification? Tie it into a stats you’re tracking with our ATLAS Competition system, or just store it remotely in our Sake database, so that players can track their progress across multiple PS3s, without having to copy save games around.

Any title using GameSpy’s in-game buddy list immediately benefits from the increased attention that the PSN buddy list now gets, since we synchronize with Sony’s own buddy list and make friend lists and online status information available fully in-game, without even popping up the XMB. You can now create more tightly focused, custom experiences, instead of relying on the generic, XMB based buddy options, which compete for attention with a number of other UI elements. A few examples:

• If your buddy just sent you a message about this great server he just ended up on, but forgot to send you an actual invite, your in-game server browser could highlight what servers your buddies are on, and you could make a decision that way about what game to join.

• Enhance your auto-match process, by preferring players who are your buddies and currently online.

• A favorite here at the GameSpy office right now is Valve’s Team Fortress 2, and one of its own achievements is awarded if you ‘uber’ 10 players from your friends list as a medic. Imagine an in-game buddy list that explicitly highlighted which of your buddies you haven’t uber’ed up yet, and what servers they’re playing on?

If you’re already a developer, or are interested in becoming one, contact us to find out about other opportunities to make the best of these new features on the PS3.

We’ve returned, triumphant and filled with knowledge, from this year’s ION Game Conference in Seattle.  The conference was packed with great information presented by some of the leading minds in the online world.  If you can only attend one conference in a year and online games is your thing, ION is the place for you.

You can find my presentation here: Follow Me: 7 Cool Things to Do With Buddy Lists.  (Note to self for next time: don’t use the word “cool” in a presentation.)

The conference started with a bang.  David Hunt‘s (Flying Lab) presentation on retention mechanisms for MMOs was filled with excellent techniques on keeping your users playing.  It was great to see that more and more folks had picked up on the power of the social aspect of games to set them apart.  This theme was also touched on by Bill Fulton (Ronin User Experience), Nicole Lazzaro (XEODesign) and others during the three day conference.

I treated myself to a few “off-topic” sessions like Brandon Reinhart‘s session on using “storytelling” to communicate vision and Joe Ludwig‘s “port-partum” for Pirates of the Burning Sea. 

I always come away from these conferences filled with passion to go out and do great things… along with a nagging hangover.  Great stuff all around.

It’s a fact: we LOVE talking to people. All kinds of people. About all kinds of things.

What we really love talking about, of course, is multiplayer gaming (that’s our day job, after all ... heck, it’s our night job too, and quite often it rolls into an early morning gig to boot). To wit: this ION network interview with Director of GameSpy Technology Todd “Tungsten” Northcutt, which does a great job of fleshing out the GameSpy “connected gamer” worldview, among other things. 

It also does a good job of teasing Todd’s speaking engagement at the upcoming ION Game Conference, which takes place May 13 – 15 at the Waterfront Marriott in Seattle, Washington.  He’ll be giving a talk entitled, ”Follow Me: 7 Cool Things You Can Do With Buddy Lists,” which, given our experiences in facilitating in-game buddy list / messaging systems and building GameSpy Comrade (our desktop social gaming application), promises to be chock full of good ideas, best practices, and other terms you’d expect to see in a conference presentation abstract.

GameSpy / IGN will have a sizeable contingent at the ION conference, in addition to Todd’s talk – no booth, but representatives from GameSpy Technology, GameSpy Comrade, FilePlanet and Direct2Drive will all be on hand to soak up the sessions, converse, and maybe (OK, certainly) buy folks a few drinks and meals.  If you’re planning to be at the conference – or just in the area – please drop us a line and let us know!  Don’t be shy. As we said at the beginning of this post, we love talking to people.

When it comes to “connected” gaming, Rockstar clearly gets it.

No, that’s not something we ever expected to plunk out on the old keyboard - after all, it took the mod community to drag the studio’s Grand Theft Auto juggernaut into the online realm.  And while the company’s Midnight Club franchise does have a respectable multiplayer pedigree (full disclosure: Rockstar partnered with GameSpy to enable online multiplayer gameplay in several installments of Midnight Club on the PlayStation and PC), it’s tough to point to those games as doing anything besides dipping a racing slick into the waters of true gaming connectivity. 

View Tuesday’s worldwide press blitz on GTA IV‘s multiplayer modes through that historical lens, then. (Miss the coverage?  You can get an in-depth hands-on preview over at GameSpy.com). The Grand Theft Auto franchise, venerated for revolutionizing both gameplay and storytelling mechanics, has finally shifted its focus to online multiplayer - and they’re approaching the task with the same zeal applied to developing open-ended sandbox game worlds, non-linear storytelling and hooker jiggle physics.

To wit, not one, but FOUR very distinctive multiplayer modes: Team Deathmatch, Cops & Crooks, GTA Race and Hangman’s Noose (a co-op mission). At first blush, this sounds fairly run-of-the-mill; we’ve seen co-op and TDM before.  But Rockstar has several surprises in store. Team Deathmatch, for example, goes beyond the vanilla implementation of that game mode by allowing players to do pretty much everything they love to do in singleplayer in a multiplayer setting: dive out of speeding cars, take out pedestrians, you name it. GTA Race literally allows you to hurl the game’s full arsenal in your competitors’ ways.  To cap it all off, GameSpy.com also reports that, “… some elements of Rockstar’s Social Club [which launches today!] will integrate with multiplayer.” In essence Rockstar has carjacked multiplayer gaming, and is mashing its pedal to the floor to bust through the in-game, out-of-game barrier.

The point here isn’t to wax rhapsodic about GTA IV, however - it’s to point out what’s possible when a developer puts the full spectrum of connected gaming front and center in its design. Rockstar is committing the same level of revolutionary thinking to multiplayer, community and competition that it applies to the actual gameplay experience.  Truly, for GTA IV, the two are one and the same - obviating the excuse you typically hear from developers that they’ve “sacrificed multiplayer features in order to spend more time on the core gameplay.” We’ve long argued that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Rockstar seems to agree.  We’ll let GTA IV‘s sales numbers finish the story. 

As Mario Kart fanatics in Europe and Japan are finding out this week, the much-anticipated Mario Kart Wii is living up to its hype - a fact that we modestly think may have something to do with its stellar multiplayer experience. (Cue rubbing of knuckles on jacket collar.) The game has hit shelves in both territories, and we can confirm that people are already racing their wheels down to nubs online in unprecedented droves.

US fans (at least, those who haven’t already picked up their copy of the game from their favorite import shops) will be waiting until late April to hit the starting line - but, in the mean time, they can revel in some of the coverage being given to the game’s online features.

As IGN UK’s recent “Online Impressions” article details, there’s a lot to love here: Up to 12-player racing across 32 tracks; interactive, graphically fun leaderboards; the ability to race against “ghosts” of top-ranked players; and weekly “Competitions,” objective-based challenges that show off Nintendo’s ability to reconfigure individual tracks-on-the-fly. The cap on the mushroom?  Virtually lag-free online multiplayer races and dead-simple matchmaking, which put players into matches quickly and delivered quality races the minute their wheels hit the track. 

As with all Wii titles, the Nintendo Mario Kart team worked directly with GameSpy Technology to power all of these online features, putting a unique spin on the standard tools and services that we make available to all Wii developers. We’ll detail all of this in depth in a future case study when the game launches in North America - for now, start revving your engines. 

CVG had a great interview with Peter Shea, Creative Director at Firebrand Games, talking about the forthcoming DS version of Race Drive: GRID. (See IGN UK's preview for a more general overview.)

The interview really focuses in on what Firebrand is doing differently for the handheld version of the game. It sounds as if they're really doing a great job in taking the special capabilities of the DS into account when it comes to track creation, as well as tweaking gameplay to match the handheld experience. I'm glad to see that more and more developers are taking this approach. Shoveling out ports helps no one.

Race Drive: GRID does user-gen content

Perhaps the most interesting bit for me, though, was Shea's discussion of how they're taking all of the user-created content the track editor is going to spawn to really make GRID something special:

Shea: It's very straightforward. You can save six different tracks on your Game Card, and then by connecting to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you can upload any of these tracks to your own space on the Gamespy servers.

You can then tell your friends about it, and they can look for your tracks online using your Friend Name, and download them to save on their own copy of the game. They are then free to race or edit the track, or upload it to their own bit of the server.

There's a wealth of great content out there that people are creating every single day. The hardcore folks know to head over to FilePlanet and look for the latest maps or mods on the PC. The more mainstream gamer, and those on the console, aren't necessarily going to want to jump through those hoops. What they need is a dead simple means of sharing that content from directly within the game.

That, my friends, is exactly what we built Sake, our Persistent Storage system, to do.

We saw a similar approach taken in Mini Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2, a single player title, and the first game to ship with Sake. The additional content spawned a thriving, if small, community and gave the game huge legs. You can read more about it in my presentation from last year, Breaking the In-Game/Out-of-Game Barrier.

I'm excited to see Sake put to great use again on the DS, this time by Firebrand. We'll definitely be doing a case study on this bad boy when it hits shelves later this year.

Well, that certainly didn’t take long!  Super Smash Bros. Brawl was unleashed upon Japan just two short weeks ago and, already, the game is breaking sales records.  (I refrained from making any “smashing” jokes.)

Kotaku, courtesy of Famitsu, are reporting that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has become the fastest selling Wii title, beating out hits like Wii Fit and Wii Sports.

We’re hoping that the killer online feature set - from straight-up multiplayer action, to betting on replays, to sharing home-brew stages - are helping to contribute to those numbers.  Nintendo pulled out all the stops when bringing one of my favorite franchises to the Wii.

Look for a full case study on Super Smash Bros. Brawl when the game becomes available to the rest of the world in a few more months.

January would have been a slow, slow start for 2008 had it not been for a few powerhouse titles.  Perhaps you’ve heard of a little game called Super Smash Bros.?  Apparently the kids in Japan have been looking forward to this one or something.

Congrats to all of our publisher and developer partners who braved the snowy, cold month of January and released the following great titles with superlative online play:

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) Nintendo
• EXIT DS (DS) Taito
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) Sega
• Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) Nintendo
• Wii Chess (Wii) Spice Games
• Nitrobike (Wii) Ubisoft
• Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (Wii) Sega
• Rune Factory 2 (DS) Neverland

Those of us outside of Japan will have to wait until March for the Smash Bros. Brawl goodness to come our way.  In the meantime, take solace that the boys at GameSpy.com have more screenshots, movies and opinions than you can shake a stick at.  Pay particular attention to the online write-up!

The year ended with a bang as far as online gaming was concerned.  Heavy hitters like Unreal Tournament 3 set the PS3 on fire while old favorites, like the Warhammer franchise, made their debut on handhelds.  A good trend to see as we wrapped up 2008.  Pay special attention, too, to all of the “casual” titles that are doing interesting things online with the Wii.  Would have guessed it when 2007 began?

• Arkanoid (DS) Taito
• Power Pro Kun Pocket 10 (DS) Konami
• Faces of War: Brothers In Arms (PC) 1C
• Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (DS) THQ
• Unreal Tournament 3 (PS3) Epic Games
• Chocobo’s Dungeon (Wii) Square Enix
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii) Sega
• MX vs ATV: Untamed (PS2) THQ
• Heisei Kyouikuiinkai DS: Zengoku Touitsu Moshi Special (DS) Namco Bandai
• Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Wii Ketteiban (Wii) Konami
• Kousoku Card Battle: Card Hero (DS) Nintendo
• Puzzler Number Placing Fun & Oekaki Logic 2 (DS) TDK
• Rising Eagle (PC) Invasion Interactive
• Anime Slot Revoluion (Wii) Namco Bandai
• Simple Wii Series, Vol 3: THE Party Casino (Wii) D3P Publisher
• Simple Wii Series, Vol. 4: THE Shooting Action (Wii) D3P Publisher

November was a prolific month for online play across all of the different platforms we support. More PSP goodness from Red Lynx and THQ with Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command after last months PSP resurgence is always a good thing to see. Timeshift kicked things off for the PS3 this holiday... look for more PS3 titles in December and gaining strength into the new year.

• Panzer Tactics (DS) 10Tacle
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) Sega
• Empire Earth III (PC) Vivendi Games
• F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate (PC) Vivendi Games
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat (DS) Midway Games
• Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (PSP) THQ
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii) Ubisoft
• Need for Speed: ProStreet (DS) Electronic Arts
• Crysis (PC) Electronic Arts
• Word Jong (DS) Destineer
• TimeShift (PS3) Vivendi Games
• TimeShift (PC) Vivendi Games
• Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) Midway Games
• Geometry Wars: Galaxies (Wii) Vivendi Games
• Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii) Atlus Software
• Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008 (DS) Konami
• Tank Beat 2 (DS) Milestone