Topic: Activision $500k indie game dev prize on the horizon

[kat]

Activision has made a tentative announcement that it's putting together a competition open to independent game developers that chance to win a prize of $100k for a game concept (PDF download). The news, being carried by Develop magazine, mentions some tentative criteria "The publishing powerhouse said it will soon be asking interested developers to submit a two-page summary of their proposed game, complete with a bullet-point list of defining features, as well as a video of the game’s prototype". This doesn't appear to be targeted so much at the modding community but at 'proper' independent game developers already working on ideas that are seeking funds to finish and publish (although it's not known yet whether a publishing deal is part of the prize. This is obviously good news (although one could make a case for 'cheap' concepts), there's a need for this kind of support within the modding and indie scene as this is where the industries future talent is pooled from.

[ratty redemption]

interesting and that is good news

[kat]

Given the shenanigans that have been going on between Infinity Ward and Activision of late it may not be as good an idea as it first appeared to be to enter this.. if they do indeed go ahead with it. I've always had a sneaky feeling something else was going on with that, that they may have been put out in to the wilds as an attempt to repair the damage caused by the comments recently made by Activision's boss. Not to mention the fact that this could be seen as an attempt by Activision to pool ideas they can 'buy up' - it's really just a clever way to mitigate the risk involved with developing projects and ideas, just get 'indies' to dev up to a point where you can see any potential without spending what would have been the necessary seed money often required by a studio building up their own IP's, that way they hedge their bets on finding a winner because they're pulling from a bigger pool of ideas. Cynical of me I know.. but I can't help it

[ratty redemption]

@ kat, sadly I agree and I don't think we're being cynical.

[silicone_milk]

Yep. The guys that were yanked are sueing Activision now.