At the 2008 Games For Change festival, Chris Satchell, Microsoft’s general manager of XNA, spoke about how the development platform can be used by garage developers to create socially conscious games.

He also told me that the 12 million Xbox Live users are ready for games about social issues. But will XNA be ready for gamers?

Satchell gave me an update on Community Games, the new Xbox Live feature which allows users to easily download XNA-created games. I asked him why it won’t run into the same interface issues that XBLA currently has. He offered this solution:

“One thing we’re going to have is we’re also going to expose all of [the games] on the website as well. So if you want, you’re going to be able to go and do a detailed search from a web browser and say, ‘Oh, I want that game’ and click, and have it downloaded on your console. … you’ll be at the office and go, ‘Here are the games I’m going to play tonight’ and go back home and just have them ready for you.”

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Are you a full-time college or university student who wants to have a career in video games?

Then take heed: the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is extending the deadline for the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund.

Aspiring game designers, developers and producers are encouraged to apply for a $2,500 scholarship to help pave their way into the video games industry. If you are currently enrolled in a games-related program at an accredited college or university, you are eligible.

Applications for the 2008-2009 academic year are being accepted now through June 30. Four recipients will be announced in July 2008.

For more detailed information on how to apply, head over to the official website at www.interactive.org.

Have you been staring at mini-maps too much lately?

Have you been missing the beautiful scenery of today’s hottest games because you only had eyes for the map in the corner of your TV?

Have you essentially been playing a 3D Xbox 360 or PS3 game by focusing on a graphical view of Liberty City or Paradise City that could have been rendered on an NES?

Have you, like Peter Molyneux, considered that mini-maps should be replaced by in-game dogs?

Are you making a mockery out of all the effort today’s hardworking game artists put into the parts of the game you don’t see because you’re staring at the edge of your TV?

Mini-maps: gamer friend or game designer foe?

Decide now.

“Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver” is one of my favorite games.

So when “Afro Samurai” senior designer David Robinson said he not only credits some design decisions for the anime-based hack ‘n slash “Afro Samurai” to “Soul Reaver,” but he also worked on “Soul Reaver,” I was excited.

“Afro is largely built on the flavor of Soul Reaver — the dark brooding story, the anti-hero character,” said Robinson. “A lot of the constructs come from how beautiful that game was.”

I’m sold! But I was curious how “Afro Samurai” came to be, as it’s a new step for Namco Bandai. It’s coming from the Japanese publisher’s first wholly-owned studio in the United States. Robinson’s been working on “Afro Samurai” for just under two years, and he started with just a staff of five.

Now, they’re up to more than 40, as development nears the final lap. I probed Robinson about working with Samuel L. Jackson, who has done voices for the anime and the game.

So what was it like being part of Namco’s first American team?

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Analysts look at bottom lines. They make recommendations for people to make money. Cynically, you’d think an analyst would recommend sequels, annualization, keeping the talent making them behind the scenes.

That’s not necessarily what Evan Wilson, senior research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, advocates. He sees financial successes coming from elevating talent, and making them a reason a consumer is interested in your project from the get-go.

“There are very few people in this world who know how to create hits. Not create a hit, but create multiple hits,” said Wilson in an e-mail exchange. “Those creative minds should be recognized and remunerated in the video game industry for their contribution as much as other forms of media. From a business perspective, that might be more expensive, but if the reward is better selling games the trade-off is worth it.”

But that’s not how the industry works right now, unless you’re a Will Wright or Hideo Kojima. Isn’t elevating creative minds a risky, expensive gamble? Why would Wilson — an analyst who should be identify how shareholders can profit, not developers – recommend that transition?

“I’m a stock analyst,” he said. “It’s my job, first and foremost, to improve the performance of my clients’ investments. That is done by not only recommending what is underestimated in share prices, but also helping them steer clear of what’s overestimated.”

A big problem, he said, is tha publishers view developers as interchangeable cogs.

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Remember how difficult it was to find the first “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney”? Contrary to message board conspiracy theories, that wasn’t actually Capcom’s fault.

When I tried (and failed) to buy “Tetris DS,” it made me wonder. How does a publisher predict demand? How do they figure out how many copies to manufacture and ship, and when (and why) do they halt production lines?

I’ve been speaking to different companies to figure that out. One of them was Capcom, a company with strong Japanese roots and a large Western audience. They, along with the rest of the industry, wrestle with this every day.

Christian Svensson, Capcom’s VP of business development and strategic panning, admits it’s extremely complicated. Not only does Capcom have to convince retail to order en masse at launch, but the sales cycle itself is changing as the industry grows bigger and bigger.

“The sales life cycle of a product is shrinking,” said Svensson. If a game undersells its first month at retail, it’s finished at retail. Often, though, it’s quicker: if a game underperforms its first week, it is more than likely “dead on arrival.”

Here’s how Capcom tries to prevent being in that position.

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Have you tried to purchase “Tetris DS” recently? Totilo tried to. So did I.

We couldn’t find a copy anywhere. It’s going on eBay for as high as $60. The situation is even worse at Amazon. It’s not in stock at EB Games, Best Buy or any other retailer.

Nintendo claims the title is still in production, but right now, there’s no way to buy it. That got us wondering.

How does a company decide when to put a game out to pasture, after months or years of success?

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(Below is part of my latest GameFile column. For the full thing, check out MTVNews.com)

SAN FRANCISCO — It wasn’t the first time the creator of “Ninja Gaiden” tripped me up in an interview by mentioning gambling. But when I was interviewing Tomonobu Itagaki a few weeks ago, he did it again. And I wasn’t prepared.

I wasn’t ready because I was asking him and other top game developers I saw at the Game Developers Conference about what advice they would give young developers. What do gaming’s greats want hungry kids to know?

“I think people should gamble more,” Itagaki said from behind opaque sunglasses and decked out in an all-black outfit. “Or [they should] play something like backgammon, a game that’s not a video game but more of an analog traditional game.”

He didn’t mean “gamble” like a figure of speech. He meant it like rolling dice or playing cards. Not that we at MTV News advocate people throwing their money into craps or the slots, but Itagaki clearly does. I know this because, two years ago, when I interviewed him in his office in Tokyo, he stopped the interview to ask me, through his translator, if I was a gambler. I expressed some confusion and he explained that it was because I had the eyes of a gambler.

Check out the rest of this column at MTVNews.com

Can you spot the logos of your favorite game developers? Even if we just give you a tiny glimpse?

The Game Developer’s Conference is rapidly approaching, and this year is stacking up to be one of the biggest and most exciting years ever. In honor of the many great developers that will be in attendance we have put together another one of our photo quizzes for everyone to enjoy.

Below you will see the details of 10 different GDC attendees’ logos. Each of these developers will be represented at the show, either on the floor, or via a speaker. You should be familiar with each of these logos from those screens that pop up right before you start playing some of your favorite titles from the past few years. Try and see how many of them you can recognize.

Click the images for the answers.

1.                               2.

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The upcoming Wii title “Zombie Massacre” doesn’t even have a publisher yet, but it’s already being made into a movie — a movie directed by Uwe Boll.

Approximately three weeks ago, news about the unpublished Wii game made its way around the Internet, and before anyone even really knew what the game was about, the German filmmaker, infamous for critically panned video game movies like “Alone in the Dark,” “Bloodrayne” and like-minded zombie flick “House of the Dead,” picked up the rights to make a film based on it.

A completely unknown developer with a movie optioned for an unpublished, out-of-nowhere Wii game? It sounds too good to be true. Last week, due to sheer curiosity, I called up “Zombie Massacre” creator 1988 Games and film director Uwe Boll to find out the details for myself.

Image: Exclusive “Zombie Massacre” concept art the developers have been showing to potential publishers, courtesy of 1988 Games
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