News
The French Revolution?
Michael French Nov 30 2007, 11:00am
Comments (13)
Paris Mayor backs ambitious plan by five Parisian studios to build global middleware platform called 'Play All'
Five French games studios have teamed up to prouduce a shared crossplatform middleware standard for use by all developers around the globe, Develop can reveal – and they have scored €6.5m funding from France’s Ministry of Industry, and backing from Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (pictured), to help realise their vision.
Called Play All, the strategy has been brought together by five studios HQ’d in Paris – Darkworks, Kylotonn, Load Inc, White Birds Productions and Wizarbox – and has the support of French engineering schools in the computer science field.
All involved are convinced that the next revolution in games development will come about not via competition between studios but collaboration and the mutual assistance between companies.
In a statement issued exclusively to Develop, the studios said they had “put aside their fear of sharing technology, know-how and teams of programmers” in order to build a crossplatform toolchain standard for all major hardware platforms.
The consortium of studios plans to allow those interested in helping develop a common platform to use the tech, no matter where in the world they hail from, with the first beta of the middleware to be ready next year.
Together, the five companies are setting up a joint venture game technology company with dedicated offices, plans for which include founding a team of 40 engineers to build the technology over the next two years.
“Collaboration and consolidation of a crossplatform technology standard between independent studios is the next revolution in our industry,” said Guillaume Gaouraud, MD of game studio Darkworks and representative of Play All.
“Our five companies are making this turn now to be up and ready for the present and next cycle of growth.”
The project has a budget of €13m, and is backed by the Parisian competitive cluster agency Cap Digital.
The effort is getting €6.5m funding from the region’s agencies and the French Ministry of Industry in a bid to fuel the local games development sector.
Paris Mayor Delanoë added: “Paris in the 21st Century will not confine itself to conserving its rich heritage. We also need to build a city that's fit for the future and prepared to meet the competitive challenges of the next 20 years.
“The city needs to provide attractive conditions to foster capital formation and job creation in the human services industry, the biotechnology sector and cutting-edge digital technologies,” he added.
“Paris has shown itself to be extremely creative in relation to Web 2.0, the video-game industry, and strategic technological sectors, such as Internet research, and I am extremely keen to promote awareness of the ‘Paris brand’ in this field of innovation.”
Comments
“big laugh!”
Posted by: frenchdev - Nov 30, 1:45pm
(serious) French developers have been following this for quite a while, and are all puzzled by this Play All venture. None of the "big" French developers have followed this route (Eden, Eugen, Arkhane, Quantic, Ankhama etc...).
None of these companies have the slightest clue about real engine development - let alone cross platform ! - (these are small, middleware using entities).
This will lead nowhere, and probably won't even start since they are still looking desperately trying to find the other 50% of the funding... This is at best an oax...
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: frenchdev - Nov 30, 2:03pm
I think you make a mistake when you say companies like Quantic is "big". One game every five years does not made me think this is a big developper.
Eden belongs to a publisher Atari.
to finish i would like to remind you that ankhama is develpping on flash.
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: frenchdev2 - Nov 30, 2:06pm
Lots of rancor in your post... you should probably work on getting your title greenlighted by your publisher...
Excepted Eden, none of the "serious" developers you mention are considered to be AAA right now. Arkhane, which has a AAA potential, is using the "Half Life 2" Source engine, and they usually show the humility that goes with talent, which is clearly not your case...
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: frenchdev3 - Nov 30, 2:17pm
One more precision : Ankama is not a parisian studio, they made just a single online-flash-game, and have some relationship with regional (Nord) partners.
“Bigger laught”
Posted by: papakifOu - Nov 30, 2:24pm
Eugen is a top french studio looool (exclusively on PC for now)
Quantic is exclusive on PS3, so no crossplatform for them.
Eden is Lyon-based, Arkhane Lyon / Austin based, Ankhama is in Lille.
The best developpers are not necessary in the biggest studio, far from it...
When you don't know what you're talking about, STFU
“Re: Bigger laught”
Posted by: FrenchDevelopper4 - Nov 30, 2:30pm
For your information, Arkhane's Xbox port of Arx Fatalis has been done by Wizarbox, one of the 5 studios working on the project.
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: frenchdev3 - Nov 30, 2:33pm
One more precision : Ankama is not a parisian studio, they made just a single online-flash-game, and have some relationship with regional (Nord) partners.
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: papakifOu - Nov 30, 2:45pm
I just read my post and I'm a bit impulsive, I've just overreacted because really annoyed by such a reaction from FrenchDevelopper.
This project is a very good and positive iniative and I'm really disappointed to see such reactions from "the inside" of the French industry.
We had hard time in 2002 with half of the studios closing. We're trying to find solutions not to have it to happen again, and I really don't get the point in this disdainful reaction.
“Re: big laugh!”
Posted by: Denis from Load Inc. - Nov 30, 2:46pm
Serious post are done in the light.
You probably have things to say that could benefit the entire industry.
Come out of the closet & let's talk.
Cheers,
Denis.
“a new hope”
Posted by: Blanchette - Nov 30, 3:26pm
as a gamer i think its good and will put créative design first when the engine start working smoothly , and the all id of sharing technologie is totaly cool and modern .
Good luck Paris !
as they say in France "l'union fait la force"
peace
“Re: Big Laugh”
Posted by: FrenchDev3654 - Nov 30, 3:38pm
a big laugh is Quantic Dream, who boasted everywhere in Paris that they would show their game at the Tokyo Game Show last september as a Sony first party product, but showed nothing at all! They should show a little modesty. Having said that, I wish them luck!
“Fin de la récréation SVP ?”
Posted by: Guillaume de Fondaumiere - Nov 30, 4:28pm
Bonjour à tous,
Inutile de parler en anglais ici, puisque visiblement seuls des français écrivent dans ce post. Et malheureu*****t des développeurs, et des patrons de studios...Quelle belle image de l'industrie française nous donnons là ma foi...
Si nous mettions autant d'énergie à créer des grands jeux, ils seraient dans les charts (et il y aurait moins de frustration).
A bon entendeur...
G
“Re: Fin de la récréation SVP ?”
Posted by: CodingGirlfromIpanema - Dec 1, 1:41pm
Guillaume de Fondieres a tout à fait raison, et d'autant plus que, de notorieté publique, il a fait tout son possible pour mettre des batons dans les roues de Cap Digital !
A bonne entendeuse...