Blackwater founder Erik Prince enters video game business
Source: articles.cnn.com
Real-Life Mercenaries to Star in Blackwater, the Videogame
Blackwater Worldwide, the real-life mercenary team linked to the killing of civilians and noncombatants in Iraq during U.S. operations there, will be the subject of a Kinect-supported videogame coming to the Xbox 360 later this year.
Published by 505 Games and titled, simply, Blackwater, the game is being produced in consultation with the private security contractor’s founder, the former Navy SEAL Erik Prince.
A news release called it “an intense, cinematic shooter experience,” set in a fictional North African town, in which players, as Blackwater operatives, battle two warlords’ factions to protect the city.
“This game and its immersive Kinect-based approach will give players the chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation,” Prince said in a statement issued by 505. The game was developed in conjunction with former Blackwater members “to ensure accuracy of moves, gestures and gameplay,” the 505 release said. “The game also features a selection of officially-licensed weapons for your soldier to choose from.”
The game may also be played using a standard controller.
Blackwater, renamed to Xe Services LLC, was contracted by the U.S. government to provide training and diplomatic security, most notably in the Middle East, for much of the last decade. Its presence alongside U.S. diplomatic and military personnel came under scrutiny after several incidents resulting in the deaths either of civilians or Blackwater employees themselves.
Its involvement in Iraq became enough of a controversy that the company renamed itself to Xe in the aftermath. Its employees were involved in shootings later found to be unjustified, including one in which 17 Iraqis were slain, prompting the government there to revoke Blackwater’s license to operate in the country. Both the U.S. State Department and the FBI called that incident a reckless use of force that killed innocents, but an FBI investigation could not conclusively prove Blackwater was responsible for all deaths. In another 2006 incident, a Blackwater employee was fired after he, allegedly drunk, shot and killed a security guard of the Iraqi vice president.
Though none of its employees have faced prosecution, Blackwater/Xe has been heavily criticized in Congressional hearings as a cost-ineffective private contractor whose uses of force have embarrassed and compromised U.S. diplomatic interests. Additionally, the leak of diplomatic documents by Wikileaks in October 2010 alleged Blackwater committed serious abuses while in Iraq, including killing civilians. The State Department dropped Blackwater as its main private security contractor in 2009.
Prince, who founded Blackwater in 1997, is no longer involved in Xe’s management or operations.
505 Games is no stranger to controversy; it is publishing Supremacy MMA a fighter/sports hybrid whose stylized violence and gritty, underground presentation of mixed martial arts has drawn criticism from some, saying it presents the sport in a poor light. Mixed martial arts is especially sensitive to depictions of violence and brutality, as they have been the basis for state-level legislation forbidding the sport.
Supremacy MMA also features, for the first time, female combatants in an MMA title, although they may not fight male characters.
Source: wired.com
Blackwater founder Erik Prince enters video game business
From: cnn.com
More and more, today’s video game business is driven by huge military shooters like Activision’s "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" and Electronic Arts’ "Battlefield 3."
Now, Erik Prince, the founder of a controversial, real-world military group, is stepping into the virtual war zone with a new first-person shooter, "Blackwater."
Designed exclusively for Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360, "Blackwater" was developed by Zombie Studios and overseen by Prince, a former Navy SEAL.
The shooter is set in a fictional North African town overrun by warlords and opposing militia forces. Players enter the fray as team members of Blackwater, the mercenaries-for-hire company that Prince founded in 1997.
Featuring licensed real-world weapons, the game can be played with a traditional controller. But it has been crafted to take advantage of Kinect’s motion controls. Gamers will be able to aim, crouch, and interact with the on-screen action using only body gestures and moves to take out enemies through a series of action-packed missions.
The game has already courted controversy, since Blackwater employees were linked to the deaths of numerous noncombatants and civilians in the Middle East while employed by the U.S. government.
Critics have complained about the game because Blackwater employees take on missions for money, while U.S. soldiers, the focal point of games like "Modern Warfare 3" and "Battlefield 3," fight for their country.
Following inquiries by Congress into Blackwater actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a shootout that led to the deaths of 17 Iraqis, Prince changed the company’s name to Xe and, in 2009, resigned as CEO. He sold the company last year.
Although the game was created with the aid of former Blackwater employees, the gameplay does not put players in situations where civilians or noncombatants are targets.
The same cannot be said about "Modern Warfare 2," which earned more than $1 billion for Activision a couple of years ago. That fictional game featured an intense airport sequence in which players were forced to target innocent civilians as an undercover terrorist or risk having their cover blown and being executed.
Prince talked to CNN in an exclusive interview about the first shooter designed for Kinect, why he decided to enter the games business and what gadget he can’t live without.
CNN: Why did you decide to enter the video game business?
Prince: Video games are an exciting medium. The creativity of design, the technology and the interaction represent the best of American innovation. My father was a brilliant inventor and businessman. He taught me to appreciate the opportunities that America offers to innovators. Working with the brilliant creators in this industry was a logical progression for me.
CNN: How involved were you in this game?
Prince: I set the overall vision and mission areas for this game. My guidelines were to be interactive, tactically correct, fun and expandable, meaning we can add additional missions and accessories to the game going forward.
CNN: What did you learn about how video games are made from this experience?
Prince: I now realize that the video game industry is very large and sophisticated, larger even than Hollywood in terms of volume. There is every aspect of specialization in the production of these games. Integrating physical motion into on-screen motion is an exciting new frontier for the industry.
CNN: How do you think the Blackwater brand will appeal to the gaming demographic?
Prince: I believe "Blackwater" will have a unique appeal to gamers, particularly on the Kinect platform. The physical, visual and virtual feel of participating in a mission brings a level of excitement and realism to the game that is hard to match. And frankly, it’s fun. I think gamers will really enjoy playing the game.
CNN: Do you play games or have any background playing games? If so, what have you played lately?
Prince: I’m afraid I don’t have time to play any games these days. I certainly played a lot when I was a kid and I know it helped develop my hand to eye coordination.
CNN: What are your thoughts on how video games have evolved over the years?
Prince: The video game industry is constantly evolving. The sheer creativity matched with cutting-edge technologies gives me the comfort that innovation is alive and well in America. And we can see the impact that the gaming industry is having on other entertainment media, as well as military training or flight simulation. It’s a fascinating synthesis of ideas, technologies and platforms.
CNN: How does this game being a Blackwater experience differentiate it from franchises like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," "Medal of Honor" and "Battlefield"?
Prince: "Blackwater" on the Kinect system gets you up and moving. You’ll have to act and react with something more than your thumbs. It is definitely the next step of progression into a truly interactive experience.
CNN: Why do you think simulation military shooters are so popular today? "Call of Duty" is the biggest game franchise of all time.
Prince: The popularity of simulation military shooters today is really no different from the popularity of playing soldier or cops-and-robbers when we were kids. Take timeless themes of courage, good vs. evil and war, and add today’s technology and you get a very popular genre. We’ve taken the proven concept a step further with this game by having the player actually have to move their body to navigate the game.
The military uses video games -- from America’s Army online game to the new Dismounted Soldier Training System (which uses the Crytek game engine and virtual reality to train squads in war zones).
CNN: What are your thoughts on the role games are playing in training in the military today?
Prince: Training for any difficult job is essential. Combat being the most difficult, it’s the same reason the Navy started the Top Gun program during Vietnam, because they were losing way too many new pilots during air combat. Top Gun, by giving pilots realistic experiences simulating combat, drastically improved their performance and survivability. With video game simulations, DOD is providing many of the same sights/sounds and system overloading experiences to soldiers before they encounter a real firefight so they are prepared to make good decisions in the middle of all that stress.
CNN: Outside of work, what’s a favorite piece of technology or gadget that you can’t live without and why?
Prince: My kids would certainly comment on my use (or overuse) of a BlackBerry and iPad.
Source: cnn.com
Blackwater Video Game Steers Clear Of Controversy
From: huffingtonpost.com
In the world of video games, realism reigns supreme, but the makers of a game based on the infamous private security firm Blackwater are intentionally steering clear of it.
There’s no blood, the enemies are fictional and civilians can’t be killed. With no moral dilemmas in "Blackwater," it’s simply a matter of shoot – or be shot.
"It’s a game," said Erik Prince, the company’s founder. "This is not a training device. This is not a simulator. We’re not doing this to teach folks how to conduct military operations in an urban terrain. That’s not it at all. This is more along the lines of kids running around their neighborhood playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians."
Prince partnered with developer Zombie Studios and publisher 505 Games to create the game using Microsoft Corp.’s motion-sensing Kinect technology for the Xbox 360. The camera-based system detects players’ movements as they dodge enemy fire, kick down doors and lunge across rooftops while shooting foes across virtual battlefields in a fictional North African country.
The game’s protagonists are a team of made-up Blackwater operatives tasked with protecting aid workers and other dignitaries in a volatile nation overrun by a warlord named General Limbano. Along the way, the four-man team – with each member armed with a different type of weapon – must blast away the hordes of encroaching minions.
The game is Prince’s first attempt to leverage Blackwater as a brand. After founding the company in 1997, the former NAVY Seal stepped away from daily operations in 2009 but retained licensing rights to the Blackwater name. The security firm, which is still in operation and is now called Xe Services, was sold to investor group USTC Holdings last year.
Blackwater, which provided services to the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, drew criticism from members of Congress and others after a 2007 shooting in Baghdad that killed 17 people. Those accusations were thrown out after a judge found prosecutors mishandled evidence, but the case was resurrected this year by a federal appeals court.
The game, which is scheduled for release Oct. 25, isn’t an attempt to convalesce Blackwater’s reputation, according to Prince. He said his motivation was to ultimately create an active and engaging shooter that would make players’ entire bodies sore instead of just their thumbs. Still, Prince recognizes not everyone will want to push the start button.
"I think anyone who sticks their neck out in life will be attacked in some quarters for doing it," said Prince. "I’m fully comfortable with that. Some people are not always going to like Blackwater, but there are many millions of people that do like Blackwater. I’m not out to rehabilitate an image. We’re out to provide a good experience and enjoyable game."
"Blackwater" isn’t the first shoot-’em-up game to depict private military contractors or court controversy.
The 2008 cooperative third-person shooter "Army of Two" and its 2010 sequel from Electronic Arts Inc. focused on a pair of former Army Rangers carrying out missions for cash in such locales as Afghanistan, Iraq and China on behalf of a fictional security firm.
Electronic Arts switched the name of virtual combatants in the multiplayer mode of the military shooter "Medal of Honor" from "Taliban" to "Opposing Force" after the game was banned from being sold at U.S. military bases in 2010.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" from Activision Blizzard Inc. included a skippable level when it was released in 2009 that cast gamers as an agent who infiltrates a Russian villain’s inner circle to defeat him but ends up participating in a terrorist attack on an airport while acting as part of the villain’s group.
Konami Corp. canceled plans in 2009 to publish "Six Days in Fallujah," a game re-enacting a 2004 battle in Iraq.
Zombie Studios lead designer Richard Dormer said the "Blackwater" developers hoped to avoid such resistance by reducing the game’s violent content and emphasizing arcade-style competitive elements. Players can vie for the fastest time and biggest score. They can also shoot out hidden propaganda materials – but definitely not civilians – found within the game’s levels.
"I waged strongly for the possibility of shooting civilians because I thought it could tell the story well," said Dormer. "In the end, we didn’t need there to be any more controversy. It seemed beside the point of the game. It was a much bigger risk to jeopardize everything else involved, especially with what happened with `Six Days in Fallaujah.’"
While players are awarded extra points for shooting combatants in the head, the blood and profanity doesn’t flow as freely in "Blackwater" as it does in mature-rated shooters like "Call of Duty." The teen-rated "Blackwater" includes "mild language" and "violence," according to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.
"We didn’t want this to be restricted to adults," said Prince. "We wanted to dial the violence down so that kids could play it in the same way that they go outside throw snowballs at each other or whatever. We wanted to be able to spread the game to that demographic. Frankly, I also wanted something that I’d be comfortable with my own boys playing."
Source: huffingtonpost.com
blackwatergame.com
