GAME Over for Highly Anticipated Mass Effect 3!

Calm Down!  I didn't mean to imply that anything with the game is canceled.  Thank God it isn't.  Mass Effect 3 is the most anticipated game of 2012.  Releasing on March 6th in the US and a few days later (March 9th in Europe) everywhere else, Mass Effect has garnered incredible pre-sale numbers.  Several retailers have sold out of the 'Collector's Edition' copies of the game, and most of the retailers have been sold out since the game went on pre-sale months ago.

UK equivalent of GameStop and retailer, GAME, has announced today that they are no longer carrying new titles from video game publisher EA.

The whole mess of a situation some say is attributed to the recent economic difficulties and the switch to digital distribution of online stores like Amazon.com.  GAME is refunding the mass of preorders and also issuing £5 worth of credit towards customers.  This has many fans of the Mass Effect franchise in an outrage!

The news of this undoing came from a leaked internal memo:

"We committed to only stocking products on which we could get the right credit terms, regardless of the title or the supplier.  We will not stock products if the terms are not right for our business - a position we believe is critical to our long term health as a business - we have taken the very difficult decision to not stock EA's March releases, including Mass Effect 3."

 (Quote from Kotaku)

Will this move hurt the ever loved Mass Effect title?  Well it already has.  Reports on several social sites have fans and purchasers of the 'Collector's Edition' in an uproar.  Their reserved copies of the extremely rare copies of the 'Collector's Edition' have been voided.  The copies of the game have been redistributed to other retailers and now they are being reserved on a first come first served basis.  Many dedicated fans to the franchise have lost out on the opportunity to own the 'Collector's Edition' of the final title in the BioWare space trilogy.

This however has also, in favor of BioWare and EA, created huge buzz and an extremely large demand for the 'Collector's Edition' title in the European Market.  Avid gamers who missed out on the chance to reserve their limited edition copies are now rushing to reserve the newly freed copies.  This will ultimately help the sales of Mass Effect 3, proving that any publicity is good publicity.

Read More @ Kotaku
Read More @ EuroGamer

Joshua Butt: Working Hard, But Hardly Working

     Joshua is a resident of Los Angeles, and like most of the denizens of southern California, Joshua works in the film industry.  Josh works as a freelance… well everything really.  I recently had the opportunity to FaceTime with my old friend and I asked him some questions about the industry.  Since Josh works freelance, he has to negotiate every time he wants to work.  He has to negotiate all the terms of each of his contracts.  I asked him about how he tries to separate the person from the problem when it comes to his dealings.  He told me that it is absolutely necessary to do everything you can to separate the person from the issues, that way you can get down to brass tax and accomplish work much more quickly and speed is everything in the film business.  

     He says it is difficult to do this sometimes, especially when dealing with the more famous people that he comes across.  I also talked to Josh about role.  He said that when it comes to role, the hierarchal structure of the film business plays a major part.  The higher or more prestigious a persons role is on the crew, the more respect you give to them, or receive from them.  “This is important because dealing with the major players properly is a great way to get ahead in the film business.” He said.  Josh has first hand experience with this.  He negotiated to stay onboard a project which has since been screened at the Sundance Film Festival.  Josh uses many negotiation principals in his professional life.  He needs to use these skills to make any idea of success in the film business become reality.  Thanks again to my good friend Josh for talking to me about this and for taking time out of your busy schedule to do so.