Gaming News - September 2004

Redwood City, CA (September 30, 2004) - Electronic Arts announced today that Rooster Teeth Productions, known for its ongoing Red vs. Blue online comedy series, will make a series of movies using the game The Sims 2.

From EA:

EA’s Maxis studio developed The Sims 2 as the sequel to the best selling PC game of all time. Last week The Sims 2 shipped to retailers under the EA GAMES brand and consumers have flocked to it making The Sims 2 the fastest selling PC game ever. Fans boast the game’s advanced gameplay mechanics and endless creative possibilities, including the all-new movie-making feature that lends to Machinima.

The Red vs. Blue series is an example of Machinima, a blossoming new form of computerized animation where video games are used to create high-quality real-time digital videos that are downloaded from the Internet by zealous admirers.

Rooster Teeth will use this movie making feature to create a whole series of movies based on The Sims 2. As The Sims became a cultural phenomenon and brought computer games to the masses, Rooster Teeth movies from The Sims 2 are poised to do the same thing – bring Machinima to the masses. The short The Sims 2 movies will be available starting today with new movies premiering on a regularly scheduled basis on www.strangerhood.com.

“We are excited to see what the talented filmmakers at Rooster Teeth Productions will do with our new in-game movie making tool,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Executive Producer of The Sims 2. “The movies we’ve seen from them so far are amazing. We look forward to showing players out there just how much you can do with our game. The possibilities are endless.”

Rooster Teeth’s founder Burnie Burns lauds The Sims 2 movie making feature as “an addictive cutting edge gaming advancement that opens the world of movie production to the masses by allowing anyone to start shooting movies with the touch of a button”. He adds, “That while original The Sims fans got their first taste of the Machinima movement by using 1st generation capture features, In The Sims 2, players can capture any camera angle, build wild and outlandish sets, create an enormous custom wardrobe and even modify a character's facial features like a special effects master. The Sims 2 is an amazing technological advancement.”

Under this agreement, the masterminds at Rooster Teeth will create a series of films called Strangerhood centered on a group of eclectic characters all suffering from amnesia. For reasons unknown to them, they have been gathered together in a mysteriously remote suburban neighborhood. Throughout the season, the characters will attempt to figure out who they are, why they have been brought together, how they can live with each other and just exactly who is behind this bizarre experiment.

In The Sims 2 players for the first time are able to control their Sims over an entire lifetime. Through the new aspiration gameplay, every choice that is made has a relevant and dramatic effect on the life of a Sim. With the ground-breaking addition of genetics, Sims now pass their DNA down through generations giving them a more vivid and in-depth Sims experience all in a 3D world. Players are now able to generate unique Sims with the new Create-A-Sim, packed with a vast selection of facial features, hairstyles, and outfits and build dream homes and design neighborhoods with new building, design, and home furnishing options. It’s up to the player to take their Sims from the cradle to the grave, fulfill their dreams and push them to extremes.

Rooster Teeth Productions’ continuing Red vs. Blue series has brought gaming as a form of entertainment to a whole new level. – Rooster Teeth averages over 750,000 movie downloads each week from their website, which has been online since their launch on April 1, 2003.

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