What's next for the team behind BioShock Infinite?

As the team at Irrational Games finalizes their work on downloadable content Burial at Sea and begins work on the second part of the narratively-driven return to Rapture, rumors have begun to swirl about what the team might be working on next.

In a recent interview at their Quincy, Mass.-based studio, Irrational head Ken Levine told me that the team is focused entirely on Infinite's third, and likely final piece of content and that he doesn't know what's next for the team.

He said right now he can't see past the work on this third piece of DLC.

"That's how far I see into the future right now," he said. "I'm just working on writing Burial at Sea part two and a lot of people are sort of going, ‘Well, what's next?' and I honestly have to say to them my full-time job right now is writing and creative directing and we're going to figure that out when we're done."

I ask him if it is possible that BioShock Infinite could continue to support new stories, to essentially live up to its name and be infinite.

"I will say, and this is honestly not a hint or anything like that, Elizabeth feels like my daughter, I don't have a child," Levine said. "And it's weird to take her through these things and I feel such a connection to the character."

Levine's emotional connection to BioShock Infinite's Elizabeth seems to line up a bit with a rumor that's been making the rounds.

Sources tell Polygon that Levine is playing around with a concept for a game that would allow people to create an AI-powered character and then impose feelings on it. Think of it as a super next-gen Tamagotchi.

I tell Levine what I've been hearing about this secret project, the idea of turning Elizabeth into a game, like, perhaps, Milo?

"No, no," Levine says. "Look, I've been thinking about narrative a lot and the future of narrative and how to make narrative ...The last thing I would say is that I'm thinking about making Elizabeth into a Milo. There are some components and I'm going to be starting to talk about this. I want to make clear this isn't a game design.

"I've been working on a concept I call narrative LEGOs."

"I don't want people looking at my next game and saying ‘He said he was going to do this.'"

It's not a game, Levine says, it's a sort of "thought experiment" about how to push the art of storytelling forward in video games.

"I think it's an interesting topic," he said. "I've been working on a concept I call narrative LEGOs which is how do you take narrative and break it down. What are the smallest part of narrative that you can then remix and build something out of? Mix and match."

LEGO, Levine points out, are a bunch of "primitives."

LEGO "chose a bunch of shapes which they knew would be useful and recombinable," he said.

Traditional narrative in video games is sort of like that Death Star playset kids had when Levine and I were young, he says.

"That's very specific," he said. "It's really well done, really well polished, but it's one thing. LEGOs are, what are they? They're these little primitives, but they were smart enough to design them where you can recombine them into millions of different things."

So the hope for his narrative LEGO is that he could create something similar for storytelling in video games.

And he's already been playing around with the idea.

"When you look at Elizabeth, she is sort of two kinds of things," he said. "There is a portion of her that plays out exactly the same way every single time, exactly the same way. And then there is a portion of here which is a bunch of content and heuristics."

That content would be like those moments when Elizabeth calls out to you in BioShock Infinite and says "Hey Booker, catch," tossing you ammo or a health pack, Levine said. That action and the animation that goes with it is content.

"Heuristics are, ‘When should this fire?' and that's based upon the player's ammunition count, the player's danger, the player's hit points ... a bunch of algorithmic components," he said. "That is the most basic thing I can describe of what it is.

"To take those combination of what is the smallest piece of content, of high quality content that you can break things down to, that mix and match into thousands and thousands of different ways in terms of narrative."

"You can't do that in any other medium that I can think of."

Despite his deep connection to Elizabeth, Levine says she's not the future of this idea, but the past.

"This has nothing to do with Elizabeth other than to think of Elizabeth as version 0.02 when she's walking around playing with arcade machines and interacting with people on the street [in BioShock Infinite]," he said. "When she's interacting with Booker and not in a cutscene not in a scripted, directly scripted fashion she's playing bespoke content, created by talented human beings, but how she's playing it can mix and match in lots of ways."

So this idea, this thing, Levine repeats, isn't a game design.

"Right now it's a thought experiment," he said. "It's a thought experiment right now and it's all I have time for."

Levine says he hopes to talk about it more in the near future, perhaps at the Gaming Insiders Summit in San Francisco next week. He's also pitched this ideas as a GDC talk.

"It's exciting to think about because I care about narrative and I care about the future of it, and I care about making it for this medium," he said. "You can't do that in any other medium that I can think of. I don't even know if you can do it in our medium but that's why I'm thinking about it."

Electronic dance music is set to sweep Wall Street this morning as investors look to cash in on a rapidly growing rave industry and the millenial consumers who are fueling it.

SFX Entertainment, a concert and live events company focused exclusively on electronic dance music (EDM), will start trading on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday after raising far more money than anticipated. On Tuesday, the company priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $13 a share, valuing SFX at $1.05 billion, according to a report from The New York Times. The company initially planned to offer 16.7 million shares, but ended up selling 20 million ahead of its Nasdaq debut, raising $260 million in the process — notably higher than the $175 million it planned to raise when it announced plans to go public in June.

"a global generational movement"

"We view EMC [electronic music culture] as a global generational movement driven by a rapidly developing community of avid followers among the millennial generation," SFX said in a S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. "Our mission is to enable this movement by providing our fans with the best possible live experiences, music discovery, and connectivity with other fans and events."

SFX, which will be traded under the symbol SFXE, was founded in 2011 by 65-year-old media entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman. The company produces high-profile EDM festivals such as Electric Zoo in New York and TomorrowWorld, which brought 140,000 fans to Georgia late last month. SFX reported more than $268 million in annual revenue with $68 million in net losses for 2012, and it plans to spend $150 million of its IPO funding to acquire concert promotion and production companies.

Analysts say today's listing stands as further testament to the growing corporate interest in EDM, which until recently had been relegated to the confines of underground enthusiasts and drug-friendly clubs. According to the most recent International Music Summit Business Report, the global EDM industry is expected to reach a value of $4.5 billion this year, largely on the strength of live events and concert ticket sales.

A "turning point" for the EDM industry

Kevin Watson, a London-based analyst who authored the report, says SFX's decision to go public marks a "turning point" in the evolution of the EDM market. Although competitors like LiveNation have invested heavily in the genre over the past year, SFX is geared exclusively to EDM audiences.

"It will be a very obvious barometer for both investors and fans as to where dance music is at," Watson says in a phone interview with The Verge. The company's performance, he adds, will provide "a better idea of whether it is indeed growing as fast as we think it has been, or whether it will be a short-lived fad that will die off."

By Adam Smith on October 9th, 2013 at 1:00 pm.

XCOM: Enemy Within escalates the alien invasion, introducing body modification, sky-squids and Mechtoids. After seeing the initial reveal at Gamescom, I was eager to try the expansion before release, but when I had the chance last week, I hadn’t expected to see humanity turning on itself. XCOM have encountered a new threat and this one originates much closer to home.

The first time one of my agents shot a human, bright red blood spraying from the wound, I was slightly taken aback. Despite the build-up to the mission – which told of a paramilitary group disrupting XCOM operations – I still half-expected to find something reptilian lurking just beneath the surface of the skin.

It was not to be. The Enemy Within does not just allow for genetic and cybernetic tinkering with XCOM agents, it also introduces an entirely new threat in the form of Exalt, an elusive army of transhumanist terrorists who are determined to use the confusion of the alien invasion to pursue their own agenda. From the player’s perspective, this adds another layer of activity to the Geoscape, new enemy types and a wider variety of missions.

Exalt don’t attack XCOM head-on. In fact, it’s possible to leave them to their own devices and concentrate on the more pressing matter of repelling the aliens. The problem with that approach is that Exalt are using their devices to hack into XCOM’s systems, stealing money and stalling research, and when they set up a cell in a region, they disseminate propaganda, raising terror levels and turning public opinion against XCOM.

“XCOM are rubbish”, I imagine they bark through their megaphones and type into their spam emails, “remember that time aliens attacked London and a Skyranger arrived with three rookies on board who started crying as soon as they saw a Chrysalid? Or the day your children were abducted by sectoids while a man wearing bits of alien as armour fired a rocket into a nearby dustbin and killed himself?” Even the most loyal of XCOM supporters may well remember such incidents with a frown. Let’s face it, in our efforts to save the world, we’ve all made mistakes.

Over time, Exalt create cells across the world. The more they have, the more damage they are capable of inflicting. To discover them, reconnaissance points must be spent, allowing XCOM to scan the globe in order to intercept transmissions. When a cell is discovered, it remains in view for a few in-game weeks, exposed and ineffective until Exalt manage to relocate it elsewhere. While the cell is in this vulnerable state, it can be taken out of action entirely and that’s when the new mission types come into play.

XCOM don’t bombard Exalt from a distance or attack them with an assault squad. The ultimate goal is to find the base of operations, rather than chipping away at the outposts, so a covert operative is selected to infiltrate and to gather information. This can be any soldier except a heavy or a mech, and some will be more suited to the task than others. No armour can be equipped during infiltration and no weapon larger than a pistol can be carried while undercover, which makes the agent extremely vulnerable during extraction.

Extraction is the tactical part of the mission. After a few days have passed, the infiltrator calls for an extraction team and they are selected, equipped and sent in as they would be to any other mission. On the ground, they’ll be on the opposite side of the map, separated from their undercover colleague, and will be responsible for clearing a path back to the Skyranger. To complicate matters, the lone agent must hack into designated terminals, marked on the map, before leaving. Without the data they contain, the entire mission is futile. And if that agent dies, everything is lost – all the extraction squad can do is hope to escape in one piece.

Exalt are tough opponents. They have access to the same equipment as XCOM, and grenades and rocket launchers can be seen strapped to their belts and backpacks. I replayed the same map twice, attempting to improve after losing four agents on the first pass. Exalt are smart, using cover intelligently and waiting for XCOM to cluster together before launching area effect attacks. They adapted well to my altered approach on the second run-through. Instead of attacking through the congested centre of the map, I split my forces and sent them creeping around the periphery.

Instead of hunting for my troops, Exalt vanished into the shadows. I thought they were stationary, the game allowing me breathing room that I hadn’t necessarily earned. As I blundered onward, moving from cover to cover and attempting to set up a killzone, I realised my mistake. Exalt had used my apparent hesitancy to concentrate their attentions on my covert operative. As he approached the first terminal, four enemies came into view, converging on his position. With only a pistol to defend himself, he was forced to retreat, increasing the gap between my various units and eventually leading to complete and abject failure.

Whether it’s the setup of the map, with the squad split and objectives scattered, or the improvements to AI, the brief hands-on with the Exalt missions marked them out as highlights. They should become more interesting as the campaign progresses as well. Exalt believe that the aliens’ technology and biology can be harnessed to fulfil their transhumanist dreams. They will begin to use alien weaponry, just as XCOM do, and they will follow XCOM in altering the bodies of their operatives. However, they will tread where XCOM fear to go, pushing their modifications to extremes.

The new enemy can be destroyed, although the aliens continue to be the game’s focus and are the heart of the war. Exalt have a base and by capturing intelligence during covert operations, XCOM gather clues as to where it is located. Through a process of elimination, the player can ‘accuse’ a region of harbouring the base, but if the accusation is false, the results are grave. Should the headquarters be discovered, XCOM have a base invasion to deal with, but as the aggressors rather than the defenders.

As an addition to the game’s strategic layer, there’s a possibility that Enemy Within and Exalt will distract from the campaign rather than adding any real complexity to it. The new mission and enemy types add pleasing variety to the tactical combat that is XCOM’s core, but only a full playthrough will determine how the balance of demands on the Geoscape will alter the flow of a campaign, for better or worse. With the new unit modifications already detailed, I hadn’t expected anything as significant as a new faction in this second reveal and I’m convinced that, if nothing else, Enemy Within will have enough content to make another run through the campaign a worthwhile proposition.

I spoke to lead designer Anand Gupta about Exalt’s motives, the second covert mission type, X-COM: Apocalypse’s factions and simulated city, and how to maintain balance while introducing new systems. That’s coming soon.

On the grimy wall, a stone-faced puritanical burgher gazes balefully down at you from a bill poster; an Orwellian exhortation to sacrifice and obedience is plastered beneath his vicious mug. It is a reminder that bad things are happening here and nasty sons-of-bitches are to blame.

As you turn toward the street, Dickensian funk rises from poverty-smeared cobbles. The sharp clack of military boots can be heard approaching from just behind that dilapidated alehouse.

This is the City, home of Square Enix's rebooted Thief, due for release in Feb. 2014 on Xbox and PlayStation consoles as well as Windows PC.

It's a familiar enough place, especially if you played last year's Dishonored. Plague and decay are the architectural motifs, gothic shadows sneak across ginnels and alleyways.

Dishonored didn't invent the time-honored trick of juxtaposing gray misery with glittering grandeur. But Thief, by necessity, plays the contrast for all it's worth. This is a game about stealing stuff. Narrative backdrops of injustice and inequality lends useful cover for the fact that thieving is rarely heroic.

Among the squalor, gleaming flashes catch the eye, revealing goblets and coins that the player stashes away to be traded for upgrades. These goodies are hiding in plain site, among the wretched beggars. This is what the boffins call ludo-narrative dissonance.

Back in the late '90s, when the Thief franchise began, the mechanic of moving without sound, of playing hide-and-seek with murderous guards, still felt new.

Dishonored, which basically reinvented Thief before Eidos Montreal managed to climb out of its bed, showed that the stealth mechanic has much to offer, particularly if you are the kind of person who enjoys the notion that killing people ought to feel like an abject failure, should feel like the messy doings of clumsy, incompetent fools.

Thief stars a character named Garrett, who is a rebooted version of the person of the same name who appeared in the original games. In my two-hour play-session, there wasn't much to tell one way or another if the character retains the sardonic amorality of the original, or if he has become yet another video game leading badass, wise-cracking his way through missions.

Garrett's powers are represented in a UI device that shows if he is well hidden, as well as his remaining life and a power called 'Focus', which is little more than a cheat button. By pressing on Focus, enemies are easier to kill and puzzles are simpler to solve.

The missions, which do not have to be approached in any particular order, generally involve sneaking past guards / killing guards, figuring out switches and searching for clues. They are linear, insofar as there is usually one geographic route to the solution. But, as is often the way with stealth, there are many different ways to approach the problem based on how much violence the player is willing to use.

"When we talk about freedom it's about how you play, whether you are going to do everything using stealth or other means," said producer Stefan Roy. "It's not about having ten different routes to the conclusion so much as having different ways to overcome the obstacles."

Combat is a rudimentary affair of bashing enemies with various weapons that can be selected from a control wheel. That Focus button slows down time and reveals soft-spots, offering useful aid in a tight spot. Garrett can also swoop down on players, incapacitating tin-helmeted goons from above.

Impatient players who attempt to clear their levels with one-on-three melee battles will not progress easily. Taking enemies out discreetly is the point of the game. It is also possible, though not easy, to avoid violence.

I feel obliged to confess that I did not manage to ghost on any of my missions, but then again, the best part of stealth is the pleasure that comes from watching, learning and waiting. This is not a strategy that can be mastered quickly.

"Stealth is the opposite of what we usually tell people to do in a video game which is to go into the middle and just attack," said Roy. "With this, it's about avoiding conflict, which is another kind of power, the power to see and hear things without anyone else knowing you're there."

Playing stealth games slowly and methodically usually yields more suspense and fun. But Eidos Montreal has designed the game so that less watchful players can progress at a more arcade-like pace.

"One of the bigger balancing challenges for the development team is making the game as fun for the guy who wants to shoot arrows everywhere as it is for the player who enjoys power stealthing," said narrative director Stephen Gallagher.

"You can be aggressive, shooting enemies at the right time and moving bodies and staying in the shadows," added Roy. "But you have to behave as a thief would behave."

It's obvious which way these guys would prefer us all to play the game; at a pace that allows for exploration of the world and of the stories that have been embedded.

"For producers, it's a nightmare," added Roy. "We invest so much in all these [NPC] scripted behaviors, and then some players just charge in and fire an arrow and the NPC becomes alert and all that money goes down the toilet. When that happens, I think to myself, 'oh no, I paid the actor for all of this.'

"With stealth, there is a very thin line between something being fun or ridiculous, too easy or too hard. It's really complicated."

Thief has been a difficult project, five years in the making, and with much employee comings and goings. The buyout of Eidos by Square Enix can have done little to ease that path, nor the appearance of the highly rated Dishonored.

And then there are the Thief franchise fans, many of whom are concerned about some of the changes wrought by the reboot.

"It's important to respect the universe," said Roy. "But the big evolution is in depth of story which has progressed so much in gaming in the last few years."

"We don't want to remake those [original Thief] games, because they already exist and you can play them as much as you like," said Gallagher. "The past exists and it's still out there, but here is also the future."

Nick Bilton's upcoming book on the history of Twitter has dug up a number of secrets about the platform, including Mark Zuckerberg's extensive attempts to buy the microblogging platform in 2009. According to an excerpt published in The New York Times Magazine, Steve Ballmer, Mark Zuckerberg and Al Gore all approached former CEO Ev Williams about a possible deal, although Zuckerberg went a step further, attempting to hire co-founder Jack Dorsey after he left the company.

"The greatest product Jack Dorsey ever made was Jack Dorsey."

The excerpt also reveals a bitter struggle over control of the company and credit as "founder" of the platform. Bilton sheds light on Noah Glass, a co-founder who made crucial early contributions to the platform before being surreptitiously pushed out by Jack Dorsey. Dorsey draws fire for his distracted management style, including taking classes at a local fashion school during his tenure as CEO. As Williams reportedly told him, "You can either be a dressmaker or the CEO of Twitter, but you can't be both." Within a year, Williams replaced Dorsey as CEO.

But through canny press relations and a keen understanding of the Silicon Valley mythos, Dorsey managed to cement his status as founder and ideological of Twitter, allowing him to regain power in the company after Williams lost favor with the board. In the upcoming IPO, Dorsey stands to make as much as half a billion dollars, while Glass has been written out almost entirely. As one employee told Bilton, "The greatest product Jack Dorsey ever made was Jack Dorsey."

The secretive street artist Banksy has opened up about the thinking behind his ongoing New York City art show. In an email exchange with the Village Voice, Banksy explains that the show — which finds him creating a new piece each day in October — isn't entirely pre-planned and will involve him reacting to his surroundings while he lives in the city. "Some of it will be pretty elaborate, and some will just be a scrawl on a toilet wall," he tells the Village Voice. His third piece, for instance, largely involved runny graffiti lines, while the following day he built a diorama of a mountainside waterfall into the back of a truck and had it tour around the East Village.

"There is absolutely no reason for doing this show at all."

"There is absolutely no reason for doing this show at all," Banksy tells the Village Voice. He explains that street art — especially when it's earning the artist money — can just feel like marketing, and that he wanted this show to be different. "It's pointless. Which hopefully means something."

Despite rising to fame for his street art, the Village Voice reports that Banksy has profited quite a bit from proper sales of his work. Balancing that success with his roots has apparently become a continued struggle for him, in many ways feeding into the ethos of his New York show. "There's no way round it — commercial success is a mark of failure for a graffiti artist," Banksy writes. He says that he originally started painting on the street because it was the only way he could display his work, "Now I have to keep painting on the street to prove to myself it wasn't a cynical plan."

Though the artworks created in New York are being preserved thanks to his photos on Instagram, fans may have little time to actually see them in person. According to the Village Voice, several of the pieces were defaced or covered up within a matter of hours. But that feeling of transience seems to be one that appeals to Banksy. Even if they are destroyed quickly, he thinks they might find a sizable audience while they last. "I read that researchers at a big museum in London found the average person looked at a painting for eight seconds," he tells the Village Voice. "So if you put your art at a stoplight you're already getting better numbers than Rembrandt."