My name is Shalom Mann, Studio Head for Sony Online Entertainment Los Angeles. You may not have heard of our small studio before, but we have produced more than 45 games for PCs and mobile phones, including Ratchet & Clank: Going Mobile and God of War: Betrayal. For 2008, we’ve been hard at work on a few games for the PLAYSTATION Network. Today, we are happy to announce that our first game, JEOPARDY! will be released for the PSN on Thursday, September 11, 2008.
JEOPARDY!, as you may know, is one of the most popular game shows on television and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this season. During my time here at SONY, I have had the good fortune to work on several games based on JEOPARDY!, including multiple versions for PCs and mobile phones, as well as skill-based and ITV versions. The PSN version, however, is easily the best looking and marks the first time we have been able to include real-time multiplayer capabilities.
While having multiplayer games was one of the key features we wanted to include, we also needed the game to look like the TV show. Everyone on our team worked on dual monitors, and it was common to see the TV show running on one monitor with the game engine or Maya on the other. Here are a couple of screen shots for comparison:
Some features of the game include:
- More than 2,500 clues and categories randomized for multiplayer games.
- Single-player games versus AI with three levels of difficulty (Average, Smart and Genius).
- Online and offline multiplayer games.
- Voice chat for online multiplayer games.
- Expansion packs with new content (coming in 2009).
During the course of production, we worked closely with the producers of the TV show to make sure that we could bring you a fun game that is true to the JEOPARDY! brand. However, I have already seen a few forum complaints in regards to the game trailer about the game being multiple choice. We made this design decision so that single-player and multiplayer games would have a quick pace to them. I have played the PS2 version of the game where players had to use the DualShock to type in responses. This input mechanism felt tedious in single-player games and would be just downright painful in multiplayer games. We looked into the idea of using voice recognition, which would have been a lot of fun. The PS3 has the power to do it, and we saw great middleware that would have made it all possible. However, we felt that by making the game require a Bluetooth headset, it would limit its accessibility. Maybe in the next version…
Also, I want to point out that the game does not give you the choices until after you buzz in. This means that players commit to dollar amounts upfront before getting a chance to see the responses. This adds a bit of risk to the game, and players who continually buzz in first, thinking it will be easy to select the right response, might find themselves in third place more often than other players.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great time playing JEOPARDY! on the PS3. I look forward to reading your comments (even the negative ones – well, maybe I do not look forward to them, but I certainly will read them) and will do my best to respond to frequently asked questions when I can.
PS – Wheel of Fortune is already in production. More on that coming soon ….
Dude, why won’t you tell us how much it will cost?
When will we get it in Europe? tomorrow as well?
Fat chance ;)
Well from the silence on the question on price…I am starting to feel this is going to be more expensive than $9.99.
Not getting interested in this game until I know the price.
i’ll definitely be picking this up. wheel of fortune too.
how about a fun Family Feud game? the one on the PS2 right now is close to horrible. a Deal or No Deal, The Price Is Right would also be cool games to have fun and kill time with friends.
Due to name brand licensing and stuff, I am going to go with…
$24.99
I’ll buy this once it’s patch with the Trophies.
My friends/family and I are gonna have a ball playing Jeopardy!
I just read on ps3 fanboy that it will cost $14.99. If this is true you guys are making a mistake. No trophies or in game music will hurt this game alittle, at that price point. Also without HOME integration and you have a $9.99 game. There is also a good chance you will offer extra stuff down the road for a fee and your now looking at killing the $9.99 game price that most companies have stuck to. I think all psn games should be $9.99 to start out at and then offer extra stuff to buy letting the customer choice. Please reconsider this prioce point if this $14.99 is true.
Think I’ll pass on the game till it has trophies.
14.99 is slightly high to me, but to those complaining about no trophies, seriously, that has NOTHING to do with pricing. Get over it and learn to enjoy gaming again.
No trophies for this game is INEXCUSABLE!
First of all, you are affiliated with Sony. You shouldn’t be allowed to release a game without trophies at this point.
Secondly, the tired excuse by developers that “the game was too far into production” is REALLY wearing on my patience. You’ve had the tools for MONTHS. Stop being lazy.
Look at NOVASTRIKE. The game came out before firmware 2.40, and was made by a company much, much smaller than you. Yet they managed to get trophies in thier game just the other day.
Then on top of your unwillingness to work a little bit harder to get your game up to date with the latest features before release, you decide it’s a good idea to charge $5 extra for it. Yeah that’s great. Congratulatons.
I was a little excited for this game on the PS3, but when I heard that you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting the right answer, I wasn’t too happy. I remember playing Jeopardy! on the SNES (good old days), having to type answers on the keyboard. And you know what? It worked. And it didn’t give you any clues. If you honestly didn’t know it, then you didn’t get it right; you didn’t still get a 25% chance of guessing correctly. Too bad.
I certainly hope this is in 1080p.
Hmm… hopefully there’s a demo. Jeopardy!’s my favorite game show, but once I heard the words “multiple choice”, I’m not so sure I’ll be buying.
Why not just include support for keyboard? If you have the internet to download the game, you’ve probably got a keyboard. If not, you can find a USB keyboard for $10. Multiple choice takes all of the challenge out of Jeopardy!.
@111
Ah,the great “lazy devs” comment by the so knowledgble public.A little pretentious aren’t you.What do you do for a living? Are you lazy?
I’m interested in the game,but the 9.99 price point remains key.Let’s not get into the 1200 space bucks area.
multiple choice was the way to go. because as you can see here…not all PSN users can spell. :lol:
just imagining some people spelling porterhouse online is too funny. i’ll be picking this game up tomorrow.
@111…4 months ago you didn’t even know what PSN trophies were. not all games will have them. especially those that were developed before the idea was announced.
i’m with 115…what DO you do for a living besides cry on websites about how something that didn’t exist 4 months ago is not a must have in games that were in development a year ago.
sorry Shalom…you can ignore that guy. he hasn’t had his medication today. :(
all i got to say
rock and roll jeopardy
No voice recognition is the main reason I will not be purchasing this game.
It’s almost the year 2010, people are sick of MULTIPLE-CHOICE-JEOPARDY!
We’ve been playing that false version of the game show since the 1980’s for crying out loud!
And it’s a poor and transparent excuse to act as though Bluetooth would limit accessibility, AS IF IT COULDN’T BE COMPATIBLE WITH A USB MIC AS WELL.
And most players (especially those who play online) already own some kind of PS3 compatible microphone, so you’re not fooling anyone.
You’re obviously just trying to get people to pay more money for a graphically enhanced version of a tired and boring mobile phone
game, which doesn’t even come close to simulating the actual experience of playing JEOPARDY!
Shame, shame!
@ 115 and 117
I’m head of network security for the Washington Redskins. I know nothing of the word lazy.
One thing I don’t do, is come here and slurp developers for finishing a job halfway.
@117
His point is kind of moot.Novastrike was released 6/18.The SDK’s were just getting out to developers in that time period.So,Tikki has had 2 1/2 months to patch and put trophies in.
Jeopardy has to have a QA cycle and go through Sony’s cert process with can take several weeks.
Besides,it’s a SCEA game and you know if they are looking at patching they will.They know people will buy a game just for trophies.
Nice flexibility with the offline single/multiplayer and the online multiplayer. I like the selection process so that people can casually voice chat during the game (instead of voice recognition answers).
I’ll likely pick this up as a nice casual diversion… though as others have mentioned, this game would be IDEAL in Home!!
This game should definitely support trophies.
It really, really, REALLY need Playstation Eye support so we can map our faces in the game.
Voice Recognition:
Um why not sell this game with the use of the PlayStation Eye?
We don’t need the bluetooth headset to play. So voice recognition would have been badass. I personally feel sony should consider taking the plung on voice recognition before a certain unnamed company tries to do it first with their quiz games.
Buzz controllers:
Hopefully this hasn’t been asked, but will the BuzzTV controllers be compatible with Jeopardy?
Expansions:
Yes, please!
Wow, this looks amazing. Will any future updates integrate your Home character whenever Home is released to the public?
This looks cool! I’m not really into Jeopardy but I’ll definitely be buying wheel of fortune. I use to watch that all the time with my family when I was younger!
I am sorry but I buy games for the trophies, yes I am an achievement whore. I love it on my 360 and I love it on the PS3 I even went back and rebought Warhawk and Drake’s just because they got the updates. LoL
I just also gotta say the charactors are ugly they look as ugly as the ones in the High Stakes Poker which I bought and play. I am sorry for being a bummer but I just expect more in regards to trophies and don’t except the line that it might be added later nor the SDK was not out in time for the game. I don’t even think anone new this game was coming out so why didn’t you guys just take a little bit more time to add it. I’ll pass. Better games are on the PSN right now to get this game. Also I’d rather rent more movies from PSN, I love the movie rental system.
cool
Finally… Wheel for PS3. Even if the six-axis control won’t work for spinning the wheel, perhaps you could consider the spinning system used in the N64 version. (Spinning based on speed and pressure applied to the Analog control stick.) Anything to make it more lifelike and realistic than a power bar. I have WOF on my verizon phone, and it’s way too easy to stop the bar correctly every time and hit the space you want.
Would be nice to have the mic option so when I hit the buzzer and answer Trebek says, “remember your answer must be phrased in the form of a question”.
Looking forward to this, 4 part multiple choice & all.
Looking awesome! Especially the photo-realism! (looks just like the set!)
I’m a big Jeopardy! fan, and a gameshow fan in general, and I’m looking forward to this one!
Just two questions:
1) Is Trebek anywhere to be found in the game, and
2) Does the game support the Buzz! buzzer controllers?
Thanks and keep up the fun work!
I really wanna play this, but I don’t have a PS3…so is there going to be a PSP version of the game?
ok how much mb/gb will the download be? i hope its not too big.but yeah i might purchase this game when i buy my psn card at my local blockbuster….
@ people [DELETED] about the lack of trophies
Get a life and take a [DELETED] programming course. It’s not as easy as you think to add something in. I mean, it’s been max three months since devs got trophy info. Now take 3-4 weeks off for QA and SCEA approval, another 5-6 weeks for final polishing of the game, and they have a grand total of 3 weeks to add trophies. Buddy, if you can make Microsoft’s wimpy Windows calculator in three weeks, that’d be impressive, let alone modifying hundreds (maybe thousands) of lines of code and adding hundreds more and getting that debugged and through QA and get it approved.
If you don’t know what you’re talking about, keep your [DELETED] mouths shut.
OT: Awesome job with the set modeling. I’ll have to look into this…
Shalom Mann,
Add trophies. You will get more sales.
Or is it really that the development time to get the trophies working cost more than what you would expect to get in return from sales?
Everyone can clearly assume that its something easy that a junior level coder could do. But is that really the issue?
I can understand that.
heck, look at the crews that have made all PSN games with trophies. They sell like crack cocaine.
I’m one of the people that will buy w/o trophies, but Im sure there are thousands of people that wont because it doesn’t have them, and will continue to play other forms of the game.
What happened to “Life With Playstation”, Home Extended Beta. Speaking of BETAs when r u gonna fix the SOCOM Beta. I can’t even play. “Full Month to Practice”, but it won’t work 4 2 weeks. Ur dissapionting me PlayStation :[
OMG, I have to play this game! I’ve never been good at Jeopardy, but for some reason, I’m drawn to it.
Does the game have Trebek doing any voice acting?
Also, any prospective release date for Wheel of Fortune? That’s a must-have title for me as well.
If the game gives 4 possible answers, will there be an option to disable this feature?
It would be fun to disable it if so desired by all players.
If this is not a current feature, you may want to look into it.
Thanks!
Very cool! I’ll be logging in to purchase this. So no XMB trophies – maybe next version along with the bluetooth headset support?? You also mentioned Wheel of Fortune which will have XMB trophies – when is that coming?
This is so awesome!!! I was going to ask if Wheel of Fortune was on the way, and was delighted to read that it is!!!
I would have preferred voice recognition too, but I agree that multi choice was probably the best way to go this time.
If there’s a chance in the future packs to add that feature, I say go for it. I would buy a headset.
For now I’ll be just as happy with this.
I agree with Neill, it would be awesome if you allow Home Avatars to make their way in future installments. That would especially be great for Online.
Please keep us updated on your other games!!!
My two big wishes for this title to make it a must have:
Trophies and custom music. Please patch it soon to include this!!
Don’t really understand why there’s no trophy support. The trailer came out of nowhere very recently, and no one was expecting the game this soon. I’m betting the majority would rather have just waited however long it would have taken to implement trophies into the launch version.
And I hate to echo the masses, but multiple choice isn’t a great decision. I guarantee people will be just racing to buzz in first, regardless of if they have any idea of the answer. Just USB keyboard support would be simple enough to speed up the pace, if that’s what lead you to that decision. I’d rather wait and watch someone type an answer than have to worry about being the first to the buzzer every single time.
ATTENTION JEOPARDY! FANS — PLEASE CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
1) Just think for a second before you go waste your money — having multiple choice answers completely defeats the purpose of actually playing JEOPARDY!
It won’t be anything at all like playing the actual game, so if that’s the experience you’re hoping for then put your credit card away.
2) Don’t be fooled — This is nothing more than a cheap generic multi-choice trivia game with the JEOPARDY! license slapped on top — it’s a rather obvious and unethical maketing scheme meant to take advantage of unsuspecting casual gamers.
3) Wait until voice recognition and/or keyboard compatibility is implemented (which will more than likely be an entirely new game, not a downloadable patch for this one).
Or, if you’re a fan, wait for Wheel of Fortune if you want an experience closer to an actual gameshow. I can guarantee there will be no multiple choice in that game.
Think about it — What if Wheel of Fortune gave you 4 possible solutions after you chose to solve the puzzle? No one would even bother spinning the wheel half the time!
4) Bottom line — Just recognize that this will not actually be anything like playing real JEOPARDY!
In fact, it will be less like playing JEOPARDY! than the Super Nintendo (SNES) version from way back in the early 90’s.
So, unless you are looking for a dull multiple-guess mobile phone trivia game covered with a fancy JEOPARDY! skin, don’t buy this game!
This was already said but this just screams PlayStation Home Avatars. Plus everyone knows Jeopardy a perfect family friendly game.
It would kind of suck if it wasn’t allowed and would save some time because they wouldn’t have to worry about the avatars too much.
First @ 35
Hell yeah, C64 all the way ;)
Second
I don’t mean to icbth, but I was really hoping for voice recognition. I will be buying Socom mainly just for the headset, but as I already have Warhawk and a cellphone, I have owned a cheap bluetooth headset for some time. Not to mention the fact that most PS3 owner already own the PsEye. I am not that big on trophy support, though it would be nice, and in game music for this game would be kind of stupid. I have played Jeopardy before with multiple choice and, trust me, it sucks. A keyboard would be better than that and keyboards suck to. Voice recognition would have made this game, but instead the lack of it will at least count me out.
Sorry ;(
All I keep hearing in my head is “I lost on Jeopardy” (Weird Al’s parody of “Our Love’s in Jeopardy”)…great way to cloud the head
Well, i wanted to test it but i see it hasn’t made it to the european store. Should i be surprised? No, since that became a routine at SCE.
Any chance of creating a Sean Connery character? ;)SNL style :)
now this will be a great party game for the family… this is will be a fun, great to have for those party game nite or family reunion’s… great addition… and thanks for bring it to the PS3
will it be free if not how much??????