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 ….
hurry i g2g!!!! to school!!!!!!!!!!
Am a understanding things correctly? This game displays questions (in text no less) and then provides multiple choice answers, which, if answered correctly, result in the player receiving points in the form of artificial money? And while all of this is happening, the Jeopardy theme song is playing in the background?
This is cutting edge stuff…
I think I’m going to need to purchase a cooling unit for my PS3.
I love how questions receive no answers.
Acquire more employees if you are unable to maintain your threads, this way we can actually get some answers.
Just a thought!
please please add trophys remember super star dust wow that game was amazing just for trophys
Looks like a day one purchase from me, really like these type of games.
Thanks for the post.
Someone may have mentioned the Commodore-64 already, but there was a Jeopardy game for it that came out around 1988, and it did NOT have multiple choice. You had to type in your answers. It wasn’t perfect, but I would think that in 2008 it should be better.
But NOOOOOO, they decided to take the easy and cheap way out by going with multiple choice. Jeopardy is not a multiple choice game, so why are they calling it Jeopardy?
Is Alex Trebek in the game? The video didn’t even have the announcer shouting “THIS…. IS JEOPARDY!”, so they probably didn’t get him, either.
All this does is LOOK like Jeopardy, but it certainly doesn’t play like Jeopardy.
They should really be ashamed of themselves for this. It’s a standard multiple choice game, so they should have saved the money on licensing and just called it something else.
BUZZ is SOOOOO gonna kick the crap out of this game.
Yawn…
Wow, nice comments guys.
@156: One difference between the Commodore 64 and the PS3 is a little thing we like to call a “KEYBOARD”.
Voice recognition would have been cool, but I agree that making the headset mandatory would have affected the attach rate of the game.
The winning answer would be to include all three. You could have the option of multiple choice if you just want to grab a controller and play with your friends. Or you could turn multiple choice off and pass a keyboard around or use bluetooth headsets.
That would probably extend the dev time and make the game more expensive to make, but it would probably be worth a premium price as well.
This version of the game isn’t bad though and I will be picking it up as soon as I get off.
Seems fun, hopefully Alex T. will be in the game in some fashion.
ARGH THIS IS TERRIBLE! I expect ALOT more out of this game and I am VERY DISSAPOINTED with the way it plays. I wish there was some way to get a refund on this.
I really wish it had trophies….
I have to agree with the majority of posts here:
– No trophy support.
– Multiple choice (boring)
And it’s $15? Should be less.
About to give this a go, downloading now, I was disappointed to hear about the absence of trophies, as I do enjoy earning them, and think all games should start implementing them, pls, I beg you, consider patching soon for this, it would have been nice to have some voice recognition, but I see this causing issues with online multiplayer, so I understand and think multiple choice will be fine, about to play on one console with my gf, and I’m thinking, I wish there was a way for each of us to use our own psn names to play against each other, this doesn’t seem to happen with any games, unlike the other console we can only have one name logged in at a time :( The ideas about integrating HOME avatars into these games is really really a wonderful idea, but possibly never going to happen, ok download finished, hope it’s worth 15 bucks, my gf loves jeopardy!
After downloading the game and playing 3 consecutive matches online, I have to say I am EXTREMELY disappointed in this game. Within my first 3 games, I have seen 3 of the same categories with the exact same questions. Really? Should I be seeing the same questions that often? So now I this will quickly become the “memorize the answers game”.
I can’t believe I paid $15 for this. I feel completely ripped off. The online community for this game will be dead within a month or two due to everyone memorizing most of the answers. I was able to answer the entire row for one category without genuinely knowing the answers, because I saw all of the answers in the previous game.
I rarely complain about anything on these boards, but this is just plain lazy development right here. The game should have so many questions and categories that I shouldn’t even see the same ones pop up as quickly as I did. I guess you are hoping people will buy the add-on packs to get new questions?
I wish I were exaggerating here, but sadly that’s not the case. Anyone reading this, I strongly encourage you to PASS on this game if you haven’t bought it already.
Sorry to say I feel the same way as the above poster- @164
I feel ripped off my $15… no Voice-Overs, the game feels “unfinished” this way, and VERY QUIET! I should have waited for the reviews before purchasing… :(
I downloaded this game and I have to say, I’m impressed.
Great trivia game and would be in addition to what was posted in the blog about Buzz going onto Home in the future.
I recommend the game.
Just a side thought….I’m Canadian…and many questions are US based, but if I didn’t know much before, I’m sure learning quick.
Just also forgot to comment, there currently aren’t any trophies, but there is an in game awarding system and if you’re in that game itself, it does look like trophies.
So possibly they will convert this to trophies like some other games are or have done.
Can you please patch the game so that if both your opponents quit during an online match, it doesn’t end? With so many people out there just making random guesses and then quitting, I can’t finish a single round.
Nice.
To the guys that purchased it… is Trebek in it either vocally or as an avatar?
@170 Ranma…..no Alex isn’t there in this game.
Questions are in text currently, but who knows, maybe a future update will put Trebek on as the host and we’ll have a voice…may be due to copywrite laws.
I know that some of these may have already been addressed, but I have to speak my piece.
#1. Where is my trophy? At one point in the game, I remember seeing a trophy pop up in the top right corner, but it’s no in my Trophy Collection. What’s up with that????
#2. No Alex??? I can understand that he can’t speak every question, or everyone’s name, etc. But why not have him on the set? Why not have him announce the categories? No announcer voice, no Alex…what the hell?!?!?
#3. No Remote Play? Why did I even bother buying a PSP is no more games are going to support this totally awesome feature?!?!? Come on Sony, support your own f’ing product!!!!
#4. But by far, my BIGGEST problem is when someone else is in control of the board; they can “fast forward” though the questions and answers so fast, I don’t even have a chance! I’m a pretty fast reader, but when the question is only on the screen for a fraction of a second before some other person chimes in??? Come on! Give everyone a chance to read the f’ing question! Why is there no minimum time that the question is displayed??? The same goes for the answer. Those flash by so fast, you can’t read them either!
In short, I like the idea. I love the show and this game had SO much potential. Too bad Sony killed it by making poor decisions in it’s implementation. I want my dam* money back!
Downloaded and played last night.
Was very excited about this game, I love the PS2 version, the auto-complete feature worked great.
The trouble with multiple choice is it takes away what makes Jeopardy, Jeopardy. It becomes a game of whoever can buzz in first, since most people can pick the right answer from the list. But I understand they needed to have multiple choice for the online play. I don’t see how else they could do it. (Voice recognition?)
Anyway, the game only costs $15 and you’ll see why. There is no audio! I miss Jonny Gilbert reading the questions and Alex’s comments. And there is very limited character building. But the game loads very fast and plays smoothly, something missing in early versions. The sets look fabulous on a HD screen.
The real fun will come in with playing others online. Haven’t tried that yet. But this is a decent game, especially at this price.
For the offline/local game, I wish they would just pause the game when you buzz in to let you answer, then let you display the answer and then have buttons for “I got it right” or “I got it wrong.” You could even let the other players have a “judges” key to concur or reject your answer. A simple solution to make it more like real Jeopardy.
Forgot to add:
#5. Why can’t we see the question on the answer selection screen? I’ve missed a couple because my memory blows and forgot what the question was!
After playing this game last night, I have to agree with #164 and #165. It has a very unfinished feel to it and a lot of that is because of the (lack of) audio. If Alex Trebek is unavailable, that is understandable, but there NEEDS to be a host! I know we are talking about some serious man-hours in getting someone to voice all 2500 questions, but the lack of it just murders the quality of the entire game. It could be any generic human. For all I care, you could have used Buzz or even Kratos as the host! It just needs a body there.
Multiple choice was a good way to go. There are a few issues there, but it was probably the best route if voice recognition didn’t work.
I’m hoping for some serious improvement with Wheel of Fortune. It NEEDS an actual host. (Doesn’t HAVE to be Pat and Vanna) It NEEDS voiceovers, and voice recognition would be a huge plus. I still play the PS2 version of WOF and it would be sad if I was forced to continue playing the PS2 version after the PSN version is released.
I was really looking forward to this title. However, after playing it I have to agree with other that this title does not feel complete.
Is technically difficult or legally impossible to add some voice-overs? Were you concerned about having to support multiple languages? For $15 that doesn’t seem like much to ask.
It plays more like a $5 title than a $15 title.
If there was a way to get refunds on PSN purchases I would.
I would hope that SOE will be enhancing this title via free updates in the near future.
I’ve learned a lesson though; wait for reviews.
I was interested in Wheel-of-Fortune also. Now, I don’t know. You can be sure that I won’t pick that title up day one!
Played two games last night. 2nd game had a repeat category. So far I’m pretty underwhelmed.
I will definately be wary of Wheel of Fortune until I find out how it plays.
Just to add to my previous comment:
I understand you’re dealing with random number generators, and you’re bound to get repeats, but two games in a row ??
Everytime you play the game, it should be storing the category ID’s you’ve played, and those ID’s should be excluded for subsequent games. That session info gets wiped when you quit the game.
So player 1 has played category_ID’s 234, 800, and 1967
Player 2 has played category_ID’s 1111 and 800
Player 3 has played category_ID 2000
If these three people wind up together in an online game, then SELECT category_ID FROM categories WHERE category_ID 234, 800, 1111, 1967, or 2000
Ugh, it removed the ‘Not Equal to’ from my pseudo-SQL.
I am certainly disappointed in JEOPARDY! and I REALLY hope Wheel of Fortune is good, so I hope you guys are listening. Improvements are needed, even if it means delaying the game for a few months and raising the price.
“even if it means delaying the game for a few months and raising the price.”
NOOOOO! Don’t tempt them with that!!! If it cost more than $15, your paying the difference buddy!
“NOOOOO! Don’t tempt them with that!!! If it cost more than $15, your paying the difference buddy!”
I’ll pay the difference for a BETTER game. In any case, I don’t want to totally rip the guys who made this game. I’m sure they worked long hard hours and were proud of it when it was released. I feel like a [DELETED] for saying it, but Jeopardy just isn’t going to make the grade. When IGN gets a hold of it, they will make my comments look like cotton candy.
Ok just to add to my earlier rant… I was just playing again today and got the same “Final Jeopardy” question twice within 3 games. This game is a complete joke. I agree with se7enthsign… The reviewers are going to have a field day with this one, and sadly the low scores will be well deserved.
This game should not be priced higher than $4.99. Even Elefunk was only $5 and I had a much better time with that game. This is probably the only PSN game I will actually delete from my hard drive because I don’t want to constantly be reminded I wasted $15 on it.
Are you kidding me… i bought this game and it doesnt even have Alex Tribec in it. WTF??
Here’s a list of my demands.. Jeopardy without these things makes for a rotten game
1. No Alex – I i knew he wasnt in it, i seriously wouldnt have bought it. It would be like Disney without Mickey Mouse.
2. Final Jeopardy doesnt allow you to hid your answer from your opponents
3. There’s no save option, Creating a character is a waste of time if it’s not going to save you and your stats after every game played. Not to mention you end up with the same questions over and over.
4. The characters are almost as bad as the ones in that poker game that came out earlier this year. Just plain horrible. No wonder everyone wants the HOME avatars now.
5. The computer, even on the easiest setting can kick your ass. Out of ten games i’ve won two. If i’m playing against a friend, i want one of us to win, not the computer because they know all the answers.
Overall, the core game is Jeopardy, but it’s missing Alex. And without him, you should have just called it reverse trivia.
I would suggest that everyone avoid this game.
If Wheel of fortune comes out without Pat Sajack or Vanna i wont be buying it. And i would suggest that no one else even bother.
What a waste.
Worst game I played yet on the PS3. I for one will never by another game developed by these guys. Horrible.
Alright, well I didn’t pick up the game because it was $15 which is rather high for a PSN game. I was looking forward to Wheel of Fortune but if it doesn’t have Vanna White at the very least then I doubt I’ll pick it up. I will also wait for the reviews to see how it is. I got Wheel of Fortune for the NES anyways =P.
@184
“The characters are almost as bad as the ones in that poker game that came out earlier this year”
I think they’re using the exact same avatar software, I’m not sure but I’ll check tomorrow.
I had more repeat categories this weekend in single player after playing 4 games.
Until there’s some kind of a patch that actually handles random number generation in a sensible way, I would advise skipping this game.
Well just to hop in and say sorry that the ball was dropped here but hopefully you guys will be looking at a patch in the future. Sony’s stable of intriguing gameshows would be a bad place to leave a sour taste.
I can somewhat understand not having Alex and Ron within the main game as that’s a lot of fairly tedious voice work which (I’m assuming) would have to continue for the DLC you will be putting out in the future. You could have simply had Alex at the start and end of matches though which can be 15-20 phrases each and one very short catchy opening line for the game as a whole (I suggest “This is Jeopardy”) and most people would have accepted that.
Part of the allure of gameshows is the razmataz which accompanies it and this goes back to pre Television days. Look back to any crowd pulling gameshow in carnivals etc and a large part is motion, lights possibly coloured and sounds. Having things moving when otherwise things are quiet and concentration isn’t needed is something which is a staple. Having music and sounds constantly going on is a psychological must have for any measure of success.
Multiple Choice is I think a good choice and as it is a core design choice I really would not mess with it. However there are 8 buttons on the controller you could assign 8 choices and still have selected quickly. Good multiple choice comes from either having slight variations on meaning or context or very different choices which logically could be correct. Who wants to be a millionaire does a good job of mixing those. I realise how much of a pain this would be but my suggestion is to have an option for a Jeopardy Pro that ups the number of choices and does a mix of those two so say 3 logical choices that could be right then variations of meaning and context on those. It’s a lot of data but it would be optional (You can track online games to see if it’s more popular) and would allow a better mix.
As for the categories always coming back and having the same questions. I really have nothing to say you guys know how to fix that already.
Looking foward to your next blog post. You guys did great work on the graphical presentation. Hope you get to do some work on Sony Studios’ spaces in HOME.
My personal feedback.
Too many repeat questions. You can tell whos had what catorgory because they answer all the questions without giving other a chance to read it. Eventually this will turn into a game of memory and the fastest buzzer.
People leaving the game after getting too much into the negative zone. I was having a good game because (well read above) and the other people left the game.
Create a player is very limited. I played a game where all 3 of us looked exactly the same.
Private matches are limited to 3 people. If its just 2 can’t the CPU fill in to start the game?
I think that about it. Basically if I didn’t have the same questions every other round would make this game a bit more fun.
Come on 2009…
I played a single player game last night. I can’t take the silence anymore.
Once ‘Buzz! Quiz’ comes out next week, this is getting a permanent bye-bye. A true waste of $15.00
I downloaded it and already reviewed it.
My review is here: http://www.pimp-productions.com/
My review is listed at the very top. I will say the keyboard support wouldn’t be mandatory thinking back on it. I believe the control pad could be used effectively as long as when you buzzed in the on-screen keyboard has options such as “Who is”, “What is”, etc. This would still keep up a fast game imo.
Shalom I very much hope you read it.