Seriously. I've been in New Zealand since Monday and I'll be giving a number of presentations and workshops at the AnimFX conference over the next few days. One is a master class session on the gaming industry, which I'm doing with Sean K from IDEA and Joseph Olin, the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

I have another session that's a good bit smaller (only 45 mins versus 6 hours) on Digital Distribution and a third workshop on transmedia property generation.

Been interesting. I'm in Wellington which is the home of Weta and Sidhe Interactive. I've met a number of Weta guys (unfortunately their lips are mostly sealed on the goodness of Avatar) and last night I had dinner with the director of KungFu Panda.

Very cool. :)

Frank is down at Comic-con so I figured I'd help get the word out.

Our PC e-distribution madness continues with the arrival of Bionic Commando PC on Steam. Grin's PC experience and the Diesel engine drive higher resolutions, better frame rates, higher quality effects and amazing multi-core performance in this edition.

You can pre-order now for $35.99 which is 10% off versus the full price when it launches next week on Steam and at retailers near you.

As a closing note, we have a fair number of titles now on Steam for your enjoyment. See if there's something else you're interested in.

Now, I know the next question already: what about Bionic Commando Rearmed on Steam? Stay tuned.

Don't be like the guy above... here's your chance.

For the third year in a row at Comic-con, I’m going to be running a panel on "how to get a job in the games industry". We’ve packed the rooms each year so far and I’d not expect this year to be any different so my recommendation would be to show early so you can get a seat.

It will be in Room 2, Saturday July 25^th, from 10AM to 11AM (at least it’s not 9AM…)

There are TONS of roles and functions within the games industry and this year’s panel will feature some pretty big names from a wide swath of disciplines:

Yours truly (Christian Svensson) – Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business development. Having been in the industry for 17 years, I’ve held senior positions at Midway, Computec Media, Imagine Media (now Future Network) and have consulted for many top publishers on various projects. I also currently sit on the board of directors of the PC Gaming Alliance and the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. I’ll moderating the panel and throwing what nuggets of wisdom I can offer.

Lyle Hall – As president and CEO, Lyle oversees Heavy Iron Studios, managing all product development and business operations. Before joining Heavy Iron early in 2002, Lyle created and produced original as well as licensed properties while working at studios such as DreamWorks SKG, Crystal Dynamics and Virgin Games. Highlights include the first 32-bit character action game, GEX,  Westwood Studio's Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, RoboCop vs. The Terminator and Global Gladiators, SEGA’s 1992 Game of the Year.  During his time at Heavy Iron, Lyle has also served as Executive Producer on Disney*Pixar’s The Incredibles, its video game sequel Rise of the Underminer, Ratatouille, WALL-E and recent release UP, directing production and development of these franchises across multiple platforms and studios.

Cliff Bleszinski – Epic Games Design Director. A 17-year veteran of the computer and video game industry, Cliff shipped his first commercial title, Jazz Jackrabbit, before graduating high school.  During his tenure at Epic, Cliff has been a key visionary behind the award-winning, multimillion-selling “Unreal” game series in addition to the blockbuster Gears of War game franchise, which has eclipsed 11 million copies sold worldwide and crossed over into novels, comics, film, action figures and merchandise.  He continues to lend his creative expertise to Epic’s upcoming projects, and has expanded the scope of his work to include other entertainment sectors as well. 

Shana Bryant – "Shana has been an industry professional for six years and a gamer since the 80s. She is currently the Associate Producer of Capcom's Dark Void, and her résumé includes games such as Madden NFL, NCAA Football (EA Sports-Tiburon), Unreal Tournament 3 and Stranglehold (Midway Home Entertainment). Shana was featured in MTV Multiplayer's 'Black Professionals in Games' series and is a member of the International Game Developers Association."

Francis Mao – Francis is a long time veteran of the video games industry having been the Creative Director for GamePro magazine for over 17 years before joining Capcom. He is also an accomplished commercial graphic artist/cartoonist having worked for a variety of publishers including Marvel Comics, MAD magazine, and created the first, ever Sonic the Hedgehog comic book for SEGA in 1991. In addition to overseeing all creative needs for Capcom, Francis runs their full slate of events including E3 and Comic Con as well as Licensing efforts for Capcom properties.

Reuben Langdon – executive at Just Cause –  a motion capture/CG animation studio based in Marina Del Rey. Reuben began his career as a Power Ranger in Japan and has since done mo-cap, facial animation and voice work for more than a half-dozen Capcom games, including Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and Lost Planet 2. If Reuben looks familiar, it’s because his face was used as an influence for Dante from the DMC series for the last two games.

Karen Dyer – actress – Karen provided motion-capture, facial capture and animation and voice over for the character of Sheva Alomar in Resident Evil 5. She’s an actress who has been featured in many TV and film roles with video games becoming a larger part of her CV.

All of these people have different insights to share and maybe one will strike the right chord with you, leading to life altering experiences in our business. Hope to see you there.

Street Fighter IV is performing reasonably well on PC digitally (expectations were conservative for the platform so we're pleasantly surprised).

Last week, we've added Real Networks Trymedia to our family of e-distribution partners and now all of the places that they provide content to, will soon have all of our content, including SFIV... and that includes Gamestop.

So if you're a Gamestop.com customer and have been waiting for the game to arrive there, go for it. Again, the SFIV PC community is fantastic... with interesting character mods showing up all the time.

Over the weekend at the Evo Championships in Las Vegas, Street Fighter IV Tournament Edition sticks were used by the vast majority of top players, including SFIV champion, Daigo. We knew that would be the case which was why we also chose that venue to reveal a new design for the Tournament edition stick and the SF IV Fightpad that will only be available at Comic-con, this week in extremely limited numbers (more details on that shortly).

The Comic-con Edition SFIV Sticks use all of the same Sanwa Denshi sticks and buttons of the original SFIV tournament edition fight sticks. In addition to the new color scheme of buttons, side edges and the new artwork for the deck, there’s some other nice attention to detail like the Hadouken arrow movement dust cover for the stick shaft, etc.

There are only 500 of these sticks in the world. That’s 250 for Xbox 360 and 250 for PS3. They will be on sale at the Capcom booth at Comic-con for $179.99.

Now, because we know there are also players who prefer pads, Mad Catz has not left anyone out in the cold. A Comic-con edition of our popular Street Fighter IV Fightpad will also be available in extremely limited numbers. It matches the orange and white design of the CC Edition Fight stick. Only 500 units for Xbox 360 and PS3 have been made and they will sell for $49.99 at the show.

Both stick and pad will come in commemorative packaging featuring the Comic-con 2009 logo.

Be sure to get em while they’re hot because when they’re gone, they’re gone. No joke, I’m buying one myself to give my original Tournament Edition a mate.

 I’m already wondering what these are going to end up eBaying for price wise? Any thoughts?

PS: they work great with Marvel vs. Capcom 2.