Puzzlejuice absolutely resists any attempt at reverse-engineering. While it’s patently the product of combining three existing games – Boggle, Tetris, and, to a lesser extent Bejeweled – the end result feels nothing like any of them.
Dundee-based Denki has revealed that Quarrel was "rejected by almost every game publisher in the world" and called on gamers to prove them wrong on the day its multiplayer word game launches on Xbox Live Arcade.
A group of former staff at publisher THQ have called for four "underqualified" senior executives, including CEO Brian Farrell, to be fired.
In a letter sent to THQ's board of directors and several investors, blind copied to a NeoGaf user, the former employees claim that "chronic and constant mismanagement" caused a slew of layoffs and studio closures and drove the publisher's share price into the doldrums.
You might also like to read our in-depth examination of the preparations being made for Vita's European launch next month.
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Publisher Namco Bandai Developer In-house
Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor will be released in 2013 and boast six times the graphical capabilities of its predecessor, according to reports.
Sources have told IGN that mass production of the system's GPU is to begin before the end of the year, with the console on shelves in late October or early November 2013.
With Vita having made its debut in Japan and other parts of Asia, all eyes are now on its February 22 Euro launch. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president and CEO Jim Ryan is keenly aware of key of the differences in the approach to each region. “The big difference is obviously the content experiences that people seem to go for in Japan are really rather different to what appeals in the west,” he says.
Trade association UKIE has confirmed that it will publish its long-awaited PC digital sales chart for the first time in February.
In a press release, the trade body reveals that the chart, which was announced in 2010 and has been in closed beta for some time, has the support of the likes of Green Man Gaming and Get Games, and publishers including Disney Interactive, Sega, Square Enix and Warner Bros.
Japanese gaming website Famicom Plaza has revealed the Neo Geo Portable Device, a new gaming handheld that is fully licensed by SNK Playmore and ships with 20 Neo Geo classics.
Andriasang reports that the device, which with dimensions of 170x72x15mm is slightly larger than an iPhone 4S, has face and shoulder buttons, a 4.5 inch screen, 2GB of onboard storage and SD card support.
No price or release date has been announced. The following 20 games are included:
Indie studio Nimblebit has written an open letter to Zynga pointing out the striking similarities between iOS hit Tiny Tower and Zynga's upcoming mobile title Dream Heights.
Increased iPhone, iPad and Mac sales over the Christmas period saw Apple post a sharp increase in revenue and profit for its first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011.
The company generated record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, compared to revenue of $26.74 billion and a profit of $6 billion for the same period a year ago.
If you've been feeling uncomfortable with the number of games today that are rigidly defined by their stories (fitting given their prevalence in the Resident Evil 6 trailer, eh), you'll enjoy Raph Koster's deconstruction of the role of narrative in game design.
Eleven further publishers have signed up to Electronic Art's Origin digital distribution platform.
The first of these is Trion Worlds, its MMORPG Rift already available to download from the service.
Ten other publishers will release games on Origin over the coming months: CD PROJEKT RED, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, InXile Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core Learning Ltd. and N3V Games.
Retailer GameStop has closed all of its Northern Irish stores and told staff that it has ceased trading in the region.
The three stores in question are now shuttered, with posters redirecting customers to the website.
"The recent store closures in Northern Ireland are part of our plan, announced six months ago, to exit the UK market from a brick and mortar perspective," commercial director Michael Finucane told MCV.
"We started this process last year closing our Birmingham, Stockport and Belfast locations.
Nintendo UK marketing director and assistant general manager Dawn Paine is set to leave the company on February 24.
Paine has worked for Nintendo for ten years now and has overseen the launches of Nintendo platforms including Wii, DS and 3DS, and a number of high-profile games. She will join Universal Pictures as VP of marketing.
Sega has named its third UK studio, founded in June last year, Hardlight.
The studio was formed from the ashes of Sega Racing Studio, which closed in 2008, and is working on a "unique action adventure" for PS Vita, due for release late this year.
Hardlight is based in the West Midlands.
Nobuo Nagai, Nintendo's Manufacturing senior managing director and company employee of almost 45 years, died over the weekend aged 66.
Nagai, who was hired by Nintendo in 1967 as the company transitioned from playing card manufacture to its first steps as a toy company, lost his battle with stomach cancer on Sunday.
Nagai became a director in 2000 before stepping up to managing director in 2004, and oversaw the production of Nintendo's hardware at its Kyoto-based Uji plant.
If nothing else, ScaryGirl does at least offer a fresh twist on familiar videogame environments. The comic-book creation of Australian artist Nathan Jurevicius is two parts Tim Burton to one part Joan Miró, a gently twisted world of surreal whimsy populated by diabolic ruminants and cuddly yetis. The eponymous heroine treks through caves lit by magenta mushrooms, while a rocky ascent sees the faces of bearded gentlemen carved into its mountainous backdrops. Forest, ice and swamp levels are nothing new in the realm of the side-scroller, but they’re well-disguised here.
UK broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has chastised ITV in its report on last year's incident in which footage from Bohemia Interactive's ArmA II was claimed to be film of the IRA shooting down a British Army helicopter.
Australia's new Federal Minister for Home Affairs has confirmed that the R18+ for games bill will be introduced to parliament next month.
Jason Clare, who took up the post previously occupied by Brendan O'Connor during a government reshuffle late last year, has told Gamespot AU that the bill will be included in the first session of this year's parliamentary sittings, which begins on February 7.
"If it passes the Lower House, it will then go to the Senate for the same process," a spokesperson for Clare's office explained.
Microsoft is set to replace its proprietary currency with real-world money by the end of the year, according to a company source.
Transactions across Xbox Live, Windows Phone and the Zune Marketplace will all be affected if the source, who spoke to Inside Mobile Apps, is correct.
Microsoft currently uses both real-world money and MS Points for online payment, with full games listed in local currency but DLC purchased using points.
Zynga is in "active conversations with potential partners" regarding online gambling opportunities.
"Zynga Poker is the world's largest online poker game with more than seven million people playing every day and over 30 million each month," a Zynga spokesman said in a statement to All Things Digital.
The printer stops churning and there it is. Ninety pages of small spreadsheet cells, each with a sentence or two inside. This is the script of the game you've just written. The plot, the characters, the dialogue, the illadvised references to other games and TV shows, the typos you really should have spotted. It's all here. And now it's time to go to the recording studio and get it in the can.
Codemasters is looking for people to fill a number of positions across its Birmingham and Southam locations, including a senior graphics programmer, a producer and an experienced level designer. Browse through all currently available positions at Codemasters here.
Cambridge-based Runescape developer Jagex has won a landmark legal battle against the developers of bots which targeted its free-to-play MMOG.
Following its debut at the Sundance film festival on the weekend, US TV network HBO has bought the rights to Indie Game: The Movie. Initial reports suggested that the documentary, which follows several high-profile indie developers, was going into development as a fictional comedy series, a remarkable turn for a serious-minded film that caused widespread confusion in gaming circles.