RedLynx, Finnish developer of Trials HD, has been acquired by French publisher Ubisoft.
In a press release, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot praised the quality of the studio's output, though the pace at which it works, with over 100 titles released since its inception in 2000, can't have hurt either.
When Kazunori Yamauchi’s latest entry in the Gran Turismo lineage finally arrived last November, it was greeted with muted fanfare by press and players alike. After an exorbitant development period, the widespread expectation was that it would deliver both a format flagship for Sony and a genre leader for racing fans - the finished product was almost doomed to fail in both regards.
Namco Bandai enjoyed a good second quarter of the financial year, with net sales climbing almost 12 per cent and last year's losses wiped out with ease.
Sales revenue for the three months to September 30 came to ¥194.2 billion (£1.56 billion), with profit totalling ¥8.02 billion (¥64.4 million). This time last year, the firm sustained a loss of ¥1.9 billion (£15.5 billion).
Namco Bandai enjoyed a good second quarter of the financial year, with net sales climbing almost 12 per cent and last year's losses wiped out with ease.
Sales revenue for the three months to September 30 came to ¥194.2 billion (£1.56 billion), with profit totalling ¥8.02 billion (¥64.4 million). This time last year, the firm sustained a loss of ¥1.9 billion (£15.5 billion).
The PlayStation 3 is getting closer to overtaking lifetime sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 .
Sony's latest financial results reveal that lifetime, worldwide sales of the PS3 totalled 55.5 million units at the end of its financial quarter on September 30. Last month, Microsoft confirmed that lifetime sales of the Xbox 360 stood at 57.6 million units, with hardware shipments declining year on year.
Epic Games will give a commercial Unreal Engine 3 iOS licence to the winner of a game jam at the Gadget Show Live in April.
The contest, dubbed Make Something Unreal Live and co-sponsored by game development distance learning company Train2Game, will mark the conclusion of six months of intense work that begins this Friday.
MonkeyPaw Games' mission is to bridge the cultural gap between east and west, ensuring gamers get to play gems which would otherwise remain untouched by risk-averse publishers. The company's latest game, an update of 1982 arcade game BurgerTime developed by Frozen Codebase, is out today on XBLA, PSN and WiiWare.
Eidos Montreal, developer of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, has admitted that the game's controversial boss fights were poorly implemented, telling us: "We knew that would be a weakness for the game."
Turn-based strategy title Frozen Synapse will be released for iPad next year, developer Mode7 has announced.
More than 30,000 copies of the game have been sold across Windows, Mac and Linux, the Oxford-based developer says, thanks in no small part to it featuring in its own Humble Bundle earlier this year. It was also nominated for the Golden Joysticks' Downloadable award.
A new Sony patent reveals that the company is investigating the potential of biometric controls.
The patent filing, spotted by Siliconera, covers a device which measures galvanic skin resistance, electrocardio data, and electromuscular data - sweat, heart rate, and muscle movements - with technical drawings showing a Dualshock, Move controller, and a Vita-like handheld.
Twenty-three per cent of all money spent on console games in the US and UK goes on pre-owned titles, according to a new study from market research firm Newzoo. In the United States, 85 per cent of gamers admit to buying from the pre-owned section.
Second-hand sales have long been a cause for concern among publishers and developers as they see none of the proceeds, but Newzoo's report contains good news for them as well.
Japanese mobile gaming company Gree is to launch a new, global mobile gaming platform next year.
The move follows Gree's acquisition of OpenFeint earlier this year in a deal worth $104 million. Inside Social Games reports that the new service will combine the best elements of Gree and OpenFeint, and aims to reach more than a billion users worldwide.
The newly launched Humble Voxatron Debut, the latest pay-what-you-want promotion from Humble Bundle, now includes two more games.
Worldwide shipments of Dark Souls have passed 1.5 million, according to From Software and Namco Bandai.
Andriasang reports that the largest proportion of that figure - 620,000 - went to retailers in North America. Shipments in Japan - where the game was only released for PS3 - totalled 370,000, with European shipments reaching 470,000 and those in Asia totalling 40,000.
Sony Corporation's Consumer Products and Services division, which includes its PlayStation business, posted an operating loss of ¥34.6 billion (£277.6 million) in the three months to September 30.
The division, which also includes Sony's TV, video, digital imaging, PC and mobile businesses, saw sales revenue fall 12.3 per cent year on year to ¥779.7 billion (£6.2 billion), after posting a billion-yen profit this time last year. In a statement, Sony pinned the decline on the PS3 price cut, declining PC and TV sales, and the strength of the yen.
Too Human developer Silicon Knights has confirmed that it has cut around half of its workforce following the last minute cancellation of an unannounced project.
Following reports that the Ontario-based studio had reduced its headcount by as much as 75 per cent, Silicon Knights chief financial officer Mike Mays told the Financial Post the number of staff affected was actually 45, leaving an employee base of “just under 40”.
Gateshead, UK-based independent racing game specialist Eutechnyx has been granted a regional growth fund of £1.8 million by the government.
The fund will be used to help develop a publishing operation for its new online racing game Auto Club Revolution, and add up to 190 jobs to its current staff of over 160.
When the 3DS came out several years ago, we had a hard time imagining how it could be bettered – as, apparently, did Nintendo. We all remember the controversy that ensued when the WarioLeaks website posted internal Nintendo documents describing the ‘1DS’, which Nintendo scrapped after gamers organised a massive online protest – for good reason, as the almost imperceptibly thin device would have required special tools and a jeweller’s loupe to play. Fortunately, Nintendo quickly corrected course and announced plans for the 4DS.
Hosted in the basement of the Hilton Bonaventure in the downtown financial district of Montreal, this year's Montreal International Game Summit kicked off with a keynote looking at one of the year's biggest - and, as our review outlines, best - action-adventures. Richard Lemarchand, co-lead designer of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, took to the stage to dissect the development processes that have evolved along with the franchise itself.
Here's the latest trailer for Swedish developer Starbreeze's Syndicate reboot, due in February for PS3, PC and Xbox 360, showing off the game's fourplayer co-op mode.
Following the involvement of dubstep clank-merchant Skrillex in last month's announcement trailer, publisher EA has this time asked German house duo Digitalism to tinker with the original theme. Once again, an mp3 is available in exchange for a like on Facebook at the source link below.
Dino Patti, CEO of Playdead, the independent Danish developer of downloadable hit Limbo, has said the retail model is "broken from a developer's point of view."
Speaking to Eurogamer at last weekend's GameCity6 festival in Nottingham, Patti called on platform holders to more fully embrace digital distribution in the next generation of consoles.
Three Frankfurt companies feature in this week's round-up. First up is Crytek, which is looking for a development manager to oversee the development of its upcoming Roman-themed Kinect brawler, Ryse. You'll need experience in product and people management, along with a passion for games, natch, and if you've got a background in any aspect of development, all the better. Find all Crytek's vacancies here.
Valve writer Chet Faliszek has admitted that the company delayed the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive multiplayer beta following feedback from professional players who have been helping test the game.
Dancing is optional in Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove: Monster Mix, but that’s hardly surprising. Most Wii rhythm action games simplify their inputs to the point where you can play them by just sitting back on a sofa and shaking the remote gently to the beat. What’s surprising is that rhythm is also optional. During some of the later levels, you might get a slightly higher score by moving in time with the music rather than just swinging your arm in endless circles, but the difference will likely be measured in a single point or two.
Ubisoft appears unlikely to release its newly announced social games on Google+ due to a decline in active users on Google's social network.