Splinter group Sony Recon begins gathering personal information on Sony staff, legal team and relatives.
A group related to the “hacktivist” group Anonymous has taken its attack on Sony a step further, gathering the personal details of Sony employees, as well as the firm’s legal team and the judge involved in the PS3 hacking lawsuit.
“The great thing about a kids’ game is that there are always more kids,” says SOE president.
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) president John Smedley is confident that Free Realms, its free-to-play child-friendly MMOG that launched on PS3 download service PlayStation Network last week, will reach 100 million users.
Sony admits problems with infrastructure could force it to only release in one territory this year.
Jack Tretton, president of SCEA, has admitted that Sony may be forced to delay its PSP successor, codenamed Next Generation Portable (NGP), in some territories due to Japan’s Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Firm begins rolling out new, smaller unit with more RAM, bigger HDD and built-in flash memory.
Microsoft has announced an updated version of its Xbox Development Kit (XDK) that is smaller and sports extra RAM, built-in flash memory and a bigger hard disk drive.
The firm says the new XDK was designed to increase efficiency and reduce costs for developers, and promises “a significantly reduced price from its predecessor,” reports Gamasutra.
EA Games' president on the publisher's continuing drive to change the way it works from the ground up.
Electronic Arts' transformation from quantity-over-quality behemoth to the agile, slimmed-down company it has become has been a dramatic one. But although it may seem like it, it certainly didn't happen over night. We sat down with EA Games president, Frank Gibeau, to discuss the publisher's continuing metamorphosis, its strategies for the future and the reinstatement of classic IPs.
Media veteran Arthur Bastings joins up with German free-to-play browser game firm.
German browser gaming firm Bigpoint has announced that Arthur Bastings has been appointed its new co-CEO.
Bastings, a media industry veteran who has worked at Discovery Networks, Turner Broadcasting Europe and MTV Networks Europe, will share duties with Bigpoint’s founder and CEO, Heiko Hubertz.
Amended complaint could see rights to Modern Warfare series shared between Respawn pair and Activision.
Former heads of Infinity Ward Vince Zampella and Jason West have added two counts of fraud to their complaint against Activision which, if successful, could see them regain partial control of the Modern Warfare franchise.
Battlefield 3’s campaign to be more tightly scripted than DICE's open Bad Company titles, says Patrick Bach.
Swedish developer DICE has revealed that combat in its upcoming shooter Battlefield 3’s campaign more closely resembles the tightly-scripted likes of the Call Of Duty series, rather than the open, sandbox style of its previous Battlefield 2: Bad Company games.
Developer acknowledges games and gamers have moved on since world-weary Payne’s 2001 debut.
Rockstar Vancouver promises that it is pulling out all the stops in development of Max Payne 3, recognising that gamers have far higher expectations than when Payne made his debut in 2001.
Hollywood tie-in passes milestone within just ten days of release.
Angry Birds Rio, the follow-up to the enormously successful smartphone title Angry Birds, has passed 10 million downloads within ten days of its release.
In a post on its Twitter feed, developer Rovio said: “10 in 10. Angry Birds Rio breaking all records. A massive thanks to all our fans!”
In the latest issue of Edge, out April 12, we head to South America in Max Payne 3.
Issue 227 of Edge is due in UK newsagents on April 12, but will be in the hands of subscribers from today. In our cover feature, we drop in on Rockstar’s offices to see Max Payne sailing into view in bullet-time, nearly eight years after his fall. The third chapter in the series sees the action shift to South America, and introduces an older, even more world-weary Payne.
Mega Drive classic remade from scratch with cutscenes, 19 playable characters, 103 stages.
A fan remake of classic Mega Drive series Streets Of Rage, that has been in development for over eight years, has finally been released.
Second week on top for Crytek shooter despite several new releases; poor showing from new Motorstorm.
EA shooter Crysis 2 is the UK all-formats number one for the second week in succession.
Crytek’s sequel saw off the challenge of several new releases, with 505 Games’ Zumba Fitness making its debut at number two, with EA’s Shift 2: Unleashed in fourth, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 and WWE All Stars entering the chart in sixth and seventh respectively.
Analyst report gives PS3 a 500,000 unit lead at the end of 2010 despite Xbox 360’s Kinect sales boost.
Global sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3 have overtaken those of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, according to data firm Strategy Analytics.
Its figures show that, while Nintendo’s Wii remains the runaway market leader with 75.5 million active units worldwide, PS3 has finally overtaken Microsoft’s console, with a worldwide installed base of 43.4 million at the end of 2010 compared to Xbox 360’s 42.9 million.
“Hacktivist” group turns attention to Sony over jailbreak lawsuit, corporate greed and invasion of privacy.
Noted hacking group Anonymous has lined up Sony in its crosshairs, saying the firm’s treatment of PS3 hackers George “Geohot” Hotz and Graf Chokolo has been “wholly unforgivable.”
Randy Smith considers the nuances of authorship and questions whether it's necessary to know who created the game you're playing.
Senior producer Tomasz Gop on moving towards action adventure without compromise.
Following our preview of The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings in issue 226 of Edge, we sat down with CD Projekt senior producer, Tomasz Gop, to discuss the importance of simultaneous localisation, the practicality of remaining a resolutely one-game studio and why the game won't be making too many concessions to accessibility.
Retailer picks up game streaming startup Spawn Labs and mobile distribution platform Impulse.
US retailer GameStop has moved to further safeguard its business from the increasing prevalence of digital gaming services with two acquisitions.
New handheld enjoys Nintendo's best UK launch, but figure some way short of expected 200,000 sales.
Nintendo’s new handheld, 3DS, enjoyed the firm’s best-ever UK launch, with 113,000 units sold in its first weekend on shelves.
Despite beating the launches of DSi and Wii - which sold 90,000 and 106,000 respectively – the figure falls some way short of Nintendo’s own expectations.
August event to cover use of games in military, healthcare, corporate training and more.
US game design school DigiPen has announced the inaugural Serious Play Conference, to be held in Washington State this August.
As the name implies, the conference will look at the increasing prevalence of “serious games” in the real world, with corporations, military and healthcare providers who use games for staff training, plus educators, developers and vendors all invited to take part.
Crytek’s sequel straight in at number one; 3DS software off to a slow start.
EA’s Crysis 2 is the new Nordic all-formats number one in a week where the top three spots are all occupied by new entries.
Second and third place are taken by Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars and The Sims: Medieval. Sales of Call Of Duty: Black Ops are still strong, the Activision shooter holding fourth spot in the chart, which combines sales data in Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
Sony Network Entertainment (SNE) says it is happy with the initial takeup of its cloud music offering, Music Unlimited, but admits it is “too early in the game” to declare it a success.
The service – which boasts a catalogue of six million songs - launched six weeks ago with a two-tier pricing structure, with users offered a 30-day free trial of the premium service, meaning SNE is unable to form a true picture of its success until it sees how many users continue with the service once the trial period expires.
Format: Java
Designer: Kevin Glass
We’ve covered the Java4k competition before on The Friday Game (Left 4K For Dead, 4KPillars) but the recent competition – which, once again, tasks designers with submitting a playable game that takes up less than 4k of space – has thrown out some interesting examples.
Legendary Capcom developer reveals games company Intercept and cross-media Comcept.
Keiji Inafune, former head of development at Japanese publisher Capcom, has finally lifted the lid on his future plans, announcing that he has formed two new companies, Comcept and Intercept.
“We seek to ignite a Japanese games revival. And our troops will have the highest morale. We’re in this fight for the long haul.”
Platinum Games has announced a new strategic initiative, Platinum Next, which it promises will see it become “the Japanese standard bearer in global competition.”