CEO steps down to “pursue other opportunities”; co-founder Jack Emmert takes his place.
John Needham, CEO of City Of Heroes and Star Trek Online developer Cryptic Studios, has left the firm to “pursue other opportunities within the game industry”, the studio has announced.
Needham was appointed as CEO in 2008, during which time he oversaw the launch of Star Trek Online (pictured) and the conversion of Champions Online to the free-to-play model.
In the latest issue of Edge, out March 15, we test our mettle against From Software's Dark Souls.
Issue 226 should be fighting its way to subscribers from today, and will arrive on UK newsagents' shelves on March 15. In our cover story, we face off against From Software's latest creation, Dark Souls, a title designed to be "the most difficult game that it is possible to make".
Publisher trademarked title in 2008 and work is underway despite recent cancellation of Guitar Hero.
Activision is reportedly to make a foray into the growing market for dance games by releasing Dance Hero.
The publisher trademarked the name Dance Hero back in 2008 and is now at work on the game, according to Kotaku.
Phoenix Interactive, the second studio formed following Relentless layoffs, to focus on mobile and social games.
Former staff at Brighton studio Relentless Software have set up a new studio, Phoenix Interactive.
Online casting calls and resumés point to an imminent Grand Theft Auto V announcement.
A list of online casting calls for an “interactive project” indicate that the next game in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series is currently codenamed Rush.
Wii dance title passes milestone in a shade over four months; series passes 10m global sales.
Ubisoft’s Wii dance game Just Dance 2 has passed a million sales in the UK alone.
The publisher confirmed the milestone had been passed in a little over four months since its release on October 14.
Jason Rohrer’s one-life Minecraft world wins with biggest audience reaction at annual GDC contest.
This year’s incarnation of the annual Game Design Challenge, at GDC in San Francisco last week, tasked its panellists with creating games that were a religion. The winner, Jason Rohrer, used Mojang’s enormously successful Minecraft as a sort of tribute to his late grandfather.
Pikkotekk plans world record attempt using technology that “would even impress random women in bars.”
Swedish technology firm Pikkotekk has revealed it is developing an online firstperson shooter capable of 1000 simultaneous players.
Voluntary redundancy programme to trim 40 staff as board of directors approves takeover by Konami.
Hudson is continuing its restructuring effort as it shifts focus to social games, trimming its Japanese workforce by offering voluntary redundancy to 40 staff.
Andriasang reports that Konami’s full takeover of Hudson, announced in January, has been approved at a board meeting. Staff who accept voluntary redundancy will be given severance and other bonuses, and given outplacement support to find fresh employment.
Westwood Studios co-founder moves to Facebook gaming king and reflects on InstantAction closure.
Industry veteran Louis Castle has joined social gaming giant Zynga as VP of studios.
Castle, co-founder of Command & Conquer studio Westwood Games and a former general manager of EA’s Blueprint Studio, was most recently at browser gaming firm InstantAction, until it folded last November.
Digital accounted for a “double-digit percentage” of PS3 sales, says CEO Riccitiello.
John Riccitiello, CEO of publishing giant EA, says its experimental day-and-date digital and retail release of the PlayStation 3 version of Mass Effect 2 has been a success.
“You cannot see real spanking”, says EU ratings board, who says it rates games on content, not context.
European game classification board PEGI has defended the 12 rating it gave Ubisoft’s racy party game We Dare.
Three job positings suggest Xbox 360 successor still in early stages of development.
Microsoft appears to have begun in earnest work on its Xbox 360 successor, posting details of three hardware development vacancies on professional networking site LinkedIn.
Plants Vs Zombies developer considering an IPO before the end of 2011: "It's about creating a legacy."
PopCap is considering an initial public offering (IPO) before the year is out, according to reports, a move which would see the firm become beholden to investors.
The developer’s president David Roberts told CNBC that, while PopCap has been building towards an IPO for several years, no firm decision has been taken.
Notch reveals three game concepts for when work on Minecraft is finally complete.
Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson says he has yet to decide what he will do once his enormously successful sandbox game is finally complete, but says he has several ideas for where Mojang goes next.
Rockstar western wins awards for audio, music, interactive score and dialogue at GDC ceremony.
Red Dead Redemption was the big winner at the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) Awards at GDC in San Francisco last week.
“Gamers can’t be defined as just people who own consoles,” says Aliens Vs Predator developer.
UK developer Rebellion has formed a dedicated social gaming division.
Rocket Pack browser game engine yet another sign of firm’s move into social and mobile space.
Disney has acquired Rocket Pack, a Finnish startup which has developed an HTML5 engine for the development of browser games.
Hopes plugin-free OpenGL technology will become the browser game development standard.
Open standard consortium Khronos has announced the final, 1.0 version of WebGL. The likes of Apple, Google and Mozilla have thrown their support behind WebGL, which allows for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in HTML5 web browsers without the need for plugins.
White and Black versions of DS RPG take top two positions in first week on sale.
The latest versions of Pokémon, White and Black, occupy the top two slots in the UK all-formats chart.
Nintendo’s tradition of releasing two versions of each entry in the series once again reaps dividends, with Pokémon White at number one, and Black just behind in second spot.
SCEA also given data from YouTube, Blogspot and Twitter to prove case should be heard in California.
A California court has granted Sony access to logs containing the IP addresses of every visitor to PS3 hacker George “Geohot” Hotz’s website.
Network engineer’s GDC slide was a play for laughs that no-one got, says Halo developer.
Bungie has said that last week’s GDC revelation that the Halo studio was at work on an MMOG shooter was a joke.
During his presentation at the San Francisco conference last week the studio’s lead network engineer David Aldridge showed a slide claiming the studio was hiring for a “massively multiplayer action game.”
Most - but not all - MMOG mechanics ill-suited to firstperson shooters, argues Battlefield 3 developer.
Karl-Magnus Troedsson, general manager of Battlefield 3 developer DICE, says the company is unlikely to follow Bungie in turning the firstperson shooter into an MMOG.