Takes total raised by Massachusetts firm to $20m; eyes overseas growth and gamification research.
Location-based app Scvngr has raised $15 million in a funding round led by UK venture capitalists Balderton Capital. It brings the total funding raised to $20 million, according to TechCrunch.
Our award for the best publisher of 2010.
Runner up: PopCap
Key Games: Zuma Blitz, Plants Vs Zombies
Community manager Seth Killian explains costs of additional data covered by Microsoft, but not Sony.
Capcom has explained why online players of Super Street Fighter IV are only able to see new costumes worn by opponents on Xbox 360, and not PS3.
The publisher has released a series of alternate costume packs for the game since its release last April. Xbox 360 owners are able to download free DLC packs, called Ultra Costume Catalogues, enabling them to see an opponent’s costume without paying for it themselves.
It’s been a year of numbers. Eighty-three million – FarmVille’s peak number of average monthly players, recorded in March. $104.5 million – the amount of investment that went into making APB, which ran for less than three months before it closed. Twelve – the position Metroid: Other M charted in its first week on sale in the UK. Five – the number of years between Gran Turismo 5’s first airing and its release.
Trade association partners with UK T&I to offer £1400 in exhibitor funding for GDC or Game Connection.
UK game industry trade association TIGA is offering funding grants to firms who wish to attend the 2011 Game Developers Conference (GDC).
Study by UK consumer group finds copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops loses up to 63 per cent of its value in three days.
A new videogame can lose more value in three days than a new car does in three years, according to a report by UK consumer group Which?.
Just like its predecessor, LBP2 leans heavily on its title sequence to make its big statement. But although the original had the weight of enthusing a generation to the idea of material creativity on console, the message this time around is more complex, and perhaps even more urgent. Media Molecule needs to convince players that, despite the familiarity of Sackboy, the return of narrator Stephen Fry and some kooky ’70s tunes, LBP2 is much more than DLC packaged on a Blu-ray disc and sold at full price.
Retailer shutting down 9 per cent of stores after Christmas sales slump 10 per cent.
Entertainment retailer HMV has announced it is to close 60 stores in 2011.
The move follows disappointing sales during the Christmas period, with sales for the five weeks to January 1 down 10 per cent on the previous year, with in-store sales falling by 13 per cent. In the UK and Ireland, like for like sales were down 14 per cent.
Sean Ryan joins Facebook as director of games partnerships less than six months after joining News Corp.
Facebook has appointed Sean Ryan as director of games partnerships, just six months after he took up a similar position at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Our award for the best hardware of 2010.
Runner up: Move
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Game sales bring in £2.875 billion compared to £3.31 billion in 2009; 360 narrowly outsells PS3.
Trade body UKIE has released figures showing that the UK games market shrank by over 13 per cent last year, reports MCV.
The game industry saw revenues of £2.875 billion, down on the £3.31 billion earned in 2009. It should however be noted that the figures do not include digital or pre-owned sales.
UPDATE: publisher confirms DRM to be decided on a "case-by-case basis".
Ubisoft appears to have made some changes to the controversial DRM protection measures that have so infuriated PC gamers since its launch last year.
13th Annual Independent Games Festival reveals awards shortlists; Minecraft and Amnesia lead the pack.
Organisers of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) have announced the finalists for its Main Competition, celebrating the finest indie games released in the last year.
Our indie game of 2010 Minecraft is up for three awards, nominated for Excellence in Design, Technical Excellence and the Seamus McNally Grand Prize, the main award which comes with a cheque for $20,000.
Each day, we will be posting two winners from the 2010 Edge Awards, as well as an interview with one of the team behind the winning game or hardware over the page. Here's our award for the best online experience of 2010.
Runner up: Hot Pursuit
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PrimeSense and ASUS releasing 3D motion sensor Wavi Xtion in Q2; dev kit coming next month.
PrimeSense, the Israeli startup that provided Microsoft with the depth sensor used in its Kinect motion-sensing peripheral, has announced a similar device designed for use with PCs.
Real Racing and Flight Control developer snaps up fellow Melbourne studio Infinite Interactive.
Australian gaming studio Firemint, developer of iPhone smashes Flight Control and Real Racing, has acquired Puzzle Quest developer Infinite Interactive.
Firemint was founded in 1999 and was a work-for-hire studio until the success in 2009 of its iOS games. It has since expanded its reach to include Nintendo DSiWare, PlayStation Network and Steam.
Zynga city-building sim hits 88.4 million users within a month of release; breaks FarmVille’s record.
The rampant growth of Zynga’s city-building game CityVille has reached its logical conclusion: it is now the most popular Facebook app of all time.
Rock Band developer buys its freedom from Viacom for undisclosed fee.
Rock Band developer Harmonix has confirmed that its sale by former parent company Viacom has been completed, and that it is once again an independent studio.
Gaming Charity raises nearly $2.3m; iPhone game Canabalt goes open-source as a thank-you.
US gaming charity Child’s Play set a new annual record for donations in 2010, raising $2,294,317 in donations of toys, games, movies and books for sick children.
It takes the total raised by the charity since its inception in 2003 to just under $9 million.
Sports Interactive studio director recognised for services to the game industry, finds it "humbling".
Miles Jacobson, studio director of Sports Interactive, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to the game industry.
Series of breakthroughs give hackers full access to PS3 innards; mass piracy likely.
George “GeoHot” Hotz, the hacker who was part of the team responsible for the iPhone jailbreak, has discovered and released online the PlayStation 3 root key.
The root key has the final say on which code can and cannot be run on a PS3, meaning the system is now completely open to homebrew developers and, more worryingly, piracy.
Format: Xbox 360
Release: Out Now
Developer: Halfbrick Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
One of the crucial items of vocabulary in the science of inventing biscuits, or for describing the experience of drinking wine, is the lovely word ‘mouthfeel’.
We'll be publishing our full 2010 awards after the Christmas holiday, but to tide you over here's our selection of less easily categorised baubles and turkeys.
This will be the last main post of the year, but we'll still be posting some capital features over the festive period.
Each day we'll be posting specially themed sets of classic Edge articles, covering genres and subjects both emerging and new. You'll hopefully come across a few treasures. And on Christmas day, we'll be presenting our Alternative Edge Awards. Look out for the full Edge Awards, as featured in our latest issue but accompanied with interviews with the winners, when we get back on Jan 4.
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MOST UNRELENTING VIOLENCE