Chris Donlan picks over the highlights of the gaming year.
With work almost over for a few days, and every digital distributor on the planet unleashing its latest sales, it’s time to sketch a picture of 2010 using only its best games. In other words, it’s the annual Friday Game Awards.
Game of the year 2010
Super Crate Box
Developer: Vlambeer
Platform: Mac, PC
Black Ops regains the high ground while Cataclysm descends.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops has climbed back to the top of the Nordic all-format software chart, covering Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, during the week ended December 18.
FIFA 11 moves up to second place, passing Gran Turismo 5 which holds fast at third. World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which occupied the top spot last week, falls to fourth position with the top five rounded out by Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Korean company GamePrix hints at PC support for Kinect in future.
Korean developer GamePrix has told website IncGamers that it intends to utilise Kinect in its PC game, Divine Souls. Though the game is a PC exclusive title, GamePrix claims that it will "resemble console games" due to the inclusion of a Tekken-style combat system and describes it as an "action fighter MMO".
We speak to the creators behind Braid and SpyParty to discuss the highs and lows of independence.
Korean buyer plans to create new US-based company headed by Emergent boss.
Following the news on Tuesday that an anonymous bidder had purchased Emergent and its ageing Gamebryo engine, it has come to light that South Korean company Gamebase is behind the deal.
The final part of our look back over the events that shaped videogames in 2010. Part one, covering January - April, was published on Monday, while part two, covering May - August, was published yesterday.
September - December
Indie promotion raises $1.34 million in just eight days; organisers include first bundle to boost average price.
The Humble Indie Bundle #2 has generated $1.34 million in sales since its launch last week, surpassing the $1.3 million grossed by the first bundle, released last year.
Chinese publisher looking to support app developers at home and overseas; announces OpenFeint deal.
Chinese publisher The9 has announced an agreement to set up a $100 million fund for mobile development.
Claims EA flew West and Zampella to CEO’s home by private jet to plan new studio; wants $400m.
Activision has named Electronic Arts in a cross-complaint in the case involving former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella.
Treyarch-developed shooter passes the milestone after just six weeks on shelves.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops has generated more than $1 billion for Activision in just six weeks on sale, the publisher has announced.
Milestone reached in just six weeks; no actual sales figures revealed.
Microsoft claims it has shipped 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 handsets in six weeks.
The figures were revealed in an internal interview with Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows phones. Berg welcomed the figures but admitted Microsoft were facing a long battle in a highly competitive market.
Format: Wii
Release: Out now
Publisher: Disney Interactive
Developer: Junction Point
Screenshot gallery
Newly-released Mafia Wars: Atlantic City runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and WebOS.
Social gaming giant Zynga has launched the latest in its popular Mafia Wars series, Atlantic City.
It has been an interesting few months for PrimeSense. Having supplied Microsoft with the depth-sensor technology used in the Xbox 360 motion device Kinect and watched it sell 2.5 million units in its first month on sale, the Israeli firm has formed OpenNI, a nonprofit organisation promoting Natural Interaction (NI) devices, applications and middleware. It’s also released open-source drivers for its own motion-sensing device, PSDK 5.0. So where does the five-year-old startup go from here?
The second part of our look back over the events that shaped videogames in 2010. Part one, covering January - April, was published yesterday.
May - August
Ex-shareholders of Harmonix claiming non-payment of bonuses based on 2008 Rock Band profits.
Former shareholders of Harmonix have brought a lawsuit against the Rock Band developer’s parent company Viacom.
A highlight from our community-written blogs, featuring a rumination on war.
Ambrus_Vere's blog, Friendly Fire, describes a Battlefield 2 encounter in vivid detail as the author considers what parrallels exist between the experiences of players in games about war, and those of real soldiers with far more to lose in defeat.
Modern PC in a classic C64 keyboard housing revealed and detailed.
Commodore USA has announced the details of its brand new Commodore 64.
The new C64 is a modern PC housed in the classic keyboard design.On its official site, Commodore says the keyboard contains “a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset”. It will be available initially in classic beige, with more colours available down the line.
Firm’s assets, including the ageing Gamebryo Engine, bought by anonymous bidder.
Asset liquidation firm Gerbsman Partners has confirmed the sale of the technology and IP of Gamebryo maker Emergent.
According to Develop, an anonymous bidder purchased Emergent’s assets after a period of open bidding ended the week before last. Several firms had expressed interest but the sale was made to “one single highest bidder.”
Jury whittles down 75 indie games to final eight; all playable on the show floor at GDC 2011.
Organisers of the Independent Games Festival (IGF), the annual celebration of indie game development held at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), have announced the nominees for the Nuovo Award.
Time spent polishing will reap rewards down the line, says Braid man.
Braid developer Jonathan Blow has advised indie game developers against rushing to release.
“With Braid, I had that game done, mechanically, in 2006,” he said. “Within eight months of starting development you could play the whole thing. But the game came out over two years after that.
“There are British soldiers dying,” says Flashpoint: Red River developer.
Games based on real-world conflicts are in poor taste, according to a leading developer of the Operation Flashpoint series.
Sion Lenton, creative director of Red River, the latest in the Flashpoint series which will be released next year, told us: “I, personally, don’t want to focus on live conflict. I don’t think it’s appropriate and I don’t think it’s tasteful.
Microtransactions are where the money is for EA ahead of next year’s Battlefield: Play4Free.
In-game advertising has not delivered the expected levels of revenue, with microtransactions proving far more lucrative for EA.
The publisher’s general manager of free-to-play, Ben Cousins, told us: “We actually aren’t getting much from ad revenue at all. The in-game advertising business hasn’t grown as fast as people expected it to.”
Trade association states its case in response to government call for input on economic growth.
TIGA, the trade association representing the game industry, has announced its response to the Government Growth Review.
As the end of the year approaches, we've decided to look back over the events that shaped 2010. Today, tomorrow and Wednesday, we'll be presenting a selection of the news reports we've published that tell the story of a year that has seen the business and art of making games break new records - and hearts, too.
January - April