Realtime Worlds' ambitious open-city shooter to relaunch under new free-to-play model next year.
Free-to-play specialist GamersFirst has confirmed that its subsidiary, Reloaded Productions, has bought the IP rights to APB, following the game's closure in mid-September.
Mobile and social game developer now has over 20 million monthly users of its Facebook games.
Digital Chocolate, the US-based studio formed by EA-founder Trip Hawkins, has seen monthly active users of its games jump from 12 million two months ago, to over 20 million.
According to analyst AppData, Digital Chocolate is one of the top ten developers on Facebook, along with EA, which has over 40 million monthly active users, and Zynga, which has over 200 million.
A “strong start” to Microsoft's push towards five million unit sales by the end of the year.
Microsoft has announced that its Kinect device has sold one million units worldwide in its first ten days of release.
Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said: "We will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than five million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year.”
Social game company CEO reveals facts, figures and future plans.
Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga, talked about the rise of his social game company at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco yesterday.
It was designed to be the YouTube for games – and Microsoft’s Indie platform has delivered on that promise in spirit, if not in numbers. Powered by the stripped-back development framework XNA, the Indie Games menu on the 360 dash has been steadily filling up with homebrew since its launch in late 2008, and now has over 800 titles available. And, as with any trawl through YouTube, in among the oddball offerings – amid the clones, the cranks and the outright botches – you’ll find topical games, parody games and games built around internet memes.
At official unveil event today, series creator details gameplay and addresses the future of the series.
Shenmue City publisher Sunsoft held an event in Japan today to discuss new details and features of the forthcoming social game.
Series creator Yu Suzuki, whose company Ys Net is developing Shenmue City, told Famitsu.com that his experience playing Zynga’s social game Mafia Wars, encouraged him to develop a Shenmue social game.
Company “aggressively scouting” for developers to work on XBLA and Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft has reinforced the importance of indie games developers on its platforms, following recent controversy involving changes to Indie Games' positioning on Xbox Live.
In a release to us, the company says: “Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) is currently searching for new partners to develop games for Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Phone 7. MGS is aggressively scouting talent worldwide among both established and new developers.”
Assassin's Creed publisher sees increased net losses in first half financials, though online sales increase 100 per cent.
Edge will be chairing a talk by the Elite co-creator and Frontier Developments head this Thursday at BAFTA in London.
David Braben will be discussing the making of Kinectimals, the studio's almost impossibly furry pet 'em up for Kinect, and his opinions on the potential of Kinect's motion-based control system. We're hoping to show off some of the prototypes Frontier created, too, as well as demo the game itself. Yes, you will hopefully see David Braben jumping about and talking to a leopard.
StarCraft developer is “exploring a Diablo-related concept for consoles”.
In a post on the Diablo III community website yesterday, Blizzard announced that it is recruiting “a few senior console-related positions on the Diablo III team”.
Leak from German ratings board reveals list of games which could be making their way to western PSN store.
According to Siliconera, German ratings board USK has added a list of TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) titles to its database for Sony consoles. Japanese gamers already have access to range of PC Engine games on their PlayStation Store.
Each game is listed under Sony PSP, although it's unclear whether they will also be playable on PS3. The full list of games follows:
Blizzard's game downloaded 2.3 million times on most popular torrent.
Torrent Freak has posted a list of record-breaking torrent files which includes the largest and oldest torrents recorded. StarCraft II wins the award for the most data transferred.
Company subsequently denies that captured data will be used for advertising or marketing uses.
Speaking to investors last week, Microsoft chief operating officer, Dennis Durkin, spoke of potential business opportunities in using Kinect to target game marketing and advertising, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Company to push Bing as a social games platform with help from the world's "second most popular social developer".
Social game studio CrowdStar has confirmed that Microsoft has recruited the company to help promote Bing as a social games platform. Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger and MSN Games portals already offer social play, but the company is keen to redefine its search engine.
Association calls for developers to form consortium and run new publisher. UKIE and TIGA backing plans.
The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) has today released a statement calling for up to eight developers to participate in a proposed videogame consortium which will focus on digital distribution.
The UK videogame PR firm partnered with Codemasters and Eidos enters liquidation after 22 years in operation.
Barrington Harvey had a number of high-profile partners including Codemasters, Eidos and the Edinburgh Interactive Festival and has previously worked with Sony, Nintendo and ELSPA (now UKIE). In its fiscal year ended June 2009 the company made a loss of £258,000, while administrator Portland said of 2010 (for which results are not yet available): “it is apparent that losses were also incurred”.
Developers form consortium as Microsoft announces potential XNA updates, including support for Achievements and Kinect.
Latest Call Of Duty's record-breaking sales knock Football Manager 2011 from the top spot.
FIFA 11, meanwhile, maintained its number two spot, ahead of Just Dance 2 which moved up to three in the UK multiformat chart for the week ending November 13. Kinect Sports debuted at number four, while Medal Of Honor left the top ten althogether.
Format: Facebook
Release: TBA - currently in closed beta
Publisher: PopCap
Developer: In-house
The Netherlands-based firm announces that Arthur Houtman will oversee debut game, Gatling Gears, and future titles.
Developers working with "limited game budgets" will be able to license a range of tools at reduced cost.
Middleware producer Havok has announced that it intends to lower the cost of its physics, animation and AI tools for developers with small budgets. Called the Strike Program, studios will be able to license a basic feature set with the option to access additional tools under separate licensing.
Tech analyst values materials in Microsoft's device, and says that "future applications could be fascinating".
Hardware analyst UBM TechInsights has reported that Microsoft's Kinect device is made up of materials with a total value of $56 (£35), suggesting substantial potential for future discounts once R&D and marketing costs have been recouped.
PopCap made a name for itself creating broadly appealing, easy to understand web games, its flagship title, Bejeweled, winning over mums and critics alike. The studio's ability to reach such a diverse selection of gamers will no doubt prove useful as it shifts its focus to another spectrum: the mobile market. With the company now concentrating on iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 development, it will have to straddle three potentially very different audiences.
First day sales set new record, taking the title from Modern Warfare 2.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops has broken the record for biggest opening day sales, selling an estimated 1.4 million units and generating around £58 million, according to UKIE and Chart-track. Black Ops takes the title from previous record holder, Modern Warfare 2, which sold 1.23 million units and netted £47.7 million - a 14 per cent difference.
Format: 360 (version tested), PC, PS3
Release: Out now
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
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