According to its website, Channel 4's Education initiative aims to create "innovative cross-platform projects that encourage a two-way participation and offer the chance to stimulate conversation around learning experiences, rather than to simply dictate learning."
At GDC Europe today, Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe gave an enthusiastic presentation on the promise and limitations of motion control, asserting that it must become standard and multiplatform in order to make sales worthwhile.
Quantic Dream's David Cage gave a frank, detailed and typically forthright Heavy Rain postmortem at GDC Europe today, speaking with humour about the unique challenges involved in its production and his relationship with marketing and censorship. Covering the process of making the game from inception to post-release reception, he sent the audience away with two main ideas: ignore the rules, and don't listen to too much advice.
Julian Gollop has revealed that he is working on a turn-based strategy title for Nintendo's new handheld.
Julian Gollop, the creator of the X-Com series and subsequent spiritual follow up Laser Squad Nemesis, has revealed that he is working on a 3DS project.
The InstantAction CEO says that by selling used software, companies like GameStop and Walmart are stealing from publishers.
InstantAction CEO Louis Castle has accused retailers like GameStop (which recently acquired social gaming site Kongregate) and Walmart of thievery, citing their promotion of second-hand stock using publisher-provided display stands.
A Guitar Hero-like music game on Facebook: not an unfamiliar idea, but a big one. And until now, an idea that hasn't been addressed on quite the same scale as Facebook's 500 million-strong userbase, let alone the countless millions of songs these people listen to and own.
With Fumito Ueda and Hideo Kojima citing his work as an influence, Eric Chahi has an enviable pedigree. He is best known for the 1991 Amiga platformer Another World, a game which featured no HUD and very little dialogue, instead framing its story with cutscenes, rotoscoped character animation and pacing more evocative of cinema than games up until that point. After the exhausting six year development process of his following project (1998 PlayStation release Heart Of Darkness), however, he decided to take a break from making games.
The developer behind the DS versions of Toy Story 3 and GoldenEye 007 forced to make redundancies due to "momentary reduced demand".
n-Space has told Kotaku that it has cut 25 per cent of its staff due to "momentary reduced demand". The Orlando-based developer, which specialises in handheld ports of console franchises, employed around 100 staff members prior to the announcement.
Former MySpace CEO and Facebook executive Owen Van Natta joins the FarmVille developer.
Zynga, the developer behind FarmVille, has appointed Owen Van Natta as its new executive vice president of business operations. Van Natta brings a great deal of social networking experience from his previous two roles as CEO of MySpace and an executive at Facebook before that.
Back in my journalist days, it was interesting to see which industry figures would complain about used game sales. A game producer I’ve become friends with is not only virulently opposed to the practice, he also believes that it’s the ultimate betrayal for retailers like GameStop to take marketing dollars from publishers with one hand while steering consumers towards used games with the other.
Report predicts that virtual transactions will be increasingly supported by advertising revenue.
Digital analyst eMarketer has predicted that advertising spend in social games will reach $220 million this year, up from $183 million in 2009, rising to $293 million in 2011.
The report says that while virtual transactions will remain the primary revenue stream of social titles like FarmVille, companies like Zynga and Playdom will increasingly capatilise on the opportunity to give advertisers access to their millions of users.
UPDATE: Realtime Worlds has confirmed that the company has begun broad staff cuts, having finished its 30-day consultation period, but has not indicated how many positions have been axed.
“Those staff that couldn’t be redeployed to new projects in the Art, Audio, Coding, Design, Production, and QA departments have regrettably been made redundant,” the studio said in a statement which did not confirm the status of Project: MyWorld.
17,000 sales in one week prompt Amanita to continue promotional offer. Regional sales statistics also revealed.
Amanita, the Czech indie developer resposible for PC adventure Machinarium, is extending its pirate amnesty having sold 17,000 copies in one week.
It’s hard to imagine a game more at odds with gaming’s current fashions than Demon’s Souls. As developers fall over themselves to reward players for the emptiest of achievements, From Software’s stern demand that players learn, understand and master its game’s systems, or else face severe punishment, seems anachronistic.
The graphics chip manufacturer blames low demand for GeForce cards and legal charges for the downturn.
The company's first quarter revenue reached more than $1 billion with a profit of $137.6 million, but the second saw a lower total revenue of $811.2 million. In the same quarter last year, the company achieved a total revenue of $776.5, posting a loss of $105 million.
If you’re a long-term Apple user, you’ll know what it’s like to go to sleep each night with a crumpled piece of paper under your pillow bearing scribbled names like Desktop Dungeons, Spelunky and Audiosurf – the titles of games that you’d really like to try out, but which have yet to make it across the OS X canyon.
The engine behind Rage and Doom 4 will only be available to games published by ZeniMax Media.
iD Software has revealed that iD Tech 5, the proprietary engine behind Doom 4 and Rage, will not be licenced to other developers, suggesting that the company is looking to move away from licencing its engines in future.
The Bethesda and iD parent company adds Arx Fatalis developer to its roster.
The announcement, made at QuakeCon 2010, reveals that the acquisition will position Arkane Studios as a Bethesda Softworks internal studio. Vice president of Bethesda Softworks, Pete Hines confirmed that Bethesda and Arkane are currently collaborating on a new game, but that it will be some time before any details are revealed.
Irrational Games unveils latest BioShock title, which trades the series' ocean setting for a city 30,000 feet in the sky.
Irrational Games have revealed BioShock Infinite, the third game in the BioShock series. Previously known as 'Project Icarus', the game swaps the underwater city of Rapture for Columbia, a floating city in the sky. Set in 1912, players assume the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent sent to rescue Elizabeth, a woman trapped in the city since birth.
The only strange thing about this talking wolf is the high quality of its conversation. “I could shoot you, you know,” I threaten the wolf, having already established that my daughter might still be alive inside its belly. That wasn’t picked from a dialogue menu; I typed it in. Without missing a beat, the wolf responds, “I’m afraid you’ll have to.” Sentient characters and interactive dialogue have been common this entire play session. Impressed? The game’s responses are driven by game designer Jason Rohrer.
Today, we get the definite feeling that Shinji Mikami doesn't want to be interviewed.
With a designer ball-cap pulled down over his face and his body slouched deep into his chair, Mikami is far from appearing the firebrand revolutionary that his work on Resident Evil 4 might hint he really is. But his apparent reticence is not entirely unwarranted. Undoubtedly jet-lagged and tired from a packed day of interviews, it's probably a case of catching him at the wrong time and the wrong place.
Namco Bandai RPG Tales Of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X claimed the top spot on the Japanese software chart during the week ended August 8.
The PSP release, which features remakes of Game Boy Color's Tales Of Phantasia Narikiri Dungeon and the original Tales game, 1995's Tales of Phantasia for Super Famicom, debuted ahead of two former chart toppers, Nintendo’s Wii Party and Capcom’s Sengoku Basara 3.
Microsoft is establishing a new development studio to create games for Windows phones and “emerging mobile platforms”.
Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian has upped his Kinect shipment estimate for the fourth calendar quarter of 2010 from three to four million units.
“Based on updated channel checks, we believe that production quantities of Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor could exceed our original expectations — suggesting to us potentially more aggressive launch plans for the device,” he said in an investor note.
Ubisoft’s controversial DRM won’t be used for upcoming World War II real-time strategy title Ruse.
The game will instead use Steam, ensuring that the single player campaign will be playable offline.