Around 6,000 former NFL players have launched a class action suit against Electronic Arts over the use of players' likenesses in Madden NFL 09's historic teams.
The suit (via IGN) alleges that EA "knowingly and intentionally" used players' likenesses in a way to avoid having to pay license fees. While the players’ names and original uniform numbers were removed in Madden NFL 09, players can include them using an edit mode.
Life-to-date sales of Call Of Duty map packs surpassed 20 million units during the quarter ended June 30, according to publisher Activision Blizzard.
The most recent, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s Resurgence Pack, was released on June 3 for Xbox Live and in early July for PS3 and PC.
John Gross, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Majesco, is resigning after five years with the Cooking Mama publisher.
Michael Vesey, Majesco's senior VP, corporate controller and chief accounting officer will serve as interim CFO.
"John has provided strong financial leadership to the company for the last five years, effectively managing the balance sheet, reducing operating costs and helping guide us towards improved profitability," said Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton.
Sony’s suffocating survival horror was all too happy to show players that they weren’t alone in the dark. Effective horror hinges on what can’t be clearly seen; the Silent Hill games thrive on this, defined as much by what isn’t on the game disc as what is. But Forbidden Siren took a taboo step, empowering its characters with a skill that exceeds the finest in hi-tech espionage hacking: sightjacking. It handed you the power to see far more than most games had ever dared.
Kudo Tsunoda, general manager of Microsoft Game Studios, has told us that Kinect development isn’t cost prohibitive for smaller developers.
Rare has an illustrious history in videogames, and is certainly no stranger to working closely with hardware manufacturers developing first-party titles. But while hearing Rare's name mentioned will likely bring to mind Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye or Banjo Kazooie, it shouldn't be forgotten that the company's extensive back catalogue includes a diverse range of titles.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter thinks that the arrival of premium multiplayer services for console games “will be the event that turns the negative tide of industry sales around”.
“The appropriate business model for online multiplayer has yet to emerge,” he said in a research note, adding that some multiplayer content for FPS games needs to be given away freely because the genre has evolved to be dominated by online play.
Social games firm Zynga has appointed former Allen & Co. managing director Dave Wehner as its new chief financial officer.
He replaces Mark Vranesh, who becomes chief accounting officer at the FarmVille maker, reporting to Wehner, VentureBeat reports.
Digital entertainment services firm RealNetworks has posted a five per cent drop in sales for its games unit during the second quarter ended June 30.
At the same time the company announced that it has promoted chief revenue officer of the division, Matt Hulett, to the position of games CEO, replacing John Barbour.
Roberto Bolaño’s posthumously published novel, 2666, is a masterpiece that deliberately tries the reader’s patience. The fourth of the five ‘books’ that make up the work is called The Part About The Crimes, and consists of a relentless catalogue of murders of women, written mainly in the unemotional, empirical style of police reports: the body of the next victim was discovered in such-and-such a location, in such-and-such a state of undress; the following witnesses were interviewed, the case was shelved; and so forth.
Ex-GRIN members have formed a new development studio called Whiteout.
The developer intends to focus on digital markets and currently has a CryEngine 3 project in the works, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Microsoft are hoping to carve out an entirely new space for themselves with Kinect, a device with the potential to change the game landscape drastically. Revolutionary hardware is all very well, of course, but even the most distinct experience will eventually flounder without quality titles to support it.
StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty debuted atop the UK all formats chart during the week ended July 31.
The game is the first PC exclusive to hit the all formats top spot this year. It sold more copies last week than the 1998 original managed during its entire lifetime in the UK (only boxed product is accounted for), according to sales monitor Chart-Track.
Koch Media CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz has refuted claims that his company is €1.7 million in debt to troubled Dutch publisher Playlogic.
He also said that, contrary to statements made by the Fairytale Fights publisher, the two companies aren’t engaged in legal proceedings over the matter.
Nexon America has reported second quarter revenues up 26 per cent year-over-year.
The free-to-play specialist behind MapleStory told VentureBeat that June sales alone were up 36 per cent from a year earlier, although it doesn’t disclose actual financial figures.
Introducing our latest issue, looking at Microsoft's bid to revitalise its console and revolutionise the gaming landscape.
Sega parent Sega Sammy posted a profit and increased sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, but continued losses for its games division means the company will increase its focus on content geared towards social networking services and smartphones.
A newly signed deal between Lovefilm and streaming technology provider Widevine will enable the European film rental service to offer movies on demand via game consoles and other devices.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) spent $1.1 million lobbying on behalf of US game publishers and developers in the second quarter of 2010.
The figure is down five per cent on the trade association's spend in the second quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of this year, the Associated Press reports.
Haden Blackman, executive producer and writer of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed series, has resigned from LucasArts.
Blackman had served at the studio for over 13 years and is credited on games including The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: Galaxies and Star Wars: Force Commander. He also helped write and produce a number of Star Wars books and comics.
Format: C64
Release: 1985
Publisher: Activision
Developer: In-house
Once upon a time, in a less cynical age, we weren’t afraid to call successful videogame designers geniuses. Indeed, it was a tag thrown at many of the young people wrestling with 8bit console and computer hardware in the early ’80s (and doing very nicely out of it, thank you very much), often by exciteable journalists seeking to romanticise the Silicon Valley dream beyond its already dizzy visage. Some, however, were more deserving than others.
PSP-3000 remained the bestselling gaming hardware in Japan during the week ended July 25, while the DS line of handhelds continued to lead overall platform sales.
PSP Slim & Lite shifted 28,747 units, ahead of DSi XL’s 24,189, but combined DS sales came in at over 47,000, versus total PSP sales of 29,500.
Zynga has partnered with telecommunications and media firm Softbank to develop and distribute social games across Japan.
The new joint venture, Zynga Japan, was officially announced as Softbank completed a $150 million investment in the San Francisco headquartered Farmville maker.
The deal marks the developer’s first foray into the Japanese market, for which it will create social games out of new Tokyo-based studio Zynga Japan.
