Games consultancy Pixel-Lab has announced World of Love, a new UK-based conference for independent game developers.
Taking place on June 25 at Channel 4’s London headquarters, confirmed event speakers include VVVVVV developer Terry Cavanagh, Sean Murray from Hello Games, Rolando creator Simon Oliver, and experimental game developer Stephen Lavelle.
UK retailer Game has apologised to customers who purchased new games via its website only to receive ‘sub-standard’ ex-display products.
Game said that the problems arose after some stock slipped through its “quality screening processes”, and it has promised to refund or replace any games that weren't sold in mint condition.
The company told CVG In a statement:
BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will present a keynote speech at this summer's Develop conference in Brighton.
The Electronic Arts VPs serve as BioWare’s general manager and creative officer respectively. They founded the studio in 1995 and went on to create titles including Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. BioWare was acquired by EA in 2007, ahead of the releases of Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins.
Atari has appointed industry veteran John Burns as its VP and general manager for Europe.
Burns has more than 20 years of games industry experience, most recently serving as senior director of European online publishing for EA. He has also served as European managing director of Activision and held various roles at Acclaim, Bandai UK, Sega Ozisoft and Atari Computers in Australia.
He will be responsible for Atari’s commercial efforts in Europe and will report to Atari CEO Jim Wilson.
Interactive exercise company IA Labs has filed a lawsuit against Nintendo for patent infringement.
IA Labs has accused Nintendo on infringing upon two separate patents, reports Gamasutra. The patents relate to technology used in Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit, Wit Fit Plus, Wii Balance Board, Wii Remote, Wii Wheel, Wii Motion Plus, Wii Nunchuck and Wii Zapper.
President Obama's administration has asked Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to create a game about reducing the U.S. deficit.
Erskine Bowles, co-chair of Obama's fiscal commission, wants the game to be made so the general public can have a go to balancing the budget, reports USA Today.
The Stimulus Package DLC for Modern Warfare 2 was priced too low, claims an EEDAR analyst.
Activision's decision to charge $15 (or 1200 Microsoft Points) for Stimulus Package was met with criticism by fans, who felt they were charging too much. Yet Jesse Divnich, analyst for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, tells IGN that Activison could have charged even more.
2K Games has announced that it is to release a new game in the alien invasion franchise XCOM.
In development for PC and Xbox 360 at BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin, the series is being re-imagined in the form of a “suspense-filled” and “unique first-person shooter experience”.
I am not an anti-cutscene advocate, though I know several people who are. There are some things – certain types of exposition, bits of information, epic sequences of destruction or complicated scenes of emotion – that are delivered more efficiently, more spectacularly, more cost effectively, more touchingly, through cutscenes. I am a fan of the Half-Life-style opening sequence, where the player’s steady, semi-interactive movement through a series of spaces slowly seduces him or her into the game’s fictional reality.
A car sits deserted in a dusty lot. One door hangs open. The driver’s seat and windscreen are bathed in gore – certainly way more blood than anyone could safely lose. A pipe lies nearby in the dirt, and elsewhere a pair of broken spectacles. A receipt in the car’s trunk begs the question: who’s A Hogan, and why did he pick up a live pig yesterday?
Citing higher than expected US demand, Apple has postponed the international iPad launch by one month.
The tablet device was to be made available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April, but is now expected to launch outside of the States at the end of May.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has likened the 3DS launch to that of the DS in 2004.
The company believes the 3D-capable device’s arrival marks as significant a transition as the move from Game Boy to DS six years ago.
Developer Infinity Ward has reportedly lost another four members of staff.
A pair of Modern Warfare 2's lead designers, Steve Fukuda and Zied Reike, departed the studio yesterday. Fukuda had been with the California-based studio since 2002, while Reike joined when it was formed the year before, reports Kotaku.
Programmer Rayme Vinson and lead artist Chris Cherubini have also left the studio, according to the site.
New research from investment firm Piper Jaffray found that videogame spending accounts for eight per cent of US teenagers’ budgets, up from three per cent six years ago.
The company’s Taking Stock With Teens survey, which aims to determine purchasing behaviour and brand preferences among teens, suggested that teens represent 35 per cent of total US game players.
Game Developer Research has released the key findings of its ninth annual Game Developer Salary Survey.
It found that the average American mainstream videogame industry salary was $75,573 in 2009, representing a decline of more than four per cent from 2008's figure of $79,000.
Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick says the New York-based publisher needs to make adjustments to its distribution business and release schedule if it to succeed in non-Grand Theft Auto years.
"We have a worldwide distribution and publishing footprint, and in a GTA year that cost basis is fine, but in a non-GTA year it's too high," Zelnick told the LA Times.
In a move designed to combat game addiction, Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will block teenagers attempting to access online games after midnight.
During "nighttime shutdown" – a six hour blackout period - players will forcibly be kicked from game sessions or have their internet connection speed dramatically reduced, reports the Korea Herald.
The US Court of Appeals has overturned a 2008 ruling requiring Nintendo to pay out $21 million for infringing on a controller patent.
In 2006, Nintendo was accused by Texas-based gaming company Anascape of infringing on US Patent No. 6,906,700, “3D controller with vibration.”
German publisher CDV Software Entertainment has reportedly filed for insolvency at the district court in Frankfurt.
CDV was recently awarded a $3.1 million payout following a long-running legal battle with Southpeak Interactive, although Gamesindustry.biz reports that there were question marks over the company's ability to settle its fine.
While it’s a multiplatform publisher, CDV primarily focuses on PC titles.
Ubisoft Montreal’s Max Beland has told us that his primary goal as creative director on Splinter Cell: Conviction was to make the series more accessible.
Beland was brought on to the project around two years ago, halfway through its protracted development period.
“I joined the team in January of 2008 and at the beginning the goal was to fix the things that weren’t happening. Ubisoft had identified that there were some major issues with the game,” he said.
Tiga has revealed the key findings from the inaugural Games Software Developers’ Salary Survey, carried out in association with Hewitt Associates.
Billed by the trade association as one of the most comprehensive surveys ever carried out for the game development sector, data was gathered from ten studios - both independent and publisher owned – representing 16 per cent of the industry’s UK workforce.
UK retailer Game has cut staff hours as part of an ongoing operations review process.
We were contacted by Game workers claiming to have had their working hours slashed, and approached the retailer for comment.
The firm told us that while some employees have been given reduced roles, the “overwhelming majority” have experienced little or no change to their contracts.
PlayStation 3 has cleared five million sales in Japan.
Total system sales reached 5,001,598 units as of April 11, the last day of Enterbrain's most recent weekly tracking period, according to Famitsu (via Andriassang).
PS3 launched in Japan almost three and a half years ago, on November 11, 2006.
Is anyone doing DLC as well as Gearbox at the moment?
MMO publisher En Masse Entertainment has announced several new appointments, including veterans of the Halo, Dragon Age and Mass Effect series.
The company formed in February, telling us at the time that its remit was to bring "globally renowned" MMOGs to western audiences. It showed off its debut property, Tera, at GDC last month.