The next project from the creators of Magic: The Gathering won’t be paper-based. It’s instead being designed for the world of online, via Facebook and iPhone. Mind Twist is still very much just a codename to the public, but its developer, Mind Control Software, is squarely aiming its head-to-head, turn-based fantasy battle game at what it calls the ‘thinking gamer’.
EA’s DICE has labelled dedicated servers “the best solution for online PC gaming hands down”.
"This building is what we call a ‘church’,” Aled Jones explains at the beginning of Songs Of Praise every week. “It’s a meeting place for public worship, within which the socio-religious group called ‘Christians’ frequently manifests elaborate vocalisations we call ‘songs’.”
Delia Smith is making jam rolypoly: “In order to stay alive, we convert ‘food’ into a substance suitable for use by the body.”
Shareholders who lost millions when Midway went bust have failed to convince a federal court judge that top executives at the company deceived the public about the ailing financial state of the publisher.
Plaintiffs had alleged that former executives - including CEO David Zucker and chief financial officer Thomas Powell - failed to reveal the company’s ill health while simultaneously selling their stock for millions of dollars.
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Sean Murray I’m 17, waiting for my computer arts degree interview and I peek at the portfolio of the guy sat beside me. I’m 13 and Maeve meets me after school, but all she wants is for me to ask Jon out for her. I’m 28 on the way down to Future Publishing’s offices and I’m not interesting.
Sports-related social games and online community developer Watercooler has raised $5.5 million in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by online betting and gaming giant Betfair, and included investment from Canaan Partners. Betfair’s US president, Gerard Cunningham, has joined Watercooler’s board.
Trade body Tiga has predicted that the UK development sector will decline by 25 per cent within five years unless tax breaks are introduced.
“The UK games industry is still successful and world leading. However, because most of our key competitors benefit from a tax break for games production, our industry is at a competitive disadvantage,” said Gareth Edmondson, vice chairman of Tiga and managing director of Ubisoft Reflections.
A new study has found that a quarter of gamers in the United Kingdom have downloaded and paid for complete games or extra levels via their console.
The role of brick and mortar game retailers is diminishing, according to the UK National Gamers Survey 2009. Seven per cent of console owners said that they usually buy games as downloads via their console, compared to 14 per cent of PC gamers. The figures rise to 16 per cent and 23 per cent in the US.
Microsoft has responded to the announcement that Netflix will be made available on PS3, noting that it won’t be dropping the requirement to hold an Xbox Live Gold membership in order to access the movie streaming service via Xbox 360.
Sky Player has launched on Xbox Live with 24 channels available to watch via Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
Xbox Live members who are subscribers to the online Sky Player service and have at least a 2MB broadband connection will be able to access channels including Sky One, MTV and Sky Arts.
Non-Sky TV customers can subscribe to the service from £15 per month for the Entertainment Pack, but sports and movie channels will cost more, according to CVG.
Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling says that developers should play a crucial role in the marketing and PR activities surrounding their games.
“We know everything there is to know about Modern Warfare 2,” Bowling told MCV. “Not only do we know the game but we know the gamer. We know what to expect from them and what they expect from us. So it helps us guide design decisions and decisions overall, including with PR.
The UK government’s Department of Health has endorsed Nintendo’s Wii Fit Plus - making it the first game to be allowed to use the National Health Service's Change4Life logo in future advertising.
The Change4Life programme is a campaign by the NHS to persuade people to take regular exercise and eat healthily.
[Update: Nintendo says the report is based purely on the speculation of the Nikkei newspaper]
Nintendo will reportedly release a new DSi sporting larger screens later this year in Japan.
The new model’s screens will be three-quarters of an inch larger than those featured on the current DSi, with the device said to be aimed at an older market, according to Nikkei (via Kotaku).
Tap-Fu developer Smells Like Donkey has expressed surprise and concern about the ease and rate of iPhone piracy.
According to the studio, a cracked version of its recent release Tap-Fu turned up on various download sites just 40 minutes after launch. During the game’s first week on sale, the developer found that as many as 90 per cent of players submitting scores to online leaderboards were playing with a pirated copy.
Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity multiplatform development engine, has announced that it has secured new funding of $5.5 million.
The Series A financing was led by Sequoia Capital and also included David Gardner, the CEO of Atari, and Diane Greene, the founder and former CEO of VMware. Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital, and Greene will be joining the board of directors.
Nolan North, the voice actor behind Nathan Drake in PS3 series Uncharted, believes the producers of the upcoming movie adaptation will look to secure major Hollywood talent for the film’s lead roles.
Sony confirmed in July that the franchise was headed to the big screen after signing a deal with Columbia Pictures. The movie’s set to be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, and Alex Gartner.
Michael Denny, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe, will deliver the opening keynote at next month’s Develop Liverpool conference.
Responsible for heading up the platform holder’s game development operations in Europe, Denny will discuss what Sony looks for when commissioning original IPs from independent developers.
'Gather round, all of you who would listen: I have a tale to tell.’ So began The Mark Of Kri, as a storm of line drawings gathered to accompany the narrator’s voice with illustration, equal parts Polynesian myth and Disney flair.
[Update: Analyst expects Netflix on Wii within 12 months]
US movie streaming service Netflix is making its way to PS3 “soon”.
Netflix expects to begin streaming via PS3 next month at no additional cost to existing subscribers who own Sony’s console.
A new volunteer-based organisation has been launched to promote the interests of small independent development studios.
Indievision was founded by Richard Hill-Whittall as an evolution of his ChaosEdge site, which was originally established to aid Mobigame in its legal fight to restore iPhone game EDGE to the App Store.
In principal the organisation is similar to the IGDA and TIGA but there are no membership fees, said Hill-Whittall.
Microsoft has reported flat year-on-year sales for its Entertainment and Devices Division, but the unit’s operating income almost doubled during the first quarter of its fiscal year ended September 30, 2009.
Revenues for the division, which covers the Xbox 360 and Zune platforms as well as PC and online games, totalled $1.89 billion (£1.16b), almost identical to a year earlier, while operating income rose from $159 million to $312 million (£191.3m).
Format: Arcade
Release: 1983
Publisher: Bally Midway
Developer: In-house
Not all gamers are teenagers. Nor do they always hang out in arcades. Such was the thinking of Bally Midway, which in the early ’80s decided to sidestep its competition by building games for the untapped market of less competitive ‘street’ locations – any site that wasn’t an arcade, such as a pizza joint or a bar.
CD Projekt Investment, the holding company that owns The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED, game distributor CD Projekt and digital distribution platform Good Old Games, will float on the stock exchange after acquiring 50 per cent of Polish PC firm Optimus’ shares.
The owners of CDP Investment will retain control of the CD Projekt Group while gaining control of listed company Optimus in a deal worth $23 million, according to a statement released by the firm.
Format: 360
Release: Out now
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Turn 10
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