Microsoft has rolled out the latest version of Games for Windows – Live.
The 3.0 update features a number of new features. Most notably, an in-game marketplace now allows players to purchase and install content without leaving their game.
Live accounts can also be managed in-game, enabling players to purchase points, edit and add payment details, redeem codes and change Gamertags without exiting their session.
Wii sales rocketed in Japan during the week ended August 2, driven by the August 1 release of a black version of the console and the launch of Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3.
Activision attorneys notified a court this week that they have reached a settlement with Brutal Legend developer Double Fine over the game’s release.
The details of the settlement have not yet been disclosed, but we’ve contacted both companies for comment.
In a lawsuit earlier this year Activision claimed that Double Fine had improperly transferred rights to the game owned by the publisher to its rival EA, which plans to release the Jack Black-starring title in October
Independent US studio Atomic Games has been forced to lay off "many" staff members after failing to secure funding for its Iraq-based war title Six Days In Fallujah.
Few companies have embraced Nintendo’s download services as fully as California-based WayForward, which is developing original IP for both WiiWare and DSiWare. With its first salvo of download titles already released in the US – Wii survival horror puzzler Lit and DSi platform puzzler Mighty Flip Champs! – it’s been a real change in direction for a developer best known for licenced DS titles like Contra 4 and Duck Amuck.
Activision is confident in its current product pricing strategy, and CEO Bobby Kotick would like to raise game prices “even further.”
A year ago, four men jacked in their senior jobs at successful UK developers to go it alone under the name of Hello Games. The team, three coders and an artist, moved into a single, small room in an office building in Guildford and began to make a game, by themselves, for PC, 360 and PS3. Principal Sean Murray, who was technical lead at Criterion on such games as Burnout 3 and Black before taking a role at Kuju, sold his house to fund the company.
Tony Hawk: Ride will only ship in North America, the UK and Germany this year.
The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game will be made available in other territories in 2010, publisher Activision has confirmed.
Retailer listings suggest that the title, which will ship with a wireless skateboard controller, will release in the UK on November 20 for £99.99.
Microsoft has revealed the launch line-up of titles and pricing details for its upcoming Xbox 360 Games On Demand service.
Downloadable titles sold via the service will cost between 1600-2400 MS Points ($19.99-$29.99 / £13.60-£20.40), the company confirmed to Joystiq.
Konami has reported a substantial year-over-year drop in revenues and operating income for the three months ended June 30, 2009.
During its first fiscal quarter, company-wide revenues declined 21 per cent to 51 billion yen ($535m/£315.5m), while operating income slid 91.4 per cent to one billion yen ($10.5m£6.2m).
Wii Sports Resort sold 500,000 copies in the US in the nine days following its July 26 launch, according to Nintendo’s internal tracking numbers.
Activision Blizzard has delayed the release of StarCraft II until the first half of 2010 to coincide with the launch of its new Battle.net game service, which it says will be “similar to Xbox Live.”
Activision has reported significant sales and profit increases for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009.
Net income leapt from $28 million to $195 million on revenues of $1.04 billion, which were up from $352 million during the same period a year earlier.
Shortlist released for the Edge Award For Interactive Innovation, to be presented during the Edinburgh Interactive Festival next week.
The list recognises the games commercially released in the last 12 months that have, in the judges' opinions, done most to mark out new directions for videogaming.
Glu Mobile has announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009.
The mobile publisher saw revenue fall 16 per cent, from $23.7 million in the second quarter of 2008 to $19.9 million (£11.7m).
However, net loss was narrowed from $6.6 million to $1.5 million (£883,000), and the company said it had achieved positive cash flow from operations one quarter sooner than expected, generating $1.1 million (£647,363) in cash from operations during the three month period.
Koei is to establish a new game development studio in Vietnam.
Koei Tecmo Vietnam will open in Hanoi with between 20 and 30 employees, and is expected to grow its headcount to 100 within three years.
According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei Sangyou Shimbun (via Andriasang), Koei will invest 50 million yen ($525,000/£309,000) capital in the subsiduary.
You will never play Halo against a man on Mars. Zoe will never have your back in an interplanetary game of Left 4 Dead, and you’ll never recruit a Martian bassist for Rock Band. Online gaming between Earth and Mars is impossible.
Or is it?
On yesterday’s announcement of new DLC for the original Left 4 Dead, we spoke with Valve’s Chet Faliszek to find out more about Valve's plans. He explains how the short scenario, called Crash Course, which supports Versus, co-op Campaign and Survival modes, was the result of learning how players wanted shorter games than the usual hour per Campaign level and two hours per full Versus match, and what Crash Course means for the continuing development of the Left 4 Dead series.
Can you talk us through the DLC?
Namco Bandai is to increase its focus on iPhone development after appointing ex-Apple gaming man Jonathan Kromrey.
As general manager of Namco Networks’ Apple games business, Kromrey will look to expand the company’s offerings for iPhone and iPod touch beyond the firm’s arcade classics to new IPs and other established properties, with an emphasis placed on the platforms’ unique features such as their touch screens, music playing capabilities and accelerometer controls.
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has said that a proposal by Germany interior ministers seeking to ban the domestic production of violent games could force the developer to leave the country.
In early June, Germany's 16 interior ministers grouped together in a bid to outlaw the production and distribution of games "where the main part is to realistically play the killing of people or other cruel or un-human acts of violence against humans or manlike characters."
[UPDATE: Activision has issued a press release confirming the details in this report, but it offered no further information on the game]
Activision will release a port of Infinity Ward’s Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Nintendo’s Wii.
Titled Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare and built by fellow franchise developer Treyarch, the title will launch on November 11, the same day as Infinity Ward’s COD: Modern Warfare 2 debuts, according to Kotaku.
Electronic Arts, which dubbed itself the number one publisher in North America and Europe in the quarter ended June 30, generated net revenues of $161 million from Wii software during the three month period, making the platform the most lucrative for the company.
Electronic Arts reported an increase in losses and a drop in revenues for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2009, but the publisher still managed to beat expectations.
Net loss totalled $234 million (£138.3m), compared with $95 million the prior year, while net revenue, which was driven by The Sims 3, EA Sports Active and Fight Night Round 4, came in at $644 million (£380.6m), down from $804 million.
Electronic Arts reported an increase in losses and a drop in revenues for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, 2009, but the publisher still managed to beat expectations.
Net loss totalled $234 million (£138.3m), compared with $95 million the prior year, while net revenue, which was driven by The Sims 3, EA Sports Active and Fight Night Round 4, came in at $644 million (£380.6m), down from $804 million.
