The PEGI content rating system has been given a “ringing endorsement” from the European Parliament, according to a statement released by ELSPA.
It is thought that, for the first time ever, worldwide videogame revenue had exceeded that of DVD and Blu-Ray in 2008.
According to market research company Media Control GfK International, global packaged media commodities amassed sales of some $61 billion in 2008. Games represent 53 percent of that figure, with DVD and Blu-ray sales responsible for 47 percent. The research group expects that distance to grow, with games representing 57 percent in 2009.
The next wave of Microsoft’s staff cuts have surfaced, with the company axing 30 percent of its game testers as well as key staff behind Games For Windows Live.
The most senior member of staff known to be sent home is Chris Early, general Manager of Games For Windows Live. His departure has thrown into doubt how much the troubled enterprise will support the service, and how many job cuts will be made in that division.
Steve Gaynor is a designer at 2K Marin, working on BioShock 2. This article previous published on Steve's Fullbright blog.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I decided I wanted to make video games when I was nearing the end of my college career. I knew I wanted to get into design. Unfortunately, I didn't know how.
From the outside, Iron Lore Entertainment appeared to do everything right. The studio had the talent, the ideas and the ability to execute; qualities that culminated in the 2006 release of the PC role-playing game Titan Quest, a piece that earned Iron Lore a Game Developers Choice Award for best new studio.
But by February 19, 2008, Iron Lore was finished. The studio made a vague statement on its website saying that it was "unable to secure funding for its next project" and would disband.
Jane Jensen’s Gabriel Knight mysteries saw the light of day between 1993 and 1999, a volatile period in publisher Sierra’s chequered history. Among the best graphic adventures ever written, the mysteries melded classic detective noir with supernatural overtones.
Rise Of The Argonauts suffers from hubris. Not only does it openly ape the classical bloodshed of God Of War, but it tries to marry that game’s hacking and slashing to the measured storytelling of BioWare.
Microsoft confirmed to Edge on Friday the closure of its internal Aces Studio, which is responsible for the Flight Simulator series.
The closure comes just months after the September 2008 announcement that Microsoft would be shuttering another internal dev house, Ensemble Studios, known for Age of Empires and the upcoming Halo Wars strategy games.
Microsoft on Friday announced that Halo Wars has been completed, and is off to manufacturing. It's Ensemble Studios' final game.
The venerable creator of the Age of Empire series learned of its fate in September last year, when Microsoft announced it would be closing the internal development studio to shave costs, or as Microsoft put it, to "keep [Microsoft Game Studios] on its growth path."
While the UK has manifestly been in a downturn phase for the past six months, it was only today that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) could confirm that Britain is officially in recession.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) needs to fall in two successive quarters for a nation to be qualified as one in recession. And while everyone was expecting official government figures to show a second quarterly drop in GDP, few analysts had predicted a 1.5 percent fall from the last quarter. That figure represents the biggest three-month decline since 1980.
While the UK has manifestly been in a downturn phase for the past six months, it was only today that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) could confirm that Britain is officially in recession.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) needs to fall in two successive quarters for a nation to be qualified as one in recession. And while everyone was expecting official government figures to show a second quarterly drop in GDP, few analysts had predicted a 1.5 percent fall from the last quarter. That figure represents the biggest three-month decline since 1980.
Though a string of bad news from various developers and publishers has cast a bit of a dark cloud over the week, we all remain ravenous for entertainment. We can't get enough of it.
It’s why Edge will be updating the site over the weekend with two new articles.
ONE: An interview with Jane Jensen, writer of the applauded Gabriel Knight trilogy.
TWO: A review of Codemasters’ Rise of the Argonauts.
The PS3 has fallen short with hardcore gamers and will lose further market share in 2009, according to investment firm Cowen and Company.
On Friday, analyst Doug Creutz lowered his 2009 U.S. PS3 sales estimates to 4 million units, 2.25 million less than previous estimates. He also cut 2010 estimates to 4.5 million units, a decrease of 2 million.
Most of us claim real estate in one or more online communities.
Whether through a literal sense, such as the virtual land grabs in Second Life, or by achieving notoriety on a leader board, most of us have a stake in a virtual world. While nothing new, the rate at which we’ve devoted ourselves to these communities has exploded in recent years.
The collection of online services, from social networking sites to online gaming, has expanded the role that online communities play in our lives, and how we in turn, play in them.
Total hardware sales took another expected slump for the week ending Jan 18, this time dropping from 248,694 sales to reach 192,252; a decline of 23 percent.
The chart arrangement remains the same as it’s been for a number of weeks now, while the decline in weekly turnover is largely proportional to the total volume of sales for each console. The DSi, topping the chart with some 62,000 sales, has seen a weekly drop of around 16,000; while bottom of the next-gen list is the Xbox 360 (5,760), which saw sales drop by as little as 1,000.
Though the last few days has seen a string of staff cuts and studio closures, there remains an encouraging opportunity for other businesses to grow into the vacuums left behind.
That’s what distributor THQ Asia Pacific is thinking of doing, as the recent fall of Australia's Red Ant has given the business a chance to expand further.
Eidos has closed its Rockpool Games studio in Manchester, with fourteen of its staff made redundant.
Rockpool Games was acquired by Eidos in February 2007 as part of the publisher’s efforts to succeed in the browser and mobile games sector. It is not known if the 14 redundancies make up the entire studio’s workforce; when sold to Eidos, the Manchester studio had 36 staff members.
It’s the sound that hits you. Your chest trembles with subtle power far beyond that of the crude thud of bass in a club, and shrill notes ply the very limits of your hearing.
At least 200 workers at Vancouver’s Black Box studio have been made redundant, as its publisher EA continues plans to reduce its global workforce by ten percent. Black Box had some 350 staff at its studio before EA began the staff cuts.
As a nerd dressed up as a nuclear-powered, pest-controlling saviour of humanity, Harold Ramis played a good impostor in Ghostbusters. He plays a bad one in Ghostbusters: The Video Game – the actor cast in a role that no longer suits him.
EA and Maxis are about to expand the Spore franchise.
Publisher EA said Thursday that it plans to release Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore Creature Keeper, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena in 2009.
Galactic Adventures is an expansion pack to the September PC release of Spore, adding more content to the space section of the game, such as mission-based adventures and the option to create new adventures.
Paris, France-based Ubisoft touted software diversity as it announced on Thursday fiscal Q3 results that slightly beat sales guidance.
The publisher posted revenues for the quarter ended December 31 of €508 million, up 13 percent year-on-year, beating guidance of €500 million.
Ubisoft attributed the performance to "diversity and quality" within the holiday games lineup.
GameStop's used games business alone will rake in $2 billion this fiscal year, or 23 percent of total revenue, one analyst estimates.
The number is compared to $1.6 billion, or 22.4 percent a year ago. The retailer's fiscal year ends January 31.
Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin's Creed 2 and a new Ghost Recon title will be launching during the company's fiscal year 2009-2010, ending March 2010.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said durings a Thursday earnings call that Assassin's Creed 2 could be one of 2009's biggest titles, indicating that the company intends to launch the game by the end of the calendar year.
The original Assassin's Creed, released in 2007, "greatly outstripped" Ubisoft's sales expectations, selling 2.5 million units worldwide in just one month.
Microsoft confirmed Thursday that it would be cutting 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, with 1,400 to be eliminated immediately.
Cuts will be made across an array of departments including R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR and IT.
The cost-saving measures will reduce Microsoft's annual operating expense run rate by about $1.5 billion, and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million, the company said.
Microsoft currently employs over 94K workers worldwide.
Earnings