Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 3, will serve as CEO of developer DICE for around four months while Karl-Magnus Troedsson is on paternity leave.
While EU regulations only guarantee two weeks of paid leave for new fathers, the Swedish studio encourages its staff to spend longer at home with newborn children, MCV Nordic reports. Bach believes more videogame companies should follow DICE's lead.
New old games, today: dozens of them, in fact, in the form of some witty variations on a theme. The theme in question is one of videogames’ true elders, too - an Atari classic that once bore the legend, “Avoid missing ball for high score.” Now it arrives with a brisk shout of, “CLICK TO PONG”. Dr Pippin Barr has reworked the original arcade super-hit, then, and the results are amusing, surprising, and uncommonly playable, too.
Valve has revealed that it is working on some kind of hardware of its own, by advertising for an electronics engineer to work on "input, output, and platform hardware."
The US videogame market declined 25 per cent year on year last month, according to data released by NPD Group.
Total spend on new hardware, software and accessories at US retail came to $1.1 billion, a decline of $370 million from the previous year. The biggest decline was in hardware sales, which fell 35 per cent; software sales fell by a quarter and accessories were down 8 per cent.
Our May issue, which is on sale now, features reviews, along with Post Script articles, on all the biggest games including Trials Evolution, Ridge Racer Unbounded and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.
Shigeru Miyamoto has told us he would like to make a new Legend Of Zelda game "based on, or starting from" SNES classic A Link To The Past.
Shigeru Miyamoto has told us he would like to make a new Legend Of Zelda game "based on, or starting from" SNES classic A Link To The Past.
Xbox 360 players of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will soon be able to control the game using voice commands using the Kinect sensor, Bethesda has confirmed.
Due in a patch later this month, Kinect support will mean players can use voice commands for dragon shouts, hotkey equipping, giving instructions to followers, and navigating all of the game's menus.
Well, that didn't last long. Mere hours after Namco Bandai responded to players' demands and announced a PC port of Dark Souls, much of the good feeling has evaporated with the news that the game will use Microsoft's widely loathed Games For Windows Live service.
ZeniMax Media, parent company of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim developer Bethesda, has filed a number of trademarks as it seeks to shore up the rights to the game's dragon shout, "Fus Ro Dah."
Spotted by Fusible, ZeniMax has submitted six different trademark filings to the USPTO, covering everything from games and strategy guides to glasses cases, bags, clothing, bobble-head dolls and trading cards.
Our June issue, which goes on sale May 9, features reviews and extensive Post Script articles for all the biggest games, including Dragon's Dogma, Diablo III, Fez and Awesomenauts.
Here's our first look at Namco Bandai's English-language localisation of stunning PS3 RPG Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch.
Sadly, it comes with news that the US release of Level 5's collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli has been delayed to 2013, meaning it's now due at the same time as the European localisation.
Online registration has begun for this year's Develop conference in Brighton.
Now in its seventh year, this year's conference takes place from July 10-12, and six different pass options are available. Delegates can save up to £160 in a super early bird promotion by booking before April 30; standard early bird rates apply until June 13.
Talismanic Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto has lavished praise upon Angry Birds, telling us Rovio's mobile smash is his favourite game of the past year.
Miyamoto admitted the high regard in which he holds Rovio's game, which has been downloaded over 600 million times, during an interview in Paris yesterday.
At first, The Splatters feels as if it’s landed on the wrong platform. This is, after all, a dynamic physics puzzler that has learned clear lessons from iOS hits such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope. With short levels waiting to be three-starred, simple, high-colour aesthetics and a familiar, elasticated control scheme that’s perfectly designed for a finger and a touchscreen, it cuts a strange figure among the mini-epics crowding XBLA.
Sony has confirmed claims from earlier this week that it is to cut 10,000 jobs over the next fiscal year in a bid to end a five-year run of losses.
Announced in a lengthy statement outlining Sony's strategy for growth under new CEO Kaz Hirai, the layoffs will form part of a restructure which, Sony admits, will cost it ¥75 billion - more than £580 million at current exchange rates.
Namco Bandai has confirmed plans to release a PC version of From Software’s masterful open-world RPG Dark Souls, while its PS3 exclusive spiritual predecessor Demon’s Souls will go offline two and a half years after its release.
EA has yet to officially announce Crysis 3, but the publisher let the cat out of the bag today when it emerged that its digital distribution service Origin was carrying box art for the game and listings for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
The title is officially set to be revealed next week, but one leak led to another and a number of ‘first details’ reports, mainly emanating from Eastern Europe, soon hit the net. Leaked artwork (below) depicts a Nanosuit clad protagonist drawing a futuristic bow and arrow, standing against the backdrop of a city environment.
Weekly Japanese Vita sales dipped below 10,000 units for the first time in the week ending April 8.
Sales declined from 12,105 units the previous week to 8,931, a poor showing reflected in the top 20 software sales chart, which features no Vita entries.
3DS remained the top-selling system, moving 72,115 units, down 50,000 week-over-week, while PS3 and PSP held second and third places, shifting 19,370 units and 14,804 respectively.
Inspired by the livestream of Markus "Notch" Persson creating his Ludum Dare 48 entry Prelude Of The Chambered, Delver is a firstperson 3D Rogue-like with a nice line in ambient lighting and some disarmingly charming monsters.
Dungeons are randomly generated, and there are already several player classes (rogue, warrior and wizard) to choose from along with a selection of weapons ranging from short range daggers to long range (but ammo-limited) "fire wands".
Cloud gaming service Gaikai has launched the beta version of its Facebook app, allowing users of the world's biggest social network to play console-quality videogames, in their browsers, without leaving the website.
Game Focus, one of central London's last indie videogame shops, has closed its doors.
The Huffington Post spotted that the shutters had been dropped on the store, based in Goodge Street off Tottenham Court Road, with the heartfelt message, below, taped to the inside of a window.
"As one of the last indie retro and import stores in London, we held on and fought as long as we could," it reads. "It is a sad day."
UK trade association TIGA has outlined its vision for Games Tax Relief, calling on the UK game industry for its input as it prepares to help government hammer out the details of the tax break announced by chancellor George Osborne last month.
Our June issue, which goes on sale May 9, features a Post Script interview with the creators of Fez.
A lovely video for a spring day: "A 9 year old boy - who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad's used auto part store - is about to have the best day of his life."