Troubled retailer Game Group has this morning confirmed the loss of 46 jobs at its Basingstoke headquarters.
The UK's largest specialist videogame retailer told MCV that the cuts were part of a restructuring drive. One of those leaving is Dave Hughes, who oversaw the relaunch of Game's website and will officially depart in March.
For the first Flipper, designer Hugo Smits built a voxel engine that worked on the DS, and used it to power a series of simple obstacle course challenges that took place across a destructible environment. For the sequel, the Dutch developer has dropped all that and turned in an arcade platformer depressingly reminiscent of Ninjadoodle’s One Button Bob. All told, it’s a disappointing creative trajectory.
Double Fine founder Tim Schafer has said that he wants to make a sequel to 2005 platformer Psychonauts.
"I would love to do Psychonauts 2, I've actually pitched that to publishers several times and no-one has taken the bait so far," Schafer told Digital Spy. "So it is hard because fans don't often know how the business works, with the difference between a developer and a publisher, it's hard to explain that.
If you're a fan of Introversion's Defcon, how about taking things one step further? AWE (Atomic Weapons Establishment) is responsible for maintaining the UK's nuclear deterrent and supporting national nuclear security.
Tiny Tower, the iOS resource management sim developed by three-man indie studio Nimblebit, has been downloaded ten million times, the developer has announced.
The milestone was revealed on Twitter by Nimblebit's Ian Marsh. "To celebrate Tiny Tower reaching 10 million iOS downloads," he writes, "we're giving away over 10 million Tower Bux to players."
I've been thinking about virtual goods again. They've been big news for a while now. A quick Google search - I mean, my well-honed legal mind - reminds me, for example, that the US virtual goods market is forecast to hit $2.9 billion in 2012.
A designer at Saints Row The Third developer Volition has welcomed reports that Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor will include some kind of anti-used game system, saying such a measure would be "a fantastic change for our business."
Microsoft's free-to-play reboot of the Flight Sim series, Microsoft Flight, is out of beta and will be released on February 29.
Apple has removed a host of cloned games from the iOS App Store, all of which are apparently the work of a single developer.
The games, developed by Anton Sinelnkov, had instantly familiar names, including Plant Vs Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, and Temple Jump. In a tweet, iOS developer David Smith noted that last week Sinelnikov had 68 apps on the store; at the time of writing, that has fallen to nine.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Event organiser David Hayward’s vision for Bit Of Alright, his latest gathering of London’s vibrant indie development community following last year’s World of Love, was that it would be a conference unlike any other.
Ben Cousins, general manager of Ngmoco Sweden, believes that the recent spate of mobile game cloning is "a blip" that will be eradicated as development budgets increase.
Speaking to us ahead of his keynote address at the inaugural F2P Summit in London next month, Cousins tells us that cloning simply won't be an option as the sector matures and companies are forced to ramp up production values to ensure their games stand out.
Japanese mobile gaming company Gree has announced that profits during the final three months of 2011 more than trebled year on year.
Net income during the period, the second quarter of Gree's fiscal year, rose 206 per cent year on year to ¥12.7 billion (£105.7 million), while net sales revenue totalled ¥41.5 billion (£344.6 million), an increase of 190 per cent.
Electronic Arts has confirmed a "small number" of staff at its Vancouver studios have been laid off.
The company says the job losses, which are believed to have hit both EA Canada and Need For Speed: The Run developer Black Box, were necessary as the publisher continues its shift in focus towards digital. In 2011, EA's digital revenues exceeded a billion dollars for the first time.
Nintendo's 3DS was the dominant force at Japanese retail last month, its games occupying the top three spots and half of the top ten overall.
Leading the pack was Mario Kart 7, with sales of 388,760 units between December 26 and January 29, according to Enterbrain data passed along by Andriasang.
Square Enix's profit during the nine months ending December 31 rose 175.2 per cent year on year, to just over ¥5 billion (£41.6 million).
Ricky Haggett of Honeyslug, the developer of Vita debut Frobisher Says, puzzle game Kahoots and many more, is angry about Capcom's Ghost Trick. Having been playing its newly released iOS port, he's infuriated by its incessant explanatory text boxes.
Screen Yorkshire has announced a new £15 million content fund, which it will invest in games, film, TV and digital creative works produced in the region.
Half of the Yorkshire Content Fund comes from the European Regional Development Fund, set up by the European Commission to stimulate regional economic development. The remainder will be provided by private sector investors.
Sony's online service PlayStation Network will this week be renamed Sony Entertainment Network, as the company begins to consolidate all its online operations under one name.
The switch, which Sony says is "a change in name only" which will make it "clearer and easier" for users to access all Sony services with a single account, takes place tomorrow.
Sony's online service PlayStation Network will this week be renamed Sony Entertainment Network, as the company begins to consolidate all its online operations under one name.
The switch, which Sony says is "a change in name only" which will make it "clearer and easier" for users to access all Sony services with a single account, takes place tomorrow.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the new UK number one, the Square Enix RPG ending FIFA 12's five-week dominance of the all-formats software chart.
In a busy week for new releases, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection enters the chart at number two, with Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur V, fittingly, making its debut at number five. FIFA 12 slips to fourth, while Battlefield 3 climbs two places to number three.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the new UK number one, the Square Enix RPG ending FIFA 12's five-week dominance of the all-formats software chart.
In a busy week for new releases, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection enters the chart at number two, with Namco Bandai's Soul Calibur V, fittingly, making its debut at number five. FIFA 12 slips to fourth, while Battlefield 3 climbs two places to number three.
Outside of Heavily Armed Compound.
You are standing in a smouldering field of wreckage before a heavily armed compound. To the east, south, north, and west, invisible walls have sprung up. A tree with low branches stands nearby. There is a leaflet resting on the ground.
>read leaflet
“Welcome to ZORKWAR, a text-based secondperson adventure game of running, hiding, shooting, and further running.”
>climb tree
Only 13,000 of the 30,000 gamers who signed up fulfilled a pledge to spend the weekend playing Half-Life 2 in protest at Valve's lack of communication about Half-Life 3.
Kotaku reports that, while the number of those playing Valve's classic FPS fell far short of what was expected, it still exceeded the game's normal Steam activity by 10,000 players.