UK education secretary Michael Gove has today announced that the coalition government is to scrap the current ICT (information and communications technology) component in the national curriculum from September, a move which will see computer science return to the nation's classrooms.
Read previous parts in our account of Hogrocket's rise here.
It is, inevitably, a compromise. Vlambeer’s furiously-paced PC indie was always going to be a imperfect fit for touchscreen controls, and, despite the best attempts of The Blocks Cometh developer Halfbot, so it proves. After a period of acclimatisation, they’re manageable, but never feel as comfortable as you would wish, the fire button never quite where your thumb expects it to be. On an iPhone or iPod Touch, it suffers more than most from digits obscuring the lower half of the display. And somehow, all of this seems to matter very little.
Tetris had been downloaded over 132 million times on mobile devices by the time EA launched this latest rework of Alexei Pajitnov's classic on the App Store. The principal addition here is a single-touch control scheme that shows an outline of several possible shape placements; simply tap where you want the block to fall and it does so straight away.
Indie physics puzzler World Of Goo has been downloaded over a million times from Apple's App Store, developer 2D Boy has announced.
Kaz Hirai has poured cold water on claims that Sony is to unveil a new home console at this year's E3.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal Hirai, president of Sony's Consumer Products And Services Group, said that recent reports claiming the PlayStation 3 successor would be unveiled at the Los Angeles trade show in June were wide of the mark.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK has confirmed plans to shut Leamington Spa-based Bigbig Studios and restructure Cambridge Studio.
Bigbig is to be closed following its recent completion of Vita launch title Little Deviants. The studio previously developed Pursuit Force and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge for PSP.
Rage developer id Software has laid off an undisclosed number of staff as it restructures its development team to "meet the needs of the studio," parent company Bethesda Softworks has confirmed.
In a statement issued to Joystiq, Bethesda said the staff cuts were made following a regular internal evaluation at Dallas-based id.
Wii sales surpassed 30 million units in Europe during the week ended December 25, 2011, Nintendo said today.
Somewhat bizarrely, the milestone figure was announced in a press release trumpeting the fact that the Wii Balance Board has been awarded a Guinness World Record for becoming the best-selling personal weighing device, after consumers snapped up over 32 million units worldwide between launch and November 2010.
Record Christmas sales have led Ubisoft to increase its third quarter and full year sales forecasts.
The company now expects to report third quarter sales of €650 million, up approximately eight per cent from the €600 million recorded during the same period a year ago, and significantly higher than its prior guidance of €580 - €620 million.
Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that long-awaited PC action-RPG Diablo III will also be coming to consoles.
The company's community manager responded to a fan query on Twitter with the words: "Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project."
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be released in the UK for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on May 25, publisher Ubisoft has announced.
Gaikai has announced a partnership with Korean electronics firm LG that will make cloud gaming possible on Smart TVs without the need for a connected console.
The deal, announced this afternoon in a press release, will see Gaikai's open cloud technology integrated in LG's Cinema 3D range of Smart TVs, beginning with models produced this year.
The Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the Main Competition finalists for this year's awards.
Taking place from March 5 to 9 in San Francisco, California, it will be IGF's 14th year.
The finalists were selected by discipline-specific juries based on recommendations from 200 independent game experts.
Cloud gaming service OnLive has further expanded its reach today by announcing OnLive Desktop, a free app which brings Microsoft Windows to Apple's iPad.
The company says OnLive Desktop is the first "no-compromise" Windows experience on iPad, which will give full access to Windows 7 applications including Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The app offers multi-touch recognition, a full on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition.
The Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York is looking for an outstanding individual with an international reputation in interactive media to spearhead its new research programme and BSc course. The university is particularly keen to hear from those who've worked in game design and development. Find all University of York's jobs here.
UK minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey has warned that the notion of computer science becoming compulsory in UK schools remains an "open question."
UK retailer Game Group insists it will return to growth and is "well-prepared" for a year in which at least two new consoles will be released, despite sales over the Christmas period dropping by almost 15 per cent.
The company has revealed that total sales for the eight weeks to January 7 fell 14.7 per cent year on year across the group, with like-for-like sales - which remove the impact of store closures - down 12.9 per cent.
PSP successor PlayStation Vita has sold 500,000 units since its launch in Japan on December 17, Sony has announced.
The US-Iranian citizen reportedly sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court yesterday over charges linking him to CIA-funded spying previously worked for Kuma Reality Games.
In a televised "confession" broadcast on state television, former US marine Amir Mizra Hekmati allegedly admitted to spying on Iran, while in a written statement said that the CIA paid him to develop games designed to spread pro-US propaganda.
Bethesda Softworks has regained the rights to the proposed Fallout MMOG from Interplay in a deal worth $2 million.
In a press release, the publisher's parent company ZeniMax Media reveals that the rights were acquired under the terms of a settlement reached last month that brought down the curtain on a protracted legal battle with Interplay.
The delayed Call Of Duty: Elite app has finally been released for iPhone, Activision has announced.
The stat-tracking, social service launched alongside Modern Warfare 3 on November 8, but after it buckled under the weight of demand Activision delayed both the PC and iPhone launches.
Despite hopeful speculation to the contray, no new hardware was announced at Microsoft's keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last night. Instead, the company said Xbox 360 was "changing" and highlighted its new-found strengths as an all-purpose media box, powered by Kinect, with heavy emphasis on Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Windows 8.
Microsoft has sold more than 66 million Xbox 360s, and over 18 million units of the Kinect motion sensor.
New York venture capital firm Insight Venture has increased its stake in Jagex Games Studio from 35 per cent to 55 per cent, effectively transferring control of the RuneScape developer from the UK to the US.
Jagex co-founder Andrew Gower is believed to have earned millions by selling his ownership of the business to Insight last year, but the impact of the controlling purchase on company equity has only now been declared.