Dino Patti, CEO of Playdead, the independent Danish developer of downloadable hit Limbo, has said the retail model is "broken from a developer's point of view."
Speaking to Eurogamer at last weekend's GameCity6 festival in Nottingham, Patti called on platform holders to more fully embrace digital distribution in the next generation of consoles.
Three Frankfurt companies feature in this week's round-up. First up is Crytek, which is looking for a development manager to oversee the development of its upcoming Roman-themed Kinect brawler, Ryse. You'll need experience in product and people management, along with a passion for games, natch, and if you've got a background in any aspect of development, all the better. Find all Crytek's vacancies here.
Valve writer Chet Faliszek has admitted that the company delayed the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive multiplayer beta following feedback from professional players who have been helping test the game.
Dancing is optional in Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove: Monster Mix, but that’s hardly surprising. Most Wii rhythm action games simplify their inputs to the point where you can play them by just sitting back on a sofa and shaking the remote gently to the beat. What’s surprising is that rhythm is also optional. During some of the later levels, you might get a slightly higher score by moving in time with the music rather than just swinging your arm in endless circles, but the difference will likely be measured in a single point or two.
Ubisoft appears unlikely to release its newly announced social games on Google+ due to a decline in active users on Google's social network.
WayForward’s cultish charmer makes the hop from DSiWare to iOS by breaking a couple of rules. Firstly, it runs inside a tacky blue border, most likely due to fuzzy SD art assets that were initially designed with Nintendo’s lower-resolution screen in mind. Secondly, it bundles the paid version together with the free demo, requiring a mildly intrusive in-app purchase once the adventure is really starting to get moving. Stick with it, though.
A new Humble Bundle, the Humble Voxatron Debut, has launched, the third Wolfire Games pay-what-you-want indie promotion to launch in 2011.
This time just one game is included: Voxatron, a voxel-based platformer-shooter with support for user-generated content, released in a Minecraft-like alpha state, with those buying the game guaranteed access to all of developer Lexaloffle's future content updates.
Id Software co-founder John Carmack has revealed that the release of the Doom 3 source code is fast approaching.
In a Tweet, Carmack said: "Doom 3 source is packaged and tested, we are waiting on final lawyer clearance for release."
Amy Hennig, creative director at Uncharted developer Naughty Dog, has justified the linearity of the series.
Speaking to Gametrailers ahead of the North American release of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception today - it debuts in Europe tomorrow - Hennig said that branching level paths or dialogue trees could not be added to Uncharted without compromising the strength of its narrative.
Battlefield 3 has sold five million copies to consumers in its first week of availability, according to internal estimates from Electronic Arts, making it the fastest-selling game in the publisher’s history.
EA revealed on the eve of the game’s US launch last Tuesday that almost three million pre-orders had been placed for the DICE-developed shooter, while ten million units were shipped to retail globally in time for its European release three days later.
Too Human developer Silicon Knights has cut its workforce from 97 to 25 employees, according to sources reportedly close to the Ontario-based studio.
"Silicon Knights has had massive layoffs,” 1UP was informed. “They are now down to a core staff of 25 people." Another source added: "It may interest you to note that SK laid off all but 25 employees today."
Launched in 1999, YoYo Games’ development environment GameMaker shares much of Unity’s spirit in its remit to democratise game creation. But GameMaker simplifies things further by providing a drag-and-drop interface option that removes the coding portion of development entirely.
EA says the issues affecting Battlefield 3's online component since its launch last week are all but fixed.
As we reported last week, the Xbox 360 version was the hardest hit, with server connectivity problems when the game launched in North America last Tuesday and again following the game's midnight launch in Europe on Friday.
Mobile monetisation and analytics firm Tapjoy is to launch an iOS software marketplace of its own, though it insists it is not doing so to escape Apple's new advertising policies.
Epic Games has released the October build of its Unreal Development Kit (UDK), with new features, including Facebook integration, now available to iOS developers.
Developers can now enable their games to make Facebook wall posts, download friends lists, and request additional permissions from users. The Kismet scripting tool has been updated to support touch, tilt and other inputs.
Foliage and landscape tools have also been improved, as have particle emitters, and several updates have been made to the Unreal Editor. For the full list of changes, follow the source link below.
Angry Birds is now the most copied brand in China, but it seems developer Rovio doesn't mind at all.
Speaking at the Disrupt conference in Beijing, CEO Peter Vesterbacka said the widespread availability of unlicensed Angry Birds merchandise proved that there was a sufficiently large audience in the country to justify Rovio's Chinese expansion.
Microsoft plans to launch a commercial version of its Kinect SDK early next year, giving businesses the opportunity to create their own software to make us of the device's unique capabilities.
Microsoft product manager David Dennis told Gamasutra that over 200 brands across 25 countries have signed up for the programme. While most remain anonymous for the time being to avoid tipping off competitors, Toyota and marketing agency Razorfish are among those confirmed to be involved.
For a long time, the game industry functioned on a predictable model that changed little over the years. A game was developed over a long period of time, then went gold and was handed off to a publishing team tasked with launching and marketing it as effectively as possible. Efforts then shifted to the next game, and the process started anew, becoming more refined with every product cycle.
Developer and tools company YoYo Games has warned against the current push towards browser-based 3D gaming, questioning its value when compared to less asset-heavy 2D games.
“I’m personally bamboozled by why anyone would be excited about playing a big 3D experience in a browser, because why not just do it as a standalone game?” YoYo Games CEO Sandy Duncan tells us during an interview.
Battlefield 3 tops the UK all-formats chart in its first week on sale.
DICE's EA-published shooter enjoyed the tenth-best launch sales of all time, beating the combined sales of all previous entries in the series.
The news means last week's number one, Batman: Arkham City, falls to second place, its sales dropping 52 per cent week on week, with FIFA 12 also slipping a place to third.
Minecraft has won the GameCity Prize 2011, becoming the first-ever recipient of the award at the annual Nottingham festival.
Swedish developer Mojang's beloved indie sandbox was given the award - which recognises artistic, rather than financial success - at a ceremony on Saturday. It was selected by a panel including South Bank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly OBE, musician Nitin Sawhney and Labour MP Tom Watson. Other finalists included Ilomilo, Superbrothers: Sword And Sworcery EP, Child Of Eden, Pokémon Black, Limbo and Portal 2.
Capcom will release on-rails Wii shooters Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles for PlayStation 3.
The company made the announcement at an event to celebrate the series' 15th anniversary according to Andriasang. The games, released for Wii in 2007 and 2009 respectively, will be released totgether in HD with Move support.
Suda 51's Grasshopper Manufacture studio is to form a dedicated social games company with DeNa, owner of hugely popular Japanese mobile social network Mobage.
The company, provisionally named Grasshopper Social Network Service, will develop mobile games exclusively for Gree, with Grasshopper to transfer its existing mobile operations to the new company and DeNa to provide funding.
Sega Sammy's latest financial results show declines across the board, with revenue down by almost a third and profits falling 83.7 per cent.
Sales revenue for the six months to September 30 was ¥152.6 billion (£1.25 billion), with net income falling from ¥24.3 billion this time last year to ¥3.9 billion (£32.6 billion).
