With US ratings body ESRB slapping a mature label on EA's upcoming COD-contender Battlefield 3, the company issued one of the more blunt - and hilarious - statements of response in recent times: "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," an EA spokesperson told Eurogamer. "For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!"
A pamphlet circulated at a Sony sales briefing in Japan has detailed how PSP owners will be able to continue playing their UMD collection on Vita. News of the pamphlet came from a Japanese retailer who claimed to be in attendance at the event.
Following the report, Sony development chief Yoshio Matsumoto revealed that Sony is considering offering a service which would allow owners of the UMD version of a game to download it again at a discounted price.
Web games are now far from an amateur concern. Once the scene was fuelled by dabblers, collecting under the banner of Flash to tease out the capabilities of a new technology. Now a fulsome economy has grown, allowing indie talent to blossom into professional concerns, while maintaining a good deal of creative freedom. In this second instalment of our weeklong series on Flash, we examine just how this unique arrangement came to be, detail the deals being cut, and discover what sort of sums are exchanging hands.
Following in the footsteps of the Humble Indie Bundle, a group of mobile developers have created their own iOS charity bundle. The Corona Indie Bundle includes five games created using Ansca Mobile's SDK, Corona, and costs 69p.
17 per cent of the proceeds from every sale will be split between three charities: Bliss, Child's Play and Dispensario de Managua.
In a post on its forums, BioWare has detailed how Mass Effect 3's four-player co-op will work following the confirmation of its existence yesterday.
According to community co-ordinator Chris Priestly, the co-op missions will have a "direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory”.
Gameforge, one of Germany's leading free-to-play publishers, has appointed Seth Iorio as chief operating officer. Iorio was formerly executive director of Gameforge subsidiary Frogster, and prior to that Gameforge vice president of business development.
Speaking on BBC Two current affairs programme Newsnight, the UK's minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey tonight called for a revolution in computer science education akin to that which occured in the '80s.
Speaking on BBC Two current affairs programme Newsnight, the UK's minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey tonight called for a revolution in computer science education akin to that which occured in the '80s.
Bethesda vice president Pete Hines has responded to Minecraft creator Notch's comments regarding the ongoing trademark dispute between Zenimax and Mojang.
Bethesda issued a trademark claim back in August regarding Mojang's upcoming project, Scrolls.
Ofcom is investigating ITV's use of footage taken from Bohemia Interactive's Arma 2 in its documentary on the IRA, Exposure - Gaddafi and the IRA, according to the Guardian. ITV blamed "human error" for the inclusion of the Arma 2 footage, described during the programme as real IRA film from 1988.
Ofcom is investigating ITV's use of footage taken from Bohemia Interactive's Arma 2 in its documentary on the IRA, Exposure - Gaddafi and the IRA, according to the Guardian. ITV blamed "human error" for the inclusion of the Arma 2 footage, described during the programme as real IRA film from 1988.
"Oh, I love bad game systems! I think you can learn just as much about game design from seeing all the bad stuff as you can by looking at the good stuff. There’s a good research paper right in there: Why are those Zelda games for the CD-i so bad? What is it—about the gameplay, about the controller, about the system, whatever—that made it completely unsuited for trying to do that sort of game?"
UK trade body UKIE and think-tank DEMOS have issued a report that claims starting a businesses in the creative industries is a significantly less risky investment than doing so in the majority of other business sectors.
The report, titled Risky Business, finds that start-ups in the creative industries enjoy average survival rates of 49.7 per cent five years from birth, whereas businesses in other areas of the economy see only 46.9 per cent.
Few technologies have been declared dead quite as often as Flash. But instead of withering into obsolescence, collapsing under the competition or being devalued by the rise of the mobile market, Flash remains a fulcrum of indie dev talent and one of videogames' most vibrant creative scenes.
Nintendo has announced that it will release a blue Wii on November 18 in the UK. The newly configured console - which drops backwards compatibility - will be bundled with Sega's Mario And Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games. Nintendo has said that it will announce more bundles this autumn.
Gaijin Games has revealed its latest project, Runner 2: Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien. Headed for XBLA and PSN, Runner 2 is the first sequel to emerge from the Bit Trip series and introduces HD visuals, new abilities for main character Commander Video and more playable characters. The biggest departure for the previously Wii- and 3DS-only rhythm-action platformer, however, is the new art style which abandons the series' 8-bit aesthetic for a more cartoony look hinted at on the game's blog.
Rudolf Kremers, lead designer of indie game Eufloria, has claimed that it is "impossible" for independent game makers to self-publish through Xbox Live Arcade. Kremers, who founded media production company Omni Systems, highlighted the absence of any equivalent to Sony's Pub Fund - a cash reserve used to help indies publish their work - from Microsoft.
Sony Ericsson is offering four free EA games to all Xperia Play customers. The line-up consists of: Dead Space, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Need For Speed Shift and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. Handset owners should be able to find the free games in their Game Launchers ready to download, but can also scan the QR code on the offer website. The offer expires on January 15, 2012.
Bethesda has released a PC patch for id's FPS Rage which fixes a number of driver-related bugs and adds new advanced graphics settings.
Bethesda has released a PC patch for id's FPS Rage which fixes a number of driver-related bugs and adds new advanced graphics settings.
Mass Effect 3 will indeed have an online multiplayer component - a feature that has been rumoured for some time now - according to Australian magazine PC PowerPlay.
The game was initially revealed at the VGA awards in December last year, while Kinect support was announced at E3 in June.
UK videogame industry charity GamesAid has opened 2011's voting round for members to select which charities will receive shares of the funds it has raised this year. The five charities that receive the most votes will each receive an equal share of the funds to a maximum of £20,000 per charity, while any excess funds will be distributed to the next highest voted for charities - again, to a maximum of £20,000.
Shadowgun comes perilously close to being a game you might actually want to play. It grinds surprisingly detailed visuals and animation from the Unity engine (albeit at the cost of some obvious limitations in terms of particle effects and enemy numbers) and it does a fairly decent job of convincing you that thirdperson cover shooters can work well controlled through the touchscreen of an iOS device. Sadly, Madfinger’s evident technical flair is almost entirely lacking when it comes to level design, weapon design, and – well, pretty much any kind of design, really.
FIFA 12 remains number one in the UK all-formats software chart despite a week of high-profile new releases. While second week unit sales dropped by 68 per cent, EA's release still managed to claim 13th in the all-time weekly unit sales chart (last week's debut was the third-biggest launch week in history).
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has been appointed shadow minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, in opposition to current conservative minister Ed Vaizey.
Along with Harman, the cabinet reshuffle has also seen MP Tom Watson, a proponent of the UK game industry and tax relief, promoted to deputy party chair and campaign co-ordinator, while Chuka Umunna - who has been on Labour's benches for less than 18 months - has quickly risen to the position of shadow secretary of state for business, innovation and skills.