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July 25, 2011

Major devs sign up for Mobage

The Japanese mobile social network was rebranded earlier this year ahead of a proposed western push, and now DeNa has enlisted the services of several high-profile developers. The company's Super Creators programme will see Keiji Inafune's Comcept studio release an action game called JJ Rockets; Suda51 of Grasshopper make a No More Heroes spin-off; and Yuji Naka's Prope release a game which, according to Andriasang, will "use positional information and has growth and adventure elements." Yoshifumi Hashimoto of Marvelous Entertainment will release a game based on Harvest Moon, and Noritaka Funamizu, who worked for Capcom on games in the Street Fighter series before setting up his own studio, Crafts & Meister, in 2004, will be working on a game called Nama-ge. The games will all be published by AQ Interactive, with Harvest Moon and No More Heroes the first to be released this winter.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/07/25/mobage_super_creators/
Andriasang


Call Of Juarez: The Cartel review

Techland's modern day take on the Wild West could be a cult game, but not for the right reasons.

The Call Of Juarez series has always been inclined 
to the dramatic, casting players as tortured souls with unwelcome destinies: brothers torn apart by petty jealousies against the backdrop of the American Civil War, or a preacher hunting down a wrongly accused American Indian. Call Of Juarez: The Cartel is about three law-enforcement officials putting aside 
the inter-departmental bullshit to get the job done.

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The Art Of Computer Game Design now on Kindle

Chris Crawford's classic 1982 text is now available on Kindle. Even today, it's still a fantastic survey of the art, science and philosophy of game design - at $3.44 / £2.14 how can you say no? (OK, it's been freely available as a PDF for ages, but it's nice to have a chance to support the author.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0052QA5WU
Amazon


Zumba Fitness on top again

Workout title makes it six straight weeks at the top despite challenge from Call Of Juarez.

505 Games' Zumba Fitness is once again the UK all-formats number one - the sixth successive week, and the ninth since its release last November that the workout title has occupied top spot.

The game's success shows no signs of slowing: indeed, according to UKIE, its sales rose five per cent last week, ensuring it saw off the challenge of the newly released Call Of Juarez: The Cartel.

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Lodsys widens scope of app lawsuit

The US firm whose legal action against mobile developers prompted the intervention of Apple has widened the scope of its lawsuit over infringement of patents covering in-app purchasing. While one developer - Vietnamese studio Wulven Games - has been dropped from the lawsuit, five more, far-higher profile companies have been added. Rovio is named for Angry Birds, Electronic Arts for The Sims 3, Atari for Atari's Greatest Hits, Square Enix for Big Hit Baseball, and Take-Two for NHL 2K11. Lodsys is clearly not intimidated by big companies: it is also suing the likes of HP, Adidas and The New York Times.
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/07/lodsys-sues-rovio-over-angry-birds-for.html
Foss Patents


Microsoft: quality justifies XBLA price hike

Portfolio director pleased that Xbox 360's download service bucks "race to zero" trend; remains evasive on microtransaction support.

Microsoft has admitted that the average price of Xbox Live Arcade games is on the rise, with more new games costing 1200 Microsoft Points (MSP) than ever before, but believes the increase is justified by a rise in quality of games available on the service.

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Microsoft: quality justifies XBLA price hike

Portfolio director pleased that Xbox 360's download service bucks "race to zero" trend; remains evasive on microtransaction support.

Microsoft has admitted that the average price of Xbox Live Arcade games is on the rise, with more new games costing 1200 Microsoft Points (MSP) than ever before, but believes the increase is justified by a rise in quality of games available on the service.

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Report: Games coming to Google+

Google has been rumoured to be branching out into games for some time now, but Slash Gear spotted what appears to be the first official confirmation of the search giant's intent. Though it has since been removed, a line on a Google+ help page read: "If you're looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream."
http://www.slashgear.com/google-games-stream-confirmed-22166802/
Slash Gear


Epic admits Unreal neglect

Speaking to Industry Gamers, Epic Games president Mike Capps admitted the Unreal franchise had been ignored while the company focused its efforts on the Gears Of War series - and that he personally would like to see Unreal return. "It's been a long time since we shipped an Unreal game, and it's an awfully loved franchise that we hold pretty dear here," he said. "We haven't been giving it the attention it deserves because we've been focusing on Gears Of War and we're still a relatively small company. We've been sort of focused on making new properties, which you've seen with Shadow Complex, BulletStorm and Infinity Blade, but sometimes I think just as a businessman that maybe we should be spending some more time with our existing franchises."
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/unreal-hasnt-gotten-attention-it-deserves-admits-epic/
Industry Gamers


July 23, 2011

News round-up July 18-22

Apple’s unstoppable growth, the Develop conference and Yoshinori Ono in a dress - the key stories from a week in videogames.

Monday

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July 22, 2011

Microsoft sued over Kinect

Patent Arcade reports that Ohio firm Impulse Technology has brought action against Microsoft, alleging that Xbox 360 motion sensor Kinect is in violation of seven of its patents. Six of those cover a "system and method for tracking and assessing movement skills in multidimensional space," with the other describing an "education system challenging a subject's physiologic and kinesthetic systems to surgistically enhance cognitive function." Impulse claims it informed Microsoft in advance of the filing that its patents cover "a wide variety of games where the movement of a player is tracked in three dimensions ... and certain exercise games where the motion of the player is tracked to effect movement of a virtual avatar, and the exertion of the user is monitored, including where the tracking of the player is done by use of a camera." EA, Sega and Konami have also been named in the suit, with Impulse seeking damages, costs, interest and a permanent injunction.
http://www.patentarcade.com/2011/07/new-case-microsoft-sued-over-kinect-and.html
Patent Arcade


Gareth Wilson: the economics of new IP

The former Bizarre Creations design manager gives an economist's view of why new ideas fail to sell.

During his talk, Why Great Games Don't Always Sell, at the Develop conference in Brighton yesterday, Gareth Wilson drew on his time as design manager of Bizarre Creations and his background in economics to give a fascinating assessment of why new IPs are struggling at retail.

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Mick Hocking on 3D and virtual reality

The Worldwide Studios boss tells us why Sony is leading the 3D charge.

In his keynote at this year's Develop conference, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios senior director Mick Hocking looked back at a year in which the third place became the third dimension as 3D games arrived on PlayStation 3. We caught up with him at the event to discuss what 3D really adds to games, the importance of tuning it properly and why virtual reality really will take off this time.

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Mick Hocking on 3D and virtual reality

The Worldwide Studios boss tells us why Sony is leading the 3D charge.

In his keynote at this year's Develop conference, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios senior director Mick Hocking looked back at a year in which the third place became the third dimension as 3D games arrived on PlayStation 3. We caught up with him at the event to discuss what 3D really adds to games, the importance of tuning it properly and why virtual reality really will take off this time.

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The Friday Game: Untris

Chris Donlan on a fantastic puzzle remix in which you must deal with the aftermath of a botched game of Tetris.

2011 has been a pretty good year for fans of entropy, and for anyone with natural – or unnatural - gifts for reverse engineering. LA Noire’s already inverted GTA, putting you at the other end of a killing spree, and allowing players to pick through the human chaos of a crime scene, searching for that scarlet thread that connects the victim all the way back to the perpetrator.

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Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon review

The alien invasion heads west, but do its B-movie excesses survive the journey intact?

With Insect Armageddon the EDF franchise heads west, relocating both its development and narrative. Vicious Cycle may be new to EDF’s world of giant bugs and big guns, but it’s no stranger to B-movie shooters, having delivered the clunky, silly Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard a couple of years ago.

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Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon review

The alien invasion heads west, but do its B-movie excesses survive the journey intact?

With Insect Armageddon the EDF franchise heads west, relocating both its development and narrative. Vicious Cycle may be new to EDF’s world of giant bugs and big guns, but it’s no stranger to B-movie shooters, having delivered the clunky, silly Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard a couple of years ago.

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Nokia reports dismal financial results

In stark contrast to Apple - which earlier this week announced profits of over $7 billion in a single quarter - its Finnish competitor has revealed sharp declines across its business over the past three months. Having posted a €295 million profit this time last year, Nokia announced losses of €487 million. Sales revenue, earnings per share and cash in hand all slumped, and sales fell in every single device category and every single territory except the Middle East, Africa and South America.
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-read-it-and-weep-nokia-reports-loss-of-nearly-500-million-huge-declines/
Paid Content


EA unable to guarantee Old Republic pre-orders

BioWare's upcoming Star Wars MMOG The Old Republic will only be available through Origin, and the ongoing confusion surrounding EA's new download service continues with the revelation that pre-orders are not guaranteed. While the explanation - that BioWare wants to limit day-one server load to ensure a lag-free experience at launch - makes sense, asking fans to pay $5 solely for the privilege of being able to play a game on release day most certainly doesn't. Perhaps most telling of all is this line from the game's FAQ: "Please be careful when pre-ordering Star Wars: The Old Republic, and only pre-order from trusted retailers or Origin.com."
http://www.swtor.com/preorder/faq
The Old Republic


PSN users raise £1 million for earthquake relief

Sony has confirmed that PSN users across the globe raised ¥129.7 million (£1.01 million) to help support the relief effort for the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March. North American users raised £260,955, Europeans £538,122, Japanese players £181,751 and the rest of Asia contributed £16,673. Sony itself donated ¥300 million (£2.34 million).
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-22-sony-gamers-massive-earthquake-donation
Eurogamer


Catherine finds a European publisher

Only days ago Atlus told Joystiq it had "no plans at this time" to release Team Persona's HD console debut, erotic thriller Catherine, in Europe. Now Deep Silver has announced it is to publish the game across Europe later this year. Atlus used almost exactly the same line back in February, telling Beefjack it had "no plans for a North American release at this time." It then confirmed its US release four days later. Deep Silver's Klemens Kundratitz described Catherine as "something new, fresh and exciting; unlike anything else in the gaming world – a unique mixture of genres."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-22-catherine-coming-to-europe-this-year
Eurogamer


Inafune's Comcept announces first game

After leaving Capcom last year, Inafune set up two new companies: game studio Comcept, and cross-media firm Intercept. The former has announced its first game, a social title for Japan's mobile social network, Gree. The Island Of Dr Momo casts players as the titular doctor who, according to Andriasang, "combines animals together in an effort to make the world's cutest thing." Inafune's first release since leaving Capcom will be released for iOS and Android in the autumn.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/07/22/inafune_first_game/
Andriasang


Sony insurer heads to court over PSN liability

Zurich American claims 55 class-action suits have been filed against Sony, but argues that its policy does not cover legal costs.

Insurance firm Zurich American has asked a New York court to rule that it has no liability to cover defence costs in the mounting legal claims filed against Sony following April's PSN attack.

Reuters reports that the insurer has asked the court to declare that it does not have to pay legal costs related to claims "asserted in the class-action lawsuits, miscellaneous claims, or potential future actions institued by any state attorney general."

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Irem pulls games from PSN

Andriasang brings word that the publisher is to remove 12 games from the Japanese PlayStation Store, including R-Type Tactics and Irem Arcade Classics, on August 11, as well as all other content related to those games including demos, DLC and videos. Irem is also to close its nine themed lounges in PS3's virtual world, PlayStation Home. Irem did not explain its decision.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/07/22/irem_psn/
Andriasang


Bill Roper joins Disney Interactive

Disney Interactive has announced that Bill Roper, former VP of Blizzard North and CCO of Cryptic Studios, has been appointed as vice president of the Marvel franchise. Alex Seropian, Disney's senior vice president and general manager, said: "We are pleased to have Bill join our team. With 17 years of experience in the worldwide gaming industry, we are confident that Bill has the creative vision necessary to help guide the next wave of development and product for Disney Interactive's Marvel Games."
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/07/21/disney-interactive-media-group-appoints-bill-roper-as-vice-presi/
Massively


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