Investment firm provides ZeniMax with money for “additional growth through increased game development”.
ZeniMax Media is the publisher, marketer and distributor of games developed by its subsidaries, such as Doom creators id Software and Fallout developers Bethesda Softworks.
Format: Xbox 360
Release: November 4
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
Do you think you can dance? Yeah, right. If you’re anything like us, so gnarled and out of shape that only the WOMAD festival will have you, then throwing shapes is probably not on your list of things to do this year. Our advice if you plan to keep it that way: stay well clear of Dance Central. Far from being immune to its charms or technology, you’re practically its target audience.
Integrated controller will come as standard in Wii bundles.
Today Nintendo announced it will begin selling the Wiimote Plus in Japan on November 11, for the same price as the current Wiimote. The Wiimote Plus will be replacing standard Wiimote controllers in all bundles from then on.
Halo: Reach enjoys a third week as the game on the most people's lips.
Halo: Reach nearly doubled its chatter this week, managing to remain on top of the UK Top Sellers Buzz chart with 41,926 mentions (though this rise was partly down to improved Brandwatch Twitter tracking). Dead Rising 2 also retains its number two spot with 10,482 mentions, while Fifa 11 debuts at number three with 9687.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs suggest separating Entertainment & Devices Division is the key to profits.
In a new report the global investment firm says “the Xbox products could be an appealing stand-alone entity, given the historical success of the Xbox.” It also states that Microsoft’s current business practice is “preventing a successful focus on one strategy, a la Oracle in the enterprise or Apple for consumers.”
UK body for skills and training in the creative industries signs crucial charter to promote greater female presence in the game industry.
Skillset has signed a charter written by the UKRC, a government-funded body advising on gender equality. It addresses the imbalance between genders in the technology sector, including videogames.
Format: Xbox 360, DS, PS3, Wii
Release: October 26 (US), October 29 (UK)
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
If they don’t chase WOW’s success, says Hi-Rez Studios COO Todd Harris.
Harris, who was executive producer of the studio’s online shooter Global Agenda, says that developers going niche can lead to success in the competitive MMOG market.
Rhythm-action game will get its 2,000th song on October 12.
Developer Harmonix announces that its addition of tracks from the Hendrix album Are You Experienced? to the Rock Band library will take it to 2,000 songs. The total includes songs packaged on discs for retail releases.
In November last year the Cambridge, Massachusetts studio reached 1,000 songs two years after the game’s US launch in 2007. It has taken half that time to double the number of songs available.
Last June, just four months after Global Agenda's release, Georgia based online specialist Hi-Rez Studios announced that it was switching its debut title from subscription to buy-to-play. The intense third person MMO shooter (somewhat reminscent of Tribes, thanks to its jetpacks) will now rely on premium content to keep the servers running. The changeover could reasonably be interpreted as a climb-down, but, as Hi-Rez COO and executive producer, Todd Harris, explains, the studio wanted to approach the risk-laden MMOG market with caution.
Social games giant Zynga has acquired the Dallas, Texas, based studio.
Bonfire was formed in 2009, in the aftermath of Ensemble Studios’ closure by Microsoft. Ensemble was responsible for realtime strategy titles such as the Age Of Empires series, and the studio’s final release, Halo Wars.
Bonfire founders David Rippy, Bill Jackson and Scott Winsett are said to be “leading the charge” and “developing new IP” for Zynga under a new company name, Zynga Dallas.
Strong yen, delayed Dead Rising and poor Lost Planet sales prove a financial triple-threat.
Capcom has cut profit predictions by 18.8 per cent for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.
The publisher previously forecast profits of $96 million, which it has readjusted to $78 million.
Indie game development event is looking for sites to host sessions in its third year.
The event, which will run from January 28-30, challenges aspiring game designers to brainstorm, design and build a game in a fixed 48-hour period.
The event’s overseer, the IGDA, has broadened the range of work on offer and made board games part of the jam. PC-based games will also be posted on the Global Game Jam website for anyone to play and rate.
Game Jam 2010 produced over 900 games from over 4, 000 participants.
No subscription will be required to play purchased games.
After a trial year with no subscription fees in the US, OnLive has revealed that it will continue this way. Users who sign up for a free account will have access to demos, messaging, friends and spectator options, in addition to having the option to purchase games.
Limited-time passes can now be bought to play full games through the cloud-based service. If titles are purchased in full through OnLive, however, no monthly fee will be charged.
Unsurprisingly, 3D was very much the focal point of this year's Nintendo Conference, which took place on September 29 (two weeks after Tokyo Game Show), both in terms of Nintendo's message and the attentions of showgoers. Occupying two thirds of the Makuhari Messe hall, the demo area was heavily skewed toward 3DS games, with the few DS and Wii titles on show attracting relatively little attention.
Part two of our interview with novelist and screenwriter, Alex Garland, who fears the game industry has expanded too fast. Part one of the interview can be read here.
Let’s turn to the Halo movie. Bungie recently said that it couldn’t imagine making a film based on any single Halo game. How did you go about it?
The Jungle, a portable online console, may be revealed today.
Technology blog CrunchGear is claiming to have received a document detailing a new gaming system called the Jungle, made by Panasonic.
Ex-APB developers to take action against the developer’s administrator.
Having previously denied accusations of unfulfilled redundancy pay, Realtime Worlds’ administrator Begbies Traynor will potentially face legal action from 120 of the developer’s former employees.
Xbox VP becomes president of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment.
Test Drive and 4D Sports Boxing designer and former EA head Don Mattrick joined Microsoft in 2007 as senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment which includes 360, Games For Windows and Xbox Live. Microsoft announced today that he will be promoted to president of Interactive Entertainment. Mattrick is also the alleged inventor of avatars, as he revealed in an OXM interview in 2008.
It looks like a children’s diversion, this isometric, brightly coloured world of aubergines, tomatoes and hoes (exclusively in the agricultural-tool sense, sadly), with friendly lost pigs wandering up to the side of my land, and a user interface that harks back to that glorious 1980s dawn when ‘icons!’ were the amazing new way to control the most cutting-edge ZX Spectrum and C64 games. And yet FarmVille has an amazing 80 million players. Why do so many people play this clunky trash?
Express Newspapers pay undisclosed damages to Take 2
In July the Daily Star published a news story claiming that a new Grand Theft Auto, themed around the real-life shootings committed by Raoul Moat that same month, was in development at Rockstar Games.
A mock-up front cover for the game was even published – and quickly withdrawn – and the paper went so far as to solicit commentary from grieving family members of real-life victims.
Satoru Iwata outlines automatic updates, price-points and features of Nintendo’s new handheld.
The Q&A segment of Nintendo’s investors meeting last week required CEO Satoru Iwata to answer a number of questions on the development of the 3DS, which is due to launch early next year in Europe.
Blizzards third World Of Warcraft expansion will be released on December 7 and significantly change original game.
Following recent rumours, Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed that Cataclysm, the third expansion for World Of Warcraft, will be released on December 7. The release, which will be available as a Blizzard Store download or boxed, will significantly overhaul the original game.
Big names headline San Francisco event aiming to explore virtual and real world integration.
The first ever Gamification summit is due to take place January 20-21 at San Francisco’s Mission Bay Conference Centre.
Summit director and CEO of social game maker Playmatics, Margaret Wallace says: “With an increasing focus on gamification, major brands, advertising agencies and UI/UX practitioners are starting to see what game designers have always known: games are the ultimate tool for engagement.”
When a lauded novelist and screenwriter – of a zombie movie, no less – shows an interest in making videogames, the phone rings off the hook, right?