Publisher Take-Two has reportedly enlisted Borderlands maker Gearbox Software to finish work on 3D Realms’ long in development Duke Nukem Forever.
Sources told Kotaku that the Brothers In Arms and Aliens: Colonial Marines studio picked up Duke Nukem Forever development where former maker 3D Realms left off, and that a playable demo may be available before the end of the year.
Format: DS
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release: 2011
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Microsoft has said that Kinect for Xbox 360 won’t support sign language upon launch this November.
While a recently uncovered patent indicated that the motion sensing peripheral was capable of reading American sign language, the device releasing this holiday won’t be able to do so.
The Walt Disney Company posted strong financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended July 3, 2010, including increased revenue and slimmed losses at its games business.
The firm’s interactive media division cut its losses from $75 million (£47.7m) during the same period last year to $65 million (£41.3m), while revenue jumped 74 per cent to $197 million (£125.3m), driven by sales of Toy Story 3 and Split Second.
US Wii sales have topped 30 million since launching in November 2006, making it “the fastest-selling console in the history of the industry”, according to Nintendo.
The platform holder said that the milestone was reached in 45 months, 15 months quicker than the next bestselling console.
Activision is confident that shaken Call Of Duty creator Infinity Ward “will rise from the ashes”.
Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Release: Q1 2011
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Crytek
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The videogames industry contributed $5 billion to the US economy in 2009, according to a new study released today by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
‘Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report’, which was conducted by Economists Incorporated on behalf of the trade association, also found that the entertainment software industry's real annual growth rate from 2005 to 2009 exceeded 10 per cent, more than seven times the growth rate of the US economy as a whole.
The Korean online games market could surpass $2 billion in revenues in 2011, according to a new study from Pearl Research.
Three of the top five game operators in Korea grew their revenues more than 50 per cent in 2009, thanks in part to rapidly growing contributions from overseas operations. MapleStory maker Nexon’s non-Korean contributions accounted for the majority of its global revenue for the first time in 2009, while online publisher Neowiz’s overseas revenues jumped 526 per cent.
The decision to slim its product release slate paid dividends for No More Heroes publisher Marvelous Entertainment during the financial quarter ended June 30, 2010.
Citing reduced overhead and advertising spend, the company swung from a loss of 131 million yen ($1.5 million) during the same period last year to a profit of 71 million yen ($830,000), according to Silicon Era.
Social networking giant Facebook will attempt to improve its game offerings and links with developers by appointing a head of game partnerships.
With more than 200 million people playing games on Facebook every month the company recognises the importance of the medium to its business, but it acknowledges that it still has work to do to make the platform more welcoming to game makers.
Web giant Google will reportedly acquire Jambool and the company’s in-game virtual currency payments product Social Gold.
According to TechCrunch the buyout could be worth as much as $75 million, and represents the latest effort by Google to amass the resources required to take on Facebook in the social networking space.
THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said that the publisher is considering a longer development cycle for its UFC franchise after the second release in the series failed to meet internal expectations.
THQ has reported a loss and a decline in revenues for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30.
The company swung from a profit of $6.4 million (£4m) during the same period last year to a $30.1 loss (£19m), while revenue declined from $243.5 million (£154m) to $149.4 million (£94.5m).
Format: PC, Mac
Release: Out now
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: In-house
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A number of new sessions and speakers have been added to the GDC Europe 2010 line-up ahead of next week’s event.
Mark DeLoura and Michael Mahemoff, developer advocates at Google, will deliver a session titled ‘Games on the Chrome Web Store’. The pair will aim to give developers a better understanding of the upcoming Chrome Web Store and the web-based applications it will house. They’ll also discuss making games using HTML5 and Native Client, and how developers can get involved in the launch.
So I was trying to suss out the one thing that makes me love games - the quality that keeps me playing a title for fifty hours, instead of ditching it after five minutes. Was it the visual style? The story? The reload mechanic? Could I pin it down to something as simple as fun? I thought it over, and I figured it out: the thing I want most from a game is a really good world.
Game industry analysts have weighed in with sales forecasts for July 2010 ahead of the release of US market data from the NPD Group this Thursday.
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter expects software sales of $405 million, down 7.5 per cent compared to July 2009’s $438 million.
Pachter thinks the bestselling console games last month were new releases Crackdown 2 and NCAA Football 11, with older titles Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Wii Fit Plus also performing well.
Explaining his continued efforts to stem Atari’s losses and reboot the iconic company as an online focused publisher, CEO Jeff Lapin has described the firm as being like a rotten onion over the past few years.
Tomonobu Itagaki’s new company, Valhalla Games Studio, is named to portray and commemorate his team as “old gods and glorious warriors”, according to the frequently outspoken developer. Quick to put his troubles with Tecmo behind him, Itagaki has signed “for as long as they will have him” with THQ and is working on a new, hugely violent thirdperson shooter Devil’s Third.
Earth Eternal developer Sparkplay Media has laid off all but two staff and expects to go out of business in the coming weeks after running out of money.
The company is putting its free-to-play browser-based MMO Earth Eternal up for auction in the hope that someone will purchase and continue to operate the game.
Microsoft is preparing to launch a 250GB Xbox 360 Kinect hardware bundle, according to the Australian packaging for the 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect offering.
Former Ubisoft Montreal creative director Clint Hocking has joined LucasArts.
"We are pleased to announce that Clint Hocking has joined LucasArts as creative director on an unannounced project," a LucasArts rep told GameSpot.
Toy Story 3 reclaimed the top spot on the UK all formats chart during the week ended August 7.
Disney’s title had lost the number one position to StarCraft II the previous week, but Blizzard’s RTS sequel slipped to fourth in its second week on the chart.
Sandwiched between the pair were Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Dance On Broadway, while Red Dead Redemption rounded off the top five.
If you think about all of the teachers that you had growing up – throughout elementary school, high school, college, etc – which ones did you like the best? The ones that were strict, or the ones that were forgiving? The ones who nurtured you or the ones who pushed you?