Back in August 2008, it wouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out what Bulletstorm was all about, just a geneticist. The announcement back then?
When we first described the then-unnamed LittleBigPlanet back in spring 2007, we began with the little things. The way you can change Sackboy’s expressions with the D-pad, and move his head and body with trigger buttons and tilt controls. We eased our way into explaining a revolutionary game with an ethos – play, create, share – which was transcendent, beautiful and inspiring, and all too susceptible to being dragged to Earth with leaden exposition.
Sony will offer ten free downloadable games to PSPgo owners as part of a new promotion designed to “re-energise sales” of the handheld.
EA has welcomed THQ’s formation of a new business unit, THQ Partners, but warned its rival that success with independent developers "doesn't happen overnight".
Global revenues at South Korea-based publisher Nexon increased 56 per cent last year, growing from 450.8 billion won ($368.5m / £253.4m) in 2008 to 703.6 billion won ($575.1m / £395m) in 2009.
The MapleStory publisher’s US arm also posted a significant revenue increase of 31 per cent, as non-Korean contributions accounted for the majority of its global revenue for the first time.
PS3 increased its global market share to 31 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, up from 18 per cent in Q1 2009.
Wii's share of home console sales during the three month period came in at 49 per cent and Xbox 360’s at 20 per cent, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics (via GamesIndustry.biz).
Zynga’s popular social games will be integrated into Yahoo’s global network under the terms of a new partnership between the two companies.
In the coming months consumers will be able to play Zynga games and access their personal Zynga game updates across Yahoo’s properties, including the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Games, Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger, enabling the developer’s titles to reach more than 600 million users.
For a number of months I have been doing some work in and around South Lanarkshire authority, first of all with Aubrey Taylor from the Advisory Service running staff development and latterly with the support of Andrea Reid QIO in a number of primary and 
nursery schools. It’s really great seeing so many forward thinking folks in education in such close proximity to each other. A good number of schools are running their own GBL topics with and really staring to get great results from their work.
In particular I enjoyed visiting Cathkin Community Nursery which , with the support of Andrea Reid, has been undertaking a topic on pets which has included input from a special pet called “Eyepet” which comes as software on the PS3. Check the video below for a wee flavour of the kinds of things he can do..
The steps shown in the video are only a small part of how the nursery went about planning and implementing a project with Eyepet, but a case study exemplification will be produced and shared over the next couple of months.
I had never seen a GBL topic wholly undertaken in the nursery setting so I was intrigued to find out how they had gone about it. Liz Mercer the Head of Nursery was delighted with the way the project worked and how well it involved the children and their families.
“We are thoroughly enjoying our eyepets. They are part of our family now and the children have taken to them so well. Each group had adopted an eyepet, where they nurture and care for him/her. Some children have also created their own eyepet using a variety of materials. They are fab and on display in the room where eyepet lives and breathes.”
Cathkin Community Nursery then took the expertise they had gained from running Eyepet as part of their project and held an open doors event where the Early Years workers shared their experience of using Eyepet and how it tied to the curriculum with colleagues from South Lanarkshire. There were also a number of other brilliant presentations on involving parents and involving children in the planning process and digital learning books. The evaluations from this event were wholly positive and it was great to see CPD opportunities like this being provided by practitioners for practitioners. Liz and the team are real advocates of CfE, and you can see from the slideshow below how that looks in practice when undertaking the Eyepet project.
You may also be interested in reading the thoughts of HMIE about this nursery. Their report was published today and all areas of their work were graded as Excellent and HMIE thought their work with Eyepet was wonderful.
“Staff provide a very well-balanced curriculum firmly based on play, active learning and enjoyment. High quality staff interaction, a stimulating environment and very well planned use of resources support children’s progress most effectively”
We currently have a number of Eyepets out on loan across Scotland at the moment, some as transition projects and some as literacy focus work and the pictures below are of some of the reactions of children watching their Eyepet hatch and some of the work that has come out of looking after their Eyepet.
As a follow on to that I attended a couple of parent workshops run by Colin Venters from South Lanarkshire’s Home School Partnership, encouraging parents to see the potential of their child’s use of gaming consoles as a positive chance for meaningful interaction between themselves and their child. Hear below what Colin and some of the parents who visited had to say about these sessions.
Natal will launch in the US this October with a price tag of $149.
That’s according to a trusted source, who told us that the motion sensing camera will also be bundled with the Xbox 360 Arcade console for $299.
Market research and analysis firm DFC Intelligence expects global games industry revenues to rise from $60.4 billion (£41.9b) in 2009 to $70.1 billion (£48.6b) in 2015.
Following a decline in 2009, the firm actually forecasts that the overall market will continue to experience a downturn over the next few years due to a slowdown in the current console cycle, with most of the predicted growth occurring between 2013 and 2015.
Warner Bros. has revealed plans to up its focus in the digital games space.
Jeff Junge, who recently led the company’s acquisition of Turbine, will serve in the newly created role of senior vice president of online games and digital games platforms.
He’ll be responsible for overseeing Turbine and for the company’s wider digital games business. He will also continue to oversee the integration of TT Games, which Warner acquired in 2007.
THQ has announced the formation of a new business unit, THQ Partners, which will provide select developers and publishers with access to its retail and digital distribution network spanning North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
"THQ Partners is charged with maximising the efficiencies of our global distribution network by enhancing our product offerings with quality games from developers and publishers who don't have the benefit of our extensive retail and online sales operations," said Ian Curran, THQ’s executive VP for global publishing.
SCEE president Andrew House has identified the September 2009 launch of the PS3 Slim as a “stand out” moment for the company’s hardware business.
Answering questions submitted on the official PlayStation forums, the executive said that the release of the cut price, slimmed down model represented a significant turning point for PS3's fortunes.
Project Natal represents the “Holy Grail” of the console business, a way to offer completely fresh experiences without launching a new system, according to Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices (E&D) division.
Sean Murray .jpg)
"How do you feel about monkeys?"
Atari has reported a significant improvement in its financial performance for the year ended March 31, 2010.
The publisher shrunk its losses from €202.5 million ($248.5m / £173m) the previous year to €19.4 million ($23.8m / £16.6m), although revenues declined 15 per cent to €115.7 million ($142m / £98.9m).
Microsoft has confirmed rumours that entertainment and devices (E&D) division president Robbie Bach (pictured above) will be retiring from the company later this year, while former Xbox figurehead J Allard will also leave the firm.
Bach will remain with Microsoft through the fall, working with company CEO Steve Ballmer and his leadership team to ensure a smooth transition.
As we get older, many of us spend less time playing games than we used to, as slagathor recently found. Indeed, a quick visit to the Edge forum reveals that some of us spend more time reading about games than actually playing them, myself included. It’s not just time restraints, either: playing most games requires a degree of thought which after a long day at work I’m simply too tired to give.
Insomniac Games has signed a deal with EA Partners to create a new franchise for PS3 and Xbox 360.
While details of the new series have yet to be announced, it marks the first time in the developer’s 16-year history that it will make a game not exclusively for PlayStation platforms.
A release window for the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance studio’s upcoming title wasn’t announced, but the unnamed game is in production at the company's Burbank studio.
MySpace has launched a Games Lab pilot program in a bid to attract more social game developers to its network.
Designed to help developers of all sizes increase the visibility of their titles on the social networking site, MySpace co-president Mike Jones said that the project “is dedicated to bringing third party developers into our offices to drive collaboration and facilitate great user experiences”.
Team Default has a problem – its game is gone. Tech support has been called in and a couple of students with network experience are hanging about studying various data logs, but no one can understand what’s happened. Open-mouthed, the team members are coming to a sickening realisation: the project they have been working on for the last 23 hours may have just been wiped in a cruel misunderstanding between a hard drive and a server. Welcome to Game Camp.
Gran Turismo 5’s most recent delays were reportedly caused by publisher Sony’s decision to implement Move and 3D support, according to MCV.
The launch of Polyphony Digital’s PS3 exclusive racer has been delayed on numerous occasions, with Sony citing production-related matters for the most recent extension to its protracted development period.
Movie adaptations of Mass Effect and Heavy Rain are being planned, while a second film based on the Hitman series will reportedly begin shooting this autumn.
Legendary Pictures has acquired the rights to make a film based on EA’s Mass Effect, with I Am Legend scriptwriter Mark Protosevich in talks to pen the movie.
Sony Computer Entertainment America has signed a deal to offer Time Warner’s HBO programmes on PS3.
The agreement will enable PS3 users to pay a premium price to download episodes from 11 HBO series, including True Blood, Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.
Shows will cost up to $2.99 per downloadable episode and be made available roughly 11 months after premiering on the network, around the same time they’re released on DVD.
