Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley will deliver a keynote speech at September’s Game Developers Conference Austin event.
Smedley’s keynote, titled From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts ... It's a Whole New MMO World, will discuss how SOE’s free-to-play MMO Free Realms has worked to grow the base of players engaging together in online worlds.
Numark and Genius Products have revealed that Commotion Interactive, the music and party game division of Bedlam Games, will complete development of its music rhythm game Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.
Format: Commodore 64
Release: 1983
Publisher: Llamasoft Software
Developer: Jeff Minter
Any knowledgeable fan of the Star Wars films will tell you that the mighty science fiction saga has inspired its fair share of bizarre cultural artefacts. Some are close homages, some are parodies and others are more laterally stimulated by some aspect of George Lucas’ mythos. Surely one of the most surreal examples falls into this latter category and appeared almost 30 years ago: the classic videogame that was Attack Of The Mutant Camels.
Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft has partially re-launched in China with a series of government-enforced content changes.
The game had seen an extended period of downtime following the transition to new local operator NetEase, but has reopened in beta form with a number of content changes following a review by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), a governmental agency that deals with censorship.
Wii Sports Resort sold over 600,000 copies in Europe during its first two weeks of availability.
Nintendo confirmed the figure with us shortly after it was announced that the game had sold over 500,000 copies in the US in nine days, and earlier become the third fastest-selling Wii game in Japan after moving 353,827 copies in just four days.
Microsoft has rolled out the latest version of Games for Windows – Live.
The 3.0 update features a number of new features. Most notably, an in-game marketplace now allows players to purchase and install content without leaving their game.
Live accounts can also be managed in-game, enabling players to purchase points, edit and add payment details, redeem codes and change Gamertags without exiting their session.
Wii sales rocketed in Japan during the week ended August 2, driven by the August 1 release of a black version of the console and the launch of Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3.
Activision attorneys notified a court this week that they have reached a settlement with Brutal Legend developer Double Fine over the game’s release.
The details of the settlement have not yet been disclosed, but we’ve contacted both companies for comment.
In a lawsuit earlier this year Activision claimed that Double Fine had improperly transferred rights to the game owned by the publisher to its rival EA, which plans to release the Jack Black-starring title in October
Independent US studio Atomic Games has been forced to lay off "many" staff members after failing to secure funding for its Iraq-based war title Six Days In Fallujah.
Few companies have embraced Nintendo’s download services as fully as California-based WayForward, which is developing original IP for both WiiWare and DSiWare. With its first salvo of download titles already released in the US – Wii survival horror puzzler Lit and DSi platform puzzler Mighty Flip Champs! – it’s been a real change in direction for a developer best known for licenced DS titles like Contra 4 and Duck Amuck.
Activision is confident in its current product pricing strategy, and CEO Bobby Kotick would like to raise game prices “even further.”
A year ago, four men jacked in their senior jobs at successful UK developers to go it alone under the name of Hello Games. The team, three coders and an artist, moved into a single, small room in an office building in Guildford and began to make a game, by themselves, for PC, 360 and PS3. Principal Sean Murray, who was technical lead at Criterion on such games as Burnout 3 and Black before taking a role at Kuju, sold his house to fund the company.
Tony Hawk: Ride will only ship in North America, the UK and Germany this year.
The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game will be made available in other territories in 2010, publisher Activision has confirmed.
Retailer listings suggest that the title, which will ship with a wireless skateboard controller, will release in the UK on November 20 for £99.99.
Microsoft has revealed the launch line-up of titles and pricing details for its upcoming Xbox 360 Games On Demand service.
Downloadable titles sold via the service will cost between 1600-2400 MS Points ($19.99-$29.99 / £13.60-£20.40), the company confirmed to Joystiq.
Konami has reported a substantial year-over-year drop in revenues and operating income for the three months ended June 30, 2009.
During its first fiscal quarter, company-wide revenues declined 21 per cent to 51 billion yen ($535m/£315.5m), while operating income slid 91.4 per cent to one billion yen ($10.5m£6.2m).
