Earlier numbers by Business Week may have reported that Microsoft is losing $126 on every Xbox 360 sold. That figure is now believed to be a bit higher by some. According to Insider Scoop, the world's largest software maker is losing upwards of $300 per console sold. From the article: "A high ranking friend at IBM, one that worked on the Xbox 360 chip design, tipped us regarding the real expenses involved in manufacturing the Xbox 360... 'It costs Microsoft approximately $715 to make, the manufacturing costs are still too high, another reason why they’re producing relatively small quantities.'”

Almost 7 months of development has resulted in this great 2.40 release. New Character animation tools, Modifiers, Particles, Fluids, Booleans, ...

We have just released a new demo of our innovative helicopter simulation technology, RotorLib. RotorLib is a complete C++ helicopter dynamics middleware for AI-driven helicopter bots in games and simulations. RotorLib provides high level commands like moveTo and hover and internally uses a realtime helicopter flight dynamics model. Demos,SDK and videos are at http://www.rtdynamics.com.

Microsoft has reportedly started to replenish stock of Xbox 360s in American retail channels.

Xbox 360 has been in agonisingly short supply since the console's November 22nd launch, but GameSpot reports that some of the remaining pre-orders are now being filled.

Microsoft UK declined to comment as to whether it's a situation reflected on this side of the Atlantic. "Xbox does not announce details of shipments, but I can tell you that we're on track to meet our 90 day forecast of 2.75 to 3.0 million units," a spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz this lunchtime.

December 27, 2005

Kynapse AI Used In Next-Gen Pyro Title
Kynogon, a French-headquartered supplier of A.I. middleware solutions, has announced that Pyro Studios, developer of the Commandos series, among other titles, has selected Kynapse to develop its next generation game A.I.

Francois Coulon, Pyro Studios' development director, commented of the move: "We have embarked on an ambitious project and are very pleased to be able to make use of Kynapse’s features as a springboard for putting us months ahead in development of our AI and game-play. Rather than spending months developing a foundation for all our AI requirements, we find ourselves with a powerful base upon which we can now develop low level unique behaviors for our specific game. The success of this first integration means we are strongly considering the continued use of Kynapse in our future next-gen products."

Pyro Studios was founded in 1996, and is today the leading studio for digital entertainment in Spain. The Commandos saga, created by Pyro and published by Eidos, has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

Some of the most recent licensors of Kynapse AI have recently included Crackdown developer Real Time Worlds, as well as Planet Moon Studios for PSP title Infected

December 28, 2005

Phantom Announces Lapboard, Reveals Financial Problems
Infinium Labs CEO and President Greg Koler has announced that the company will be launching the Phantom Lapboard, a bespoke wireless keyboard and mouse designed specifically for PC gamers, in Q2 of 2006, in lieu of a release for its much-vaunted Phantom PC 'game console'.

The Lapboard will include a 360-degree rotating keyboard for either left- or right-handed players, and under the keyboard is the lapboard for the mouse that allows gamers to play from their armchairs - within a 30-foot radius of their PC.

However, Infinium's Koler also made a statement in the press release which seems to indicate that funding is not yet in place to launch the Phantom Lapboard, let alone the Phantom console itself, commenting: "The required $USD 2 million round of funding for the Phantom Lapboard is a necessary step to deliver our vision for our products and services quickly into the market, positioned for both consumer and OEM segments, and book revenues by June 2006."

In fact, the company's recently re-issued 10-QSB/A financial report, following the resignation of most recent CEO Kevin Bachus, reveals a parlous state of affairs for Infinium. Firstly, in a little-reported move, Infinium filed documents with the SEC on October 28, 2005, restating its interim financial results for late 2003, 2004, and 2005, due to "misclassifying employees as independent contractors in the fourth quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2004", and a failure to record loss contingencies relating to withholding and payroll tax obligations, among other issues.

Secondly, and starting in April 2005, the company seems to have started defaulting on its short-term loans. Up to April, it had managed to pay off its loans by converting them to Infinium shares, which were hovering above 10 cents each, but with the current Infinium share price at 2.3 cents, it can no longer do this. Thus, April 2005 loans of $300,000 and $200,000, and June loans of $68,000 and $100,000 are all in default, with more recent loans not yet listed.

Regarding the Phantom itself, Infinium has contracted Biostar to create the Phantom Game Receiver mainboard and graphics adapter, with costs including a $156,000 initial payment and eventual payments of nearly $312,000. However, the company notes in the 'risk' area of its filing: "We have engaged third parties to assist with product engineering and design work. Due to working capital shortages, efforts by these groups on our behalf have been delayed. At June 30, 2005, the Company owed Biostar and Walter Dorwin Teague Associates, two of such firms, $311,532 and $46,769, respectively, which amounts continue to be outstanding." Infinium also revealed that it is technically in default on all of its major game licensing agreements for the Phantom console, with a Riverdeep license that included a $225,000 advance, a Codemasters license with a $50,000 advance, an Atari license with a $500,000 advance and an Eidos license with a $125,000 advance all partially or wholly unpaid. In addition, the company appears to owe the IRS around $2.35 million in payroll taxes and penalties, as of June 30.

As a note accompanying the financial documents explains: "As reflected in the accompanying financial statements, the Company is in the development stage with no sales and has recurring losses from inception of $57,570,723, has a working capital deficiency of $10,085,662, a stockholders deficiency of $9,470,271 and has a negative cash flow from operations of $14,888,265 from inception. This raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

With pending lawsuits in Florida from promissory note lenders Shambro, Beshara, and Niedrich, as well as with companies that Infinium apparently owes money to such as CDW Corporation and Black Rocket Euro RSCG, plus a still pending SEC investigation regarding 'fax blasts' promoting the company's shares, it's unclear whether the Lapboard, let alone the Phantom console itself, will finally wend its way to market.

December 28, 2005

Yee, Schwarzenegger Comment On California Injunction
Over the Christmas period, both California Assembly Speaker pro tem Leland Yee and a representative of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have had a chance to reply to the recent news that Judge Ronald Whyte handed down a preliminary injunction halting the implementation of California's game restriction law.

Leland Yee, the bill's sponsor, released an official statement obtained by the GamePolitics website which read as follows:

"The preliminary injunction is simply a temporary pause before the lawsuit brought against the State of California by the Video Software Dealers Association (VDA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is resolved. We are confident that common sense will prevail over corporate profiteering on the backs of children.

Judge Whyte's 17-page opinion granting the injunction made clear that while a preliminary injunction may be necessary in the short term, he also challenged some of the claims made by the plaintiffs. Specifically, Judge Whyte indicated that, despite the claims of the ESA and VDA that the Act is far too burdensome to apply as a standard to video game products, that the '...Act should be simple enough for an ordinary person to apply to the games submitted to the court.'

The $31 billion video game industry is not concerned with the health and welfare of our children; they are simply concerned with their own financial interests... The medical data clearly indicates that these ultra-violent video games have harmful effects on kids, and thus we have a state interest to protect them. In addition, this law does not ban the development, the distribution, or the sale of any video games; it only limits the sales of the most violent games to minors. This is simply a tool to help parents raise healthy kids."

In addition, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Julie Soderlund, a spokesperson for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, commented: "This is just the first step in what is certain to be a lengthy legal proceeding. Once the state is able to present evidence in the case, the courts will have the opportunity to understand why the governor and Legislature believe the state has a compelling interest in protecting children from potential harm from exposure to extremely violent video games."

Under the terms of AB1179, which would have come into effect on January 1, 2006, customers purchasing games with the label would be required to show ID; retailers who either did not check for ID or did not show the labels will be liable for a $1,000 fine per infraction.

Les Sims Gets a Commemorative Postage Stamp
La Poste honors EA's game.
by Jane Pinckard, 12/22/2005

The French postal service, La Poste, has decided to commemorate one of the most successful videogame franchises of all time with a special series of postage stamps, available via La Poste's website. The game is The Sims, which ranks eighth in the top ten of most popular entertainment products in France.

"From fashion to food, history to heraldry, the French have always been cultural tastemakers," said EA's Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon. "We thank them not only for commemorating The Sims with an official postage stamp, but also for making it one of the top ten most celebrated entertainment products in France--Merci!'"

The Sims was created by visionary game designer Will Wright, who is currently at work on Spore, which he has described as "Sim everything." Wright also created the popular Simcity games.

The highs and lows of video games in 2005
By Matt Slagle, Associated Press

Beyond a few innovative titles and some promising new hardware, the video game industry largely continued to do what it does best in 2005: churning out sequels, movie tie-ins and ultraviolence.

It was the work of a Dutch programmer that put video games, a growing and increasingly influential source of entertainment for people of all ages, in the crosshairs of the long-standing debate over kids and violence.

In June, a software hack called Hot Coffee unlocked a hidden sex level in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a freeform action game rated "mature" for ages 17 and older that includes drive-by shootings and high-speed police chases.

Most major retailers promptly removed the game from store shelves after the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an industry body, changed its rating to "adults only." Rockstar has since released a new version, minus the hidden content, with the less-restrictive mature rating.

While industry groups like the Entertainment Software Association insist there's no link between violent video games and violent behavior in children, politicians nonetheless seized on the case, calling for tighter restrictions on game sales.

Three states — Illinois, Michigan, and California — imposed laws that fine retailers caught selling mature-rated games to minors. A federal judge has since found the Illinois restrictions unconstitutional.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman have proposed similar legislation on a national level.

There were other ups and downs for gamers.

Sonyreleased its powerful PlayStation Portable in the United States in March but took months to offer any compelling games. Similarly, Microsoft beat rivals to market with its next-generation Xbox 360 console but rolled out a launch lineup of 18 mostly lackluster titles.

A handheld device called Gizmondo, meanwhile, proved there's one surefire way for a video game system to fail: a lack of decent games.

Unlike 2004, there weren't any real blockbuster games like Half-Life 2 or Halo 2.

Nonetheless, there were some excellent games — some violent, some strange, some featuring puppies.

One of the year's biggest hits arrived in August for the Nintendo DS handheld system. Nintendogs offered a lifelike digital rendering of perhaps the cutest animal: the puppy. It was a superb example of the interactivity found in the DS, which features a microphone, built-in wireless and two screens — one of them touch sensitive.

Nintendogs offered a lifelike digital rendering of perhaps the cutest animal: the puppy.

Another of 2005's best was also among the goriest. As U.S. agent Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, players faced the daunting, scary task infiltrating a village of possessed residents to recover the kidnapped daughter of the American president. Beyond the shock and gore of this M-rated game, it was an exhilarating experience for the GameCube, and more recently, for the PlayStation 2.

Children and adults alike experienced a delightfully mindful tale in Psychonauts, released in April. This imaginative game for personal computers, the PS2 and Xbox offered something for every gamer in the house, whether it was hunting for hidden treasure, performing acrobatic feats or blasting big, bad monsters at a summer camp for children with psychic powers.

The games you never see advertised are often among those you can least afford to overlook:

Shadow of the Colossus offered a dreamlike story in a fantastical land where you battle with 16 giant beasts called Colossi. Each one is a level unto itself in this superb mix of action and strategy.

Indigo Prophecy was an adventure game that melded a unique control system with a captivating crime drama set in the snowy streets of New York —CSI with a touch of X Files thrown in.

The year also was filled with its share of flops and failures.

It seemed like a no-brainer for success, but the persistent virtual reality of The Matrix Online saw most gamers choosing to take the blue pill and trying to forget they ever played this difficult, unforgiving online role playing game.

NARC, meanwhile, redefined tastelessness with a bug-riddled game where you played a cop who takes down members of a drug cartel, ingesting the illicit drugs he confiscates along the way to slow down time or make your temporarily invincible.

And Hollywood served up a poor selection of videogame adaptations, from director Uwe Boll's unbearably bad Alone in the Dark to the almost watchable but equally mindless Martian demonslaying of Doom.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Jack Thompson has purchased shares in Take-Two interactive - otherwise known as the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games. So has JT suddenly become a financial supporter of the company he's long campaigned against? Not a chance. JT has purchased stock in the company in order that he might attend Take-Two's shareholder meetings and face up to the company's CEO, Paul Eibeler.

In advance of attending the shareholder's meeting, he sent a ranting letter to Eibeler, outlining his plan to attend the meeting and visit several issues that have been on our favorite lawyer's mind as of late. In the letter, JT questions Eibeler's handling of the "Hot Coffee" sex scandal (which won an award, by the way) and mentions a report by MarketWatch naming Eibeler as the "worst CEO of 2005". Up until this point, the letter raises legitimate concerns that any shareholder could have regarding the company's CEO.

But, as JT's letters always do, it degrades into a messy rant against the video game industry in general. At one point, JT refers to Microsoft's Flight Simulator as a training simulator for the 9/11 terrorists: "What's next, Paul, a game in which players can practice flying commercial jetliners into the World Trade Towers? Oh, I forgot. Microsoft already did that." We're not going to dignify that statement with a retort. As these kind of statements demonstrate: Jack Thompson is, and will forever remain, a childish attention seeker. We hope the organisers of the next Take-Two shareholder's meeting refuse to obey JT's request for a "cordless microphone at the shareholders meeting." That's all he needs: a voice.

Where do you not want to go today?
By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View
Published Wednesday 28th December 2005 20:01 GMT
Get breaking Reg news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how

Nissan and Microsoft have partnered to show that they can deliver as much impotent grandeur as any other auto/software maker duo.

The vendors this week announced that they will unveil the first "fully integrated gaming system within a vehicle."

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Come on, we've all seen a Playstation packed Escalade." And that's true enough.

What you probably haven't seen is a car that is the video game console.

"Conceived by Nissan Design America Inc. (NDA) and equipped with the Xbox 360 next-generation video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play 'Project Gotham Racing 3' using the car's own steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game on a flip-down seven-inch LCD screen," Nissan and Microsoft said in a statement.

Artist's rendering of Nissan UrgeThis experiment highlights the nature of concept cars. You'll often find technology that you would love to see in real cars and then feel saddened that it never arrives. At the same time, you're often horrified at what companies will waste their time developing.

Apparently, however, we're not in the demographic that comprehends the genius at hand. Only the echo boomers get it.

"Nissan conducted an Internet survey of 2,000 echo boomers, a majority of which said technology and gaming are among the most important attributes in their first car," said Bruce Campbell, vice president of design at Nissan Design America.

You're no doubt sharing in the same, beautiful vision of thousands of plump teenagers slumped over their steering wheels in parking lots or virtually surfing while parked near a beach.

"The URGE concept car is equipped with the award-winning 'PGR 3,' which allows drivers to control a breathtaking trip through the streets of five photo-realistic locations: New York City, London, Las Vegas, Tokyo and the Nurburgring test track in Germany," Nissan said. 'PGR 3' drivers view and play the game on a flip-down LCD screen, which doubles as a rear-view mirror when the car is being used for real driving.

"They control the action using the Nissan URGE's race-inspired steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal. A Nissan URGE driver can, for example, maneuver through the streets of New York, park the car and fire up the Xbox 360, then virtually race through the same streets using the same steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal -- blurring fantasy and reality in a way that the automotive world has never before seen."

The URGE car with Microsoft on board will be displayed for the first time on Jan. 9 at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. ®

iRiver seems to be entering the world of handheld gaming, joining the PSP and DS with their new G10 handheld. It will appearently have an 8-10GB hard-drive, and an LCD screen which displays at 800x480.

Detectives said Watts contacted the boy in October or November through the Xbox Live community, where players can battle online and speak to each other using headsets.

Their conversations progressed to sending e-mails and Web cam videos, with Watts allegedly sending the boy obscene video clips of himself, authorities said.

The teen eventually gave Watts his home address and telephone number and they met in a Santa Rosa park in November where the alleged physical abuse occurred.

Bruce Carver, one of the game industry's great innovators and entrepreneurs died last week, age 57. He will be remembered for his enormous contribution to sports games, especially through his Links series of golf games, as well as for his generosity and kindness.

In 1997, PC Gamer awarded him the accolade as one of the 'Gods of Gaming'. In 1999, Access was bought by Microsoft, and this saw the beginning of the decline of Links. The series was gradually superseded by new 3D games and big-money licenses.

Carver left Microsoft in 2003 to launch two new successful businesses. He was most actively involved in Carver Homes, which built award-winning luxury houses to order. It satisfied his passion for detail and his meticulous eye for beauty. He was also a partner in TrueGolf; offering large-scale video simulations for the home.

January 5, 2006

Vivendi Universal Acquires High Moon Studios
Vivendi Universal, the publisher of World of Warcraft and the Crash Bandicoot series, has acquired High Moon Studios, developers of 2005's old west vampire FPS game Darkwatch.

The terms of the deal include Vivendi absorbing all of High Moon's staff of over 100 employees, and gaining control over the studio's intellectual properties. High Moon CEO John Rowe will continue to manage the studio at its Carlsbad, CA offices. Vivendi did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.

"High Moon has assembled an experienced team of development professionals who are passionate about creating compelling interactive entertainment for audiences around the world," said High Moon CEO John Rowe. "We are happy to be a part of Vivendi Universal Games, and we believe that the acquisition is a very positive step for the growth of our studio."

Formerly known as Sammy Studios, before striking out on its own in 2005 following a management buyout in the midst of Sammy's merger with Sega, High Moon has earned awards for its working environment. IT Week Magazine named the studio one of its Top 50 Technology Innovators of 2005, and the San Diego Society for Human Resource Management gave the studio a Crystal Award for "Employer of Choice."

"VU Games and High Moon are already collaborating on a soon-to-be-announced project based on a major entertainment license," said Vivendi Universal Games CEO Bruce Hack. "Our acquisition of the studio is another major step forward in building the company's position as a leader in next generation console games."

Commodore Returns as Handheld

The classic home computer and gaming brand Commodore is back, in the guise of a handheld device sporting downloadable arcade games. Image The much-traveled brand is now owned by Commodore International Corporation (formerly Yeahronimo). The company has used CES to detail its new product; the Commodore Combo.

The device is being offered with five 8-bit games included, and another 90 or so available for online downloadable purchase. It comes with a 20GB hard drive running Windows CE, and offers GPS functionality.

Commodore says it wants developers to create content for the device, which will then be sold via kiosks in selected retail outlets.

Microsoft Abandons 90-Day Target

Microsoft now admits it will not meet its target of up to 3 million Xbox 360 sales within 90-days of the console's launch.

So What Went Wrong?

Sales for Q4 were weaker than expected; damaged by a lack of innovative games, a poorly executed hardware launch and a lack of price-action for older consoles.

Take 2 announced that it has acquired one of the biggest independent developers Irrational Games. Known for such titles as SWAT 4, Tribes Vengeance and Freedom Force, Irrational is currently working on Bioshock for Take Two, scheduled for PC and nextgen consoles, but also SWAT 4 expansion pack for Vivendi.

Gamers could influence next DVD format

For the last three years, consumer electronics makers, computer companies and Hollywood studios have been choosing sides in the battle over the dominant format for the coming high-definition DVDs--Blu-ray vs. HD DVD.

Yet after all the jockeying by these companies, it may be the relatively low-priced video game consoles that tip the balance toward one format--or prolong the stalemate for several more years. That's because the new game machines from Sony and Microsoft will play high-definition DVDs and may spur discs sales far faster than stand-alone players.

Sony said in 2004 that its PlayStation 3, due out this spring, would play Blu-ray discs. Not to be outdone, Microsoft, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, said that it would make an external drive to play HD DVD discs on its Xbox 360, which went on sale in November.

Westlake Village (CA) - The much anticipated Optimus LED keyboard may be available next month, if we are to believe the Art Lebedev Studio's website. Keys will have an LED array that can be customized to display icons like the Internet Explorer "e" or Quicktime's signature icon.

Speculation about a possible availability of the device has been building over the past several months, but a recent, somewhat cryptic "Good Things Come in Small Packages - February 1, 2005" announcement has popped up on the company website.

January 10, 2006

Engage In-Game Advertising Announces Launch
Officials from Engage In-Game Advertising have announced the company’s official launch today, highlighting a campaign for fast food restaurant Subway accomplished by modding Valve's popular Counter-Strike to include billboard ads.

The San Francisco-based company aims to serve companies on both regional and local levels on a market-by-market basis, and a statement cites research suggesting that television viewership amongst men aged 18 to 34 had declined by 12 percent in 2004, with the same group spending 20 percent more time playing video games.

It is unclear whether the company will continue to 'mod' existing PC titles, a move that does not necessarily require publisher approval, or will announce licensing deals to provide in-game advertising for specific games, as rival Massive Inc. has been doing over the previous few months.

“Since it’s a relatively new medium, many companies are unaware of the promotional reach and creative flexibility video game advertising can provide when trying to target the elusive 18 to 34 year old male audience,” said David Smith, vice president of business development for Engage.

The company’s initial Subway campaign will target specific market areas including San Francisco, Las Vegas and Sacramento. After three weeks of advertising in online title Counter-Strike the ads reached 31,000 unique games and achieved 19,000 “eyeball hours” of exposure.

“Not only was the campaign incredibly effective in connecting with our target audience, but it was cost effective as well,” said Shawn Hazeghazam, a local advertising board chair for Subway “Our post-campaign survey showed a 94 percent ad recall among our target audience. For every penny we paid, our brand received one minute of exposure. This in-game program really delivered for us, at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising mediums.”

January 10, 2006

SpeedTree Announces Eight New Licensees
SpeedTreeRT, a popular foliage middleware, has been licensed for eight new games under development by developers around the world, including Bizarre Creations and Funcom.

A new IDV website page provides SpeedTree-intensive screenshots from about a dozen fantasy, post-apocalyptic, historical and other titles under development for PC and consoles.

Newly-announced SpeedTreeRT licensees are:

- Funcom, the MMORPG developer, which will use SpeedTree in the upcoming Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
- Bizarre Creations, with Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360.
- nFlavor of Korea, which will use SpeedTree in Rappelz
- Icarus Studios, with the online game Fallen Earth
- Frantic Games, with WWII military shooter 1944 D-Day: Operation Overlord
- Intelligent Soft, for use in the MMORPG Ragnesis Online
- Game Factory, in the WWII RPG Officers
- The Multiverse Network, which will use SpeedTree in Kothuria: The World's Edge

Casual Games Interview: PopCap Games

Team members Jason Kapalka and James Gwertzman chat about their successful casual games company.

Casual Games Interview: New Crayon Games

Poptop Software founder Phil Steinmeyer talks about his new casual games venture.

Road To The IGF: Dan Paladin (Dad 'N Me)

Paladin created Dad 'N Me alongside programer Tom Fulp, another co-founder at Alien Hominid developer.

CS 248 2005 Video Game Competition

The final project for CS248 was to write a 3D video game. To help inspire our students to delve deeply into the wonderful world of graphics, we also held a public competition, with a panel of expert judges selecting the best game.

There were 7 finalists. The winning group won a trip to Siggraph 2006, while second place won a free dinner for two at Il Fornaio in Palo Alto. We also had a "wackiest, most creative" prize consisting of an Xbox 360, generously donated by Microsoft. All finalists also won video games donated by Electronic Arts.

Ubisoft Announces Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell® Essentials
Press release supplied by Games Press 17:13 12/01/2006

London, UK – January 12, 2006 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Essentials, a spy action game available exclusively for the PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable) system. Available spring 2006 and developed specifically for the PSP system, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Essentials will offer a new and unique gaming experience with a storyline drawn from the highest-rated spy action series of all time.

"Splinter Cell Essentials is a groundbreaking handheld game that has everything Splinter Cell fans love about the top-selling franchise," says John Parkes, EMEA marketing director at Ubisoft. "It will also feature a number of surprises that will allow players to dive deeper into the story of Sam Fisher."

About Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Essentials:

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Essentials takes players deep into the Splinter Cell saga. Experience all-new missions and objective exclusive to the PSP system, and discover the untold story of Sam Fisher through flashbacks to various missions from the entire Splinter Cell franchise, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double AgentTM.

Key Features:


PSP system debut: The highest-rated and top-selling spy franchise hits the PSP system for the first time, pushing the boundaries of yet another platform.

Developed specifically for the PSP system: Unique gameplay sequences designed specifically for the on-the-go nature of handheld gaming and a new adapted interface.

Exclusive content: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Essentials starts where Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent ends, and takes players to the years before Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell when Sam was still a Navy Seal.

A game of gadgets for your gadget: Features all the weapons and gadgets from the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise, in addition to some new ones exclusive to the PSP system version.

Accessible Wi-Fi multiplayer: Challenge your friends in Spy vs. Spy Deathmatch multiplayer mode.

For more information about Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Essentials please visit www.bewaresamfisher.com and www.splintercell.com

About Tom Clancy:

With over 80 million books sold, Tom Clancy is arguably the world's most recognized author. His works include fiction such as The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears, Rainbow Six, Red Rabbit, and The Teeth of the Tiger. Clancy also writes non-fiction works about weapons and various military units. Four of his books have already been adapted into highly successful feature films.

About Ubisoft

Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through its strong and diversified lineup of products and partnerships. Ubisoft has offices in 21 countries and sales in more than 50 countries around the globe. It is committed to delivering high-quality, cutting-edge video game titles to consumers. Ubisoft generated revenue of 538 million Euros for the 2004–2005 fiscal year, an increase of 8 percent over the previous fiscal year at constant exchange rates. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoftgroup.com.

© 2006 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Sam Fisher, the Soldier Icon, Ubisoft, Ubi.com and the Ubisoft logo are trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. "PSP" is a trademark and "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Memory Stick DuoTM may be required (sold separately).

Long-awaited slimline Nintendo DS could hit shelves within weeks

A number of independent sources have suggested that a redesigned version of Nintendo's DS console will be unveiled next week, with new more compact hardware expected to replace dwindling stocks of the current system.

Rumours of a redesigned DS have been circulating for several months, but received a boost last month when Japanese magazine Famitsu reported that a Nintendo hardware redesign was in the pipeline - which instantly suggests the DS, since the GameCube is to be replaced by the backwards-compatible Revolution later this year, and the GBA was redesigned as the Game Boy Micro only a few months ago.

Nintendo's US marketing manager Reggie Fils-Aime also confirmed late last year that a redesign of the DS was on the cards, and now leading Hong Kong based videogames import retailer Lik-Sang has reported that the new hardware will be unveiled on Monday in Japan.

January 12, 2006

Chinese Government Quantifies Online Gaming Surge
According to a report issued by China's General Administration of Press and Publications, released at the annual online game industry meeting in Xiamen on the 11th, the Chinese online (MMO and casual) game market continues to expand.

The total number of online game subscribers in the country totaled 26.3 million, while income came to 3.77 billion yuan ($470 million USD); the figures are a 30 percent increase over 2004's subscribers and a 52.6 percent increase over the 2004 total income.

The market also contributed significant income to related industries, according to the report: online games provided a boost of 17.3 billion yuan ($2.14 billion USD) to telecommunications, 7.1 billion yuan ($887.5 million USD) to the IT industry, and 30 million yuan ($3.7 million USD) to the publishing industry.

The GAPP report also theorizes that the future of the online games industry may lie in online casual games and mobile games, both of which saw increases in 2005. Casual games accounted for 30% of the 2005 total online game revenue, and the number of online mobile games increased to 18, a number expected to expand more rapidly once 3G service is introduced to the country. Online game revenue is expected to reach 17.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion USD) by the year 2010.

January 12, 2006

Indian Games Industry and Trade Association Formed
A number of India's leading video game companies have announced the formation of the Indian Games Industry and Trade Association (iGITA), the first exclusive gaming industry association in the country.

According to an official statement, the founding members of this association include Dhruva Interactive, Electronic Arts Asia, Hungama, Indiagames, Mauj, Microsoft India (Entertainment & Devices Division), Mobile2Win, Paradox Studios, Small Device and Tinfo Mobile.

iGITA will be focused on creating a platform for interaction and collaboration between international as well as local gaming companies and associations. The organization is intended to be an important source for industry information, while also playing a vital role in encouraging investments in the Indian gaming market and in making vital recommendations that impact policy initiatives to stimulate growth in this arena.

Commenting on the announcement, Rajesh Rao, CEO of Dhruva Interactive said, “The formation of iGITA is an important milestone in the Indian gaming industry. iGITA will play a critical role in promoting games as a form of entertainment in India and in placing the Indian gaming industry on the global map. It will give Indian gaming companies a much needed boost and enable us to take advantage of the opportunities that lie at home and abroad.”

Preneet Malhotra, COO, Electronic Arts Asia added “India today stands at the threshold of a gaming revolution. The formation of an industry body will provide a platform for interaction between international and local gaming companies and associations, which in turn will bring global knowledge and recognition to India. Electronic Arts is delighted to support this initiative.”

Strategy First Terminates Their Agreement With Game Factory Interactive For The Development Of Disciples III
Press release supplied by Games Press 16:17 11/01/2006

For Immediate Release

Montreal, Canada. January 11, 2005. Software publisher Strategy First, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSTR) announced today that their Agreement with Game Factory Interactive for the development of "Disciples III" has been terminated. Mistland South, a development studio owned by Game Factory Interactive, will therefore not be responsible for the development of this next addition to the popular series.

"Jagged Alliance 3D," the upcoming addition to Strategy First's renowned Jagged Alliance franchise, is still currently under development by Mistland South.

"Disciples III" development has been started already by another studio to be announced shortly.

About Game Factory Interactive Ltd.

Game Factory Interactive Ltd was founded in 2003 by a group of professionals with extensive experience and knowledge in the Video Gaming Industry. Game Factory Interactive Ltd. is an independent PC Games developer and publisher with offices in Seattle (WA, USA), Ottawa (Ontario, CANADA), Moscow (Russian Federation) and Kiev (Ukraine). Game Factory Interactive Ltd. publishes directly in both Russian and Ukrainian markets via their partner companies in Eastern Europe and sublicense in other territories. As one of the leading publishers in the former Soviet Union, their main goal is to bring high quality game titles to the ex-Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

About Strategy First

Strategy First, Inc. is a leading developer and worldwide publisher of entertainment software for the PC. Founded in 1990, the Company has grown rapidly, publishing major games in the industry such as "S.C.S - Dangerous WatersTM" and "Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures" and simultaneously developing its own in-house titles such as "O.R.B." and "Disciples II". After winning numerous awards for games such as "Disciples: Sacred Lands", "Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns", "Steel Beasts", "Galactic Civilizations", and "Jagged Alliance", Strategy First continues to push the gaming envelope with its own groundbreaking titles, while maintaining its reputation as a unique alternative for independent developers seeking to market their games to a worldwide audience. www.strategyfirst.com .

About Silverstar Holdings

Silverstar Holdings Ltd. is a publicly traded company, focusing on acquiring controlling positions in high growth fee-based electronic game businesses that stand to benefit from the economies of scale generated by Internet and other technology related platforms. It currently owns Fantasy Sports, Inc., a dominant provider of fee based NASCAR related and other fantasy sports games, Strategy First Inc., a leading developer and worldwide publisher of entertainment software for the PC, as well as a stake in Magnolia Broadband, a fab-less semiconductor company and innovator of radio frequency (RF) solutions for the cellular industry. www.silverstarholdings.com

The statements which are not historical facts contained in this press release are forward looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of future financial results, additional financing requirements, development of new products, regulatory approval processes, the impact of competitive products or pricing, technological changes, the effect of economic conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information please contact:

Jessica Hawker

Marketing Coordinator

Strategy First Inc.

[email protected]

January 12, 2006

IBM, Toshiba, Sony Renew Cell Partnership
According to a Reuters report, Sony, Toshiba and IBM have jointly announced that the companies have renewed their co-production partnership which helped created the Cell chip, to be used in Sony's PlayStation 3, for another 5 years.

So far, the three firms, which have revealed significant details on the Cell chip over the past few months, have invested around $400 million in the tech, with the PS3 chip the first major consumer application to be spun out of the project since it started in 2000.

However, the firms also intend to continue Cell development for other consumer electronic devices such as high-end televisions and audio equipment, though interestingly, Reuters has issued a correction over claims of possible medicinal and military use for the Cell, removing these uses from its initially released list.

The companies also indicated that the renewed partnership will especially help research next-generation chip technology at 32-nanometers and beyond, significantly beyond current production technology.

January 12, 2006

Khronos Announces New OpenKODE Initiative
The Khronos Group has announced the creation of a new open standard working group: the OpenKODE (Khronos Open Development Environment) initiative, which intends to create a coherent development and deployment platform to enable the development of portable, high-performance media applications for mobile handsets.

This royalty-free standard will be developed under the Khronos Working Group process with a target of a first public release within twelve months. Any company with an interest in this initiative is encouraged to join Khronos and participate in defining the scope, requirements and direction for the initiative and to gain early access to draft specifications before public release. The OpenKODE Working Group will commence work during January 2006. More details about joining Khronos may be found at Khronos' website.

Advanced media applications, including 3D games, are thought to drive enhanced revenue for the mobile industry by raising the value of advanced handsets, enabling higher games revenue and driving network data service usage. However, the rollout of compelling applications may be held back by platform variability, forcing software developers to create many different variants of each application, raising costs, and slowing the widespread availability of advanced content.

OpenKODE will bring together the family of Khronos Media Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): OpenGL ES for 3D graphics, OpenMAX for streaming media, OpenVG for vector 2D graphics and OpenSL ES for audio; and will define a new user-input API and potentially add new APIs for access to functionality such as multi-player networking and operating system resources to create a platform that can be implemented across a wide variety of mobile and embedded devices.

OpenKODE will provide a C-based development environment to games developers working on PC and console platforms. OpenKODE will also complement Java-based platforms by enabling development of C-based libraries, gaming engines and applications that can be invoked from Java applications.

January 11, 2006

First Sex In Video Games Conference Announced
Organizers from Evergreen Events have announced details of the Sex In Video Games Conference: Exploring the Business of Digital Erotic Entertainment, to be held on June 8 and 9 in San Francisco.

The annual conference is the first of its kind and aims to focus on the design, development and technology of sex in video games from a U.S. as well as international perspective. The conference will also focus on business matchmaking and networking. As well as various lectures and keynotes, the conference will feature a machinima art show (erotic art and movies derived from video games) as well as panel discussions.

Currently announced lectures include "Sex in Games: Where are We Now?" by Brenda Brathwaite, game designer and founder and chair of the International Game Developers Association's Sexuality SIG; "The Future of Sex and Technology" by Dave Taylor, game producer, consultant, and programmer on Doom and Quake; and "The Making of the SeXbox: Applied Hardware" by Kyle Machulis, a robotics engineer and founder of Slashdong.org and MMOrgy.com.

Panels include "Designing Successful Online Erotic Games," "Creating a Massively Multiplayer Online Erotic Game," and, focusing on the international success of the hentai market, "Integrating International AO Success into the U.S. Market."

According to Dave Taylor: "This conference is long overdue. The staggering progress in PC rendering and simulation technology that has been relentlessly driven by the game industry for years is now poised to turn the entire adult entertainment industry on its ear."

Details of keynote speakers and the remainder of the conference program will be announced in February and April, while further details are currently available at the Evergreen Events website.

Jim Merrick leaves Nintendo after 12 years
Ellie Gibson 11:09 11/01/2006
Former European marketing director not joining NoA after all

Nintendo has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that Jim Merrick, formerly senior marketing director at Nintendo of Europe, has left the company after more than a decade of service.

"After nearly 12 years with Nintendo, the last three of which were at Nintendo of Europe, Jim Merrick has left the company to pursue other opportunities," a spokesperson said.

The news comes just over a month after Nintendo announced that Merrick would be leaving NoE to return to his native US. He was set to take on a new position at Nintendo of America - but it appears this is no longer the case.

NoE has yet to announce a replacement for Merrick, with a spokesperson stating only: "We will be announcing the new European marketing director the coming weeks."

Before joining Nintendo, Merrick worked for 4D Graphics as a software engineering manager. He went on to spend six years in the position of technical director at NoA before taking on the role of network marketing director.

Merrick joined Nintendo of Europe in January 2003. During his time with the company he was responsible for all pan-European marketing, and most recently helped to successfully launch the Nintendo DS and the Wi-Fi Connection service in PAL territories.

January 11, 2006

Gamasutra Adds GDC Proceedings Archive
Gamasutra is pleased to announce that it has added a page hosting and linking to the proceedings, slides, and PDF technical papers from each Game Developers Conference and GDC Europe since 2000, restoring access to this important resource in one place.

Previously hosted in several locations, and now linked from one central location, with older, unavailable proceedings now stored on Gamasutra.com, as the page explains:

"The Game Developers Conference continues its tradition of facilitating the sharing of ideas and information through out the development community. Share the information here to continue that tradition.

We would like to thank the authors for their valuable time and contributions. The proceedings are arranged by conference and year."

You can now access the GDC Proceedings Archive at its new permanent location (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).

January 11, 2006

SIG Journal Rates Big Four Publishers in 2006
The SIG Susquehanna Financial Group's Video Game Journal, a newsletter of financial analysis regarding the video game industry, has evaluated the upcoming releases for the four major U.S. publishers: Electronic Arts, Activision, Take-Two, and THQ. According to the analysts, 2006 will continue the transition period woes already seen in the 2005 holiday sales as publishers attempt to balance up declining sales on existing platforms and low install bases on next-generation systems.

Electronic Arts is the first company to be profiled, and the SIG journal places its best bets on Madden 2007, a consistently strong seller for the company, as well as new IP in Black, Superman Returns, and Spore. All come with caveats, however: "We believe the next Madden iteration (current-gen plus next-gen) may not outsell its predecessor because of the console transition," say the analysts.

Furthermore, "the success of Superman Returns will most likely be correlated to the movie's box office performance," which is an unknown, and "Black […] may perform modestly, as the genre is crowded with well-known franchises …" As for Spore, the game's highly unique nature leads the SIG analysts to hold off on predictions entirely.

For Activision, the analysts expect Activision to follow the strong success of Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (not the same game) with more titles in the franchise. In already-announced titles, the analysts cautiously predict success for X-Men 3, but note that X-Men 2: Wolverine's Revenge performed below expectation, and the game will also be tied to the accompanying film's box office. The rest of the company's slate for the year is unknown, but the SIG analysts "look forward to announcements of new owned IP for 2006."

The SIG analysts lead their examination of Take-Two straight off by noting that "FY06 looks like a no-growth year on the top line." Though the company is releasing two new Grand Theft Auto games -- a port of Liberty City Stories for PS2 and a new title for PSP -- SIG expects sales to be hobbled by dwindling interest in the PS2 and the PSP's limited install base. Similar current-gen woes are predicted for Max Payne 3, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is expected to do modestly due to middling sales on the last game in the series combined with the Xbox 360's production woes. Only Bully, a new IP developed by Rockstar, represents "the greatest promise of the new franchises in CY06," but SIG warns that increased political pressure could affect sales.

Finally, the SIG journal ends on a high note in evaluating THQ, which it expects to have a strong year based on sales of Saint's Row, a next-generation urban action game for Xbox 360, and the multiplatform Cars, based on the upcoming Pixar movie. "Pixar's historical box office performance should drive strong unit sales of Cars," say the analysts, and back up the prediction by noting the success of THQ's last Pixar-based game, The Incredibles. As for THQ's other properties, SIG predicts that "as we head into the transition cycle, unit sales of WWE and SpongeBob titles should be lower than prior iterations. […] We believe the lower revenue from these titles in 2006 should be more than offset by revenue from Cars and Saint's Row."

January 16, 2006

Perforce Releases Latest Version Of SCM
Perforce Software has announced the availability of the newest release of Perforce, the Fast Software Configuration Management (SCM) System. Perforce tracks and manages source code, document, and digital asset development for software production environments.

The Perforce Server now offers enhanced security and administrative capabilities through external authentication triggers, enabling LDAP and similar systems to integrate with Perforce. This enhancement is meant to allow organisations to increase security and streamline IT administration through the use of centralised user management policies.

The Perforce Visual Client – the graphical interface to Perforce available on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD – has also been enhanced to include new support for comparing local workspace folders with depot folders, as well as depot folders with one another.

The functionality of the Perforce Plug-in for WebSphere Studio has been enhanced to improve the experience of developers who are working offline, and the 2005.2 version of the Perforce SCC Plug-in has been upgraded to support Visual Studio 2005.

January 16, 2006

Chrysler To Sponsor The Movies Machinima Competition
According to a report in film industry trade paper the Hollywood Reporter, a machinima competition for Activision and Lionhead Studios' PC game The Movies is set to be launched at the famous Sundance Film Festival this Friday.

The competition, which will be available to enter online, is sponsored by U.S. car manufacturer Chrysler, and tasks entrants to create their own short film using the game, although all entries must include at least one Chrysler vehicle as a prop. The winning film will be announced at E3 in L.A. this May and the overall winner will be awarded a Chrysler Crossfire automobile.

No official announcement of the competition appears to have been made yet on the official Lionhead Studios website, and the closing date for the competition is as such unconfirmed, but details are expected to be made available over the next few days.

In recent weeks, The Movies has already made headlines with a virtual film produced in the game that comments on the recent race riots in France. Many other user created movies have also been uploaded to The Movies Online website, including the winner of a recent Christmas competition.

But a Nintendo spokesperson has dismissed the reports, describing them as "pure rumour and speculation." However, although a redesign will not be revealed as soon as has been rumoured, it seems highly likely that Nintendo will unveil a new, more compact DS at some point in the near future.

Mono 1.1.13 stable has been released and comes with many updates including a S390x port, many .NET 2.0 updates, Windows.Forms updates and more.

Mono provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix.

Road To The IGF: Andy Schatz (Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa)

The official description for this PC indie title, which was created from scratch in just 9 months using the GarageGames indie-friendly Torque Engine, explains of the game's overall concept:

"Build ecosystems of lions, elephants, and more in this unique Tycoon game. Take control over any animal, from a devious hyena hunting for zebra meat to the leader of a herd of wildebeests migrating across crocodile-infested waters."

Quoted in Interactive Investor today, Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities, said that PS3 will "most likely" be released in November with 1 million units, followed by a European launch in March 2007. He said the Japanese launch would also be backed by about a million units this summer.

17/01/2006

Advanced facial, hand and full body system installed

Final Fantasy creator Square-Enix has selected Vicon's advanced motion capture technology to record actors for cinematic and in-game sequences in future current and next-generation software titles.

Square-Enix has utilised motion capture in its most popular titles, including games in its renowned Final Fantasy series, to bring life to the animation of in-game characters and enhance the now obligatory cinematic introduction and plot progression sequences.

According to motion capture specialists Vicon, the publisher selected its 44-camera MX40 system for its performance, accuracy and scalability. In addition, the level of product support, technical assistance and the service from Vicon's regional team played a major role in Square-Enix's decision to adopt the system.

Vicon's head of international sales, Alexander Muir, commented: "We’ve found that once they see the superior performance and scalability, customers realise that VICON MX technology delivers exactly what they’ve been looking for."

"The Square-Enix team tried hard to ‘break’ the Vicon MX and Vicon iQ software during the evaluation phase with shots that were previously impossible such as a five-man dog-pile and other complex multiple performer moves. The system was still able to achieve accurate results. With Vicon MX in hand, companies like Square-Enix will be able to motion capture multiple performers for their titles with higher detail and fidelity," Muir added.

Casual Games Interview: Big Fish Games

VP Of marketing Ken Wells talks about their fast growing casual games publisher.

Road To The IGF: Joe Bourrie & Patrick Hackett (Rumble Box)

"Rumble Box is a fast paced 3D action beat-em-up with a unique premise: all of the characters are made of simple objects which stay around in the level even after the character is defeated. The game takes place inside a giant box, and the ultimate goal of the game is to pile up enough defeated enemies to get out of the box."

On-the-Side Online Game Becomes a Full-Time Biz

The entrepreneur: Michael Ferrier, 31, is a former free-lance Web developer in Providence, R.I.

The business: Mr. Ferrier created War of Conquest, an online multiplayer strategy game. Each player is assigned a country, with the goal of developing it, collecting resources and conquering other lands. The game is free to play, but players must pay to acquire certain weapons and technologies that can give them the upper hand. The game spawned two other businesses, an advertising-supported directory of free online games and a paid search-engine-optimization program.

The payoff: Mr. Ferrier says his game attracts about 2,000 players a day, and between 50 and 150 people typically are playing at any given time.

The game allowed him to stop free-lancing in 2003. His earnings vary greatly, depending on the time of year. Mr. Ferrier says the range is typically about $4,000 to $10,000 a month. Not surprisingly, he says, his best months tend to coincide with school breaks.

Each business scaled up from nothing, Mr. Ferrier says. In its first month, the game made about $400. Earnings for the directory were nil in its first year, and those for LinkMachine were about $100. Until recently, the game generated most of Mr. Ferrier's income. But LinkMachine is catching up, averaging about $5,000 in monthly revenues in the past two months.

Russian Games Conference dates, venue confirmed

Taking place at the Kosmos Hotel in Moscow from April 7th-9th, the event is designed to enable developers a unique focal point to share experience, meet colleagues and communicate their ideas and products to the professional public.

Russian Game Developer's Conference, or KRI, is an annual professional event devoted to game development, publishing and distribution. Since its inception in 2003, KRI has quickly established as Russia's leading event of the type, offering developers unique chance to share experience, meet colleagues and communicate their ideas and works to professional public. Not only has KRI attracted industry representatives from ex-USSR countries, but also from abroad. Every annual KRI has been attended by renowned game developers that are known across the planet.

Kojima: 'Games Are Not Art'

According to Kojima, one main reason games aren't art is because videogames are meant to appeal to a much wider range of people than a piece of art. Where an artist is looking to connect with that one special person, videogames are made to be more accessible to more people.

Racing video game found after crash kills Toronto taxi driver, police say Wed Jan 25, 2:22 PM ET

TORONTO (CP) - Two teens accused of racing luxury cars on city streets before crashing into a taxi and killing its immigrant driver may have been influenced by a popular video game, police said Wednesday.

A copy of Need for Speed, which allows players to select custom high-end cars and race in crowded urban areas, was found on the front seat of one of the suspect's cars, said Toronto police Det. Paul Lobsinger. "Here we have, in real life, two guys driving high-end cars at a high rate of speed in an urban area," Lobsinger said.

"I don't think it's a giant leap for people to say, 'Wow, how does this go together?' "

The 18-year-old friends were racing a pair of Mercedes Benzes through one of the city's wealthiest neighbourhoods Tuesday night when one slammed into the cab as it made a left turn, investigators allege.

The impact crushed the taxi against a utility pole, killing 46-year-old driver Tahir Khan.

The married father of two young children immigrated to Canada six years ago from Pakistan, said Jim Bell, general manager of Diamond Taxicab Association.

"He was working to... reunite his family in Canada, and lived the Canadian dream," Bell said.

"Right now there's a tremendous sense of loss among our driver community and among our company in general . . . Tahir's dream for him and his family has been ended."

Witnesses reported the cars going 130 to 140 kilometres per hour down the 50 km/h road, Lobsinger said.

The driver of the Mercedes involved in the crash ended up with a few scratches, while the other left the scene, officers said.

Alexander Ryazanov and Wang-Piao Ross are charged with criminal negligence causing death. Ross is also charged with failing to stop after an accident causing death.

They were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday afternoon.

January 25, 2006

Bethesda Officially Acquires Star Trek License
Officials from The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda Softworks have announced that the company has acquired the exclusive license to make Star Trek video games across all formats, following unofficial reports to that effect over the past few days.

The move follows the high profile legal confrontation between previous license holder Activision and Viacom, in which Activision accused Viacom of letting “the once proud 'Star Trek' franchise stagnate and decay.” The disagreement was apparently brought to an amicable conclusion in March of last year, at which time it was implied that Activision would retain the license until 2009.

However, following Bethesda's unveiling of new game Star Trek: Legacy, from Empire Earth II and Star Trek: Armada II developer Mad Doc Software, Bethesda has now confirmed it owns the game license for all television and movie incarnations of the science fiction series.

“Being able to work with the entire universe of this beloved series is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us,” said Todd Vaughn, vice president of development for Bethesda Softworks. “We have some great ideas about where we want to go with this license and having the exclusive right to develop and publish Star Trek games across all platforms ensures that every Star Trek game will be a quality game worthy of its name.”

Star Trek: Legacy, based on all five TV series, will be released on PC and Xbox 360 formats in September. The company also announced a previously unknown title named Star Trek: Tactical Command for the PSP and Nintendo DS portables – developed by Star Trek: Starfleet Command developer Quicksilver Software.

Though not specifically mentioned, it appears that Bethesda’s acquisition of the license will have no effect on Perpetual Entertainment’s currently in development Star Trek Online massively multiplayer role-playing game. Many multiformat media licensors, such as Marvel, have treated massively multiplayer online games as a separate issue in the past.

January 25, 2006

Take-Two Firms Up Results, Switches Directors, Confirms Fire
Rockstar and 2K Games parent Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. has announced its official final results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended October 31, 2005, following a recent postponement of its results filing, due to an inventory management system change, and disclosures that the company did not maintain timely controls over the accuracy of some of its accounts.

The unchanged and expected results in the fourth quarter ended October 31, 2005 showed revenue of $308.2 million, compared to $438.0 million for the same period in 2004 when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas launched, and the company saw a $19.2 million profit, identical to that predicted in its preliminary results early in January. Though profitable, the results compared poorly to 2004's $62.6 million fourth quarter profit.

Overall, revenues for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2005 increased 6% to $1.20 billion from $1.13 billion for the prior year, and overall profit of $37.5 million compared to a $65.4 million in the previous fiscal year.

However, a simultaneously announced Board Of Directors reshuffle saw Barbara A. Kaczynski, the Audit Committee chair at Take-Two, resigning, likely due to the problems the company has had with filing its accounts on time. Take-Two now expects to file its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2005 by the close of business on February 1, 2006, significantly later than intended. In a related move, Michael J. Malone, the recently retired Chairman of DMX Music, has been added to the Take-Two board, and existing board member Todd Emmel has been appointed acting Chairman of the Audit Committee.

Separately, Take-Two officially announced that a fire had damaged the Manhattan based offices of 2K Games, Global Star and Joytech North America, as previously reported on Gamasutra. Take-Two noted that no employees were injured, but due to the significant damage sustained to these leased offices, it has temporarily relocated all of these employees, consisting primarily of marketing and administrative personnel, and to a limited extent, product testing personnel. While Take-Two is still determining the overall financial and operational impact of the fire, it announced that it does not expect any significant effect on its business.

February 1, 2006

American Indians Call For Gun Boycott
Representatives of the Association for American Indian Development (AAID) have announced the launch of a boycotting campaign against Activision for publishing Neversoft's Western title Gun. In a statement on website www.boycottgun.com, they complain that the game contains “very disturbing racist and genocidal elements toward Native Americans”.

The website lists a number of specific complaints concerning the game, including the requirement to kill and scalp Apache Indians. The AAID also raises concerns over what it describes as the implied righteousness of these action towards Native Americans and the necessity to kill multiple Apaches in order to progress through the game.

The AAID also question whether any other racial group would ever be treated in a similar manner and complain that the alternative reality game (ARG) used to promote the initial release failed to feature any positive portrayal of American Indians, despite being set in the 21st century.

The organization’s complaints clearly come after a thorough appraisal of the game than many criticisms of other high profile titles such as Grand Theft Auto. The AAID have even gone so far as to praise the treatment of American Indians in Rockstar’s Red Dead Revolver, as well as similar analogies in Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath.

However, Gun was released in late 2005, and its popularity on shelves has already waned, making it less likely that any major results will occur from this attempted boycott and petition.

February 2, 2006

EA Announces Profits Down 31%, Following Layoffs
Video game publishing and development giant Electronic Arts has announced relatively disappointing financial results for the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2005. The results showed net revenue of $1.270 billion, down 11 percent as compared with $1.428 billion for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2004, and a still significant profit for the quarter of $259 million that was nonetheless down 31% on a $375 million profit for the prior year.

The announcement came shortly after yesterday's news that the firm was cutting around 5% of its worldwide staff, estimated by independent sources at more than 300 employees in total, following a cautionary conference call in mid-December regarding the slowing hardware-transitional video game market.

However, the results came in under even reduced analyst estimates, following EA's previous warning. But the company's announcement that the firm had 22 percent revenue share in North America and 23 percent revenue share in Europe, as well as four of the top 10 titles in North America and six of the top 10 titles in Europe in 2005 seems to have stayed the company's stock price somewhat. While being down over a dollar on the day to $53.58, EA's NASDAQ-traded stock rebounded up almost a dollar to $54.55 in after-market trading.

Analyst predictions from earlier today seem to indicate that the market will improve significantly into 2007 and 2008, as the next-gen console installed base shoots up significantly, and EA's relative position in the market will still be extremely positive as that happens. Nonetheless, the console hardware transition period is making the company's reduced profits difficult to swallow for investors.

According to the EA statement, sales were driven by Need for Speed Most Wanted, FIFA 06, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Sims 2 and Madden NFL 06, each of which sold over two million copies in the quarter. NBA Live 06, SSX On Tour, Tiger PGA TOUR 06, From Russia with Love and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat also had respectable sales, each selling over one million copies in the quarter worldwide.

"We ended 2005 in a very strong competitive position," said Larry Probst, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We were number one on the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, PSP and PC in both North America and Europe. We also had a successful launch on the Xbox 360 and expect that we will be the number one publisher on this platform in 2006."

"Calendar 2006 will be a year of investment ahead of revenues," said Warren Jenson, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. "Our resources will be focused on next-generation software and the global expansion of our online and mobile businesses."

Ubisoft To Bring LOSTMAGIC™ To The Nintendo DS™ System This Spring
Press release supplied by Games Press 17:38 02/02/2006

LONDON, UK – 2ND FEBRUARY, 2006 – Today Ubisoft, one of the world's leading video game publishers announced that it will publish and distribute LOSTMAGICTM, the Taito-developed role-playing action video game for the Nintendo DSTM system in North America and Europe this spring.

"LOSTMAGIC brings role-playing games on the DS to a new level, capitalising on the innovative and unique gameplay abilities such as casting spells with the stylus and the global connectivity of the Wi-Fi mode," said Tony Kee, vice president of marketing at Ubisoft. "Ubisoft is proud to continue in its tradition of bringing cutting-edge games to gamers worldwide."

In LOSTMAGICTM, designed by renowned art director Yoshiharu Sato, peace in the world is challenged by a new evil force. The only hope lies with the wizard Isaac and the seven magic wands left behind by the creator. Monsters wield unimaginable power in this realm, and as Issac, the player will use the stylus to unleash magic spells and command numerous monster squads in magical battles.

Key Features:

Cast Spells With the Stylus! – Your stylus becomes your magic wand! Use different motions to unleash your magic.

Evolving Magic System – Players can combine up to three single spells to create more than 350 magic combinations using a symbol system exclusive to the DS.

Collect and Command Monsters – Learn to use each monster's special skill to gain the advantage in battle.

Use the Stylus to Open Up a New Frontier in RPGs – Experience strategy like never before! LOSTMAGIC's innovative RTS-type RPG makes full use of the unique capabilities of the DS. Control your units directly on-screen using a point-and-click interface that PC strategy gamers have enjoyed for years.

Challenge Others via Nintendo Wi-Fi connectivity – Create new characters and challenge friends over a Wi-Fi connection. In Dueling mode, players can test their magic casting skills and strategies against each other

PopCap Sponsors Casuality Europe 2006
Press release supplied by Games Press 17:56 02/02/2006

At Casuality Europe 2006 next week, PopCapTM Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games for Web, PC/Mac, mobile phones and other digital entertainment platforms, will celebrate the recent opening of its new international offices in Dublin, Ireland with a lead sponsorship role at the conference, a conference party and senior PopCap executives presenting at the event. (More info on Casuality Europe can be found at www.casuality.org)

Among the activities and announcements from PopCap at Casuality Europe will be:

International Headquarters Now Open: As detailed in a separate press release issued yesterday, PopCap has opened a new office in Dublin Ireland to manage its international business. The new PopCap International is focused on supporting existing overseas partners as well as establishing new partnerships in Europe and Asia, and providing game and website development, business development and localization support to those partners.

European Partnerships: Several senior executives from PopCap International and PopCap's headquarters in Seattle, Washington will attend the Casuality Europe conference. PopCap will be meeting with current and prospective international business partners to jointly determine how best to further the casual games market in Europe. (International business inquiries can be directed to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected])

PopCap Party: From 19:00 to 21:30 on the evening of Wednesday, February 8, PopCap will host an invitation-only fete for conference speakers, steering committee members and business partners at NJOY, one of the hottest night spots in Amsterdam located just outside the famous Red Light District. Food and drink will be provided, and serious schmoozing and networking are encouraged!

Speakers/Presenters: Several PopCap senior executives will be among the featured presenters at Casuality Europe 2006, including Jason Kapalka (co-founder and Chief Creative Officer) and James Gwertzman (Director of Business Development). Be sure to catch their panels and say hello!

For press information on PopCap, please contact Garth Chouteau: [email protected] / 415-602-8147

PopCap is a trademark, and PopCap Games is a registered trademark, of PopCap Games, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners, without intent to infringe.

February 2, 2006

Game On Exhibition Returns To Chicago In 2.0 Form
Following its recent installation at the San Jose Tech Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has announced that it will be the next museum to host the 'Game On' video game exhibition, following a successful previous engagement in the same facility from March to September of 2005, which saw more than 125,000 visitors.

This hands-on exhibit, originally organized by the Barbican Art Gallery, London in collaboration with the National Museums of Scotland. will offer visitors a chance to play over 100 of their favorite games, and the official site for the exhibition explains that this enhanced 'Game On 2.0' version includes 20 newly added game titles, including arcade favorite Centipede, as well as Pro Evolution Soccer 5, Madden NFL 06 and Star Wars Battlefront II.

'Game On' explores the world of video gaming from 1962 to today, with sections including 'Japanese Character Design', 'The Making And Marketing Of Games', and 'Early Arcade', with playable arcade games including Asteroids, Ms Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders, and console titles including Mario 64, Secret of Monkey Island, Bubble Bobble, Adventure, Animal Crossing and R-Type. A full list (PDF link) of the titles is available at the museum's website.

Game On 2.0 is returning to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry from February 3 to April 30, 2006, and the Museum will be raffling off a Sony PSP console each day to a randomly picked visitor.

“Video gaming is a $10 billion industry that has a huge following in today’s culture, and this exhibit is a great way to discover the story behind game development, while having a great time playing a variety of games from around the world,” said Scott Beveridge, the Museum’s multimedia exhibit manager and the exhibit producer. “We found that during last year’s run of this exhibit, guests wanted to come back more than once for the Game On experience, and it was clear that it would be a great exhibit to bring back to the Museum.”

Player X and Codemasters join forces on mobile games
Press release supplied by Games Press 15:31 02/02/2006

In a major thumbs-up for the mobile games industry, legendary UK publisher Codemasters has appointed mobile games publisher and distributor Player X as its exclusive global distribution partner for the titles TOCA Race Driver 3 and Sensible Soccer Skillz.

Player X will distribute both mobile titles in territories where Codemasters does not have direct operator contracts.

Codemasters Mobile, the company's recently formed division dedicated to wireless entertainment, will publish TOCA Race Driver 3 (in 2D and 3D editions) and Sensible Soccer Skillz in Q2. Player X will distribute these titles to more than 70 operators in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

"These titles make use of two of Codemasters' key brands and Player X is perfectly placed to expand our reach thanks to its extensive distribution network. Our partnership with Player X is another solid foundation for Codemasters to build its presence in the mobile gaming space. Further titles planned though this and next year will enable us to establish more direct distribution relationships," said Matt Davies, Codemasters Mobile Director.

The announcement underscores how important the medium has become for traditional videogames publishers. According to a report by Strategy Analytics, the market for mobile games will be worth $7 billion by 2009 accounting for a whopping one billion sales.

"This is a great deal for both parties. Codemasters' titles are some of the most sought-after in the mobile industry and we're honoured to be taking these titles to all parts of the planet. We're privileged to be involved and hope this marks the beginning of a long relationship between the two companies," said Tony Pearce, Player X CEO.

In recent months, Player X has launched mobile games based on classic TV game shows titles from FremantleMedia such as Family Fortunes and The Price Is Right. Player X was also the exclusive publisher of the only mobile game based on the Oscar-nominated US Box Office No 1 movie, Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

February 2, 2006

Jon Peddie Research Shows Q4 Nvidia Boost
Jon Peddie Research, a consulting firm for graphics and multimedia hardware companies, has revealed its estimates for the relative success of each graphics card company currently in the market. The company's results are based on estimates of market share for the calendar year of 2005, rather than individual companies' fiscal years.

According to Peddie Research, with a winning streak fueled by good products and ATI’s manufacturing problems, Nvidia soared ahead in Q4 2005 to grab 52% of the standalone PC graphics card market. In addition, VIA leapt ahead 50% in the integrated graphics card space to pick up 24% of the market, while Intel slid from 61% to 50% in the same period for integrated graphics cards.

The total PC desktop market for graphics cards, both discrete and integrated, is currently led by Intel with 32% of the share, down somewhat from 2004's 37%. ATI has maintained its share of 24% through both years, and its closest rival Nvidia is closing the gap by improving its share from 22% to 23%. Lesser-known manufacturers such as VIA/S3 and SiS claimed 15% and 6%, respectively, with all other graphics card companies making up less than 1% of the total.

Peddie's research into the mobile graphics card area revealed ATI leading slightly over Nvidia, with Intel and VIA in third and fourth place. Not mentioned was the console graphics card market, where Nvidia and ATI will battle during the next-generation console wars: ATI's graphics chips will power both Nintendo's system, codenamed Revolution, as well as the already-released Xbox 360, while Nvidia's graphics processors will be found in Sony's PlayStation 3, expected to be released late in 2006.

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter revises projections; expects a transitional slump before pronounced growth in 2007 and 2008.

It's barely a month into 2006 and clouds are already gathering in the gaming industry's financial forecast for the year.

In a note to investors titled "Flirting with Disaster: The Prequel," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter revised his projections for the gaming industry's next three years, saying the firm's previous projection of steady growth is out the window. Instead, Pachter expects combined software sales for the US and Europe to decline 3 percent over the course of 2006 as a result of the market's transition to next-generation consoles.

Pachter notes that during the three-month period leading up to the heavily anticipated November 22 Xbox 360 launch, console and PC software sales in the US were down 21.6 percent. Believing that consumers were holding off on making current-generation purchases in favor of waiting for next-gen products, Pachter thinks it's a trend that could repeat itself, specifically when Sony announces a launch date for the PlayStation 3. Currently Pachter expects that system to arrive in October, meaning the industry's transitional slump could last until late 2006. Pachter didn't pin a date on the Revolution's launch, but did say its 2006 software sales were expected to be about the same as the PS3's, so he still expects it this year.

However, the good news is that once the Xbox 360, PS3, and Revolution have established their user bases, Pachter expects pronounced growth in 2007 and 2008, so much so that the industry will end the next three years up almost 32 percent. That was above his previous predictions of a 29 percent increase from 2005 to 2008.

Gamers can also expect another round of price cuts, according to Pachter's note. He projected 2006 price drops for the redesigned PlayStation 2 (with $129 and $99 floated as two possible price points) and the Game Boy Advance SP (from $79 to $59). Pachter said the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS should also fall in price, although he gave no projection as to how substantial those cuts would be.

A couple of days ago, we brought word of a Sony employee that had been brutally honest about the PS3’s current state. He posted a lengthy review of the PS3 console on Down in Front.

DICE cancels current-generation versions of new title
Rob Fahey 15:39 06/02/2006
PS2 and Xbox SKUs dropped in landmark decision for Electronic Arts

Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE has announced that the Xbox and PS2 versions of a new untitled project, due for launch in 2007, have been cancelled - but the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable versions are still in the works.

No details about the content of the game have yet been announced, but it is believed to be a new original franchise created by DICE. It was originally scheduled for "2006/07", but with the cancellation of the current generation versions, is now scheduled for 2007 release.

The decision to drop the PS2 and Xbox versions, which were being developed at Electronic Arts' UK studio rather than in DICE's Stockholm studio, is as a result of the declining sales of software for both platforms, according to the company.

BIGresearch Releases Game Platform Racial Demographics
BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Study VII, a survey of over 15,000 participants during December 2005, yielded as one of its results a look into the racial demographics of the current crop of video game systems. The study examined the game platform ownership of groups of white, black, and Hispanic gamers aged 18-24 and 25-34, in an effort to assist marketers with targeting game advertising toward specific groups.

In the 18-24 segment, the overall most popular gaming platform was the PC -- though the specific wording of the question, "Which of the following video game platforms are currently used in your home," may simply mean that more respondents had a PC that could theoretically play games. However, usage among white respondents greatly outstripped the Hispanic and especially black respondents. Parity was more apparent with PlayStation 2 usage, where all three groups indicated around 50% ownership. The most common racial group to own no game platforms at all was the black respondents.

In the 25-34 segment, things changed slightly: fewer respondents all around reported PC game usage, and the black respondents came out ahead in PS2 ownership. The older black gamers also used handheld systems such as Game Boy Advance and PSP on a rate more consistent with the other demographics, compared to the younger set who were less likely to have a handheld console.

Gameloft signs Indian distribution deal
by Paul Loughrey 31/01/2006 16:13
Games portfolio now available for Hutch customers

Paris-based mobile game publisher and developer, Gameloft, has announced the signing of a direct distribution agreement with Indian telecom firm, Hutch.

Under the terms of the agreement, each of Hutch's 13 million-plus customers will now have access to Gameloft's extensive portfolio of current and back-catalogue mobile games.

Ravi Kumar, Gameloft's business development manager, commented: "We are very happy to have signed this agreement with Hutch and this deal demonstrates our dedication to our direct distribution strategy. Moreover, Hutch's dynamism and outstanding customer service will be a perfect complement to Gameloft's excellent games and strong brands."

Gameloft games are available to customers on a pay-per-download basis, making it easy for an entirely new audience to enjoy the full selection of top-selling and casual games in the company's expansive catalogue, including Gameloft's brand new Prince of Persia: the Two Thrones and the top selling game for December, King Kong: the Official Mobile Game of the Movie.

Elevation Partners may be eyeing Take Two acquisition - report
Rob Fahey 16:15 06/02/2006
$1 billion bid may be on the cards, as Riccitiello's firm is attached to another takeover

The New York Post is reporting that Elevation Partners, the high-profile investment firm headed up by former EA boss John Riccitiello, is considering acquiring publisher Take Two Interactive in a deal worth up to $1 billion.

In a report published yesterday, the Post claims that Elevation has teamed up with Pequot Capital, a hedge fund which owns a significant chunk of stock in the embattled publisher - which is currently facing further lawsuits over last year's "Hot Coffee" affair, where a hidden "pornographic" game was found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Elevation's involvement with the videogames industry is significant - the fund, which numbers celebrities such as U2 frontman Bono among its major investors, previously tried to buy British publisher Eidos, but its bid was beaten by one from SCi.

Late last year, however, Elevation got the entry into the industry it was seeking when it acquired leading North American developers Bioware and Pandemic, merging them into a single "super-developer" in a deal worth some $300 million.

Rumours over Elevation's intentions in the games industry have been rife since the firm first expressed an interest in buying Eidos. Industry gossip has attached the company to the current acquisition talks ongoing at the newly expanded SCi, as well as to a possible takeover of British studio Lionhead.

However, the Take Two acquisition would be a huge risk for Elevation - and analysts at Banc of America Securities believe that any takeover of Take Two is unlikely, despite reports to the contrary in the US press last week.

"We do not believe that TTWO is a good acquisition of LBO candidate," analysts at the firm stated bluntly in a research note issued last week. "We believe key employee retention, over-dependence on one title, high cost structure, cash burn, and mounting liabilities, are some important reasons why an acquisition of TTWO is highly unlikely."

February 6, 2006

Foundation 9 To Open New Canadian Studio
Foundation 9 Entertainment, the largest independent videogame developer in North America, in collaboration with techPEI, announced today that it is opening a new studio in Canada. The new studio will be located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and aims to employ approximately 20 people by the end of 2006.

“Foundation 9 continues to grow at a pace that outstrips the rest of the gaming industry,” says Co-President Andrew Ayre. “This latest studio not only gives us additional resources to make great games, it also brings a thriving company to a region of Canada keen for economic growth in the technology sector.”

techPEI, a government corporation charged with development of the technology industry in Prince Edward Island, specifically targeted Foundation 9 Entertainment as a growing company in the gaming industry and offered financial support for the creation of the new studio to help cover set-up and ongoing development costs.

"Not only is there an abundance of untapped talent out there, but the government support makes our costs competitive with overseas solutions,” says Jeff Vavasour, VP of Canadian Operations. “We're gratified to be able to offer these employment opportunities domestically. It’s a win-win.”

The studio in Charlottetown will carry the brand of Backbone Entertainment and will have the capabilities to develop for all platforms, including next generation consoles. Backbone Charlottetown will be the seventh studio in the Foundation 9 family, joining existing studios in Newport Beach, Emeryville, Eugene, Vancouver, Boston and a relatively little-known Backbone satellite studio in Hawaii.

Backbone Charlottetown is expected to be up and running by the beginning of March.

February 6, 2006

Report: GPS Add-On, Email Service For PSP In 2006
An article in the March edition of video game magazine PSM has suggested that the previously unveiled GPS (global positioning system) peripheral for Sony's PlayStation portable will be released this year, following an early showing for a prototype of the device at E3 2004.

The add-on attaches to the USB 2.0 port of the console and uses a UMD containing navigation software and street data. Updated street data will apparently be available to buy on additional UMDs, although no suggestion is made that data can also be downloaded directly to the console.

In addition PSM's report, credited to 'sources familiar with the PSP's U.S. product management' suggested that a forthcoming firmware update for the PSP, available either as a download or included on new UMDs, will include an integrated e-mail client named Sony Mail, following the recent integration of a web browser onto the PSP's operating system.

The client will apparently use the unique ID number assigned to each PSP to eliminate the possibility of any confusing server setup. The program will not therefore require users to access a website, but will instead allow them to choose a unique username to associate with their PSP’s ID number.

Sony has not officially commented on this report, leaving it currently unconfirmed, but PSM's report jibes with the company's wish to continue to devote significant time to the PSP’s other features, as well as its use as a video game handheld.

February 7, 2006

Ubisoft Opens Dallas Offices
Ubisoft, a France-based video game publisher, has opened another branch of its worldwide operations in Dallas, Texas. The offices will focus on sales rather than the development work done in its Montreal, San Francisco, and Singapore locations, and the location was chosen due to its proximity to major video game retailers.

"Ubisoft is excited to open a new office in Dallas, where many of the top video game retailers are located," said VP of sales Yasmin Naboa. "Ubisoft will now have the opportunity to work more closely with retailers to increase sales growth and enhance our already strong relationships with partners in the region."

The Dallas location will be headed by Ana Raphael and Linda Reese, both directors of sales at the company. The two will lead a sales team based in the area, focusing on supporting retailers and strengthening regional partnerships.

Red Cross condemns misuse of emblem in videogames
Ellie Gibson 14:03 07/02/2006
Organisation hopes to set up dialogue with developers

The British Red Cross has told GamesIndustry.biz that it hopes to work with developers to prevent the "illegal and detrimental" misuse of the red cross emblem in videogames.

"It is important for videogame manufacturers not to use the emblem in their games, including for matters related to its humanitarian purpose, such as first aid or general medical care," said Michael Meyer, head of international law for the British Red Cross.

"The use of the emblem in videogames is both illegal and detrimental to the special protective value of the emblem."

Meyer's comments come after US website GameLaw.org published a letter from David Pratt of the Canadian Red Cross complaining about the "unauthorised and indeed illegal use of the Red Cross emblem by the [gaming] industry."

"The fact that the Red Cross is also used in [videogames] which contain strong language and violence is also of concern to us in that they directly conflict with the basic humanitarian principles espoused by the Red Cross movement," Pratt stated.

Meyer said this view was shared by the British Red Cross, which "has been aware of this problem for a number of years" and would welcome a dialogue with game developers "in order to prevent further misuse of the emblem and to try to stop current misuses."

"We would be willing to work with a videogame manufacturer to produce a game which shows the emblem in its correct use, as a symbol of protection during armed conflict, and where the player is rewarded for using the emblem correctly. Such a game could reward the player for respecting the rules of war and thereby, help the Red Cross Movement with its work to promote such respect," Meyer continued.

"The help of videogame manufacturers in protecting the integrity of the emblem, and upholding its special meaning, would be much appreciated."

Half-Life 2 Goes Episodic

Valve Software reveals that the Aftermath expansion pack will now be the first in a series of episodic content.

Valve Software has revealed to GameSpot that Aftermath, the upcoming expansion pack to the award-winning 2004 shooter Half-Life 2, has been renamed "Half-Life 2: Episode One." When asked whether the name change is indicative of a change in direction for the Half-Life 2 franchise, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi replied, "episodic." When asked the follow-up question of whether the new name meant that beginning of a regular flow of content, Lombardi replied, "yes."

This change in focus may not be surprising to fans of Valve who are familiar with the company's online delivery service, Steam. The company recently announced that it was partnering with developer Ritual Entertainment to produce SiN Episodes, a series of episodic games on a regular basis that would be distributed online via the Steam service. GameSpot will have more updates on Half-Life 2: Episode One as they become available.

Microsoft joining others to prepare mobile-game rules

By Bloomberg News

Microsoft has joined video-game makers including Electronic Arts, the largest publisher, to create standards for games played on cellular telephones and other mobile communications devices.

The developers plan to produce an initial set of mobile-game standards in the second half of this year, the companies said Friday. Other firms working on the standard include Nokia, the world's largest cellphone maker; Texas Instruments; Activision; and Samsung Electronics.

Developing a common set of standards will help hold down costs for companies that publish games for wireless devices.

Building separate games for devices that use different software and hardware standards adds cost and takes more time. For consumers, that can reduce choice and increase retail costs, the companies said.

"The structure for developing content for mobile platforms is heavily fragmented, so there is a need," said Paul-Jon McNealy, an American Technology Research analyst. "Standards bodies are usually very challenged to get things passed — everyone has an agenda."

Jazz Jackrabbit PSP Port
Homebrew port - with original music!
by Jane Pinckard, 02/14/2006

It's been fascinating to watch the PSP homebrew and shareware scene growing, with some very sophisticated products coming out, including a port of Jazz Jackrabbit, http://www.psphome.com/index.php?do=viewarticle&id=488 an old Epic MegaGames platformer http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/111 for the PC.

Smart companies have been rapidly dusting off their classic games http://www.gamebrew.com/en/?OV...assic%20game&OVMTC=content to breathe new life into them in handhelds, which is smart; because if they don't do it, then gamers will do it themselves.

PSP Nintendogs: The Dog Happy Life
No whistling or stylus-petting, but lots of accessories.
by Jane Pinckard, 02/14/2006

It's here at long last: the PSP's answer to the juggernaut of Nintendogs, brought to us by Yuke's Media Creations. PSPHome.com has a screenshot http://www.psphome.com/index.php?do=viewarticle&id=487 Yup, looks pretty Nintendoggy.

Without the built-in mic and stylus, though, is The Dog Happy Life doomed to be a pale imitation? Not if they can pack some unique features to appeal to PSP-toting dog owners. The game's due to come out in Japan in late April. No word yet on a North American or European release.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Games industry revenues will double over the next five years: Study

Rapid growth projected for online and mobile gaming

A new study by ABI Research predicts a doubling in size of the videogames market by 2011, estimating revenues of USD 65.9 billion and highlighting a rapid increase in online and mobile gaming.

According to the study, the current hardware platforms (PC, console and handheld devices) will remain significant and continue to generate growth, but it is online, connected and wireless gaming that will drive the industry's expansion in the coming years.

Michael Wolf, principal analyst of broadband and multimedia research at ABI, commented: "The online console gaming market is set to take off, as the new generation of consoles arrives with advanced networking and online gaming capabilities. The ability to download game demos, buy casual as well as full-fledged console games, and access advanced content, including HD video, will result in online becoming the key technology component of gaming for this and subsequent console generations."

As speculation floats around about a Microsoft handheld games and media device, a web video and a cryptic website indicate something new is coming...

Casual games -- good, clean, cheap fun online

By Marc Saltzman
Gannett News Service
Tuesday, February 28, 2006; Posted: 1:01 p.m. EST (18:01 GMT)

Casual games, those five-minute diversions you play for a quick break but somehow end up clicking away on for two hours, have become one of the fastest-growing categories of computer gaming.

While sales of boxed PC games at retail are on a steep decline -- 38 million games sold in the United States for 2005 compared with 47 million games sold in 2004, according to retail marking consultant the NPD Group -- casual games are now enjoyed by an estimated 100 million PC users, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Downloads will replace traditional media within 10 years, says EA VP

EA's European VP of sales, Dr. Jens Uwe Intat, has given the clearest signal yet of the firm's commitment to digital distribution - stating that within the next ten years, "all entertainment media will be downloaded to a device."

Speaking at the firm's European HQ in Chertsey, Dr. Intat told GamesIndustry.biz that ten years from now "CDs, DVDs and boxed games will be as antiquated as cassette tapes and vinyl records."

He gave the examples of Apple's iTunes, the massive ring-tone business, and the growing trade in digital books as clear indicators of where media distribution technology is headed, and predicted that new business models would emerge to complement the existing up-front payment model as digital distribution became more popular.

However, Dr. Intat was adamant that EA and other videogame publishers would not allow the situation which has arisen in the music industry - where Apple's dominance of digital distribution with the iTunes Music Store has allowed them to set prices independently of the wishes of major music publishers - to be repeated here.

"I think the music industry has actually let iTunes happen," he said. "The music industry had been working on a model like that for years - they just couldn't agree on a standard, on how to share the cake. They were fighting all the time, instead of going for it, and then a new company actually came into that space, started with a technology model - and then dictated the software, and how the content would be distributed."

"Right now, iTunes is pretty much a monopoly," he continued. "They have, I don't know, around 80 to 90 per cent market share. We still have three large players in the console business, plus we have the PC as a fourth hardware device, not to mention the handhelds. This is a much more fragmented industry - we don't have one company that has a monopoly - and we as a total industry, software publishers and hardware manufacturers, are already sitting together and working on business models. We're actually trying to make the cake as big as possible, rather than fighting over the crumbs."

While Dr. Intat's comments are the clearest indication yet of EA's belief in a future where all videogame content is downloaded rather being sold in physical form, he was guarded in his response to a query about what this meant for traditional retailers.

"Firstly, traditional retailers are also entering the online space," he said. "The Wal-Marts of the world are competing with the Amazons of the world in traditional products - and they will do so in the online space."

"Secondly, there will always be - well, always is a little too far-reaching maybe, but for a very long time there will still be distribution of physical products. We should not underestimate the value of the reach that we do have today with our products - the impulse purchases that people are making, and that there are a huge amount of consumers out there who still want to buy physical products. The gift market also, the parents and grandmothers who still want to purchase presents for kids, and will still continue purchasing products in physical form," he concluded.

Jednostavne igre sve popularnije

Prema pisanju na CNN-ovim Technology stranicama, svi mi koji se bakćemo instalacijom WOW-a, America's Armyja, Battlefielda i drugih igara, zapravo smo izumiruća vrsta. Tako je prodaja ovih "boxed" igara, dakle onih koje se prodaju u dućanima pala u SAD-u u 2005. na 38 milijuna komada, u odnosu na 47 milijuna igara prodanih godinu ranije. U isto to vrijeme prema istraživanju NPD Groupa, malene shareware igre koje u istraživanju nazivaju "casual games" poput onih koje možete naći na Bugovom DVD-u i Enterovom CD-u su u stalnom porastu. Procjena je, a točnih podataka nema, da ih je prošle godine igralo preko 100 milijuna igrača.

Kao "casual games" David Roberts iz PopCap Gamesa definira nenasilne igre tipa slgalica, kvizova i "klasičnih" arkadnih igara u stilu arkanoida, te raznih tetrisoida.

Kao razlog sve veće popularnosti ovih lame-ass igara u CNN-u navode shareware i try-before-you-buy koncept, koji omogućava potencijalnim kupcima da vide o čemu se radi prije nego odluče dati 10, 15 ili 20 dolara za neku takvu igru, nasuprot cijene od 40 do 60 dolara koliko prosječno koštaju "velike" igre u dućanima, a koje obično nije moguće isprobati.

Report Predicts Massive Outsourcing Rise

A new report from media research company Screen Digest has highlighted a marked increase in developers outsourcing game development costs to alternative services providers, many located in Eastern Europe and South Asia.

The report, named Outsourcing in Next Generation Games Development, estimates that the market for game outsourcing, largely insignificant just five years ago, will reach $1.1 billion by the end of 2006 and is set to grow to $2.5 billion by 2010, representing around 40 percent of total game development spend.

The sudden increase is attributed to the arrival of the next generation of games consoles. Screen Digest predicts that publishers, console manufacturers and developers will be able to cap rising costs to 20 percent by keeping team sizes stable and outsourcing large projects to specialist outsourced studios. It further estimates that 60 percent of games studios outsource to some extent today, with this figure rising to 90 percent by 2008.

The report’s author, Rick Gibson comments: "Outsourcing is in wide use today, but it is not a magic wand. You get what you pay for in the trade-off between price and quality, but the real costs of outsourcing are often below the line. This is forcing the industry to undergo a fundamental shift towards stronger project management skills, which have been lacking in many organizations."

Outsourcing's common pitfalls are listed as low quality delivery, lack of due diligence and poor briefing by clients. Benefits include the reduction in development costs, accessing a flexible and temporary resource base and focusing staffs work on higher value work.

Demand for quality art and animation is expected to soon outstrip supply, with the result of rising prices, continued suppression of the number of new titles in development, an increase of financing into the games services sector and a number of new market entrants, particularly traditional media companies, whose entrance the report predicts as “slow, difficult but ultimately beneficial for the games industry as a whole”.

They are, according to Microsoft’s “vision” for its pay-per-click service adCenter. With hundreds of millions of Xbox Live, Hotmail, and MSN Messenger users data at their fingertips, they feel they can offer better user data than Google or Yahoo. Microsoft is currently lagging way behind in online ad sales, with its MSN Internet division pulling in a mere $1.4 billion.

Electronic Arts: A Radical New Game Plan

The gaming giant is ditching tired tie-ins for more daring, interactive video game ideas

Video game giant Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS ) had a very simple formula for success: base a product on a popular sports or movie franchise, spend a fortune marketing it, and then push out a new version of that game year after year. The strategy netted big bucks with games based on the Harry Potter, James Bond, and Lord of the Rings movies, as well as with EA'S Madden NFL series. It also delighted investors with a reliable stream of revenue in the notoriously hit-or-miss video game business. In 2005, the company landed the No. 34 spot on the BusinessWeek 50 list of top corporate performers.

But now EA is stumbling, and a big part of its time-tested strategy is about to change. The company hopes that its next mega-franchise will revolve not around a football star, a boy wizard, or a dashing British spy, but...a microbe. The game is called Spore. Developed by Will Wright, the creator of SimCity and The Sims, it lets players design an invertebrate in its primordial stages and then guide its evolution until the creature's offspring develop into a thriving civilization with cities, religion, and spaceships. EA's ambitious goal is to create more such innovative, internally developed games while lessening the company's dependence on professional sports and Hollywood movie franchises.

Sony delays PlayStation 3 launch

The release of the much awaited PlayStation 3 (PS3) games console has been postponed until November, Japanese electronics group Sony has announced.

Technical hitches related to the console's Blu-ray DVD disc drive had forced the delay, Sony said.

Sony games chief Ken Kutaragi said they were still finalising agreements on disc copy protection technology.

Sony had been aiming for a spring launch for the successor to best-selling PlayStation 2.

Press rumours

The news was announced at a hastily convened news conference, after reports of a delay appeared in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's main financial daily newspaper.

The reports had triggered a 1.8% drop in Sony's shares to 5,470 yen ($46.56; £26.67) on the Tokyo market.

The PS3 is one of three new gaming consoles promising cutting edge processing and graphical power.

It will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which went on sale late last year in the US, and Nintendo's Revolution, which is due later this year.

Worldwide release

So far Sony has dominated the market for home consoles, with its original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 having sold more than 200 million units.

It had originally planned to release its new machine in the spring. But instead it is now talking of a November release in Japan, the US and Europe simultaneously.

In the past, Sony has staggered the launch of new consoles, with Europe coming a belated third.

"We are absolutely delighted that we will be able to bring PS3 to gamers in Europe and Australia before Christmas," said David Reeves, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

"This is an exciting first for Europe, and is a huge endorsement and vote of confidence in the strength of the European market and its importance globally."

The delay means Sony's machine will not be in the shops in the US and Japan until a year after the Xbox 360, giving Microsoft a valuable lead in building up its market share.

A problem with the launch of the console could be a major setback for the company which is struggling to revive the performance of its consumer electronics division.

In an effort to revive its fortunes the firm has undergone a major restructuring drive involving 10,000 job cuts and 11 factory closures.

Sony's performance in the $25bn games industry is set to be one of the key factors determining the success of the firm's turnaround this year.

Lei Feng is no longer a hero only in real life. He is also the hero of an online video game. To do good deeds, as many as you can, is the trick for passing each level in the online game starring Lei Feng, the Nanfang City Daily said.

Reports are trickling through this evening that Sony has indeed lost its patent case against Immersion technologies and will be forced to halt sales of its PS2 console.

Immersion last year sued Sony for infringing on its patents. Immersion claims that it owns the technology that powers the rumble in Sony's Dual Shock controllers. It also sued Microsoft for its rumble features in the Xbox, but the boys from Redmond settled out of court.

Sony fought on, and lost a case last year. However, it's been allowed to continue selling the PS2 pending appeal. If the latest reports are verified, it's lost that appeal today.

Fizika na grafičkim karticama

Igrači su se s Havokovom fizikom, koja je postavila nove kvalitatvine standarde, upoznali u igrama poput Painkillera i Maxa Paynea 2. Naravno, glavni problem je što se s tom zahtjevnom fizikom i dalje mučio glavni procesor računala. Logičan korak je prebacivanje izračunavanja fizike na posebni komad hardvera, a opet je nalogičnije da to bude upravo grafička kartica, koja nam danas ionako prvenstveno služi za kreiranje 3D scena i igrama (za obično iscrtavanje grafike u Windowsima zaista ne treba neka posebna grafička kartica).

Havok stoga u suradnji s nVidijom izrađuje fizikalni SDK za nVidijine grafičke procesore iz serije GeForce 6 i GeForce 7. Naziv SDK-a je Havok FX i trebao bi biti dostupan u drugom kvartalu 2006. godine. Grafičke kartice koje će koristiti Havok FX moraju podržavati Shader Model 3.0, ali nije jasno hoće li se shaderske jedinice koristiti za izračunavanje fizikalnog modela. Havok FX će podržavati interakciju tisuća objekata, pri čemu će se izračunavati sve: trenje, srazovi, gravitacija, masa i brzina. Također, moći će se modelirati fluidi, dim i fragmenti (npr. od eksplozije). Prva demonstracija Havok FX-a bit će na Game Developers Conference ovog tjedna u San Joseu.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Since last spring when the Xbox 360 was first announced, one of the biggest concerns was that it would be too expensive for most game developers to create games for the next-generation console.

In the end, it's hard to judge whether those concerns were valid, since the Xbox launched with a pretty solid lineup of games. However, almost all of those games were published by the big dogs of the industry: Electronic Arts, Activision, Sega and the like. Not so many mom and pop-type development shops were in the mix.

But at the Game Developers Conference here on Tuesday, the rumor is that Microsoft plans on announcing Wednesday a developers kit that would make it possible for anyone to build games for the console, or for PCs, and that the kit will cost only about $100.

Obezbediti poštovanje intelektualne svojine i zaštitu autorskih prava

Državni sekretar Ministarstva trgovine, turizma i usluga i predsednik Komisije Vlade Srbije za uništavanje zaplenjene piratske robe Vlajko Senić ocenio je da današnje uništavanje zaplenjenih nosača zvuka, slike i programskih zapisa CD-ova predstavlja samo početak procesa kojim će biti obezbeđeni poštovanje intelektualne svojine i zaštita autorskih prava u Srbiji.

Senić je na konferenciji za novinare, održanoj u kompaniji "Minel-Elip", gde je obavljeno uništavanje i koja će i ubuduće uništavati zaplenjenu piratsku robu, naglasio da je ovaj proces jedan od osnovnih preduslova za pristupanje naše zemlje Svetskoj trgovinskoj organizaciji i Evropskoj uniji.

Ministar kulture u Vladi Republike Srbije Dragan Kojadinović naglasio je da više nema čekanja kada je reč o borbi protiv piraterije i zaštiti autorskih prava.

On je posebno upozorio one koji su legalni izdavači i proizvođači, ocenjujući da su oni do sada bili najveći generatori piraterije jer su se deklarativno borili protiv nje, a praktično objavljivali mnogo manje tiraže od onih koji su izlazili iz njihovih proizvodnih hala.

Ministar trgovine, turizma i usluga u Vladi Republike Srbije Bojan Dimitrijević precizirao je da će danas započeti uništavanje 347.456 komada ili 10.442 kilograma zaplenjene robe.

Dimitrijević je ukazao na spremnost ovog ministarstva da pojača aktivnosti na suzbijanju piraterije i najavio da će i tržišna inspekcija biti aktivnija na teritoriji čitave Republike.

Član Komisije Vlade Srbije za borbu protiv piraterije Zoran Đokić naveo je da je današnje javno uništavanje piratskih proizvoda prvo javno uništavanje kod nas, uz ocenu da se piraterija, od uličnih prodavaca do proizvodnih pogona, može sprečiti samo zajedničkom akcijom svih državnih organa. (Economy, 22. mart)

Prva PC igra na spskom jeziku

Kompanije M Entertainment i Gameyus Interactive najavile su pojavljivanje prve PC video igre na srpskom jeziku. Radi se o strateškoj igri Alijansa - rat dolazi sutra.

Alijansa je strateška igra u realnom vremenu koja je u potpunosti razvijena u studiju Gameyusa u Beogradu. Igra će se u prodaji pojaviti u aprilu 2006. i to istovremeno na našem i stranom tržištu.

Igra je namenjena ljubiteljima strateških igara i modernog ratovanja. Radnja se odvija na taj način što igrač preuzima kontrolu nad elitnim borbenim jedinicama ili bira ulogu vođe boraca za slobodu koji se sukobljavaju sa snagama Alijanse. (Economy, MikroVesti 23. mart)

Retail reports are suggesting that Wal-Mart may be about to quit the UMD movie market, following a downward trend in sales. Hollywood studios are abandoning the format.
Image Reuters reports Hollywood sources saying that Wal-Mart is pulling out of UMD. The reports adds that UMD sections at retail are shrinking fast.

One unnamed president of a major studio is quoted as saying, "No one's watching movies on PSP. It's a game player, period."

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has ceased UMD production. One exec told Reuters, "Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb."

Paramount is also considering its future with PSP's format. An exec said, "We are on hiatus with UMD. Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather than the rule. No one's even breaking even on them."

Image Entertainment has moved out of UMD while 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment have reduced commitment.

New York (NY) - Confirming suspicions that Panasonic would not have Blu-ray players available prior to summer, the company announced today that it plans to ship its DMP-BD10 player in September, promising to keep its shelf price at "less than $1,500."

March 30, 2006

Ubisoft Acquires Far Cry IP Rights
Officials from French publisher developer Ubisoft have announced that the company has acquired all intellectual property rights to the Far Cry franchise from German development studio Crytek for an undisclosed sum.

According to the company, the rights will allow Ubisoft to create new entries in the Far Cry series independent of Crytek, as well as allow the company to continue to use the version of the CryENGINE graphics technology used in the current games – either for further sequels or other unrelated games. Ubisoft has already indicated it intends to adapt and improve the engine for subsequent releases.

Developer Crytek, which is an independent studio, recently signed with Electronic Arts to publish the already heavily previewed PC title Crysis, so it appears that Ubisoft has decided to take steps to protect its publishing and ownership of the Far Cry series.

The French-headquartered firm has achieved notable critical success with its publishing of the series of first person shoot ‘em-ups, including the PC original and the well received-Xbox conversion, though it is not yet clear that the franchise has been a commercial smash. An Xbox 360 iteration named Far Cry Instincts: Predator and Xbox expansion Far Cry Instincts: Evolution are both due for release this week.

"Far Cry is one of Ubisoft's most successful brands and this agreement is one further step in our strategy to constantly enrich our catalogue of fully owned brands. With Far Cry, we look forward to further consolidating our leading position in the first person shooters genre" said Yves Guillemot, President & CEO of Ubisoft Entertainment.

March 27, 2006

UK's Headfirst Productions Lapses Into Administration
British independent developer Headfirst Productions has confirmed that it has gone into administration and is no longer trading as a going concern, according to information originally reported online, and officially confirmed by Gamasutra.

Best known for the Bethesda-published Xbox title Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth, which saw a massive, at least five year development process, a significant portion of which was not funded by a publisher, the company nonetheless seems to have completed the PC version of the game, which ships today in North America, according to publisher Bethesda.

Fansite Calling Cthulhu originally broke the story, quoting a “reliable source” at the company, and pointing to a number of forum posts from prominent members of the development team regarding their departure and re-emergence at other studios, including Codemastars, Eurocom, Crytek, Lionhead and BioWare.

Headfirst Productions has also recently sold the Simon the Sorcerer intellectual property, with Calling Cthulhu suggesting that only a skeleton staff remained at the developer to complete work on the PC version of Call Of Cthulhu, and subsequent titles in the survival horror-esque Cthulhu series seemingly planned but unlikely to be completed for the firm, which is based in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands.

Gamasutra has been able to confirm with Headfirst Productions that the company has indeed gone in to administration, with administrator Peter Nottingham being placed in charge of the company's remaining assets.

Ubisoft announced today that Martin Tremblay (pictured), COO of Ubisoft's Montreal studio has left the company after six years.

Tremblay joined Ubisoft Montreal in 1999 as executive VP, and took the COO position in 2000. Under his supervision, the studio grew from 450 to 1400 employees.

"These last six years within Ubisoft have been quite extraordinary," Tremblay said. "I've had the privilege of working with fabulous teams that have contributed to the company's success with their talent, and have helped me grow as COO. I'd like to thank them all for all these years working together."

April 3, 2006

Report Predicts $760m Chinese Market In 2006
A new report from business analyst group Pearl Research suggests that the video games market in China will surpass $760 million in 2006, with 95 percent of revenues derived from the online games segment.

Other key findings of the report show that, despite the already massive user base in China, only 3 percent of the population (25 million people) play video games, and only 9 percent (111 million people) use the Internet. Growing affluence tied to China's booming economy has resulted in an expanding middle class with discretionary income to spend on entertainment and online services. By 2010, the report expects China to be a top ten worldwide games market.

The current 111 million Internet users is up from 52 million in 2002, with early 56 percent of Internet access being via broadband. The full report, entitled “Games Market in China: Opportunities and Challenges", also contains rankings of top publishers and titles, inhibitors and drivers to the growth of online games and a discussion of the packaged PC and console market.

Allison Luong, managing director of Pearl Research, commented, "The Chinese online games market is expected to cross the $1 billion mark by 2009, driven by the launch of innovative and compelling content, the addition of new Internet users and a growing casual games market."

DemonWare and Ubisoft Ink Multi-Title Deal to Power Multiplayer Titles on All Platforms
Press release supplied by Games Press 18:31 03/04/2006

(Dublin , Ireland – 3rd April 2006 ) – Today DemonWare, the leading multiplayer technology company, announced a multi-title agreement with leading publisher Ubisoft to power multiplayer functionality across all platforms for the publisher's titles. The announcement expands the relationship between the two companies after a recent successful integration on a major project. Ubisoft are widely recognized as having some of the strongest online gaming titles across current and next-generation platforms.

"Ubisoft has proven in the past few years to be an online development force, offering strong multiplayer features both on PC and console titles," said Olivier Chappe, Director-Online Technology Group, Ubisoft. "The combination of our creative talents with DemonWare's innovative technology will benefit the players first and foremost with original multiplayer features on our upcoming games."

"We have been working closely with Ubisoft to ensure that our suite of multiplayer tools meets their needs but is also flexible enough to adapt to changing genres and more powerful platforms", said Dylan Collins, CEO of DemonWare. "Ubisoft have always seen that the multiplayer experience is one of the key defining factors in true next-generation gaming, irrespective of platform", Collins added.

DemonWare is the leading multiplayer technology company in the global computer games industry. Recent games powered by DemonWare include Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Starship Troopers and Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast. With customers in every major geographic region and a reputation for outstanding customer support, DemonWare is the multiplayer solution of choice for all top tier publishers.

Microsoft targets Eastern Europe with Xbox 360

Localised Xbox Live service planned

Microsoft plans to launch the Xbox 360 in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa via both specialist and mainstream retailers by the end of 2007, according to European Xbox boss Chris Lewis.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Lewis said that launching in new territories was a key part of company strategy with regard to securing a strong foothold in the console market before the PlayStation 3 arrives in November.

Lewis identified Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia as key territories within Eastern Europe. He said that the Xbox 360 will go on sale in high street electronics retailers through deals with multinationals such as Media Markt and DSG International, as well as specialist retailers.

Lewis went on to say that each territory will have access to a localised version of Xbox Live, enabling them to communicate with other gamers using their own language, and that local helplines will also be established.

Europe is undoubtedly a key region for Microsoft with regard to the battle of the next-gen consoles. With the Xbox 360 performing well in the US but poorly in Japan, European sales could be the deciding factor in determining which of the big three leads the market following the release of the PS3 and Nintendo Revolution.

Intel Game Demo Contest -- indies should enter

I work for Intel as a Software Engineer, working specifically on optimizing PC games. Great job, right? At GDC we launched a contest to find great demos that show off the more advanced features of our platform. The AAA developers aren't entering, so it seems that the prizes are wide open for a small developer or a student group to win. We have two categories to enter, and first prize in each category is $30,000 and a high-end laptop. Full details at http://www.intel.com/software/gamecontest.

To summarize, the two categories are Best Threaded Game (multi-thread your game to run faster or better on a multi-core processor), and Best Game on the Go (make your game more convenient or more fun to play on a laptop). Beyond the first prizes, there are smaller cash prizes for the top three winners, and the top five winners receive licenses for all of our software development tools. Just for entering the contest, we will give you a limited-duration license for our software development tools. The contest runs until mid-August.

E-mail questions to [email protected]. Good luck!

This man has the best job in America
Don't hate Mark Dochtermann just because he's happy.

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Mark Dochtermann, 34, director of technology, Electronic Arts: "When I saw my first computer, it was love at first sight. As a kid I spent a lot of time on a Commodore 64, writing my own programs, figuring out games, hacking.

You can learn an awful lot about programming doing that. I majored in computer engineering but never thought I could work in the game industry -- it was a dream job.

After college I sent one of my creations to a small game company. Next thing I knew, I was their programmer.

Since then I've built a career in the "first-person shooter" category with games like Duke Nukem 3D. During the tech boom, when others left games for the money in start-ups, I stayed.

I make a good living, and I'd rather work on a game I don't care for than write code for a financial company. I'm building a product that entertains. Unlike engineers in commerce or aerospace, I can push the envelope without someone getting hurt.

Still, there's stress. The worst is a bug or defect. And you can't waste time tweaking that last whiz-bang feature, given the market pressures.

But there's no better feeling than seeing your game on the shelves.

Today I manage a team of 65. The hours remain a challenge, and I still do a lot of coding. It's important to work with the group, and it's the best way to stay on the cutting edge."

65% of women, 35% of men aged 25-34 play games

According to the New York Times' interpretation of this study, 65% of women between the ages of 25 and 34 play video games while only 35% of men in that same age bracket play video games.

The big difference is that women choose to play so-called "casual games" that are commonly found on portals such as Pogo.com, MSN.com, and Yahoo.com (and Xbox Live Arcade, too) while men favor games that are sold at places like GameStop. There's no hard data on why the sexes have such different gaming preferences, but many believe it's because women favor less competitive games that lack the violence and complicated control schemes so prevalent in "hardcore" games enjoyed by men.

DEVELOP NAMES TOP 100 POWER STUDIOS

Success can be determined in a number of ways, but Develop Magazine uses cold hard numbers to exhibit which studios are the 100 most successful.

GameTrove to Support Indie Devs

New website opens for indie/casual games

GameTrove today announced the launch of its new website, "with the objective of getting rid of the middle men and enabling players to get their games straight from the developers." The site is a free indie/casual games portal that features games submitted by the developers who made them instead of by a publisher or an affiliate.

The portal is a "great working example of a new business model, provides independent and casual game developers with a way to distribute their game without having to go through a publisher," GameTrove said in a release. "GameTrove provides players with many social features like friends, ratings, and comments to find out collectively which games are fun. Unlike other portals that take a large chunk of the profit from the developer the site is supported by ads purchased by developers. Hopefully with help from the community GameTrove can grow into a useful resource for developers and players alike."

gamedevmap is a living map and catalog of game development organizations.

Microsoft to make a physics API

Gamers, Direct Physics is nigh

By Charlie Demerjian: Monday 01 May 2006, 16:25
ALL THE TALK about physics accelerators from Ageia, Havok/NVidia and even ATI, has one thing in common, the same chaos as we had in the early 3D acceleration days. The thing that fixed that mess was MS stepping in with DirectX/Direct3D, and they appear to have done a damn good job sorting out that mess, ulterior motives aside.

As for details, well, I would expect them to come at E3, but no promises, it could still be a way off. Timing aside, it is quite real, and quite under way. Between NVidia and MS, what more do you need for market validation of the physics accelerator concept? µ

Postmortem: Klei Entertainment’s Eets: Hunger. It’s emotional.

Developer: Klei Entertainment Inc.
Publisher: Klei Entertainment Inc.
Number of Full-time developers: 3
Number of Contractors: 10
Length of Development: 3 years part-time to get to prototype, 9 months full-time from prototype to Gold.
Release Date: March 27th, 2006
Platform: PC (Windows)
Development software used: Visual Studio .NET, Flash, Photoshop, Maya.
Development hardware used: Various PCs.
Project Size: Released game is compressed to 19.9MB, uncompressed 50MB.

Martin Tremblay this week has found himself in the spotlight--maybe a fitting place to be for someone assuming a rather grand position amid the sprawling Vivendi (formerly Vivendi Universal) organization in star-studded Los Angeles. On April 19, Tremblay was hired to be Vivendi Games' president of worldwide studios.

But that move has been tripped up by some legal maneuvering. Tremblay's former colleagues in Montreal have filed an injunction in Quebec Superior Court, according to the company. The document, an interlocutory injunction, asks that Tremblay "abstain and cease immediately, directly or indirectly, competing with applicant Ubisoft and cease immediately working, directly or indirectly, within the territories of Canada, the United States and Mexico, for his own behalf or on behalf of any third party, in any business which manufactures or commercializes video products that may compete with products sold, manufactured or developed by applicant Ubisoft."

Pre-E3: Poll - 40% of U.S. Adults Play Video Games

As E3 ramps up in Los Angeles, a new Associated Press and AOL poll has revealed that 40 percent of all American adults play games on a computer or a console, a significant percentage which shows the continuing importance of video games as a medium. Men, younger adults and minorities were most likely to play games, according to the poll.

The poll also yielded plenty of other results worth ruminating on - 45 percent of gamers play over the Internet, and those who do are notably more 'hardcore' than those who do not. Forty-two percent of online gamers spent four hours or more per week playing games, but only 26% of offline gamers did similarly.

The AP/AOL survey also revealed that, of those who play online games, almost one in five said they had formed real-life friendships or relationships with those they play with online, showing the use of gaming as a social activity, even when playing remotely against others.

Another notable statistic involved what the survey dubbed 'hardcore gamers' - in this case, people who play games for three or more hours per week. By this relatively low-threshold definition of the hardcore gamer, many of this group actually spent relatively little on games - 60% spent $200 or less per year.

The AP-AOL Games poll of 3,024 U.S. adults, including 1,046 gamers, was conducted by Ipsos, an international polling firm, on April 18-20 and 24-27. For the gamers, the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Sony reveals PlayStation 3 prices
By Alfred Hermida
Technology editor, BBC News website in Los Angeles

The new PlayStation 3 (PS3) will hit Japanese stores on 11 November, with the US and Europe following less than a week later, Sony has announced.

The console will be available in two versions starting at $499 (394 euros).

Sony revealed the launch details in Los Angeles ahead of this week's games expo E3.

The PS3 is the successor to the best-selling PlayStation 2 and will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii.

The machines make up the next wave of video gaming. The Xbox 360 is already available, while the Wii is due out later this year.

The three console makers are competing for the hearts and minds of gamers in an industry worth more than $25bn annually.

November date

Sony currently dominates in the home, having sold more than 100 million PlayStation 2s, so it has much riding on the new console.

It had originally planned to launch the system in the spring, but was forced to delay due to issues with its new Blu-ray DVD drive.

"We are not about cutting corners to rush a product to market," said the head of Sony game unit in the US, Kaz Hirai, at the company's pre-E3 news conference.

"The next generation doesn't start until we say it does. Today the PlayStation 3 is real."

Gamers have been eagerly waiting to hear more about the system and its price in order to decide whether to wait for the PS3 or shell out on an Xbox 360 now.

The PS3 sports a new processor called Cell which promises significant computing prowess, online connectivity and high definition graphics.

Japanese gamers will be the first to get their hands on the PS3 on 11 November. The console will arrive in the US and Europe on 17 November.

Sony also revealed the price of the console, which comes in two models. The system with a 20GB hard drive will cost $499 in the US, while a model with a 60GB will cost $599.

Exact pricing in the UK is unclear but at current exchange rates the basic model would be around £330.

Motion sensitive

The system will come with a new controller. Sony has abandoned last year's boomerang-shaped prototype and reverted to a design similar to the current model for the PlayStation 2.

One key difference is the inclusion of a motion sensor in the wireless Bluetooth controller.

In a demonstration, a virtual duck was made to jump out of the water by moving the controller upwards.

Sony is following in the footsteps of Nintendo, which has opted for a one-handed motion sensitive controller for its Wii console.

In order to satisfy gamers wanting a PS3 for Christmas, Sony said it planned to have two million units available at launch worldwide, with a further two million by the end of the year.

When Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 last November, many gamers were left frustrated by supply shortages.

The software giant has since ramped up production and has sold more than three million units, giving it a valuable head start.

Sony will also face competition from Nintendo's new machine, expected out later this year.

In the game

The exact list of games available for the PS3 at launch is still unclear. At its E3 news conference, Sony showed off playable demos of a number of titles.

These included a ninja fighting title called Heavenly Sword, an intense first-person shooter called Resistance: Fall of Man and an interactive monster card game called Eye of Judgement.

Game enthusiasts will get a chance to try out the games on the show floor once E3 opens its doors on Wednesday.

The expo is the annual showcase for the games industry, with more than 400 companies from 90 countries taking part.

[email protected]

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Establishes 2K Shanghai
Press release supplied by Games Press 13:26 09/05/2006

New York, NY – May 9, 2006 – Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) today announced that it has opened a new development studio under its 2K label in Shanghai, China. The new studio, 2K Shanghai, is completing development of the Chinese-language version of Sid Meier's Civilization: IV for the PC expected to be available later this summer.

2K Shanghai will develop new original IP and co-develop products with other 2K studios around the world. Additionally, 2K Shanghai will serve as a hub for sales, marketing, development and outsourcing opportunities in China.

"There is an enormous amount of development talent in China and it is also a great market for some of our franchises," said Christoph Hartmann, President, 2K. "With this studio, 2K is poised to participate in this rapidly emerging gaming market."

For more information, please visit http://www.2Kgames.com.

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an integrated global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games and accessories for the PC, PlayStation® game console, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox® and Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube™, Nintendo DS™ and Game Boy® Advance. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K and 2K Sports, and Global Star Software; and distributes products in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two also manufactures and markets video game accessories in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region through its Joytech subsidiary. The Company maintains sales and marketing offices in Cincinnati, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Vienna, Milan, Sydney, Breda (Netherlands), Auckland, Shanghai and Tokyo. Take-Two's common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.

Sony defends PlayStation 3 models
By Alfred Hermida
Technology editor, BBC News website in Los Angeles

Sony has defended its decision to offer two versions of its forthcoming PlayStation 3 (PS3) games console.

Senior Sony executive Phil Harrison said the models were aimed at different types of consumers.

The games giant has been criticised for offering a lower end model without several significant features.

The console is due to go on sale in November, with prices starting at $499 in the US and 499 euros (£341) in Europe.

HD concerns

Sony announced the launch date and price for the PS3 at a big news presentation at its studios in Culver City in Los Angeles.

At the time it only talked about the difference in the size of the hard drives. The basic model has a 20GB drive, while the model costing $599/599 euros comes with a 60GB one.

Only later, after detailed press releases were distributed, did it become apparent that there were other key differences.


The lower end model lacks wi-fi, a slot for memory cards and, in particular, a port to hook up a HDMI connecter high-definition programmes.

The decision to offer a model without HDMI has raised concerns about the high-definition compatibility of the PS3.

Mr Harrison shrugged off these fears, insisting that the both models would offer full HD output.

"What we should be clear about is that the functionality is identical in both machines," he told the BBC News website. "There is no difference in what the machine does."

"It's just that the technical method of extracting audio and video from the devices is slightly different," said Mr Harrison, who heads up Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studios.

He said the decision to offer two versions was designed to give consumers a choice.

"Some people might be interested in the PS3 primarily and exclusively as a games system, whereas other users might look at it as a multimedia hub in the home, which is games and music and movies and other digital content."

Xbox rivals

Speaking personally, Mr Harrison said he would buy the high end model.

It seems likely that PlayStation fans looking forward to the new system may do the same thing.

When rival Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 console last November, it offered a basic model and a higher-end model.

But gamers shied away from the cheaper version in favour of the more expensive one.

Microsoft has sold more than three million Xbox 360s worldwide since its debut.

It has set itself a target of 10 million by the time the PS3 appears in stores in an attempt to steal a lead over Sony.

But Mr Harrison said he was not worried by the figures from Microsoft.

"I doubt they will achieve that," he said

"I think the clear advantages of the PS3 will mean that this product is very well accepted in the marketplace.

"We have a great brand and fantastically loyal consumers."

Japanese gamers will be the first to get their hands on the PS3 on 11 November. The console will arrive in the US and Europe on 17 November.

Pressed on whether Sony would meet this deadline, Mr Harrison said the company would not have specified a date unless it could, adding that manufacturing of the console was starting.

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Casual games get serious

The game industry appears to have found its answer with so-called "casual games," a category of software-based entertainment that includes word and puzzle games, board games and even some classic arcade titles. While not new, the casual-games industry is enjoying a renaissance driven by advertising dollars and the ubiquity of mobile devices.

"The video game industry year after year is exceedingly good at pumping out action films," says Alexis Madrigal, an analyst at market research firm DFC Intelligence. "Casual games are a step in the direction of coming up with (the equivalent of) comedies and romantic comedies."

But what casual games lack in hipness, they make up for by being cheap to make, addictive and highly profitable.

The North American market for casual games is expected to grow from an estimated $281 million in sales this year to $1.15 billion in 2011, according to DFC. Globally, thanks to the popularity of these games in China and Korea, the market is already closing in on $1 billion in annual sales.

PC Game Boxes Getting a Makeover
IEMA aims for a standard look to mimic console game packaging.

You know how Xbox 360, PS2, and GameCube games all have distinct branding regarding their cases? Logos on them that clearly distinguish them from other packaging so as the consumer will not mistakenly purchase a PSP game when he really needed it for the Nintendo DS? The IEMA, Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, released today a new standard icon and box in hopes of formalizing the appearance of PC videogame packaging.

This updated, standardized look will make its first appearance on Madden '07, in hopes that such a high-profile title will cause other companies to quickly fall in line.

Recently, at least three separate studies have testified to video games' ballooning appeal, particularly one that has female gamers outnumbering male gamers in the 25-to-34 age category 2-to-1, regardless of platform. In addition, on PCs, female adults are almost twice as likely to spend more than 20 hours per week gaming compared to men, according to the CEA's "2006 Gaming Technology Study."

This doesn't necessarily mean these female gamers are willing to pay for play. The poll's results reflect women's engagement mainly in online games, many of which are free of charge, according to the study conducted by the Arlington, VA-based Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) together with the popular GameSpot Web site.

In his "Understanding The Mobile Games Consumer" report this month, Graham Brown suggests that cell phone games need to evolve from their current focus on young, male core-gamers to middle-aged females, "the very same market that has grown significantly online in recent years." Brown is CEO of the UK-based Wireless World Forum.

"The draw of the mobile youth segment is compelling," he adds, "but revenues are limited and competition for this segment is intense. On the other hand, females -- and, in particular, older consumers -- are a real growth area. In 2006, we will see the number of female games consumers outnumber males for the first time globally."

"We're going to see a greater focus on games that are very clearly themed to women," says McDonnell, "just as action, sports and, to some extent, casino games have been clearly themed to men in the past and present. The industry is recognizing that women are the majority of the audience ... and that trying to make games unisex doesn't always make them as compelling as if they were themed to one gender or the other."

GarageGames Announces 'Break Into Games' Competition

Independent/casual game publisher, developer, and technology company GarageGames has announced the Break Into Games (B.I.G.) Competition, a new event that will give American independent game developers a chance to showcase their talents while competing for prizes, including professional gaming hardware and coveted publishing deals with GarageGames and its partners.

All B.I.G. entrants will be given the opportunity to build their game prototypes from scratch using a free trial version of GarageGames' Torque Game Builder (TGB). Support for the competition is comprehensive, including a step-by-step tutorial and a robust online forum, where designers collaborate with technical experts from GarageGames and the gaming community. Podcasts and white papers are also available for reference.

Prototype games must be turned in by August 25, and the the top 10 finalists will be simultaneously announced at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Bellevue, WA and at ShowDown in San Jose, CA on August 26. From there, contestants will have over one month to polish their final games before being flown out to compete at IndieGamesCon (IGC), GarageGames' annual version of Sundance for independent game developers, in Eugene, Oregon on October 6-8.

Of the ten finalists, five will be chosen to appear at the end of the Player's Choice Awards and be part of B.I.G.'s 'Indie Idol,' an American Idol-style showcase judged by a panel of industry experts.

"This is the best opportunity for up-and-coming videogame developers to break into the business and for established developers to show their skills," said GarageGames Director of Business Development Jay Moore. "We've made it totally free so that it's possible for literally anyone to pursue the American dream. Furthermore, the support is there to make anyone a winner who has the passion for it."

Indie Postmortem: Gibbage

The Origins of Gibbage

The tale of ultra-indie PC title Gibbage, which I developed myself over the period of around 2 years, is a fairly unique one. I was fed up with endlessly shooting men in the head in a narrow corridor. Big-budget blockbuster titles had begun to bore me; I was no longer challenged, interested or entertained by tapping the “quick save” key every eight seconds and picking up another machine gun.

What went Wrong

1. Inexperience. I hadn't a clue what I was doing when I wrote the first line of code. Beyond “Hello World”, Gibbage is pretty much the second computer program I've ever written. If I was sensible, I would have written some smaller, less ambitious games first and started writing Gibbage when I was a relatively competent coder with a few notches on my cyber-bedpost.

Sadly, I'm not that intelligent, and as a result there are lines of code lurking at the back of Gibbage that are so amateurish and ghastly that I've got half a mind to delete all my source code so no one ever finds out. It's embarrassing, really, and it's a major faux-pas on my part.

Yet, BFG has grown into a "big fish" in the casual game space, competing (and partnering) with such large companies as Real Networks, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. How did BFG start and what do you think accounts for your success?

I wrote the business plan for RealArcade which was the first high volume distribution service for game downloads. I worked closely with Popcap and Gamehouse in their transition from great web games to high quality downloadable versions. In the following three years we launched over a hundred games from dozens of developers and I got a great sense of what it took to build a successful game. I left RealNetworks after 3 years to try my hand at building games. I took a 8 day trip to Hawaii and read a programming manual cover to cover and wrote my first prototype on the plane trip home. In the following 15 months I wrote 12 games…well ok, 7 unique games and 5 varieties of Mahjong.

Suppose we fast-forward 5 years from now (the year 2011). What types of games and offerings that I will be playing on BFG look like?

I think the game mechanics will continue to be the same, but the story and production values will increase. One of my favorite "core" games is American McGee's Alice. Alice, if you really boil it down and remove some of the shooting, is essentially a series of fun puzzle games to solve with a variety of very innovative mechanics, but with stunning graphics and top notch production values. If you could convince a casual gamer to spend 20 minutes or so to learn that game, remove the stigma of it being a core game, and make it a reasonable sized download, it could be what the future of casual games looks like.

Gates Drops More Xbox Handheld Hints

During a digital technology conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates hinted that there is still room for another handheld competitor.

According to a blog entry from PC Magazine's Michael Miller, Gates spoke at the D4: All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, California, where Microsoft's head honcho said, "We are looking at various ways to bring more to that [handheld] space. There is a lot yet that hasn't been done."

Of course, from those comments you may conclude that Gates thinks Microsoft is the one to do those things that apparently need to be done.

Rumors have been flying around for several months about a Microsoft handheld device that would compete with the iPod, DS and PSP. Right now, industry watchers are expecting a Microsoft handheld to utilize the Xbox brand, and be more in-line functionality-wise with the multimedia-centric PSP.

Just yesterday, analysts at The Diffusion Group said that a Microsoft handheld would likely launch in late 2007/early 2008.

On the home console side, Gates drew comparisons between the Xbox 360 and the immensely successful PlayStation 2. He pointed out that the PS2 came out earlier, was less expensive and smaller than the original Xbox -- three traits that the Xbox 360 has over the rival PS3.

However, he believes Microsoft's strong online gaming component is the system's greatest selling point.

Source: Forward Thinking

Uništeno 11 tona piratskih diskova u Srbiji

U Srbiji je od početka godine uništeno oko 11 tona piratskih optičkih diskova, saopštilo je Ministarstvo za unutrašnje ekonomske odnose Srbije i Crne Gore.

Kako se navodi u saopštenju, Zakon o optičkim diskovima je nedavno usvojen u Srbiji, na jesen bi trebalo da bude usvojen i zakon o posebnim ovlašćenjima radi efikasne zaštite prava intelektualne svojine, a pripremljen je i Nacrt zakona o elektronskoj trgovini.

Eksperti Evropske unije su na sastanku za predstavnicima institucija SCG za provođenje prava intelektualne svojine ocenili da je neophodno osnovati centralno telo koje bi bilo odgovorno za politiku i pravo intelektualne svojine. To telo bi, u službi biznisa, kako je rečeno, koordinisalo aktivnosti institucija u primeni propisa u oblasti zaštite prava intelektualne svojine.

Na sastanku je ocenjeno i da je Regionalni IPR projekat EU za jačanje prava intelektualne svojine na Zapadnom Balkanu, tokom trogodišnjeg rada u SCG, značajno doprineo da se ta oblast uredi u skladu sa evropskim standardima.

Extreme CC i NCsoft

Extreme CC d.o.o. od maja 2005 godine distribuira proizvode kompanije NCsoft i to na teritorijima Srbije i Crne Gore, Makedonije i Bosne i Hercegovine. Zahvaljujući dobrim rezultatima prodaje u prošloj godini, a i u cilju boljeg upoznavanja sa trenutnim stanjem na tržištu i mogućnostima za unapređenje saradnje Beograd je ovih dana posetio i g-din Marcus Whitney, Menadžer prodaje i marketinga za Jugoistočnu Evropu firme NC Soft.

NCsoft paleta proizvoda izdvaja se iz ukupne ponude igara za PC, prvenstveno zahvaljujući činjenici da su sve igre orijentisane ka Online igranju. Ono što NCsoft igre izdvaja od sličnih konkurentskih proizvoda su vrhunska grafika i odličan zaplet u igrama koji posebno privlači takozvane "core gamer"-e. NCsoft proizvodi postali su u toku prošle godine veoma popularni i kod nas, između ostalog i zbog činjenice da su sve popularnije online igre za PC.

Igra Guild Wars Prophecies je najprodavanija online igra u ponudi Extreme CC-a u 2005 godini, a druga po prodavanosti u celokupnoj ponudi igara. Smatramo da je na to uticala specijalna cenovna politika koju smo uspeli u dogovoru sa NCsoftom da ponudimo našem tržištu, kao i činjenica da je na našem tržištu posebno pobrao pohvale revolucionarni pristup da se u ovako visokobudžetnoj igri ne naplaćuje mesečna pretplata.

28 aprila 2006 godine na tržištu se pojavilo drugo poglavlje igre Guild Wars - Guild Wars Factions i ova igra odmah je zauzela prva mesta na top listama prodaje i u Evropi i u Americi. U Engleskoj je ona već tri nedelje uzastopno najprodavanija igra, a sve to veoma dobra reakcija na poboljšanja koja ova igra donosi, i to kako od fanova, tako i od prodavaca i novinara. Od pojave u našim prodavnicama, Guild Wars Factions postala je najbrže prodavana igra u našoj ponudi, i za sada neprikosnoveno drži prvo mesto po prodavanosti u mesecu maju.

Bis zu 100.000 Euro pro Projekt will Hamburg als zinsloses Darlehen zur Verfügung stellen, damit das gebastelt werden kann, was man als unabhängiger Spieleentwickler braucht, um einen Verleger zu finden: Einen spielbaren Level zum Beispiel, mit dem man einen internationalen Publisher davon überzeugen kann, dass er das geplante Produkt weiterfinanzieren - und schließlich auch verkaufen - soll. Gefördert werden kann theoretisch alles, vom PC- bis hin zum Handyspiel.

Up to 100.000 euro per project Hamburg wants to make available as interest-free loan, so that that can be tinkered, which one needs as independent play developers, in order to find a publisher: A playable level for example, with which one can convince an international Publisher of the fact that he the planned product further-finance - and finally also sells - is. To be promoted theoretically everything can, of the PC up to the Handyspiel.

bkaradzic: Nije sponzorisanje, nego ispada da nude pozajmicu bez kamate za izradu prototipa (razlka je da pozajmica mora da se vrati ;).

AMERICA'S TOP 20 PUBLISHING GIANTS

1. Electronic Arts / Market Share: 20%
2. Nintendo / Market Share: 10%
3. Activision / Market Share: 9%
4. Sony / Market Share: 8%
5. THQ / Market Share: 6%
6. Take-Two Interactive / Market Share: 6%
7. Ubisoft / Market Share: 5%
8. LucasArts / Market Share: 4%
9. Vivendi Games / Market Share: 4%
10. Konami / Market Share: 3%
11. Microsoft / Market Share: 3%
12. Namco Bandai / Market Share: 3%
13. Sega / Market Share: 3%
14. Midway / Market share: 2%
15. Atari (Infogrames) / Market share: 2%
16. Capcom / Market Share: 2%
17. Buena Vista Games / Market share: 2%
18. Eidos (SCI) / Market Share: 2%
19. Square Enix / Market Share: 2%

Filip Strugar: Plus verovatno vazi samo za nemce? :)

France launches cyber-budget game

The French government has launched an online game that challenges taxpayers to balance the national budget of nearly 300bn euros ($373bn).

Budget Minister Jean-Francois Cope says the game, called "cyber-budget", will allow citizens to pretend they are in charge of the national finances.

They can make decisions about spending revenue and cutting taxes.

Mr Cope says the game is as realistic as possible and includes having to present a draft budget to parliament.

The game was launched on the website www.cyber-budget.fr.

Players face national and international constraints on their budget choices and the game includes negotiations with other ministers and unexpected events, the French news agency AFP reports.

"The idea is that when we cut taxes, we can't do it without creating deficits," Mr Cope told French television ahead of the launch.

"It allows each person to get familiar with how [the budget] functions.

"In this game each French person can pretend they are the budget minister and make decisions to understand how much each [ministry's] budget costs, education spending, military spending, how it's all organised and see what kind of decision we can take when we want to cut taxes."

As budget minister, Mr Cope has to ensure France stays within the EU budget deficit limit of 3% of GDP.

Piraterija i Srbija

Beograd -- Srbija zbog piraterije u oblasti softvera i u muzičkoj i filmskoj industriji godišnje gubi oko 100 miliona evra.

Ukupan godišnji gubitak u javnim prihodima Srbije zbog piraterije softvera i u muzičkoj i filmskoj industriji veći je od 100 miliona evra, izjavio je predsedavajući Odbora Privredne komore SAD za zaštitu prava intelektualne svojine Nebojša Momčilović.

On je rekao da bi, ako bi Srbija rešila problem piraterije, prihodi od te tri industrije i usluga koje ih prate bili oko 500 miliona evra godišnje. Prema njegovim rečima, Zakon o posebnim ovlašćenjima u zaštiti prava intelektualne svojine, koji je Skupština Srbije usvojila krajem maja a čija je primena počela u ponedeljak, prvi je korak ka rešavanju problema piraterije.

Zakonom su propisane visoke kazne, i do tri miliona dinara, odnosno 35.000 evra, a njime su data i veća i jasna ovlašćenja svim nadležnim organima koji su uključene u tu borbu, kaže Momčilović.

tupito: takodje su izrekli procenu da bi sa svakim procentom smanjenja softverske piraterije u zemlji bi se otvorilo oko 1200 novih radnih mesta u softerskoj industriji.

: To nema veze sa mozgom jer vecina ljudi koji poseduju piratske kopije jednostavno ne bi kupili igru ili film, pogotovu u srbiji gde bi za JEDNU IGRU morali da odvoje pola od onoga sto im ostane od plate...

Filip Strugar: To bi znacilo da bi sa smanjenjem piraterije za 50% otvorilo 60.000 radnih mesta...

tupito: Nepucajte na glasnika :)

e sad nije vazno da li je funkcija linearna ili ne vec od cega ista zavisi a definitivno je obrnuto porporcionalna razvijenosti zemlje pa ako se mi drasticno ekonomski razvijemo logicno je da ce i piraterija da drasticno da padne , a da bi se mi drasticno razvili to znaci otvaranje od 700k-do 1000k novih radni mesta , pa sto 10% posto od toga nebi bila soft industrija:)

Study: Casual Gamers are Hardcore

A recent study reveals that nearly one-third of casual gamers play for over two hours per gameplay session--much longer than expected.

Macromedia, operator of the Trymedia Network digital distribution platform for PC games, reported that 31 percent of casual gamers on its Trygames site play for more than two hours per session, and 37 percent of those observed play nine sessions per week.

The results seem to shatter preconceptions about the "quick-bursts-of-gameplay" mindset that the industry has assumed regarding casual gamers.

"Our survey has determined that mainstream audiences dedicate a substantial amount of time to gameplay--not just in 15-minute increments as previously thought," said Loren Hillberg, executive VP and general manager of commerce at Macrovision.

Furthermore, two-thirds of the 789 study participants said that their gameplay sessions typically last at least an hour, and nearly three-fourths usually play at night. Over half play on the weekends.

Not all of Macrovision's results were surprising. The study revealed that 37 percent of casual gamers are age 35-49, and 28 percent are age 50-60. Females predictably dominate the casual segment, making up 71 percent of casual gamers.

Of interest to advertisers are the hobbies of casual gamers. Their top five interests, from most popular to least, are pets, travel, arts and crafts, shopping and gardening.

Here are more figures from this statistical feeding-frenzy:

Top casual game genres:

1. Puzzle (67%)
2. Card (44%)
3. Strategy (35%)
4. Action (34%)

67 percent read game reviews, and 46 percent of review readers feel influenced to make a purchase based on critics' opinions.

84 percent have broadband.

70 percent have purchased a game after playing a free trial.

The studio has opened its doors with a team of 21 employees, including a core group of 11 staff members who have recently completed work on Xbox 360 flight simulation title, Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.

...the company plans to rapidly expand the 21-strong with an additional 40 team members by the end of the year.

bkaradzic: Za sve one koje zanima tržište "casual" igara IGDA je objavila novo istraživanje.

U ovom dokumentu možete pročitati, ko igra igre, koji su popularni žanrovi, ko su glavni izdavači, kakvi biznis modeli postoje, koji su izvori zarade, preporuke kako napraviti igru koja će biti interesantna "casual" igračima, koliko zarađuju firme koje proizvode "casual" igre, itd.

2006 International Game Developers Association Casual Games White Paper
http://www.igda.org/casual/IGDA_CasualGames_Whitepaper_2006.pdf

According to CGA numbers in a DFC Intelligence joint market report, the casual games industry made $713 million (USD) in 2005 and revenue is estimated to grow to $1.56 billion (USD) in 2008. Relevant to the location of the conference, North American casual game revenues in 2005 were at $314 million, 45% of the worldwide total. Emphasizing why people should get involved in the casual games industry, the number of consumers attracted to free casual games is estimated to be over 150 million worldwide.

Beyond Conversion Rate: Further Numbers to Improve Casual Game Sales

Conversion rate has become the standard for determining success in the casual games space. In both formal and informal meetings within the casual games industry, conversion rates are both guarded and flaunted depending on what your numbers look like. Microsoft has taken every opportunity to mention the conversion rates of the top Xbox Live Arcade games, and the larger casual games industry has noted the need to improve conversion rates in order to become even more financially successful. While improving conversion rates is certainly a good area of focus, there are limitations to conversion rate that make it an incomplete measure of the casual games industry.

EXCLUSIVE: E3 FINISHED

Senior industry sources have revealed to Next-Gen.Biz that the E3 industry event, in its present form, has been cancelled for next year and the foreseeable future.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) shindig has been a staple of game industry life since the mid-1990s. However, we understand the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure.

Entertainment Software Association Announces Evolution of E3Expo for 2007

Washington, DC (July 31, 2006) – To better address the needs of today’s global computer and video game industry, the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) is evolving into a more intimate event focused on targeted, personalized meetings and activities, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today.

“The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago. At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season,” said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. “Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.”

The new E3Expo will take shape over the next several months. As currently envisioned, it will still take place in Los Angeles, described by ESA as a “great and supportive partner helping to build E3.” It will focus on press events and small meetings with media, retail, development, and other key sectors. While there will be opportunities for game demonstrations, E3Expo 2007 will not feature the large trade show environment of previous years.

“E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement and interest, ensuring that the human and financial resources crucial to its success can be deployed productively to create an exciting new format to meet the needs of the industry. The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers, and others,” said Lowenstein.

Additionally, the evolution of the video game industry into a vibrant and expanding global market has led to the creation of major events in different regions, such as the Games Convention in Leipzig, the Tokyo Game Show, and company-specific events held by Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and others around the world. As a result, Lowenstein said, “It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘mega-show’. By refocusing on a highly-targeted event, we think we can do a better job serving our members and the industry as a whole, and our members are energized about creating this new E3.”

Additional details about the new E3Expo event will be forthcoming in the next few months.

The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2005, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software. For more information about the ESA, please visit www.theESA.com.

Kim Swift: Along with the other members of the Portal team, we were students at DigiPen Institute of Technology located in Redmond, WA, next to the Nintendo of America campus. During our senior year, the seven of us created a game called Narbacular Drop, which was an early test of our ideas about portal-based gameplay. Every year, DigiPen puts on an expo for graduating seniors to show their game projects to prospective employers. A couple of Valve people attended, and they asked us to come to the Valve offices and show it to Gabe Newell. Gabe watched our demo and basically hired us on the spot. It was kind of shocking. We stood around in the parking lot afterwards gibbering to ourselves for about 20 minutes.

ID's Kevin Cloud Says Piracy is Killing PC Gaming

During a QuakeCon Q&A panel, Kevin Cloud, co-owner of Id and exec producer on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, responded to a question about PC games disappearing from retailer's shelves by saying that piracy was "killing PC games."

"It's the primary reason retailers are moving to the console," Cloud said, continuing on to say that ways to reduce piracy are in the forefront of every PC developer's mind, and citing World of Warcraft's subscription-based nature as an example of a possible solution to the problem.

Id CEO Todd Hollenshead went on to theorize that "about seventy percent of the landmass in the world where you can't sell games in a legitimate market, because pirates will beat you to the shelves with your own game."

"Nobody knows," said Hollenshead, "but you may literally have more games being played illegitimately than being played legitimately." Hollenshead explained how this his the PC devs by explaining that retailers would rather give up their valuable shelf space to product that can't easily be downloaded elsewhere: namely console games.

The XNA Game Studio Express program, an offshoot of the company's more robust XNA Framework, will be available Aug. 30 for a $99 annual subscription, the company announced Monday.

The software, which requires a Windows PC to operate, will let anyone with the desire create their own video games and then share them on Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service, said Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president.

"It's our first step of creating a YouTube for video games," Moore said, referring to the wildly popular free online video sharing Web site. "It will give you everything you need to bring your game to life on Xbox 360."

Game Industry Shipments to Hit $12.5 bln in '06

The Consumer Electronics Association, organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show, have released a report forecasting that total hardware and software gaming shipments will reach $12.5 billion this year, as the PS3 and Wii hit the market.
ImageContinuing shipments of Xbox 360 hardware and software will also play a role in expanding the market, which is expected to grow by 16 percent from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.

CEA director of industry analysis Sean Wargo said, "The fourth quarter of this year is when things really heat up in the gaming market, with continued growth expected through 2007, reaching $15 billion."

The CEA also predicted that total consumer electronics factory-to-dealer sales would reach $140 billion this year, an 8 percent growth over 2005, which saw a growth of 11 percent over 2004.

The overall games industry appears to be rebounding quicker than expected, in the midst of the console transition. Combined software, hardware and accessory sales were up 29 percent year-over-year in July, according to the NPD Group.

CEA's news release, which was only an excerpt of a complete report, didn't mention thriving handheld sales, most notably of the Nintendo DS, which drove hardware and software sales last month.

Blizzard Entertainment invites you to take part in our first ever annual Art Contest! 3D Artists and Concept Artists, pour your creativity into our Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft universes! For more information including details on our exciting Grand Prizes valued at over $10,000 each, check out our website and official rules at www.blizzard.com/artcontest.

Contest submissions will be accepted on this website until 11:59 PM PST September 17, 2006! Whether you are low- or high-poly, 2D or 3D, amateur or professional, this will be your chance to pour your creativity into the Blizzard universes: Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft.

Neovisi izdavac za neovisne igre

Zaboravite Electronic Arts, Activison i Vivendi. Na sceni je Manifesto Games, novi izdavac koji ce iskljucivo online putem za jeftine novce prodavati naslove neovisnih developera cime se nadaju pokrenuti revoluciju dobrih igara sa malim budžetima.

U svome proglasu Manifesto kaže kako odbijaju trenutnu politiku velikih izdavaca, cinjenicu da kutije sa igrama koštaju preko pedeset dolara, velike budžete, masivne razvojne timove i producente koji niti ne znaju što prodaju. Trenutno u ponudi imaju nekolicinu igara od kojih su neke pokupile nagrade na neovisnim festivalima, a za detaljnije informacije o njihovoj ponudi i programu kliknite OVDJE.

Ipak, daleko bolju i bogatiju uslugu istog tipa pruža Steam, kojeg vec, nadamo se poznajte. Usput najavljujemo i veci osvrt Olega Maštruka u rujanskom Bugu o digitalnoj distribuciji igara preko Interneta, pa koga zanima ovakav nacin nabavke igara - neka ne propusti taj napis.

5-8 NEWS
Ubisoft’s development expansion; the
transition effect; Molyneux’s GDC
London keynote examined; new digital
distribution tech for studios

12-18 OPINIONS
More views from the frontline: Rick
Gibson on the rise of Nintendo; Owain
Bennallack surveys the death of E3; and
Toby Simpson looks at bad coding

21 LONDON CALLING
Special profile of London Games Festival
developer events GDC London and the
Tiga content market

24 PROFILE: EA UK STUDIOS
Life at the UK’s largest in-house
development resource examined

27 THE CREATIVE JOURNEY
Creative Assembly studio leader Mike
Simpson interviewed

41 RISE OF THE WRITERS
Rhianna Pratchett on why professional
writing is crucial to games

46 TARGET: TEXAS
A preview of this month’s MMO-focused
Austin Games Conference

54 ‘WE’LL MAKE YOU A STAR’
How Hollywood-style agents can save
the games development business

30 PLAYSTATION FREE
London Studio boss
Jamie Macdonald
explains how freelance
staff are changing game production

34 XBOX EXPRESS
An examination of
Microsoft’s new strategy
to give consumers
development tools for free

44 CLOUD 9
How superstudio
Foundation 9 conquered
the United States

58 MOBILE

Julianne Greer: Editor's Note: Editor's Choice

"We're suckers for a great article, but we have built, and love, our editorial calendar. It is the foundation upon which the whole of The Escapist is built. However, we have learned in our first year of publishing The Escapist that sometimes it is best to have a little flexibility built into the mix …" Editor's Note, Issue 60

Articles include:

Mur Lafferty: D&D Therapy

"It's becoming so ubiquitous that the hatred is old hat to us. Don't allow your kids to play videogames. It deadens their imagination, makes them more violent, exposes them to boobies and ruins their social conditioning with other kids. Most gamers are tired of hearing this, so tired they're numb to the criticisms. But what we don't hear enough of is the truth of the matter: Gaming is good for you." Mur Lafferty reveals to truth about gaming in "D&D Therapy."
Max Steele: Three Under 30

"Like film and television, gaming has its wunderkinds, young stars that shatter expectations of accomplishment. I've assembled profiles of three of the best and brightest of these gamemakers, our industry's future game gods. One is an independent publisher, the second a revolutionary risk-taker, the third a graphical prodigy. Each is under 30 years old. Here, then, are three under-30 next generation gamemakers to watch." Max Steele presents "Three Under 30."
Pat Miller: They're Everywhere!

"Normally, I would show up to school in a T-shirt, jeans and sandals; hopelessly underdressed by the standards of most Sophia students, but I didn't particularly care. The exception to all of this was my bright green 1UP mushroom T-shirt, which inspired even the most tenuous of acquaintances to comment, with genuine curiosity, 'So, you know Mario?'" In "They're Everywhere!" Pat Miller bridges the culture gap - with games.
Shannon Drake: There's a Lot More to Tell

"Chainsaws and gore pass for cutting-edge in gaming, but Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness takes the craft of horror further. A Call of Cthulhu-style Sanity system plunges characters into madness, but the game also reaches out into the life of the player as his character goes mad. Instead of zombies out of nowhere, there's that cold chill in the pit of the stomach, that little shudder as the game announces 20 hours of gameplay has been deleted. There's the unsettling feeling of realizing the bug crawling across the TV is on the inside." Shannon Drake delves into the mind of the madmen behind "Eternal Darkness" in " There's a Lot More to Tell."

Matthew McKeague: Epic Yard Sale Tale

"In an effort to combine my hardcore gaming hobby, my journalism degree and a mild curiosity in yard sales, I decided to see what kind of videogame-related items were to be had amidst the assorted knick-knacks being cleared from the garages around Central Pennsylvania. I searched the lands for gems of the videogame world with only a pen, a notepad, a wallet full of small bills, the newspaper classifieds section and my Monty Python-esque haggling skills, and discovered a bit about gaming's history and perhaps my own in the process." Matthew McKeague goes on a search for ghosts of videogaming's past in "Epic Yard Sale Tale."

The Letters to the Editor also make a return. If you have a comment on The Escapist or its content, send an email to [email protected] and you might be featured in the next issue.
About the Escapist

The Escapist covers gaming and gamer culture with a progressive editorial style, with articles and columns by the top writers in and outside of the industry. A weekly publication, its magazine-style updates offer content for a mature audience of gamers, entertainment enthusiasts, industry insiders, and other "NetSet" readers.

Each issue, The Escapist explores a central theme, addressing head-on the topics relevant to gamers.

Combining print-quality writing and magazine-style aesthetics with the accessibility of the web, The Escapist is available online, via PDF, and through RSS for broad syndication. For more information, visit www.escapistmagazine.com.

August 30, 2006 - Ubisoft has announced that it will unleash Brothers in Arms D-Day -- a new squad-based PSP exclusive -- to retailers this coming autumn. Putting players in control of Screaming Eagle sergeants Hartsock and Baker as they make their way to Carentan and St. Sauveur, the new BIA installment is in development by Ubisoft Shanghai in collaboration with the console production team at Gearbox Software.

"People are waking up to the importance of videogames"

Speaking at the BAFTA headquarters in London, Ubisoft MD Rob Cooper has predicted that the UK games industry will continue to flourish as new technologies lead to more innovation in development.

"More than ever, people are starting to wake up to the importance of videogames - culturally, artistically and economically," Cooper said.

"The games industry constantly invents and reinvents itself through the development of new technologies, and increasingly, more imaginative, inspired and innovative game content."

Cooper was speaking at an event to promote BAFTA's new videogames awards ceremony. The inaugural ceremony will be held on October 5 at London's Roundhouse.

"I've seen our industry grow from a tiny seed of niche entertainment to a global entertainment phenomenon that rivals the music and movie giants of the world/ And so it's fitting that our success is now recognised by such an esteemed British institution as BAFTA," Cooper continued.

"Gaming is a serious business - a modern art form that can only get bigger and bigger, and it's here to stay."

It is putting out 14 classic games for the PSP on November 7th under the name EA Replay, probably not a backhanded slight toward modern console content restrictions, but if the shoe fits.......

The games included are B.O.B., Budokan, Desert and Jungle Strike, Haunting Starring Polterguy, Mutant League Football, Road Rashes 1-3, Syndicate, Ultima: The Black Gate, Virtual Pinball, Wing Commander and Wing Commander: Secret Missions. There is a lot of good here, and for $19.99, this looks like a steal.

SCEE and Ubisoft back GDC Russia
George Bain and Serge Hascoet lend weight to October event

The organisers of the Game Developers Conference Russia have announced its advisory board, which includes George Bain, developer support manager for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and Serge Hascoet, chief creative officer at Ubisoft.

Also joining the board is Alex Marquez of technology investment firm Intel Capital and Kathy Schoback, vice president of content acquisition at AGEIA Technologies.

Homegrown talent present on the GDC Russia advisory board include representatives from Noviy Disk, Creat Studios, KranX Productions, Nival Interactive, Buka and 1C.

The Game Developers Conference Russia takes place in St. Petersburg on October 18th – 20th. Keynotes are yet to be announced.

New chip promises better AI performance in games

9/5/2006 11:55:12 AM, by Eric Bangeman

A new company called AIseek announced what it describes as the world's first dedicated processor for artificial intelligence. Called the Intia Processor, the AI chip would work in conjunction with optimized titles to improve nonplayer character AI. Similar to the way in which physics accelerators can make a game's environment look much more realistic, Intia would make the NPCs act more true to life.

AIseek will offer an SDK for developers that will enable their titles to take advantage of the Intia AI accelerator. According to the company, Intia works by accelerating low-level AI tasks up to 200 times compared to a CPU doing the work on its own. With the acceleration, NPCs will be better at tasks like terrain analysis, line-of-sight sensory simulation, path finding, and even simple movement. In fact, AIseek guarantees that with its coprocessor NPCs will always be able to find the optimal path in any title using the processor.

Intia will enable developers to support much larger maps, including the possibility of dynamically changing maps that the NPCs could then adapt to. AIseek's hope is that use of Intia will result in the "creation of new game worlds that are based on large, rapidly changing environments."

AIseek has a handful of demos available in the form of movies purporting to show how NPCs operate using the company's AI acceleration. I couldn't get all of them to download, but the one I was able to watch was impressive: two armies with tanks and infantry in a head-on battle. As the terrain changed due to damage inflicted by the tanks, the infantrymen adapted their paths as they advanced through the scene.

If you're hoping that the NPCs in your favorite title will start acting smarter anytime soon, you'll be disappointed. Right now, it's unclear whether Intia is anything more than a name associated with a web site designed to attract venture capital funding. There is nothing indicating when Intia will be shipping, when AIseek's SDK will be available to developers, or what type of hardware will be necessary to use it. However, if you've ever been irritated by the stupidity of the NPCs in your favorite title, a dedicated AI coprocessor may be worth the wait.

Analyze This: The Current State of the PC Game Business

They are the professional analysts whose job it is to research, keep track of, advise their clients, and opine to the media about the gaming business. Analyze This cuts right to the chase: Rather than reporting on a subject, and throwing in quotes by analysts to support or refute a point, Gamasutra offers up a timely question pertaining to the business side of the video game industry and simply lets the analysts offer their thoughts directly to you.

Each person's opinion is his or her own and will (probably) not necessarily agree with their fellow colleagues' This month's 'Analyze This' column discusses the state of the PC game market with Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, Screen Digest's Ed Barton, and DFC Intelligence's David Cole.

[On piracy]: "The piracy issue is probably a real one, and the fact that console games are written in proprietary languages and that the consoles themselves have chips to recognize pirated copies will continue to help prevent piracy of console games. However, the flip side is that console games carry a heavy manufacturer's royalty, while PC games do not. To answer your question, yes, piracy is a problem that will limit the growth of PC game sales.

"A natural evolution of [this business] model, popular with Asian game makers, is to rely completely on micro-transactions for revenue. In Asia where PC software piracy rates are historically very high, client software is often distributed at nil cost with revenues generated by payments for game time or in-game objects.

[On piracy]: "Piracy is a big problem. There has been no legitimate console business in much of Asia because of piracy problems. Over in those markets it was the PC game companies that were the ones that found a way around the piracy issue [through MMOGs].

Apple Steps Up iPod Gaming

At today’s Apple event in San Francisco, company co-founder Steve Jobs revealed fifth-generation iPods with greater gaming capabilities.

Casual games including Pac-Man, Zuma, Texas Hold ‘em and Tetris will be made available on the iTunes store for $4.99 each. More games are expected to launch in the future.

The move marks a stronger emphasis at Apple on portable gaming, and highlights the widespread interest on the part of digital entertainment companies to jump into the casual gaming market.

Games for iPod have been available for some time, but have primarily been limited to simple entertainment titles. Apple now seems intent on bringing more popular, sophisticated titles (in terms of casual games) to various iPod configurations via the iTunes music store.

More on iPod games as information becomes available.

'Casual games' survey results surprise publisher

PopCap Games, a leading developer and publisher of casual games, has unveiled the results of what it calls the largest survey of players of 'casual' computer and video games ever conducted. Among the findings of the survey, which involved more than 2,100 respondents from among PopCap's customer base, were the answers given to questions about when, where and why consumers turn to these puzzle, word and simple action games. At the highest level, the survey found that more casual game players view the playing of such games as an important leisure time activity than TV, reading, or spending time with family and friends; 88% of respondents derive stress relief from playing; over half play casual games on a daily basis; 71% are 40 or older and 47% are 50 or older.

The survey, which reflects the responses of 2,191 purchasers of at least one PopCap game, was conducted in August by market research firm Information Solutions Group and carries a confidence interval of +/- 1.9%. "We've never set out to make a 'healthy' game or a 'game for women' – we simply try to make high quality, broadly appealing, fun games for everyone," said Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of PopCap. "We know from the many emails and letters we receive that some portion of our customers derives health benefits from the games, and that many view playing our games as a major source of fun in their lives, but these survey results are surprising even to us."

Among the most interesting findings of the survey were responses to questions regarding the location, duration and reasons for playing casual computer games, defined for survey purposes as "puzzle, word, simple action/arcade and other family-friendly, non-violent games which can be played on computers and mobile devices." Survey findings included: motives For Playing: 88% of players indicated they experienced stress relief from playing casual games and 74% cited mental exercise as a benefit; when asked to choose the most important reasons for playing, 41% picked "stress relief/relaxation," more than twice the number (19%) who chose "entertainment"; 27% said the games provided distraction from chronic pain and/or fatigue, and fully 8% said they derived actual relief from chronic pain and/or fatigue.

Dr Carl Arinoldo, a psychologist of 25 years and an author on stress management who has played casual games and advocates them as a source of both stress relief and cognitive exercise, says he was not surprised by the survey results. "Casual word and puzzle computer games, such as Bookworm and Bejeweled, can actually develop new cellular brain connections, thereby helping to keep the healthy brain active and vital. And by seriously attending to the word and puzzle games, people can control stress by cognitively blocking out the negative stresses of the day and ultimately train themselves to do this more reflexively. Unlike traditional video games that tend to over-stimulate while they engage our minds, casual games have a calming effect while still providing an acceptable level of distraction and entertainment."

When asked to identify "important" leisure time activities from among more than a dozen common such activities listed, more survey respondents picked "playing casual computer games" (75%) than any other choice, including "reading a book, newspaper or magazine" (73%), "spending time with friends or family" (70%), "watching television or movies" (69%) or "listening to music or the radio" (57%).

* Player makeup: 76% of players are female; 71% are 40 or older and 47% are 50 or older; 46% are college graduates with 14% holding a Master's degree or PhD; 53% have an annual household income of US$50,000 or more; 67% are married and 53% have at least one child. One quarter of survey respondents hail from outside North America.
* Gameplay habits: Asked to name their favourite genres of casual games, survey respondents selected puzzle (85%), word (62%), arcade (61%) and card games (51%) as their top choices; asked when they play casual games, respondents chose weekday evenings (51%), "late at night before going to bed" (47%) and weekends (35%) as the commonest times they play – with 11% stating they play during work hours. Dr. Arinoldo noted that the sizable portion of survey subjects who identified weekday evenings as a time when they play (as opposed the smaller number who play on weekends) may correlate with higher stress levels experienced during the work week.
* Inveterate players: 77% of respondents stated they have been playing casual games for at least three years and 49% indicated they have been playing for five or more years; fully 21% said they've been playing for 10 or more years, essentially since casual games first appeared on the Web. More than half (57%) of all respondents say they play casual games on a daily basis, and 90% said they play twice or more per week. On the same note, over half of the respondents (52%) stated that they play casual games for at least five hours per week, and 29% said they play for 10 or more hours each week.
* Segmentation by gender: While the overall audience for casual games is predominantly female, the percentage of women under 40 who play casual games (26%) is significantly smaller than men under 40 (36%). Further, of those men who do play casual games, their history of playing such games is generally much longer than their female counterparts' – 61% of men said they have been playing casual games for 5 years or more, while only 46% of women said they'd been playing that long. However, female casual gamers are making up for lost time by playing more frequently and for longer periods of time: 60% of all female casual gamers say they play on a daily basis, compared to 44% of men, and 29% of women casual gamers say they play for 10 or more hours per week compared to 22% of men. Women also play for longer stretches, with 43% saying their casual games sessions typically last an hour or more, compared to 31% of men. "Women tend to be more in touch with their feelings and more introspective than men, generally speaking, so it's logical that when they're feeling stressed women would seek out some sort of remedy such as playing casual computer games," said Dr Arinoldo.

The reasons for playing casual games also varied between men and women: when asked to choose the most important reasons for playing, 44% of women included "stress relief" among their choices, compared to 33% of men. In addition 17% of women chose "entertainment" as a reason for playing compared to 24% of men. Finally, the types of casual games enjoyed by each gender were significantly different: while men chose more game genres and identified simple sports, war, role-playing and other simulations between 14% and 18% of the time, women cited those genres only 1% to 9% of the time (including 1% of women choosing "war/combat" games, compared to 18% of men). Women named "puzzle" (87%), "word games" (66%) "arcade" (60%) and "card games" (53%) as their top genres, compared to 79%, 47%, 62% and 45% of men choosing those respective genres.

The results are based upon online surveys completed by 2,191 randomly selected respondents between the dates of August 11th and August 21st 2006. The audience consisted of 1,643 United States and 548 international PopCap.com website visitors. Of the total, 528 were male and 1,663 were female.

How Profitable are XBLA Titles?

With the cost of games development on consoles continually rising, casual games and Xbox Live Arcade games are starting to look more and more appealing to developers. Apparently, the games can be quite profitable too. GarageGames co-founder Jeff Tunnell explains.

Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News website, Tokyo


Sony is to cut the Japanese cost of its forthcoming PlayStation 3 console by 20%, the consumer electronics giant announced in Tokyo on Friday.

The price cut is aimed at boosting the launch of the machine and making it more competitive with the Xbox 360.

The price for the North American and European launch will stay the same.

The surprise move will see the 20 gigabyte version of the PS3 sell for 49,980 yen ($430) when it goes on sale on 11 November in Japan.

No changes to the price of the higher end model - 60GB version - or European and US prices were announced.

Gaming community

Sony has previously been criticised by the gaming community for the high cost of the new console. The lack of an announced price cut for the US and Europe markets may also raise some gamers' ire.

In the US, the system with a 20GB hard drive will cost $499, while a model with a 60GB drive will cost $599. European pricing is 499 and 599 euros respectively.

The new Japanese price puts the console in the same range as the basic Xbox 360 machine combined with an add-on HD-DVD player, which cost 49,600 yen together.

Sony hopes the price cut will deflect criticism after a series of delays to the PlayStation 3 console, concerns about price and apathy from some gamers about the capabilities of the machine.

When the new console is released in November it will compete with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo's new console will cost 25,000 yen or lower in Japan and $250 (£133) or less in the US, while Microsoft's Xbox 360, which went on sale last November, starts at $299 in the US and £209 in the UK.

PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi, speaking on the opening day of the Tokyo Game Show, also said that all 20GB consoles would come complete with an HDMI connection, important for playing high definition graphics.

Previously, Sony had said that only the top end 60GB model would come with the connector.

High definition

He said that it had now become apparent that there was a need for the high definition capability.

Mr Kutaragi also took the opportunity to apologise to games developers for delays in the release of the PS3.

The new console was originally scheduled for launch in Spring 2006, but technical hitches postponed the worldwide release until November this year.

Earlier this month, Sony was also forced to announce that European gamers would have to wait until 2007 to get their hands on the next generation console after delays in production.

Japanese gamers will be able to buy the console from 11 November. More than 200 of the consoles are on display at TGS.

"What is important is that we get more consoles sold to make up for the price cut and get more game makers and chip makers in our camp," Mr Kutaragi said at the conference.

No further delays

He said the company's focus was now on ensuring that no further delays occur.

The announcements were made in a question and answer session following Mr Kutaragi's keynote speech at the opening of TGS.

The speech, titled Next Generation Entertainment created by the PS3 was almost devoid of any announcement about the new console.

Instead, Mr Kutaragi took the opportunity to outline his vision for a future of networked gaming and game development.

He told the audience that game developers need to innovate and be prepared for a new generation of networked gaming in the future.

He told the games industry that advances in computer hardware and internet services could change the way games are made.

Gamers' content

Content generated by gamers, such as digital photos and video, could be harnessed by game makers, he said.

In addition, data such as digital maps of the real world and blueprints of new cars could be used to make more realistic and cheaper games, he said.

"You might think this is a long way off, but it is not," he said. "If the data is available, we can utilise it."

The Tokyo Game Show takes place from 22 to 24 September at Makuhari Messe conference centre in Chiba near Tokyo.

As part of the CEDEC Premium conference at the Tokyo Game Show attended by Gamasutra, Epic Games' Jay Wilbur discussed the company's attitude to next-gen development, revealing the formation of Epic Games China to provide low-cost game asset outsourcing to both Epic and third parties.

According to Wilbur, one of the keys to Epic's carefully managed staff size is the way that the company has outsourced content. Epic's teams were claimed to be 50% or smaller on average than the industry norm, with Gears Of War's average team size over its development life listed as being just 30 developers.

Hence, Epic has initiated the setting up of the Shanghai-based division, which is run by a team responsible for content development at high-profile studios including Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Shanghai, reportedly including former Ubisoft Shanghai studio head Paul Meegan. The people behind Epic China have worked on titles in the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Ghost Recon franchises, and Wilbur indicated that Epic itself is outsourcing to Epic Games China for low-cost, high quality game assets, but it will also be available to other developers.

Sony exec predicts end of the road for discs

Majority of content to be provided digitally "in five years' time"

Jamie MacDonald, VP of SCE Worldwide Studios Europe, has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes digital distribution will overtake discs within the next five years.

Speaking after his keynote at GDC London this morning, MacDonald said the industry is currently experiencing a "paradigm shift" as the cost of games production increases and there is a move toward a "network-centric world". This, he argued, will have significant implications for the way developers make games, the revenue streams they are able to exploit and the way products are delivered.

"In five years' time, my belief is that the majority of content won't be delivered on disc. That has many implications for developers and the way we organise our industry," MacDonald said.

"It also brings with it great opportunities because it means you can touch your consumer in many different ways and at different times - it's not just a one-off relationship where a consumer buys a disc from the store.

"In terms of object sales, episodic content, in-game advertising and merchandising, there are many, many opportunities to have a relationship with the consumer - which is a great challenge to us as developers because that's not what we're used to."

This is not the first time a Sony executive has predicted the end of the road for disc formats. Back in August, Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison said he would be "amazed" if the PlayStation 4 featured a disc drive - causing some observers to question the validity of launching the new Blu-ray format with PlayStation 3.

But according to MacDonald, "The thing about Blu-ray discs - and this is the crucial thing - is that not any time soon will you be able to download the amount of content you need for a big triple-A title down a typical 2, 4 meg broadband connection. That's not going to happen now or in the next year.

"So Blu-ray is absolutely needed for the high definition content in the games that we'll be producing. The network-enabled world, for the initial period, is much more about updated content, object sales, but also titles which are not these blockbuster titles."

Gizmondo's Spectacular Crack-up

Directors of the game device company went on living large long after their handheld flopped. Then a high-speed Ferrari crash blew their world to bits.

THE BUMP IN THE ROAD that ended Bo Stefan Eriksson's fantastic ride is practically invisible. From 10 feet away, all you can see is the ragged edge of a tar-seamed crack in an otherwise smooth sheet of pavement. Only the location is impressive - a sweet stretch of straightaway on California's Pacific Coast Highway near El Pescador state beach, just past the eucalyptus-shaded mansions of the Malibu hills. On that patch of broken asphalt, there's barely enough lip to stub a toe. Of course, when you hit it at close to 200 miles per hour, as police say Eriksson did in the predawn light last February 21, while behind the wheel of a 660-horsepower Ferrari Enzo, consequences magnify.

50 Books For Everyone In the Game Industry

Next-Gen has compiled a list of the 50 books from which everyone in the game industry could learn something. Our list covers game design theory to histories of games companies to sociological texts to novels. Compiled by game designer and author Ernest Adams...

Big Fish scales down some staff, hooks others

Add Big Fish Games to the list of Seattle area technology companies cutting staff this month.

The 4-year-old distributor of casual games laid off an undisclosed number of employees Tuesday as part of restructuring that Chief Executive Paul Thelen classified as "an opportunity based initiative of our company." At the same time, he said that the company is healthy and hiring, with 20 open positions.\

But the layoffs caught some employees by surprise. Kimberlee Stedl, a program manager who joined the company last November, was escorted out of the building by a human resources professional after receiving her layoff notice. She said employees were only given time to grab their jackets and keys, adding that very little information was provided as to why the layoffs occurred.

"It came as a shock and there is really no logic as to why it happened," said Stedl, who was told in a group meeting a few weeks ago that her job was safe. She speculated that the cuts may have been tied to her stock options, which were scheduled to vest in a few weeks.

But Thelen said the vesting of stock options had nothing to do with the recent layoffs, nor did performance issues.

The layoffs were especially grating to Stedl because she said the company just last week hosted an employee cruise on Elliott Bay to celebrate recent milestones.

"Why did they take us on this goofy boat cruise if they were just going to can us a few days later?," she asked. "It is kind of insulting."

Big Fish Games' marketing department was especially hard hit, with Vice President of Marketing Ken Wells a casualty of the shakeup. Thelen said the cuts in marketing occurred because Big Fish is shifting more of its attention to My Big Fish Games, a new service that offers cash incentives to customers to spread the word about their favorite games. More than 100,000 people have signed up for My Big Fish Games since its debut last month.

Vice President of Technology Jeremy Noetzelman also has notified the company's executives that he is considering resigning. Thelen said Noetzelman would depart on "amicable terms."

Two people familiar with the cuts said that 17 people were let go, though Thelen said that number is high. He declined to disclose a specific figure, but added that the cuts represented a very small percentage of the company. He said there were no patterns to the cuts, with people at all levels let go.

What is interesting about the layoffs is that Big Fish, which scored $5 million in financing last December and tapped former Goldman Sachs managing partner Jeremy Lewis as president and chief operating officer in July, has been on a super fast growth path recently.

It added 120 employees in the past 16 months, reaching a peak employment of 140 people. The staff level now stands at 120, with another 20 open positions. Furthermore, Thelen said the company is cash flow positive and that revenue grew by more than 400 percent in the second and third quarters, when compared to the same periods last year.

The former RealNetworks manager said Big Fish did not overhire, nor did it miss its financial targets.

Lewis added that company is not being positioned for an initial public offering or sale, one of the reasons why companies sometimes chop staff.

"We are growing faster than we have budgeted," said Lewis.

Then why the cuts?

"We hired a lot of people and whenever you hire that many people you are trying to predict where the business is going, and sometimes your predictions aren't perfectly accurate," said Thelen, adding that it "eliminated skill sets who didn't match our priorities."

Lewis said the cuts occurred because of a change in priority at the company. He declined to elaborate on the change, saying it would give away a competitive advantage. The layoffs follow recent cuts at technology companies, including CapitalStream, GraniteEdge Networks, InfoSpace and Pacific Edge Software.

Big Fish markets more than 250 downloadable computer games, including popular titles such as "Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects," "Atlantis Sky Patrol" and "Virtual Villagers."

Entertainment Software Association Announces Details of New E3Expo

New Event to Take Place in July, 2007, in Santa Monica, California

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The new E3 Media and Business Summit will be held July 11-13, 2007, in Santa Monica, California, and will combine the best elements of the former trade show into a business event celebrating the video game industry's present and future, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today.

The centerpiece of the invitation-only, three-day event will be the opportunity for both ESA members and non-members to stage major press events, and to have intimate meetings in premier hotel suites and meeting rooms with media, retailers, developer partners, and other audiences. In addition, the nearby Barker Hangar will be converted into a software showcase where attendees will be able to casually test drive the featured video games planned for the coming holiday season and beyond.

"By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds -- the chance to engage in highly personal, one-on-one dialogue with leading game company executives, as well as the chance to demo games on their own time and to check out offerings from both the best known and emerging game publishers and developers," said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA. "It will also provide an excellent opportunity for meetings with retailers, developers and other audiences."

The new E3Expo will also feature a daily luncheon conference session with top executives and/or analysts and a Serious Games showcase. In addition, ESA is exploring adding an independent games showcase and including the highly successful "Into The Pixel" video game art competition and exhibition. Finally, evenings will be a time for receptions and parties so participants can interact at the informal events that have been an E3Expo tradition.

"The new E3Expo is first and foremost about getting business done. When we asked key audiences what they wanted in the new event, we heard that they wanted opportunities for high-level meetings in a business-like setting, to play games, network, and socialize, to see major company offerings while also preserving the sense of discovery that is so much a part of E3Expo, and to hear substantive presentations on the most important issues and trends facing the industry," said Lowenstein. "We believe the event we have shaped will fulfill all those needs."

Lowenstein noted that all the hotels involved will be within easy walking distance of one another, and there will be a shuttle bus system to facilitate movement to the hotels and Barker Hangar, as well as to major off-site press conferences, such as those staged by the major console companies. "The new E3Expo event will be more personal, efficient and focused, and it will provide the top stakeholders who make games, sell games, and cover games streamlined access to the people and products they most need to see."

The Barker Hangar venue, a short drive from the hotels, will allow participating companies to showcase their games in standardized, turnkey displays areas ranging from 100 square feet to 400 square feet. All display areas will be developed by show management to ensure that the venue is staged efficiently.

As noted, the event will be open to ESA members and non members alike. Companies involved in console, PC, online, and mobile game publishing and developing, as well as makers of video game hardware and peripherals will be eligible to participate. Attendance at all events, meetings, and demonstrations will be by invitation only. Transportation between venues will be provided to event participants. ESA expects that event booking will be launched within the next 30 days.

The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2005, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software. For more information about the ESA, please visit www.theESA.com.

TOP 10 INDUSTRY FACTS

1. U.S. computer and video game software sales grew four percent in 2005 to $7 billion -- a more than doubling of industry software sales since 1996.

2. Sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

3. The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

4. The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 40 years old. In 2006, 93 percent of computer game buyers and 83 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.

5. Eighty-five percent of all games sold in 2005 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. For more information on ratings, please see www.esrb.org.

6. Eighty-seven percent of game players under the age of 18 report that they get their parents’ permission when renting or buying games, and 89 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.

7. Thirty-five percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.

8. Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%).

9. In 2005, 25 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

10. Forty-four percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week. In addition, 32 percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

2 gejmerska e-zina

Za dane vikenda preporuka je čitanje nečeg opuštajućeg poput dva domaća gaming culture e-zina, koja možete preuzeti sasvim besplatno.

Prva preporuka je gejmerski e-zine PLAY! koji je doživeo svoje 4. izdanje u PDF formatu (~12MB). S obzirom da je besplatan, i da okuplja zajednocu koja kreira ovaj magazin na volonterskoj osnovi, e-zine PLAY! je odličnog dizajna, sadržajan i bavi se "vrućim" gejming temama. Arhivu PDF-ova ovog e-zina možete naći ovde.

Drugi, elektronski magazin Rush distribuira se u drugačijoj formi, pomalo neuobičajeno, u ZIP arhivi (~37MB) prepunoj dokumenata u XML formatu i multimedijom.

Arhiva magazina Rush omogućava pristup svim prethodnim izdanjima, a trenutno se stiglo do broja 19.

Demos Very Important, says NPD

Being able to take games for a “test drive” is of primary importance to consumers, according to the NPD Group's Game Drivers Purchase Report.

ImageAccording to the report, being able to try games in stores, online, or at someone else’s house is of particularly weighty importance. This importance grows when the focus is on the broader gaming audience. Says NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier, “Ads, reviews, and other vehicles are relatively more influential to the heavy gamer, but to attract more casual players, getting games into their hands so they can experience the fun first-hand is essential.”

The report also reiterates the necessity of television, print and online advertising, and emphasizes that when buying games as gifts for others, price is the greatest consideration in the mind of the consumer. It also states that while sources of information like gaming websites are relevant, they are less important when it comes time for the consumer to actually make a purchase decision.

Women outnumber men in online games, survey finds

By Candace Lombardi, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

While male video gamers still outnumber women 2 to 1, women have the edge in online games, a survey has found.

Of the 117 million active gamers in the U.S., 56 percent play games online. Sixty-four percent of those online gamers are female, according to results of the survey, released by Nielsen Entertainment on Thursday.

The survey defined active gamers as those who are 13 years or older, own at least one game device, and play at least one hour of video games a week. Game devices include game consoles, personal computers and handhelds. Nielsen surveyed 2,200 active gamers online in July.

"The expansion of next-generation hardware and technology in the marketplace is simultaneously delivering new ecosystems of social exchange, interactive entertainment, media experiences and advertising models," Emily Della Maggiora, a senior vice president of Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, said in a statement.

The survey found that while the casual game segment is growing, casual gamers tend to jump from one free demo to another with little sense of brand loyalty. While banner advertising provides a good revenue stream for the online game providers, gaining brand loyalty and getting people to spend money for subscriptions or downloads will be the key to growing the market, Nielsen researchers found.

Currently, casual gamers spend $9 a month on games. Those playing multiplayer online role-playing games spend an average of $26 a month, while Microsoft Xbox 360 gamers spend $35 a month, the survey found.

Among game console owners, the majority own more than one device or platform--including PCs--for playing video games. Fifty-nine percent own a Sony PlayStation 2. Microsoft was next, with 33 percent owning an Xbox. (Fifteen percent of all active gamers own an Xbox 360, while about 8 percent of active gamers own both an Xbox and an Xbox 360.) Nintendo's GameCube came in third at 30 percent.

Active gamers played an average of 14 hours a week on game consoles and 17 hours on handheld devices like the PlayStation Portable, according to the survey.

Twenty-four percent of active gamers also played on cell phones. Personal computers, however, dominated as the platform of choice.

Sixty-four percent of those who regularly played video games, played on PC-based systems. Just two years ago, according to the Nielsen report, many game industry analysts wondered whether computers would be able to compete with game consoles and handhelds.

Playing video games is also becoming more of a contact sport--sort of. The average gamer spends five hours a week playing games with other people online, while teen gamers spend up to seven hours a week.

Winter '06 72 Hour Game Development Competition

It's time for the 8th 72 Hour Game Development Competition! The general premise is this: At the start of the 72 hour period, a pre-determined theme is revealed. Teams collaborate to make the best game they can following that theme with only 72 hours to release something. Theme suggestions are welcome immediately. On November 10th, Tier 1 voting begins and on November 14th, Tier 2 voting begins. Finally, on November 17th, the winning theme will be revealed and teams will have 72 hours to submit their entries.

NVidia / Game Creator contest opened

NVidia and The Game Creators are sponsoring a game development competition.

The competition is in fact two separate contests: one is based on FPS Creator and needs you to create one FPS level. The entry will be judged on several criterias, including gameplay and level design.

The other one is a DarkBASIC contest and is not restricted in any way - you can do the game you want. Several criterias will be used to give a note to the entry - bonus points can be won if the game makes innovative use of shaders.

The deadline of both contests is 16th February 2007.

The winner of the FPS Creator contest will get funding in order to continue the development of his game and to have it published by Mastertronic. Other prices includes high-end NVidia boards, full PCs or SLi motherboards with 2 SLi NVidia boards.

Fall 2006 issue of the IGDA Casual Games Quarterly

Welcome to the Fall 2006 issue of the IGDA Casual Games Quarterly. Yes, the Quarterly has been on hiatus, but now we're back with a vengeance.

This issue has far more content than any of our previous issues. You'll find articles and interviews on DRM, game design, audio design and security, as well as some new regular features. All this was made possible in large part by the generous help of two new co-editors; Jason Akel and James C. Smith. Thank you Jason and James! I'd also like to thank the writers who contributed to this issue: Steven B. Davis, Catherine Herdlick, Andrew Lum, Kane Minkus, and Eric Zimmerman.

Do you have ideas for content for the Casual Games Quarterly? We are always open to ideas for articles, regular columns, interviews, and more. Would you like to get involved with the Casual Games SIG? Email us or join the mailing list using the link on the left of this page.

Thanks!

Wade Tinney
Editor - IGDA Casual Games Quarterly
Partner, Game Designer - Large Animal Games
Chapter Coordinator - IGDA New York City
wade[at]largeanimal.com


Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor

Redesigning Shopmania: A Design Process Case Study
By Catherine Herdlick and Eric Zimmerman

Securing High Score Games
By Steven B. Davis

Q&A with Loren Hillberg, Macrovision Inc.
By Jason Akel

Audio in Casual Web, Downloadable and Xbox Live Arcade Games
By Kane Minkus

Top 10 Data Review
By James C. Smith

Cake Mania Postmortem: The Method Behind the Mania
By Andrew Lum

Executive Question of the Quarter: Vista
By Jason Akel

Casual Games Technology Survey
By James C. Smith

Nintendo uspješan

Nintendo bilježi ogromne uspjehe vezane za Wii konzolu. U osam dana od početka prodaje u SAD-u Nintendo je uspio prodati 600,000 uređaja.

Osim toga, ukupna Wii zarada, uključujući konzolu, dodatke i igre iznosi 190 milijuna dolara. Razlog tome leži većim dijelom i u cijeni od 250 dolara, što je upola manje od najjeftinije varijante PlayStationa 3.

Sony ne odaje slične podatke, samo napominje kako će do kraja godine biti isporučeno milijun konzola. Ipak, u ratu konzola vodi Microsoft sa godinu dana prednosti na tržištu i šest milijuna isporučenih uređaja.

Nintendo prodaju u Europi započinje 8. prosinca (u Velikoj Britaniji) po cijeni od 179 funti, dok PS3 na našim prostorima možemo očekivati tek u ožujku iduće godine.

2007 IGF Main Competition Finalists Announced

We're delighted to announce Main Competition finalists for the 2007 Independent Games Festival, from an amazing field of 141 entries this year. Nominations are led by Bit Blot's dreamlike, innovatively controlled 2D underwater adventure title Aquaria, which garnered 4 nominations, including one for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Other Grand Prize nominees included Queasy Games' cleverly designed abstract shoot-em-up, Everyday Shooter, which grabbed 3 nominations in total - nominees for the top prize were rounded out by Peter Stock's intelligently complex physics puzzle game Armadillo Run, Three Rings' Wild West indie strategy MMO Bang! Howdy, and Naked Sky's Xbox Live Arcade/PC action-puzzler RoboBlitz.

Other notable IGF finalists grabbing nominations for design-related innovation include DigiPen-constructed first-person shooter set in a world of blocks (which act as both terrain and weapons!), Toblo, as well as NABI Software's extremely original turn-based ragdoll fighting game Toribash. Elsewhere, Best Web Browser Game finalists include Amanita Design's beautifully drawn adventure title Samorost 2, Visual Art finalists also have a plethora of highlights, including The Behemoth's Xbox Live Arcade title Castle Crashers.

Finally, the Excellence In Audio category includes Skinflake's Racing Pitch, in which the player uses a microphone to imitate a car engine in order to power his on-screen vehicle, and Technical Excellence also has a multitude of stand-outs, including Cryptic Sea's physics puzzler Blast Miner and EvStream's multiplayer space title Armada Online.

The full list of finalists for the IGF Main Competition, all of whom will be showing their games at the IGF Pavilion during Game Developers Conference in March 2007, are as follows:

Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Aquaria - Bit Blot; Armadillo Run - Peter Stock; Bang! Howdy - Three Rings Design; RoboBlitz - Naked Sky Entertainment; Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games.

Best Web Browser Game: Bubble Islands - dot-invasion; Gamma Bros - Pixeljam; Samorost 2 - Amanita Design.

Design Innovation Award: Armadillo Run - Peter Stock; Aquaria - Bit Blot ; Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games; Toblo - Digipen Institute of Technology; Toribash - NABI Software .

Excellence In Visual Art: Castle Crashers - The Behemoth; Golf? - Luke Hetherington, Alex Austin, Josiah Pisciotta, and Andrew Laing; Aquaria - Bit Blot; RoboBlitz - Naked Sky Entertainment; Samorost 2 - Amanita Design.

Excellence In Audio: Bone: The Great Cow Race - Telltale Games; Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games; FizzBall - Grubby Games; Aquaria - Bit Blot; Racing Pitch - Skinflake.

Technical Excellence: Arcane Legions: The Rising Shadow - Slitherine Software; Armada Online - EvStream; Bang! Howdy - Three Rings Design; Blast Miner - Cryptic Sea; Bugs Of War - NinjaBee.

The winners of each of these categories, including an Audience Award for which every finalist is eligible, will be announced at the IGF Awards ceremony on the evening of Wednesday, March 7th 2007 at Game Developers Conference, when more than $50,000 in cash prizes will be given away.

(There are also two impending announcements about the rest of the 2007 IGF finalists - IGF Modding finalists will be announced on December 18th, and the IGF Student finalists on January 4th, 2007.)

Clip: Romero Announces New Game

The Cyperathlete Professional League announced that they are fronting a new console and PC multiplayer shooter created using an id Software engine to be used in future tournaments.

Severity is a multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) focusing on team-versus-team and one-versus-one play modes. Additionally, the game offers unprecedented support for gamers worldwide playing in online and live competitions both casually and professionally.

"Severity will be the first videogame conceived from the ground up to ensure the growth and appeal of multiplayer game competitions worldwide," said Tom Mustaine, Director of Game Development at the CPL's new studio.

Severity is built on technology created by developer id Software™ and includes enhanced tournament support, spectator modes, as well as detailed player and tournament statistics tracking. By leveraging the enthusiastic community and practical experiences of the CPL, Severity is uniquely positioned to set new standards while raising the bar for competitive multiplayer games.

The league expects to start testing the game before the end of next year. Now sit back and watch John Romero talk about his new baby.

IDG World Expo today announced the official name of its newest event: "Entertainment for All(™) Expo" (E for All(™) Expo), scheduled for October 18-20, 2007, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The name replaces "GamePro Expo" - a placeholder while the company held a naming contest. More than 3000 entries were submitted on popular video game site GamePro.com. The winning entry was proposed by California resident Dante Padre.

Young professional gamers grossing six-figure salaries

JUPITER, Fla. - Tom Taylor is anything but a computer geek.

Yeah, he spends hours a day behind a screen obliterating little green men or "master chiefs," but this self-professed ladies man has made more than $450,000 "fragging" sinister agents since becoming a professional video gamer in 2004.

In August, Stuff magazine featured him on "The Power List: the Top 20 under 30" alongside LeBron James, Ashton Kutcher and other celebs. He was on a 7-week reality series on USA Network, and also competing for a $100,000 purse at the world championships in Las Vegas.

Taylor, or "Tsquared," is a far cry from the stereotyped computer nerd trapped in his parent's basement. He's one of a handful of teens who have made their own fortunes in the $7 billion a year industry in the U.S. - a sales figure that's almost doubled since 1996, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Thanks to the Internet, a handful of magazines, a cable network devoted to gaming and corporate-sponsored tournaments attended by tens of thousands, the video game industry has cemented its place in pop culture. And by promoting the best gamers as professionals, the industry helps push its product - much the same way the visibility of pro golfers sells clubs and balls.

The financial rewards of video games are immense. For example, Halo 2 grossed $125 million during the first 24 hours of its release, according to Microsoft sales statistics. At a retail cost of $29.99, that's more than 4 million units sold.

"The folks that grew up with games are now getting older, and having kids who are growing up in an environment where it's a preferred entertainment choice," said John Davison senior vice president of 1UP Network, a multimedia network for gamers. "Culturally it will have an impact across the board with expectations from entertainment and pop culture, and potentially beyond, too."

In South Korea, where the industry has boomed for years, the pro video gamers are celebrities mobbed by screaming fans at contests.

A similar movement is sweeping the U.S., and a handful of emerging pros enjoy rock star treatment, with world tours and six-figure paychecks.

Like poker and skateboarding, some say gaming is the next big sport - or cybersport.

Major League Gaming or MLG recently signed five players to some of the biggest professional contracts ever awarded gamers, including one four-person team to a $1 million, three-year contract. Taylor, 19, signed a $250,000, three-year deal in 2006.

After practicing three hours a night, Taylor runs 3 to 5 miles a day and lifts weights, which he said clears his head and boosts his focus.

Once you get past his typical teen bedroom - with a belly baring Britney Spears poster and rap music pumping in the background - it's easy to see he's serious about his craft. Three flat screen TVs with Xboxes line the walls. On the floor is a stack of "playback footage," more than 40 hours of "game tape" he watches at night.

"I record what I do so I can watch it later, just like football tapes," said Taylor, who launched a video game tutoring business last year and counts NBA stars like Richard Jefferson among the clients. He charges $65 an hour.

Like every professional sport, there's always a prodigy. In video games, it's 8-year-old Victor De Leon III.

He doesn't travel with an entourage and prefers playing with his dwarf hamster, Cortana, and watching Star Wars.

But put him in a Halo 2 tournament and "Lil Poison," as he's known, is venomous. His father, also named Victor De Leon, said the gaming whiz already has earned enough money to buy a luxury car and pay for his college tuition.

Throngs of fans surround the Long Island, N.Y., resident at tournaments. He's signed a sponsorship with 1UP Network, has a product line that came out in December and a clothing line debuting this year.

By the age of 4, De Leon was placing in local tournaments. His father, a video game junkie who taught Lil Poison to play at age 2, has watched the industry morph.

"I'm trying to go to the pro circuit like MLG," Lil Poison said shyly.

Though men dominate the pro ranks, the industry attracts plenty of women.

Pro gamer Bonnie Burton said she plays for the social scene.

"Its not only about competing, it's also about all the friends you have. Tsquared and I have grown up together through the gaming community," the 15-year old Burton from Carlisle, Pa., said.

Considered one of the fiercest players in the league, 17-year-old Chris Smith or "Shockwave" said shows like the one debuting on USA prove the industry has gone mainstream.

"I do feel like we are the face of the industry," said Smith, who lives in Philadelphia. "I feel real proud of myself that I can be a part of something growing as fast as pro gaming."


Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 010707

XNA Magic is the first all-in-one game development system designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the brand new Microsoft XNA platform.

Providing an extensible game engine, level editor, particle system design surface, logic editor, script editor and a great deal more, XNA Magic is designed to be both complete and easy to use.

Ever wonder why Microsoft hasn't released an HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, or whether the AV port was really capable of digital out? Well, here's your answer: we landed pictures of what appears to be the second Xbox 360 -- the Xbox 360 v2, if you will -- codenamed Zephyr. (The original Xbox 360, if you recall, was codenamed Xenon.) The long rumored about and awaited update to the console won't just feature a new, cooler 65nm processor, it's also finally added an HDMI port for full digital 1080p pleasure, as well as a 120GB drive, just what the doctor ordered. The 120GB drive may or may not come bundled with the kit, we don't yet know, just as we also don't yet know how much a Zephyr 360 is going to run (we imagine it'll go for the same price as currently so they can keep up a little on their expanding margin). But our very kind Xbox insider seemed happy to let us know we'd be able to get them "soon."

Call Of Duty: Finest Hour - The Contract
The following article reprints the entire development contract for Spark's November 2004-released console game Call Of Duty: Finest Hour, which debuted for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube following Infinity Ward's first Call Of Duty for PC. We have asked three leading game attorneys - Tom Buscaglia, Chris Bennett, and Dave Spratley - to comment on the entire document, which even includes milestone payment specifics, and was released to the public as part of a legal battle between Spark and Activision.

China's Online Games Industry Sees 74 Percent Yearly Growth

According to a new report, the online games industry in China has recorded massive growth in 2006, with revenues up 73.5 percent over 2005 to a total of 6.54 billion Yuan ($839 million), 65 percent of which came from domestically developed games.

Apart from the 4.24 billion Yuan ($544 mil) brought in by domestically developed games, $20 million in revenues was recorded for Chinese games exported overseas in 2006. Casual games were also reportedly responsible for 18.8 percent of the yearly growth, with a total revenue of 1.23 billion Yuan ($158 mil).

GS: Japan and North America have traditionally been identified as the powerhouses of game development. What are your thoughts on the state of European game development, specifically in Eastern Europe?

BT: Europeans--Eastern and Western--acutely suffer from quasi-intellectualism. It seems we just cannot grasp the concept of entertainment. We keep getting bogged down with weird games about micromanaging a hotel chain, or setting a gun on a tank for 10 minutes and then eventually shooting once. It's a tremendous handicap that we'll have to get rid of as soon as possible if we want to compete with North American and Japanese developers. It seems European designers are creating games for themselves, not for the playing public. I guess it's the egocentrism of Europeans--that's why we have 10 different types of wall sockets.

Zootfly Shows Off New XBLA Game

Zootfly Shows Off New XBLA Game Well my fellow gamers, we’ve all been had. Remember earlier this week when we all got really excited about the sweet videos for the new Ghostbusters game? Well now that game has been put on the shelf pending licensing disputes and Zootfly (re: the game’s developer) is saying “Hey but look at all of our other games! We’re the guys doing Ghostbusters!”

In a move of what can only be described as sheer marketing genius, Zootfly has turned itself from unproven into elite developer. It’s time to face facts. Ghostbusters was probably stalled long before they released the videos. They were only used to get the Zootfly name into your cranium. See, if they released screens for their new game TimeO, or their XBLA game Toy Wars before this whole Ghostbusters thing, nobody would have given a crap.

This isn’t to say I don’t like what I see from Zootfly, the Ghostbusters game looked promising and TimeO looks to have some decent inspiration/ingenuity, not to mention the newly announced Toy Wars seems like it shows off the lighter side of the little yellow hat that is Zootfly.

Since we’re slaves to the emerging media, whether it dupes us into covering their stories or not. We here at Cinemablend will be on the front lines for all emerging stories about these games, so stay tuned as more information makes its way down the grapevine.

Concern at rush to study for degrees in computer games

AMAZED at the rush of enrolments for new degrees in computer games, Queensland academics are "terrified" that some students believe they will spend three years finessing their PlayStation skills.
The Queensland University of Technology's Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment has been so popular with school leavers that the head of the campus's IT faculty fears students have been misled by a catchy course title.

"One of our terrible fears is that we're going to have this cohort of students who imagine that they're going to be allowed to play games 50 hours a week for three years and then be handed a degree," the dean of information technology, Simon Kaplan, said.

"This is something that terrifies us because computer games at university is no more about playing computer games than aeronautics is about flying fighter jets."

Although students will learn the technical and creative aspects of design, animation and software development, QUT's decision to market the course via computing magazines and FM radio has resulted in a flood of interest, with some of the state's top students applying. School leaver Douglas Cook passed up a chance to study law and medicine to sign up for the games degree. "I could have possibly been a doctor or lawyer (but) I just wanted to do something with my life that I would enjoy for a long time," the 17-year-old said after winning a scholarship into the course.

"I've always loved playing games and I just thought the next best step was to be making them for a living. I would prefer to create them myself."

Professor Kaplan said there was a risk that student interest would decline once classes began.

"We are very concerned that a lot of the kids have signed up with the complete misapprehension and that we're going to suddenly find ourselves with a huge attrition rate," he said. "It's our hope of course that students are intelligent consumers. An ad is intended ... to pique someone's interest and we hope that they do something between hearing the ad and signing up at the tertiary admissions centre."

More than 700 people applied for the 163 places on the QUT degree, which added to a growing list of computer games courses on offer from universities including Bond, Southern Queensland, Charles Sturt and Swinburne, which this year recorded its highest growth in first preferences for a BA in games and interactivity, increasing by 128 per cent.

The universities take advantage of Australia's $110 million interactive entertainment industry. "The two hubs for games development in Australia are Melbourne and southeast Queensland," QUT's director of undergraduate studies in IT Ruth Christie said.

Companies have gone from employing five staff five years ago to employing up to 70 or 80 people, she said.

Professor Kaplan expected more universities to cater to the demands of the games industry. "They're not looking for an average programmer," he said. "They're looking for the superstar designers and animators."

Beaumont's marketing prowess has already pushed Lost Planet to near-blockbuster status: Capcom shipped 1 million copies before the game went on sale Jan. 12. A game that sells 3 million units globally is generally considered a smash hit. Capcom has spent $20 million developing the game and will spend another $20 million promoting it. In the past that ratio tilted heavily toward development. Lost Planet anchors Capcom's quest to capture share in North America and Europe, which account for 80% of the world's $16.3 billion game market.

Unseen 64 is just a simple archive where to have a collection of screenshots for beta & unreleased videogames, like a little online-photo album, nothing really special. We decided to make this site just in case there where others fans of beta videogames, like us.

Istorija Commodore 64 igara

Uskoro će se u prodaji naći knjiga “The Commodore 64 Games Book 1982-199x” u izdanju izdavačke kuće Hiive Books. Knjiga će pokriti preko 200 igara za najprodavaniji kućni računara 80-tih, sa zanimljivostima vezanim za igre, programere i kompanije. Svaki opis igre biće propaćen screenshotovim i ilustrovan slikom pakovanja. Knjiga će biti podeljena na sekciji po godinama od 1982. do 1992., sa posebnim osvrtom na sadašnjost ovog kultnog računara. Više detalja na http://c64goldenyears.com/ a ako vas zanima istorija ZX Spectruma posetite sajt http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/.

SURVEY REVEALS U.S. GAMER MARKET IS DIVERSIFYING

Parks Associates identifies six segments:

* Power gamers represent 11 percent of the gamer market but account for 30 cents of every dollar spent on retail and online games.
* Social gamers enjoy gaming as a way to interact with friends.
* Leisure gamers spend 58 hours per month playing games but mainly on casual titles. Nevertheless they prefer challenging titles and show high interest in new gaming services.
* Dormant gamers love gaming but spend little time because of family, work, or school. They like to play with friends and family and prefer complex and challenging games.
* Incidental gamers lack motivation and play games mainly out of boredom. However, they spend more than 20 hours a month playing online games.
* Occasional gamers play puzzle, word, and board games almost exclusively.

The 10 Minutes Game Sales Potential Test

Everybody in the gaming industry has a great idea for a game. The desire to see that idea become a reality is what brought many of us to this industry. Sadly, the quality of this idea – or even of the game itself – isn’t enough to guarantee a commercial success: critically acclaimed games like Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil have sold far fewer sales than they deserved.

DirecTV Enters Casual Gaming Market With Game Lounge

DirecTV Enters Casual Gaming Market With Game Lounge Officials from major U.S. satellite television service provider DirecTV have announced the launch of Game Lounge, a new interactive casual and children's gaming channel now available exclusively on the service.

In conjunction with the new channel, the company has also entered into a long term, exclusive partnership with Mattel for the use of all of its brands to develop a line of children’s games exclusive to Game Lounge.

Described as a platform rather than simply another satellite channel, Game Lounge features several casual game categories including puzzle, word, card, educational and arcade style games based upon popular IP such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Tak and the Power of Juju.

In addition to children’s games, Game Lounge will also offer a variety of casual games, including Bejeweled 2, Sudoku, Monopoly, Scrabble, Yahtzee and Black Jack. In addition, through the company's partnership with SkillJam, a multi-channel provider of skill-gaming technology and solutions, players will also be able to compete against other DirecTV subscribers for tokens, cash and prizes.

Although these games do not require any specialized equipment, and can be played using a standard DirecTV remote control, access to these titles does require that DirecTV subscribers have a special interactive receiver. Access to the service is also available on a monthly or play-per-day pricing structure.

“Game Lounge’s unique platform is engaging the minds of both parents and children and bringing family game night back to DirecTV households across the country,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment. “Game Lounge gives families an alternative way to play games together, using a medium that kids are used to while also playing in a controlled environment that parents are comfortable with.”

He added: “Working with industry leaders such as Mattel and Nickelodeon, as well as our unique distribution structure, will make the Game Lounge platform incomparable to any other television service provider in the market.”

Sony Computer Entertainment UK's head of sales quit today, just five weeks before the PS3 is set to storm stories there, MCV is reporting.

Kevin Jowett took over as sales director in 1998 to oversee stock allocations for the PS2, PSP and, most recently, the PS3.

Game/engine developer Vicious Cycle has announced that its Vicious Engine subsidiary is setting up The Vicious Engine Rising Stars Program”, allowing start-ups to use the engine for an evaluation and prototyping period.

Motorola Announces the MOTODEV Game Developer Challenge

Have you developed the best game in town? Are you looking to get it published? We have the perfect opportunity for you!

MOTODEV and I-play have teamed up to bring you the MOTODEV Game Developer Challenge. Submit a hot new unpublished title for the ultra-slim MOTOKRZR™ K1 running the Java® software platform or the uber-functional MOTO Q™ running the Windows Mobile for Smartphone platform and get a chance to win some industry leading and unprecedented prizes!

Each of our two platform categories will boast a Grand Prize Winner and a Runner-Up Winner. Prize packages for the MOTODEV Game Developers Challenge will include:

Grand Prize Package

* A publishing contract with I-play*
* Promotion of your application to your colleagues in the MOTODEV community
* A briefcase full of the hottest new Motorola products
* An extensive package of I-play's hottest titles
* A Grand Prize Winner's plaque commemorating your engineering achievement
* Bragging rights

Runner-Up Package

* 1-on-1 consultation with each of our esteemed judges for market and channel feedback
* Promotion of your application to your colleagues in the MOTODEV community
* A briefcase full of the hottest new Motorola products
* An extensive package of I-play's hottest titles
* A Grand Prize Winner's plaque commemorating your engineering achievement
* Bragging rights

Games will be judged on uniqueness, fun factor, design, operation and innovation in visual arts and audio. You may submit as many different, original and unpublished games in each category as you like.

Deadline for submission of your game will be August 10, 2007.
Be sure to read about the submission requirements.

* Subject to the game meeting I-play's quality assurance requirements; further distribution is subject to the conclusion of a standard publishing and distribution agreement between I-play and the winner.

How Big Is the Casual Games Industry?

The casual games space is growing at an unprecedented rate, and Microsoft has emerged as an undisputed leader in multiple-platform casual offerings, with more than 10 years of experience in the space. According to DFC Intelligence, revenue from casual games is expected to grow from $713 million (U.S.) in 2005 to $1.56 billion (U.S.) in 2008, fueled by the global appeal of games such as “Bejeweled,” “Hexic®,” “Diner Dash” and “Bespelled.”

Gametap Launches 'Indies' Label, IGF Award

Gametap Launches 'Indies' Label, IGF Award Turner Broadcasting System has announced GameTap Indies, a new marketing and distribution program designed to introduce independent games to subscribers of its GameTap 'all you can eat' PC gaming service.

GameTap officials explain that the Indies program will take effect immediately, and serve as an added distribution channel for independent game developers. By enlisting in the program, GameTap assumes non-exclusive responsibility for the digital distribution of each selected game. In addition to being promoted alongside GameTap titles, GameTap Indies will be showcased in a special Independent Games content area within the service.

In addition, GameTap has further thrown its support behind independent game development by sponsoring its new “GameTap Indie Award”, to be presented at the 2007 Independent Games Festival Awards. GameTap is a Platinum Sponsor of the 9th annual festival, held in conjunction with the 2007 Game Developers Conference to celebrate the innovation and creativity of independent game developers, and part of the CMP Game Group (as is Gamasutra.com).

The three hand-picked recipients of the GameTap Indie Award will have the opportunity to have their titles showcased on the GameTap Service. Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap’s vice president of content, has selected these three games as outstanding examples of achievement in independent game development.

One award recipient will receive a $10,000 advance after signing a five year distribution deal to be a part of the new GameTap Indies label, while the two additional recipients will each receive a $5,000 advance after signing the same five year distribution deal to be part of the label. The chosen developers will be announced on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 7, and this award is in addition to the almost $50,000 of existing prizes to be given out to IGF winners.

“With GameTap Indies, we are giving developers and publishers the chance to put their game in front of an audience that otherwise might not see it,” said Sanchez. “There is a lot of innovation happening in gaming today that can only thrive on the hard drives and computer screens of gamers because of the boundless broadband frontier. With GameTap’s expansive reach and unique model, we will be able to offer forward thinking game designers a platform for success.”

IGDA Casual Games Quarterly

Bookworm Adventures Postmortem: The Good, The Not Bad & The Ugly
By Tysen Henderson and Jeff Weinstein

Breaking Ranks: Hacking Tournaments, Ladders, Contests, and Multi-Player Games
By Steven B. Davis

Slingo Quest Postmortem
By Dave Walls

Q&A with Richard Wienburg, Softwrap Inc.
By Jason Akel and Richard Wienburg

Improving Communication with Your Sound Designer
By Kane Minkus

Top 10 Data Review for 4th Quarter of 2006
By James C. Smith

Windows Vista and Casual Games Development: What developers need to know
By Robert Carroll and Kim Pallister

Digini Blade3D RAD Builds XNA Games for Xbox 360 and PC XP and Vista

Digini Inc announces Blade3D, an integrated game development system and runtime components that together allow rapid creation of games. By leveraging and extending the Microsoft XNA framework, Blade3D games can be deployed on Microsoft XP, Microsoft Vista and the Xbox 360 platforms with no modifications.

PopCap Games announces release of PopCap Framework 1.3

PopCap Games, the leading casual games developer, announces the release of its latest revision of the PopCap Framework. The latest engine release comes less than one week after the release of Peggle Deluxe and just in time for GDC '07. This release of the framework is the same technology used in the game, giving casual games developers the ability to harness the same power used there.

Gameindustrymap.com is a free, wiki-style map of the games industry. Powered by Google Maps, Perry is inviting the everyone in the games industry to submit markers to place on the map and build the most comprehensive guide to games companies.

Boutique MMOGs

Imagine, for discussion's sake, that you don't have $50 million, so you can't build and market a full-scale World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) clone. Suppose, too, you don't have rock superstar Bono on speed-dial, and unlike BioWare/Pandemic Studios, you can't finance your new MMOG through his $300 million Elevation Partners holding company. To get still more outlandish, let's say you cannot easily lay your hands on a paltry $3 million - no, really, work with me here - so you couldn't even produce a smaller-scale "casual MMOG" like Puzzle Pirates or Gaia Online or Dofus. Assume, hypothetically, you - just you, together with maybe two or three other indigent programmers - have six months of savings and a budget in the low four figures. How would you create and market a full-featured MMOG?

XNA Contest Offers $10K, XBLA Contract

Aspiring developers using XNA development tools have a chance to win $10,000 and an Xbox Live Arcade publishing contract, Microsoft announced today.
ImageThe Dream-Build-Play contest is open to any user of XNA Game Studio Express, including the GarageGames Torque X platform.

Microsoft will select over 20 winners and will distribute over $40,000 worth of prizes from Microsoft, Alienware, AMD, Autodesk and Softimage.

Dream-Build-Play will end July 2, 2007 and winners will be announced at Microsoft’s Gamefest 2007 in Seattle on August 13.

During this week’s Game Developers Conference, Microsoft will be displaying XNA-produced games during the XNA Game Studio Express Challenge, which will have developers gather to create four games in four days using the development tools.

In addition, Microsoft announced Schizoid from Torpex Games, the first XNA-created game that will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade. The game will launch later this year.

Announcing the XNA Game Studio Express Update

Michael Klucher
Program Manager – XNA Community Game Platform Team

In April of this year you’ll be able to download an update to XNA Game Studio Express, this release mainly focuses fixing your requests and issues that you’ve filed through the Microsoft Connect site(yes, we really do read and respond to your bugs and feedback as best we can). So what are some of the improvements in this release? Let’s take a look through each feature area.

* XNA Game Studio Express
o Windows Vista is now fully supported
o You can now add icons to XNA Game Studio Express Games.
o Incrementally deployment of Xbox 360 projects now works for all your projects (not just the last one loaded)
* XNA Framework
o Added Bitmap based font support
o Added XACT 3D Audio support
o Improvements and additions to the Math framework API’s
o BasicEffect now supports per-pixel lighting
o Many more changes based on your feedback!
* XNA Framework Content Pipeline
o Added support for Volume Textures (Texture3D)
o Content builds can now be canceled
o Support for “clean” builds
o Added the ability to read vertex and index buffer information from Model types
o Many more changes based on your feedback!
* XNA Game Launcher (Xbox 360)
o Game thumbnails are now displayed for your games
o Improved connection-key connectivity experience between the Xbox 360 and the PC
o The ability to test and diagnose the connection between the Xbox 360 and the PC

I hope that some of the changes called out above are something that you’re looking forward too. Funny, there seems to be something I’m missing from the list... oh yeah...

* Developer sharing of packaged XNA Game Studio Express Games
o Users can now package their binary games into a single file to share with other users of XNA Game Studio Express.
o These files can be emailed or hosted on websites like any other files.
o To run a game double click a file and it will unpack to your Windows based PC or Xbox 360 console, it’s that easy!

That was it! :-) Throughout the week of GDC and into next week we’ll be expanding on this list to give you information and “sneak peeks” at some of the new functionality to this update of XNA Game Studio Express. We hope that this starts to build in the direction that you want to see and is considered by us to be a small step towards our goals future visions.

id Software CEO: piracy pushed us multiplatform

At an early session Friday, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead gave a lecture on the problems of piracy on the internet. During his speech, Hollenshead revealed that, although they are still primarily a PC developer, id Software had begun to look at console game releases as a way to financially combat piracy.

"Piracy has pushed id as being multiplatform," Hollenshead said, noting that the current project Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is being scheduled for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Hollenshead's rationale is that console piracy is, by a large factor, minimal relative to the rampant PC piracy.

In Hollenshead's lecture, entitled "The Videogame Piracy Problem: Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest," was a discussion on the problems of piracy, his company's experiences with the issues, and suggestions to help the diffuse the issue.

We selected the Hot 100 based primarily on their studio’s market success in 2006 and potential market success in 2007. We also gave weight to what we felt were influential or innovative creative contributions to the medium during the last year. These may seem like strong scientific criteria on which to base such a list, but in reality compiling it was a gut-wrenching process. We know that, with the exception of the person in the number one spot, it feels like everyone should be higher on this list.

Funcom Drops "Offline" Games

Adventure Gamers has a report based on a Norwegian newspaper article saying that developer Funcom is going to concentrate their future efforts on online games only. The increasingly familiar explanation is PC piracy:

According to Funcom's Trond Arne Aas, there had been over 200,000 illegal downloads of Dreamfall, even before its release last year. Also, he estimates that for each PC game that is sold, between 3 and 10 times as many is stolen, thus resulting in Funcom's decision to stop producing offline PC games.

TIGRS™ is a free self-rating system for video game entertainment products. Many developers and publishers of Internet-available games have decided by their own volition to rate their games in order to educate their audiences about potentially objectionable content in their games.

Inside a video game developer studio

The BBC News website meets the team from Climax who developed the game Ghost Rider for PlayStation 2 (PS2), PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Game Boy Advance.

Founded in 2006 and currently in a state of heavy development, Kongregate seeks to create the leading online hub for players and game developers to meet up, play games, and operate together as a community.

By wrapping user-submitted Flash games with various community features, Kongregate's site serves as a unique way for users to play great web-based games alongside friends. Anyone can add their own games to Kongregate’s library in a process that’s fast and simple.

bkaradzic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6472467.stm

TINS is a 72 hour game programming competition. That means that you have to write a complete computer game from scratch in just one weekend! Sounds like fun, doesn't it? In fact, this is a very good way to learn a lot more about game programming. Because you have to focus and work in such a short time span, you'll be able to finally actually finish one of your projects. Indeed, this is the experience of many participants of previous competitions.

Indievelopment

Ever wonder what it's really like to develop a video game? GameSpot gives you a look into the trials and tribulations of a brand new independent development studio! Tune in every Wednesday at 4 p.m. PT to see how the team is progressing.

Over the weekend, the internets were set aflame with discussion of a new Ubisoft-maintained website appearing to promote an unannounced game in its growing stable of titles licensed by novelist Tom Clancy (pictured left). Rev64.com, a URL linked on several Ubisoft product pages, redirects to jsf28555833-80604722.com, the more cumbersome URL of the page in question. It depicts a bloodied male face which begins to blink and wince once various text links are clicked. Many of the links also trigger audio recordings hinting at a desperate geopolitical landscape, with both the northern and southern borders of the United States breaking down, conflict breaking out worldwide, and immigration blocks being instituted due to overpopulation.

Ubisoft has set up official forums for the mysterious game, which the publisher calls only "jsf28555833-80604722." In military terminology, "JSF" is an acronym for Joint Strike Fighter, currently referring to the F-35 Lightning II fighter being co-funded by numerous nations. Last March, numerous sites reported on an alleged leaked Ubisoft game release schedule, which included the game title Tom Clancy's Firehawk as being in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a release period of March 2007. Following the publication of the leaked schedule, many of the listed unannounced titles were later confirmed to be accurate. Little credence has been given to reports that the game is also in development for Nintendo 64; such rumors sprung up based on the URL "rev64.com" and the "64" suffix convention of many Nintendo 64 titles.

Gamer Demographics Spread Out

Ran Cohen of in-game ad firm Eyeblaster says that "the whole industry of the downloadable casual game is female-oriented." He noted that 60%-70% of casual game players are females over 30.

While other industry experts also point to a demographic shift in the gaming population, available data still support the stereotypical view of a male-dominated industry. An Ipsos Insight study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association showed that 62% of US computer and video game players are male, while 38% are female.

Ubisoft has unveiled the latest addition to its lucrative Tom Clancy franchise – future strategy title EndWar.

Promising to deliver an RTS experience that takes full advantage of the next-generation consoles, the project is being headed by creative director Michael de Plater at the publisher's Shanghai studio.

"Our development teams are invigorated to be creating the first 100 per cent next-generation Tom Clancy brand," commented Serge Hascoet, chief creative officer at Ubisoft.

Intel® Game Demo Contest 2007
Show us Your Game!

Win great exposure and your share of over $95,000 worth of Prizes, including:

* Meetings with game company executives -- for a possible bundling deal
* A Gateway gaming machine worth at least $3,000
* $5,000 in custom art for your demo
* A Giga pass to the Game Developers Conference 2008
* Copies of Garage Games’ Torque Engine Advanced and other content prizes
* An International Game Developers Association membership
* A full suite of Intel® Software Development Products
* and of course, loads of cash.

Open to virtually everyone in the world*, it’s easy to enter. Just for entering you get temporary licenses to Intel Software Development Products. If you can get the votes, your ideas alone could win you a $100 cash gift card. So go ahead …Show us Your Game!
Compete for prizes in two categories. 1. Best Threaded Game -- for the demo that best shows off the computational power of a multi-core processor, and 2. Best Game on the Go -- for the demo that best shows advances in laptop gaming. Think fun. Think fast. Think features. Register now and while your demo production is underway, get feedback on your abstract, a showcase on the Intel Software Network website. Come back regularly to check out your competition!

1. Submit your demo abstract – win the popular vote for a $100 USD cash gift card bonus prize.
2. Submit screenshots and videos of your demo – public voting and judges’ input will choose ten finalists in each category.
3. Submit your demo – winners receive $10,000 first prizes in each category, high-end gaming PCs from Gateway, licenses for Garage Games Torque Game Engine Advanced*, and more!

You keep all ownership of your game and intellectual property, and you don't send us your source code. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today! See the Official Rules for full details.

Eurographics 2007 Game Physics Competition

Following in the footsteps of the successful Eurographics 2006 Graphics meets Games competition, Eurographics is delighted to announce the Eurographics 2007 Game Physics Innovation competition which aims to showcase innovation in the use of physics technology in games. Physics has always played an integral part in the development of computer games, since the very earliest games like Space War which featured gravitational wells and inertial movement. More recently physics in games has become mainstream, with many commercial offerings from companies now pushing the boundaries of what is possible in top games. This competition aims to focus on what is next; what new physics techniques might be employed in future games, can physics help redefine the interface with the user or can entirely new game-play paradigms emerge when full physics simulations are employed?

The competition, organised by Dr. Steven Collins (founder of Havok and Graphics Research Group manager, Trinity College Dublin) and Ladislav Kavan (Czech Technical University in Prague) which forms part of the Game Track in the forth-coming Eurographics Conference in Prague, September 3-7, 2007, aims to inspire a sharing of ideas and discoveries relating to physics innovation, and through the generous sponsorship of Sony Computer Entertainment US R&D, is offering prizes totalling over €2000 to the winning entries:

* Overall Prize: €1,500 - awarded to the entry that in the judges opinion exhibited the best combination of innovation and technical achievement
* Collada Prize: €500 - awarded to the entry that makes the best use of the Collada standard.


For full details regarding the competition go to:

http://www.cgg.cvut.cz/eg07/gpic.

The competition closing date is August 24th 2007 with the winners being announced during the Game Track of the Eurographics Conference in September. Winning entries will be displayed in the Intel sponsored Game Physics Lobby on the very latest Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor based systems, and will be available to be played by conference attendees. The Game Track will also feature keynote presentations from game industry leaders.

EUROPE'S TOP 50 GAME STUDIOS

1. England – 887 Points
2. France – 109 Points
3. Scotland – 77 Points
4. Sweden – 58 Points
5. Germany – 51 Points
6. Denmark – 37 Points
7. The Netherlands – 16 Points
8. Ukraine – 12 Points
9. Norway – 9 Points
10. Romania – 8 Points
11. Finland – 7 Points
12. Russia – 4 Points

Daniel Cook, one of the folks behind Epic's classic "Tyrian" 2D shooter as well as a key player in the development of Anark's Gameface, has released a bunch of tiles for use in prototyping games.

Called "PlanetCute", these high-res 2D tile graphics are being offered free to passing strangers via his blog. (Which is worth a read.)

Prototyping is the thankless process of cobbling a basic game concept together at speed over a few short weeks, only to then realise your art skills royally suck. This is a problem because the people you want to test the prototype are put off by overly simplistic 'programmer art' which you try desperately to explain away as an extreme form minimalism.

While probably not the perfect choice for prototyping a hardcore 3D shooter, Daniel's art is ideal if you're more interested in the casual games sector.

he 19-inch screen flashed in waves of blue and black as two normally reserved professionals threw themselves into a competition destined for the history books. Mashing furiously at hand-wired buttons, each battled to be the first winner of a unique contest never before played by man: the contest of the videogame, seen for the first time on home televisions.

In 1967, a bold engineer with a vision led a small team to create the world's first electronic games to use an ordinary television set as a medium. Wary of naysayers from within, the video mavericks sequestered themselves behind closed doors, and for good reason: They worked under the payroll of Sanders Associates, a giant Cold War defense contractor. As hippies on the streets of San Francisco stuck flowers in the barrels of guns, three men in snowy New Hampshire crafted the future of electronic entertainment deep in the heart of a commercial war machine. In May of 1967, the world's first videogames -- as we know them today -- made their quiet, humble entrance into the world.

Croteam, the award-winning developer of the Serious Sam series, announced today that Gamecock Media Group will publish its next project. The as-yet-untitled game is currently in development using the latest version of Croteam's proprietary game development system, the 'Serious Engine 3'.

Microsoft has started to ban modified Xbox 360 units from Xbox Live, describing the move as "an important part of our efforts to try and maintain a fair gaming environment for the large majority of gamers that play by the rules".

Gamers who modify their consoles typically do so in order to circumvent region protection, make use of homemade applications or pirated software or to gain an advantage over their online competition.

With this in mind, Microsoft is banning by system rather than Xbox Live account. Anyone whose modified console tries to connect to live will now receive an error ("Status Code: Z: 8015 - 190D").

Collision detection (coming soon)
Oriented bounding boxes (OBB), radius-based and pixel-perfect collision detection; transformed objects collision detection; sweep tests; flexible set up functions.

Tile maps (coming soon)
Multilayered tile maps; map scrolling; tile properties manipulation; tile animations; user-defined tile brushes; coordinates conversion; map clipping.

Tile Map Editor (coming soon)
Allows to draw maps with tiles, animations and edit tile properties. Also pattern, area and pathway brushes are supported. You can use unlimited number of visible and hidden layers and define their properties.

In a sign of the growing importance of the mobile gaming sector, market researchers at GfK M² today revealed that consumers in the U.K. are spending more to download games to their handsets than they are on downloading ringtones, music or video content. In fact, according to GfK's data, the mobile gaming market is worth nearly four times the current market value of full music tracks, and eight times the current video download market.

For the last fiscal year ended March 31, 2007, GfK found that consumers in the U.K. spent £83 million (about $165 million) on mobile games, compared to £76 million (about $151 million) on ringtones and just £23 million (around $46 million) on music. Trailing the mobile pack were video downloads at £11 million and wallpapers at £10 million.

10tacle Studios has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Hungarian developer Stormregion.

Stormregion is currently working on Codename Panzers: Cold War, IP that 10tacle now also obtains as part of the deal, along with the studio's development tools.

But there's a catch – the money won't support 'obscene games'
Texas governor Rick Perry has signed into law a bill that will give Texan film and game producers a tax credit.

The law sets up $22m worth of film incentives, with game studios eligible for up to $250,000 in grant money if they choose to produce their game in Texas.

While the scheme has garnered acclaim from both NCsoft's Richard Garriott, who is based in Austin, Texas, and the head of the Texas Film Commission, there are some limitations to the subsidies.

Ubisoft has announced plans to create 150 new jobs at its studio in Casablanca over the next three years with the aid of an incentive program run by the Moroccan Government.

The studio was established in 1998 and has contributed to the development of games such as King Kong and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. In addition, Ubisoft Casablanca developed DS versions of Rayman Raving Rabbids and Star Wars: Lethal Alliance, and is now working on the next DS instalment in the RRR series.

Submissions Open; New Content Directors for IGF 2008

The IGF is pleased to announce that we're opening up submissions for the historic 10th Annual Independent Games Festival, for which the awards will be handed out in February 2008 at Game Developers Conference. Firstly, we've now published a complete list of important dates for the IGF in 2007/2008:

June 15th, 2007 Submissions are Open
October 1st, 2007 Submission Deadline, Main Competition
October 15th, 2007 Submission Deadline, Student Competition
December 3rd, 2007 Finalists Announced, Main Competition
December 17th, 2007 Finalists Announced, Student Competition
February 18th-22nd, 2008 Game Developer's Conference 2008
February 20th-22nd, 2008 IGF Pavilion @ GDC
February 20th, 2008 2008 IGF Awards Ceremony (Winners Announced!)

The 2008 IGF Main Competition will again be open to all independent developers to submit their games - whether it be on PC, console digital download, Web browser, or other more exotic formats. The prizes again total nearly $50,000, with a $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize, and the deadline to enter the Main Competition is Monday, October 1st 2007.

The 2008 IGF Student Competition will once again award the best student games, and this year will also include student 'mods' to existing games. As a result, the number of Student Showcase winners has been increased to 12. The deadline to enter the Student Competition is Monday, October 15th, 2007.

[The 2008 IGF Mod Competition will not be taking place for GDC 2008, though we still very much appreciate the work of the mod community (hence the inclusion of mods in the student category), and are considering further competitions for this sector.]

At its E3 conference, Sony has revealed that a new model of PSP will be available this September in two separate $200 packs, promising faster loading, lighter and slimmer design, and a new display feature to stream video to a standard television.

By attaching a video-out cable and pressing a new "display" button, any PSP display can be broadcast to a standard television, allowing gamers to watch UMD or downloaded video, display photos, or play games on TV.

No other fair gets expectations buzzing as much as the GC in Leipzig. It’s hardly surprising – with Europe’s most important adventure fair for interactive entertainment, hardware and educational software offering dozens of world, European and German premieres, masses of goodies, ear-splitting shows, stars and fun sports areas as much as you can take.

XAudio 2 is a new low-level, cross-platform audio API under development for Xbox 360 and Windows. XAudio 2, like its predecessors XAudio (Xbox 360) and DirectSound (Windows), provides the signal processing and mixing foundation used by games for their audio processing. On Windows, it is the first significant change in Microsoft’s low-level game audio API’s in more than 7 years! Therefore, for Windows game developers it is the long-awaited replacement for DirectSound. For Xbox developers, it is an enhanced version of the current XAudio API addressing some outstanding customer requests and suggestions. Since XAudio 2 is cross platform, it enables Windows and Xbox developers a “write once, compile twice” solution for the low-level game audio needs significantly reducing the amount of work required to port across platforms.

Redmond, Washington—Microsoft today kicked off the greatest holiday lineup in videogame history by announcing it will reduce the retail price of Xbox 360™ by $50 beginning August 8 at United States retailers nationwide. Soon to follow, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) will release its blockbuster video game title Madden NFL 08 on August 14. This important mass-appeal franchise was the top-selling game of 2006 and is the top-selling franchise of the past 10 years. Only Xbox 360 offers a console for all interests and budgets.

August 8, 2007 - Electronic Arts has raised its holding of voting shares in Ubisoft to nearly 25 percent, according to reports from French stock market regulator AMF.

First reported on Forbes.com Wednesday morning, the increase gives EA 24.86 percent of Ubisoft's voting shares.

In December 2004, EA bought a 20-percent block of the French game maker, a move considered hostile by Ubisoft at the time. The purchase gave EA 18.4 percent of the voting rights against 22.8 percent held by Ubisoft's founders.

Epic Games today announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Warsaw, Poland-based game developer People Can Fly. People Can Fly (“PCF”) is best known for creating the hit PC game, Painkiller, but most recently has been collaborating with Epic on the PC version of Gears of War®. In addition the two companies are collaborating on a new intellectual property which Epic will be previewing privately to publishers at Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany this week.

Epic's Unreal Engine 3 has come under fire yet again, this time from Digital Extremes, which has worked on the Unreal series. Specifically Steve Sinclair, the director of Digital Extreme's upcoming darkSector, has said that the engine is delaying games.

“A lot of promises were made about the Unreal III engine, particularly on PS3. But as we see now, the time frames haven’t been met and now a lot of games using it are being held up”, said Sinclair.

In Sylvester Stallone's 1987 opus Over The Top, the Oscar-nominated actor's character Lincoln Hawk walks away from a climactic arm wrestling showdown bloodied and hurt, but intact. The same cannot be said for a handful of arcadegoers in Japan who tested their arm wrestling mettle against Atlus' Arm Spirit machine and walked away with broken bones.

The format war over next-generation DVDs appeared to have a clear winner, but the picture just got fuzzier.

Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said Monday that they would offer movies exclusively in the HD DVD format rather than in that of the better-selling Blu-ray -- a surprise move that complicates the technology battle that Blu-ray had been clearly winning.

Main Category

Open to all independent development studios who are interested in receiving money to complete their game and have assistance from a company to publish their game. Each game will be privately presented by the developers to a panel of independent judges and will not be displayed to others without permission of the developer. Entrants to the Main Category will also be eligible for the Special Nominations. view submission requirements

Grand Prize $ 80,000 USD to complete game & publishing deal
2nd Prize $ 60,000 USD to complete game & publishing deal
3rd Prize $ 40,000 USD to complete game & publishing deal
All Entrants Approved entries will receive a free PREMIUM upgrade to Casual Connect Kyiv

Od večeras i Srbija u virtualnom svetu Interneta

Sekond lajf za Telekom

Beograd - Srbija će od večeras imati svoju teritoriju i u virtualnom svetu na Internetu. Publicis grupa nedavno je kupila ostrvo u popularnoj 3D virtualnoj igri Sekond lajf (Drugi život) koje će nositi naziv Sekond Serbia (Druga Srbija) i koje će poslužiti kao mesto na kojem će naša zemlja moći da predstavi svoje potencijale, a kompanije svoje brendove. Ceremonija otvaranja Druge Srbije počeće večeras u 20 časova u Beton hali, a predviđeno je da direktor Beogradske filharmonije Ivan Tasovac preko svog lika u Sekond lajfu odsvira delo Prokofjeva. Trenutno je na ostrvu kreiran samo trg otvoren za sve.

Transakcije u linden dolarima

Sekond lajf svet čine kopno i atraktivna ostrva. Svaki korisnik može da sagradi ili da kupuje kuću koju želi, ali to mora i da plati karticom. Transakcije se obavljaju u linden dolarima čija vrednost može da pada ili raste. Prave dolare menjate u linden dolare, a za jedan dolar dobijate 280 linden dolara. Na Sekond lajfu se predstavljaju i države pa su tako Maldivi napravili prvu virtualnu ambasadu u kojoj možete da dobijete sve podatke o toj državi. Najposećeniji grad u Sekond lajfu je Amsterdam. U virtualnom svetu prisutni su i mediji, a CNN redovno izveštava o događajima u Sekond lajfu tako da će Srbija i na taj način biti u očima svetske javnosti - kaže Anja Petrovski, predstavnik Publics grupe.

Prva kompanija iz Srbije koja će imati virtualno predstavništvo u Sekond lajfu biće Telekom Srbija. Direktor Direkcije za usluge Telekoma Igor Jecl izjavio je juče, na konferenciji za novinare, da novi mediji menjaju sliku telekomunikacija i da budućnost poslovnog modela Telekoma jeste upravo u prenosu podataka i sadržaja tako da će za nekoliko godina telefonija donositi mali deo prihoda. On je rekao da se velike telekomunikacione kompanije sve više približavaju medijima zbog čega i formiraju direkcije koje se isključivo bave integracijom medija i korišćenjem kapaciteta za prenos slike, sadržaja itd.
- Telekom Srbija, je kroz mobilnu telefoniju, duboko zakoračio u svet novih medija. Uvođenjem IP televizije biće pokrenut još jedan segment u toj oblasti. Takođe, sve je veći broj korisnika širokopojasnog Interneta i ADSL koristi oko 90.000 ljudi, a tu su i kablovski operateri koji nude širokopojasni Internet - rekao je Jecl.

Novi broj časopisa Marketing Srbija, koji je juče predstavljen, posvećen je novim medijima i projektu "Serbia under construction" (Srbija u izgradnji). Anja Petrovski iz Publicis grupe podsetila je da je Sekond lajf virtualni 3D svet pokrenut 2003. u San Francisku. U njemu korisnici mogu da kreiraju svoj drugi lik i vode nov život. Trenutno ga koristi 8,5 miliona ljudi a već u martu 2008. procenjuje se da će imati 25 miliona korisnika. Petrovski kaže da Sekond lajf koriste ljudi stariji od 35, trend seteri, tehnički obrazovani, lideri u inovacijama, kreatori novih tržišta odnosno ljudi sutrašnjice. Kompanije su prepoznale Sekond lajf kao novi medij za predstavljanje i svoja virtualna predstavništva već su otvorili, recimo, BMW, Koka - Kola, Del, Intel, Gotije, Beneton, Lakosta...

Petrovski je podsetila da Sekond lajf u Srbiji trenutno koristi oko 500 ljudi ili 0,4 odsto svih korisnika. U toku su konkursi za predlog izgleda zgrade Ministarstva za dijasporu u Sekond lajfu, kao i Beogradske filharmonije. Sekond Serbia otvorena je i za druge srpske kompanije i institucije. Inače, ostrvo u Sekond lajfu košta oko 6.000 dolara, a njegovo mesečno održavanje 250 dolara. I. R.

Play Cultures / kultura digitalnih igara

Izložba Play Cultures predstavlja savremenu umetničku produkciju digitalnih igara i prikazuje jedan mogući pogled kako se žanr digitalnih igara može upotrebiti na kreativan i angažovan način. Izložba se sastoji od samostalnih igara, modova, video radova, multiplejer igara i interaktivnih priča umetnika koji digitalne igre koriste kao umetnički izraz. Posetioci će imati priliku da uzmu direktno ućesće u projektu - igraju izložene igre, pogledaju video radove.

GDC Student Scholarships

Qualifications & Scholarship Details

* Scholarship applications must be submitted on or before Friday, December 7th, 2007.
* Only full-time university (or similar) students are eligible, and must be 18 years of age or older as of February 18, 2008.
* Applicant must be an IGDA Student Member in good standing. If you are not currently a Student Member, you must join the IGDA before applying for the scholarship. All applications will be verified.
* Past scholarship recipients are not eligible.
* Recipients will be awarded one Main Conference Pass, with access to all sessions, roundtables, and keynotes. Breakfast and lunch included.
* Students are responsible for all travel arrangements and costs.
* Scholarship applications will be judged by a panel of professional game developers.
* Each scholarship recipient will be paired with an industry mentor.
* Scholarship recipients will participate in a local studio visit and orientation session on February 19th.
* Recipients will be announced before January 16th, 2008 (the early rate pricing deadline).

Video game designers: The thrill of the chase

They cost millions of pounds to make and are part of an industry that's worth tens of billions. They win Baftas, employ some of the most talented writers, designers and artists, and are enjoyed by people of all ages across the globe. Video games may once have been deemed something that only teenage boys were interested in, but now they are big business and they're taking on the film industry in terms of creativity and sales. Gerhard Florin, head of international publishing at Electronic Arts, one of the biggest games publishers in the world, explains: "Games entertainment is part of mainstream life. It's no longer niche. Games reach masses of people."

Warner Brothers is buying TT Games, the owner of Traveller's Tales, the UK company behind LEGO Star Wars.

TT Games was formed after the merger of Traveller's Tales and Giant Interactive Entertainment in 2005.

The company, based in Knutsford, Cheshire, but with offices in Ireland and Serbia, both develops and publishes games. TT Games' relationships with LEGO, LucasArts, and Guinness World Records will not change.

Financial details were not disclosed, but the Manchester Evening News reckons Warners paid in the region of £100m.

id Software Launches Mobile Gaming Division

id Software has announced the creation of a new mobile gaming division in conjunction with Fountainhead Entertainment, called id Mobile.

The new division will work on games for cell phones as well as the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, including mobile versions of Quake, Wolfenstein and a sequel to Doom RPG. id Mobile will be headed by Katherine Anna Kang, the founder and CEO of Fountainhead and formerly the director of business development at id.

"We are operating on the assumption that mobile gaming has a potential for huge growth," id's John Carmack said in a statement to USA Today. "It's at a tipping point. Everybody has a phone, and almost every phone is powerful enough to do good games on it."

Carmack said the id name might make the prospect of developing for mobiles more attractive to new talent who might otherwise seek opportunities to work on more glamorous platforms. Referring to the mobile game industry as "the ghetto of game development," Carmack added, "It's going to be easier to attract more people to work for a project when they are actually working for id."

"The whole reason we are in the mobile arena now is I was just really appalled at how bad (mobile games) were," he said. "We're already making profit on 2 million units of games, but we are kind of holding out this hope there might be a breakout moment when the industry gets five to 10 times larger."

Disney Chooses Prague as Mobile Games HQ

Walt Disney Internet Group is expanding its mobile gaming operation by bolstering its studio in Prague, which will become Disney Mobile Games Studio.
ImageDisney's increased concentration on the mobile market reflects a vote of confidence in an industry that is expected to grow from $2.1 billion in 2006 to $8.4 billion in 2010.

The studio, opening on Monday, is slated to become WDIG's biggest mobile development location. Disney expects the existing studio to expand its mobile gaming presence in both the region as well as worldwide with a workforce ramp-up that will take place before fall 2008.

Disney said one driving factor of making Prague its base for mobile development was a large talent pool of young developers.

"In the Czech Republic, there is a wealth of indigenous programming expertise, which combined with our long-standing Czech animation tradition, provides the ideal foundations for developing high-quality mobile games," said Jiri Rosenkranz, managing director of Disney Mobile Games Studio.

Disney also has mobile gaming studios in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beijing. The Prague location was founded in 2005 with Disney's acquisition of Living Mobile.

U.S. Video Game Industry’s Growth Outpaces National Economy

New Study Details Industry’s Contributions to State Jobs and GDP

NOVEMBER 27, 2007 – WASHINGTON, DC –The US computer and video game industry’s annual growth rate from 2003 to 2006 exceeded 17% according to a ground-breaking study released today by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). This far outpaces the US economy as a whole which only grew at 4.0% during this same period. According to the study, Video Games in the 21st Century: Economic Contributions of the U.S. Entertainment Software Industry, the US entertainment software industry directly employs more than 24,000 individuals, with an average salary of $92,300 in 2006. The economic impact report was conducted by Economists Incorporated for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

“Computer and video game companies play an ever increasing role in our nation’s growing economy,” said Michael Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “These companies and their colleagues across the nation are making entertainment software one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.”

Video Games in the 21st Century, is the first economic study to outline the specific contributions of the entertainment software industry on the U.S. economy. The report concluded that:

* The computer and video game industry’s value added to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006 was $3.8 billion;
* In 2003-04 and 2005-06, the industry’s contribution to real growth exceeded its share of GDP by more than four to one;
* The entertainment software industry directly and indirectly employs more than 80,000 people in 31 states; and,
* U.S. industry employees received total compensation of $2.2 billion.

The report states that California is the largest employer of computer and video game personnel in the nation, accounting for approximately 40 percent of total industry employment nationwide. These companies provided over $1.8 million in direct and indirect compensation to Californians last year. California’s computer and video game industry grew by 12.3 percent last year, nearly three times faster than the state’s overall growth, and added $1.7 billion to the state economy.

Other specific state findings include:

* Virginia’s computer and video game industry grew by 552 percent in 2006, more than 172 times as fast as the commonwealth’s overall growth;
* Washington state ranked second nationally in computer and video game personnel in 2006, with 9,284 direct and indirect employees at more than 59 facilities across the state; and,
* New York’s entertainment software companies directly and indirectly employ 4,415 individuals at more than 25 facilities across the state.

The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7.4 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2006, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software. For more information about the ESA, please visit www.theESA.com.

2. Video Game Developer.

computer degrees, it programs With the continued expansion of the video game market into new demographics, especially with the introduction of the Wii, the video game industry continues to need solid game developers. In fact, there is evidence that video games will be entering new domains, such as the health and education industries, on much larger scales. And while video games might have their detractors, gaming has benefits: imparting therapy, teaching hand/eye coordination, planning and strategy, for starters. That said, demands for newer and more innovative video games will continue to grow. It remains to be seen how soon we'll get to holographic gaming, but video game developers and even video game testers will have plenty of opportunities.

Breaking: Activision, Vivendi Games Merging To Create Activision Blizzard

In a shock move, Activision and Vivendi have announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business with Activision, creating the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher.

The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

December 12, 2007

Microsoft's Satchell Talks XNA 2.0, Opening Community Development

Microsoft's Satchell Talks XNA 2.0, Opening Community Development Microsoft has announced the release of XNA Game Studio 2.0 promising new crossplatform Live networking utilities and full Visual Studio support, and Gamasutra talked with XNA general manager Chris Satchell to learn more about the release, its student focus, and the company's continued plans to create a community-based YouTube of games.

Satchell called the 2.0 release "the next step along the path of democratizing game development," adding that the release's biggest feature was opening up network support through both Xbox and Games for Windows Live.

Opening Live

"While you could always do networking on Windows," he said, the benefit of this release is that "you get Matchmaking. On Windows, this is something quite hard -- you normally have to write some sort of esoteric matchmaking thing.. We've just made it simple and easy to use," also noting that the functionality is completely cross-compatible.

This release also brings in full compatibility with the entire Visual Studio range, something Satchell said he believes will have not only professional ramifications with companies beginning prototypes in Game Studio and then moving the work to Visual Studio.

Professional Use

Satchell here noted the work of Torpex with its forthcoming Live Arcade title Schizoid, which was created entirely through XNA Game Studio. We asked about frustrations Torpex admitted to during its Game Fest talk on using XNA, and he admitted that the company has been instrumental in providing guidance for the XNA team as it's developed.

"Specifically one of the things we've been working on a lot is getting performance profiles similar on both Windows and the Xbox 360," he said. "Torpex are really pushing the system, so they had a lot of really good feedback for us to make it more similar between the platforms, and we've delivered on a number of those promises in 2.0."

The Student Solution

Commercial applications aren't the only focus of XNA, though, but also universities. Satchell noted that while in the beginning he'd hoped to get some 20 universities on board, Microsoft has seen to date over 300 facilities teaching XNA, and to that end announced that the company would be giving out free academic trial Creators Club memberships in January for faculty members and students to use Game Studio for instructional purposes.

The company also announced that later this month it will be announcing the opening of its next Dream-Build-Play contest, this year themed around AI, an idea lent to Microsoft by Peter Molyneux and Lionhead. As with last year's competition, the winners will be given the chance to attend GDC, but also said that this time around winners can also interview for an internship at either Rare, Lionhead, or Microsoft Research's own Machine Learning Group in Cambridge.

The Community Revolution

Finally, Satchell said that next year Microsoft will announce full details on, and its vision for, opening XNA creations to the community. "Think of it as publishing channel for the community," saying when launched it will create "a revolution for the industry."

Satchell referred to development of XNA as coming in three tiers -- first with the initial release of the package and the Creators Club, now opening up Live networking, and finally providing the publishing channel. "Nobody's done it," he said, "we're really opening up the console."

Asked just how much Microsoft would be managing the service, or if it would be opening it up entirely as a true YouTube, Satchell said full details would have to wait until the new year, but offered, "We want it to be open so people can participate in it, and we want to stay true to principle of owning your own IP. There's going to be some innovations in what we do that bridge the gap between fully free for all and completely managed portfolio."

He similarly said no announcements could yet be made on whether the service would allow players to freely download community creations, or whether it would continue the Creators Club scheme it currently employs.

Concluding in its official statement, Satchell said, “When building XNA Game Studio 2.0, we wanted to offer everyone the opportunity to utilize the rich gaming environment of LIVE used by AAA developers for titles such as Halo 3 and Gears of War. We accomplished our goal with this new toolset, and, best of all, it remains highly accessible to students, hobbyists and pros alike.”

Većina Amerikanaca se igra

Recentna studija NPD grupe, organizacije koja se bavi istraživanjem tržišnih i potrošačkih navika, je pokazala da čak 63% Amerikanaca povremeno ili redovito igra video-igre, kao i da su najstrastveniji igrači muškarci starosti između 18 i 34 godine. Oko 30% ispitanih je reklo da su se igrali više ove godine nego li prethodne, dok njih oko 40% svake godine potroši otprilike istu dozu vremena na igranje. Većina igrača koristi igranje kao metodu protiv stresa, dok je među povremenim igračima veći broj žena.

Anita Frazier iz NPD grupe je pri objavi ovih rezultata rekla da su oni pokazatelj da igranje postaje interesatnije sve široj populaciji, no da je buduće trendove teško predviđati.

Otvorena GameS d.o.o. specijalizovana radnja za prodaju igara, konzola i prateće igračke opreme, druga u Srbiji, prva u Novom Sadu. Firma GameS d.o.o. otvorila je u centru Novog Sada svoju drugu radnju specijalizovanu za prodaju igara, konzola i prateće igračke opreme.

dud (dŭd) pronunciation
n.

1. A bomb, shell, or explosive round that fails to detonate.
2. Informal. One that is disappointingly ineffective or unsuccessful.
3. duds Informal.
1. Clothing.
2. Personal belongings.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Acquires Illusion Softworks
Tue Jan 8, 2008 8:01am EST

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO) today announced
the acquisition of Illusion Softworks, a premier Central
European-based game development studio with operations in Brno and
Prague, the Czech Republic. Illusion Softworks has approximately 200
employees and will join Take-Two's 2K Games publishing label as its
newest studio, 2K Czech.

Established in 1997, Illusion Softworks is the creator and owner
of several hit video game franchises, including Mafia, Hidden &
Dangerous and Vietcong. The studio is currently working with 2K Games
on Mafia II, the sequel to the original Mafia, which helped establish
the gangster genre and sold more than two million units.

"The acquisition of Illusion Softworks reflects our strategic
focus on owning high-value intellectual property as we continue to
expand our portfolio of triple-A titles," said Ben Feder, Chief
Executive Officer of Take-Two.

Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K, said, "Adding 2K Czech to our
network of development studios demonstrates our strong commitment to
creating great franchises and building world-class creative teams. The
2K Czech team is responsible for several very innovative and
highly-regarded franchises and we look forward to continuing to
develop new and existing IP together."

"We have an excellent working relationship with 2K Games and the
utmost respect for them," said Petr Vochozka, CEO of 2K Czech. "We are
pleased to become a 2K studio and are confident that this new
partnership will strengthen our current and future projects."

Development Programmer:
Junior: £18-£25k
Regular: £20-£35k
Senior: £35k-£50k
Lead: £40-£60k

Artist:
Junior: £18k -£21k
Regular: £20-£27k
Senior: £27-£35k
Lead: £38-£55k

Designer:
Junior: £18-£21k
Regular: £20-£28k
Senior: £25-£35k
Lead: £38-£55k

Producer:
Junior: £18-£27k
Regular: £28-£40k
Senior: £35-£60k
Executive Producer: £45-£80k

UK Managing Director:
Start-up company: £50k+
Mid-range: £60k - £85k

Top 10 publisher: £100k - £250k+
Marketing Director:
Start-up: £50k - £70k
Mid-range: £60k - £80k
Top ten publisher: £75k - £120k

Sales Director:

Start-up: £50k - £70k
Mid-range: £60k - £80k
Top 10 publisher: £75k - £120k

Finance Director: £50k - £120k

Sales Manager: £45k - £70k

Senior Brand Manager: £30k - £55k
Junior Brand Manager: £20k - £38k

In-House PR Manager: £25k - £50k

Games Journalist: £15k - £30k

World of Warcraft brings in billions for games maker


It’s no secret that the World of Warcraft is one of the biggest cash cows in today’s games industry – a point further punctuated by the $1.2 billion in revenue raked in by Blizzard Entertainment in 2007.
...

Toshiba announced Tuesday it was abandoning its next-generation high-definition disc format, saying it would no longer make and market players and recorders. The announcement followed a series of defections, including Friday's decision by the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to stop selling HD DVD hardware and movies and devote its shelves exclusively to Blu-ray.

Havok Offers Core Physics Software Free for PC Game Developers

Havok™, the premier provider of interactive software and services to digital creators in the games and movie industries, today announced that the company will offer the PC version of its award-winning physics and animation software product – Havok Complete – for download free of charge.

Available for non-commercial use, Havok Complete for the PC will be freely downloadable in May 2008.

Havok’s core platform, Havok Complete combines the industry-leading Havok Physics engine and Havok Animation, the company’s premier character animation solution. Havok Complete is already the most popular solution in the cross-platform AAA games market, featuring technology used in over 200 games. By making Havok Complete for the PC freely downloadable, Havok will further build on its leading position by completely removing the barriers to entry for the large number of independent developers, academic institutions and enthusiasts in the PC space.

“Havok has an excellent revenue base generated by sales of our three products across multiple platforms and into multiple industries,” said David O’Meara, Managing Director at Havok. “This enables us to make an industry-changing move and opens up a much broader market for products such as Havok Behavior – and our new products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction – that really come alive when adopted on top of our core platform, Havok Complete.”

Havok has entered into an agreement with Intel, Havok’s parent company, under which approved game developers on the PC platform can execute a commercial distribution license with Havok for free.

“Intel is very pleased to be sponsoring this direction in the PC market. This aligns well with our ongoing strategy of putting the best software tools in the hands of PC games developers,” said Renee J. James, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Software and Solutions Group, Intel Corporation.

With the free PC download of Havok Complete, Havok enables broad non-commercial development use for artists and engineers around the world, which Havok believes will boost creative game development throughout the industry.

“This is fantastic news for commercial PC game developers as well as the independent game development community, who will really benefit from this move,” said Mark DeLoura, creator of the Game Programming Gems series. “It’s great to see a leading middleware company like Havok show such support for PC game developers by making its physics and animation system freely available.”

Havok’s overall focus remains cross-platform and Havok will continue commercial licensing of Havok Complete for other platforms and in other industries such as movies and serious gaming. This initiative does not apply to license fees that may be payable to Havok for console versions of Havok Complete or to applications developed for other purposes such as game engines for redistribution, other middleware, movies, training, military or industrial simulation.

Havok’s physics software is featured in over 200 AAA games available on stores shelves today. With well over 90 games currently in development to be released this year, use of Havok’s ubiquitous software is up 100% over last year at the same time. Best-selling titles featuring Havok physics include: Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, Guitar Hero III, BioShock, World in Conflict, Half Life 2: The Orange Box, and Heavenly Sword. Havok’s software will also be featured in the highly-anticipated upcoming games Alan Wake, Indiana Jones, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Starcraft II.

With a broad and deep range of tech partners including AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft as well as a host of world-class publishers and developers, Havok is well known industry-wide for its excellent customer service.

In addition to the PC software download, Havok also unveiled two new software products, Havok Cloth™ and Havok Destruction™ at this year’s Game Developers Conference. Havok Cloth and Destruction provide artists with dramatically increased control over interactive cloth and destructible objects within games. The company also announced several new features and enhancements across its award winning modular suite of run-time technology and artist tools.
Havok also celebrated a number of key entertainment and technology awards in 2007, including a National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences Award, Game Developer Frontline Award, and a Develop Industry Excellence Award.

Otkriveni dirigovani „srećni dobitnici”
Predrag Bećirić priznao da je osmislio kompjuterski program koji nepogrešivo računa najnižu jedinstvenu ponudu. Grupa je koristila 20 umreženih kompjutera i 200 mobilnih telefona

Istražni sudija Specijalnog suda doneo je rešenje o sprovođenju istrage protiv Predraga Bećirića (40), Ognjena Petra Todorovića (31), Marijane Mijanović (38), Miloša Banduke (30) i još deset osoba zbog prevara i udruživanja radi vršenja krivičnih dela korišćenjem nedozvoljenih tehničkih sredstava u igrama na sreću. U pritvoru je 13 članova ove grupe, dok je jedan od njih pušten da se brani sa slobode.

Za nešto više od mesec dana, od 18. januara do 25. februara, koliko je ova grupa „igrala” SMS licitacije, ne znajući da su pod „onlajn” prismotrom policije, postali su dobitnici 23 glavne nagrade, u vrednosti od ukupno 40 miliona dinara, dok samo dva puta nisu „imali sreće” u licitaciji. Kompjuterski program koji je ovo omogućavao osmislio je Predrag Bećirić, čovek bez ikakvog formalnog obrazovanja o radu na kompjuterima, i to, kako je rekao – iz hobija.

– Bećirić je osumnjičen da je bio tvorac softvera koji je nepogrešivo određivao koja je najniža jedinstvena ponuda u igrama na sreću koje je organizovala Državna lutrija Srbije na televizijama „Pink” i RTS. Grupa je koristila 20 umreženih kompjutera i 200 mobilnih telefona. Kada se na telefon nagradne igre pošalje poruka, organizator dostavlja infoporuku sa povratnom informacijom da li je ta ponuda najpovoljnija, odnosno jedinstvena. Ta informacija korišćena je u kompjuterskom programu za dobijanje najniže jedinstvene ponude – kaže za „Politiku” Miljko Radisavljević, specijalni tužilac, ističući da je pravilima Državne lutrije zabranjeno organizovano igranje igara na sreću, zbog čega je ono što su osumnjičeni uradili okvalifikovano kao krivično delo prevare.

Policija je utvrdila da su članovi ove grupe od 18. januara do 25. februara postali „srećni dobitnici” 18 automobila marke „fijat punto”, jednog „pasata”, jedne „škode oktavije” i tri stana u Beogradu. Zatim su angažovali poznanike u koje su imali poverenja koji su za naknade od 50 do 200 evra odlazili u televizijske emisije, slikali se sa navodno dobijenim automobilima i po potrebi priređivali slavlje.

Među osumnjičenima nema lažnih „srećnih dobitnika” koje su gledaoci mogli da vide na televiziji, a svi ljudi koji su gostovali na televizijama, kako bi im bile uručene nagrade, sada su – svedoci. Tokom istrage biće obavljeno veštačenje oduzetih kompjutera, pa će se znati i svi detalji ove nesvakidašnje prevare.

Tužilac Radisavljević ističe da grupa ni tehnički ni kadrovski nije povezana sa televizijama na kojima su emitovane nagradne igre, kao ni sa Državnom lutrijom. Prevara je izvedena tako da je sistem Državne lutrije ostao netaknut, a upravo su zaposleni u lutriji, na osnovu svojih sistema zaštite, došli do informacija o tome da postoje nelegalni igrači SMS licitacija.

Na osnovu podataka dobijenih iz Državne lutrije, Specijalno tužilaštvo i policija su od 18. januara pratili zbivanja u igrama na sreću i ubrzo identifikovali Bećirića, a zatim i ostale članove grupe. Bećirić i većina ostalih osumnjičenih priznali su sve za šta ih tužilaštvo tereti. U Bećirićevom stanu u Novom Beogradu, kod „Arene”, odakle je funkcionisao čitav prevarni sistem, otkriven je kompjuterski centar sa 20 povezanih kompjutera i 200 telefona.

– Istraga za sada obuhvata samo januar i februar, ali sumnjamo da je grupa delovala tokom čitave 2009. godine. Kod njih smo našli automobile koji su ranije dodeljeni u igrama na sreću. Za sada je zaplenjeno 60 vozila – kaže tužilac Radisavljević.