Monthly Archives: March 2009

The writing’s been on the wall for months, but only now has Ubisoft finally finished with the formalities and said, “Oh yeah – that.”

Speaking with IGN, a Ubisoft rep confirmed that the sparse console RTS landscape won’t be seeing Massive’s blip on the radar after all.

“World of Conflict: Soviet Assault will be released for the PC later this month. A console version of World in Conflict is not planned for release at this time,” the rep said.

Bummer. And Soviet Assault’s vocal controls seem pretty much tailor-made for consoles too. Shame, that.

AT&T has renewed its contract to host Blizzard’s online titles – including Diablo II, StarCraft and World of Warcraft – for the next two years.

The company’s hosted WoW and the Battle.net service for Blizzard for the past nine years.

“We’ve been pleased with AT&T’s service over the years, and we’re confident in their ability to continue to provide the quality support we need,” said Blizzard COO Paul Sams.

“This renewed agreement allows us to stay completely focused on our games while AT&T applies its hosting expertise to help us offer the speed, reliability and security our players expect.”

Press release after the break.

More »

The Creative Coast Alliance in Savannah, Georgia, is offering free office space for a year to attract game developers to one of the most beautiful, historical cities in America.

The desks on offer are located at the Game Development and Digital Media Center, currently under construction on the posh river side.

Brenda Brathwaite, game designer and departmental chairwoman at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), commented on the city’s advantages; one of which is lower cost of living compared to other, larger city hubs.

“Savannah has what game development companies need in talent, tech and quality of life”, she said.

“In today’s economy when so many developers are laid off and looking for that silver lining, the Savannah offer is incredibly welcome and offers developers a chance to start a studio on more stable footing.”

Georgia also offers up to 30 percent in tax incentives should game developers decide to set up shop in the state.

A lovely move it would be too.

Based on community feedback, requested features for Warhawk are on the way, Sony said today.

Soon, players from all over will be able to customize and enhance their experience with provided data
from the stats database.

“Every game, every clan, every player, every kill” will be delivered via XML.

An example of what you can do with all of this information is over on the Playstation Blog.

See, wishes do come true after all.

D3′s Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is now available for PS3 and Xbox 360.

The 80s videogame action hero Matt Hazard, voiced by Will Arnett (Arrested Development) is off to prove to the world that he is the “king of all shooters” in a new game.

Unfortunately, all goes terribly wrong when the title’s makers decide they want him dead.

Press release posted below.

More »

There’s footage after the break of the Resident Evil 5 mine level, taken from the recent Playr special on Bravo UK.

The footage wasn’t seen in the Brit TV show, as it’s used as a web-only promo on YouTube. Capcom’s Leo Tan provides the walk-thru.

Looks… dark.

Thanks, Kotaku.

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ESA’s reached into its deep pockets to offer 30 more scholarships to minorities and women through its charitable ESA Foundation.

The scholarships are made available to people interested in careers in game development, art, design and programming.

The ESA Foundation is currently in its third year of awarding school funding.

Qualifying students can each get one $3,000 scholarship for the 2009-10 academic year. More information can be found on the official website.

“A growing number of students know that computer and video games are the premier entertainment medium for expressing their impressive creativity and innovative thinking,” says ESA head Michael Gallagher.

“We are excited to provide these scholarships to help future game industry employees make the dreams that they have for themselves and our industry a reality.”

Thanks, Gamasutra.

The Nintendo Power website has a scan of Grand Slam Tennis, as well as a bit of information on the game if you zoom in on photo.

Apparently, it’ll be as close as you can get playing tennis without actually being on the court, if what producer Tom Singleton says is true.

“Our main focus for this franchise is putting the racket in the palm of your hand”, he said. “We want to give you the sensation that you are literally playing tennis.”

Hopefully tennis-elbow will not be included in the package.

Game’s out sometime June 16.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Last year, Relentless talked to VG247 about a new secret project in the works: today he company confirmed it’ll be self-publishing it.

The Buzz maker has been hard at work on this new Sony title, and despite the world’s economic woes, can afford to self-publish. The firm’s even looking to hire more staff.

“Despite the current economic crisis, we’re pleased to say that we’re still hiring,” says the Relentless website.

“We have some open positions for our future Buzz titles and we’re also hiring for our self-published Secret Project, more news of which in the coming months.

“At Relentless we’re more than a one hit wonder. Sony keep us very busy with our Buzz projects but there’s something bubbling under at Relentless Towers. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned about making social games and the result is what, for the time being, is known as Secret Project #1.”

Good to hear.

Codemasters’ VP Alex Bertie has told MCV that the company is not going to make “cheap, crappy ports” of their games for Wii.

“You can’t ignore Wii, but it’s bewildering watching what other publishers are doing”, he said.

“Codemasters has taken a more cautious strategy on Wii which has been the right thing to do. We are not going to make cheap, crappy ports.

“DIRT on Wii, for instance, is not Mario Kart. Overlord 2 is a gamer’s game. We’re not planning to compete in this ‘big head sports arena’ that everyone is obsessed with – the shelves are cluttered with those games. What you’ll see from us is quality games for gamers built for the Wii.”

Good show.

Hit the link for the full interview.

Midway spokesperson Geoff Mogilner has told MTV that Mortal Kombat is a franchise other publishers will always be interested in acquiring.

The fighting franchise – reported as being up for sale yesterday – has pulled in $1.5 billion over the years.

When asked about the offloading of the IP due to Midway’s recent Chapter 11 filing, Mogilner admitted to talks.

“There are conversations for certain”, he said. “I can’t say whether this is something that would have happened otherwise. There’s definitely interest in Mortal Kombat. I’m not going to lie about that.”

Refusing to name names, Mogilner went on to state that it’s business as usual over at Midway for the time being.

“The MK team is hard at work designing a new engine,” he added. “We keep working.”

More through the link.

USA Today’s launched Game Hunters, a new blog.

Two men named Mike Snider and Brett Molina are editing it, Kotaku reports, and it’ll be “covering all things gaming from video game consoles to handheld devices to personal computers and promises to provide news, reviews, contests, giveaways, demo codes and sneak peeks.”

Can never have enough game blogs, innit.

OTX’s Nick Williams has said that only two out of three people who plan on purchasing God of War III  currently own a PS3.

The analyst retrieved that figure from recent company data, and said that if Sony does not address its price point it will continue to face touch times against competitors.

“The price point for the PS3 remains a real problem for Sony”, he told Gamasutra.

“Sony execs now find themselves in the precarious position of trying to balance consumer price expectations with the high costs of producing each PS3.

“The launch of God of War III in late 2009/early 2010 will mark a pivotal moment for Sony. But in order to ensure that this game is a hardware sales driver, the cost of the base-level PS3 will need to be in the same ballpark as the Xbox 360 and Wii.”

Williams also added that Sony is thinking long term with PS3, and if the company can continue to lower manufacturing costs, consumers can expect another price drop by the end of summer.

Microsoft is to include the NXE update in all new game discs.

The first titles to get this mandatory update will be HAWX and MLB: 2K9.

You won’t be able to play them unless you accept the dashboard update that pops up when you insert the disc.

There’s no escape. Welcome to Avatars, unconnected people.

The UK may no longer be the third-biggest game-developing market if economic conditions worsen, Tiga has said in a recent report.

Saying that developers are currently at a “severe competitive disadvantage” to foreign rivals, the trade body says that government tax breaks are in order.

Over the past year, Tiga polled companies in the UK regarding what was detrimental to their success. Foreign governments subsidizing their own markets was mentioned by 41 percent, while 31 percent said that taxes in the UK were too high.

“The UK games development industry is competing with one hand tied behind its back,” said Tiga’s Richard Wilson.

Wilson said the inclusion of the recently-passed 20 percent tax break in the 2009 budget would be a “welcome start”, but that game companies need a program similar to Britain’s Film Tax Relief program.

Something similar for the games industry would cost only £150 million, said Tiga, far less than the £600 million spent on the Film Tax Relief.

Tiga also claims that the government should back school programs specializing in maths and sciences so companies will have more recruits to choose from in the job pool. Of the developers polled, 63 percent have struggled to fill positions in the past 12 months, and 74 percent were having problems filling programmer vacancies.

More through BBC News.

Two screens, supposedly from Deus Ex 3, have shown up over on the the Eidos forums. One looks in-game, one looks like artwork.

No one is exactly sure what these are, but they’re rumored to be from the Eidos Montreal project.

You be the judge.

Patch 1.2 goes live today for Warhammer Online.

The Choppa and Slayer classes have now invaded and are ready to start warring in the Bitter Rivals event.

When you log into the servers, the patch will also fix over 500 bugs, and a new career balancing system will be put in place.

Thanks, IncGamers.

God of War concept artist Cecil Kim posted up a new bit of art from God of War III on his site. If you’re not excited, you’re dead inside.

Apparently, baldy here “battles against Zeus and his allies.” Well, you’d hope so really, wouldn’t you?

Thanks, MTV.

EA’s Glen Schofield is keeping his fingers crossed that Sony fortunes pick up with PS3.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Schofield never came right out and said that Sony should cut prices on its console, but that’s pretty much it.

“I’m really not sure what’s going on with Sony,” he said. “They’ve been such a great, great partner and PlayStation 2 being such a great machine that, God, I hope they get out of this and they figure it out and they’re around for a long time.”

“You know, I can’t tell them what to do. I don’t know their finances”, he added.”

With rumors of a price cut circling the globe once more, he might just get his wish.

More through the link.

Atlantica Online is to get a sixth server in response to the MMO’s growing subscriber base.

Delphi, the new server, will go live March 6 during a two-week event, Fortnight of the Oracle.

Here are some  goodies to expect for the event:

• Bonus experience — Gain 120% experience points for the first two weeks of Delphi’s unveiling; and that figure jumps to 150% during the weekend.
• Level-up Race –More than 100 players will receive 1,000 Gcoins for reaching a designated level the fastest.
• Screenshot Contest – Players who submit the best screenshots will receive Gcoin prizes.
• Quiz Bowl – Players who correctly answer questions from GMs will receive in-game item prizes.
• Monster Hunts – Unique enemies will be spawned at various sites for new players to battle and earn rewards.
• Treasure Hunts and Item Giveaways – New players will have more opportunities to find crystals and scroll boxes and receive other free in-game items.