Category Archives: Sweden

The studio behind Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness, Starbreeze, is working on a brand new IP, its announced today.

More »

We’ve just been on a studio tour of DICE in Stockholm, Sweden, and we’re going to get to play a PS3 co-op mission of Battlefield 3 this afternoon. This afternoon we’re also interviewing Lars Gustavsson, DICE’s creative director, and studio head Patrick Bach. We’ve got readers Chris Hockey and Colin Gallacher with us: they won a competition to come on this trip earlier this month. We’ll have some content up for you as soon as we can.

Some pictures below the break.

More »

ngmoco’s announced that ex-EA Easy boss Ben Cousins is to lead the company’s new studio in Sweden.

More »

It can’t all be doom, gloom, and the PSN being hacked. Sometimes it’s tiny, cheerful (and occasionally stupid) nuggets of news.

More »

Swedish strategy-specialist publisher Paradox Interactive is on its way to New York for its annual convention, and is promising seven new reveals to liven the two day game-a-thon in late January.

More »

ZeniMax has apparently purchased another game studio this week, according to business registration data in Sweden.

More »

Nintendo’s just confirmed a December 3 EU launch for Super Mario Collection for Wii.

More »

Update: As promised, we’ve add the official North American midnight launch event for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

The event will take place at Fry’s Electronics at 10800 Kalama River Avenue in Fountain Valley, CA, with activities starting at 9.00pm PST on July 26, and sales of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beginning at midnight.

Local game stores across the US may have ones that are less “official” than this one, so you may wish to check first before just showing up.

Original story follows the break.

More »

According to a Microsoft fact sheet, ten more countries will be getting the Xbox Live Video Marketplace this fall.

More »

GRIN has just refused to comment on overnight talk that it’s in danger of closing.

“At the moment we have no comment to anything [related to] that matter,” said a rep for the Swedish developer.

When pushed, the response became flatter.

“No,” said the spokesperson when asked if they could confirm any truth in the initial report.

“We’re not commenting.”

Another staffer told VG247 that all GRIN staff returned from a vacation yesterday. If this Gamasutra report is to be believed, they were met with bad news.

The story said that the Bionic Commando developer has seen “significant layoffs” and may be “facing difficulty staying afloat.”

GRIN’s Barcelona and Gothenburg offices have now apparently closed. Gama sources claim the company’s main Stockholm office may also be in jeopardy.

The company was rumoured to have laid off between 100-160 staff in May, following Bionic Commando’s release.

Swedish metal band Opeth is to have its music included in a PSP version of Saints Row, according to this post on the group’s site.

“The game is expected to hit the streets around March 2010,” said the Nordic rockers.

The game’s unannounced. We’ve mailed THQ.

Microsoft’s confirmed to VG247 that Inside Xbox went live in eight extra European countries yesterday.

The online 360 magazine is now available in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Norway and Sweden, and in multiple languages in Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Up to yesterday, the service was viewable in America, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan.

To take a look, just boot up your 360 and navigate to the Inside Xbox channel.

Wow. A software company called Global Gaming Factory has bought The Pirate Bay for SEK 100 million (£7.8 million) with the intention of turning the file-sharing site into a legitimate business.

GGF boss Hans Pandeya said, “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site.”

There’s a press release here.

The Pirate Bay’s founders – Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde – were found guilty of breaking copyright law in April and sent to prison for a year by a Swedish court.

Attorney Peter Althin has filed a motion with the Swedish Court of Appeals, seeking a retrial for Pirate Bay clients Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde.

Apparently the judge in the case, Tomas Norstrom, is a member of several anti-piracy groups and Althin feels it created a conflict of interest resulting in a biased verdict against his clients.

Judge Norstrom has denied any improper conduct or influence regarding his decision.

The Pirate Bay owners were recently convicted for breaking copyright law and sentenced to a year in prison.

More over on GamePolitics.

The Pirate Bay’s founders – Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde – have been found guilty of breaking copyright law and sent to prison for a year by a Swedish court.

The site is the biggest file-sharing destination on the internet, and features a huge games section.

In response, Sunde said in a Twitter posting that, “Nothing will happen to TPB, this is just theatre for the media.”

More on the BBC.

2DBoy’s Kyle Gabler will deliver a speech at Nordic Game titled, “Developing your own game”.

It’s actually part of the show’s Career Expo bit, but it’ll be a good look at the thinking behind making World of Goo, if nothing else.

Nordic Game and it Career Expo will be held on May 19-20 in Malmö, Sweden.

Press release after the break.

More »

Capcom’s Keiji Inafune and Grasshopper’s Goichi Suda will both speak at Nordic Game this year, the event’s announced.

“Having Keiji Inafune and Goichi Suda join Nordic Game this year highlights the strong and growing relationship between the Japanese and Nordic games communities” said NG boss Tom Felices, “and will offer attendees a unique opportunity to meet two of the most exciting game creators today”.

Nordic Game takes place in Malmö, Sweden, on May 19-20.

Full details through the link.

More »

In a report published on the subject of gaming addiction, Sweden’s Youth Care Foundation has described World of Warcraft as “the most dangerous game on the market”.

Sven Rollenhagen, the report’s author, said, “There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part.”

He added: “It is the crack cocaine of the computer game world. Some will play it till they drop.”

The Swedish National Institute of Public Health gave the report a thumbs-up adding: “Computer game addiction is becoming more widespread across the world.”

The comments come after a 15-year old Swedish teenager collapsed into a fit of convulsions earlier this month after playing WoW non-stop for 24 hours.

The boy has since recovered from his ordeal.

Catastrophe this morning for the Nordic region, as news hits that the Animal Crossing-Wii Speak bundle won’t be available in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

Apparently our Northern cousins will be able to buy the game and microphone peripheral separately, but not in the same pack.

Expect viking fury about this over the course of the day. Or not.

From Tendografen, via N-Europe.

On Shacknews. This massive demo’s taken from the recent DreamHack computer festival in Sweden, and shows the open-world Ubi shooter in all its glory. It’s area’s biggers than Oblivion, don’t you know. Watch it.