News and informations about video-games

Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride reaches 14 million downloads

Newsbrief: Australian developer Halfbrick Studios has seen more than 14 million downloads for Jetpack Joyride since the action game launched for iOS devices in August 2011. Though Jetpack Joyride went free-to-play in mid-December, Halfbrick saw $1 million in paid sales for the game before that switch. It also estimates that 5-10 percent of its 14 million players spend at least a dollar through its in-app store, according to a report from news site Joystiq. Halfbrick's ...

Report: Rising Star absorbs Marvelous USA's publishing branch

When European publisher Rising Star opened its U.S. branch earlier this year, it didn't have to build its business from the ground-up. Rather, the publisher has revealed that the new office took shape as the company absorbed the existing publishing business of Marvelous USA. Speaking to UK game site MCV in a recent interview, Rising Star managing director Martin Defries revealed that the new U.S. branch is more of a rebranding project than a whole ...

Barren January release lineup hindered U.S. game sales, analysts agree

In anticipation of tomorrow's NPD report on January video game retail sales in the U.S., analyst firm Sterne Agee reported that it expects software sales to decline year over year, thanks to the non-existant release lineup for the month. The firm said it expects software sales to drop 15 to 20 percent, since January saw no major new releases, and sales will be heavily dependent on 2011 titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare ...

Electronic Arts' CFO leaves for Polycom (Reuters)
Reuters - Electronic Arts Inc's chief financial officer is leaving the video game publisher to take a post at communications company Polycom Inc, both companies said in statements on Wednesday.
Source : us.rd.yahoo.com | 08-Feb-2012 22:53

EA CFO Eric Brown resigns

Electronic Arts chief financial officer Eric Brown has resigned from his position at the company, Gamasutra has learned. Brown's last day at the company will be next Friday, February 17. The following Tuesday he will start his new role as both the CFO and COO of communications company Polycom. In the interim, current chief accounting officer and senior vice president Kenneth Barker will serve as CFO. Brown first joined EA in 1998, as the COO ...

Gamebryo 4.0 to be demonstrated at GDC

Gamebase will preview Gamebryo 4.0, the latest version of its 3D game engine that promises improvements in efficiency and ease of use, at March's Game Developers Conference. The company said it combined the strengths of its two engines, Gamebryo and LightSpeed, with the goal of providing a simplistic and efficient game creation environment that can still provide high quality graphics without sacrificing frame rates. In order to make Gamebryo 4.0 a more simplified, user-friendly engine, ...

DragonVale, Modern War head iPad revenue charts

Every week, Gamasutra rounds up the top-grossing iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad applications, as current that day in the iTunes App Store. This week's U.S. revenue charts see Temple Run and Poker by Zynga earning top iPhone sales, while DragonVale and Modern War emerge as big sellers on the iPad. These charts allow end users to see who is making the most money on the App Store that day. It differs significantly from the Top ...

TastemakerX raises $1.8M for gamifying music discovery

Newsbrief: TastemakerX raised $1.8 million to fund its platform for looks to gamify music discovery "in the same way fantasy sports leagues gamify professional sports" with a mobile application. The San Francisco-based company's TastemakerX Music social mobile app, which will release with a private beta in early March, helps users discover music artists, trends, and inspiration. They can build up a "Personal Influence Score" by sharing their favorite music with others. Participants in this series ...

Activision to publish shooter based on Hasbro's Battleship

Newsbrief: Activision Publishing will release a first-person shooter based on Battleship, the famous guessing/board game from Hasbro, which will be inspired by Universal Pictures' film of the same name debuting in May. Irvine-based Double Helix, makers of multiplatform titles like Front Mission Evolved and Silent Hill Homecoming is developing the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions that will release in Europe and North America in April and May respectively. Parisian developer Magic Pockets (Bakugan: Rise ...

Image Metrics releases real-time facial animation SDK

Newsbrief: Image Metrics has released the software development kit for Live Driver, its new facial analysis and animation tech designed to capture movements, expressions, and emotions in real-time with a standard webcam. Live Driver is designed to be incorporated in a wide range of applications, allowing for personalization in social media, gaming, and online communication platforms. It supports computer webcams, as well as cameras on phones and tablets. The facial animation company says that with ...

Road to the IGF: Damp Gnat's Wonderputt

While the mechanics behind Damp Gnat's Wonderputt might be loosely based on real-world mini-golf, the game's aesthetic is anything but. Using a refined, isometric style, the game combines seemingly random visual elements such as UFOs, submarines, natural disasters, and more to create a surreal golf course in which anything can happen. With such a unique and charming visual style, the game has earned a nomination for an Excellence in Visual Art award at this year's ...

Jumping from web to mobile: Challenges of cross-platform game development

[In this reprinted #altdevblogaday in-depth piece, independent game programmer Amos Laber begins his series on the challenges of cross-platform development, looking at considerations one should take for web/mobile projects.] For an indie developer working on game projects in the casual/social or mobile space, one of the earliest decisions to make is what platform to target. In most cases it's a no-brainer, since the team or studio already gained experience developing a game for platform X, ...

Critical Reception: Big Huge Games' Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This week's edition of Critical Reception examines online reaction to Big Huge Games' open-world action-RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which reviewers describe as "immaculately crafted and beautiful, yet still simple and accessible." Reckoning currently earns a score of 80 out of 100 at Metacritic.com. Richard Mitchell at Joystiq gives Reckoning 5 out of 5 stars, praising its "lovingly crafted world," in particular. "That love is evident from the moment your character emerges from the first ...

PSN dev Drinkbox Studios on porting code to 'mini-PS3' quality Vita hardware

PSN developers will have a leg-up when porting existing code and assets to the PlayStation Vita, shares Chris Harvey of Drinkbox Studios. He further suggests that current generation developers won't have to sacrifice much to get their game up and running, describing the Vita as a "mini-PS3." Harvey's team is currently working on Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, one of 25 titles scheduled for the Vita's North American launch. This is far from the ...

Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian leaves Disney

After one year of leading Disney Interactive's games business, Bungie and Wideload co-founder Alex Seropian has left the company altogether. Disney confirmed Seropian's resignation to Gamasutra, noting that former Blizzard exec Bill Roper is set to take his place. Seropian, who helped co-found Halo studio Bungie in 1991, first joined Disney Interactive in 2009 when the company acquired the Chicago-based Stubbs the Zombie developer Wideload Games. In January 2011, in the wake of a sizable ...

This week in Video Game Criticism: Blizzard's moral psychopathy, narrative as a mechanic

[This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Eric Swain on topics including whether narrative is a game mechanic, the moral psychopathy that Blizzard has continually displayed, and more.] I can't think of a clever intro. It's This Week In Video Game Criticism. The recently released Katawa Shoujo has garnered a lot of attention for how it came into existence and for it being a quality experience, something no ...

Fastest-growing Facebook games: From Hidden Chronicles to Fruit Ninja Frenzy

[Every other week, Gamasutra examines the fastest-growing Facebook games according to monthly active users, looking at which titles and developers are having the most success attracting new players on the social network.] Zynga's Hidden Chronicles, the developer's latest title and its first entry in the popular "hidden object" casual gaming genre, continues to enjoy rapid growth and is now the fifth post popular game on Facebook, behind other Zynga staples like CityVille, Texas HoldEm Poker, ...

Best of iOS news: From Ghost Trick to Reckless Racing 2

[Gamasutra rounds up the latest news in the world of App Store gaming, featuring standout releases like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Reckless Racing 2, Droopy Blocks, and Somyeol.] - Capcom Releases DS-Ported Adventure Title Ghost Trick Originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2011, Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective puts players in control of a dead detective who must solve his own murder by possessing objects and solving puzzles. - Mobile Game Pick: Droopy Blocks ...

Number of U.S. gamers more than doubled since 2008, study finds

According to a new report [PDF] from analyst firm Parks Associates, there are now 135 million people in the United States playing games for at least an hour per month, more than double the 56 million gamers reported in 2008. Most of these new gamers, the firm says, have been attracted by the free to play and social markets, which have captured new audiences on the web, smartphones, and other emerging platforms. In the mobile ...

Disney's sparse release lineup leads to slow Q1

The Walt Disney Company's video game-focused Interactive Media division today reported decreased revenues and widening losses for its fiscal first quarter, coinciding with the company's conservative game output. For the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the Interactive Media division saw $279 million in revenue, down 20 percent from $349 million during the same time last year. With these reduced revenues, losses for the division reached $28 million, compared to $15 million year over year. Disney ...

Todd McFarlane brings a comic artist's eye to Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Best known for creating the Spawn comic book franchise, Todd McFarlane is no stranger to the world of video games. While his chain-wielding anti-hero has appeared in a handful of games, McFarlane himself has worked in a limited capacity on titles like Soul Calibur II and McFarlane's Evil Prophecy. With Tuesday's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, McFarlane has finally taken the creative reigns as Executive Art Director, guiding the design of the characters and locales for ...

EA showcases 2012 lineup at New York showing

Electronic Arts held a spring showcase in New York City to present its current lineup of titles, and EA COO Peter Moore led the presentation, highlighting the growth the company has seen in 2011 on both traditional platforms as well as iOS, claiming the number one position in each arena. Star Wars: The Old Republic, Battlefield 3 and FIFA 2012 received special attention as primary drivers of that growth, as Moore highlighted the business' transition ...

Splash Damage vets building white-label online services suite

Newsbrief: Several veterans from Brink developer Splash Damage have formed Fireteam, a start-up building a white-label online services suite that companies will be able to integrate into their mobile, console, and PC games. The platform offers support for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. It allows developers to add features like matchmaking, friends lists, player stats, in-game stores, and "transmedia connectivity across other devices" to their online titles. Fireteam notes that the ...

GDC 2012 adds Epic, DeNA, Uncharted talks to programming track

The 2012 Game Developers Conference is about a month away, and the event's lineup is still rapidly growing. Today, show organizers have revealed a trio of new programming-focused talks, featuring Epic Games on data analysis, DeNA on server optimization, and Naughty Dog on the effects in Uncharted 3. These talks fall within the show's Programming track, one of seven main tracks at the show's jam-packed Main Conference. Here, industry leaders will examine the newest challenges ...

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet takes home Annie animation award

Newsbrief: The International Animated Film Society has selected Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet for its "Best Animated Video Game" award, as part of the Annie Awards honoring outstanding animation across various media. Finalists for the video game category included Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman Origins, Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Konami's Gesundheit, and Epic Games' Gears of War 3. Handheld/mobile releases like Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and Simogo's ...

Protecting the magic circle

In a new Gamasutra feature, Eric Zimmerman -- one of the first to apply the concept of the "magic circle" to video game design -- defends his often-maligned "simple concept," which is meant to be a tool for game designers. The concept was first fully codified in Zimmerman and Katie Salen's 2003 book Rules of Play. "The magic circle is the idea that a boundary exists between a game and the world outside the game," ...

Unity-powered games coming to Smart TVs

Consumer electronics company LG has inked a deal with Unity Technologies to bring games built on its popular game engine to a new line of Smart TVs. This collaboration follows another recent deal LG struck with cloud gaming service Gaikai to deliver streaming games through its Smart TVs, and is part of a larger strategy at the company to increase the value of its HDTVs as "all-in-one multimedia systems" by offering an array of games. ...

D3Publisher takes over from THQ for DreamWorks tie-ins

D3Publisher has signed an agreement with DreamWorks Animation to develop games based on the movie studio's next three feature films: Madagascar 3, Rise of the Guardians, and The Croods. The deal's announcement comes as troubled publisher THQ, which secured worldwide exclusive rights to put out titles based on DreamWorks productions, is exiting the kids' licensed games business to focus on "core" and digital projects. THQ CEO Brian Farrell said pulling out of the licensed game ...

Road to the IGF: Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda's The Bridge

[Continuing our Road to the IGF interviews, Gamasutra chats with Ty Taylor about his Student Showcase finalist, The Bridge, a 2D puzzle platformer set in an Escherian world.] "The world is much larger when every wall is a floor..." begins The Bridge's trailer. The thoughtful, M.C. Escher-inspired 2D puzzle platformer makes a poignant first impression and has been turning judges' heads since it entered competitions in 2011. It has received an honorable mention for innovation ...

Sega Studios Australia lays off 37 staff, focusing on digital releases

Sega revealed today that it has laid off nearly 40 staff members at its Australian studio, as part of a company restructuring that aims to focus on digital releases. Sega Studios Australia is the development team behind the upcoming official London 2012 Olympic Games video game. In a statement to Kotaku, Sega said that as development on the game nears completion, it must "take steps to ensure long-term growth and success." The studio has therefore ...

Bit of Alright and the ethos of independent game design

Four stand with a pair of wooden spoons, upon which rest a single lemon. That lemon musn't fall. Opposite them, another four, armed with Move controllers. These controllers mustn't be jostled. They circle one another in the most polite, abstract evocation of a knife fight. Occasionally, almost on cue as the action lulls, a dozen people charge through, half of them armed with Nerf guns, the others impersonating the shambling undead. There's the cacophony of ...

David Jaffe: Twisted Metal is 'meant to engage your brain'

David Jaffe's career has taken some interesting twists and turns over the last few years. After truly making his name with the original God of War in 2005, he worked on a PSP game called Heartland. The game, which he described as "dark" and intended to "evoke emotion" never saw the light of day. Now, he's back with Twisted Metal for PlayStation 3 -- big, loud, dumb, and action-packed. What did he learn over this ...

Online gaming firm 888's full-year revenue up 26 percent (Reuters)
Reuters - British online gaming company 888 Holdings saw its full-year revenue grow 26 percent as the number of customers gambling on its websites grew, and the company said strong current trading continues into the first quarter.
Source : us.rd.yahoo.com | 07-Feb-2012 08:37

GDC 2012 details Google, Facebook, Unity dev days

For today's update regarding the 2012 Game Developers Conference, show organizers are revealing initial information on a series of sponsored Developer Days, showcasing numerous talks from major companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Unity, and more. Taking place on the first two days (Monday, March 5th and Tuesday, March 6th) of the San Francisco show, these full-day sponsored developer events offer GDC attendees a chance to learn about key development tools and platforms directly from ...

Top Android game apps: NFL Flick series reports sales spike

[In this weekly column, Gamasutra rounds up the most popular paid and free gaming applications on the Android Market as of today, with NFL Flick Quarterback, Madden NFL 12 and Roller Ball currently ranking among the platform's top downloads.] This week's top paid titles are: 1. Where's My Water? ($0.99) 2. Cut the Rope ($0.99) 3. Madden NFL 12 ($4.99) 4. Fruit Ninja ($1.26) 5. NFL Flick Quarterback ($0.99) 6. Osmos HD ($2.99) 7. Grand ...

PS Vita Mac support and more in this week's Japanese news roundup

[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.] In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at PS Vita's media management app receiving Mac support, January's top software sellers, a pachinko game for Capcom's Monster Hunter, and more. PS Vita 1.6 update adds video, map and Mac support Sony will ...

Top iPhone game apps: Tank Hero battles Where's My Water?

[In this weekly feature, Gamasutra rounds up the week's most popular paid and free iPhone and iPod Touch games, as current on the iTunes App Store.] This week's top paid iPhone game titles on the App Store, as captured on February 6th 2012, are as follows: 1. Where's My Water? ($0.99) 2. Tank Hero 3. Scramble With Friends ($0.99) 4. Fruit Ninja ($0.99) 5. Angry Birds ($0.99) 6. Real Steel ($0.99) 7. Cut the Rope ...

Design success means knowing what to do with feedback

[Game designers "need to place faith in the design process itself, not in their inevitably doomed first draft," says former Firaxis lead designer Soren Johnson. (Originally printed in Game Developer magazine.] "You have to design for success, plan for failure, and then know how to rebound from that failure. Our 1.0 version of AI War was successful but not wildly so. Little irritations added up and annoyed people enough that they stopped playing. When the ...

XBLIG developer blames new dashboard for poor game performance

Microsoft's latest Xbox 360 dashboard update has buried indie game content on Xbox Live, leaving little opportunity for developers to find success on the platform, says Xbox Live Indie Game developer Kris Steele. Following the tepid release of his new XBLIG title Hypership Still Out of Control, Steele examined the first week success of all six of his indie titles on Xbox Live, and found that overall trial downloads have decreased significantly since the debut ...

UK developers turning to online/download games as retail struggles

UK game industry trade body TIGA says 67 percent of local developers are working either exclusively or in part on downloadable games, while the majority of recently established studios are focused on only downloadable and/or online games. The figures come as game retailers in the UK face shrinking revenues and increasing challenges in staying open -- Game Group recently said it suffered "an incredibly tough 2011," and plans to close 60 locations in the country ...

China's ChangYou ends a record fiscal year

Chinese online game developer and operator Changyou reported record results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year (ending December 31), as sales from its games during 2011 surged to $435.5 million. ChangYou is among the top five Chinese online game companies that helped contribute to a rapidly expanding market that generated over $5 billion dollars in 2010. According to figures from Pearl Research, that number is expected to increase to $8 billion by 2014. The ...

Road to the IGF: Spry Fox's and Wild Shadow Studios' Realm of the Mad God

[Continuing our "Road to the IGF" series with IGF 2012 finalists, Gamasutra speaks with Spry Fox and Wild Shadow Studios about Technical Excellence nominee Realm of the Mad God.] Realm of the Mad God currently sits as the second-highest rated multiplayer game on Kongregate, with almost 2 million plays since it was published mere months ago on October 31, 2011. Where most games revel in heaps of (often forced) customization, players need only click on ...

January's game sales hurt by lack of major releases, says analyst

Ahead of the January 2011 NPD Group results later this week, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter predicts that December's weak game sales at U.S. retail carried into last month, and expects that year-over-year software sales dropped by 12 percent to $505 million. Pachter partially blames the diminished sales on a lack of high-profile games released until the end of the month -- multiplatform games like Namco Bandai's SoulCalibur V and Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII-2 both ...

Dungeon Defenders sells 1M downloads

Newsbrief: Dungeon Defenders, the downloadable action/tower defense game from independent developer Trendy Entertainment, has sold a million copies across consoles and PC in the last four months. Reverb Publishing released the game for Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network in October 2011, and intends to put out a PS Vita version some time this year. Smartphone versions of the game were previously available for iOS, Android, and Xperia Play. The publisher says that's it's ...

IGF 2012 Audience Award Opens Voting

[In this note to indie game fans, Independent Games Festival Chairman Brandon Boyer announces public voting to pick this year's IGF Audience Award from among all of the Main Competition finalist games for this year.] It's time to have your say for the best Independent Games Festival game of 2012! We've just opened public voting for this year's Audience Award, with all members of the public and the indie game community eligible to vote. As ...

Sponsored feature: The future of capitalizing on video and community

In Gamasutra's latest sponsored feature, TwitchTV co-founder Justin Kan explains how video is attracting increasingly big audiences of gamers -- too big to ignore. "This is a major marketing inflection point for an industry that has traditionally reached its consumers through traditional print, TV and digital media campaigns -- now your players are creating and distributing video about your game for you," says Kan. In the feature, he writes about how TwitchTV has attracted 30 ...