GameNews Headlines August 2007

* IR Gurus Bought by Red Mile Entertainment [30 Aug 07]
* 2K Boston Tripped Up By Local Rag [30 Aug 07]
* lab.3000’s Digital Content: The Evolution [30 Aug 07]
* Innovation Panel [30 Aug 07]
* SeedC Pacific Improving MixMaster [30 Aug 07]
* Peter Jackson and Halo Games [30 Aug 07]
* Lecturer Fighting Industry [30 Aug 07]
* Interactive Electronic ‘Game’ Used to Study Fear [30 Aug 07]
* Manhunt 2 Reopening Content Debate [30 Aug 07]
* Nokia Resurrects N-Gage[30 Aug 07]
* Penny Arcade On the Rise [30 Aug 07]
* Qantm College Launches in Melbourne [21 Aug 07]
* In-game Machinima Tools [21 Aug 07]
* By Time Used, PS2 Rules [21 Aug 07]
* Lockheed Buys 3DSolve [21 Aug 07]
* Attracting Girl Gamers [21 Aug 07]
* GDC 2008 Call For Submissions [21 Aug 07]
* MTV Makes Big Headlines on Game Investment [21 Aug 07]
* Halo 3 at 1 Million Pre-Orders [14 Aug 07]
* Huge Article on Mobile Games in WSJ [13 Aug 07]
* Official: Next Gen Consoles Have Feature Overload [13 Aug 07]
* EA UK: Doing Things Differently [13 Aug 07]
* Take 2 Renames Irrational Canberra, 2K Australia [12 Aug 07]
* More Vastpark: Worlds Collide Upgrade [10 Aug 07]
* Sony PS3 Starter Pack Now at Retail [7 Aug 07]
* ZPARK's Tranzform Competition [7 Aug 07]
* Forbes: Take 2 and EA [7 Aug 07]
* Enemy Territory: Quake Wars [7 Aug 07]
* The9: 'Volatile' on Nasdaq [6 Aug 07]
* PS3's Unreal Tournament 3 to support Mouse and KB [6 Aug 07]


Develoment
IR Gurus Bought by Red Mile Entertainment
Sumea.com.au reports that Melbourne development studio IR Gurus has been bought by US based Red Mile Entertainment. Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Media
2K Boston Tripped Up By Local Rag
GameDaily interviews Ken Levine, 2K Boston President and Creative Director in this article, focussing on some of the darker elements of BioShock and the media's response to the game: "that was the first time a mainstream media guy asked me anything about that [BioShock's little sisters and harvesting Adam]. And most of it, understandably game media journalists, have been worried about it becoming a mainstream issue. So you have this tiny little newspaper (Patriot Ledger) in Quincy, Massachusetts doing this story, Quincy is where our company is located and the only follow-ups that I have been getting have been from gaming media.... Look, people looking for a story are going to write a story even if it doesn't have a huge amount of facts and the guy's never played the game. That is what those guys do, that's their bread and butter. That's why I wasn't surprised at all and I'm sure that we'll see some more of it." Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Events
lab.3000's Digital Content: The Evolution
lab.3000 is presenting Digital Content: The Evolution tonight, "aimed at provoking critical analysis about the impact of interactive content and portable media across a range of areas of interest and industries." From 6pm at the Capitol Theatre, Swanston Street, Melbourne. Link: Webpage. [30 Aug 07]

Events
Innovation Panel
BSI Services is hosting a "practical, interactive panel discussion on the role of innovation in early-stage companies" on Tuesday 4 September 2007 from 5pm at Melbourne's Digital Harbour Innovation Building. Link: Webpage. [30 Aug 07]

Online
SeedC Pacific Improving MixMaster
Sydney based SeedC Pacific, a subsidiary of SeedC Japan, says it continues to improve MixMaster, "an anime style MMORPG aimed at teenagers" which is "completely free download and free [to] play." MixMaster is one of three titles SeedC is looking to release locally this year. Link: Mixmaster Site. [30 Aug 07]

Development
Peter Jackson and Halo Games
"After dabbling in game development through a partnership with French developer Ubisoft for the video game version of King Kong, Jackson last year formed a partnership with Microsoft that involves [Jackson's Studio] Wingnut developing a new Halo game instalment and an entirely new game, details of which are yet to be released" reports the NZ Herald online adding "Bungie developers were collaborating with Jackson and his developers, daily, via email and conference calls... Bungie game engineers had paid regular visits to Wellington." Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Education
Lecturer Fighting Industry
An tiny article has popped up reporting on conflict between video game academia and industry in the UK. "[Bolton] university's principal lecturer in games, spoke out following criticism of the courses from a gaming business expert... [who] said they have never hired graduates with a games design degree." Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Research
Interactive Electronic 'Game' Used to Study Fear
"A Pac-Man-like computer game that delivered electric shocks to gamers has been used to shed light on how the brain reacts to imminent danger" reports the BBC online adding "[MRI] scans showed the different regions of the brain used by volunteers as the level of threat in the game increased. The scans showed that activity switched from the front of the brain [more evolved area] to the middle [less evolved area] as anxiety turned to panic." One of the findings is that "the closer a threat gets, the more impulsive your response - in effect, the less free will you have." Link: BBC Article. A blogger in this posting about the research jumps to virtual worlds, and poses the question whether virtual worlds are impacting brain evolution, indicating that the amount of fear people in virtual worlds confront may be different to that in the real world. Link: Blogger [30 Aug 07]

Classification
Manhunt 2 Reopening Content Debate
A re-rating of Manhunt 2 (Rockstar/Take 2) in the US, to coincide with a Halloween release, has provided grist for the mill for the debate about video game content and classification. For an overview of some of the classification processes in the US and Europe, see this article from BBC.com's technology section. The UK's Guardian newspaper online has also opened up on some of the issues, here. For a Reuters UK article on the re-rating, click here. Link: BBC Article; Guardian Article; Reuters Article. [30 Aug 07]

Consoles
Nokia Resurrects N-Gage
Nokia is on the publicity trail with a renewed N-Gage product, this time being a multiplayer focused game software platform for select Nokia smartphones. "Owners of phones that run N-Gage software will be able to play games against friends, sample, buy and recommend new games from their phones, and compete in large tournaments" reports a big NYTimes article. Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Industry
Penny Arcade On the Rise
The Seattle Times has a brief puff piece on the Seattle lads behind Penny Arcade: "about 3.5 million readers devour the Seattle duo's Web comic.... the two upstarts who began their careers by mocking the industry in 1999 are now hosts to its largest consumer-level show in America." Link: Article. [30 Aug 07]

Education
Qantm College Formally Launches in Melbourne
Qantm College opened its new Melbourne campus last week at the same time as announcing two new degree programs: Bachelor of Applied Multimedia and Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment. Qantm says the campus was officially opened by the Victorian Minister for Information and Communication Technology, the Hon. Theo Theophanous MP, and "included an industry showcase to exhibit work by a number of leading Victorian games and digital media developers." Link: www.qantm.com [21 Aug 07]

Machinima
In-game Machinima Tools
Businessweek.com has a massive article on machinima, reporting that "now developers are finding financial benefits from including the tools of creation within their products." Link: Article. [21 Aug 07]

Society
By Time Used, PS2 Rules
A tiny set of stats in the Kansas City Star of all places notes that "Sony’s PlayStation 2, introduced seven years ago, remained the most-used video game console in June." The stats provide a breakdown of console share as a percentage of time used. "Sony PlayStation 2: 42.3 percent". Link: Article. [21 Aug 07]

Serious Games
Lockheed Buys 3DSolve
Weapons company Lockheed Martin Corp said last week that it had bought serious games maker 3Dsolve. Reuters reports Lockheed stating "the acquisition will strengthen its position in the fast-growing training and simulation market and allow it to provide a broader array of products and services to an expanding customer base." Link: Article. [21 Aug 07]

Industry
Attracting Girl Gamers
The Hollywood Reporter.com has an article on games for girls looking at a number of companies including Disney Interactive, Her Interactive (Nancy Drew), and THQ: "getting that female audience into video games, especially consoles, has long been a holy grail for publishers, and there have been encouraging signs. According to the Electronic Software Assn., 38% of game players are women or girls, and a Harris Interactive poll this year found that tween girls spend up to 10 hours a week playing games, compared with 16 hours a week for tween boys." Link: Article. [21 Aug 07]

Conferences
GDC 2008 Call For Submissions
Next year's Game Developers Conference will be held in San Francisco 18-22 February and the organisers, CMP Game Group, are now seeking submissions due 1st October. Link: Gamasutra Article. [21 Aug 07]

Industry
MTV Makes Big Headlines on Game Investment
Time Warner Inc.'s GameDaily.com website reports that MTV Networks is to invest 'well over' $500 Million in video games. "MTV intends to use the money over the next two years to incorporate game development in parallel with new programming. MTV also has huge plans for Rock Band" reports GameDaily.com. Link: Article. [21 Aug 07]

Industry
Halo 3 at 1 Million Pre-Orders
MS announced last week that pre-orders of Halo 3 in North America alone, have exceeded 1 million units. Link: Reuters Brief [14 Aug 07]

Industry
Huge Article on Mobile Games in WSJ
The Wall Street Journal recently looked at mobile games and the opporutunities for the sector provided by smart phones: "Once limited to games with skimpy graphics and stick figures, like Snake, mobile games have improved in recent years to more closely resemble videogames. There is already a robust market in games for traditional cellphones. But users of costlier smart phones had been largely shut out because gaming publishers felt the market was too small." Link: WSJ Article. [13 Aug 07]

Gamers
Official: Next Gen Consoles Have Feature Overload
The always readable Dean Takahashi has posted two press releases in his US blog. The first quickly comments on and reproduces an NPD survey which makes the claim that gamers don’t know what their game systems can do, located here, while the second comments on and reporduces a press release on in-game advertising and a recent Nielson report commissioned by MS' Massive in-game ad company, located here. Both press releases look impressive but as Dean eludes too, they confirm little. [13 Aug 07]

Recruitment
EA UK: Doing Things Differently
An interesting though short article on hiring 'creatives' at EA UK can be found here. The article reports "when the company [EA] attempted to ramp up talent in the UK to develop its next Harry Potter game, they were in search of 60 new people. This meant they needed to lure talent away from their competitors. Someone at EA found a list of local creative talent and sent out invitations to a beer party in London. “We expected 400 people but only 50 showed up,” he recalls. They hired no one." Link: Article. [13 Aug 07]

Industry
Take 2 Renames Irrational Canberra, 2K Australia
Old Irrational Games Canberra website still up at www.irrational.com.au/, while new website is www.2kaustralia.com. Link: Press Release [12 Aug 07]

Technology
More Vastpark: Worlds Collide Upgrade
Vastpark have announced their Virtual Content Platform for creating and running virtual worlds and online games, an addition to the Vastpark technology platform. The VCP features “a method for 3D content professionals and hobbyists to syndicate their content so that it can be used across many virtual worlds at once and enable them to maintain and update the content themselves.” Link: www.VastPark.com. [10 Aug 07]

Retail
Sony PS3 Starter Pack Now at Retail
Sony has released the PS3 Starter Pack, consisting of a 60 GB PS3 console, two wireless SIXAXIS controllers, and a copy of Resistance: Fall Of Man and MotorStorm. The Starter Pack has a RRP of $999.95 (and NZ$1199.95). The Pack was made available 2nd August and continues until end of August in Australia, and end of September in NZ. Link: here.

Competition
		ZPARK's Tranzform Competition The Zpark Tranzform 3D modelling competition has less than one month to go. Entrants can compete on design or scripting, in student or open categories, with prizes supplied by Atari, Autodesk, and Dissecta. ZPark: link.

Industry
Forbes: Take 2 and EA
A recent article in Forbes online suggests "an unfortunate bit of bad news for" Take 2 spells "potentially good news for its competitor" EA. The article reports "shares of Take-Two Interative tumbled 16% on August 3 after the company announced the delay of one of its sought-after video games [GTA4], a move that some stock-watchers argue could end up benefiting competitor Electronic Arts." One analyst's view in the article is that "takeover talk could stop the shares of Take-Two from tumbling much more." Article: here.

Games
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Activision says ID Software has confirmed the launch date for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars for the PC: 28 September in Australia. No word yet on the X360 or PS3 versions except that these are also in development. Developer website: here.

Industry
The9: ‘Volatile’ on Nasdaq
CNNMoney reports on Chinese companies in the link below, stating “The9 Limited (NCTY) was one of the most volatile stocks on Nasdaq last week, falling more than 9% on Wednesday. The company, which operates Blizzard's hit game "World of Warcraft" in China, responded to rumors that it was in a dispute with Blizzard by issuing a press release with Blizzard refuting the rumors. Blizzard's parent company Universal has been notably quiet about the fact that Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) now owns 15% of The9.” Article: here. [6 Aug 2007] [top]

Games
PS3’s Unreal Tournament 3 to support Mouse and KB
Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3 is to support mouse and keyboard according to a report from Plagn.com.au. Players will also be able to take account of mouse/keyboard setups when setting up multiplayer games. Article: here. [6 Aug 2007] [top]

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