GameNews Headlines September 2007 Onwards

* Auran Adopts Australian Made logo [21 Sept 07]
* Fury Challenge Set to Commence [21 Sept 07]
* SeedC Pacific: New MixMaster Upgrade [21 Sept 07]
* Krome Studios and LucasArts turn Wii Remote into Light Sabre [21 Sept 07]
* Health Care Company Creates Obesity Video Games [21 Sept 07]
* EA Talks Up Japan Opportunity [21 Sept 07]
* Maverick GameStop Manager: Good Grades Before Games [21 Sept 07]
* GarageGames Bought by Media Proprietor [21 Sept 07]
* US: Publishers Need Their Own Original Titles [21 Sept 07]
* Forecast: Worldwide Video Game Industry [21 Sept 07]
* Agatha Christie Games [21 Sept 07]
* Colin McRae, 1968 - 2007 [21 Sept 07]
* Casualties Simulator for Doctors [21 Sept 07]
* US: August Big Games [21 Sept 07]
* World Series of Video Games No More [21 Sept 07]
* Asia Game Industry Boosted by Conference [13 Sept 07]
* Online Features A Must Have [13 Sept 07]
* Havok 5 Production Tools Launch [13 Sept 07]
* UK: Retail Battling for Supremacy [13 Sept 07]
* eGames 2007 Steps Up the PR [13 Sept 07]
* BigWorld Selected by KWARI and Bitcasters [13 Sept 07]
* SCi Entertainment Still M&A Target [13 Sept 07]
* Majesco Backs Itself [13 Sept 07]
* MS Embraces Machinima [13 Sept 07]
* Team Fortress 2 Trailers [13 Sept 07]
* Home Inspections in SL [13 Sept 07]
* Board Game Promotes Malaysian Culture [13 Sept 07]
* US: Game Industry Political Lobbying [13 Sept 07]
* Games With a Purpose [13 Sept 07]

Industry
Auran Adopts Australian Made logo
Brisbane based game developer Auran Games says it "has become the country's first computer game developer to carry the famous Australian Made, Australian Grown logo on computer games." Adding "the logo is set to accompany a range of Auran Games' titles including Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006, Trainz Classics and upcoming PVP MMO, Fury (set to launch in October)." Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran, says "Aussie gamers will now be able to support world class games that were developed right on their doorstep. From the birth of the idea, through to development, investment, packing, shipping and marketing, we do it all ourselves. With the support from our local market, we're really very proud to take our products to the world." Link: Auran Website. [21 Sept 07]

Online
Fury Challenge Set to Commence
Auran Games recently announced that their prize pool for "Fury Challenge" has "officially topped $2 million dollars." Auran explains "the Open Beta event has been extended to run over 4 weekends from September 14 to October 7, and will provide players from all over the world the chance to test their skills playing "FURY", the 100% Player versus Player MMO which will be released in October." Auran says Fury Challenge is a ladder based competition where players compete in 3 different game types either solo or as part of a Clan. There will be 2 practice weekends (Sept 14-16 and Sept 21-23) and the Ladders will be reset in preparation for the two competition weekends (Sept 28-30 and Oct 5-7). Players can either download the client from one of our sponsors or pick up a pre-order disk from participating retailers. Link: FuryChallenge.com. [21 Sept 07]

Online
SeedC Pacific: New MixMaster Upgrade
SeedC Pacific in Sydney, a subsidiary of SeedC Japan, says it has " released its 4th major update [for MixMaster Online] with an additional village, 4 hunting fields, 2 quests and plenty of strong monsters." Link: MixMaster. [21 Sept 07]

Development
Krome Studios and LucasArts turn Wii Remote into Light Sabre
Activision has sent word that LucasArts has released details of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii, which will be released autumn next year. The game offers Wii players "the unique chance to live out their Jedi fantasies by wielding the Wii Remote as a lightsaber while using the Nunchuk controller to torment foes with their Force powers." LucasArts says "the Wii version, in development by Krome Studios, will also add an exclusive duel mode in which players can compete head-to-head with their friends to determine the ultimate Jedi master." The X360 and PS3 versions are being developed internally at LucasArts. Krome, based in Brisbane with studios in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne, is working on the Wii, PS2, and PSP versions, while n-Space, Inc., is developing the DS version. Link: Game website. [21 Sept 07]

Serious Games
Health Care Company Creates Obesity Video Games
"A Denver elementary school tried out a new health-focused video game for children on Wednesday. The video game was designed by health care provider Kaiser Permanente to combat the growing childhood obesity rate in the U.S." reports CBS4Denver.com. Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Industry
EA Talks Up Japan Opportunity
The Financial Times reports "Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video games publisher, is hunting for a partnership or acquisition in Japan in a bid to achieve greater penetration in the second-biggest gaming market after the US." Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Society
Maverick GameStop Manager: Good Grades Before Games
"The manager of a South Dallas branch of video game retailer GameStop has been suspended after requiring children to prove that they have good grades before allowing them to purchase games." Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Industry
GarageGames Bought by Media Proprietor
"Barry Diller, who has headed up Fox and Paramount and is now the Chairman of Expedia and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp (the parent company of businesses such as Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, Match.com, LendingTree, among others)" reports GameDaily.com, has used IAC to buy a majority share of GarageGames. GarageGames will be used to develop 3D web browser based titles for a new website called InstantAction.com. Links: GameDaily Article; Redherring.com Article. [21 Sept 07]

Industry
US: Publishers Need Their Own Original Titles
EA's latest titles in development Spore and Rock Band are helping the company's investor relations; one US investment analyst has taken the view this week that these titles will provide "low-risk and long-term" returns "and should allow the company to increase its market share." The view is put that growth and margins are weaker where a company "is relying on games it has licensed from other developers." Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Industry
Forecast: Worldwide Video Game Industry
DFC Intelligence has released some forecasts for the worldwide video game and interactive entertainment industry, saying it "is expected to grow from about [US]$33 billion in 2006 to as much as $47 billion in 2009. This forecast includes revenue from video game hardware and software, dedicated portable system hardware and software, PC games, and online PC and console games." PC based online games, and handheld consoles like DS, are key aspects to the growth while of the lounge consoles, X360 is expected to rank behind Wii and PS3 long term unless it can really start to expand beyond its strongest market, North America. Link: Press Release. [21 Sept 07]

Development
Agatha Christie Games
"Agatha Christie has found a new lease of life as a video game heroine, with the "Queen of crime novelists" holding her own alongside sector stalwarts Lara Croft and Princess Zelda" reports The Times Online. "Agatha Christie's books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 45 foreign languages. She is outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare." Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

RIP
Colin McRae, 1968 - 2007
"Everyone at Codemasters, especially those who worked directly with Colin McRae, is deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic events of this weekend. The loss of Colin McRae is deeply distressing. That it involved his son and another so young makes it even more tragic. Our thoughts are with his family and those closest to him and we share in their pain." From a Codemasters Press Release. Read about the "Drives That Shaped McRae's Career" in the Scotsman, here. Links: Colin McRae's Website. [21 Sept 07]

Serious Games
Casualties Simulator for Doctors
A UK medical education charity, Advanced Life Saving Group, has created a serious game to help Doctors train for a major disaster. "It is not a game to be used in isolation but it does offer another way of teaching doctors to deal with major incidents," Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Retail
US: August Big Games
Some sales ranking in US for August: Rank 1 and 2. Madden NFL 08, 896,600 sold for X360, 643,600 sold for PS2, and 336,200 sold for PS3; Rank 3. BioShock, 490,900 sold for X360; Rank 5. Wii Play, 256,800 sales; Rank 6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii, 218,800 sales; Rank 7. Mario Strikers Charged for Wii, 147,400 sales; Rank 8. Guitar Hero 2 for PS2, 145,400 sales; Rank 10. Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s, 127,100 sales. Link: Article. [21 Sept 07]

Progamers
World Series of Video Games No More
Games Media Properties says it "will no longer produce the World Series of Video Games" adding "the remainder of the 2007 season in Los Angeles, London and Sweden is cancelled." Games Media Properties says "the continuing challenges of securing adequate revenues to sustain the production of the WSVG's large scale events and television programming, in a very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues, has prompted us to re-evaluate our direction as an organization." Link: Website. [21 Sept 07]

Industry
Asia Game Industry Boosted by Conference
Forbes online reports on the Games Convention Asia held recently in Singapore, with a wide ranging article based on the views of many from the region involved in game development. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Development
Online Features A Must Have
Reuters reports that "video games with online components bring in more than twice the revenue as those played offline" basing its comment on findings made by US based game industry research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Development
Havok 5 Production Tools Launch
Dublan based specialist digital production software maker Havok, whose products have become industry standard since starting out in 1998, says it has released Havok 5, a new set of improvements across its core Havok Physics, Havok Animation, and Havok Behavior products (current development examples using Havok 5 include Stranglehold from Midway and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from Lucas Arts). Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Retail
UK: Retail Battling for Supremacy
A UK research report states that 33 per cent of the [retail] companies it analysed are 'in financial danger' according to MCVUK.com. MCVUK.com say the report also claims that nine of the companies surveyed, which include some very big names, "are blatantly selling at a loss to capture market share" which if it occurred in Australia would raise the spectre of predatory pricing. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Events
eGames 2007 Steps Up the PR
The eGames & Entertainment Expo 2007, to be held 16 - 18 November this year at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre, says with reference to the inaugural event held last year that "the impressive line up of brands to be showcased at eGames 2007 will again see enthusiasts flocking to Melbourne to be among the first to see, try and buy the latest and greatest products on the market." The event opens its doors noon on Friday the 16th November, finishing 5pm Sunday 18th November. Link: Event Website. [13 Sept 07]

MMOG
BigWorld Selected by KWARI and Bitcasters
New UK game publisher Kwari has said "it has selected BigWorld Technology Suite for their [Kwari's] upcoming online first-person shooter (FPS) title." Kwari President, Clive Hibberd, said "after evaluating a wide range of middleware offerings, the BigWorld solution stood out as second to none." Sydney based BigWorld has also been chosen by Canadian media firm Bitcasters to bring "the popular Storm Hawks animated series to life as an MMO." Link: BigWorld Website. [13 Sept 07]

Industry
SCi Entertainment Still M&A Target
UK's The Guardian online reports that "SCi Entertainment, owner of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider computer game franchise, admitted yesterday that for the second time in two years it had received a bid approach, believed to be from its French rival Ubisoft." The approach is expected to arouse further interest from other companies. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Industry
Majesco Backs Itself
MCVUK.com reports that "Majesco, US publisher of Cooking Mama, has freed up [US]$6 million through selling around 4 million of its shares." The money is working capital. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Machinima
MS Embraces Machinima
"On the eve of the release of Halo 3, a game whose "Save Films" option will make it even easier to create machinima, Microsoft has granted would-be directors a license to use their games as the basis for such films" reports a Wired.com blog. Link: Blog. [13 Sept 07]

Industry
Team Fortress 2 Trailers
Team Fortress 2, the long-awaited follow on of the Team Fortress mods which were originally developed in Melbourne in the late 90's, is starting to get around the industry. GameDaily recently interviewed Doug Lombardi of Valve, about a Valve created series of videos promoting TF2, commenting "not only do the trailers stray from typical game trailer fare, but they're also quite funny." Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Virtual Worlds
Home Inspections in SL
Second Life has become a venue for selling homes. "Last month, a Seattle-area Coldwell Banker office created a virtual model of a real-world 5,700-square-foot new home on Mercer Island, listed for a little more than $3 million. While several real estate companies have used Second Life to advertise their services, this is believed to be the first time a real home has been available for touring in this environment. Listing agent Suzanne Lane ("Suzanne Ibanez" in Second Life) said she's been happy with the response." Link: Article. [13 Sept 07] [13 Sept 07]

Society
Board Game Promotes Malaysian Culture
Although this item refers to a board game it could very well be a digital game. "Developed by Character Builders Network (CBN), [board game] MasterMalaysia aims to help Malaysians learn about and refresh their knowledge of Malaysian culture, heritage, people and sports." Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Industry
US: Game Industry Political Lobbying
"On trips to Capitol Hill these days, Michael Gallagher [new president of the Entertainment Software Association] usually has a black Nintendo DS stashed in his suit pocket. He plays games when he has downtime, sure, but his main reason for carrying the device is to give lawmakers some hands-on time with the latest titles the video game industry has to offer" reports The Washington Post online. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

Serious Games
Games With a Purpose
"A handful of pioneering firms say they see the business potential for games with a purpose" reports a lengthy article on serious games on the Sustainable Industries.com website. Worth a read. Link: Article. [13 Sept 07]

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