Codemasters in talks to close Bodycount studio
Consultation underway as Codemasters shifts focus and resources to Midlands racing studios; 66 staff at risk.
1Consultation underway as Codemasters shifts focus and resources to Midlands racing studios; 66 staff at risk.
1Company president says releasing games on iOS and Android would mean "Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo."
11DeNA subsidiary Ngmoco has purchased Facebook sports game developer Lionside for an undisclosed sum. Lionside is best known for NBA Legend, a mid-level Facebook title which peaked with over a million monthly active users, although that figure has recently fallen to under 300,000. "We are very excited to have Lionside join the Ngmoco and DeNA family," Ngmoco said in a statement issued to Gamasutra. "They are working on new products for the Mobage social gaming platform, bringing their passion and experience to our continuously expanding first party development capabilities." Mobage, the enormously popular Japanese mobile social gaming network, launched on the Android Market in English-speaking countries around the world in July.
Is the Japanese giant's reign coming to an end as investors and customers lose confidence?
26Ubisoft and Eidos veterans have formed Tribute Games, a Montreal-based start-up focusing on "retro games with a modern twist for home consoles and mobile platforms". Tribute consists of Ninja Senki creator Jonathan Lavigne, Justin Cyr, and Jean-François Major, whose prior credits include the likes of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Shaun White Snowboarding and Star Wars: Episode 3, Gamesetwatch reports. The studio's debut game, a 16-bit-style pinball/RPG hybrid called Wizorb, is due to launch on Xbox Live Indie later this month with a PC version to follow. "We chose the name Tribute Games because when we make games, we want to pay tribute to all the cool games from our childhood," said Lavigne. “We’re passionate indies aiming at making entertaining games with a focus on pixel art and classic game design (sometimes with a modern twist)."
UK retailers Game and Gamestation are to sell music and Blu-ray movies in some 300 of their nationwide stores. The move has been encouraged by the PS3’s price-point: "The PS3 console is now under £200 and for that price gamers are getting a great Blu-ray player as well as one of the best consoles out there”, says Game’s head of UK PR, Neil Ashurst. The stocking of Blu-ray titles also coincides with the release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga which is available in the UK now. Blu-rays can also be traded for in-store discount, as with pre-owned games.
5Online game company Bigpoint has acquired 49Games and its 40 employees. The developer previously made sports games for Wii, but under Bigpoint will be put to work, unsurprisingly, developing online titles. 49Games' CEO Jan-Hendrik Ohl said the team will "deliver fantastic 3D MMOs" for Bigpoint, which has made a number of acquisitions recently.
David Darling, a co-founder of Codemasters in 1986, has launched Kwalee. The Leamington Spa-based studio will focus on mobile apps. The company’s website states Kwalee "will develop smartphone apps that are very special indeed (not just games), we are striving to give our customers unique and rewarding experiences." With mobile development ushering in a return to bedroom coding days of the '80s, Darling's move seems a good fit.
Cloud gaming service Gaikai has received new funding from Intel's investment organisation Intel Capital. The undisclosed amount came from a total of $24 million invested by Intel in eight different companies, including gaming analytics firm Swrve - who you can read more about in the next issue of Edge magazine, out September 27. "The best computing experiences unite leading-edge hardware with amazing software," said Intel executive vice president Arvind Sodhani. "These investments in best-of-breed software vendors play an integral part in Intel's software strategy by fueling the creation of compelling and unique user experiences across devices."
Activision plans to step up its efforts in the social and mobile gaming markets in a “thoughtful, methodical way”, chief financial officer Thomas Tippl said at the Citi 2011 Tech Conference in New York today. While the firm is no stranger to the digital marketplace – its online sales grew to a record $423 million in the second quarter of 2011, representing 37 per cent of the company's net revenues – its exploration of the social and mobile spaces has been cautious, with activity generally tied to extensions of its core franchises. Tippl said this will change, albeit not overnight, Gamasutra reports. "We're methodically investing in social and mobile gaming projects. While our goal is always to be number one in anything we do, even if we only get to half of our fair share in mobile and social over the next three years, it will still represent a significant upside, given that the mobile and social gaming markets have finally reached critical mass. And I expect it to grow at a double-digit clip for the foreseeable future. To date, we've mostly [explored social and mobile] around our existing franchises. In the future you will see more activity on our part to broaden our social and mobile parts of the portfolio. But it's going to be done in a thoughtful, methodical way, and in a way that will tend to create value for our shareholders, as opposed to venture capitalists and private equity firms [that are contributing to] what I would call a bubble valuation."
Atari founder says his Speed To Learn project can rescue America's "disaster" of a public school system.
7Says closure of Homefront developer Kaos and four other studios this year is part of its "fewer, bigger" strategy; Montreal headcount to more than double in two years.
Inside Mobile Apps' report on PopCap's Asian unit is a fascinating read, telling of how the company's well-considered approach to the Chinese market in particular is beginning to pay dividends. Much of that success is down to James Gwertzman, who worked in Asia for Microsoft during the first tech bubble and now runs PopCap's Asian operation. "What we've come to realise is that this is an incredibly complex market," he says. "It's often very difficult for western companies and they have to be prepared for the long haul." PopCap most certainly has been - the office was set up in 2008 and is expected to contribute 10 to 11 per cent of PopCap's total revenue this year.
Disney Interactive has confirmed to Gamasutra that it has cut jobs at its Utah-based subsidiary Avalanche Software. The studio, which recently completed on Cars 2: The Videogame and before that delivered another Disney tie-in, Toy Story 3, is understood to have let between 15 and 20 staff go on September 1.
The publisher is doing its bit to help reverse Japan's declining birth rate, offering parents having a third child a support bonus of ¥2 million (£16,120) and those expecting a first or second child ¥200,000 (£1,612). Both male and female employees are eligible for the ¥2 million bonus provided they take a week off in the first 56 days following the child's birth, and write a "child rearing report," though there are no such conditions attached to the ¥200,000 bonus. Namco Bandai will also open a child care centre in its Shinagawa office, and is looking at doing the same in its other offices across Japan.
3Unity's expansion continues apace: in June it moved its UK operation to larger premises, last month it opened an office in South Korea, and today comes news of a Tokyo office. Focusing on sales, localisation and support to lay the foundations of further future expansion, Unity Technologies Japan will be led by representative director and chairman Shinobu Toyoda, who said: "The Unity community throughout Japan has grown at an expeditious rate over the last few years. With the opening of our Japan subsidiary, we look forward to offering our customers in the region full support and localisation of the development platform."
Avni Yerli says allegations of wrongful dismissal and excessive Crysis 2 crunch are "completely misleading."
The publisher has promoted former VP of business and legal affairs Clinton Foy to chief operating officer, and charged him with leading its continued expansion into mobile and social games. President and CEO Mike Fischer told Gamasutra: "One of the key new responsibilites of the COO role will be to shape and drive more aggressive business development initiatives in free-to-play, social, mobile, browser and emerging platforms. Clinton’s valuable experience makes him uniquely qualified to lead our organisation in these important areas." Square Enix will hold a 30-minute presentation on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show which will focus exclusively on its efforts in the social and mobile sectors.
Says terms demanding feature and release date parity are holding back creativity for the sake of "protecting an inferior technology."
17Find your future at Crytek, Codemasters or Ninja Theory on the game industry's premier recruitment board.
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