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	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:04:00 -0400 India development studio FXLabs says it's moving into outsourcing services, adding a new division to support publishers and developers who want to use their development and art teams. Hyderabad-based FXLabs will provide outsourcing services for PC and Flash games, and also offer 3D modeling, characters, props and environment models, rigging, texturing and animation. The studio staffs over 100 artists and game programmers, and claims to be the only team in India to develop a complete ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Blizzard has announced they will be releasing a sizable patch to prepare for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft. The patch, similar to one they released prior to the first expansion, will include the new profession (Inscription), new talents for each class, and two new arenas. The patch will be up on the Public Test Realm "soon," according to a Blizzard rep, but it will require significant testing before reaching the live servers. Blizzard developers Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack gave a related interview recently to Videogamer in which they mentioned that a graphical reboot for World of Warcraft "may never be necessary." We've been following the development of Wrath of the Lich King for a while now.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:23:00 -0400 The upcoming Level Up charity games competition held during Austin GDC will benefit the ESA Foundation's Scholarship Program, which provides tuition grants to women and minority students studying video games. GameRecruiter hosts the competition, set to take place September 17th alongside the Austin Game Developers Conference at the Four Seasons Hotel. Gamers of all ages will compete on Rock Band 2, Madden 08, I-Play Bowling and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Their $20 competition entry fee ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	The Economist is running a story about how gaming is on the rise in corporate environments, and how games are also becoming a popular tool for advertising. From internally developed games to commercial offerings to simply creating a framework in which employees can interact, game-based competitions and community building are leading to increased productivity, even for Fortune 500 companies. Quoting: "Take Microsoft's own experience. Before it releases a new version of its Windows operating system, it asks staff to help debug the software by installing and running the system. In the past, project managers had to spend a great deal of time and effort persuading busy Microsoftees to help them with this boring task. So for Windows Vista, the system's latest incarnation, Microsoft created a game that awarded points for bug-testing and prizes such as wristbands for achieving certain goals. Participation quadrupled."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:12:00 -0400 Not only does Nintendo's Wii have a bigger slate of packaged releases than either Xbox 360 or PS3 -- a gap it stands to widen in the second half of the year -- but it has more original IP, too. According to a new Screen Digest report, some 40 titles based on new IP will release in the third quarter, and more than half of those will be Wii games. Part of this, the report ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Paul Williams writes "Develop Magazine has an interesting profile up looking at UK studio Splash Damage, charting its humble beginnings as a Quake 3 mod team through to its status as one of Britain's leading studios — it's currently developing a new game for Bethesda. Most interesting is the assertion by studio founder Paul Wedgwood that UK studios should shake off their low-rent reputation and start modeling their businesses on the likes of Valve, id, and the other envied American independents: 'We'd been to the US and seen companies like Ritual, Gearbox and id, and to us it seemed like the game development industry was seen as better in the US. People sat in cool chairs in cool offices surrounded by action figures — it was nothing like the UK's approach, which was more like a workhouse.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:12:00 -0400 Rare senior software engineer Nicola Bhalerao is co-organizing this year's Women In Games Conference. Jane Sinclair and Sara Kalvala, both associate professors in Computer Science at Warwick University, are also co-organizing the event. The Women in Games Conference aims to provide a forum for presentation and discussion of issues relating to women's involvement in games, including game development, game playing, and women as portrayed within games. Held at the UK's Warwick University, the three-day event ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	After the continued struggles of E3 this year, it looks like another IDG-based games conference will have its own troubles. BigDownload reports that most major game manufacturers are skipping E For All, in part due to their focus on the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and BlizzCon (which will be televised). E for All will have major presentations by Microsoft and EA, but you'll have to go to PAX to see events and exhibits from other big publishers; for example, the playable Jumpgate Evolution demo, the Guild Wars tournament, or the Omegathon. The Seattle Times ran a story about Penny Arcade's creators and how PAX came into existence. Further competition for E For All is coming from the Tokyo Game Show, which runs in the beginning of October.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:48:00 -0400 Sony has sold over 10 million PlayStation Portables in Japan since the handheld launched in the country in December 2004, according to an Enterbrain report described by newspaper The Economic Times. Enterbrain, a Japanese game industry research unit, confirms Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s (SCEI) previous announcement that its year-to-date PSP sales in Japan reached 10 million units, as of July 15th, 2008. Sony's portable has seen two major hardware redesigns, including the PSP Slim and ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	1Up reports that Amazon has launched a new service for getting certain games into the hands of customers on release day, rather than simply shipping the games on release day. According to the press release, the service will be free for Amazon Prime customers, and available to everyone else for a $5.98 charge on upcoming titles Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2. They tested the program recently with the release of Soul Calibur IV.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:45:00 -0400 Sidhe designer Gareth Griffiths (Gripshift) sparked much debate with his previous article on invisible barriers in games -- and he returns with an in-depth design article, examining practical solutions for the problem. Sidhe notes that despite the point that we're playing "games," we still struggle with the issue of reality versus fantasy. If a game goes beyond the bounds of reality too much, we often hear players complaining that the action wouldn't be possible in ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Gamasutra is running a story deconstructing the mechanics of Portal's teleportation programming. They present a snippet of Portal's code and a downloadable demo. They ran another article in this series earlier this year with an analysis Mario Galaxy's unique take on physics. We've discussed the development of Portal in the past. "Teleport mechanics in video games are nothing new. Puzzles from the original Gauntlet were memorable -- and more than likely, that wasn't the first game to use teleportation as a gameplay mechanic. The difference between Portal and all those that came before it is that Portal's teleportation acts as a frictionless tube between point A and point B. Physics are still hard at work inside the frictionless tube. Instead of simply repositioning an object from point A to point B, the player enters point A with full velocity and exits point B with the same speed, but moving in a new direction." Update: 8/26 at 19:37 by SS: Dan notes that the code was not directly from Portal; it was written to approximate Portal's physics.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:12:00 -0400 Barcelona-based Gammick Entertainment is partnering with Destineer to publish and distribute several Gammick titles in the U.S. Headquartered in Minneapolis, publisher Destineer intends to ship its first two titles from the Spanish producer -- Animal Boxing and Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, both for the Nintendo DS -- in the U.S. in Q4 2008. Shoot 'em-up Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ, which is being developed by Enjoy Up (Chronos Twin), stars the eponymous ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Croakyvoice writes "Gamepark Holdings, the makers of the GP2X Console, have today announced the successor, which is called the WIZ. The new GBA Micro-sized console features a touchscreen, Linux OS, an Arm9 533MHZ 3D processor with 64MB of ram and will have commercial games on sale at launch in October. Best of all for fans of homebrew and emulation on the GP2X, all that needs to be done is recompiling of sourcecode."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:13:00 -0400 Nintendo denies rumors that it is developing a new "dual-touch" Nintendo DS with a larger display and two touch screens, after speculation by consumer sites suggested such a redesign might be in the works. Redesign rumors have abounded since sales of the DS Lite began to fall in Japan last year, despite continued strong sales in the West. Speculation increased following analyst comments, including those from Enterbrain president Hirokazu Hamamura and Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter, ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Sony's Martijn Van der Meulen gave an update on the progress of Sony's Playstation "Home" environment, telling IGN there is "a 100 percent guarantee that Home will be released by the end of this calendar year." Originally intended for use on the PS2, the release was pushed back several times as Sony sought to improve the concept. One thing Sony has been trying to accomplish is making the game "safe" and accessible to kids while maintaining an adults-only area. They maintain that it is not a social network, but rather a "visual representation of the PlayStation community."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:55:00 -0400 Developer Transmission Games is no longer involved in the video game adaption of Sin City, according to comments made by publisher Red Mile Entertainment. Red Mile acquired the rights to Frank Miller's popular series of comic books in May 2007, with Transmission Games (Heroes of the Pacific) developing. Others involved in the production include the producer of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and Union Entertainment - who worked on The Red Star ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	Blizzard had a playable demo of StarCraft 2 running at Leipzig, and Kotaku's Michael McWhertor had a chance to sit down and spend some time playing the Zerg. The Zerg weren't available in previous demos; the Protoss and Terran campaigns were showcased earlier. GameSpy took the opportunity to interview two Blizzard employees about what people can expect from the game. Gameplay footage is also available which shows a Terran vs. Zerg battle. Blizzard PR rep Bob Colayco had this to say: "One thing that's new, as you go through the campaign... you know, normally in RTS games how they start you off with a couple of units and then it's like, 'Okay, two missions later we're going to give you tanks...' One of the things we're looking at doing with StarCraft II's campaign is putting the choice more in the players' hands. So maybe you like dealing more with infantry? You can purchase those upgrades and make your marines and other infantry stronger. Or else you'll save up the credits you get from the missions to get tanks sooner than you normally could."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:24:00 -0400 There has been no movement at all in the whole UK top five this week, with few new releases of note. Now that it's freely available in stores, Mario Kart Wii was still the top-selling game after weeks of relatively limited stock. Its sales, and those of second-placer Wii Fit, were up by 12 percent this week. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (aka Brain Age) at number five also became a record-breaker this week, with a ... Source: Gamasutra News (Gamasutra News)

 

	You may have heard about the recent controversy at the Leipzig Games Conference over a modification of Space Invaders in which the invaders are slowly demolishing the World Trade Center. The creator intended it as an artistic expression, but has since removed the game, saying, "it was never created to merely provoke controversy for controversy's sake." Kotaku took this occasion to ask whether "statements" can and should be made via video games, and how it affects the ongoing question of whether video games should be considered art. "The entire issue begs comparisons to Danny Ledonne's Super Colombine Massacre RPG!, an unsettling and involved title that tasks players on the most basic level with acting out the 1999 Littleton, Colorado school shooting in the role of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Ledonne told the Washington Post that his intention with the title was never to glorify the tragedy, but to 'confront their actions and the consequences those actions had.' Like Stanley's Invaders!, Ledonne and his title stopped short of providing a direct interpretation - neither artist has been especially specific about 'what it means,' or in instructing players on how they should interpret their work or what 'message' should be taken away."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	In a recent blog post, Wizards of the Coast Vice President of Digital Gaming Randy Buehler announced that they were killing their Gleemax social networking site. Originally designed to create a central hub where gamers could meet, discuss, and play games online, it has thus far been unable to deliver on the grandiose promises made at launch. "The mistake that I made, however, was in trying to push us too far too fast. I still think the vision for Gleemax is awesome: creating a place on the web where hobby gamers (or lifestyle gamers or thinking gamers, or whatever you want to call us) can gather to talk about games, play games, and find people to play games with. But I've come to realize that the vision was too ambitious. We've made progress down about ten different paths over the past eighteen months, but we haven't been able to reach the end of any of them yet."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer has gone live with their best PC hardware configurations for Q3 2008. They've broken it into three tiers depending on the investor's budget. And while the prices are regional, it is comparative across the globe. 'In order to play these slices of gaming goodness, you're going to need a decent rig, and we sent our PC hardware guru in search of maximum frames in maximum detail, but at a minimum cost. We have three tiers for the three levels of PC gamers out there and all the detail you could possibly want on where, why and what to buy. So choose your poison and get amongst it.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	An anonymous reader writes "A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay US$415,900 in restitution for selling video game systems that were preloaded with more than 75 pirated copies of games." If that fine sounds a bit steep, note that his profits on the devices "exceeded $390,000."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	Earlier this week, the long anticipated action-adventure game, Too Human, was finally released for the Xbox 360. After being in various stages of development for about a decade, the game made its US debut to overall lackluster marks. Gamespot weighed in with a 5.5/10, while IGN gave it a slightly more favorable 7.8. Developer Denis Dyack from Silicon Knights defended the game, saying players didn't yet "get it," and that it was "so innovative that we have put some people off." The game's reception in Japan has been similar.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)

 

	At the recent Leipzig Games Conference, Funcom developers announced that the first expansion to Age of Conan is planned for a 2009 release. Details about the expansion are sparse, but a significant amount of new areas appear to be in development for that and a free upcoming content patch. Massively points out a video which showcases some of the new content. 1Up has a piece of concept art for the expansion.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot: Games (News for nerds, stuff that matters)