Out There: What's Pac-Man's story?
Why does he pop those pills? Plus Jason Kapalka's a pinko commie and playing the ice market in Eve.
1Why does he pop those pills? Plus Jason Kapalka's a pinko commie and playing the ice market in Eve.
1The British Academy Of Film, Television And The Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for its Children's Awards ahead of next month's ceremony. In the running for the Videogame Award are charming Wii platformer Kirby's Epic Yarn, Lego Pirates Of The Caribbean, Media Molecule's PS3 sequel LittleBigPlanet 2, and DS RPGs Pokémon Black & White. More >
CEO Mark Gerhard warns developers of the perils in blindly switching to the increasingly popular funding model.
1Mind Candy, developer of kid-friendly online game Moshi Monsters, is expanding at such a rate that it expects to double its headcount over the next 12 months. Speaking to MCV, head of recruitment Richard Chipchase said the company was looking within and without the videogame industry as it continues to expand Moshi Monsters into other media following the successful launch of a spinoff magazine earlier this year: it is now the best-selling kids magazine in the UK. More >
YouTube sensations say their gameplay videos have helped drive stunning success of Mojang's PC sandbox.
11Introducing E234, featuring our review of The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
4Rocksteady's open-world superhero tale goes straight in at the top after doubling Arkham Asylum's launch sales.
Blizzard Entertainment is to allow modders to charge for their creations through Blizzard Arcade, a revised version of the Blizzard Marketplace to launch alongside StarCraft II expansion Heart Of The Swarm. The publisher revealed Arcade, a hub for free and premium user-made mods and games created using the StarCraft II mod tools, during a panel at this weekend's Blizzcon event in California. More >
The previously-rumoured Mists of Pandaria has been officially anounced as the fourth World Of Warcraft expansion. More >
1Increased digital sales helped drive a jump in revenues for Microsoft’s games business in the first financial quarter ended September 30, but Xbox 360 sales declined year-over-year and operating income fell nine per cent. More >
EA’s FIFA 12 has held off competition from new releases Forza Motorsport 4 and Might & Magic Heroes VI to stay at number one on the Nordic chart, which collates sales data from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. More >
Sony Pictures is said to be on the verge of finalising a deal with Ubisoft that will see it bring the Assassin's Creed franchise to the big screen. More >
Apple's record-breaking growth and the dawn of YouTube gaming - a week in videogames.
Tools company Nevigo has unveiled Articy:Draft, a new narrative editor that the company claims can help game writers avoid plot holes, eliminate dead ends and smooth over logical flaws in the story. More >
3Rumours circulating earlier today - which suggested that Bethesda had indefinitely suspended development of Doom 4 following Rage's mixed reception - have been dismissed as "Complete bollocks" in a curt tweet from VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines. More >
Sony intends to celebrate the milestone with a promotional clothing item and a Halloween themed in-game event. More >
The update will add 3D video recording to its existing 3D photography functionality, allowing up to ten minutes of 3D footage to be stored and even built in tools for making stop-motion animations. More >
2Portal 2 gets Ultimate Game of the Year, while Minecraft, Black Ops and Skyrim also win at the public-voted game awards.
11Find your future building browser games for Core X Group, managing Sony's creative community or testing Blizzard's games in Spanish.
Aims to provide customers with security and an alternative to online debit and credit card payments. More >
"I feel very accountable for the situation and it's really hard to go through these steps in this way." More >
The studio has posted a number of jobs vacancies on its website - including engine programmer and senior gameplay programmer - adding that experience of working with Crytek's powerful engine would be a "major bonus" More >
Online games publisher Frogster has announced that it will be shutting the European servers for its MMORPG Mythos on October 27. According to a statement on the game's official forum, the reason for the closure is a lack of "long-term success". More >
A demo of FIFA 12 is now available to play through YouTube with no download, powered by Gaikai. Only available in the US at the moment, the news was tweeted by Gaikai CEO David Perry earlier today. More >
A collective of indie developers have bundled over 300 games together into the IGF Pirate Kart. The compilation came about as a way for the developers to share the $95 entrance fee for the Independent Games Festival, removing the barrier to entry for less polished, more experimental game ideas. More >
In a second round of investment, Abertay Dundee has awarded nine up-and-coming videogame companies a share of £225,000 from the £5 million Prototype Fund. The nine recipients of the £25,000 grants are based variously in Dundee, London and Liverpool and were chosen from a total of 47 applicants. They include graduate start-ups, mobile and social gaming studios, and audio engineering and voiceover recording specialists. More >
Film Crit Hulk weighs in on Catwoman's depiction in Batman: Arkham City, plus Ian Hislop plays 'execrable' GTAIV.
13This week's top ten sees six new entries, as Forza 4 debuts at five.
Simultaneous two image display and full-HD 3D made affordable. More >
2Sony has launched its official PlayStation Store for Sony Tablet S devices in nine countries, including the UK, US and Canada. More >
UPDATED: Reports are circulating that Nintendo will release a 3DS firmware update in November 4 in Europe which will add 3D video recording to the 3D handheld. More >
Use our code to save 28 per cent on the price of admission to the region's leading internationally focused game development conference. More >
Concession made to Xbox owners without hard drives means that hi-res textures must be installed to see the game at its best. More >
351 per cent of HD console owners purchased DLC in the past 12 months More >
The stuff that gets in the way of play, plus your chance to buy Richard Garriott's house.
1Tim Schafer More >
2Cuts necessary in order to refocus resources that have been spread too thin, says the EVE Online developer. More >
1But Peter Moore admits that many people still see the service as an obstacle that "gets in the way". More >
Uplink developer puts Subversion on hold while it focuses on a brand new project instead. More >
2Epic Games Korea signs a licencing deal with the developer and publisher best known for its FPS and sports games. More >
2Taking place at Chelsea Football Club in London on November 14-15, the summit will feature leading European figures in social gaming. More >
The first speakers at next year's Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences summit revealed. More >
Rovio offers a rare insight into its player's figures at the Web 2.0 Summit More >
Simultaneous launch and pricing for each territory detailed.
7EA has revealed that Battlefield 3 pre-orders have reached two million units ahead of the game’s launch next Tuesday. More >
6Company reports its best September quarter in history on increased iPhone, iPad and Mac sales.
A leaked version of DICE's upcoming war shooter Battlefield 3 has found its way on to illegal torrent sites, according to MCV. The 9.96GB download contains the entire single player mode from the PC version of the game. More >
2Celebrating Newsstand's opening, we're giving away our full October issue.
13Apple share value hit a record high yesterday following the hugely successful launch of the iPhone 4S over the weekend. Following sales of the smartphone reaching four million, Apple's share price rose to peak at $426.38 before closing at $419.99. More >
1UK trade body UKIE has announced that it will head up the formation of a cross-industry coalition with a view to implementing recommendations made in the Livingstone Hope Next Gen review. The announcement follows last week's BBC Newsnight spot which looked at the Livingstone Hope review and also saw the UK's minister for culture, communications and creative industries Ed Vaizey call for a computer science revolution. More >
2DICE has revealed 8,125,310 players played its Battlefield 3 open beta. The figure was released as part of a series of stats published on the game's blog. According to the data, those eight million people fired 47 billion bullets while killing 1.5 billion other players. More >
Nicholas Francis, CCO of game development tools company Unity Technologies, has told Gamesindustry.biz that he believes rapidly improving mobile hardware specs will soon yield "diminishing returns" for game developers. While handsets are becoming more powerful all the time - a testament to which is the recent announcement that Grand Theft Auto III will be released for Android and iOS devices later this month - Francis questioned how relevent all that horsepower is for mobile games. More >
Facebook has changed the way it calculates the total monthly and daily active users (MAU and DAU) for apps on the social network, sending figures plummeting. The adjustment means that users who choose not to authenticate after a permission dialog box is clicked, and those who visit an app but do not log in, will no longer be contribute towards active user counts. More >
Day-one stock of Sony's soon-to-be-released handheld console Vita is rapidly running out following a pre-order rush in Japan. Within hours of pre-orders going on sale, two of Japan's major online retailers, Amazon Japan and Yodobashi, reported that the device was out of stock. More >
Japanese developer Level-5 has revealed that a new entry in its Professor Layton series - up until now a Nintendo exclusive - will be making its way to iOS. The game will be called Layton Brothers: Mystery Room and will star Layton's son, Alfendy Layton, not Layton himself. The game will, of course, use the touch screen for navigation and puzzle-solving, and Alfendy will be aided by his assistant, Lucy Grey. More >
Minecraft developer Mojang has won an interim injunction against Zenimax for use of the name Scrolls in its upcoming card-based game. Zenimax may still appeal, however. In a tweet this morning, company founder Markus Persson announced: “We won the interim injunction! We can keep using the name ‘Scrolls’. ZeniMax/Bethesda can still appeal the ruling, but I’m very happy.” More >
iPhone 4S sold four million units in its first three days of availability, breaking previous mobile phone launch weekend records, according to Apple. More >
Capcom has officially confirmed long-rumoured plans to launch remastered versions of the first three Devil May Cry games for PS3 and Xbox 360. More >
A seven-part series of frustratingly low resolution videos of the Japanese version is a tour de force of economy, precision, daring and ingenuity. We weep at its magnificence. More >
3The first couple of videos of GTA III running on a tablet (apparently an iPad, though it's difficult to tell from the footage) have surfaced. Virtual controls are the order of the day, with a contextual 'steal car' button popping up for convenient crime sprees. More >
Namco Bandai has revealed that it will publish the PS3 version of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, the RPG collaboration between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli, in Europe and North America next year. More >
A coder going by the handle Mr Sid has ported Jordan Mechner's 1989 Apple II game Prince Of Persia to Commodore 64. The project took two-and-a-half years to complete, and has realised one of Mechner's ambitions. "That's crazy!" Mechner writes in the comments on Mr Sid's developer blog. "Back in 1989, when I was making POP on the Apple II, I couldn't get anyone interested in doing a C64 port... because it was too old a system." More >
2Blackberry manufacturer RIM has revealed that it will compensate beleaguered users affected by last week's service outage with free games. Games up for grabs include The Sims 3, N.O.V.A., Bubble Bash 2 and PopCap's Bejeweled among others, and can be downloaded at no cost from Blackberry's App World for one month from tomorrow. More >
3Plus, Mike Wilson stars in a stoner comedy movie, and flying drones with a 360 pad.
8Chinese social games company Happy Elements has raised $30 million in a second round of funding. The Beijing-based developer is one of Asia's top social game developers on Facebook, launching games such as My Fishbowl, Boss Vegas and Lounge Bar across various social networks. More >
Level-5 has released a video comprising of the first ever footage from each of the games included in its upcoming 3DS collection, Guild 01. More >
Developer The Indie Stone has taken its zombie survival RPG offline for a day, after pirates released a version that downloads a new version of the game every time the Update button is clicked. "These 'auto updating' versions could kill us completely," Indie Stone explains. "We have a cloud based distribution model...We are charged money for people downloading the game." More >
Rockstar has clarified that its mobile version of Grand Theft Auto III, which was intitially announced as an 4S and iPad 2 exclusive in its iOS incarnation, will infact make its way to less powerful Apple devices in time. More >
Turn 10's driving sim enjoys the biggest ever launch week for an Xbox 360 racer.
343 Industries has revealed how Kinect will be used in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary during a panel at Comic-Con in New York. Most interesting of the functions is Analyze Mode, which brings a little of Metroid Prime's spirit to proceedings by allowing you to scan objects. Items, vehicles, characters and enemies can be scanned by placing your reticule over the intended target and saying, 'scan'. More >
Street Fighter X Tekken More >
Electronic Arts has announced that the European release date for BioWare's MMOG Star Wars: The Old Republic has been brought forward by two days to match the US launch on December 20. More >
2Following several delays, a new SEC filing has revealed that Zynga will list its forthcoming IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol ZNGA. Zynga initially filed for the IPO back in July, aiming to raise near or above $20 billion in the sale of ten per cent of its shares. In what was described as an "unprecedented" move for a technology company, Zynga subsequently tweaked its stock structure to ensure CEO Mark Pincus has 70 times the voting power of those who buy shares. More >
Ireland's game industry growth continues apace while the UK calls for a computer science revolution - a week in videogame news.
Voting for this year's Golden Joystick awards has been extended to Monday, 4pm, so get your votes in for the year's best titles asap. What's in it for you aside from honouring your favourite developer and experience of 2011? How about the fact you'll be entered into a prize draw to win an Alienware M14x, games consoles (including PlayStation Vita and 3DS) and a stack of the nominated games? More >
World Of Warcraft publisher/developer Blizzard has announced a run of auctions to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a centre for the research and treatment of childhood diseases. More >
EA's Tiffany Steckler has revealed that: "After a review of all current and future projects, Electronic Arts has started a formal consultation process with its Bright Light employees over the proposed closure of the studio". More >
1TIGA CEO Richard Wilson has warned the UK government ignore's Ireland's ongoing drive to attract developers at its peril. A report issued earlier this week by Ireland's policy advisory board for enterprise and science Forfas set out recommendations to double the size of the Irish game industry's workforce within three years. More >
Developer Tiny Speck has used a simple mobile running game to demonstrate the potential of its Glitch API. Dubbed, fittingly, Simple Runner, the building blocks of the game are a simple run and jump game in which you make a sphere dodge other shapes in order to travel as far as possible (you can see it in action in the first video below). More >
Unity 3D and Frontier Developments are the latest big names to be added to next month's Bradford Animation Festival. The tech engine and platform specialist join the likes of Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara, Blitz Games design lead Nick Adams and facial scanning and capture pioneers Image Metrics for the event taking place at the National Media Museum on the 8th November at the University Of Bradford on the 9th. More >
Find your future shaping DICE's Frostbite engine, overseeing Blizzard's eSports or polishing Crytek's physics.
Valve's in-game store, Mann Co., has reached its first "Manniversary" and as a result the TF2 and Half-Life developer has announced a major update and sale. The store has earned two million dollars for community item-creators, the company says, "selling their digital creations through the Mann Co. Store". More >
1OpenFeint's Game Channel, an app that directs Android users to recommended games in its crowded Marketplace, has launched. Already available for iOS, the app promotes a free game each day, as well as offering bundles of recommended games. More >
Nintendo's decision to cut the price of 3DS appears to have paid off with a ten per cent sales jump in the US, according to data from NPD. The sales increase reflects a month-on-month jump from August (when the price cut was announced) to September, and comes amid an overall six per cent downturn for physical sales in the US. More >
Epic Games' iOS title Infinity Blade is set to debut in US arcades on October 28. The cabinet will feature a 46-inch screen and support two players, but no other details have yet been revealed. The news follows last week's news that Infinity Blade 2 is headed to iOS. More >
Following the furore over CCP's introduction of a shop into EVE Online, the company has gone one step further to winning back the hearts (and wallets) of its fans. Players whose EVE accounts lapsed around the time of the incident have been offered, by email, a reduced subscription offer of $4.95 for 30 days. The news follows CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson's letter of apology to the EVE community last week. More >
The total US physical video game market - videogames, consoles and accessories - fell by six per cent from $1.23 billion to $1.16 billion year-on-year in September, according to new figures from research group NPD. More >
Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment could begin selling shares to the public as early as next year, with the company valued internally at “a bit north” of $1 billion. More >
Four ex-Rare staffers have established a new independent development studio, which is working on a sci-fi Xbox Live Arcade title due to be published by Microsoft. More >
New entries Dark Souls and Rage failed to shift FIFA 12 from the top spot on the Nordic chart, which collates sales data from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. More >
Tim Cain, one of the creators of the original 1991 Fallout, has joined Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian as senior programmer. More >
Developer Spacetime Studios' MMOG Star Legends: The Blackstar Chronicles will allow iOS, Android, PC and Mac players to play together for the first time. The fully 3D game has been ported to the in-development open source Google Native Client (NaCl), allowing for cross-platform play when it launches on Google Chrome. More >
EA has released a brand new ten minute gameplay video of Starbreeze's upcoming Syndicate reboot. Narrated by the game's executive producer Jeff Gamon, the video runs through Executive Search, an early level. More >
2Electronic Arts has revealed that its top-down XBLA and PSN game Burnout Crash will be coming to iPad, iPad 2 and iPhone 4 later this year. The iOS version will include three game modes, 18 traffic junctions across six locations and online head-to-head challenges. More >
Rockstar has announced that it is to release Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android on October 22. The release is to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the open world crime game. Interestingly, only the A5 processor-powered iPad 2 and iPhone 4S will be able to run it, dividing the iOS range soon after the launch of the latest hardware generation. More >
1Google has launched PlayN, a tool that compiles a single body of Java source code into versions which run on HTML5, Java, Android and Flash. Described on Google's developer site as an "open-source cross-platform abstraction layer", PlayN uses the existing GWT compiler (Google Web Toolkit) to eliminate any platform-specific calls from your code and replaces them with "tiny, targeted entry point classes that hook into each platform-specific implementation." More >
Dennis Ritchie, the creator of programming language C, has reportedly died. According to a Google+ post by Google engineer and former colleague of Ritchie, Rob Pike, the 70-year-old died at home over the weekend following a long illness. More >
2Mojang's world-building game Minecraft and Trion Worlds' MMORPG Rift each won two awards at the second annual GDC Online Game Developers Online Choice Awards in Austin, Texas. Minecraft scooped Best Live Game and Best Community Relations, while Rift left with Best Online Technology and was named the Best New Online Game. Sony Online Entertainment's MMORPG Everquest was honoured for 12 years of uninterrupted service and inducted into the Hall Of Fame. More >
Revered science fiction author Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash) discussed the relationship between game and narrative fiction world-building at GDC Online this week. "I think a lot of the same world-building skills and world-building mentality [of book writing] are going to transfer extremely well into the game world, and it's going to be a natural blend." More >
The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle has raised more than $1.1 million after 231,799 copies were sold. The pay-what-you-want charity bundle included Mode7's multiplayer masterpiece Frozen Synapse, Zachtronics Industries' excellent puzzler SpaceChem and the haunting indie game Trauma (which you can try for free). More >
Nintendo's reconfigured Wii will be released in the UK on November 4 in a new Wii Family Edition hardware bundle. The bundle includes Wii Sports, Wii Party and a Wii Remote and Nunchuk set. More >
EA has announced the next iOS title to come from Bejeweled and Peggle developer PopCap. Due on iPhone and iPad this winter, Popcorn Dragon is - according to Wired - all about toasting and hoovering up popcorn with, what else, a dragon controlled by your finger. Expect it to be colourful and addictive. More >
SCEA senior staff developer support engineer Chris Norden has confirmed that all PlayStation Vita retail games will be available as downloads through PSN on launch day. Speaking at GDC Online, Norden also delivered the welcome news that, unlike on PS3, Vita games can be submitted to Sony as a single file format for both the packaged and download version. More >
F1 2011 and Rage also make top ten debuts, while 3DS retains the number one hardware sales spot.
In a GDC Online talk this week, Blizzard SVP of creative development Chris Metzen discussed the publisher/developer's approach to the art of fiction. Metzen humbly conceded that Blizzard "isn't necessarily known as the best story shop in the business," but that: "To us [writing] is not about the best [story] hooks in the world, or the most clever hooks. It's not about being the most unique in the world, or the best-written dialog in the world. To us it's about heart, it's about the engagement." More >
Edge is one of the first magazines to appear on Apple's new Newsstand service, which has launched today.
24Slightly Mad Studios, the team responsible for Need For Speed Shift and it sequel, has announced its latest project, C.A.R.S. An acronym for Community Assisted Racing Simulation, the game is being developed via the "crowd- sourcing meets crowd-funding platform" WMD (World of Mass Development). More >
Speaking at a tech event in Washington, Valve president Gabe Newell suggested the next revolution in home consoles might come from Apple. "I suspect Apple will launch a living room product that redefines people's expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear," he told the attending audience. More >
2Japan-based developer Level-5's 3DS collection Guild 01 will see Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51, Seaman creator Yoot Saito and Vagrant Story designer Yasumi Matsuno each contribute to a title in the package. Andriasang reports that Suda's game, Kaiho Shojo, will be a "3D shooting game" while Saito will deliver Air Porter, in which you "play as the man in charge at an airport and must expediently manage baggage". Matsuno's provides a more traditional offering in the form of fantasy RPG Crimson Shroud. More >
Havok, the Dublin company best known for its real-time physics solutions, has rolled out the first major update for its newly acquired game engine Havok Vision Engine, as it asserts itself in the 3D engine market. More >
Warner Bros Interactive today both announced and released Scribblenauts Remix for iOS devices. The game, co-developed by 5th Cell Media and Iron Galaxy Studios, combines the most popular puzzles from Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts which were both previously only available on DS. It's also fully iOS 5 ready, able to sync with iCloud so the game can be played across multiple iOS devices with a single purchase, while saves are automatically transferred. More >
Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Austin-based Splosion Man and The Gunstringer developer Twisted Pixel. Founded in 2006, the studio has built close ties with Microsoft, releasing four games for Xbox Live Arcade since 2009, while the recent game The Gunstringer was a boxed Xbox 360 exclusive that made use of Kinect. More >
1The DirectX 11-based Luminous Engine can ape the visual fidelity of digital photographs, while a suite of development tools called Luminous Studio will feature advanced cloth and fluid simulation, realtime reflections, animation and AI, and will apparently reduce development costs by up to 30 per cent. More >
Research cites significant growth outside of the social network giant in emerging markets.
If you've filled your hard drive to the rafters (as we have), news of a beefier 320GB hard-drive, will come as a pleasant surprise in time for your Christmas haul/wishlist. Priced at £79.99 ($129.99 in the US), the drive comes with a download code for Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, too. More >
3Cloud gaming company Gaikai chose GDC Online as the stage to announce that Colorado-based Level 3 Communications will be providing its online infrastructure. More >
Accounts temporarily locked; company to email affected users.
10A new report from Forfás, Ireland's policy advisory board for enterprise and science, has laid out a plan to double the size of the Irish game industry’s workforce within three years. More >
A new report from market research firm the NPD Group has found that 91 per cent of US children aged 2-17 play games. More >
1Facebook Credits and HTML5 apps can be purchased through mobile platform; but Facebook heavyweights see decline in user retention.
Speaking at GDC Online, Ben Cockerill, associate producer at CCP Games, detailed the highest grossing avatar asset purchased by players: a monocle. More >
Speaking at GDC Online, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell reinforced a recurring claim in game industry circles; that there won't be another (traditional) console platform, stating: "I don't believe there will be another major console". More >
3Speaking at this week's GDC Online, frequent Edge contributor Giordano Contestabile addressed the transformation of the mobile gaming industry. "One day the iPhone arrived and we became the darlings of the game industry," he said in a talk titled Successful Publishing On Smartphones: iOS vs. Android. More >
Richard Wilson warns that government plans for industry guest teachers in schools not big enough to have a dramatic impact.
Plus, where indie games are made and possibly the best Facebook game so far.
With US ratings body ESRB slapping a mature label on EA's upcoming COD-contender Battlefield 3, the company issued one of the more blunt - and hilarious - statements of response in recent times: "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," an EA spokesperson told Eurogamer. "For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!" More >
2A pamphlet circulated at a Sony sales briefing in Japan has detailed how PSP owners will be able to continue playing their UMD collection on Vita. News of the pamphlet came from a Japanese retailer who claimed to be in attendance at the event. More >
2Following in the footsteps of the Humble Indie Bundle, a group of mobile developers have created their own iOS charity bundle. The Corona Indie Bundle includes five games created using Ansca Mobile's SDK, Corona, and costs 69p. More >
In a post on its forums, BioWare has detailed how Mass Effect 3's four-player co-op will work. According to community co-ordinator Chris Priestly, the co-op missions will have a "direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory”. The system, dubbed Galaxy at War, will influence your solo campaigns "Galactic Readiness" level along with other yet to be announced "platforms and interfaces". More >
1Gameforge, the German online developer and publisher, has appointed Seth Iorio as chief operating officer. Iorio was formerly executive director of Gameforge subsidiary Frogster, and prior to that Gameforge vice president of business development. More >
Says ICT is taught badly in schools and calls on businesses to help train the next generation of programmers.
59Bethesda vice president Pete Hines has responded to Minecraft creator Notch's comments regarding the ongoing trademark dispute between Zenimax and Mojang. Bethesda issued a trademark claim back in August regarding Mojang's upcoming project, Scrolls. More >
5Ofcom is investigating ITV's use of footage taken from Arma 2 in its documentary on the IRA, Exposure - Gaddafi and the IRA. ITV blamed "human error" for the inclusion of the Arma 2 footage, described during the programme as real IRA film from 1988. More >
Plus, the man who bought Bus Simulator 2, and shooting Rage.
Report aims to dispel stigma preventing investment in game development and other creative sectors.
Nintendo has announced that it will release a blue Wii on November 18 in the UK. The newly configured console - which drops backwards compatibility - will be bundled with Sega's Mario And Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games. More >
5Gaijin Games has revealed its latest project, Runner 2: Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien. Headed for XBLA and PSN, Runner 2 is the first sequel to emerge from the Bit Trip series and introduces HD visuals, new abilities for main character Commander Video and more playable characters. More >
Eufloria designer praises Sony's Pub Fund but says Microsoft and Nintendo provide too many obstacles.
Sony Ericsson is offering four free EA games to all Xperia Play customers. The line-up consists of: Dead Space, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Need For Speed Shift and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. More >
1Bethesda has released a PC patch for id's FPS Rage which fixes a number of driver-related bugs and adds new advanced graphics settings. Updates include VSync, Texture Cache and Anisotropic Filter options. The full, extensive list of changes can be viewed on the Steam website More >
2Mass Effect 3 will indeed have an online multiplayer component - a feature that has been rumoured for some time now - according to Australian magazine PC PowerPlay. More >
UK videogame industry charity GamesAid has opened 2011's voting round for members to select which charities will receive shares of the funds it has raised this year. More >
EA's game claims 13th all-time weekly sales record despite loss of momentum; Rage and Dark Souls debut in second and third.
1Labour reshuffle also sees Tom Watson promoted to deputy party chair.
1The week in which we gained a new iPhone, but lost Steve Jobs.
Notch releases screenshots of a white dragon flying the pixel-clouded skies. More >
With the multiplayer beta ending this weekend - though not before PC players are granted access to the 64-player Caspian Border map - attention naturally turns to Battlefield 3's singleplayer. A logical time, then, for EA to release the below screenshots showing the campaign ahead of the game's release on October 25. More >
3Upcoming Xbox Live Arcade platformer Fez was last night named Best In Show at the IndieCade 2011 festival in California. Polytron's game also won the award for story/world design, Joystiq reports. PlayStation Move music title Johann Sebastian Joust also took home two gongs, for best technology and impact on the community. More >
Indie Flash platformer VVVVVV is headed to the 3DS eShop, publisher Nicalis has announced. The puzzle-platformer, developed by Terry Cavanagh, will sport 3D visuals, six new levels, and a map on the bottom screen. More >
Download service Green Man Gaming has removed Electronic Arts games from sale in all regions except for the UK. In a blog post, GMG's community manager explains: "Bad news folks, we very unfortunately have to pull down EA products from sale in all regions except for the UK. "We're currently in talks with EA to see if this can be changed, however I can't give any kind of guarantees aside from saying as soon as I know something I will let you know too." More >
DICE, Swedish developer of the upcoming Battlefield 3, has confirmed that PC players of the eagerly-awaited shooter's multiplayer beta will be able to play on a second map, Caspian Border, this weekend. More >
"I don't think either company is worried too much about the other competing in the same space," says CEO David Helgason.
Ron Gilbert remembers the Apple CEO.
9The British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that it is to expand its annual videogame awards this year with the creation of four new categories. This year's British Academy Videogame Awards will, for the first time, include awards for Debut Game, Online Browser Game, Online Multiplayer Game, and Performer. More >
Documents show LA Noire developer owed individuals as much as $100,000, including those who had publicly defended it and studio head Brendan McNamara.
2PlayStation maker reportedly in talks to acquire its partner’s stake in their mobile phone business for over $1 billion.
FIFA 12 is the new number one in the Nordic chart, which collates sales data from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The sight of EA's latest football title at the summit is no surprise after FIFA 11 occupied top spot for seven weeks out of ten over the summer. Last week's number one, Gears Of War 3, falls to number two. More >
Square Enix has confirmed a European release for Vita launch title Army Corps Of Hell. Players are cast as the King Of Hell, tasked with reclaiming his throne by controlling a hundred-strong army of goblins with assorted classes and abilities. It sounds like Pikmin, and with good reason: the developer is Entersphere, the company formed by Motoi Okamoto, writer of the Gamecube classic. More >
Hilmar Pétersson issues heartfelt apology to Eve Online players and focuses on "restoring trust and moving forward."
Nintendo has unveiled the Ice White 3DS, the fifth colour model of its glasses-free 3D handheld. The new model, pictured below, goes on sale in Japan on November 3. More >
3Says Unreal Engine's Flash support is "an interesting approach" and teases a "truly cross-platform solution" of its own.
2Not all of the 40 TV and entertainment providers who are bringing their content to Xbox 360 later this year will do so for free, and it appears that voice and gesture control using Kinect will also be restricted to Xbox Live Gold members. More >
2Live and on-demand TV and video from BBC, Channel 4, HBO and more bound for Xbox 360 this year.
8Falcom's PSP RPG debuts at number one as Dark Souls slips to third.
Game industry tributes pour in after former Apple CEO loses battle with pancreatic cancer.
4Yakuza: Of The End will be released in the west in March 2012 under the name Yakuza: Dead Souls. The game is a spin-off from the main Yakuza series, a thirdperson shooter starring protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and cohorts as they try to survive in a zombie-infested Kabukicho. More >
Market research firm NPD Group has today revealed that revenue from sales of new games at retail fell behind other channels in the second quarter of 2011. Sales of new, boxed products at retail in the three months to June 30 totalled $1.44 billion, while revenue from other channels - including second-hand, full-game downloads, subscriptions, rentals, DLC, social and mobile - reached $1.74 billion. More >
1Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment has finalised its merger with Liveware and AQ Interactive. AQ Interactive, the parent company of Blue Dragon and Yoshi's Island DS developer Artoon, Nier studio Cavia, and Feelplus, developer of No Mo Heroes: Heroes' Paradise and Moon Diver, has been dissolved following the merger, as has mobile and social developer Liveware. More >
Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is, in partnership with Kiranbe Collectibles, selling a Donkey Kong Game & Watch. For £130. More >
Kaio King Of Pirates, the 3DS action-RPG in development at Keiji Inafune's Intercept studio, was announced a few hours ago. In an unusual move, the game's debut trailer and official website have already been translated into English. More >
LA Noire developer to be wound up at the behest of unpaid creditors.
5Mediabistro has added more speakers and exhibitors to its Social Gaming Summit London event, due to take place November 14 and 15 at Chelsea Football Club. WeeWorld CEO Celia Francis will deliver a presentation on online, social and mobile convergence; kiip founder Brian Wong's session will cover the "moments-based" advertising model; and SigusLabs managing director Arseny Lebdev will chair a discussion looking at web platforms for games. More >
Capcom legend Keiji Inafune has announced Kaio, an action-RPG for 3DS from his new studio Intercept. Andriasang reports that Kai-Oh - which translates as Sea King - has multiplayer support and a pirate setting, though the main character is a penguin. More >
On stage at yesterday's Let's Talk iPhone event held at its Cupertino headquarters, Tim Cook, new CEO of Apple, said that the iPod Touch had become the world's most popular portable gaming device. "Not only is it the most popular music player in the world, but we're excited to announce it's now also the most popular portable game player in the world," he said. More >
4Console-quality 3D graphics in browsers a reality after Epic CTO Tim Sweeny shows Unreal Tournament III running in Flash.
EA says its FIFA 12 is biggest release in the history of sports games and the number one videogame launch of 2011 so far.
Apple's iPhone 4S press conference today played host to the unveiling of Epic Games subsidiary Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade 2, the follow-up to December 2010’s iOS smash hit. More >
A new report from the NPD Group has found that US children aged between two and 14 have increased their spending on digital games content by 17 per cent over the past two years. More >
Upgrade to the company’s hit smartphone will feature the same dual-core processor found in the iPad 2, allowing graphics to run up to seven times faster.
9New operating system will cut product ties with PCs, introducing wireless software updates, cloud saving and more for supported devices.
Microsoft has announced that it has cancelled production of its Zune portable media player. More >
2The Unreal Development Kit has been installed more than a million times, Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein has revealed. "This isn’t a download count nor does it count users who installed a new version of UDK over an old version, or reinstalls," Rein clarifies in a post on Unreal Insider. More >
Capcom's Resident Evil Revelations will be released on January 27, Nintendo has announced. As was the case with Resident Evil's 3DS debut, The Mercenaries 3D, Revelations - which promises to fill in the story between the events of Resident Evil 4 and 5 - will be co-published by Nintendo and Capcom. More >
According to a new study by E-skills UK, the sector skills council for business and information technology, UK developers are more concerned by the general state of the economy than the oft-referenced Game Tax Relief. The report, passed to Develop, polled 80 British studios and asked them to rate a list of issues on a scale of zero (no concern) to three (priority concern). The respondents rated the general health of the economy at an average of 1.8, ahead of exchange rate fluctuations on 1.5. More >
Plus, 130 title screen GIFs and the evolutionary biology of Hyrule.
Find your future at Guerilla Games overseeing the multiplayer component of its next project, Media Molecule or Crytek UK.
Organisers of Games For Brands have announced the list of speakers ahead of the inaugural conference in London later this month. The festival, which will look at the seemingly ever-increasing ways in which games and marketing overlap, will be opened by Tom Chatfield, author of Fun, Inc: Why Games Are The 21st Century's Most Serious Business. More >
Sony's PSN Imports programme begins this week, with three lesser-known PlayStation games to launch on the European PlayStation Store. All three ports have been handled by MonkeyPaw games, which has been busily converting obscure Japanese PSOne games to PS3 since PSN Imports launched in the US last September. More >
Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has admitted that he misses the outspoken Dead Or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki, who left Team Ninja last year and is now working on Devil's Third, an action-adventure for publisher THQ. "In the past, Itagaki always mentioned various things about Tekken," Harada told 1UP, a reference to a feature the site ran in 2005 in which Itagaki listed his five most-loved and most-hated games, with his hate-list entirely comprised of Tekken games More >
World Of Goo dev's survey finds that developers are drifting away from Xbox Live Arcade in favour of other, more open platforms.
5Cyanide, developer of A Game Of Thrones: Genesis, the PC strategy game released last month, has confirmed that its console and PC RPG based on George R R Martin's novels that will be released next year. Kotaku reports that the game's story will pick up from where Genesis left off, will follow the first season of HBO's TV show and star two new characters, though familiar faces will feature during the course of the game. More >
BioWare, developer of the Mass Effect trilogy and the upcoming Star Wars MMOG The Old Republic, has insisted that the suggestion that its day-to-day operations are controlled by EA are "not remotely true." Speaking to Eurogamer, co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk said: "One thing we see is when fans don't like something we do, they put in the comments: 'Oh those EA guys, they're making BioWare do...' and I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare - we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do. More >
2Zynga has said that the success of EA's The Sims Social on Facebook is to be welcomed, and shows that social gaming is still very much on the rise. EA is the first true challenger to Zynga's dominance on Facebook, with The Sims Social rapidly closing in on CityVille, the most popular game of all time on the social network. The Playfish-developed Sims title currently boasts 65.1 million monthly active users compared to CityVille's 71.3 million. More >
Sony has confirmed that an online pass system “will be incorporated into Uncharted 3 and future Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios games with online functionality". More >
2Ubisoft has confirmed a March 6, 2012 launch date for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. More >
Valve is to release free Portal 2 singleplayer and co-op content for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 4. More >
Warner Bros has announced plans to launch a new Mortal Kombat film in 2013, potentially alongside a tenth game in the long-running fighting franchise. More >
1Microsoft’s thirdperson shooter secures the number one spot in its second week of availability.
The below video shows Life Of George, Lego's intriguing combination of traditional brick-building, augmented reality and iPhone apps, which was released last week. The £29.99 game contains 144 Lego bricks and a cardboard mat covered in black dots. Players download a free iOS app, which shows a series of pictures to be recreated using Lego bricks. When construction is finished, take a photo of your creation using the iPhone camera and the app awards you a rating based on accuracy and time taken. More >
Going hand in hand with our look at the construction of Ico's castle in issue 233 of Edge, is this gallery of concept art from the very early stages of the game's development. Why not go back and read our review of Ico from December 2001 while you're at it? More >
DICE, Swedish developer of Battlefield 3, has told PC gamers they face Origin account bans should they play the game on unofficial servers - resulting in any other EA games linked to their profile being rendered unplayable. Battlefield 3's server files were leaked last week, allowing users to create their own unofficial game servers with different properties to those in the beta. One, for example, increases the maximum player count on Operation Métro, the beta's sole multiplayer map, from 32 to over 100. More >
2Almost four years after first police raids, Parisian appeals court awards Nintendo €4.8 million in damages.
Plus, finding the soul in free-to-play, and the big list of documentaries about videogames.
Apple's app review process is today under question after a fake, unplayable Ninja Turtles game was found on the App Store. The app in question is named Ninja Turtles, by Vietnamese developer Namphuong Star, and was spotted last week by Daring Fireball. The app uses official Ninja Turtles art for its icon, backgrounds from NES shooter Contra, effects from SNK's Metal Slug, and some amateurish recreations of the titular turtles. According to customer reviews on the App Store, the game isn't even playable. More >
UPDATE: It was a hoax. Hudson revealed its intention to capitalise on the rebirth of the fighting game with the announcement this weekend of Bloody Roar 5. In a brief message on Twitter, the developer said: "New Bloody Roar sequel is in production! We'll post more soon," with hashtags implying that the game is planned for release next year. More >
Following confirmation that Level 5's striking RPG Ni No Kuni will be released in the west early next year comes what appears to be its western name: Wrath Of The White Witch. More >
2EA's football juggernaut shoots straight to number one after the third-biggest launch of all time; Team Ico collection debuts in seventh.
UPDATE: Sony confirms promotion is US-only but "the majority of the content" will be released in Europe. A selection of "rare classic games" will be made available on the US PlayStation Store this week, according to Industry Gamers. The move is part of Only On PlayStation Network, Sony's bid to draw attention to the range of exclusive games available from its PlayStation 3 download store. On October 4, PS2 classics including Capcom's high-camp brawler God Hand and hack-and-slash title Maximo: Ghosts To Glory, Konami's strategy game Ring Of Red, and Vanillaware titles Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire will be released. More >
4Manufacturer's own software update gives apps access to extensive personal and technical data.
4Square Enix's ailing Final Fantasy brand, Amazon's new tablet and Unite 11 - a week in the videogame industry.