Archived News:
Activision
Blizzard posts 4Q loss has word on Activision Blizzard's financial
reporting, which involves a net loss of $72 million (5 cents per share), in part
due to charges from taking over Vivendi Games. Word is: "Adjusted earnings were
$429 million, or 31 cents per share, surpassing the 29 cents per share that
analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected." As for the post-earnings
conference call, it
sounds pretty mundane, though
VG247 says the call confirmed a fourth quarter 2009 release of Call of
Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (which sounds later than "fall") and
that
StarCraft II beta testing will begin in "the coming months." Meanwhile,
GameDaily quotes CEO Bobby Kotick saying they "Won't Be Distracted by
Layoffs."
GameSpot has further
reporting from those Activision Blizzard financials, which reveal a summer
release date for Wolfenstein, the return to (the other return to) World
War II, a bit earlier than expected. Meanwhile, a delay to 2010 is reported for
the next James Bond game "to avoid head-to-head competition" with Modern Warfare 2,
which doesn't make sense if the Bond game in question really is
Bizarre's Bond racing game, so we'll have to see what comes of
that. The other release news from Activision Blizzard, where they say
Singularity is
coming this summer.
Valve announces updates to
Audiosurf and Race 07
are now automatically available via Steam. The Race 07 update addresses
a number of bugs, tweaks a few things like the upper skill limit for opponents
and maximum FoV, and adds the ability to run several championships
simultaneously in the racing simulation. The new version of Audiosurf
adds performance optimizations and antialiasing options to the musical racing
game, while clearing up several bugs. Steam also announces
Spectromancer is now
available, and 20% off is you buy before February 18, and that those who
preorder Shellshock 2: Blood
Trails on Steam will save 10%.
GamesIndustry.biz follows up on ths morning's news of NC West
cuts with word that some of the impacted positions will be moved across the
pond to the company's offices in Seattle, though how many of these jobs are
being moved, rather than eliminated, is not clear.
Thanks Mike Martinez and Ant.
A playable single-player demo for Codename Panzers: Cold War is now
available, offering a sample of Stormregion's Cold War real-time strategy game
that's expected for release this month last we heard (though we
now see it at
Amazon with a March 10 release date). The demo is a 909 MB download,
available on AtomicGamer,
ComputerGames.ro,
FanGaming,
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
and
Games On Net.
Valve clarifies the upcoming downloadable content for
Left 4 Dead will be free for owners of both
the Windows and the Xbox 360 editions of the co-op shooter: February 11,
2009 - The recently announced Left 4 Dead Downloadable Content (L4D DLC) will be
delivered to Xbox 360 and PC gamers free of charge.
Due for release this spring, the DLC for 2008's best-selling new game property
on the PC and Xbox 360, is dubbed the L4D Survival Pack and introduces a new
multiplayer game mode entitled, Survival, plus two complete campaigns for Versus
Mode (Death Toll, Dead Air). A Critic's Choice Edition of the game will be
heading to retail stores this spring, and will include access to all the content
introduced in the L4D: Survival Pack.
Left 4 Dead is a survival action game from Valve that blends the social
entertainment experience of multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Team
Fortress with the dramatic, narrative experience made popular in single player
action game classics such as the Half-Life series of games. Released in November
of 2008, L4D has earned over 25 industry awards from outlets around the world.
For more information, please visit www.l4d.com
New beta version 182.05 WHQL-candidate drivers are now available for NVIDIA
GeForce accelerators, offering performance improvements for several games, new
OpenGL 3.0 support, and updated version 9.09.0203 PhysX software. Though a beta,
these are recommended "for the best experience in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin."
There are new drivers for
Windows XP,
Windows XP x64,
Windows
Vista x86, and
Windows
Vista 64-bit. Thanks Mike Martinez and
FiringSquad.
SEGA and
Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising Announce New Aliens vs. Predator
Game has word that a new Aliens vs. Predator game is in the works at
Rebellion, developers of the highly regarded 1999 first-person shooter. There
are few details right now other than an early 2010 release window, but SEGA
promises to reveal more soon. In the meantime the implication is clear that the
release of Aliens: Colonial Marines, previously planned for
this year, is being delayed as part of all this alienation, with SEGA saying
it has "updated the release of the other upcoming Aliens titles currently in
development within its portfolio." The announcement quotes CEO of SEGA West,
Naoya Tsurumi saying: "By adjusting the release of our other Aliens titles to
accommodate it, SEGA will ensure that every title lives up to the high
expectations of Aliens and AvP fans." Thanks nin and
Kotaku.
The EVE Online
Website follows up on the recently discovered economic exploit
in EVE Online. CCP offers a detailed explanation of the exploit itself, a
timeline of how event unfolded when players discovered the exploit, what was
done to fix this going forward, an in-depth look at the economic impact of the
exploit (complete with enough charts and graphs for a corporate board meeting),
the punishment they meted out to those taking advantage of the situation, a
follow-up on the accusations that they were made aware of this problem long
before it blew up, and a description of what they are doing to prevent this from
happening in the future. Thanks Mike Martinez and
Slashdot.
GamesIndustry.biz has word that NCsoft has cut an additional 70 positions at
NC West, the studio they opened last September, at the time saying:
"There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer
online market." Some layoffs resulted at the time, but now word is
that after the elimation of 70 jobs, only a handful of employees remain in their
Brighton offices. It is not clear if there will also be cuts at NC West's North
American offices in Seattle, WA. On a semi-related note, the
Tabula Rasa Deployment 16.4 Patchnotes (thanks
Eurogamer) include the surprising news that the promised mech suits have
been added to the MMORPG, just a couple of weeks before the game is
closed down for good.
EA announces a new street
date for The Godfather II follows up on word that the mob game
sequel is delayed with word the game is now due on April 7 in North America
and on April 10 in Europe. No reasons for the date change are offered.
A
Thank You post on The Matrix Online Website offers a farewell from Ben
"Rarebit" Chamberlain, who has been responsible for creating and advancing the
story in The Matrix Online, the MMOG based on the Matrix trilogy of
science fiction movies. Ben cites personal reasons for his departure, not just
from the project, but from the game industry altogether, saying the plan is for
his last day to be Friday, the day after they launch Update 66. This update will
include Vista fixes and a couple of secret tidbits, but no advancement of the
main story. It's not clear where the project stands at this point, as his
explanation makes it sound like no one is in line to take his place: "I'll be
posting most of my story documentation, including the outline for the overall
story that had been planned through the end of this year--a year that was to
wrap up pretty much all of the main story we've had so far--as well as the
detailed mission and event plans for each subchapter all the way back to 5.2.
These will, I hope, answer some questions. Where the story goes from here,
however, will be--finally--up to you." Thanks
Massively.
VideoGamer.com
has some quotes from an interview they will publish today with Patrick Liu of
DICE where he rejects the idea that they are becoming a casual developer,
saying: "I would say that we will continue to do what we are best at. We are not
going casual, just because that is the trend. We're not good at that. It's not
our core focus for the studio." He affirms their PC loyalty, saying the PC
release of Mirror's Edge is evidence of this, and says the announcement
of both Battlefield 1943 and Bad Company 2 for Windows is proof
they have their Frostbite engine working on the PC. He even hints at unannounced
plans: "Yes of course we keep track of what the forums are saying. I can't say
anything really, but we have plans. Definitely big plans. The fans don't need to
worry."
Champions Online Video Q&A with
Bill Roper on Ten Ton Hammer brings the sound and chaos of the NYC Comic Con
to life and corners Bill Roper to learn about the current state of Cryptic
Studios' upcoming superhero MMORPG. They discuss comic book elements they are
inserting into the game, customizable character creation, how PvP works since
you can't play as a villain, AI, action-oriented combat, and more.
Gamasutra - Legitimacy For Game Developers.
"Computer games are in the awkward position of being a relatively new medium
that already has considerable influence. We don't have the millennia of
history that writing has, yet games have entered the mainstream and are
rarely considered solely the domain of social outcasts."
Today would have been the 162nd birthday of Thomas Edison (if only he had taken
better care of himself), and to celebrate here in the US, we have the holiday
invented in his honor, Inventors' Day. Holiday is probably the wrong term, as
nobody takes the day off, but that's a fitting homage to Edison, famed for his
devotion to his work. In celebration, feel free to invent something.
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