Games Industry Wire

Alawar Entertainment, Inc., a global leader in the casual games market,has completed an investment transaction with Finam Investment Holding, one of the largest investment firms in the Russian Federation. Finam has acquired a minority stake in Alawar, whose interests were represented by the law firm of Femida.us and financial advisor ValueTech Advisers. The proceeds of
the investment will be used to acquire core assets (including outside development studios), create high-quality casual games, improve casual content distribution technologies and implement in-game advertisements into Alawar’s titles.

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A development team based in Santiago, Chile, is using Valve’s Source engine to create a new first-person action game. Called Zeno Clash, it is being built around a first-person melee combat system and is set in a “punk fantasy” world, according to Valve and newly-formed developer ACE Team.
The first chapter of the game is set in a chaotic world in which the main character, Ghat, has been banished by his own brothers and is forced to journey across a forbidden desert.

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At the recent Leipzig Games Convention, the president of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) John Smedley had a talk on “Subscriptions vs Micro-transactions” in regards to MMO games. During the briefing, he hinted that Sony was looking at making their upcoming spy themed MMO for the PS3 and PC a free to play title, unlike World of Warcraft and other big name MMOs. Instead, SOE would gain revenue via micro-transactions and a ‘velvet-rope policy’ where certain area are only available if people pay for access similar to what NCSoft is doing with their Dungeon Runners game.

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According to the NPD Group’s sales data released today, US videogame industry sales in July 2007 increased 37 per cent year-over-year. Total industry sales were pegged at USD 925.5 million, with year-to-date sales reaching the USD 7 billion mark. Hardware sales in particular rose 77.4 per cent to USD 380.8 million, with USD 286 million represented by consoles and the remainder representing portables.
Nintendo’s Wii was the best-selling hardware, with 425,000 units sold while its portable sibling the DS handheld sold 405,000 units. Contrary to some analyst predictions, the PlayStation 3 did not outsell the Xbox 360 for the month. …read more

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Looks like its smooth sailing (relatively) for Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 from now on, as the game has finally been given a Mature rating in the US by the ESRB, clearing the way for an October release. I’m curious as to how much Rockstar has “watered down” the original content in order to release the game in a format acceptable by Sony and Microsoft on the 31st of October.
The ESRB has re-rated the game following Rockstar’s submission of a modified version of the original product, which in June was branded with an Adults Only stamp. “Manhunt 2 is important to us, …read more

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Nintendo continues to dominate the charts in the land of the Rising Sun, with 25 of the top 30 best-selling games in Japan either are for Nintendo’s DS handheld or Wii console. According to the latest figures from Media Create, seven of the top ten games are 1st party Nintendo titles, with Mario Party 8 at the top of the charts. Sony has 5 titles in the top thirty, with Konami’s J-League Winning Eleven 2007: Club Championship for PS2 at number seven and Hot Shots Golf 5, the only PlayStation 3 game in the charts, at number ten.
The top …read more

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Developer Harmonix has just revealed that the highly anticipated Rock Band will not be released in Europe until the first quarter of 2008. During the EA Games conference in Leipzig, the developer said the delay was due to localization issues, with game content needing to be tailored for each territory on disc and via downloads.
EA has yet to reveal a price for the game, which is expected to come in multiple packages due to the bundling of separate guitar, drum and microphone peripherals. The publisher also confirmed a PlayStation 2 version of the game, to be released at the same …read more

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Sega and Creative Assembly has just announced their newest game called Viking: Battle for Asgard. The game is due to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early 2008 and is the developer’s second recent console title following 2005’s Spartan: Total Warrior.
Like Spartan: Total Warrior, Viking is will not follow historical events and will feature a wide range of gods and monsters from Norse mythology. The game is described as having an “an involving and addictive combat style with destructive mythical powers and abilities” and will also feature some level of real-time strategy control of allied troops. …read more

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Add another one to the list of games that uses the CryEngine 2. Korean developer XL Games has just announced plans to build an MMORPG using CryTek’s CryENGINE 2. While details are sketchy at best, at least we know that the upcoming game will have nice looking rendered flora and fauna.
Read the full Press Release after the jump.

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Leave it to the German ratings board, the USK, to spill the beans on another upcoming game. This time it has revealed that publisher Take Two is set to unveil a sequel to its mob action game Mafia during the Leipzig Games Convention next week. Dont expect to play the game at the convention though, as Take two will reportedly show the game in trailer form only.

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