Games Industry Wire

Following last week’s announcement by Activision Blizzard that it had reviewed its assets and planned to dispose/sell off various Sierra properties, developer Massive Entertainment has revealed that it’s upbeat on its future.
“It seems like we have plenty of options,” company president and founder Martin Walfisz told VG247. “We’ve had some good meetings here [at the Develop conference.]”
“Being a part of a merger like this is a strange situation, because obviously the new organisation has to look over all of its assets, everything it owns and its strategy for the future. For the past six months we’ve been waiting for the …read more

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Flagship Studios has also put its other MMO, Mythos, on indefinite hold following reports that the company has laid off most of it’s staff and has shut down Hellgate London.

We regretfully announce that on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 11:59 CST the world of Uld known as Mythos will be going on hiatus. On behalf of all of the Devs and Community team we want to thank you to everyone for their support and assistance with Mythos Alpha and Beta testing and we hope to see you soon.
I loved Mythos much more than Hellgate and if some developers/publisher would pick …read more

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Rebellion has announced that it has acquired Empire Interactive’s former internal development studio, Razorworks, and it’s 30 staff will move across to Rebellion’s own Oxford set-up.
CEO Jason Kingsley revealed that Rebellion had been keeping tabs on the progress of Razorworks for two years, since the company’s previous acquisition from Empire of Strangelight: “We heard some very good things about the set-up, the team and their approach, which is very similar to our own,” he said. “So, when we had the opportunity to buy the studio, we seized it with both hands.”

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Following the announcement that EA Partners had been chosen to publish id Software’s upcoming Rage, id’s co-founder recently told gaming site GameSpot that he once took a very dim view of the way EA dealt with small studios.
“I’ll admit that, if you asked me years ago, I still had thoughts that EA was the Evil Empire, the company that crushes the small studios… I’d have been surprised, if you told me a year ago that we’d end up with EA as a publisher,” John Carmack said.
However, Carmack said his feelings changed after a number of EA’s existing partners gave the …read more

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During its E3 2008 press conference today, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a new partnership with famed shooter developer id Software. The publisher will be delivering Rage, the new IP id announced last summer.
“Rage represents a new direction for our games,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software. “Rage is a shooter unlike any other, developed on our cutting edge new technology, and built to the exacting standards id is famous for. We’re excited to have the support of EA Partners to launch RAGE on the world.”
“The Rage publishing deal is the epitome of EA Partners’ mission: Provide the world’s …read more

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2K Games has announced that it will be the North American and international publisher for Cryptic Studios’ newest MMO, Champions Online for the Xbox 360 and PC. Champions Online is scheduled for release in spring of 2009.
“2K Games is excited to work with such a talented group as Cryptic Studios,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Given their stellar pedigree and amazing grasp of the MMO genre, we are confident that Champions Online will deliver an innovative and exciting action MMO experience to gamers.”
If Cryptic has learned a thing or two since COH/COV launched, then we may just be in …read more

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It’s E3 Time once again and Square Enix’s offerings are some of my personally anticipated showings. One SMALL question though: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS FINAL FANTASY XIII?
Here’s a list of what’s on the floor at the Los Angeles Convention Center for E3:

On display at the Los Angeles Convention Center at Concourse 401 from July 15 – 17, the following titles will have playable kiosks: CHRONO TRIGGER®, DRAGON QUEST®: The Chapters of the Chosen™, FINAL FANTASY® IV, INFINITE UNDISCOVERY and
SONG SUMMONER: The Unsung Heroes.

E3 2008 Line-up
(Square Enix)
Multiplatform
THE LAST REMNANT
Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360® / PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system
Genre: RPG
PAL …read more

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Majesco Entertainment Company, Mistwalker and AQ Interactive today announced a new Nintendo DS RPG called AWAY Shuffle Dungeon. Players take control of the (creatively named ) young hero “Sword,” the sole resident left of the once booming Webb Village, who must (wait for it…) rescue as many kidnapped townsfolk as possible from a mysterious unknown that has been slowly “spiriting them away”. AWAY Shuffle Dungeon includes creative contributions from renowned industry visionaries: RPG creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, character designer Naoto Oshima and composer Nobuo Uematsu.
“We are very excited to be working with the collective creative talent of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Naoto Oshima …read more

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2K Games has announced today that it has signed an agreement with Digital Extremes to assist in the development of BioShock for the PS3. Bioshock for the PS3 is scheduled to be shipped to retailers in October 2008 with new features and content. This PPS3 system version of BioShock is being developed by 2K Marin, 2K Boston, 2K Australia and Digital Extremes.
“By partnering with Digital Extremes, 2K Games is delivering a fully optimized experience that takes advantage of the PLAYSTATION 3 system hardware,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Bringing Digital Extremes on board allows us to continue to deliver …read more

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The team behind Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is rumored to be making a new sci-fi title. So, this is the reason why Infinity Ward aint doing COD 5?
Speaking with TalkPlayStation.com an insider said “we are currently working on a new sci-fi title, we cannot release any more information as of yet, we may or may not announce it at E3″. So what sort of sci-fi game will this be? Most likely a first person shooter, maybe its something that will rival Halo. Infinity Ward are famous for developing Call of Duty 4, they have no part in …read more

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