Games Industry Wire

Blizzard Entertainment has earlier reports confirmed that the Diablo III art director, Brian Morrisroe, has left the World of Warcraft developer to form a startup technology company.
Morrisroe’s departure to a company outside of the games industry “won’t impact” Diablo III’s art design, says a Blizzard representative, according to MTV. This news comes after reports of Blizzard listing a job opening for Morrisroe’s vacated position. This also means that they may or may not chnage the look of the game as some disgruntled fans want.

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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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Activision Blizzard, Inc. , which was formed on July 9 as a result of the closing of Activision’s transaction with Vivendi S.A., today announced record stand-alone June quarter financial results for Activision, Inc.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2008, Activision’s stand-alone net revenues were $654.2 million, a 32% increase, as compared to net revenues of $495.5 million reported for the June quarter last fiscal year. Activision’s stand- alone net income for the June quarter was $59.0 million, or $0.18 earnings per diluted share, as compared to net income of $27.8 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.09 reported for …read more

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Wow! It looks like the rumors were true, after all. Cryptic, creator of all things superhero MMO related, is indeed developing Star Trek Online or more sexily known as just “STO”.
Cryptic Studios™, a leading developer and publisher of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), announced today that it has secured the global rights to develop and publish Star Trek® Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on the legendary Star Trek franchise, from CBS Consumer Products.
Cryptic will unveil the first Star Trek Online gameplay footage as well as details about this highly anticipated MMO at the annual Star Trek Convention …read more

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Vivendi Games has announced that financial results for the first half of the 2008 fiscal year, with revenues down overall year-on-year by 11.2 per cent . The dropl is largely due to the strong release of World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade in the comparable timeframe last year, while the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, won’t ship for several months yet.

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It looks like that there is still life in Flagship Studios’ ill fated Hellgate: London as North American publisher Namco-Bandai may be stepping in to rescue it. An intriguing post appeared on Hellgate’s official forums from Namco-Bandai’s senior director of business development, Zack Karlsson, stating:

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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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Well look at that, Internet rumors of an Xbox 360 price cut have been circulating for quite some time and Target went ahead and made it official from a retailing standpoint earlier today. The new Xbox 360 60GB model will retail for $349, which the “old” SKU Pro previously sold for. The Elite model, which comes with a 120 GB hard drive, remains at $449, and the Arcade SKU, which has no hard drive, is still $279. I hoped for an overall price increase with additional storage but that just proves that you dont always get what you want.
“We know …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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Nickelodeon is expanding its games portfolio via interests in the areas of virtual worlds/games and the formation of two separate divisions, the company announced today. The Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group includes all of its gaming initiatives, both paid and subscription, for online, PC, handheld and console, and will be led by senior VP and GM Dave Williams. It also includes Nickelodeon’s Addicting Games and Shockwave sites, for which the company recently promised 1,600 new casual games in 2008. The company will be seeking new game developer and publisher partnerships under this division.

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