Realtime's Ex-Chairman Involved In MyWorld Buyout - Report
Former Realtime Worlds chairman and chief strategy officer Ian Hetherington is reportedly involved with the mystery US firm that recently acquired the collapsed studio’s social game Project MyWorld.
UK Games Industry 96% Male Dominated - Study
A University of Liverpool study has found that women make up just four per cent of the UK games industry workforce.
That’s down from eight per cent from 2006, according to PhD student and study author Julie Prescott, who suggested that inflexible working practices were largely to blame for the drop in numbers.
Playful Conference 2010 Detailed
The Playful conference is set to return to London later this month with another diverse range of talks about games and play.
Eclectic and all about videogames’ fringes, “it’s a day about play, games, innovation, education, feelings, dealings, and minds reeling,” according to organiser and games consultancy Pixel-Lab.
Keita Takahashi Quits Namco Bandai
Keita Takahashi, creator of cult sensation Katamari Damacy and more recently Noby Noby Boy, has left his post at Namco Bandai.
PAX Attendance Hits 67,600
The seventh annual PAX Prime conference drew 67,600 visitors, up 7,000 on last year's attendance figure.
The strong showing at last week's fan-themed event in Seattle - where Gearbox’s work on Duke Nukem Forever was revealed - confirmed that PAX remains the single biggest US-based consumer show devoted to PC and console games, according to Big Download.
Japan Finally Getting Final Fantasy XIII On Xbox 360
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII is to receive a long overdue release on Xbox 360 in Japan.
The RPG will launch for Microsoft’s console on December 16 for 4,980 yen, (£39 / $60), a year after its December 17, 2009 PS3 release, according to Famitsu (via Gamasutra).
Wii's Artistic Licence: uDraw
With Microsoft and Sony poised to release their motion-control devices, Wii-related PR buzz has been somewhat muffled. Even Nintendo’s own hardware focus has moved on to the 3DS. Though its sales remain extremely healthy, you’d be forgiven for thinking Wii was winding down. THQ believes otherwise, and has bet the fate of a new device on it. The device is uDraw, a Wii graphics tablet which allows you to wield a stylus against its slippery plastic surface and see the results appear on the TV screen.
£300 Kinect Bundle Revealed
Microsoft has announced that it will release a high-end Xbox 360 Kinect bundle in the UK on November 10.
An Xbox 360 250GB with Kinect and Kinect Adventures will be “available for a limited period” for £299.99, alongside the previously announced Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect and Kinect Adventures for £249.99, the company said.
Microsoft Details Japanese Kinect Launch
Kinect will launch in Japan on November 20, Microsoft has confirmed.
The Kinect accessory bundled with Kinect Adventures will cost 14,800 yen (£114 / $177). The device will also be available with the Xbox 360 4GB and Xbox 360 250GB, both packing in a copy of Kinect Adventures, for 29,800 yen (£230 / $356) and 39,800 yen (£308 / $475) respectively.
Indie Game Challenge 2011 Submission Deadline Nears
Six months after the inaugural Indie Game Challenge (IGC), the October 1 deadline for submissions for the second annual competition is fast approaching.
2011’s competition has been expanded to include international professional and amateur game developers competing in different categories for two grand prizes of $100,000.
Analysts: Xbox 360, Madden August NPD Winners
Game industry analysts have weighed in with sales forecasts for August 2010 ahead of the expected release of US market data from the NPD Group this Thursday.
Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter forecast software sales of $445 million, down six per cent compared to last August’s $471 million.
Develop Liverpool Issues Call For Speakers
Tandem Events has issued a call for speaker submissions for the second Develop Liverpool conference.
“Designed to meet the demands of the thriving game community based in the north of England”, the event will feature three tracks and multiple networking sessions.
The conference will take place on November 25, 2010, alongside Software City, which is organised by Merseyside ICT.
Korean Rating System Results In Indie Game Bans?
South Korea’s Game Rating Board has reportedly implemented new measures requiring all titles released in the country to be classified by domestic officials, and that game developers pay for the classification process.
According to online reports, one-off classification fees – ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars based on file size - being demanded by the Game Rating Board are likely to have a significant impact on indie developers unable to afford the cost.
PS3 Firmware Addresses Security Issues
Sony has launched a new PS3 firmware update, version 3.42, “to address security vulnerability in the system software”.
Microsoft's Game Strategy Boss Joins Amazon
Microsoft veteran Andre Vrignaud has announced that he is to leave his position as director of game platform strategy at the Xbox maker to take on a new role at Amazon.
Vrignaud has worked at Microsoft since 2002, helping manage the overall gaming platform strategy for Xbox, Xbox Live and Windows.
Interview: Koduco Games
The iPad launched to familiar Apple hype, but very few games have so far lived up to the company's "magical and revolutionary" product message. While developers increasingly embrace social networks and online play, the iPad's large touchscreen offers the opportunity to gather players around a single device, bringing social gaming back to the living room. Koduco Games thinks its latest title, PongVaders, will do exactly this.