Archive for February, 2009

1. Do The Old Republic web comics mark a worrying trend?

   February 27, 2009

   Bioware has just released the first of three web comics, in promotion of Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. Though this comic isn’t particularly my cup of tea, it’s the trend towards video game comics in general that’s concerning me today. Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, The Old Republic… (coincidentally all EA releases) it seems that [...]

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   Posted in: Opinion

   Tagged with: bioware, comics, electronic arts, guest post, starred

   2 Comments

2. PSP2 to lose UMD, build an AppStore?

   February 26, 2009

   Rumours have swirled around the Internet about PSP 2 for a while now, and the latest to weigh in is games designer Dave Perry. His Twitter page reports “I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!” Perry’s sources are not clear, and [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: hardware, psp, psp2, rumour, sony, umd

   No Comments

3. Why the iPhone is changing the games market

   February 26, 2009

   This article originally appeared on CasualGaming.biz. The iPhone is changing the games market. But which one? To some it is the saviour of the mobile gaming business, which is struggled for years against consumer apathy, operators who don’t understand (or like) content and a fragmented device landscape which led to developers having to create hundreds, [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: apple, hardware, iphone, psp, sony, starred

   7 Comments

4. Playce launches virtual world, rubbish game

   February 26, 2009

   In-browser gaming is all the rage these days. Unity’s platform, QuakeLive, Runescape. So what does Playce bring to the table? It’s another browser plugin that the company claims offers “a 3D virtual world for games” based on real cities such as San Francisco and New York. It’s not a new idea. NearGlobal offers a similar [...]

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   Posted in: Distribution, Featured

   Tagged with: browser games, browsers, free games, middleware, playce

   No Comments

5. Atomic Planet files for administration

   February 25, 2009

   Following earlier redundancies, developer Atomic Planet has gone into administration. The company employed 35 staff, which have been added to the JobLossTracker.

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: admin, atomic planet, closures, job loss tracker, redundancies

   No Comments

6. GameBryo creator Emergent raises $12.5 million

   February 25, 2009

   I missed this announcement last week, but I think it’s important enough to bring up now. Emergent Game Technologies, creator of the Gamebryo middleware, has raised $12.5 million to strengthen the product. Hopewell Ventures led the round, Adena Ventures contributed, while existing investors Worldview Technology Partners and Jerusalem Venture Partners participated. Gamebryo raised $12 million [...]

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   Posted in: Finance

   Tagged with: adena ventures, capital raising, emergent technologies, gamebryo, hopewell ventures, investment, jerusalem venture partners, middleware, worldview technology partners

   No Comments

7. QuakeLive hits 100,000 registrations in 6 hours, falls over

   February 25, 2009

   Quake Live launched yesterday and has had over 100,000 registrations in the first six hours. When I joined, the queue to get onto the servers was 5,000. It peaked at around 20,000 and then the servers gave up the ghost (not great news for GNi, the hosting provider). It’s not that surprising that Quake Live [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: browser games, cdn, free games, gni, id Software, quake live

   8 Comments