Edge Online - Interactive Entertainment Today

Batman: Arkham Asylum Takes Best Game BAFTA

Alex Wiltshire — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:05:21 +0000

Rocksteady's dark knight takes two Video Games Awards and Uncharted 2 takes four, while Shigeru Miyamoto is honoured with an Academy Fellowship.

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ELSPA renamed UK Interactive Entertainment Association

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:20:40 +0000

ELSPA, The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, has announced that it intends to change its name to the UK Interactive Entertainment Association.
The decision was made by its membership today at the trade body’s Extraordinary General Meeting.

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Switzerland Moves To Ban Violent Games

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:08:12 +0000

Switzerland’s government has pushed through legislation that may eventually see a ban put on the sale of violent videogames.

Late last year, the government passed legislation making the PEGI ratings mandatory, with a second amendment that threatened to ban the production and sale of mature games outright.

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Ubisoft Denies Steam DRM Conflict

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:38:25 +0000

Key Ubisoft titles are no longer available on Steam in what has been rumoured to be a move by Valve in protest of the publisher’s restrictive DRM.

The digital distributor is not offering Assassin’s Creed 2 or Silent Hunter V and the root cause could be an objection to the use of DRM.

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Analyst: Lack of Twilight Adaptation Has Cost “Millions”

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:19:43 +0000

According to Games Investor Consulting analyst Nick Gibson, the absence of a video game adaptation of Summit Entertainment’s Twilight series has cost “millions” in lost opportunity for revenue.

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Little Big Adventure Creator Teases New Project

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:19:09 +0000

Alone in the Dark and Little Big Adventure creator, Frédérick Raynal, is apparently at work on a new title for Ubisoft that may be set for release later this year.

The as yet unannounced title is being teased on the developer's personal site, with the message scrawled in French on a chalk board: "The name of the next game is on the back of the slate."

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Judge Tosses Out God Of War Lawsuit

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:45:43 +0000

A court has ruled in favour of Sony Computer Entertainment America and David Jaffe in a lawsuit brought by screenwriters who claimed that God of War was based on their original work.

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The Friday Game: Keeping It Brief

Chris Donlan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:09:12 +0000

Almost anybody you ask will tell you that these are strange days for videogames. What happened to certainty? The revenue of five-year mega projects costing tens of millions of pounds are now regularly eclipsed by throwaway mobile apps retailing for 59p a shot. Meanwhile, get-rich-quick developers scurrying to capitalise on the success of a social networking phenomenon like FarmVille decide that the lesson to learn is that the audience is craving games about agriculture.

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Nintendo Calls On Consumers To Support Core Titles

James Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:34:14 +0000

Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America, has said it is up to third-party developers to bring mature titles to the Wii and DS and called on consumers to support the releases.

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GDC: Play As Excavation

Mathew Kumar — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:40:47 +0000

Game researcher and designer of IGF Nuovo award finalist A Slow Year, Ian Bogost presented to the audience of the GDC Microtalks session that players play games can be crafted with meanings that players can interpret through play.

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BioWare: Cerberus Is Not Anti-Used Games

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:23:53 +0000

BioWare founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka have said they don't view their DLC system, the Cerberus Network, as a move against second-hand buyers of their games, but rather wanted to use it do build a "good relationship" with customers.

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Ex-Ensemble Dev Takes Issue With Closure Comments

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:37:44 +0000

An ex-Ensemble Studio staff member has stepped forward and taken issue with earlier comments made by his former manager, Paul Bettner, over claims that the developer’s closure was down to its work culture.

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Xbox 360 Update To Allow USB HDD?

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:54:13 +0000

Microsoft may be planning to issue a firmware update to Xbox 360s that would allow the console support the use of external hard drives.

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Valve: Mac Launch Is Steam's "Biggest Event"

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:56:27 +0000

Valve’s director of Steam development, John Cook, has said the platform’s upcoming debut on Mac this April is the “biggest event” in its history.

Cook explained that the project to make not only Steam but all Source Engine games compatible with Macs is a priority for the company – with boss Gabe Newell personally pitching in on a “daily basis”. He said that the company hopes it can prove Mac has a “thriving” gaming community, just like it did with PCs back when Steam first launched.

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GameStop Earnings Fell 5% in 2009

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:08:16 +0000

GameStop has released its results for the final quarter of 2009 fiscal year, reporting an increase in sales but dip in revenues.

Sales for the fourth quarter of 2009 increased 0.9 per cent to $3.52 billion, while net earnings dropped 7.1 per cent to $215.9 million, compared to $232.3 million the previous year. The total year’s results reflected much the same, increased 3.1 per cent to $9.08 billion, while net earnings decreased 5.3 per cent to $377.3 million. Yearly earnings per share were $2.25, compared to $2.38 in 2008.

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Bad Company 2 Hits 2.3m Sales

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:48:55 +0000

DICE and Electronic Arts have announced that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has sold over 2.3 million units since its launch earlier this month.

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Tiga Pleased With Lib Dem Support

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:09:07 +0000

UK games industry trade body, Tiga, has welcomed comments made by Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster, that he and his colleagues were “sympathetic” to TIGA’s proposed Games Tax Relief.

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Games Give Facebook Edge Over Google

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:25:04 +0000

Games are being credited as allowing Facebook to become the most visited website in the US, outing Google as the region’s most popular destination.

According to data collected by Hitwise, the social networking site overtook the search engine last week for the longest sustained time. Facebook’s home page saw 7.07 per cent of all traffic while Google saw 7.03 per cent. Facebook has overtaken the search engine before, but this represents the longest sustained time at the top spot.

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Hayes: Expect “Brilliant Innovations” On Natal

James Lee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:01:58 +0000

Sega’s Mike Hayes has said the company is working on Natal games it’ll unveil at this year’s E3, adding that consumers can expect to see “brilliant innovations” with the technology in the coming years.

Speaking about the opportunities on both Sony and Microsoft’s new control schemes, Hayes told CVG that initially developers would be focusing on cheaper party games.

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GDC: Mass Effect 2’s Subjective Story

Mathew Kumar — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:41:16 +0000

Offering a frank and open discourse on what did and didn’t work in Bioware’s attempt to create a true “interactive narrative” in Mass Effect 2, Armando Troisi, lead cinematic designer on the title, gave a presentation at GDC that was both hotly anticipated and oversubscribed.

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