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Disney Confirms Cuts, Consolidations
Disney Interactive Studios has confirmed to Kotaku “restructuring” at its Propaganda Games studio in Vancouver, clarifying that about half of the number of employees we reported affected by layoffs were let go. Exact numbers weren’t provided, but we were told that approximately 35 or fewer Propaganda Games staffers were laid off, with two development teams…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Is Your Copy Of Gears Of War PC Busted? Here’s Why
Owners of the “Games For Windows” release of Gears Of War have found themselves unable to play the game they own today. The reason? An expired Windows digital certificate, which went digitally sour yesterday. Epic Games’ forum dwellers began kvetching about the issue within the past 24 hours, when presented with a warning that read…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Prince of Persia’s DLC to Bring Three More Hours of Gaming
That new Prince of Persia downloadable content planned for a Feb. 26 release will add three new hours of gameplay to the title, Ubisoft said today. The still-unpriced-content will continue the story of the Price and Elika through the Underground Palace. Other pack goodies include: New Power: Energize – Reconstruct destroyed areas of the environment…
By Brian Crecente Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Guitar Hero World Tour Finds Oasis Today
Guitar Hero World Tour owners thirsty for new content can drink in Oasis’ latest, as Activision has made Dig Out Your Soul available as downloadable content. What can you look forward to? In addition to the Oasis tracks already released for World Tour, fake rockers can now jam to “The Turning,” “I’m Outta Time,” “(Get…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Deadly Creatures, Locked In Mortal Combat
It’s a developer diary! It’s a nature documentary! It’s both! The developers of the upcoming Wii exclusive action adventure title Deadly Creatures talk up the combat abilities of the game’s two unique protagonists. From this installment of the Deadly Creatures development diaries, we learn that while the scorpion is a powerful brawler, the tarantula is…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Update: Layoffs Hit Disney Interactive, Turok Sequel Canceled
Disney is the latest in a long list of companies planning to pare down its workforce, with cuts and consolidations affecting Disney Interactive Studios. Layoffs are said to have already hit Turok developer Propaganda. Sources tell us that Vancouver based Propaganda Games is in the process of laying off approximately 70 employees. That reduction in…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
2K’s Prizefighter Gets A New Name For Nintendo Platforms
2K Sports have just announced that they’ll be bringing the legendary hair of boxing manager Don King to Nintendo platforms this March with the release of Don King Boxing, complete with Balance Board Support. Developed by 2K China, Don King Boxing is the Nintendo version of Don King Presents: Prizefighter, renamed for the Wii and…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Reviews
Star Ocean: Second Evolution Review: Calm Seas Ahead
Square Enix continues its seemingly unrelenting stream of RPG remakes with the release of Star Ocean: Second Evolution for the PSP, an update to the classic PlayStation title Star Ocean: The Second Story. Second Evolution picks up the Star Ocean story 20 years after the first game, following the adventures of Claude C. Kenni, the…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Perfect Balance Upends Your Productivity
Looking for something to do that’s not work-related while at work? Kill your output with Perfect Balance, a brilliantly simple block-stacker that renders one useless as an employee. Yes, very sorry about that, Mr. Crecente. But this is a fantastic diversion if you’re stuck gazing into a monitor all day. Simply arrange the pieces on…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
New Wii Games Can’t Unseat Old GameCube Games In Japan
Nintendo’s strategy of re-releasing classic GameCube games that have been Wii waggle-readied looks to be working, as least in the case of Mario Power Tennis. The “Play on Wii” version is still Japan’s favorite game. That includes the original Wii role-playing game Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo from Namco Bandai, one of two new debuts…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Mythic’s Four-Month Plan to Drip Feed You New Ways to Play
As Mythic readies the first major content update to their massively online game Warhammer Online, we spoke with Executive Producer Jeff Hickman about the upcoming free new content, new classes, and new dungeons in Call to Arms. Unlike a traditional MMO expansion, A Call to Arms is being delivered over the course of several months,…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Blood Bowl: Skaven Versus Lizardmen
The Blood Bowl battle continues, as Cyanide brings us yet another video for the fantasy football board game adaptation, this time featuring the reptillian Lizardmen and the ratty Skaven. Rats and lizards, living together, playing football. The giant, tough-as-nails Lizardmen might have the strength advantage, but no one can out-manuever the wily Skaven. Each new…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Nolan Bushnell To Be Awarded BAFTA Fellowship
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will bestow their highest honor at this years GAME British Academy Video Games Awards to the gather of Atari and pioneer of Pong, Nolan Bushnell. Nolan Bushnell will be inducted into the BAFTA Fellowship at the 2009 award ceremony on March 10th in London, England. The Fellowship…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sega Rolls Out More Stormrise Units
Sega has revealed six more units that will be taking the field of battle in Creative Assembly’s post-apocalyptic real-time strategy console title, Stormrise. While Monday’s Stormrise unit reveal focused mainly on the ground troups, today’s update gives us a look at how the war will be faught in the air, along with some of the…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Blizzard: We Probably Over-Nerfed Hunters
For once, hunters actually have a reason to whine! In a blue post in the official World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard poster GhostCrawler admitted that they “probably” over-nerfed the Beast Mastery specialization. It takes a big company to admit they might have been wrong, and Blizzard isn’t exactly famous for doing so, but here we…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
CNN Gets Giddy Over Obama Simulator
Embedded video from CNN Video We’ve mentioned Obama simulator Commander in Chief before, but it’s nice to see that the Geo Political computer game is getting a little face time on CNN. I think this could be a pretty interesting game. I actually enjoyed playing The Political Machine when it first came out… for a…
By Brian Crecente Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Gold Farming Website Sells For $10 Million
The number three MMORPG gold-seller on the internet, MyMMOShop.com, has just made the ultimate transaction, with the website purchased by a private equity company for $10 million. The website MyMMOShop.com, which specializes in the farming and selling of in-game money from massively-multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, and Everquest II, has…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
SOE Brings PopCap Titles To The PlayStation Network
The PlayStation 3 just got a bit more casual, as Sony Online Entertainment announces a deal to bring five PopCap titles to the PlayStation Network, beginning with Bejeweled 2, available now. Perhaps this is what Sony Online Entertainment’s John Smedley meant when he said that half of the company’s business would eventually be on the…
By Mike Fahey Published January 29, 2009 - Uncategorized
Leipzig GamesCon Goes MMO, Mobile Only, Cologne Gamescom Ready to Pump You Up
What’s a European gamer to do? With the once enormous Leipzig Games Convention fractured, two new gaming conventions are popping up around the same time to take its place. Technically, the Leipzig Games Convention still exists, but the folks putting it on just announced that they’ve decided to refocus the gaming event on just online…
By Brian Crecente Published January 29, 2009