Edge Online - Interactive Entertainment Today

Video: Jane McGonigal On The Value Of Gaming

Edge Staff — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:22:27 +0000

The I Love Bees and serious games designer presents a talk for TED about World Of Warcraft's benefits for the real world.

In her 20-minute talk, recorded during TED2010 in Long Beach in February and available below, she argues that games like WOW teach players how to lead others and the mentality to solve problems and save worlds. Those skills can be harnessed for applying to real world issues, too.

View it right here.

Majesco Reports Slight Q1 Decline

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:17:36 +0000

US-based publisher Majesco has reported a slight decline in revenue and profit for the first quarter ended January 31.

Net revenue came in at $29.2 million (£19.1m), down from $32.8 million (£21.4m) during the same period a year earlier, while net income fell from $4.2 million (£2.7m) to $3.8 million (£2.5m).

Ex-Transmission Staff Form Trickstar Games

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:26:58 +0000

Former members of Transmission Games have established Trickstar Games, a new development studio based in Melbourne, Australia.

“Trickstar Games is Australia’s newest, but most experienced games development studio… a core assembly of some of the greatest development talent in the country,” the company said on its website.

ELSPA To Host Political Q&A This Month

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:21:12 +0000

MPs from the UK’s three leading political parties will field questions from the videogames industry during a Q&A session on March 29.

Tom Watson MP will represent the Labour Party, while Ed Vaizey MP and Don Foster MP will attend for the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats respectively.

The pre-election event will be held at BAFTA in London and be hosted by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.

EA Veteran To Lead Zynga's Game Studios

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:37:55 +0000

Former EA Sports group general manager Steven Chiang has been appointed president of Zynga’s development studios.

“I am excited that Steven Chiang, a veteran of the video game industry who is strongly regarded for building high-quality games and scaling development teams and operations worldwide, has joined Zynga,” the social gaming firm’s CEO, Mark Pincus, said on his blog.

Resident Evil Creator Forming New Studio

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:13:22 +0000

Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is to open a new development studio in Tokyo later this year once he finishes his work on Platinum Games shooter Vanquish.

Judge Dismisses God Of War Copyright Claim

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:39:23 +0000

A US judge has dismissed a copyright claim targeted at Sony Computer Entertainment and game designer David Jaffe relating to the 2005 PS2 game God Of War.

Writers Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Dath had sued SCE and Jaffe for allegedly ripping off two treatments and two screenplays they created about a Spartan attack on Athens and the resulting moves by the Greek Gods to restore peace.

Where Did You Go?

Chris Dahlen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:30:03 +0000

My kid and I play a game. We’ll be sitting at the coffee shop Kilim, and he tells me, “Close your eyes, daddy”. I do. While I’m not looking, I hear him crawl under our tiny table, or run around the corner and poke his head out: “Okay, look!” I open my eyes and say, “Hey! Where’s my kid? What happened to him? Where’d he go?”

Women In Games Conference Cancelled

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:08:37 +0000

The 2010 Women In Games Conference has been cancelled, organisers have announced.

Diversity was set to be the theme of the seventh WIG Conference, which had been due to take place at the UK's University of Bradford and Bradford College on March 25 and 26.

“We are very sorry to announce that this year’s Women in Games Conference has been cancelled due to low delegate numbers,” read an official statement.

Nintendo, Microsoft Win Controller Patent Appeal

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:33:59 +0000

Microsoft and Nintendo have been cleared of patent violation accusations related to Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube controllers.

The two console manufacturers had been sued by Fenner Investments. The Texas-based firm claimed that the platform holders infringed upon a patent it held related to connecting old controllers to new computers, reports Bloomberg.

Xbox 360 Slim Pictures Surface?

Tom Ivan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:59:29 +0000

Pictures purportedly showing the innards of a new Xbox 360 model have emerged.

The images allegedly show a completely redesigned model that combines the console’s CPU and GPU in a single, small chip for the first time.

Their website of origin claims that testing of the new model was recently completed in China, according to Kotaku.

Dave Perry: OnLive Pricing In Gaikai's Favour

James Lee — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:42:49 +0000

David Perry has said the recent announcement of streaming service OnLive's pricing has been a "shot in the arm&quo

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Study: New Games Harm School Work

James Lee — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:34:08 +0000

A new study has been published that concludes that videogames can impact on kids' school work.

According to the study, young boys who receive their first console show no signs of improvement in reading or writing tests over a period of four months.
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Bleszinski: Motion Control Is "Very Interesting"

James Lee — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:26:52 +0000

Epic's Cliff Bleszinski has said he finds motion controllers "very interesting" but favours those like Natal which don't rely on any hand-held controller.

"I find motion control to be very interesting, very compelling," he told

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Sony: PS3 Shortages “Not Ideal” As God of War III Launches

Tom Ivan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:20:09 +0000

Sony Computer Entertainment America is suffering from PS3 shortages at a key moment for the company.

While God Of War III launched in North America today, the LA Times reports that a number of Best Buy, GameStop and Target stores in West Hollywood are out of PS3 consoles. Some haven’t had any stock for a couple of weeks, while Wal-Mart online and Amazon.com were also sold out.

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Lots Of Sony Studios At Work On 3D Games

Tom Ivan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:19:10 +0000

“A lot” of Sony Computer Entertainment studios are working on stereoscopic 3D games for PS3.

“We've been amazed by the enthusiasm from the developers," SCE UK engineer Ian Bickerstaff told Gamasutra.

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GDC: How To Balance Halo

Alex Wiltshire — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:53:14 +0000

In one of the most fascinating sessions of GDC, Bungie designer Jaime Griesemer talked about the art of game balancing, illustrating his views with the apparently tiny decision to extend the rate of fire for the sniper rifle from Halo 2 to Halo 3 by 0.25 seconds.
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Nintendo: We’re Not Good At Making Core Games

Tom Ivan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:09:26 +0000

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime says he’d like to see more core games released for Wii, but admits the company has to rely on third parties as it's not Nintendo’s specialist field.

“For us, it is important that third parties bring their very best content to our platform,” the executive told Industry Gamers.

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GDC Sees Record Attendance

Tom Ivan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:31:30 +0000

A record 18,250 game industry professionals attended GDC 2010 in San Francisco.

Held at the Moscone Convention Center from March 9-13, the event surpassed last year's total of 17,000 visitors, according to its organisers.

As well as 400 lectures, panels, summits, tutorials and roundtable discussions, GDC hosted the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival and the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

It has been announced that GDC 2011 will return to the Moscone Convention Center from February 28 - March 4 next year.

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Gears Of War 3 Releasing April 2011 – Source

Tom Ivan — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:42:34 +0000

Microsoft will launch Gears Of War 3 in early April 2011, a trusted US publishing source has told Edge.

The first teaser trailer for the third person shooter is expected to debut next month on April 8, exactly one year ahead of the game’s pencilled in release date. A full reveal is due at E3 in June.
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