Posts tagged Sinclair
Shaba composing music game for Activision
Jul 21st
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows studio now hiring audio techs to make karaoke note tracks for unspecified title.
San Francisco-based Shaba Games is no stranger to following in other developers’ footsteps. The Activision subsidiary has spent the better part of the last decade working on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater ports and offshoots and made a splash last year with Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, GameSpot’s highest-rated console Spidey game to date.
For its next project, Shaba could be working on yet another of Activision’s well-established franchises. According to a job posting on Gamasutra, Shaba Games is working on a music game. The San Francisco-based developer, located a few miles from the nascent Activision Bay Area, is looking for a staffer “to create MIDI note data based on pre-recorded vocal tracks” and input song lyrics into the game.
The job listing doesn’t specify which game Shaba is working on, but Activision has plenty of rhythm titles to choose from. This year alone, the publisher has released Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, with Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen still to come, all of which include sing-along gameplay.
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SOE sends 41 staff packing
Jul 18th
DC Universe Online and Free Realms developer cuts 5 percent of workforce from payroll to “increase operational efficiency,” cut costs.
Last month, Sony Online Entertainment boasted of a successful launch for its Free Realms massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which saw more than 3 million users sign up within its first seven weeks of release. That wasn’t successful enough, apparently, as today the developer confirmed for GameSpot that it had instituted a round of layoffs.
“In a move to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, Sony Online Entertainment has eliminated 5 percent of its full-time workforce, equaling 41 people,” an SOE representative said. Last March, the formerly semi-independent MMOG-focused studio was folded into Sony Computer Entertainment, although it remains a distinct label.
In addition to Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment operates the long-running EverQuest and EverQuest II MMO games. It also has a number of anticipated titles in the pipeline, including The Agency and DC Universe Online. When asked where the job cuts were made, an SOE representative declined to elaborate on the previously issued statement.
The gaming industry has seen several developers undergo staff cuts lately. Midway this week laid off its Chicago headquarters, shuttered its Newcastle studio completely, and gave its San Diego arm notice that it would be closed if a buyer for the studio wasn’t found before September. Reports also emerged early this month that Damnation developer Blue Omega saw its entire development team eliminated.
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Levine: Current game ‘more ambitious’ than BioShock
Jul 18th
2K Boston head says current project’s “scope and ambition” are greater than anything the studio has done before.
System update
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Where’s Waldo found on Wii, DS, PC
Jul 17th
Ubisoft promises to take gamers on The Fantastic Journey with striped globetrotter this September.
Ubisoft first let players explore the high-stakes hide-and-seek stealth genre with 2002’s Splinter Cell. For 2007’s Assassin’s Creed, the company took the genre out of the shadows and into the crowds.
This September, the publisher will let gamers tackle the stealth genre as the hunter instead of the hunted when it releases Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey for the Wii and DS, PC, and Mac. Ubisoft today announced the deal in cooperation with developer Ludia Inc. and Classic Media, rights-holder to the popular children’s book and character.
Much like the Where’s Waldo books, The Fantastic Journey will be a “hidden object” game, in which players scour cluttered scenes in search of Waldo, his friends, and a variety of distinctive items. A multiplayer mode will allow up to four players to get competitive with their search, using power-ups to cover an opponent’s view with paint or make hidden objects sparkle on their own screen.
Ludia Inc. is no stranger to working on licensed properties, but it usually turned to television for source material. The Montreal-based studio has developed games based on American Idol, The Price is Right, Hell’s Kitchen, Press Your Luck, and Family Feud.
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Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition packs in night-vision goggles
Jul 15th
Premium editions of Infinity Ward shooter to include art book, free downloadable edition of original Call of Duty on PS3, Xbox 360, or PC.
System update
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Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall now free
Jul 10th
Bethesda Softworks celebrates role-playing series’ 15th anniversary with complimentary release of 1996 predecessor to Oblivion.
System Update
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Call goes out for IGF 2010 submissions
Jul 9th
Would-be indie darlings have until November 1 to enter their projects for consideration in 12th annual Independent Games Festival Awards.
The Independent Games Festival has honored a variety of games that experienced quite a bit of mainstream success in recent years, including Braid, Desktop Tower Defense, Everyday Shooter, and World of Goo. Indie coders who’d like their current projects mentioned in the same breath as those efforts have an opportunity to make that happen, as organizers today put out the call for submissions for the 2010 IGF Awards.
Entries for the main competition and its student-focused offshoot can be submitted to the IGF through November 1. A group of between 100 and 200 judges will assess the games’ merits for seven different award categories in the main competition. The field will be narrowed down to a handful of finalists in each category in January, and winners will be announced at the IGF Awards ceremony, set to take place March 11, 2010, during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Last year’s IGF competition was the biggest to date, with a field of 226 entrants for the Seamus McNally Grand Prize eventually being whittled down to Erik Svedang’s Blueberry Garden. That game was released on Steam last month, where it joined other IGF competitors, such as Zeno Clash, Musaic Box, and The Maw.
For more on the competition, check out the IGF’s official Web site.
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Watchmen: The End is dated, priced
Jul 8th
The End is Nigh hits stores July 21; downloadable editions for PS3 and PC the next week, with 360 version to follow in late August.
The release of Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 is indeed nigh, but it might be somewhat less so, depending on the version in question. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today detailed its staggered release plans and price points for the game, which will see a bundled retail release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and digitally distributed releases on those systems as well as the PC.
The most nigh versions of the game are the brick-and-mortar packages. Watchmen: The Complete Experience for the PS3 will bundle both parts of the downloadable game with The Watchmen: Director’s Cut on Blu-ray for $49.99, while Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 for the Xbox 360 includes just the games and will sell for $29.99. The retail editions of both games will debut in stores on July 21, alongside the launch of the film on DVD and Blu-ray.
Those who purchased the first Watchmen episode and don’t want to buy it again in bundled form will have to wait a while longer for closure on the series. PC gamers–once thought to be missing out on The End is Nigh Part 2 entirely–will be the first able to download the game, as it will launch July 29, trailed by the PS3 version the next day.
For unspecified reasons, the downloadable Xbox 360 edition of The End is Nigh Part 2 will arrive August 26, nearly a month later than its counterparts. All three downloadable editions of the game will sell for $14.99 (1,200 Microsoft points).
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Judge approves Midway sale to Warner Bros.
Jul 3rd
Mortal Kombat maker cleared to emerge from bankruptcy thanks to $33 million acquisition offer.
Midway Games is just about ready to turn the final page on its Chapter 11 saga: a Delaware bankruptcy court judge yesterday approved the company’s proposed $33 million sale to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The sale should close in short order, as the judge waived a standard 10-day waiting provision in such cases, saying “time is of the essence.”
The acquisition will give Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment most of Midway’s assets, including the Mortal Kombat and Wheelman franchises. The offer does not include Midway’s Newcastle (UK) and San Diego studios, nor the TNA Impact wrestling license. Earlier this month, Midway’s Newcastle studio revealed its all-new IP, Necessary Force, in an effort to attract a buyer.
In approving the sale, the judge also dealt with a variety of objections to the sale raised from various parties. Notably, a dispute with a producer of the original Mortal Kombat movies and TV shows was allayed as all parties agreed that the change in ownership to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment would not alter his rights regarding the franchise in any way. However, there was no determination on exactly what those rights were.
A representative with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment declined to comment on the acquisition or the expected closing date of the purchase, while a Midway spokesperson had not returned request for comment as of press time.
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Prototype PS3 install issues being addressed
Jun 11th
Activision acknowledges problem for “a small number” of open-world action game purchasers, promises a patch, suggests work-around in the meantime.
By its very nature, a prototype is likely to have some bugs that need to be worked out. Such is the case with Activision’s newly released Prototype on the PlayStation 3, as the publisher has acknowledged on its customer service site “a small number of PS3 Prototype owners have been having issues with installing the game.”
The issue is that the game incorrectly tells some players that they have insufficient hard drive space to install the game. A downloadable patch for the game will be released “shortly,” but in the meantime, Activision has suggested a work-around.
Players might be able to eliminate the error message simply by changing the amount of free space on their hard drives by 700MB. It doesn’t matter if that change in space is achieved by adding new games and demos or deleting existing content from the system. Once the changes have been made, reinserting the disc should allow the game to install properly.
Developed by Radical Entertainment, Prototype casts players as a genetically altered shape-shifter tearing a path of destruction through New York City. Along the way, gamers try to discover who they are and what’s behind their mutations, all while fighting off an assortment of military and mutant adversaries. Prototype is also available for the PC and Xbox 360.
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