Gamasutra News

Metaplace To Close Virtual World Platform

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:09:00 -0500

Virtual world software platform developer Metaplace, Inc. will be closing its flagship property Metaplace in January after "not gaining enough traction to be a viable product," the San Diego-based company said today. Metaplace is a software platform that allows its users to create their own 2D Flash-based virtual worlds, which are hosted on the company's own servers. It is still in its beta phase, according to its official website. While the Metaplace platform itself will ...

EGM Announces March Return For Magazine

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:44:00 -0500

In the latest of a string of announcements by EGM Media LLC, the magazine publisher said print publication Electronic Gaming Monthly will return to U.S. news-stands with the March 2010 issue. EGM Media, headed up by original Electronic Gaming Monthly founder Steve Harris, also revealed a distribution deal that will reunite the magazine with Time Warner Retail, which handled newsstand sales and marketing for EGM when it was run by publisher Ziff-Davis Media. Harris acquired ...

2010 IGF Announces Jury For Nuovo Award

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:08:00 -0500

Organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed jurors for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games." The IGF's Nuovo Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles. For ...

Best of FingerGaming: From Ridge Racer to N.O.V.A.

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:45:00 -0500

[Gamasutra rounds up the week's top news and reviews from sister iPhone site FingerGaming, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Louise Yang and Jonathan Glover.] This week, FingerGaming highlights recent releases like Namco's Ridge Racer: Accelerated, EA's street racing sim Need for Speed: Shift, and Gameloft's Halo-like FPS N.O.V.A. The site also checks out the top free and paid iPhone games of the week, as well as examining an update to ...

Take-Two Sells Distro Biz, Cuts 2010 Forecast

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:24:00 -0500

Publisher Take-Two is divesting itself of its distribution arm, Jack of All Games, selling it to business software and services distributor Synnex. Upon closing in early 2010, the deal is expected to be valued at about $43.25 million -- $36.50 million in cash and up to $6.75 million in certain achievement-based items. Synnex acquires the entire distribution arm from Take-Two, and will continue overseeing distribution of the publisher's titles for North America Jack of All ...

Modern Warfare 2 Leads For Sixth Consecutive Week In UK

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:17:00 -0500

Activision and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 topped UK sales charts for the sixth consecutive week and is the official Christmas No.1 in the territory, Chart-Track said Monday. The week ended December 19 marked the sixth week in a row that the military shooter led UK charts. The FPS is Activision's biggest title for the year, grossing $550 million in its first week worldwide. Last month, Chart-Track said that the game sold ...

Humana Announces InsertCoin Fitness Game Winners

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:27:00 -0500

Humana's Games for Health team has selected the winners of InsertCoin, a game idea competition encouraging the development of interactive experiences that promote healthy lifestyles. This year's winner, Dance Class, features virtual dance instructor avatars who teach players real-world dance moves. Shelly Warmuth of Green Bay, Wisconsin, received a $5,000 cash prize for her winning entry. John Green of Brooklyn, New York, took home the contest's runner-up prize of $3,000 for Camp Awesome, a summer ...

Ubisoft, Toys For Tots Partner For Facebook Charity App

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:21:00 -0500

French publisher Ubisoft has partnered with the Toys for Tots charity to release Giving Rabbids, a Facebook application enabling users to create and send Rabbids-themed digital greeting cards, as well as donate to Toys for Tots. With the free app, users send an e-card to their Facebook friends with artwork from Ubisoft's humorous Rabbids series (a spin-off from the company's Rayman series), including Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, ...

FFXIII Doubles Japanese MGS4 Sales In One Week

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:17:00 -0500

In perhaps unsurprising news, Japanese chart trackers are reporting that Square Enix's newly-released Final Fantasy XIII is a big hit in Japan -- with latest sales figures even more impressive. The latest in Square Enix's epic role-playing game series sold 1.5 million units from its release in Japan on December 17 through December 20, according to a translation of a Famitsu report on Japanese-focused gaming weblog Andria Sang. The figure includes games bundled with special ...

Gilbert: 'A Lot Can Be Learned' From Adventure Games

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:56:00 -0500

Ron Gilbert is best known for his work on adventure games, namely the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion games, but he's not limited to the adventure genre alone. In fact, his upcoming game, DeathSpank, published by Hothead Games, will be a game that combines adventure gaming and Diablo-style dungeon crawling. Developers often draw from different genres to create hybrid kinds of gameplay, and Gilbert thinks that game makers can learn a lot about design by ...