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Kingdoms of Amalur developer unable to pay staff

Admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:16:40 +0000

It seems Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios’ problems are escalating following recent loan negotiations, with news today that it’s not been able to pay staff this week.

A spokesperson for the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation – which initially funded the studio – confirmed the news to local media outlet WRPI. 38 is apparently in the process of meeting an overdue repayment to the RIEDC for $ 1.125 million, which appears to be the cause of its inability to meet payroll commitments.

It’s not known exactly how many are affected, though bond documents show that as of 15th March this year, the studio had 379 full time employees.

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Def Jam Rapstar studio 4mm Games "on hold"

Admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:15:39 +0000

The future of Def Jam Rapstar developer 4mm Games is effectively “on hold” due to deep financial troubles, its founder has revealed.

4mm Games is currently out of funds to work on new projects and faces an impending $ 8 million (almost £5m) lawsuit from music label EMI over alleged unpaid music royalties.

“We have not got any new funding and obviously we need to resolve everything with Rapstar. And we’ve also got to eat,” 4mm Games founder Jamie King told Games Industry. “I get very annoyed at times, I would like there to be a way out of it but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 Review

Admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:14:30 +0000

Silicon chip production is not an exact art – no two chips that come off the production line are exactly alike. Some are capable of running at faster speeds than others, while sometimes defects manifest when the transistors aren’t fabricated entirely as they should be, owing to microscopic imperfections in the material. So what happens to these less-than-perfect chips? Well, a process called “binning” sorts the processors into various quality levels, each destined for different end-products.

In the case of the NVIDIA graphics cards based on the new “Kepler” line, the best processors are reserved for the top-end product – the GTX 680, which received a rapturous review from Digital Foundry last month. Now, with the debut of the newer, cheaper GTX 670, we begin to see what happens with the rest of the production run.

The usual form for NVIDIA’s tier-two product is to cut down the design of the flagship in every meaningful way: fewer active processor cores running at a slower speed, a more restricted memory bus, and slower RAM. In this way, more of the processors produced at the production facility become viable. In the past, enthusiasts and hackers alike have been successful in reactivating some of the disabled features – though often they don’t work, since the chips are not of the highest quality.

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Battlefield 3 double XP weekend starts tomorrow

Admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:13:29 +0000

A double XP weekend for Battlefield 3 multiplayer kicks off tomorrow morning, EA has announced.

As of 8.01am UK time, all XP earned will be doubled across all maps and modes.

At the end of each match, your total points for the round will be totted up and classified as “ADDITIONAL POINT”. Points will accrue across all ranked servers and matches.

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Lego Lord of the Rings video game outed

Admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:11:24 +0000

A video game version of Lego Lord of the Rings has been suggested by leaked images of Lego toy boxes. It’s backed up by a now-removed listing for the game spotted on retailer ShopTo’s website.

Toy versions of the new Lego Lord of the Rings product line are due to launch later this year. Early versions sent to toy reviewers displayed logos for Lego video game developer Traveller’s Tales and publisher Warner Bros. Interactive, MCV reported.

The ShopTo listing for Lego Lord of the Rings on Xbox 360 carried a 26th October release date.

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Dark Souls sells over a million in the West

Admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:10:10 +0000

From Software’s superb action role-playing game Dark Souls sold over a million copies in the West, Namco Bandai has revealed.

That’s 1.19 million units on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Europe and the US, to be exact. Japan sales aren’t included because there the game was published by From Software itself in collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment Japan.

Shifting over a million units in the West alone can only be considered a success, and with the upcoming PC release set to add to that tally, From Software is no doubt celebrating. A sequel – or at least a spiritual successor – can’t be far off.

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App of the Day: MacGuffin’s Curse

Admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:09:43 +0000

Is there a genre more resilient than the puzzler? Seriously, decades pass, fortunes wain, oceans rise and platformers give way to shooters, yet puzzle games are always just quietly getting on with things. Timeless to look at and effortless to pick up, whether you’re shifting cubes, connecting lines or chaining colours, this kind of fun is never going to grow old. If it’s true that every narrative is, on some level, a mystery story, perhaps every game is, from the right perspective, a puzzler. Maybe puzzles lurk at the very heart of gaming? Maybe I should have finished this paragraph much earlier, quitting while I was still, briefly, ahead? Who knows, eh? It’s all so puzzling.

MacGuffin’s Curse is very definitely a puzzle game, anyway, a block-puller and switch-flipper that will keep you plugging away for hours. It’s a selection of one-screen challenges telling the story of a reluctant thief who’s stolen an amulet that turns him into a werewolf whenever he steps into the moonlight.

In this hairy state, he can pull heavy crates and batteries around, break stuff, and engage in anything that generally requires a bit of oomf – but he can’t interact with machinery, swim across water, or squeeze through gaps in walls. For that, he needs to revert to human form, and most of the game’s puzzles emerge from reading the environment, and then working out when and where to pull off a transformation.

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Early Assassin’s Creed concept footage dug up

Admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:08:18 +0000

Early concept footage of what would later become Assassin’s Creed has found it’s way onto the web, showing that Ubisoft’s mega-selling franchise started out as a Prince of Persia spin-off.

The clip is part of a show reel featured on the website of a sound designer who used to work at Ubisoft, spotted by Twitter leak-hound Superannuation.

The footage in question shows an assassin slinking through a crowd, punching some poor schlub in the throat and then jumping onto a horse with a companion. It’s labelled Prince of Persia: Assassins and apparently dates back to 2004.

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Black Ops 2 offers “disruptive innovation”, promises Activision

Admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:07:03 +0000

Black Ops 2 brings “disruptive innovation” to the Call of Duty series, Activision has promised.

It’s followed up last night’s official reveal with some chest-beating bluster from publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who has thrown down a series of bold promises for this year’s entry in the steamrolling FPS franchise.

“Hands down, this is the most ambitious Call of Duty ever,” he insisted.

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Newell explains why there are no managers at Valve

Admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:04:50 +0000

Among the more interesting tidbits thrown up by the Valve employee handbook leaked earlier this month was the revelation that there are no traditional managers in the company hierarchy, nor any real ‘bosses’.

While it might sound like nirvana for some, many questioned whether it would actually work in practice.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Valve president Gabe Newell explained the thinking behind the studio’s unique structure, reasoning that layers of management can impede creativity and dynamism.

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