Game Dev News

[Gamasutra highlights choice quotes from game industry figures such as Double Fine's Tim Schafer, FASA founder Jordan Weisman, Zynga's Brian Reynolds, and many others.] In our original and exclusive interviews, analysis, and feature pieces over the past week, a wide variety of developers, publishers, and indies shared their thoughts on game cloning, arcade titles from Atari designers, and Kinect's future. This Week's Noteworthy Game Industry Quotes "There are now more opportunities than ever for game ...

In the latest postings over the last seven days, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles in every major discipline, including opportunities at Visceral Games, 2K Marin, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and others. Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly. It will also be cross-posted for free across Gamasutra's network of submarket sites, which includes content ...

[Gamasutra rounds up the week's biggest reports on South Korea's booming online games market from This Is Game, the leading English-language site about the country's game industry.] In our latest round-up of news from South Korea's online games space, we look at a new game ratings group set up by the government, plans to review online gaming regulations, and WeMade Entertainment purchasing online action game Lost Saga. 470,000 minors presumably addicted to games The South ...

Apple struck a blow against video game clones today by removing several offending apps from one rather prolific independent developer. Among the removed games are apps such as Plant vs. Zombie, Angry Ninja Birds, and Temple Jump, each of which (as you might guess from their titles) had more than a little in common with with major titles such as Plants vs. Zombies, Angry Birds, and Temple Run, respectively. The recently-removed Temple Jump in particular ...

With the 2012 Game Developers Conference inching ever closer, show organizers are highlighting new talks within the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, featuring Halfbrick on Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, PopCap on Bejeweled Blitz, and Pocket Gems on post-release development. These talks join an already jam-packed lineup for the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit, which will feature sessions covering the latest and most influential practices in mobile development, spanning platforms from iOS, Android, Windows Phone, ...

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor-in-chief Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on "Best Of Indie Games," we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The delights in this edition include a racing game for the Xbox Live Indie Games service, a ...

Newsbrief: Japanese publisher Nippon Ichi has raised its annual financial guidance following better-than-expected sales of its Disgaea franchise. For the 12 month period ended March 31, 2012, Nippon Ichi expects to see 203 million yen ($2.7 million) in profit, up from 59 million yen ($770,000), while overall revenue is expected to hit 2.29 billion yen ($30.1 million), down slightly from 2.25 billion yen ($29.5 million) previously. According to Japan-focused game site Andriasang, the company's boost ...

Electronic Arts has laid off what it's calling a "small number" of employees at its Vancouver branch as part of a restructuring effort to focus more on its digital content. With the move, EA said it hopes to better align its Vancouver branch with the company's current focus on digital, online, and free to play games, reports Industry Gamers. While technically located just outside of Vancouver in Burnaby, British Colombia, this branch is home to ...

Xbox Live's policy and enforcement director Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse, who has worked at Microsoft for nearly 18 years, announced that he's resigning from the company in two weeks to explore other opportunities. Toulouse often served as the public face for Xbox Live matters, and managed complaints and user bannings/suspensions on the Xbox 360 online service. He described his position as "[making] the Xbox Live experience a consistent, safe, and enjoyable one." Prior to joining the ...

[In this weekly column, Gamasutra rounds up the most popular paid and free iPad gaming applications on the App Store as of today, with Kingdom Rush, Hamlet HD and Paper Monsters currently ranking among the platform's top downloads.] This week's top paid titles are: 1. Where's My Water? ($0.99) 2. Kingdom Rush ($0.99) 3. Paper Monsters ($0.99) 4. Angry Birds Seasons HD ($1.99) 5. Words With Friends HD ($0.99) 6. Angry Birds Rio HD ($2.99) ...

So why do you think you choose to play the games you do? NO! WRONG ANSWER! Well, actually, you're probably mostly right about that, but an upcoming article in Psychological Science suggests that your choice of games and your motivation to keep playing them may have something to do with how well they allow you to experience something deeper and more personal. In the article, Andrew Przybylski (who sent me an advance copy so I ...

Square Enix reported notable revenue and profit increases from its game segment during the April to December 2011 period, which were driven by Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its online/social titles. While the Tokyo-headquartered company's total sales for all of its segments were flat during those nine months, revenues from its video game category grew and now makes up a larger percentage of Square Enix's business. Square Enix's games segment made up 52 percent of ...

The NPD Group has signed an agreement to receive and analyze point-of sale information from Walmart, and will now be able to include data from the major retail chain in its video game sales reports for the U.S. With actual numbers from Walmart, NPD could provide more accurate information and analysis in its monthly retail game sales reports, which are used by retailers and publishers alike to monitor sales trends. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter estimates ...

This week, Double Fine launched Double Fine Happy Action Theater, a Kinect-based game and the first in its second set of small projects -- a shift into little games the studio made after 2009's Brütal Legend. In this interview he reflects on those, and talks Kinect tech, too.

Sony president Kazuo Hirai, who took over the role recently, has admitted that the company has tough times ahead, thanks to "one issue after another." Hirai was named the new Sony president and CEO earlier this week, having taken over the role from former president Sir Howard Stringer. He was instrumental in the early marketing success of Sony's then-new PlayStation video game brand in the mid-1990s. However, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, ...

Sega Sammy has posted financial results for the first nine months of the current fiscal year, with a loss in its video game division leading the company to record a drop in revenue and profits year-over-year overall. The company blamed weak demand for video games in the U.S. and Europe, due to "sluggish personal consumption" from customers. It noted that it needs to adapt to the business environment which is now focused on social games ...

Fresh off of releasing Double Fine Happy Action Theater this week, Double Fine's Tim Schafer praises Microsoft's sensor in a new Gamasutra feature interview. Happy Action Theater, published by Microsoft, is an Xbox Live Arcade title that's more of a video toy box than a traditional video game. The process of developing it in conjunction with Microsoft has helped open Schafer's mind to the power of the motion-sensing camera peripheral. "I think the best games ...

Japanese mobile social game developer and network operator Gree raised its sales and profit forecast significantly for the fiscal year (ending June 2012) after a record second quarter. Gree increased its profit guidance for the fiscal year by a third, and its revenue forecast by nearly a quarter, after generating more sales than it originally expected through free-to-play mobile games from its internal studios and partner developers. The company now expects to see around ¥160-170 ...

Newsbrief: UK-based racing game studio Eutechnyx has teamed up with racing simulation specialist Brain in a Jar to work on a "key project" in 2012. Eutechnyx is currently developing free-to-play Auto Club Revolution, for which it received $2.8 million from the UK government's regional growth fund late last year, while Brain in a Jar has in the past provided development work for Codemasters and Reflections. Brain in a Jar will provide Eutechnyx with its proprietary ...

Troubled UK retailer Game Group has received support from its stakeholders and lenders, allowing the company to continue to operate into the near future. Earlier this week, it came to light that the group was in talks with lenders about its credit issues, and was "reviewing a strategic plan" for its overseas operations that could see the company selling off more than half of its locations. Game Group has already announced that it intends to ...