iPad World

Disney’s expensive social gaming acquisition speaks of a company desperate not to be left behind.

Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz’s widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial, is a weekly dissection of an issue weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

If anyone harboured doubts about how important social gaming is becoming – and how quickly it is growing into that importance – then this week’s acquisition of Playdom by Disney should put an end to them. The media giant is paying … Continue Reading

Digital Foundry visits the tech leads in Guildford for the inside story.

The circle is now complete. Just over a year ago, Digital Foundry kicked off its extensive range of tech interviews with the leading lights in game development by talking to Criterion technical director Richard Parr and senior engineer Alex Fry. Last week, we visited the Guildford-based developer to take a look at the new Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and took the opportunity to meet up with Parr and Fry once more to discuss the latest technological innovations for their new game.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit represents a big … Continue Reading

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Who’s laughing now?

“You are a cybernetic warrior in the future.” Who can forget the words of Bungie, introducing Halo during the first Xbox E3 press conference in 2001? And, oh, how we sneered. Could you make it sound any more generic? What’s that? You’re “fighting with a small group of human soldiers against the group of aliens”? Next!

It’s easy to forget just how hostile the reaction from a great many was to Microsoft joining the console market back then. And so, like a textbook study in confirmation bias, detractors seized on every word of that uncertain E3 debut and spat … Continue Reading

Bungie talks Activision, Halo 4 and more.

It’s been an interesting year for Halo creator Bungie. In April the US studio signed a mammoth 10-year publishing deal with Activision for the worldwide rights to “bring Bungie’s next big action game universe to market”.

Since the announcement, Bungie’s kept schtum on what its next big action game universe actually is, concentrating instead on bigging up upcoming Xbox 360 exclusive Halo: Reach.

But that didn’t stop us from asking campaign designer Niles Sankey and community director Brian Jarrard about the deal and a whole lot more besides at a preview event in London yesterday. Oh, … Continue Reading

Doesn’t matter who brings game to market.

Halo creator Bungie has dismissed concern that new publisher Activision’s current negative reputation will impact upon its next game.

The US developer reckons it doesn’t matter which publisher brings its super secret game to market.

“No, it doesn’t concern us at all,” community director Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer in a new interview.

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Dishing the dirt.

“It’s not only about racing. It’s about rallying. That’s something different.”

I’m sat in a hotel meeting room in a mildly scruffy corner of Milan, just around the corner from the offices of the motorsport game specialist Milestone. Irvin Zonca, physics game designer, is explaining – with soulful enthusiasm – what this independent developer discovered about the spirit of the World Rally Championship when it started working with the sport’s teams and drivers some three years ago.

“The ‘rally’ word is also used to mean a gathering. So it’s something that moves a lot of people that work together, where … Continue Reading

Unspectacular RPG targeted in financials.

SEGA’s blamed “slow” sales of Alpha Protocol and Iron Man 2 for weak videogame income in the three months ending 30 June 2010.

The company’s consumer business lost $7.4 million during April to June. Bad, but a dramatic improvement on last year’s Q1 result of minus $52 million.

SEGA openly told the world earlier this month that Alpha Protocol – an espionage RPG made by Obsidian and released in May – “hasn’t sold what we’ve expected”. The upshot: no sequel. Eurogamer gave Alpha Protocol a solid and not-to-be-sniffed-at 6/10.

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But not Kinect Sports criticism.

Kinect Sports developer Rare has offered its best wishes to a long-running fan site that blamed the Microsoft-owned developer for its closure.

Rare said it was “very sorry” to hear of nine-year-old fan site MundoRare’s decision to shut its virtual doors.

MundoRare announced its closure earlier this week after it claimed Rare knocked back a planned video documentary on the UK studio.

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Plus: Premier Manager! Flower demo!

Hello and welcome to our amazingly late recap of what’s on the PlayStation Store this week.

Star attractions are Earthworm Jim HD and newcomer Premier Manager. The latter’s been made by urbanscan and costs £14.
It’s exclusive to PSN and features an XMB-style menu and dot-based match engine. Accessibility is the key word.

There’s a video and some blurb about Premier Manager on the European PlayStation blog.

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