News: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 storms UK chart
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has become the fastest-selling new title of 2010 so far in the UK, snatching the title away from Sega’s Aliens vs Predator.
The multiformat title outsold the well-received original by a factor of 3 to 1, with 53 per cent of sales on the Xbox 360, 31 per cent on the PlayStation 3 and 16 per cent on the PC. The game also topped all of the relevant individual formats charts.
Ubisoft’s Wii exclusive Just Dance saw sales fall by 15 per cent but still managed to rise one place to number two, pushing Aliens vs Predator down to number three as sales dropped 61 per cent.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/battlefield-bad-company-2-storms-uk-chart”>
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News: More trouble for Ubisoft’s DRM system
Users of Ubisoft’s PC Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been unable to play over the weekend as the servers for its digital rights management system have been inaccessible.
The company’s DRM came under fire from the moment it was announced, as it requires that users connect to the internet while playing the even the single-player elements.
“Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform. This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers,” said the company yesterday. “We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologise for any inconvenience.”
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/more-trouble-for-ubisofts-drm-system”>
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News: Gamers overwhelm Australian ratings inquiry
The Australian government has received 55,000 submissions as part of its public consultation concerning the introduction of a restricted 18+ age rating for video.
The consultation was announced in late 2009, with Australian citizens being asked to submit their views before a February 28, 2010 deadline. In order to rally support the “Grow Up Australia” campaign was launched, with prominent support from retail chain EB .
Although Australia has an 18+ age rating for films and DVDs, the highest rating for video is 15+. This has led to which would receive the highest rating in other Western countries being either severely censored before release or refused classification.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/gamers-overwhelm-australian-ratings-inquiry”>
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News: Majesco receives new Nasdaq warning
US publisher Majesco has been given 180 days to raise its share price above USD 1 or face delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange.
The warning came as Majesco’s share price remained below USD 1 for 30 consecutive days. This follows the company’s disappointing fourth quarter results that showed a $7.2 million loss, despite improvements in revenues and profitability.
If Majesco does not raise the share price, which currently stands at $0.99, above the minimum amount for 10 consecutive days of trading it will receive written notification that a delisting is pending.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/majesco-receives-new-nasdaq-warning”>
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News: "Triple-A indie" projects can be financially viable – Hecker
Independent game development for home consoles now has proven financially viable routes to market following the success of hits on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
That’s according to Chris Hecker, ex-Maxis developer, who said that although he is funding his own game project through savings and the help of family and friends, he’s confident it can be profitable in the long term.
“The good thing about nowadays when it comes to financing is that there are proven good of this size that have been profitable,” said Hecker in an interview published today. “Before I joined Maxis I was working on an indie game for a long time and never finished it, but back then there was shareware on the PC, but no real console model – no way to monetise it.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/triple-a-indie-projects-can-be-financially-viable-hecker”>
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News: Nintendo developer Cing files for bankruptcy – report
Japanese developer Cing has filed for bankruptcy in Japan, with the company reportedly suffering from liabilities of 256 million yen (USD 2.9m/EUR 2.1m).
A brief report on the Japanese language site Net-IB, as translated by Web forum NeoGAF, suggests that the firm was forced to make the filing on 1 March.
A small studio with less than 30 staff, Cing was founded in 1999. Its debut title was the Japan and Europe-only release Glass Rose for Capcom.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/nintendo-developer-cing-files-for-bankruptcy-report”>
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News: Free Realms hits 9 million subscribers
The total number of subscribers for free-to-play massively multiplayer online game Free Realms has hit 9 million users, according to a statement from Sony Online Entertainment.
The publisher has attributed the game’s continuing success to constant development of new features, themed in-game events and “persistent marketing support”.
“With Free Realms, we’ve been able to reflect the needs and wants of our players by keenly listening to their suggestions and feedback,” said SOE president John Smedley.
<a href="http://www.industry.biz/articles/free-realms-hits-9-million-subscribers”>
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Interview: Going Solo
Chris Hecker has been working in the business for about 15 years, having first made the transition following a trip to what was then known as the Computer Developer Conference – CGDC. More recently he worked at Maxis on Spore, before going solo on his own title – SpyParty.
Here he talks about the challenges of lone development, why he left Maxis in the first place, and explains in some detail the process of putting the GDC event together from the perspective of an advisory board member.
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Bodycount
Bodycount is a new first-person shooter in development at Codemaster’s Guildford studio.
Portal 2
This time around, GLaDOS’ reign of physics-bending tyranny is a whole new cube game. In fact it’s going to make Portal look like a trailer for the main event.