GamerNode: Latest Industry News

Tetris makes your brain work better, last longer

A new study reports that playing videogames -- specifically Tetris -- improves the brain's efficiency, increases its size, and helps it resist late-life deterioration.

The Mind Reaseach Network's study, funded by the makers of Tetris, observed the brains of adolescent girls with MRI scans before and after a three-month test period. During this time, the girls participated in "challenging visuospatial tasks," operationally defined as a number of Tetris gameplay sessions.

The results show that certain areas of the cortex (shown in red above) increase in thickness after prolonged focus on these sorts of tasks, thereby making the individual more resistant to mental decline that may occur later in life. Other areas (shown in blue) function with greater efficiency after Tetris.

So the next time som...

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Wait... What? Take-Two's quote on GTA V announceme...

VG247 is reporting that Take-Two is not taking kindly to anyone asking them about anything related to a Grand Theft Auto V announcement. This is a quote from who VG247 believes to be Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's chairman, when he was asked during a Q3 earnings conference call about any GTA V announcement:

"We're not going to announce it. We're not going to announce when we're going to announce it. And we're not going to announce the strategy about announcing it or about when we're going to announce it either, or about the announcement strategy surrounding the announcement of the strategy.

Any other questions?"

So wait... who's on first?

[VG247]

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Jade Raymond to lead Ubisoft Toronto

The highly visible producer of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games, Jade Raymond, has been chosen to head up its new Toronto studio.

The announcement came on Monday, months after the developer had announced the founding of the studio back in July. Raymond will answer to Yannis Mallat, CEO of both Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto, and she will be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the studio.

Raymond has been with Ubisoft Montreal since 2004,  where she was one of the producers on Assassin's Creed. The popular third-person action game sold eight million units, according to Ubisoft.

She is currently the executive producer of Assassin's Creed 2 and other projects by the developer. Raymond previously worked with IBM, Electronic Arts, and Sony Online.

"I'm excited to have Jade managing our Toronto ...

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The Beatles: Rock Band could cost Viacom over $40 ...

Rythem games have hit a bit of a rut as of late. Rock Band's sales have gone down and rhythm games as a whole have lost money according to the latest NPD reports. "Of all genres, the music/dance genre has suffered the greatest declines this year, with nearly $390 million less revenues than the same time period last year," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

It's that reason which makes it hard to believe just how much money Viacom will be shelling out just to have the rights to use The Beatles music in their upcoming Rock Band title. The company has paid a guaranteed $10 million in royalties and, if sales of The Beatles: Rock Band hits certain figures, could increase to $40 million or more.

"The royalty rates on this are not even comparable to anything that has been done before," said Martin Ban...

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Disney acquires Marvel for $4 Billion

In a shocking move, the Walt Disney Corporation has acquired Marvel Comics for a staggering $4 billion.

All of Marvel's more than 5,000 superheroes and supervillains will now belong to Mickey and company, which makes many wonder what the future of Marvel will hold. There's a major portion of Universal Orlando devoted to Marvel Comics, as well as movies, video games, and other media that Disney's rivals all have a say in. Will they remain the same, or will Disney force a halt in production?

Ultimate Alliance 2 delay? I sure hope not.

From the official press release, via Kotaku, here's Disney's side:

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creat...

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ESA: 43-0 against game legislation bills

What do the Entertainment Software Association and boxing legend Rocky Marciano have in common? The answer to that question is simple: 43 knockouts without a single defeat.

The organization's 2009 annual report proclaims this record proudly, stating that of 43 bills targeting videogames for government regulation, zero have been signed into law, thanks in great part to the ESA's tireless efforts.

From the document:

"With a growing network of retained partners across the country, ESA State Government Affairs (SGA) effectively monitored, responded to and shaped industry-related legislation during the past year. While 43 bills sought to regulate content and/or access to video games, our actions ensured that no legislature enacted a law regulating game sales. Conversely, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgi...

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Arkham Asylum sets Guinness World Record

Game reviewers have been heralding Batman: Arkham Asylum as the best comic book game of all time. And now they all have a world record to back up their claims.

Guinness announced today that Arkham Asylum has become "Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever" due to its average Metacritic score of 91.67. The game surpassed Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the Sega Dreamcast, which had an average score of 90.

"We are so pleased to be awarding Batman: Arkham Asylum a Guinness World Record," said Gaz Deaves, manager at Guinness. "It is a fantastic new game and due to the reaction of gaming experts we believe it has a well deserved place in the Guinness World Records book."

At press time there have been no statements regarding the award from either Eidos or Rocksteady.

[IGN]

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Analysts weigh in on PS3 and 360 price drops, pred...

Sony and Microsoft have dropped the prices on their consoles recently as the the Xbox 360 Elite and PlayStation 3 are now $299, with Sony's new PlayStation 3 "Slim" model debuting this week at the same price. Along with the price cuts, industry analysts are taking a look at how these drops in price will effect Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and the game industry as a whole.

"Historical sales, accounting for inflation, suggest the $249 to $299 price point is the sweet spot where the industry can expand at a comfortable rate while still delivering profitability for the console manufacturers," said Electronic Entertainment Design and Research's Jesse Divnich. "A $249 to $299 price point over the next two years would give Microsoft, and Sony, the breathing room needed to improve manufacturing effic...

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Realtime Worlds still growing before APB launch

News hasn't been good lately for publishers and developers, with Electronic Arts and Activision cutting jobs at Maxis and Raven Software, respectively. However, there is one developer that is actually looking to add jobs.

Realtime Worlds, the studio behind next year's All Points Bulletin, has purchased 8,000 square feet of office space in Dundee, Scottland due to their rapid growth and to prepare for the game's launch.

"When we opened our current facility less than three years ago we hadn't yet shipped our first game," said studio manager Colin Macdonald. "Since then we've had tremendous commercial and critical success, and have done the lion's share of the work towards a successful launch of our online title APB."

"This additional space allows us to continue to grow at the pace needed to at...

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Maxis cuts confirmed by EA

Tough times appear to be hitting publishers as of late. Only a day after Activision confirmed a layoff of employees at Raven Software, Electronic Arts today confirmed that it will be reducing its workforce at Maxis, the studio behind Spore.

"Often in the videogame industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions," stated an EA rep. "In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis. EA remains fully committed to Spore and other IP within Maxis, with games planned for launch in the next few months, including Spore Hero, coming to the Wii for the first time, and Spore Hero Arena on the DS."

Back in April, Maxis founder and game designer Will Wright left the company in order to form what Wright described as a...

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Raven Software suffers layoffs

An earlier report by gaming site Shacknews claimed that the developer of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Wolfenstein has suffered a layoff of up to 56 employees. The report has now been cofirmed, as the story has been updated with an official statement from Raven Software on the subject.

"With the recent completion of both Wolverine, based on the summer blockbuster movie, and Wolfenstein, the next chapter of the famed franchise, Raven Software is slightly reducing its workforce to better reflect the studio's upcoming slate," said the developer.

The released employees are reported to be from throughout the studio, with no specific team or project targeted. Those affected by the firings have allegedly been offered severence packages and placement support.

The developer's statement regarding a less...

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Atari being sued by Turbine over D&D Online

The publisher of soon to re-launch as free-to-play D&D Online is allegedly being sued over its MMOG. But the shock isn't just the lawsuit itself, but the source of the lawsuit as well.

Turbine Inc., the developer of D&D Online, has filed a suit against publisher Atari in New York, according to Courthouse News. The developer is arguing that Atari has breached an agreement in 2003, where Turbine licensed the rights to make D&D MMOGs from the publisher.

Turbine is claiming that Atari is deliberately under-promoting the relaunch of D&D Online as part of a license-agreement "termination" strategy. The suit then claims that this strategy is being pursued in bad faith, as Atari is planning to launch its own competing product.

The Courthouse News did not specify what the competing product is. Rumors ...

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BioShock movie a go, with new director

The future of the proposed BioShock film has been up in the air ever since Universal Studios put the project on hold back in April, citing a growing budget as the primary reason for the postponement. The plan was to rework the script and explore new shooting locations to drive down filming costs, but that strategy has come at a price of its own.

Universal has indeed reworked John Logan's (Gladiator, Aviator, Sweeny Todd) script and arranged for new shooting locations, but in the process has lost the services of director Gore Verbinski (The Mexican, The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), who was unable to commit to the overseas shooting schedule. Taking his place will be 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Verbinski will assume the role of producer.

[SlashFilm]

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Play Policenauts in English now

Listen up, Kojima fans, because the long-overdue English translation to the popular game designer's 1994 Snatcher semi-sequel has finally arrived. This 15-year-in-the-making Policenauts localization is the work of a small group of fans, and is now being released to coincide with Hideo Kojima's 46th birthday. 

A North American Sega Saturn release was scheduled for 1996, but according to Kojima, work ceased on Konami's original port because developers were unable to sync English speech with the game's cutscene animations. A similar roadblock held up the fan translation, as the team searched for someone to insert the translated content into the game's code, only finding someone in August 2008 -- a year after the project had begun.

A patch for the PlayStation version is available now on the grou...

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Brutal Legend demo coming next month

Anyone who's been chomping at the bit to get his or her hands on Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend won't have to wait much longer; Electronic Arts and Double Fine Productions have announced that a demo of the game will be arriving on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network sometime this September.

The heavy-metal-inspired action comedy game hits stores on October 13th, so this demo will offer players a full month's worth of TEASE before the real thing becomes available. Said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions, "We just couldn't wait. Villagers have surrounded our offices with torches, demanding the game. So we're releasing a demo and hope that this taste of metal will keep the mob at bay until Brütal Legend comes out this Rocktober."

As for a specific date to expect this demo... no su...

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NPD says half of US population are gamers

The videogame industry is booming. According to the latest report from NPD Group, over half of the population of the United States -- 169.9 million out of 304 million, or just under 56% -- is now comprised of gamers. That's a 4.3 million-player increase since last year.

The 2009 Gamer Segmentation Report breaks down the US gamer population into seven categories, the largest of which is the "Secondary Gamers" category, totaling 33.6 million. These are individuals (mostly female, according to the study) who play less than four hours per week and do not own a console. "Console Gamers" (mostly male this time), who own at least one game system and play roughly 12 hours per week come in a close second at 32.9 million.

Other groups named in the report include "Heavy Portable Gamers" (30 million), ...

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UPDATE - Countdown has nothing to do with FFVII

Remember when I posted this story this morning? Well as it turns out, Square Enix's countdown website has absolutely nothing to do with a Final Fantasy VII remake, but with the company's card-based arcade strategy RPG, Lord of Vermilion.

First noted in a NeoGAF thread, the website contains images referencing the game and is likely to be counting down to the announcement of a home console port of the arcade title. Considering Square Enix's recent trademark registration for "Lord of Arcana," this seems far more likely than a next-gen remake of Final Fantasy VII.

GAF member Gilgamesh may have put it best with this handy graph plotting the internet's response to the news. I think most gamers will consider this quite a letdown.

[NeoGAF]

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Final Fantasy VII remake to be announced in a week...

Videogame publishers, just love countdown websites. They build excitement, garner lots of traffic hits, and then typically disappoint everyone who has visited once the timer runs down. If this trend is to continue, then possibly the most epic letdown of all will occur in just under a week, when Square Enix's recently created "VII DAYS" countdown site reaches zero. Hopefully, the opposite will be true, and we will see one of the biggest announcements from the Japanese RPG giant in years.

Most gamers recognize the symbolism in the large, Roman numeral VII; today could potentially be the unveiling of a current-gen Final Fantasy VII remake, delighting millions of fan across the globe. FFVII is one of the most revered RPGs -- one of the most revered games, period -- in videogame history, and th...

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GDC Europe going to Games Con 2009

Think Services announced today that the company, in conjunction with gamescom, will be bringing the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Europe to Games Convention 2009 in Cologne, Germany.

Frank Sliwka, who recently joined Think Services through the company's acquisition of Global Games Media (GGM), will lead the event as Vice President of European Business Development and Event Director for GDC Europe.

Think Services' Executive Vice President of Global Events Kathy Schoback expressed her excitement for the event, stating, "We are thrilled to present GDC Europe during gamescom. A world class game developer event belongs at the premier European game industry event. With the support of Koelnmesse, BIU (the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software), and the City of Cologne, E...

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"Why are you pirating from me?" asks developer

The pirating of software is as sure to happen as the sun rises everyday. Piracy is maligned by software protection groups such as the ESA, and is generally a hot button topic among game developers and publishers.

But Cliff Harris took the issue of pirating very personally--he is a one-man game development company and owns Positech Games.

When the independent game maker saw two of his games, Kudos and Democracy, end up on torrents for anyone to download for free, it really bothered him, to say the least. Harris decided to take things into his own hands and get to the bottom of the problem. On his company blog, he posted an open letter to pirates and asked one question; "what are your reasons for pirating games?"

"I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it wou...

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