GSC World Publishing and Koch Media Sign Publishing Agreement for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Clear Sky

GSC Game World, computer games developer, its publishing subdivision GSC World Publishing and Koch Media, a leading marketer of games and application software, today announced the conclusion of a publishing agreement concerning the title S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Under the terms of this contract, Koch Media is guaranteed worldwide publishing rights - with the exception of the territories Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will be published by the games labels Deep Silver and GSC World Publishing.

"The unique atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. caused a sensation among gamers, while the sales have demonstrated the brand's enormous potential. We are delighted with this chance to publish the prequel together with GSC under the Deep Silver label," said Craig McNicol, Managing Director of Koch Media.

«Publishing the game Heroes of Annihilated Empires worldwide together with Koch Media distribution, we were happy of the cooperation and are glad to continue it with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky project», - said Sergiy Grygorovych, CEO of GSC World Publishing.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a survival FPS game for PC based on a 'what-if' scenario of the second Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident. The game is created as a warning to mankind against mindless play with technologies. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the official prequel to the renowned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game by the Ukraine-based GSC Game World studio. The game is set in 2011 and brings forth the events to have preceded the third campaign of Strelok to the Zone center. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky introduces an alternative look onto the events of the original game and offers the player to try himself out as a mercenary s.t.a.l.k.e.r. in search of his own path in the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Official game site: www.stalker-game.com

About Koch Media UK

Founded in 1994, KOCH MEDIA UK develops, publishes and distributes a diverse mix of titles for home console gaming systems, personal computers and the Internet. Based in Basingstoke, the company has distribution contracts with a number of software publishers, including NINTENDO. For publishers not in the UK, KOCH MEDIA exclusively markets, sells and distributes titles. Under its own brands of DEEP SILVER and EUROPRESS, KOCH MEDIA develops and publishes its own range of gaming and educational and lifestyle software. For more information on KOCH MEDIA and its products, visit www.kochmedia.co.uk

About Deep Silver
Deep Silver is KOCH Media's premium games label. Deep Silver has been collaborating with international developers and publishers since 2002 to publish creative and innovative computer and video games. The multi-award-winning X2 and the daring Singles have already put Deep Silver at the top of the charts. Projects include co-publishing titles with Sunflowers (ANNO 1701, ParaWorld) and JoWooD (SpellForce 2, Gothic 3, etc). www.deepsilver.com

About GSC Game World and GSC World Publishing:
Founded in 1995 in Kiev, GSC Game World is the leading computer game development company in Ukraine. The launched projects developed by GSC Game World, among others, include the critically acclaimed and multi-million selling Cossacks series, American Conquest, American Conquest: Fight Back, Alexander (Oliver Stone's movie tie-in), Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars. The two recently released titles by GSC Game World are Heroes of Annihilated Empires (self-published worldwide by GSC's proprietary publishing subdivision GSC World Publishing) and the top-selling S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Currently in development is the official prequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky for PC.
Official web-site: www.gsc-game.com

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES 'MAJOR MINOR'S MAJESTIC MARCH'

March to the beat of your own drum as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced Major Minor’s Majestic March for the Wii™ home video game console. Developed by NanaOn-Sha, Major Minor’s Majestic March marks the return of the creative team behind the renowned PaRappa the Rapper franchise-legendary game designer and multimedia musician Masaya Matsuura and famed New York artist Rodney Alan Greenblat.

“There’s something magical about marching bands that truly captures the imagination. The concept of leading a virtual band that’s reliant on your musicianship is a perfect fit for the interactive capabilities of Wii,” said John Merchant, Marketing Manager, Majesco Europe. “The combined musical and artistic superiority of Matsuura and Greenblat make them a natural choice to deliver this innovative title exclusively to the Wii audience.”

Major Minor’s Majestic March turns the Wii Remote™ into a “special” baton that the bandleader, Major Minor, uses to keep tempo, recruit new band members and pick up valuable items. While marching through eight whimsical locations that contain various hair-raising events, Major Minor strives to create the most impressive parade ever. Players can add up to 15 different instruments to their dynamic procession—including brass, woodwinds, and percussion—to alter its composition and resulting performance. Players are scored on how well their band maintains its rhythm and manages obstacles that could otherwise throw the procession into disarray. The band keeps tempo to more than 25 popular marching band songs from around the world, composed into original medleys for each stage.

About Majesco Entertainment Company

Majesco Entertainment Company is a provider of video games for the mass market. Building on 20 years of operating history, the company is focused on developing and publishing a wide range of casual and family oriented video games on leading console and portable systems. The company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: COOL. Majesco is headquartered in Edison, NJ and has an international office in Bristol, UK. More information about Majesco can be found online at www.majescoentertainment.com and www.majescoeurope.com

SCHOLARSHIP FUND CREATED BY ACADEMY OF INTERACTIVE ARTS & SCIENCES SUPPORTS HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF GAMING GURUS

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the creation of the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund, established to support students pursuing careers in game design, development and production. The AIAS will award four $2,500 scholarships to students attending accredited universities.

This new scholarship fund, which will cultivate the gaming industry's brightest young minds, is a collaborative effort between the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and Bing Gordon, chief creative officer of Electronic Arts. The AIAS will donate $1 for every Academy member's vote for the 2008 Interactive Achievement Awards.

The AIAS has more than 12,000 members who are dedicated to serving the entertainment software industry. The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, hosted by actor, comedian and avid video game player, Jay Mohr, will take place during the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

The scholarship fund honors Dr. Randy Pausch, professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Dr. Pausch, a co-founder of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), has had great influence within the industry through his teachings, sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts, and consultation with Google on user interface design.

"It makes sense that the Academy's first scholarship fund honor Dr. Randy Pausch, who has been an inspiration to those who want to be involved in making great games," said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS. "We hope these scholarships may help the next Will Wright or Mike Morhaime get their start. This new effort is a wonderful opportunity for the video game industry to support its future by providing a foundation in academics."

A scholarship committee comprised of AIAS board members Rich Hilleman, Electronic Arts; Don Daglow, Stormfront Studios and Mike Capps, Epic Games, along with the University of Southern California's Chris Swain and Carnegie Mellon's (former AIAS board member) Jesse Schell to select scholarship recipients. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences will begin accepting applications after the 2008 D.I.C.E. Summit. Additional information on the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund and the application process will be available at www.interactive.org.

DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS INVITES FANS TO "WORK THIS OUT" WITH THE LATEST ADDITION TO ITS SUCCESSFUL "HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL" VIDEO GAME FRANCHISE

Disney Interactive Studios announced today that the newest video game in the “High School Musical” franchise – High School Musical: Work This Out! for Nintendo DS™ will be available April 2008. High School Musical: Work This Out! allows fans of the popular Disney Channel movies to dive into the world of the Lava Springs Resort in an all new musical adventure game, featuring storylines extending beyond “High School Musical 2.” For the first time on Nintendo DS, High School Musical: Work This Out! features all 10 songs from the movie, and allows players to take their favorite songs from the film on-the-go by using the Nintendo DS as a music player. This unique feature lets players listen to their favorite “High School Musical 2” songs even while the Nintendo DS is closed.

High School Musical: Work This Out! follows the extremely successful launch of High School Musical: Sing It!, High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut and High School Musical: Living the Dream this past holiday season. Across all titles and platforms in the franchise, Disney Interactive Studios has shipped 3.8 million copies of the video games worldwide. According to NPD data for the U.S., the “High School Musical” video games achieved Top 20 positions on each published platform for the month of December 2007. High School Musical: Sing It!, a karaoke-themed video game featuring songs from both “High School Musical” films, ranked as the #6 top selling Wii™ home video game system title and #11 selling PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system title. High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut, a rhythm-based music and adventure game, ranked no10 for Nintendo DS. High School Musical: Living the Dream ranked #5 among the GameBoy® Advance titles for the same month.

“The phenomenon of ‘High School Musical’ goes beyond simply watching the movies,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president, global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “The success of the video game franchise proves that fans want to immerse themselves in the world of ‘High School Musical,’ whether they are singing the songs or embarking on adventures with the cast. This new experience once again underscores Disney’s passion to provide fans with unparalleled entertainment as they wait for ‘High School Musical 3’ to arrive, which will also usher in a new generation of video games this holiday season.”

High School Musical: Work This Out!, due out in April, is the only musical adventure game allowing fans to immerse themselves in the world of “High School Musical 2.” Fans can play as their favorite High School Musical characters Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Chad and Taylor to explore the Lava Springs Resort as seen in the movie. Throughout the game, players go on various adventures at the resort, compete in time-based challenges and play different rhythm games, all while listening to the hit songs from “High School Musical 2.”

High School Musical: Work This Out!, rated E for Everyone PEGI 3+ and, will be available in April 2008 exclusively for Nintendo DS for $29.99.

Speedball-Demo out now

A singleplayer demo version of Speedball 2 – Tournament is now available for download. Tigers vs. Brutal Deluxe: Who is going to kick the opponent out of the arena? PC players choose one of the two tough teams to play in single player knock-out mode against CPU opponents. With two controllers plugged in to one computer, sports fans even jump into 1-on-1 matches against human opponents.

The full retail version is coming to stores soon. It features all 32 teams, team editor, team management, the singleplayer modes knock-out, cup and tournament as well as the full multiplayer mode via LAN and internet. The demo package consists of a 440 MB zip file and can be downloaded here:

http://www.fip-publishing.de/downloads68!1!435,1.html

Clever Communications makes impressive public relations

Clever Communications, a public relations agency specializing in interactive entertainment products, celebrates a major milestone in its company’s history-its one-year anniversary of serving the interactive entertainment industry. The Clever team, the agency of record for top publishers including Hudson Entertainment, K2 Network and more, provides an array of public relations services including customized public relations programs, media outreach, messaging, strategic counsel and more. The agency was started in January of 2007 by Mika Kelly, who previously held PR management positions at Namco, Infogrames (Atari) and more.

“We are so excited to reach this milestone in our company’s history,” said Mika Kelly, Principal at Clever Communications.

“We have worked so hard this last year to acquire and impress our clients and our success has been evident as we have grown and flourished. We look forward to helping many more companies to promote their services and products in 2008.”

Over the course of its first year in business, Clever has managed public relations outreach and projects for top video game industry clients including Hudson Entertainment, K2 Network, Ignition Entertainment, Playspan, G4Box Inc., True Games Interactive and the Mastering the Craft of Online Gaming Infrastructure Conference. In addition, the Clever team has branched beyond traditional game clients managing campaigns for Music and Video Production Company, 3volution Productions as well as energy drink company, Redux Beverages and its products: Cocaine and Brawndo.

As the company’s client roster has grown, so has the Clever team, including the hiring of industry veteran, Tina Casalino. Formerly of Sony Computer Entertainment of America and Reverb Communications, Casalino manages day-to-day media outreach, planning, strategy and more as a Senior Account Executive at Clever.

“Clever has impressed us with their extensive knowledge of the video game industry and their proven close-knit relationships with top-tier media contacts and publications,” said John Lee, Vice President of Marketing at Hudson Entertainment. “Their hard work since we started working together has made a great impact on our visibility in the industry—we look forward to a long partnership.”

Clever Communications has offices in Northern and Southern California and partner agencies in many European countries. Additional information can be found on the Clever Communications website www.clevercomm.com.

The alternative Game BAFTAs get sponsored!

Thanks to a kind sponsorship offer this year’s awards are to become: The Rodent Game Awards 2008 – Sponsored by Deep Silver.

Stephanie Baker of Deep Silver comments: “…The Rodent chaps play and love videogames – as the industry becomes ever more sophisticated and more deeply commercial, we thought it was worth celebrating the joy of actually playing and loving videogames.”

The event is to be held TONIGHT, Thursday the 31st of January 2008, in a London pub and to celebrate Deep Silver’s sponsorship we have been able to release a handful of extra tickets. They’ll go quicker than, I dunno, Hot Coffee so blag yourself a couple from here:

http://rodent.eventwax.com/rodent-game-awards-night-2008

www.WayoftheRodent.com – you lucky people!

WARNING! New Challenger approaching...

SPOILER ALERT

Every Character/Map leaked onto the web.

Returning Characters (Known from Dojo):

Mario
Donkey Kong
Link
Samus
Kirby
Fox
Pikachu
Zelda/Shiek
Peach
Yoshi
Ice Climbers
Bowser

Returning New Characters (Not posted on Dojo):

Marth
Game & Watch
Luigi
Falco
Ganondorf
Ness
Captain Falcon
Jigglypuff

Newcomers Known:

Diddy
Pit
Metaknight
Pokemon Trainer
Ike
Snake
Dedede
Olimar
Lucas
Sonic
Wario

Newly released Newcomers:

Lucario
Toon Link
R.O.B.
Star Wolf

Known Stages:

Battlefield (Original)
Battleship Halberd (Kirby Super Star)
Bridge of Eldin (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
Castle Siege (Fire Emblem)
Delfino Plaza (Super Mario Sunshine)
Distant Planet (Pikmin)
Frigate Orpheon (Metroid Prime)
Lylat Cruise (Star Fox)
Mario Circuit (Mario Kart)
Mushroomy Kingdom (Super Mario Bros)
New Pork City (Mother 3)
Norfair (Metroid)
PictoChat (DS)
Pokémon Stadium 2 (Pokémon)
Rumble Falls (Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat)
Shadow Moses Island (Metal Gear Solid)
Skyworld (Kid Icarus)
Smashville (Animal Crossing)
The Summit (Ice Climber)
WarioWare (WarioWare)
Yoshi's Island (Yoshi's Island)
Brinstar (Metroid)
Corneria (Star Fox)
Onett (Earthbound)
Rainbow Ride (Super Mario 64)
Temple (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link)
Yoshi's Island (Yoshi's Island)

Stages Returning (Previously unannounced):

Big Blue

New stages (Unannounced):

Classic Mario Bros. Stage
Green Hill Zone
Tetra's Ship
Port Town
Mt. Coronet
Luigi's Mansion
Electroplankton Stage

For a full summary, visit: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=233454

END SPOILER

Dungon Explorer Warriors Of Ancient Arts Goes Gold On PSP (PlayStation Portable) System And Nintendo DS

Hudson Entertainment, the North American publishing arm of Hudson Soft, today announced Dungeon Explorer Warriors of Ancient Arts for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system, and the Nintendo DS have gone to gold master. Published by Hudson and distributed in North America by Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., both versions are planned to ship February 12th, 2008 for a SRP of $29.99 each.

In the game for the PSP system, players are trained in weaponry and mystical forces as Warriors of Ancient Arts. On a quest and ready to uncover the fate of a legendary kingdom, gamers will prepare to battle demonic forces and monstrous creatures. Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts features hundreds of variations of weapons, armor and equipment that can be chosen and upgraded throughout the adventure to defeat enemies. Unique for the PSP system, players have the ability to choose their warfare style with more than 150 different kinds of fighting arts, including Big Bang Arts, allowing three players to team up to triple their destructive power in Ad-Hoc Multiplayer mode.

In the Nintendo DS version, gamers find themselves in a land plagued by a legion of undead, monstrous soldiers. The story takes place centuries after the events of the PSP version, as a legend foretells of a hero who will rise to face the threat.

Gamers must rediscover the lost Ancient Fighting Arts of Westria to restore peace to a once vibrant kingdom. With more than 60 different fighting arts across 8 lost Ancient Fighting Art schools, players can become a skilled warrior to successfully wage battle against dangerous enemies such as the Demon God's undead soldiers, mutated monsters, and an army of ancient automatons. The game offers hundreds of weapons, armor and equipment; all can be reworked along the way. Players can also choose from three hero races and three character classes to form a unique warrior for battle. For a group effort, 3 players can join forces to battle the Demon God's minions via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

For info and assets for both versions please visit: http://www.clevercomm.com/DungeonScreensJanuary/
For more information on Hudson Entertainment or Dungeon Explorer, please visit http://www.hudsonent.com/.

HandyGames honoured with more than 100 awards!

HandyGames is proud of having broken the mark of 100 international awards for their mobile games „Made in Germany“, in January 2008.

In addition to the successful Townsmen-series, big licenses like Gothic 3 – The Beginning or Panzer Tactics and especially complex in-house titles like Sturmtrupp Mars or Anarchy 2087 were able to win the specialised press’ hearts.

The promising line-up for the first half of 2008 already contains a huge potential with exceptional casual games like Dynamite Fishing, new extreme sports titles like Park or Die or action-strategy-blockbusters like The Egyptians.

"This year’s major goal is to bring our top titles area-wide to the US and Asia. Talks have already started and will be intensified at the GDC in San Francisco.“, says Markus Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames™. „The partner who will release only a couple of our top titles in the USA, can count on an enormous increase in sales and thus gain important market shares in this highly competitive market - with only little effort and risk!“

"Our mix of strong licenses and unique in-house productions is going to cause a stir in the industry in 2008 and will lead to increasing market shares in Europe, too.“, says Udo Bausewein, CFO of HandyGames™. „We will continue to focus on very high quality and an in-house production.” From game-design, graphics, programming, sound to porting and QA – everything is done by the company’s own staff in Germany.“

In this course, the HandyGames™ team would like to thank all the renowned European magazines like Airgamer, Areamobile, Doupe, Gaminator, GamingXP, HandyPlayer, Jeuxpo, Jeuxvideo, Looki, Mobilegamefaqs, MobilHry, Mogaming, Movilgamers, Play2Go, Pocketgamer, Projectnext, Wgworld (alphabetical order) and many others for the long and successful cooperation!