Quazal Debuts Online Tech for MacOS X

Quazal, makers of the award-winning Net-Z, Rendez-Vous and Spark! online multiplayer middleware today announced that they have added MacOS X to their list of supported platforms.

With the release of the Mac version of Net-Z, Rendez-Vous and Spark!, Quazal makes available all of the features and flexibility that they’ve become known for on PC and consoles. Developers can even allow for PC/Mac cross-platform play, with very little added effort.

“With the growth of the Mac audience, the quality of the OS X platform, and the increasing interest of game publishers catering to that audience, Quazal has seen the need for a version of their technologies and services on Mac,” says Sylvain Beaudry, president at Quazal.

“It’s often a challenge to find proven game development technologies on the Mac, and this will definitely help to bring more games with rich online experiences to the platform”, says Justin D’Onofrio, Producer at game developer Freeverse. “We are really happy to be early adopters and help Quazal provide their product to the Mac development community.”

Interested parties can contact Quazal for more information at info@quazal.com, or can visit us at the San Francisco Game Developers’ Conference in West Hall, booth ES668 from Wednesday, February 20th to Friday, February 22nd.

Leap, Sneak and Evade Your Way to Safety as the World's Most Elusive Ninja in "N+," An Innovative Platformer Launching on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednes

Become a gold-thirsty ninja battling homicidal robots with “N+” as it lands on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday 20th February at 09.00.

In the enhanced version of the original game “N,” players take on the persona of a ninja who must use agile acrobatic actions to battle robots in the futuristic world of “N+.” Play as a lone ninja or destroy the robots with a friend in Cooperative, Survival or Race modes using local or Internet co-op via Xbox LIVE. “N+” boasts 2-D Ragdoll physics with incredibly styled next-generation graphics for an intense visual experience. With unlimited lives, over 300 levels to master and a built-in level editor for when you crave more, the gold-searching and robot-smashing adventures are seemingly endless!

Where can I get this game from?
N+ is available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E10+ by the ESRB.

More information is available at:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/n/nplusxboxlivearcade

ZeniMax Media Opens London Office

ZeniMax Media Inc., the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has begun direct publishing operations in Europe with the establishment of its London-based subsidiary, ZeniMax Europe Ltd. ZeniMax Europe will be publishing titles throughout UK/EMEA territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand.

Bethesda Softworks has a successful history as a developer and publisher of award-winning titles, most recently with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which won critical acclaim and countless Game of the Year awards. While continuing to work with strategic European distribution partners, ZeniMax Europe plans to deliver a range of compelling titles to the European market in the coming years, including the highly anticipated Fallout 3 in Fall 2008.

“This is an important step for us as we look to expand our presence in markets outside of North America,” said Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media Inc. “We want to establish direct relationships with retailers and distributors throughout Europe and the UK as we bring exciting titles like Fallout 3 and Rogue Warrior to gamers worldwide.”

The European operations of the Company will be headed by Sean Brennan, an industry veteran with over 20 years experience in the European markets. “We are happy to be part of the ZeniMax family,” said Sean “Building upon their great reputation and extending their direct reach throughout Europe and the UK is an exciting, new phase in the expansion of the company.”

Working alongside Brennan are Greg Baverstock, Director of Sales and Business Development, and Christina Camerota, Director of Marketing and Public Relations. With a wealth of industry experience, the team has recently settled into the Company’s new European offices which are located in the heart of London’s West end.

Two New Classic Games Added To Wii Shop Channel

Some gamers get skeptical when Roman numerals populate the title of a game. But make no mistake - this week's offerings are no mere sequels. They are some of the most highly regarded classic games around. So stock up on some Wii Points™ to battle the Dark Force or complete an action-packed trilogy.

Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week's new games are:

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom: (NES, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points): Join master ninja Ryu Hayabusa, last member of the famous Dragon Clan, in the third and final chapter of the legendary Ninja Gaiden saga. Ryu is framed for FBI agent Irene Lew's murder, and it's up to him to clear his name. Defeating superior life-forms created out of "life energy" called BIO-NOIDs and avoiding enemy ambushes are among the many obstacles which Ryu faces in this unpredictable adventure of mystery, deceit and destruction. Noticeable changes to the game-play mechanics include Ryu's ability to grab on to horizontal surfaces, his reduced falling speed and altered jumping maneuvers, and visible power-ups. Help Ryu defeat the forces of evil once more and discover the real culprit behind Irene's death as one of the most loved trilogies in video-game history comes to a close.

Phantasy Star II: (Sega Genesis, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Animated Violence, 800 Wii Points): Hailed as one of the greatest games of all time by fans and media alike, Phantasy Star II is an RPG that features an epic story line and turn-based battles. Play as Rolf, Nei, Rudo or several other characters as you navigate through the Algol star system battling the evil Dark Force. Build your characters, select the right weapons and armor, and take on the forces of evil through various missions as you find the right combination of characters to complete each objective. Experience the magic once again in this great sequel.

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.

Paramount Pictures Signs To Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store

Paramount Pictures added to the momentum of Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store in the UK, by confirming today that it is extending its partnership with Microsoft Corp. to bring its catalogue of current and library films to the UK as well. This means that all Xbox 360 owners connected to Xbox LIVE can now download-to-rent both high definition and standard definition Paramount Pictures movies direct to their console via Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store. With this latest partnership, Xbox 360 aims to place itself at the centre of digital entertainment in the living room, giving consumers the best in high definition games, movies and music videos along with access to friends, digital music and pictures.

From Tuesday 19th February, ‘Transformers’, those robots in disguise, will get a LIVE action outing as the war between the evil Decepticons and the heroic Autobots erupts on Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store along with other Paramount blockbusters. Available in SD and/or HD formats, download-to-rent films will cost from as little as 250 Microsoft Points (*ERP £2) for standard definition movies and from 380 Microsoft Points (*ERP £3.20) for high definition movies.

Robin Burrowes, Xbox LIVE Marketing Manager UK, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division commented: “We are really happy to be able to welcome Paramount to Xbox LIVE Marketplace in UK. This announcement gives our Video Store customers in the UK an even greater choice of entertainment with a great level of HD movie quality, as always.”

Alex Carloss, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Digital Distribution, Paramount Digital Entertainment - one of the key studio partners when Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store launched in the US - commented on the expansion into Europe : “We’re excited to be involved in the acceleration phase of the European launch of Xbox LIVE’s Video Store and look forward to watching this service grow. To deliver Paramount’s top films to people in their living room via a games console fits perfectly with our global digital distribution strategy.”

Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks movies coming to Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store this Spring include:

· Transformers (available in SD and HD)
· Goodbye Bafana (available in SD and HD)
· Intersection (available in SD)
· Primal Fear (available in SD)
· Clear and Present Danger (available in SD)
· Naked Gun 2 & 1/2: The Smell of Fear (available in SD)
· Naked Gun 33 & 1/3 (available in SD)
· Top Secret! (available in SD)
· Bug (available in SD)
· Hardball (available in SD)
· The Phantom (available in SD)
· Orange County (available in SD)
· 1408 (available in SD and HD)
· Disturbia (available in SD and HD)
· Hot Rod (available in SD and HD)
· A Mighty Heart (available in SD and HD)
· Heartbreak Kid (available in SD and HD)
· Stardust (available in SD and HD)
· In to the Wild (available in SD and HD)

Additional movies from Warner Bros will also be added to the service this Spring. Many films will be available in high definition. They include:

· The Assassination of Jesse James (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
· Beowulf (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
· License to Wed (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
· No Reservations (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
· The December Boys (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)
· Nancy Drew (Warner Bros, available in SD and HD)

The diverse list of new content means there are even more incredible entertainment choices on Xbox LIVE for everyone in the family. All gamers in the UK, France, Germany and Ireland need to access this service with both an Xbox Live Silver or Gold membership and a broadband connection. More information about the content available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store can be found at: www.xbox.com

2nd Year, Twice As Big, The Elan Awards Deliver The Winners

Last night the Video Game, Animation Industry and Digital Art Students turned out in full force to celebrate Canadian supremacy in the fastest growing entertainment industry in the world. Canadian video game developers and publishers, animators and studio heads and the brightest students and top academia gathered at 2nd Annual Elan Awards held at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts in eager anticipation to learn the winning names behind some of the biggest games and shows in North America.

This year’s show also saw the Elan Awards open up to include International Award Categories attracting companies such as Microsoft, DreamWorks SKG, Insomniac Games, EA USA, VIZ Media and, of course, Fuzzy Door Productions that is the brain child of this year’s Host, Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane lived up to his enormous reputation as one of the Industry’s top talents and rewarded the room full of top Video Game and Animation Talent/Execs with a hilarious “classic Seth” performance including a singing “Stewie” final act to close the show. The night went on to see MacFarlane win his first Elan in the category of “Best International Animated Television Production” for FAMILY GUY.

Nick Fletcher, Producer of DreamWork’s the BEE MOVIE flew in from Los Angeles to accept the “Producer’s Choice for the Inaugural Best Animated Feature” and Don Mattrick, recipient of this year’s “Video Game Hall of Fame” sent a message of acceptance to the evening’s attendees: “I wanted to send a very sincere thank you for this Video Game Hall of Fame Award. I am truly honored to be selected, and sorry that I can’t be there to accept in person. Congratulations to all the other winners at the Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts & Animation! Thanks should also go to Holly Carinci and Jack Weatherell for putting all this together. Hope you all enjoy the evening”.

And on that note, the winners from last night’s 2nd Annual Elan Awards are:

ANIMATION CATEGORIES

1. BEST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Barbie as the Island Princess Rainmaker Animation Jennifer Twiner Mccarron

2. THE SEVEN GROUP AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)

Edgar & Ellen Bardel Entertainment Delna Bhesania, Barry Ward, Trish Lindsay, Barbara Ferro

3. BEST ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT

Yellow Sticky Notes Jeff Chiba Stearns

4. BEST DIRECTION in a FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Barbie as the Island Princess Rainmaker Animation Greg Richardson

5. BEST DIRECTION in an ANIMATED TELEVISION SERIES

Ruby Gloom: Venus de Gloomsville Nelvana LTD Robin Budd

6. BEST MALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Lee Tockar George of the Jungle Studio B

7. BEST FEMALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Marÿke Hendrikse Johnny Test Cookie Jar Entertainment

8. BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE

Bruno and the Banana Bunch Cuppa Coffee Studios Adam Goddard

9. BEST STORYBOARDING

George of the Jungle: Naked Ape Man Studio B Dennis Crawford / Lyn Hart

10. BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN OR ART DIRECTION

Edgar & Ellen: Crushed Bardel Entertainment Greg Huculak and Zoe Evamy

11. BEST WRITING IN AN ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Storm Hawks Nerd Corps Entertainment Rob Hoegee

12. THE ELECTRONIC ART’S AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)

Family Guy Fuzzy Door Productions Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith

13.THE INAUGURAL AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Feature)

Bee Movie: Dreamworks Animation SKG

14. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN ANIMATION

Kai Pindal

'Rhiannon' Back on Track for Summer '08 Release

Independent adventure game producer Arberth Studios has updated its Website with yet more details of its forthcoming title 'Rhiannon: Beyond the Mabinogion', including a range of screenshots giving some indication of the sheer scale of the game arena and clearly demonstrating the game's high production values. A video trailer is also available.

But wasn't 'Rhiannon' due to be out by now? Game engineer Noel Bruton admits, "we conducted a build of the game last September, and we found we weren't content with the graphics. So we started again at a larger screen size and more colour depth. It's meant we had to render everything again from the models, effectively starting from scratch. But the upside is that 'Rhiannon' is now even more atmospheric and importantly, we're on course to release the game in Summer 2008."

'Rhiannon' weaves classic Celtic legends of revenge into a modern-day setting in a run-down Welsh country house and grounds. The game is aimed squarely at the first-person point-and-click market. Although it is violence-free, it is decidedly not for young children. Its intricate plot deals with numerous grown-up themes from the ancient to the contemporary. It blends magic with technology, fact with myth, horror with compassion and classicism with metaphysics. It is a feast for lovers of ghost stories, mystery, legend and puzzles.

Further details at http://www.arberthstudios.com.

Fashion Boutique enjoys a glamorous grand opening!

Total Eclipse (www.totaleclipsegames.com) is proud to announce that their latest title, Fashion Boutique, is now available. Manage several floundering clothing stores on the East Coast of America on your quest to bring them financial success in this time management game for the fashion crowd.

Fashion Boutique features 5 different stores of 10 stages each. Handle 12 challenging customer types as they bring the game to life, each with their own demands and quirks. As you progress through the game you will move from city to city and at the same time earn new garments for your wardrobe, which you can use to dress the main character, as you like. At several intervals in the game you’ll be presented with a Dress up mini game, both as a memory challenge, as well as in free play mode. The easy going soundtrack coupled with immersive sounds and voice-overs create a well rounded gaming experience you will be sure to enjoy!

Playing Fashion Boutique is simple but it requires quick reflexes. As customers come in the store, you have to serve them by bringing the items they order, drag them to changing rooms, so they can try their new clothes on and then taking them to the counter so they can pay. A fun twist introduced early in the game is called Upselling and it allows you to get the customer to buy something else as well, using your sales ability. You can win back customers who lose hearts when they are kept waiting using your charisma to flirt with the men and compliment the ladies. To increase your abilities, you can choose how to spend your free time during the weekends when you are not working at the boutique. Those choices will also affect the development of the story, which is presented through gorgeously illustrated comic cut scenes.

The Fashion World awaits you! Experience the thrill for yourself by downloading the free demo from the official Fashion Boutique website at www.fashionboutiquegame.com.

Exit Games Announces Neutron Integration With Airplay Platform To Enable Multiplayer 3D Mobile Games

Exit Games, a world leading service provider of mobile and online multiplayer gaming, today announced that it will integrate Neutron, its cross-platform multiplayer gaming technology, with AirplayÔ, the ground-breaking native mobile games platform from Ideaworks3D.

Under terms of the agreement, Airplay and Neutron will combine forces to offer mobile game developers a complete solution for multiplayer mobile game development. The addition of Neutron to the Airplay development platform provides developers with the rock solid framework needed to simplify the development of multiplayer mobile games and social communities. Enhanced connectivity features including in-game voice/text chat, real-time multiplayer gaming, leader boards, in-game billing capabilities, and advertisement delivery are all part of the offering. Airplay provides a powerful integrated C++ development environment, which allows a single native application binary to be deployed unmodified to every accessible native platform, including BREW, N-Gage, Symbian OS (Series60 and UIQ3), Windows Mobile, Linux and selected RTOS environments.

“Joining forces with Ideaworks3D falls right in line with our overall goal of reducing the complexity and the cost of development for multiplayer mobile titles,” said Tom Sperry, CEO of Exit Games. “As companies increasingly turn to connected mobile gaming features, we’re confident that Neutron and Airplay will stand out as leading technologies that push the industry forward.”

“The multiplayer mobile gaming capabilities that Neutron brings to Airplay will lead to the development of advanced, connected, and entertaining 3D titles,” added Alex Caccia, CEO of Ideaworks3D. “The Airplay platform is open for middleware providers to bring their additional value to the offering. We’re now in a great position to provide a connected, graphically-rich and cost-effective development platform that addresses the needs of mobile developers and publishers today”.

Exit Games will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress (Feb. 11-14 in Barcelona) and Game Developer Conference (Feb. 18-22 in San Francisco).

D3Publisher Of America And Vicious Cycle Software's Dead Head Fred Wins WGA's First-Ever Videogame Writing Award

Dead Head Fred, the critically acclaimed videogame created specifically for the PSP (PlayStationPortable) by publisher D3Publisher of America, Inc. (D3PA), and developer Vicious Cycle Software, Inc., has won the Writers Guild of America's inaugural Videogame Writing Award. The 2008 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television, documentary, radio, promotion, and videogames during 2007 were announced on Saturday, February 9th.

"D3PA and the entire Dead Head Fred team at Vicious Cycle are all very grateful and humbled by this award," said Yoji Takenaka, executive vice president and chief operations officer, D3PA. "We look forward to bringing fans many more top quality games and continuing to elevate the standard of game writing in the industry."

Developed by the WGA and spearheaded by the Guild's New Media Caucus to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames, improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming industry, the WGA's inaugural Videogame Writing Award spotlights quality work by videogame writers, raising their profiles, and validating their contributions to this rapidly maturing medium. The WGA Videogame Writing Award honors the best qualifying script from a videogame published in the previous year.

"Being nominated along with so many top caliber writers for the first WGA Video Game Writing Award was an honor in itself, so it's fantastic that we won," said Eric Peterson, president and chief executive officer, Vicious Cycle Software. "Dead Head Fred was something we had a lot of fun with and we are glad that players and fans are enjoying the game as much as we do."

Dead Head Fred is rated "M" (Mature - Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor and Strong Language) by the ESRB. In Dead Head Fred, writers and nominees Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan draw players into an original 1940's-inspired alternative universe where players take on the role of Fred Neuman, a private detective savagely murdered and then resurrected in a bizarre scientific experiment without his memory or his head. Players embark on a quest for vengeance as they solve their own murder by using the severed heads of enemies as replacements for the one missing on the game's cranium-impaired hero.