World of Warcraft Reaches New Milestone, 11.5 Million Players are Now Playing
Posted by dan on: 2008-12-24 18:34:17 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World of Warcraft, its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide. This new high was reached following the November 13 release of the game's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Within its first 24 hours of availability, Wrath of the Lich King sold more than 2.8 million copies, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. In addition to winning a number of editor's choice awards from major gaming publications, the expansion has now gone on to sell more than 4 million copies in its first month, setting a new record for monthly PC-game sales. Both sales records were previously held by World of Warcraft's first expansion, The Burning Crusade.
"We're pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game's global community has continued to show," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to providing all of them with an excellent entertainment experience for a long time to come."
Posted by dan on: 2008-10-07 21:42:11 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
NINTENDO HERALDS the next generation of social gaming with the new Wii Speak Channel which will make keeping in touch with friends and family a whole lot easier.
The new service will be launched across Europe on December 5th this year and will connect users with the free-to-use Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.
This won't be a one-to-one personal chat though, Nintendo seems determined to get the whole family involved in everything - Wii Speak will connect directly to the console and pick up the conversation from an entire room of people meaning the fun (and arguments) are shared all around.
Posted by dan on: 2008-07-09 17:55:31 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Activision, Inc. today announced that, at a special
meeting of stockholders held earlier today, it received the stockholder
approval necessary to consummate the company's agreement with Vivendi,
S.A. to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment
business, with Activision's businesses. All of the proposals required
to effect the transaction received more than 92 percent of the shares
voted. The transaction is expected to close on or around July 9, 2008.
Activision
and Vivendi Games will combine their businesses through the merger of a
newly formed, wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision with and into
Vivendi Games. As a result of the merger, Vivendi Games, the parent
company of Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra, will become a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. Vivendi will receive
approximately 295.3 million newly issued shares of Activision common
stock. Concurrently with the merger, Vivendi will purchase
approximately 62.9 million newly issued shares of Activision common
stock at a price of $27.50 per share for a total of approximately $1.7
billion in cash, resulting in a total Vivendi ownership stake in
Activision Blizzard of approximately 52% on a fully diluted basis and
approximately 54% of shares outstanding. As of the closing of the
transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will
continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the
ticker ATVI.
Headquartered
in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide
pure-play online and console game publisher with leading market
positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive
entertainment software industry.
Activision Blizzard maintains
operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Romania, Australia, Chile, India, Japan China, the region of Taiwan and
South Korea. More information about Activision Blizzard and its
products can be found on the company's website, www.activisionblizzard.com.
Posted by dan on: 2008-05-01 17:44:45 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Infogrames Entertainment and Atari today announced that they have reached a definitive agreement to merge. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Infogrames will acquire the remaining outstanding equity interests of Atari (other than shares of common stock held by Infogrames or its affiliates, which would be cancelled) for US$1.68 per share, equivalent to a cash payment of approximately US$11 million.
Infogrames is currently the majority shareholder in Atari holding approximately 51.4%. Following the merger, Atari will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infogrames. The merger will be funded by Infogrames from existing cash resources. The transaction is not subject to any financing conditions and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2008.
This agreement is an essential and positive development for Infogrames and its shareholders. It brings Atari fully under the control of Infogrames, delivering a platform for future growth in the US. This step closely follows a series of recent major restructuring actions implemented in an effort to reposition Atari, streamline its corporate structure and reduce its annualized costs, including costs related to being a US public company.
Ubisoft Acquires the Tom Clancy Name for Video Games, Related Books, Movies
Posted by dan on: 2008-03-21 16:04:21 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Today, Ubisoft announced that it has concluded an agreement with Mr. Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name, on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products. The price of this all cash acquisition is not currently disclosed.
Post acquisition, Ubisoft expects to have a net cash position of around 130 M€ by the end of fiscal 2007-08, compared to a previous expectation of approximately 150 M€. Additional payments will be made as well in fiscal 2008-09 and fiscal 2009-10.
On the basis of past performance of Tom Clancy branded video games, and excluding any potential contribution coming from sales of ancillary products, the royalty savings generated by this acquisition are estimated to have an average positive impact on Ubisoft's operating income of a minimum of 5 M€ per year.
Posted by dan on: 2008-03-18 01:45:38 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
World-renowned developer Epic Games makes its debut on Steam today, delivering the award-winning Unreal and Unreal Tournament franchise to Steam gamers everywhere.
The Epic hits now available on Steam include the debut classic Unreal Gold, Unreal 2: The Awakening and the Unreal Tournament series: Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition, and the recently released Unreal Tournament 3, which has shipped over a million copies to date. For the ultimate Unreal experience, nab the Unreal Deal Pack, an incredible value at just $59.95.
Posted by dan on: 2008-01-10 23:13:57 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Fresh off the success of The Orange Box, the 2007 game of the year award-winning collection of new games heralded as "the best value in gaming history," Valve Corporation announces the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based development house behind one of 2008's most anticipated games, Left 4 Dead.
Valve was founded in 1996 and has grown to become one of the game industry's leading technology and content creators, with a portfolio of over 20 million games sold worldwide. The merger of the two companies extends Valve's development team and provides the company with a new studio in southern California.
Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead joins a growing list of Valve's game properties which includes the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat series of games as well as Portal, introduced as part of The Orange Box.
Game developer says Vista ruins computer game play
Posted by dan on: 2007-01-31 16:04:56 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
As Vista was grandly introduced to the world on Monday, computer game publisher WildTangent accused Microsoft's new operating system of ruining many common computer games.
Vista "breaks" games from Microsoft's online MSN service as well as from game websites operated by Yahoo, America Online, and RealArcade, according to WildTangent chief executive Alex St. John.
Vista parental controls that enable adults to restrict what children access with computers also will block downloads of family-friendly games not rated by the Electronic Software Ratings Board, St. John alleged.
WildTangent said it spent a year crafting game console software that was compatible with Vista. The "Vista Ready Console" was available for free download at wildtangent.com.
Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Posted by dan on: 2007-01-20 05:14:44 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
This Biz.GameDaily.com story reportsthat PC game sales totaled $970 million in the US in 2006. That represents a slight increase in PC game sales following declines in revenue in the past few years. The addition of PC game sales brought the entire video-PC game industry up to $13.5 billion in sales. The data, supplied by the NPD Group, also included the top 10 best selling PC games in 2006 in the US:
1. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2 Open For Business - Electronic Arts
4. Star Wars: Empire At War - LucasArts
5. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts
6. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks/Take 2
7. Age Of Empires III - Microsoft
8. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff - Electronic Arts
9. Civilization IV - 2K Games
10. The Sims 2 Nightlife - Electronic Arts
Fenner Investments sues Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo
Posted by dan on: 2007-01-14 00:37:20 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
In the latest lawsuit to be leveled against video game hardware manufacturers, Richardson, Texas based Fenner Investments has filed suit against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for infringing on the company's patent number 6,297,751 for a "low-voltage joystick port interface."
The patent, filed in 1998 and later awarded in 2001, is summarized: “The joystick port interface according the present invention is a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal.”
The lawsuit from Fenner Investments was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeks damages and an injunction against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for each company's willful infringement of the patent.
Posted by dan on: 2007-01-13 04:45:46 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Biz.GameDaily is reporting through unnamed sources that Viacom's MTV group is currently in talks with Ziff-Davis to acquire their 1Up.com online game network (the group of gaming sites includes the news site 1Up.com, the video site GameVideos.com, the file site FileFront.com and the RSS feed site GameTab.com).
Sega Gets Rights To Alien Games
Posted by dan on: 2006-12-11 23:25:08 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
SEGA® of America Inc., SEGA® Europe Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising today announced a worldwide exclusive agreement to bring game content based on the critically-acclaimed Alien film franchise to next-generation gaming systems. Multiple titles, including a first-person shooter and a role playing game, are currently in pre-production with the first to be released in 2009. Securing the rights to produce Alien titles reinforces SEGA's strategy of combining premium licensed content with original IP to aggressively expand its global business.
"As a direct result of Fox's efforts over the past 27 years, Alien has become one of the most recognized franchises in the motion picture industry," said Simon Jeffery, President and Chief Operating Officer, SEGA of America, Inc. "SEGA will utilize the power of next-gen systems to blend the time-honored story with leading edge design technology to deliver a riveting and suspenseful gameplay experience."
Posted by dan on: 2006-10-11 02:27:15 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
EBGames has jumped into the digital distribution ring with the launch of of
'Download
Now,' a section their site offering 1,040 titles for electronic purchase. So
the question is... do you think it's worth it?
We offer a huge selection of games available for download
directly to your PC. Simply select the downloadable games you wish to
purchase and use our secure digital download checkout. You will be
prompted to save these games directly to your PC using our robust
download managing software. No rentals, no subscriptions - you own the
game! In some cases, trial versions are also available, so you can even
review the game before making a purchase. How long is the free trial?
Trial periods vary by publisher. Most trial periods last for 30 minutes
of game play. Trial periods cannot be extended, but you will have the
option to purchase the full product after the trial period ends. Many
full-game products also come with a full 48-hour money back guarantee,
which you can use to extend your evaluation.
Blizzard Partners Up With Havok
Posted by dan on: 2006-09-15 05:21:55 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
"Havok 4.0 will add power and
flexibility to our development process," said Mike Morhaime, president and
co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're looking forward to utilizing this
technology with our upcoming games."Â Blizzard did not release names of its
upcoming games during E3 this past May, but the company has acknowledged that
new Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo titles are possibly in the works.
Although the Havok engine has been ported to just about every console made since
1999, last month Blizzard sent out a press released claiming that the company is
committed to developing PC (and Mac) based games and will not focus on console
development.
The Best Selling PC Games For August 2006
Posted by dan on: 2006-09-14 16:31:59 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
GGmania.com has issued
the list of the top 20 best selling PC games in the US for the month of August
2006:
1. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 - Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff - Electronic Arts
4. Civilization IV: Warlords - 2K Games
5. The Sims 2 Open for Business - Electronic Arts
6. Civilization IV - 2K Games
7. Paws and Claws Pet Vet - ValuSoft
8. Guild Wars Factions - NCsoft
9. Cars - THQ
10. Age of Empires III - Microsoft
11. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks/2K Games
12. The Sims 2 Nightlife - Electronic Arts
13. Half-Life 2: Episode One - Electronic Arts
14. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard
15. Zoo Tycoon 2 - Microsoft
16. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 - Atari
18. SimCity 4 Deluxe - Electronic Arts
19. The Sims Complete Collection - Electronic Arts
20. Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection - Microsoft
F.E.A.R. Combat full install v1.07 - FreeGame
Posted by dan on: 2006-08-18 02:50:46 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
As promised, Sierra has released
Combat
version of F.E.A.R. , the full free multiplayer component of this sci-fi
first-person shooter by Monolith Productions. The super-massive 1.8GB download
includes 19 multiplayer maps playable in 10 game modes with a dozen different
weapons. It also requires generating a free registration key at the
FEAR Combat website to
install.
F.E.A.R. Combat features:
- 10 multiplayer game modes.
- 19 multiplayer maps.
- 12 different weapons.
- Punkbuster support for anti-cheat support.
- The capability to download user generated content.
Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+/Intel 2.8ghz
Graphics: Nvidia 6600/X800GTO (SM 2.0)
RAM: 768Mb/1Gb on Windows Vista
HDD: 6GB
Internet: 256k+
Optical Drive: DVD
Software: DX9.0c with Windows XP
Recommended Requirements:
CPU: Dual-core CPU (Athlon X2/Pentium D)
Graphics: Nvidia 7800GTX/ATI X1800XT (SM 3.0) or DX10 equivalent
RAM: 1.5Gb
HDD: 6GB
Internet: 512k+ (128k+ upstream)
Optical Drive: DVD
Software: DX10 with Windows Vista
Vaugier is set to follow in the footsteps of Brooke Burke and Josie Maran, two
actresses that have flaunted their stuff in past Need for Speed iterations.
Vaugier will star as Nikki, the ex-girlfriend of Carbon's hero. "Playing the
role of Nikki allows me to take a completely fresh approach to acting and push
the boundaries of the creative process," Vaugier confesses. Whatever. Just keep
the 'drive safely' nagging down to a minimum, 'kay? Maran's PSA at the startup
of Most Wanted got tired -- real quick.
Need for Speed Carbon will be released this November on the Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, DS, Game Boy Advance, PSP,
PC, and mobile phones.
Posted by dan on: 2006-07-12 05:08:19 in category: Gaming [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Game physics software company Havok have
officially
announced the release of Havok 4.0, which adds two new products to their
software solution - Havok Behavior and Havok FX. The new Havok Behavior allows
physics based interactive character behavior for added gaming realism. Havok FX
will take advantage of available graphics processing power from ATI and NVIDIA
graphics cards for physics calculations and a more realistic gaming experience.
The Havok 4.0 SDK is compatible with Sony's upcoming Playstation 3 and Microsoft
Windows operating systems for an easier multi-platform developing experience.
The first games that will use Havok 4.0 will be released in the fall-winter
timeframe. ( Source ggmania
)
In the latest lawsuit to be leveled against video game hardware manufacturers, Richardson, Texas based Fenner Investments has filed suit against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for infringing on the company's patent number 6,297,751 for a "low-voltage joystick port interface."
)