Microsoft to buy Epic?!

Washington (dbTechno) – According to reports, Microsoft is planning to buy the developer of the hit Xbox 360 game Gears of War, Epic Games, for the price of $1 billion. This all comes as an announcement is expected for Gears of War 2.The report comes from the latest issue of GamePro magazine which stated that by this summer, Microsoft plans to finish a deal to buy Epic Games.

It is expected that Epic Games will reveal the sequel to Gears of War at the Game Developers’ Conference 2008 this week (GDC 2008).

They have their booth set up right next to Microsoft at the show.

If Microsoft does acquire Epic Games, it would also mean that they would own the rights to the Unreal game engine, which is used on every single platform, including the rival PS3, for developers to use to make next-gen games.

This would basically allow Microsoft to make money off of the Unreal engine rights used to sell games on the PC and PS3.

[Via dbtechno.com]

Grand Theft Auto Movie Nearly Happened Last Year

It’s been a frequent target for critics of violence in videogames — and a constant source of profit for its producer, Rockstar Games, since its debut in the late ’90s — but Grand Theft Auto also very nearly became something else last year: A feature film.

In the debut of his Cut Scene blog, Variety’s Ben Fritz shares the news on “the Grand Theft Auto movie that almost was,” telling readers that after years of rebuffed proposals by various studios, one lucky (and unnamed) suitor came thisclose to locking up a deal with Rockstar. Here, let’s let Fritz tell it:

By the spring, a deal was virtually in place with one of the six major studios to start developing a “Grand Theft Auto” movie. Eminem was quite possibly going to star…Reporters at Variety (and, I have since learned, other publications) were preparing their stories based on conversations with the studio in question. Internally at Take 2, people were talking about it as a done deal. Then at the last minute, it all fell apart. I’m told Take 2 couldn’t finalize terms with the studio, though I’m not sure if it was a purely financial issue or if, in the end, the publisher got cold feet about giving away rights to its baby.

Yes, GTA fans, you narrowly missed the opportunity to see one of the industry’s most popular games brought to the big screen. With Eminem in the lead. You have got to love Hollywood.

Grand Theft Auto IV hits Xbox 360 and the PS3 on April 29.

[Via: The Cut Scene]

 

MeezOpens Gaming Platform with 50+ Titles

With the success that Facebook found in opening up its API to developers, more and more platforms followed suit. Today Meez, a social network that blends avatars and casual games with a virtual world-style environment, announced the gold launch of its gaming service and the accompanying API. Over 50 third-party games have already been integrated, with more than 50 still in the pipes for later this quarter.

Games like Cake Mania, Jewel Quest, Virtual Villagers, Bloons, and Star Shine have found some success on their own in the broader Web, and it seems like Meez is hoping they’ll

bring along some of that audience while increasing the stickiness factor for Meez existing members. Since the API allows developers to integrate personal Meez into the game, the casual experience becomes personal.

Along with including the Meez in the games (see an example through Facebook here), developers can more communication to the game, emoting through the Meez to make a more social experience. Games can also be tied to the larger community and its virtual economy, making wins and losses more significant, or at least worth a virtual t-shirt or two,  and relevant to status with badges and connected social profiles.

“Meez is giving game publishers access to some of the largest social networking communities on the Internet,”  Sean Ryan, Meez CEO, said in a statement.  “More importantly, we’re providing unique hooks into the social fabric of these communities, so that game publishers can form long-term, monetizable relationships with users, driving revenue through the Meez advertising engine and through virtual item commerce.”

[Via Virtual World News]

Xbox 360 Blu-Ray Player?

We’ve heard over and over and over how a Blu-ray movie player add-on for the Xbox 360 was a distinct possibility if the HD DVD format ended up losing out. Well, now that the Microsoft-supported format seems just one step away from dead, we’re hearing rumblings of just how possible that Blu-ray player possibility is.

Citing “insiders at Microsoft in the USA,” Australia’s Smarthouse says Microsoft’s Blu-ray add-on is already fully designed, and could be on the market within three months, “subject to internal marketing and sales approvals.” Smarthouse also repeated the rumors of a built-in high-def drive for the system, although now that rumored drive plays Blu-ray discs instead of an HD DVDs. Regardless, the tech site seems to think Microsoft will focus on digital movie downloads for those who don’t want an add-on.

As for Sony, they couldn’t be happier that Microsoft is considering jumping over to the “winning” side of this HD disc battle. “We would welcome Microsoft to the Blu-ray stable,” SCE Managing Director Michael Ephraim told Smarthouse. “In fact it is quite logical for them as the PS3 has been very successful in driving consumers to Blu-ray. In fact we believe that it has done more to win the format war than traditional Blu-ray player.” Hey, they just won a format war … they can afford to be a little smug.

[Via Megatonik]

 

[Via JoyStick]

Microsoft prepping new Xbox Live?

Job advert spills beans on new development plans

 

Microsoft is neck-deep in the development of its next Xbox console and a updated Xbox Live service to boot. The beans were well and truly spilled when a job advert popped up on job seeker website Games on Deck.

“Want to be involved in the next release of Xbox? Join the server-backed games team, part of the Xbox Live team that’s responsible for creating a completely new way for mainstream audiences to enjoy the Xbox and Live,” says the ad.

“We’re building the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new Live experience. Both the games and the dashboard experience will be deeply paired with dynamic server support to create a compelling, fresh scenario each time. We’re a small, entrepreneurial team working together to get things done very quickly in an agile environment. If you want to work in a space where you’ll get all the responsibility you can swallow, and run as fast as you can, this team is for you,” it says.

Xbox Live evolution

While the news will no-doubt excite Xbox gamers looking for something more, it’s not really much of a surprise to hear of Microsoft’s development plans. Of course it’s working on the next Xbox console. And of course it’s going to further improve its Xbox Live network – to not do so would be to let Sony back into the fight.

So what kind of specification will the new Xbox have? Speculation is that it’ll have a minimum of eight processing cores, maybe even as many as sixteen or even thirty-two. That’s a lot of processing power.

As for the evolution of Xbox Live – who knows what the future will bring. It’s certainly a key selling point for the 360 over the PS3 so a strong offering for future consoles will be seen as an absolute must.

We spoke to Microsoft about this story this morning and extracted a fairly predictable, “no comment.” It did, however, confirm that there will be no announcements regarding this at GDC.

By James Rivington

[Via TechRadar]

Activision to expand Hero franchise with DJ Hero?

By James Orry – 18/02/2008 – 12:29pm GMT

A Trademark filing made by the publisher suggests gamers could soon be spinning decks.

It’s been long assumed that Activision would expand its ‘Hero’ franchise into new genres, offering gamers new experiences with peripherals not limited to a guitar.

It now looks likely that the publisher will enter the world of deejaying, following a trademark filing for “DJ Hero” on February 8.

“Computer game software and related instruction manual sold together as a unit; interactive video game programs; computer game discs; downloadable software for use in connection with computer games; video game controllers; Interactive video game comprised of a CD or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller,” details the trademark filing.

DJ Hero, assuming Activision is making a game, won’t be the first DJ game released; Konami’s Beatmania series has been around for a decade and has seen releases on numerous platforms. The game also sports a great DJ Deck peripheral for an authentic deck spinning experience.

[Via VideoGamer]

Coobico Mixes MMO With Social Networking

There’s a mix of casual MMO and a social network. It’s Flash based, it’s free, it’s part strategy, part RPG, and it’s coming out in the first quarter of 2008. Its name is Coobico.

Game Mechanics: Building your settlement

The first structure of a new village is always the cityhall. Its construction-plan is obtained after picking up a settlers’ quest. Place the cityhall as the center of the new settlement in your most favorite place – maybe you like to settle down somewhere near other villages to take advantage of their infrastructure; or maybe you want to claim your piece of land in a remote place.

The cityhall enables settlers to add more structures to their village. Each structure is build in a similar pattern: pick up an according quest, place the building, then pay for its costs.

A village has a score recorded in Coobico’s leaderboards: its land-value. With each new building, a village’s land-value is increased. This boosts the owner’s highscore, but also raises the price of constructing further structures. Other important city-stats are Wellbeing and Productivity. Wellbeing indicates the quality of living; it’s influenced by a lot of factors like the amount of industrial estates, the level of greening and the quantity of hazard-spots close to the settlement. Finally, a village’s productivity adds up all its economic activities from trading goods at a merchant to harvesting resources – even if bargains in a village are made by non-residents.

Settlers will need to increase their village’s land-value as good as possible whilst balancing their productivity and wellbeing, and, of course, keeping all of their structures in good repair.

About Coobico:

via http://mashable.com/2007/10/04/coobico-mmo-socnet/

Although every MMO is, in fact, some sort of social network, many companies are trying to find that special niche where gaming and social networking meet. Coobico is, as the founders say, a mix of casual MMO (casual, in the realm of MMOs, usually means that you don’t have to leave your family, quit your job and spend the rest of your wretched life living in a tiny apartment, permanently hooked to the screen, to be successful in the game) and a social network. It’s Flash based, it’s free, it’s part strategy, part RPG, and it’s coming out in the first quarter of 2008.

Although this date is relatively near, the game seems to be in early stages of development – concept art and hints on gameplay with an occasional tiny in-game screenshot are all you can find out about the game at this time. An interview with one of the founders, Lutz Winter, reveals that the intended game audience are 30 and 40-somethings which aren’t interested in endless grind, but a more casual mix of fun gameplay, chat, and other social networking features. In the interview, the game is compared with desktop titles like the Settlers but also online successful titles like Habbo Hotel and Gaia Online.

The game is developed by Linking People, a Hong Kong based company founded by three web developers from Germany. S. Wetzel, J. Martin and L. Winter have mostly been designing commercial and promo web sites; we’ll see how well they’ll do in the socnet/gaming arena.

[Via Curse]