By Nadia Oxford on May 30, 2011 in Business, Casual Games, Facebook
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References to online social gaming have a way of putting proclaimed hardcore gamers into a bad mood, and it’s not hard to see why. Core game developers like Capcom, Square-Enix, EA and more have been opening up studios and creating teams that are tailored strictly for the development of social and mobile games. Meanwhile, independent social games studios are popping up around the landscape like daisies on the first warm day of March. Core gamers are bristling...
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By Nadia Oxford on May 20, 2011 in Facebook, Game Design, MMO Games
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Those of us who enjoy gaming in dark solitude got a bit of a scare earlier this month when Valve insinuated that Portal 2 might be the last completely single-player experience that the studio will develop. Valve’s dad, Gabe Newell, assured fans through an interview that Valve is by no means abandoning the single-player experience. Instead, Valve will simply be focusing its energies on games that are “single-player plus.”
“Single-player is...
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By Nadia Oxford on May 17, 2011 in Business, Culture, Kinect
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Let’s ask a semi-philosophical question based around the games industry: What use is hardware innovation if software does not innovate alongside it?
Ex-Microsoft executive Ed Fries shared his concerns about potential video game software stagnation in a May interview with GamesIndustry. While game hardware is evolving in exciting new ways–controller-free game interaction, 3D, touch-screens–developers of big budget games are in danger of relying too...
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By Nadia Oxford on May 16, 2011 in Business, Casual Games, Indie Games
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At the dawn of 2011, Disney Interactive Studios initiated a round of layoffs. Then another round in March. Even now, as spring shakes off the cruel chill of the post-Christmas season, Disney Interactive Studio’s problems mount: The Mouse has taken the axe to 100 employees (how’s that for a mental image?) at Black Rock Studios, the developers behind the 2010 racing title Split/Second.
Sometimes it seems like we hear more about the cuts and layoffs coming...
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By Scott Steinberg on May 9, 2011 in Business, Digital Distribution, Disruptive Tech
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Pop quiz: What’s the biggest challenge that video game developers and publishers face today? Congratulations – if you said “discovery,” give yourself a pat on the back. With hundreds of free to play games, digital downloads, online offerings, social network titles and smartphone apps flooding virtual aisles each week, suddenly, it isn’t just about creating great games anymore. Given infinite selection, growing audience fragmentation across platforms...
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