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 [GamerBytes editor Ryan Langley examines PlayStation Network's debuts and successes during January 2011, using leaderboard and chart data to analyze their sales and downloads.] The PlayStation 3's digital service saw only seven new releases for January - a far more standard number than the large amount released during December. Only two of the games we were able to follow in any sort of regard, and one of them accidentally allows for both full and trial ...
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 The latest issue of Gamasutra sister publication Game Developer magazine, available now for subscribers and for digital purchase, includes an exclusive, in-depth postmortem of Sid Meier's Civilization V, written by lead producer Dennis Shirk. Released in September 2010, Firaxis Games' latest iteration of the classic turn-based strategy franchise implemented a number of changes that fundamentally changed the way Civilization looks and plays. New elements such as a hex-based grid and tiles that only hold a ...
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 One of the main selling points for Rockstar and Team Bondi's upcoming L.A. Noire is its sophisticated facial capture technology that allows the game's animators to convey an unusually lifelike rendition of an actor's performance. This drives the gameplay, which casts the player as a detective who needs to read the subtleties of characters' expressions and behaviors to divine their truthfulness and how best to question them. The gameplay hinges so much on the technology ...
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 A detailed analysis of NPD's February sales numbers from Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter reveals estimated new U.S. retail software sales for many highly visible titles. Majesco's Zumba Fitness sold 301,000 units in its sixth place sales finish for the month, according to Pachter. This comes after the title reportedly sold "over 300,000" units in January and shipped 500,000 units to retailers in its first two months on sale. Sales of EA's Dead Space 2 ...
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 [We round up the week's top news and new digital releases from console digital download site GamerBytes, featuring new information about Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, DSiWare and PSN Minis.] Much like the week before, game announcements have been coming quick and fast this week -- a new Toy Soldiers, Tribes, Magic: The Gathering 2012 and a whole slew of indie-developed Serious Sam games. It's quite overwhelming, but we're here to help with the ...
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 [Sister site FingerGaming rounds up the week's most popular paid and free iPhone and iPod Touch games, as current on the iTunes App Store.] This week's top paid iPhone and iPod Touch games on the App Store, as captured on March 14th 2011, are as follows: 1. Tiny Wings ($0.99) 2. Angry Birds ($0.99) 3. Angry Birds Seasons ($0.99) 4. Fruit Ninja ($0.99) 5. Cut the Rope ($0.99) 6. Rotate & Roll ($0.99) 7. Doodle ...
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 University of Minnesota researchers are using an array of Kinect sensors as an objective way to measure potential disorder symptoms in children, saving tens of thousands of dollars over other diagnosis methods. A cross-disciplinary team from Minnesota's Medical, Science and Engineering, and Education and Human Development Colleges has received an $3 million Nationsl Science Foundation grant to use the Kinect sensor in observing and analyzing abnormal movements and behaviors in children -- movements which might ...
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 Disney Interactive Media Group has reportedly let go of 80 employees in a series of "targeted" layoffs aimed at reorienting the company in the wake of last Summer's purchase of social game maker Playdom. The move followed a review of current staffers by DIMG co-president Jim Pitaro, according to a PaidContent report. In a statement provided to PaidContent, the company said the "targeted" layoffs were "part of setting a strategic direction for future success in ...
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 [Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris reports from this year's South by Southwest, discovering a Richard Garriott-pitched Lord British social game and a host of other game-related aspects to the film, music and tech conference.] Music and film might be the dominant forms of entertainment on display at this year's South by Southwest gathering, but gaming culture is definitely elbowing its way into the party. Public game demos and several seminars examining the state of the industry ...
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Music and film might be the dominant forms of entertainment on display at this year's South by Southwest gathering, but gaming culture is definitely elbowing its way into the party. Public game demos and several seminars examining the state of the industry have been on display at the Austin Convention Center since Friday - and some developers (including Richard Garriott) are even using the event to announce new titles. Garriott's company Portalarium is competing in ...
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 This weekend's second annual Penny Arcade Expo East conference attracted nearly 70,000 attendees, organizers say, a 32 percent increase from 2010's inaugural show, which was held at a smaller location. The official headcount for PAX East 2011 was 69,500, up from the 52,290 who came to the first show, held at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in 2010. Complaints about crowding and attendee limits at that show led organizers to move to ...
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 Bioware and Electronic Arts' RPG sequel Dragon Age II debuted atop the UK software sales charts this week, marking EA's third title to reach number one in 2011, reports tracking firm Chart-Track. For the week ended March 12, the multiplatform Dragon Age II saw 57 percent of its sales on Xbox 360, with the PlayStation 3 and PC comprising the remaining 22 and 21 percent, respectively. After setting franchise sales records last week, Nintendo's most ...
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 As digital markets and new platforms rapidly emerge, the U.S.'s NPD data, which tracks only retail software, hardware and accessory sales, is an ever less-thorough picture of the video game industry's health. Many investors still see physical software percentage declines as reasons to be cautious about game publishers -- and those publishers are beginning to speak out. "Using NPD data for video game sales is like measuring music sales and ignoring something called iTunes," Electronic ...
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As digital markets and new platforms rapidly emerge, the U.S.'s NPD data, which tracks only retail software and hardware sales, is an ever less-thorough picture of the video game industry's health. Many investors still see physical software percentage declines as reasons to be cautious about game publishers -- and those publishers are beginning to speak out. "Using NPD data for video game sales is like measuring music sales and ignoring something called iTunes," Electronic Arts ...
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 In the wake of the recent earthquake disaster in Japan, Irem will cancel this Spring's upcoming Disaster Report 4, the first next-gen entry in the disaster survival series. It's set in the wake of an earthquake, and tasks players with escaping the city as it collapses. Although the company didn't give a reason for the cancellation of the awaited title -- it had been slated for a March 10 release but was pushed ahead to ...
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 "Everyone" is playing Angry Birds, says Rovio marketing exec Peter Vesterbacka -- the title has seen 100 million total downloads to date, a doubling over the 50 million at which it stood just three months ago. Vesterbacka revealed the latest figures at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, as reported by business site Mobile Entertainment. Angry Birds now has 40 million monthly active users, who spend 200 million minutes a day on the game, ...
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 Mortal Kombat has never been a bloodless series, to say the least, but Warner Bros.' appeal on behalf of the gory fighting game won't get it a release in Australia. The game's publisher appealed Australia's ratings board to ask it to reconsider its decision to deny classification for Mortal Kombat, but was rejected -- WBIE says it's "obviously extremely disappointed." As Australia lacks an R18+, or 18-and-over rating for games, those that would fall into ...
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 Sales in the packaged video game industry in the U.S. may have been shrinking the past few years, but analyst Mike Hickey with Janco Partners said Monday the industry could see modest year-on-year growth in 2011. Hickey said in a research note that the game industry will see 2011 growth driven by factors including an "expanding video game market," platform extensions like the Microsoft Kinect, new handheld devices from Nintendo and Sony and increased sales ...
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 Tokyo-headquartered companies Square Enix and Konami have shut down servers for their online games due to power concerns following last week's disasters in Japan. As power companies in Japan impose rolling blackouts due to facilities damaged by the recent earthquakes and tsunamis that have devastated the country, companies and households have been advised to reduce their usage of electricity for unnecessary equipment and appliances. Square Enix responded by temporarily suspending services for its Final Fantasy ...
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 Zynga announced a partnership with Save The Children to support relief efforts in Japan following last week's earthquake and tsunami disasters, raising money through virtual good sales. As part of the fundraising initiative, Zynga has made available newly created virtual items, such as Kobe cows and Japanese-style furniture/architecture, in seven social games, including massively popular Facebook titles like CityVille, FarmVille, FrontierVille, and Zynga Poker. The social game developer will donate 100 percent of the purchase ...
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 NoVer's "ambient exploration game" GLiD took home the grand prize and a $50,000 check from IndiePub's Independent Propeller Awards ceremony held at the ScreenBurn Arcade portion of SXSW Interactive. One of 150 titles submitted to the contest, GLiD also received an opportunity for a publishing deal with IndiePub and its parent company Zoo Publishing. The title was previously selected as a Student Showcase finalist at the 2011 Independent Games Festival. The winners from the Independent ...
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 Bethesda Softworks on Monday confirmed it is publishing the first-person shooter Prey 2, due in 2012 and under development by Madison, WI-based Human Head Studios. Prey 2 will be the first video game out of Human Head since the original Prey in 2006, which came out for PC, and was ported to Xbox 360 by Venom Games. Aspyr later brought the game to Mac. The sequel is slated for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation ...
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 UK-based MMO developer Jagex is partnering with toymaker Hasbro to create an online game based on the Transformers brand, due to launch in 2012, the two companies announced on Monday. Jagex is best known for its highly-successful free-to-play browser-based MMO RuneScape, a fantasy-themed game that originally launched in 2001. The company said it has over 40 online games with millions of players. Other titles in publisher-developer's portfolio include War of Legends, Void Hunters and Miner ...
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 [Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews take a close look at shifting market share among the big three video game console manufacturers as part of his monthly analysis of NPD Group U.S. sales data.] As Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz spelled out in his comments last Friday, the industry has undergone a significant shift in the past year. In particular, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 together account for a larger proportion of hardware sales over ...
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 [In a presentation originally given at GDC 2011 titled "An Apology for Roger Ebert," Infocom and LucasArts veteran Brian Moriarty came to the defense of film critic Roger Ebert and his views about video games as art. Here, his lecture is reprinted in full with his permission.] The title of this lecture, "An Apology for Roger Ebert," may require a bit of clarification. I'm not here to offer an apology in the sense of regret ...
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 Gordon Midwood, developer of rhythm game Lilt Line and founder of one-man game company Different Cloth, has revealed disappointing sales figures for both the iOS version and the WiiWare version of his game. Midwood posted iPhone sales totaling 3,815 since the game's launch in May 2009. The game won the Audio Achievement Award at IGF Mobile 2010. The WiiWare version, developed by Gaijin Games, has sold just 3,756 copies since its release in December 2010 ...
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Gordon Midwood, developer of rhythm game Lilt Line and head of UK-based Different Cloth, has revealed disappointing sales figures for both the iOS version and the WiiWare version of his game. Midwood posted iPhone sales totaling 3,815 since the game's launch in May 2009. The game won the Audio Achievement Award at IGF Mobile 2010. The WiiWare version, developed by Gaijin Games, has sold just 3,756 copies since its release in December 2010. Midwood noted ...
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 Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games has revealed that it is looking to enter the web and mobile social gaming space with its newly formed division Insomniac Click. The company's chief creative officer Brian Hastings said in a blog post that expanding to social gaming is "a pragmatic necessity" due to the changing gaming landscape. "Are we jumping on the social gaming bandwagon just because it has an unprecedented daily audience in excess of 100 ...
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 Don Bluth will be the first to tell you he's a filmmaker, not a game maker. But despite the fact that he has just two titles to his credit, the Hollywood veteran has still managed to make a lasting impression on the video game industry. Dragon's Lair, in some ways, was the front runner for the modern graphics era. While Dirk the Daring & Co. were hand-animated, the title let players and developers know that ...
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 Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in a custom compiled list. This week brings Homefront and Yakuza 4 to North America, along with portable highlights like Okamiden and Gods Eater Burst. The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions -- for the week ...
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 On August 11, 2010, writer Jerry Holkins and illustrator Mike Krahulik, creators of the Penny Arcade webcomic published a strip whose punchline, a rape joke, incensed the feminist community and led to a public back and forth argument that exemplified a dark side to the gaming community. As a response to the fallout, the International Game Developers Association Dev Center hosted a panel at PAX East 2011 this weekend, examining the presence of hate speech ...
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