Slashdot Mirror

nmb3000 writes "MSDN recently put up a case study of Bungie.Net (much more detailed than a previous one), the homepage for the creators of the Halo series, and its transition from Perl to .NET and ASP. From the study: 'The Bungie.net site is the online companion to the wildly successful Halo 2 video game for Xbox, released in November 2004 by Microsoft. The site also acts as the community hub for all things related to Bungie games. Built with the Microsoft .NET Framework, Bungie.net serves up more than 4 million pages per day, accumulating 300 gigabytes of online game statistics per month from more than 1 million games played daily.' This is an interesting look into the creation and integration of the very large and interactive website which was voted 'Most Innovative Design' by IGN Entertainment in 2004."

An anonymous reader writes "The PSP Wiki site has posted a release of Mame the arcade emulator for the Sony PSP, heres an english site with Screenshots of the Emulator in action." I guess I won't need to go to such great lengths to play Pac-Man next time.

Garthilk writes "In the last two weeks since E3 I've read at least three gushing reviews about an upcoming game by Simutronics, called Hero's Journey. MMORPG.com gave it their E3 best of show award. CorpNews said it blew their pants off. IGN even had a good interview with the CEO of Simutronics. Warcry even goes so far as to say that it will turn gaming world upside down. The question still lingers though, can a company who has focused on text based roleplaying games cut it in the graphical world?" From the MMORPG.com article: "In a year full of big budget, big company titles, Hero's Journey offered graphics on par with all the major players and an extremely exciting look at their game play. E3 2005 marked a show where several high profile games were touting very similar features (state based combat), and in swept Hero's Journey with their innovative group combat, highly cinematic missions, interactive environments and hands down the best character creation ever put into an MMORPG."

Now that we've seen what's in the pipe for the immediate future IGN is running an article hoping for the games of the future, and talking about novels, tv shows, and other properties that they'd like to see be made into games. From the article: "...while we at IGN are all for original, non-franchise titles--reference Katamari, Psychonauts, God of War, Spore--a lot of us have places in our hearts for certain TV shows, films, and books that made us all fuzzy with joy." What would you like to see be made into a game? Microsoft, if you are listening, I have two words for you: Shadowrun MMOG.

Hellgate: London and The Elder Scrolls IV are two hotly anticipated roleplaying titles coming at us in the upcoming year. Hands-On examinations of Hellgate are available at Gamespot, 1up.com and IGN. The Elder Scrolls is examined at Gamespot and IGN. From the 1up article: "'Since we're building an RPG, even though it's primarily played from the first-person perspective, we don't want it to be a twitch-fest,' he says. 'We're doing things that have soft-targeting, or area effects, or auto-locking, to make it where your success in the game isn't determined on your physical reflexes, or the dexterity of a fourteen year old. It's all about building up a character: your level, your stats, your skills, your equipment, your items -- it's the classic RPG in that sense.'"

Hellgate: London and The Elder Scrolls IV are two hotly anticipated roleplaying titles coming at us in the upcoming year. Hands-On examinations of Hellgate are available at Gamespot, 1up.com and IGN. The Elder Scrolls is examined at Gamespot and IGN. From the 1up article: "'Since we're building an RPG, even though it's primarily played from the first-person perspective, we don't want it to be a twitch-fest,' he says. 'We're doing things that have soft-targeting, or area effects, or auto-locking, to make it where your success in the game isn't determined on your physical reflexes, or the dexterity of a fourteen year old. It's all about building up a character: your level, your stats, your skills, your equipment, your items -- it's the classic RPG in that sense.'"

The Xbox 360 title that everyone seems to be excited about is the first person shooter Gears of War. Hands-On impressions are available from 1up.com, Gamespy, Gamespot, and IGN. From the IGN article: "Sera is gripped in darkness. The Locusts are most at home in the shadows, so expect the worst moments to occur when the lights go off. Gears of War can best be described as a mix between a third-person tactical shooter and a survival horror game. This is pop-and-shoot gaming, not the run-and-gun style of Halo 2. Oh, and it's f---ing awesome."

The Ico sequel Shadow of the Colossus has been showing its stuff on the expo floor since the doors opened on Wednesday. IGN, Gamespot, and Gamespy have looks at the upcoming title. From the Gamespy article: "Following the light from your sword will allow you to locate a colossus, but that doesn't mean your approach will be without difficulty. While Ico was focused on a castle, Shadow is focused on the wider world and its natural features." Update: 05/19 23:40 GMT by Z : 1up.com has a look at the game as well.

Jakhel writes "IGN has up an article on PS3 pricing information. Apparently it comes straight from Sony officials. From the article: 'According an article published in the May 17th edition of Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, the PlayStation 3 could be one of the most expensive mass-market videogame consoles ever created. Officials from Sony apparently told the newspaper that PlayStation 3s would sell in Japan for "less than 50,000 yen each." That translates to about $465 US dollars.' So I guess they will be around $464.99 in the U.S. (plus tax of course). Granted, it does come with DVD Hi Def support out of the box, but is that enough to justify it's nearly $500 pricetag?" Commentary on this development available at GamesIndustry.biz as well.

The PlayStation 3 was unveiled yesterday afternoon in a press conference at Sony Pictures Studio. The event was full of beautiful demonstrations, specifications, and talk of the games of tomorrow. The machine is certainly impressive, with backwards compatibility, support for up to seven Bluetooth controllers, multiple HD signals, and intimate interactions with the PSP. Coverage, screenshots, and specs available from 1up.com, Gamespot, Joystiq, NYT, Voodoo Extreme, Gamespy, BBC, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, Anandtech, Kotaku, Gamasutra, and CNN Money. The only downside I see so far? The controller. Update: 05/18 21:35 GMT by Z : Gamespot has up a comprehensive look at the console based on what is known so far.

The PlayStation 3 was unveiled yesterday afternoon in a press conference at Sony Pictures Studio. The event was full of beautiful demonstrations, specifications, and talk of the games of tomorrow. The machine is certainly impressive, with backwards compatibility, support for up to seven Bluetooth controllers, multiple HD signals, and intimate interactions with the PSP. Coverage, screenshots, and specs available from 1up.com, Gamespot, Joystiq, NYT, Voodoo Extreme, Gamespy, BBC, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, Anandtech, Kotaku, Gamasutra, and CNN Money. The only downside I see so far? The controller. Update: 05/18 21:35 GMT by Z : Gamespot has up a comprehensive look at the console based on what is known so far.

You may or may not have caught the Xbox 360 unveiling on MTV Thursday night, but the internet will provide. A plethora of sites have photos, videos, commentary, specifications, and interviews about the new system. Your fellow readers have pulled together to provide links to: 1up.com, Joystiq, Gamespot, The BBC, CNN, NYT, Gamespy, Team Xbox, Voodoo Extreme, Anandtech, and eToyChest. The official Xbox 360 site opened last night as well for word straight from the source. For more official images Ourcolony.net has been 'solved', and now features an OurColony specific video preview. Finally, for commentary on the event, the Video Game Ombudsman provides an alternative to the press releases. From the post: "Kyle Orland (9:28:42 PM): The future of gaming is a girl in a blue dress? Dan Dormer (9:28:47 PM): The future of gaming is a girl with a bag? Kyle Orland (9:28:57 PM): She's the Xbox! OMG!"

IGN reports that the possibility exists the PlayStation 3 may still see release this year. Sony Chief Financial Officer Takao Yuhara mentioned in a statement to a Japanese news service that a year end release of the next generation Playstation is an option they are exploring. From the article: "Most industry speculation calls for a next generation PlayStation release in 2006. Sony's third party developers have backed this assumption up with a strong list of PlayStation 2 titles planned for the rest of the year and early next."

LordJezo writes "The New York Times is reporting that the Nintendo World Store is set to open this Saturday (May 14th) in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Set to be a 10,000 square-foot Nintendo store visitors are promised exclusive Nintendo merchandise and the ability to test out the latest and greatest Nintendo products.IGN is also reporting that the grand opening party will include 'game kiosks, giveaways and gaming competitions, and even the chance to play against a celebrity'." Because nothing says legitimate like Kid Rocking playing Metroid.

IGN reports on a recent interview with Square-Enix president Wada, where it's revealed that the RPG crafting company is considering heavily supporting the Nintendo Revolution. From the article: "One area that Wada seems to be impressed with is a particularly controversial side of Nintendo's Online plan. In his comments posted at Impress Game Watch yesterday, Iwata states that Nintendo is going through with the idea of letting players connect only to players whom they've met in real life. While it's unclear how strict Nintendo plans to be with this idea (Animal Crossing DS is reported to allow for play amongst strangers), Wada applauds the move in his comments today, stating 'It gives the image of taking the real world seamlessly into the virtual world.'"

frikazoyd writes "Not long after Iwata's discussion on new hardware WiFi connectivity, IGN announces that the Nintendo DS is going to utilize their GameSpy network to connect online gamers, and without any fees." From the article: "The service will be utilized by software developers in several Nintendo DS titles, including Animal Crossing DS which was revealed at the Game Developers Conference in March. Players will have the ability to choose to play with friends or strangers anywhere in the world, as long as both systems have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Nintendo will reveal other online-capable Nintendo DS titles in the coming weeks."

As gamer interest in the E3 show increases every year, more coverage becomes available for non-attendees. This year G4 will be broadcasting live from the show floor, and MMORadio will be sharing NCSoft booth space to get the word on Massive games out to the player audience. From the article: "Offering their respective audiences a comprehensive look inside the most important videogame trade event of the year, G4 and IGN will work together to create news and entertainment packages direct from E3, including highly anticipated product introductions, 'first looks,' expert commentary and analysis, executive interviews, celebrity appearances and more."

IGN.Cube has details on what its expected Nintendo will be showing off at E3 this year. Whether or not the Revolution gets much airtime is up in the air, but it's anticipated that new DS titles and the system itself are going to recieve the lion's share of attention. From the article: "...we predict that Nintendo will put a noticeable emphasis on its DS lineup and -- save for the new Legend of Zelda -- downplay some GameCube titles. This move seems to make sense as many of the GameCube titles sure to be on display in playable form will either have been previously shown at another event, or will be on the verge of releasing in America. In contrast, we expect several major surprises for the publisher's portable system."

IGN has news that the long running suit between Valve and Vivendi has finally been resolved. There has been some sort of settlement reached, the immediate result being that as of August 31st Vivendi will no longer be distributing Valve titles. From the article: "Valve has not announced a new publishing partner, or whether the company will now solely rely on Steam for distribution. A new publishing agreement would almost certainly be needed for the Xbox version of Half-Life 2 scheduled for release later this summer."

John "Widgett" Robinson writes "IGN FilmForce tapped a bunch of folks who knew and worked with Douglas Adams, asking them to share some stories of their time with the man himself. They've posted the results as an article that includes responses from Pythoner Terry Jones, author Neil Gaiman, actor Stephen Fry, Rutle Neil Innes, zoologist Mark Carwardine, and Monkee Michael Nesmith. I've never heard any of these stories before, so the thing winds up being a unique tribute to a very cool frood."

mars soup eel writes "Cube.IGN is reporting that Brooke Burgess (of Broken Saints) has let the proverbial cat out of the bag concerning Nintendo's new Revolution console. The big secret (assuming the rumors are true)? 3D projection." From the article: "At the core of the theory sits how Revolution will display games: through a form of real-time 3D projection. That's right folks, along the lines of a classic 50s monster movie. Nintendo itself has stated that what it plans to use on Revolution isn't all that unique, only that it has never been applied to videogames. Taking that into account, plus recent patents filed by Nintendo, and it doesn't sound all that far fetched, argues Burgess." As always, take this with a grain of salt.

hollismb writes "A teaser commercial for the upcoming unveiling of the XBOX 360 on MTV had been released on the internet, and you can watch it here. In addition, an image was released on OurColony yesterday, that many feel my be a partial image of what the new console will look like. If true, this seems to go against the white console report from a couple weeks ago." There are even more possible photos available via a Voodoo Extreme post.

Cube.IGN has more details on the upcoming Legend of Zelda title, gleaned from Spanish gaming publication Hobby Consolas. From the article: "From screens printed in the magazine, the new outfit looks to blend peasant clothes of different cultures to achieve an altogether unique style. These same screens show the Triforce emblazoned on Link's left hand. Cool indeed. Link himself looks different from any other Zelda title. Eiji Aonuma wanted Link to sport a manga-inspired look, partly because the Link shown in the Space World 2000 looked like a lifeless puppet." Commentary on the single-mindedness of the fanboi rumormill available on Press the Buttons.

Voodoo Extreme has the news that the winners of a recent design contest held by Valve will now see their Deathmatch maps added to the Steam repetoire. From the article: "Three Half-Life 2: Deathmatch maps are now available via Steam. These maps were created by the three players who won our recent HL2:DM mapping contest. If you have HL2:DM installed in your Steam games list, you will receive the new maps automatically."

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft confirmed this morning that the Xbox 2 will be revealed on live TV on May 12. MTV will air a half-hour long special to launch the system. 'It doesn't make sense to unveil the product behind a closed door, at a trade-only event,' according to Microsoft corporate VP Peter Moore. 'We wanted to talk directly to the consumer first.'" More coverage available on GamesIndustry.biz and Press the Buttons.

Described via Voodoo Extreme, in something of a roundabout way Mythic Studios has released the Dark Age of Camelot 'Catacombs' graphics upgrade for free to its players. Apparently they've gone all out improving the new user experience, and as a result to see the improvements to the starting towns the Catacombs engine is needed. The download, which takes up 50 megs, is optional but suggested if your machine can handle it.

Details about the background behind the upcoming Unreal III are available at Voodoo Extreme. From the article: "The highly-anticipated Unreal 3 takes gamers into the mysterious past of their favorite royal alien parasite inside the body of a giant slug, TCA pilot Ne'ban, last seen being blown to smithereens at the end of Unreal 2." Sounds like an interesting story concept. Update: 04/02 18:02 GMT by Z : April 1st hoax story.

From the pages of Gamecube.IGN comes a look at the upcoming Zelda title for the Gamecube. Their examination includes both established facts: "Looking at the official screens and trailers, it's apparent Link will once again mount a mighty steed and battle on horseback", and some wishful thinking: "Will Link transform into a wolf in his latest adventure? Undoubtedly, it's the most talked about rumor."

Vodoo Extreme has the results from a recent study that looks into the spending and playing habits of gamers. From the article: "Gamers spend more than $700 a year: $341 on console titles, $233 on PC games and another $140 for accessories."

There are plenty of interesting takes available on Sony's new media/game console. The neat tricks seem to be the most popular. An Anonymous Coward writes "A blogger figured out how to batch convert e-books so they can be read on your PSP. Check out the guide here for a complete walkthrough on this method." Meanwhile, RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "PSP Vault has a great story on how to Use Non-Duo Memory Sticks on a PSP! The process involves using an adapter that's meant for a Sony Ericcson phone." Via Joystiq, a way to get Tivo content on your PSP. Out in the real world there is already talk of the opening weekend sales. Doomstalk writes "According to IGN sales of the PSP have been lukewarm, with many outlets selling as little as 10 out of the 80 units they received." The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while. Early adopters on a holiday weekend may not be the best yardstick. Official numbers from the first weekend of sales likely available on Monday.

Voodoo Extreme has newsbits from around the interweb about Hellgate: London, the first title in the works at Flagship Studios. The home of well known ex-Blizzard employee Bill Roper is crafting a title that sounds a lot like the Blizzard hit Diablo. From the article: "The game is set five years after a war against demons has already been lost. London is depicted as a burnt out shell of itself. The demons are in the process of "hellaforming" earth to make it more suitable for their kind. A handful of humans have survived."

Voodoo Extreme has word that new technology for the Steam engine, as well as a HL2 expansion entitled 'The Lost Coast', will be shown off on G4TV's Attack of the Show (formerly The ScreenSavers). From the article: "On Wednesday's show, Valve's Doug Lombardi will give an exclusive demonstration of the previously unseen 'The Lost Coast,' an upcoming expansion that utilizes a brand-new technology that Valve is implementing into the Source engine. Called 'high-dynamic range lighting,' this new technology enables a leap in lighting realism from even the current high benchmark set by Half-Life 2 and the existing Source engine."

John Callaham writes "Computer Games Magazine got a chance to chat briefly on the phone today with Turbine's Vijay Lakshman to get a few more tidbits on their plans for the MMO title Middle Earth Online now that they are developing and publishing the long awaited game." From the article: "Acquiring the license to produce massively multiplayer online games based on Tolkien's world-renowned The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books is the latest in a series of aggressive business moves by Turbine - the once small contractor that transformed itself into the largest privately-held online game studio in North America."

Voodoo Extreme has the word that the E3 show space has already sold out in anticipation of what is likely to be a momentous expo, "...with a show floor the size of 2,700 city blocks, an unparalleled business conference program, and more than 400 exhibitors from 87 countries."

According to a study by Macrovision one in five console gamers is a pirate, or uses pirated software. Interestingly the study, detailed on GamesIndustry.biz, also found that "three quarters of them would have paid for the games if they hadn't been available for free." Coverage also available on IGN.

An event anticipated all week by many of the conference attendees, the Keynote delivered by Nintendo President Satoru Iwata was informative and inspiring. He spoke early on Thursday morning to a packed room that broke out into pleased applause several times during the speech's delivery. His talk spoke of the future, Nintendo's vision, and a commitment to reaching out beyond the current crop of game players to folks beyond the hardcore. Read on for a bevy of coverage and my own commentary on the "The Heart of the Gamer". (And some Zelda footage, if you care about that.) Before I discuss my impressions of the talk, there is quite a bit of coverage to spread around. Chris Morris at CNN Money has details from the talk, as does Che Chou on 1up.com, Matt Casamassina on Cube.IGN, Alice on the Wonderland Blog, Ben Zackheim on Joystiq, and Tor Thorsen at Gamespot. Gamespot in particular has something you might be interested in checking out, the second Official Trailer for The Legend of Zelda.

President Iwata began the talk by announcing that he has some conflict within himself in his role as president. He's only a President on his Business Card, he said. In his mind, he's a Game Designer. And in his heart, he's just a gamer. He began programming games on his pocket calculator, with no games, and became attached to Nintendo by being a part of the small Hal design company. Hal, he stated, came from the computer in 2001 a space Odyssey because the name sounded cool. The company created the Kirby and Earthdawn titles, and as time went on he found himself working full time for Nintendo.

He's been making games, then, for almost two decades, and he discussed some of the things that have changed and some of the things that have stayed the same in the business since then. Overall, he saw most of the changes be to size. Bigger budgets, bigger complexity, bigger attention from worldwide media. On the other hand, there are fewer risks, fewer visions, and fewer ways of thinking about players and games.

To respond to this, Nintendo has committed itself to not abandoning the core gamers. Metroid Prime will be out later this year, and the demo shipped with the DS system. Geist is going to be a new and interesting version of a shooter, Zelda appeals to hard-core gamers and regular gamers alike, and Resident Evil 4 is a GC exclusive.

On the other hand, Nintendo is really trying to push out of the current player base and into the market beyond. The DS is their flagship for this effort, and they've currently sold 4 Million units (with the European launch of the system today). Mario Kart DS is an upcoming title for the system, will bridge the gap for both new and old gamers, and is going to utilize wireless play to let up to 8 people play together. Beyond that, though, they really want to give players more than just what they already know they want.

To that end, DS Wifi will be rolling out by the end of the year. The goal of the system is to allow gamers to play together over large distances, simply and seamlessly. Most importantly, the service is going to be completely free of charge. This service will hook people who have never used wifi services before into a new arena of technology, and their new style of games will reach out to people who don't really want to play "games". Nintendogs has already received a lot of press, and is one of these tools to reach out to the non-gamer. If you'd like a look at a portion of the Nintendogs presentation, you can view that here. They didn't reveal anything terribly new, but did show off the microphone capability of the game. The person demoing Nintendogs would whistle, and the dog would come running. By issuing voice commands that he'd pre-selected the virtual critter would perform for him. Even more interesting was the non-game they showed off entitled ElectroPlankton. The music/sound experiment utilizes the microphone as well, and you can see three portions of the game here, here, and here.

The Revolution was only mentioned, but they did give out some new and interesting information. It will be completely backwards compatible with the Gamecube, ensuring that the most popular of the current stable of games will be available into the future. As with the DS, it will also be wifi enabled for mysterious purposes that they didn't really go into. Their chips and technology are completely on track, and more will be revealed at E3.


Overall President Iwata was a very arresting speaker. He had excellent delivery, his message was one of change and a new look at gameplay, and he was promising more of what we already know to be good gaming experiences. As they were two of the largest events at the conference, comparing the Nintendo and Microsoft speeches is a must. In general, the "yay Nintendo" aspect was just as much of a commercial endeavor as existed in the Microsoft keynote. Iwata was taking the opportunity to promote his company's vision of the future, and that naturally trends towards the products and services fo the company he represents.

At the same time, though, I felt a lot more hopeful listening to President Iwata than I did listening to Allard. The "HD Future" isn't much to get excited about. A Gamer's card and higher resolution isn't something that really leaps beyond the norm of what we have today. Incremental changes are needed, of course, but keynotes are meant to fire the blood. Iwata did that more effectively through the invoking of something that everyone in the room had in common: "The Heart of a Gamer". Nintendogs and Electroplankton may not be the way to make this industry sell its first 20 million unit title, but like the analogy that Iwata used in speech, they're definitely not of this gaming world. And exploration is something that I think is on far too few peoples minds in the gaming industry today.

lunatick writes "The second expansion for Star Wars Galaxies has been announced : 'Rage Of the Wookiees.'" From the article: "The new expansion features the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk. There are 100 new missions for players of all types on this Wookiee homeworld. Most revolve around the Wookiees' fight for freedom from their Imperial and Trandoshan predators. The Empire is worried that the Alliance is gaining a foothold on the planet and willing to fight to prevent the population from going over to the Rebels."

Andrew Burnes writes "A fellow Internet games journalist will shortly plead guilty in a Connecticut court room for being involved in the warez scene, following his apprehension in April as part of Operation Fastlink. Here is a slice of his email to various press and editorial professionals: 'I am very sorry for what I have done, and after I serve my sentence, I hope I will be able to continue my career in the game industry, and move on with my life. This last year has been incredibly hard for me emotionally, facing the consequences of my bad choices, and I am hopeful for your support, but I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me.'

Andrew Burnes writes "A fellow Internet games journalist will shortly plead guilty in a Connecticut court room for being involved in the warez scene, following his apprehension in April as part of Operation Fastlink. Here is a slice of his email to various press and editorial professionals: 'I am very sorry for what I have done, and after I serve my sentence, I hope I will be able to continue my career in the game industry, and move on with my life. This last year has been incredibly hard for me emotionally, facing the consequences of my bad choices, and I am hopeful for your support, but I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me.'

IGN has word that the next game in the RE series is already under development. There aren't really any details yet on the project, other than the changes made in the interface for RE4 (the over-the-shoulder view, the action orientation) will continue on with the next game. IGN also states that while the fourth game in the series was a GameCube native, the next one is likely to be a PS2 game or a multiple console launch. More details will be available in the next EGM.

IGN has an article discussing an interview in which Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talked about the possibility that the Nintendo Revolution's fundamental difference from other offerings may alienate third party developers. From the article: "If the next generation platforms are going to create even more gorgeous looking games using further enhanced functionality, and if that next-gen market can still expand the games industry, then I'm afraid that third-parties may not support Nintendo" Refreshing to hear such an honest assessment from company president.

Just a few days after the announcement that the creator of the Final Fantasy series was joining Microsoft Games Studio, Voodoo Express has the news that more venerable designers will be joining the company. Yoshiki Okamoto and Tetsuya Mizuguchi will be teaming up with Microsoft Games to produce titles for the next generation Xbox. From the article: "Microsoft is now happy to announce that the driving creative minds behind the likes of Resident Evil, Rez, Street Fighter and Space Channel 5 have joined forces with the company to create exciting new titles for the Xbox Next, primarily designed to attract Japanese gamers to the system:"

IGN has an article claiming to reveal a few rumours from around the industry. The most interesting of these rumours is the possibility that Halo 3 is in the works already, and what's more is being targeted at the PS3 launch date in an effort to undermine Sony. From the article: "The release of Halo 3 at the precise launch of PS3 is a pure, military tactical move, similar to the PS2's greatest lineup ever launching simultaneously with the launch of the Xbox and GameCube. It's designed to counter Sony's upcoming launch with the best weapon Earth has on its side, Master Chief." I'd take this one with a big helping of NaCl.

Voodoo Extreme has the story that talented development house Troika Games has closed its doors as a result of lack of funding for future projects. Rumours of their closure have circled for the last week or so, but today's announcement makes the closure official. Troika is best known for its table-top RPG adaptations, such as The Temple of Elemental Evil and games based on Vampire: The Masquerade. From the announcement: "We want to thank all of our fans for their support these past seven years, it has really meant a lot to us that there were people out there who enjoyed our games enough to create fan-sites and follow our progress as a company. But we especially want to thank all of our employees - we had the pleasure of working with the some of the most dedicated, hard working, creative people in the industry, and we really appreciate all that they did for Troika."

bonch wrote in to mention an article on the IGN site. "The Cannes Film Festival is going to the dark side. After months of negotiations between George Lucas and festival officials, Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge Of The Sith will open the festival in the South of France in May."

Voodoo Extreme has the story that earlier this week Grand Theft Auto creator David Jones announced the upcoming release of APB, a massively multiplayer game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto. It won't be out until 2007, but will make an appearance at E3 this year. Business Wire has details on the game's developer, Webzen, as well. The company sounds as if it's going to be making a major push into the market. From the article: "In addition to APB, Webzen, Inc. plans to bring multiple online game titles to the U.S. market. The titles include the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), SUN, releasing in the third quarter of 2005, and a massively multiplayer online first person shooter (MMOFPS) called Huxley, that leverages the latest Unreal 3 game engine and is scheduled to release in 2006."

Voodoo Extreme has the word that EA and Ubisoft are in talks regarding a possible takover price for the French company. From the article: " The talks are still preliminary and running parallel with other approaches that family-run Ubisoft is making to broker solutions that might shake off a bid from EA but they could be the beginning of an eventual agreement between the two, the paper said, citing people familiar with the situation." Gamespot states that EA denies the topic of takeover is on the block during the talks. No word on what such a development would have on Ubisoft's relationship with the Canadian government.

Midway Games will be coordinating with Cartoon Network to create titles based on the Adult Swim block of shows, Voodoo Extreme reports. The shows up for conversion include Harvey Birdman, The Brak Show, and Sealab 2021. From the article: "ADULT SWIM is a phenomenon with young adult viewers who identify with the edgy, irreverent tone of the shows and the block...Clearly, lots of ADULT SWIM fans are avid gamers, and we look forward to working with Midway to make games the fans will love."

Voodoo Extreme has a small piece on EA Games celebrating The Sims' fifth anniversary. They have apparently sold over 54 million units in the lifetime of the series. From the article "The very first The Sims videogame for the PC began shipping to stores this week in February 2000 and took the nation by storm by becoming the #1 selling PC game in four out of the last five years."

PC.IGN is running a piece by Douglass Perry on the Fight for Original Games. In the article, the author examines the trends that have led to a slew of sequels, franchises, and movie industry tie-ins in the gaming industry of late. From the article: "...depending on who you speak with, the videogame industry is either reaching the most impressive convergence of its entire 30-plus year old existence, or it's falling into a never-ending death spiral of sequel-heavy, rehashed, franchise dominated blocks of stinking cheese."