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El Segundo, Calif. – Dec. 1 — Atlantica Online developer NDOORS Inc. has acquired CrazyBox Entertainment, the South Korea-based developer of the online first-person-shooter Seven Years of War.

CrazyBox, founded in 2004, has garnered praise for Seven Years of War, with action that takes players into the thick of urban military combat. The game is currently published in Japan.

NDOORS will now be able to incorporate the technologies developed by CrazyBox to produce new games in the FPS genre, expanding NDOORS diverse range of titles. In addition to the strategic turn-based MMORPG Atlantica, NDOORS has developed Luminary: Rise of the GoonZu, a MMORPG that incorporates real-world style politics and economics, and the time-traveling MMO Time N Tales.

A new FPS will be introduced next summer by NDOORS.

“We’re excited about the synergy that will be created by melding Crazybox’s technology with NDOORS’s creativity,” said Cho Seong Won, CEO, NDOORS. “This acquisition will allow us to provide people a broad range of games. We look forward to making those games fresh and exciting for all players out there.”

Atlantica Online is set on Earth, in a parallel reality that takes players through a fantastic journey to discover the lost secrets of Atlantis.  With its heavy emphasis on strategy, Atlantica was designed to stand out amongst the ‘cookie-cutter’ MMOs.  The strategic gameplay incorporated into the turn-based combat, mercenary and country management systems will appeal to strategy and RPG players.

More information on the title at: http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp.

Yes, new screens today: 

Update Brings New Maps, Items, Skills, and an Extended Level Cap

• About Deco Online

  Deco Online is a 3D, massively multiplayer online role-playing game that puts players of all ages deep into the fantastic story of two warring nations. As a legendary swordsman, a fierce archer, or a master of wizardry, players will constantly be challenged by the opposing nation and by monsters that lurk around every corner. Deco Online is free-to-play and offers a combo system with hundreds of potential skills, combining both arcade and classic MMORPG gameplay.

  Deco Online features include:

  • Vibrant 3D graphics 
  • Hundreds of skills and exciting quests 
  • Two distinct races and a unique character advancement system 
  • Combo attacks that that emphasizes player skill more than traditional MMORPG combat systems 
  • Step-by-step NPC tutorials and guides to help players get into the game right away 
  • Character attire customization options 
  • A huge and varied selection of armor, shield, weapon, gear, and accessory types

by Mindy Franklin (WildCharge)

WIRE-FREE CHARGING TECHNOLOGY ELEVATES VIDEO GAME CONTROLLERS

WildCharge and Griffin International Partner to Deliver Innovative Technology

Boulder, Colorado, November 10, 2008
WildCharge Inc., a company that is revolutionizing electric power delivery to mobile devices with its patented wire-free electric power technology, and Griffin International Companies of Minneapolis, MN solidify their technology licensing agreement by launching game controllers with WildCharge wire-free technology built inside.

This new and innovative charging kit uses WildCharge technology allowing gamers to wirelessly charge their gaming controllers and eliminate the need for multiple cords and cables. The kit consists of a universal charging pad and rechargeable battery packs/adapters that replace the original game controllers’ batteries and battery covers. The rechargeable packs have WildCharge technology built inside, which enable them to charge wirelessly when placed on the charging pad. Multiple game controllers, along with other WildCharge-enabled electronic devices, can be charged simultaneously by simply setting them on the charging pad.

“WildCharge wire-free power technology allows design flexibility and low-cost integration that electronic device manufacturers require. It can be used to provide wire-free power to low-power devices such as cell phones, cameras, and game controllers as well as to high-power devices such as notebook computers.” Dennis Grant, CEO of WildCharge, said. “There are many ways to enable electronic devices with WildCharge technology. Manufacturers can build it inside electronic devices or into accessories for such devices.” Dennis Grant added “This is the first such “Powered with WildCharge Technology” deal we announce whereby WildCharge licenses its technology to consumer electronics device and accessory makers who then build it into their products.”

“WildCharge technology makes the charging of multiple game controllers a “no brainer”.” said Bob Griffin, CEO of Griffin International. “We’re known for recognizing and embracing technologies that truly improve user experience with electronic products. WildCharge’s wire-free power is exactly such a technology. When we looked into a wireless charging solution, WildCharge was our clear choice. It is simple, elegant, easy to work with and highly efficient. We had a fun time integrating it into our TouchCharge solutions.”

Branded under Psyclone Gaming (a Griffin International Company brand) the TouchCharge Kits for Nintendo’s Wii, Sony Playstation 3 and Microsoft XBOX 360 game controllers, are available to consumers beginning in November 2008 and will be sold at selected Best Buy, Toys R’ Us and other stores nationwide.

Here’s some new screens for the post earlier today about the recently gold Trainz Simulator 2009: World Builder Edition.

http://gamersnewsbits.com/2008/12/01/trainz-simulator-2009-world-builder-edition/

Man this thing looks realistic. I’ll have to give it a whirl and report back on it.

1st December 2008 – Leamington Spa, UK. Blitz Games Studios achieves a world-first with the public unveiling of its ground breaking, proprietary technology showing true stereoscopic 3D games running on Xbox^® 360 and PlayStation^® 3 game consoles at the 3D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles.

Andrew Oliver, co-founder and CTO of Blitz Games Studios, is the only game developer to be talking at the summit alongside movie industry luminaries from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Dolby Laboratories and Real-D at the prestigious event.

Blitz Games Studios’ in-house technology demonstrates that current generation consoles can replicate the full HD 3D experience seen in 3D movie theatres with the 3D images ‘popping’ out of 3DTV screens and into living rooms for the first time.

Andrew Oliver, CTO of Blitz Games Studios said, “This is an incredibly exciting and huge step forward for videogames. Our BlitzTech technology will prove beyond all doubt that we are already doing what some industry experts have said is impossible on today’s game consoles. Our highly tuned engine is capable of producing real-time interactive graphics that are close to offline rendered CG movie quality.”

He continued, “Many TV manufacturers are already selling sets capable of displaying 3D imagery and we envisage that these sets will rapidly gain popularity as content in the form of movies and games becomes available. Our technology allows for our games to run in both 2D and 3D in one version – by simply flicking a ’switch’ between them. It really has to be seen to be believed.”

Oliver states that games are already arguably more immersive than films, but when created in true 3D will be even more immersive. Although accepts that the games industry still needs to understand design issues and learn lessons from Hollywood studios which are now producing 3D movies in volume for release in 2009 onwards.

The 3D Summit runs 1st – 2nd December, opening with a keynote from  Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer and President of DreamWorks Animation Inc.

SEATTLE – Dec. 1, 2008 - Hurry before it’s too late! Tickets are selling faster than the proverbial MMO on launch day for the 2008 Child’s Play Charity dinner auction to be held on Dec. 9 in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center’s skybridge; ticket sales will close this Friday, Dec. 5 (unless sold out prior). The event annually hosts over 400 videogame industry professionals and community members for an evening of drinks and silent bidding, followed by a plated banquet and live auction to benefit sick children in over 50 hospitals around the world. Contributions to the charity already exceed $450,000, passing the halfway mark for this year’s goal of $750,000.

Notable silent and live auction items will include:
- A microwave from Harmonix
- A Halo 3 Master Chief helmet signed by Bungie, Roosterteeth and Penny Arcade staff
- A bronze-cast World of Warcraft statue of an orc and wolf mount, given exclusively to Blizzard Entertainment employees
- A mint-condition, limited edition Black Dreamcast autographed by former Sega President Peter Moore

Dinner auction tickets may be purchased athttp://www.childsplaycharity.org/cpdinner.php for $125 per person, $60 of which is tax deductible. Corporate table sponsorships (seats 10) are still available. Contact klindsay@penny-arcade.com for further information.

About Child’s Play: Child’s Play is a non-profit organization begun in 2003 by Mike “Gabe” Krahulik and Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, the creators of the Penny Arcade comic strip, as a way to help sick children and show the world the softer side of people who play videogames. Through the generosity of gamers and the videogame industry, Child’s Play has raised nearly four million dollars in toys, games and cash for sick children through an ongoing online toy drive and annual charity auction. Now in its sixth year, Child’s Play has developed a worldwide network of beneficiary Children’s Hospitals in order to brighten hospital stays for children internationally. For more information, visit www.childsplaycharity.org.

5-disc set includes the original music scores and Halo Wars DVD featuring 4 preview tracks and behind-the-scenes from the recording session

New York – Dec. 1st, 2008 – Sumthing Else Music Works, Inc., through its licensing relationship with Microsoft Game Studios, proudly presents Halo® Trilogy – The Complete Original Soundtracks featuring the award-winning original music scores by Bungie Audio Director Martin O’Donnell and Co-Composer Michael Salvatori plus four preview tracks from the forthcoming real-time strategy game Halo Wars™, composed by Ensemble Studios Audio Director Stephen Rippy. Halo Trilogy – The Complete Original Soundtracks is released tomorrow, Dec. 2, 2008, to retail outlets through Nile Rodgers’ Sumthing Else Music Works record labelwww.sumthing.com, and for digital download atwww.sumthingdigital.com.

Halo Trilogy – The Complete Original Soundtracks contents:

Disc 1 – Halo: Combat Evolved Original Soundtrack.

Disc 2 – Halo 2 Original Soundtrack Volume Two.

Disc 3 – Halo Wars Bonus DVD;

Four preview tracks from the upcoming soundtrack presented in 5.1.

A behind-the-scenes look at the recording sessions set to the Halo Wars main theme music.

“Five Long Years” Opening cinematic of the Halo Wars campaign.

Disc 4 – Halo 3 Original Soundtrack.

Disc 5 – Halo 3 Original Soundtrack (cont’d).

Originally created by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the Halo franchise is exclusive to the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment systems and is optimized for the Xbox LIVE online entertainment network. Halo 3 was released in 37 countries and 17 languages. To date, more than 24.8 million copies of the games in the Halo trilogy have been sold worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.halo3.com/.

Based on the legendary Halo universe, Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game for the Xbox 360 developed by Ensemble Studios. In campaign mode, command the armies of the UNSC warship Spirit of Fire, with familiar and new UNSC units in its initial encounters against the Covenant, an alien coalition threatening to obliterate mankind. Halo Wars immerses players in an early period of the storied Halo universe, allowing you to experience events leading up to the first Halo title for Xbox. For more information visit http://www.halowars.com/.

Alawar NewEdge Mobile is finalizing a mobile version of a casual hit “Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House”.

The original PC version of the game was developed by Friday’s Games, which joined Alawar Entertainment in October 2008 as internal development studio. A casual game combining two best-selling genres (“hidden object” /“i-spy” and “quest”) found great response among players all over the world. For 35 days the game held its positions in Top 10 at BigFish Games. It was also a success at MSN, Reflexive Arcade and iWin portals. Besides that the game spent 5 months in Top 10 at one of the major casual games portals in Russia (www.alawar.ru). Being included in Top 5 by Rambler-Games it also came forth as one of the most popular games of the year. (Read more about the PC game atwww.alawar.ru/game/natalie-brooks-secrets-of-treasure-house).

The mobile game reproduces faithfully the plot of the PC version, preserving its dynamics and stunningly beautiful graphics, the quality of which is particularly significant for this platform. “Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House” encourages the player to help nice and charming Natalie Brooks to become familiar with a tough skill of a professional detective. Together they will have to overcome a whole bunch of difficulties, avoid tricky traps, smoke out the criminals and puzzle out a mystery of an old mansion. The development of the plot is arranged in a “detective story” style, keeping the player in suspense till the very last moment, which creates a special atmosphere and makes the gameplay even more thrilling.

“Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House” is a very important project for our company,” – comments Olga Znamenskaya, Executive Director at Alawar NewEdge Mobile. “The “i-spy” genre is rather new for mobile market, so bringing this game to another platform seemed to be a very challenging task. The eagerness of our staff to achieve the original goals and objectives of the project made our work on the game very interesting and allowed us to raise considerably our internal quality standard, optimize business processes and realize many challenging ideas. We’re entering the release stage within the set timeframe and now it is obvious that project deliverables will meet all functional, performance and quality specifications”.

The release of Russian version is scheduled for December 2008. It’s going to be the first Russian casual quest developed for mobile phones.

“This project has brought our company to a new level of performance,” says Andrey Yunoshev, Chief Programmer at New Edge. “We’ve created 8 full-rate colorful episodes, added mini-games, incorporated location changes depending on the plot and introduced different elements of item search. Besides that we’ve developed a new effective tool for large graphic files packaging and created a framework for mobile “i-spy” games development. I’m quite sure that “Natalie Brooks – Secrets of Treasure House” will influence greatly our future development strategies and encourage further technology improvements”.

Alawar Entertainment plans to release a sequel to the game by the end of this year. The company also intends to develop game series dedicated to the brave girl’s adventures. All new titles will be released both in PC and mobile versions, which will allow enlarging significantly casual game players’ audience.