As the rest of the tech world scrambles to assess the implications of the recently announced 5,000 layoffs at software giant Microsoft, news has come in that might potentially spell the end of the company’s nearly 30-year-old Flight Simulator series.
Microsoft confirmed Friday that the software giant has shuttered ACES Studios, the developer of the Flight Simulator series of games, whose latest incarnation is Flight Simulator X. The simulation is considered Microsoft’s oldest product, whose original version first shipped in 1982.
However, a Microsoft spokeswoman said that while the studio has been closed, the software company remains committed to the Flight Simulator franchise, without explaining how future products can be launched without a dedicated software development team backing them.
Kojima’s site teases the next Metal Gear game…with the Xbox color.
Could this be the thing we’ve been talking about since last year, even back when no one would believe us? You know, the thing that Konami said might happen, but then apparently didn’t say might happen? The thing that Microsoft has recently been talking about being able to run on its platform and hoping to see soon?
Or could it be the Xbox Live Arcade port of Metal Gear Solid that’s apparently been spotted in the past?
The National Geographic Society was founded in 1888 and is one of the largest non-profit academic and educational institutions in the world. Its stated goal is “To increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the World’s cultural, historical, and natural resources.” It runs seven print publications, has an online news outlet, and its own television station, the National Geographic Channel. It makes sense then, that they chose to expand to the realm of gaming to further its mission.
NG is forming a games division, National Geographic Games, which will develop games based on its ecological themes and media property. NGG for short will work with several publishers to make games which inspire customers to take an interest in global matters, and also make “the National Geographic brand meaningful to a broader audience”
Online gaming group 888 remains confident of further growth in the current year and beyond, but said the fourth quarter started slowly, especially given exchange rates, with daily averages below levels in the third quarter.
The comments came as the group reported a 23 percent rise in net gaming revenue in the third quarter to US$66 million from US$53 million a year earlier and by 31 percent during the first nine months of the year to US$197million from US$151 million.
Independent developer Demiurge Studios announced the addition of Harley Baldwin White-Wiedow as lead designer for an unannounced project. She will head the studio’s original property development efforts.
Most recently, White-Wiedow served as the lead designer on Tomb Raider: Underworld with Crystal Dynamics, where she worked for four years. The multiplatform title ships in the U.S. and Europe this week.
