OnLive is launching the world’s highest performance Games On Demand service, instantly delivering the latest high-end titles over home broadband Internet to the TV and entry-level PCs and Macs.
Founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) and incubated within the Rearden media and technology incubator, OnLive spent seven years in stealth development before officially unveiling in March 2009.
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.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console has sold over 28 million units worldwide, 8 million more than the Sony Playstation 3.
According to figures from Microsoft, the Xbox 360 is ahead of the Playstation 3 by one million units in Europe and by 7 million in the US.
However, both consoles are being outsold by the Nintendo Wii, which sold 3 million units in the UK and 10.17 million in the US last year.
* Game of the Year:
Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Gears of War 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
* Studio of the Year:
Media Molecule (winner)
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios
* Best Shooter:
Gears of War 2 (winner)
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Far Cry 2
* Best RPG:
Fallout 3 (winner)
The World Ends With You
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Fable II
* Best Individual Sports Game:
Shaun White Snowboarding (winner)
Skate It
Wii Fit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
* Best Handheld Game:
Professor Layton and the Curious Village (winner)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Patapon
God of War: Chains of Olympus
* Best Graphics:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3
* Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show:
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (winner)
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Quantum of Solace
* Best Music Game:
Rock Band 2 (winner)
SingStar
Wii Music
Guitar Hero World Tour
* Best Driving Game:
Burnout Paradise (winner)
Mario Kart Wii
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
PURE
* Best Action Adventure Game:
Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Mirror’s Edge
Dead Space
* Best Soundtrack:
Rock Band 2 (winner)
Guitar Hero World Tour
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
* Best Xbox 360 Game:
Gears of War 2 (winner)
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable II
* Best Wii Game:
Boom Blox (winner)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
No More Heroes
Wii Fit
* Best PS3 Game:
LittleBigPlanet (winner)
Grand Theft Auto IV
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
* Best PC Game:
Left 4 Dead (winner)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
Spore
* Best Original Score:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Spore
Fallout 3
* Best Multiplayer Game:
Left 4 Dead (winner)
Call of Duty: World at War
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
* Best Independent game:
World of Goo (winner)
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audiosurf
* Best Fighting Game:
Soulcalibur IV (winner)
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
* Best Male Voice:
Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Stephen Fry as “The Narrator” in LittleBigPlanet
David Hayter as “Old Snake” in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Jason Zumwalt as “Roman Bellic” in Grand Theft Auto IV
* Best Female Voice:
Debi Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
Keeley Hawes as “Lara Croft” in Tomb Raider: Underworld
Paula Tiso as “Silvia Christel” in No More Heroes
Nathalie Cox as “Juno Eclipse” in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
* Big Name in the Game Male:
Kiefer Sutherland as Sgt. Roebuck in Call of Duty: World at War (winner)
Liam Neeson as “Father” in Fallout 3
Ricky Gervais as “Himself” in Grand Theft Auto IV
Daniel Craig as “James Bond” in Quantum of Solace
* Big Name in the Game Female:
Jenny McCarthy as Special Agent Tanya Adams in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (winner)
Dame Judi Dench as “M” in Quantum of Solace
Eliza Dushku as “Shaundi” from Saints Row 2
Liv Tyler as “Betty Ross” in The Incredible Hulk
* Best Team Sports Game:
NHL 09
Fifa Soccer 09
NBA 2K9
Madden NFL 09
Spike Video Game Awards – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information.
Frogster America, Inc. today announced the start of the open beta for Runes of Magic, its highly anticipated free-to-play Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) game being created by Runewaker Entertainment. With more than 190,000 players already registered, Runes of Magic is ready to put the final tests in place to ensure the game is ready for release to the public later this year.
In the coming weeks, Frogster will activate all of the content currently implemented, including the item-shop, where players can buy items to support their questing, adventuring and battles within the game. Since all player accounts were reset at the end of the closed beta, everyone will be able to create new characters and begin their adventures at level one. Read more
Recent history is full of console RTS ports falling over themselves in an effort to, at best, recreate something marginally evocative of the PC experience. But Vispi Bhopti, The Creative Assembly’s Communications Manager, contends that Stormrise’s control scheme, which was designed from the get-go around a gamepad, is an honest-to-goodness improvement over the mouse and keyboard. These are big words. I don’t recall the developers of the voice-controlled EndWar’s making those presumptions, and if anyone is entitled to, it would probably be them. Read more
At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, executives from Square Enix, Capcom, and Namco Bandai engaged in a roundtable discussion about Japan’s diminished role in the gaming industry. As a result, the publisher and many of its fellow Japanese outfits are putting a greater emphasis on the West, both in selling and developing their games there.
Square Enix recently set up a development studio in Los Angeles. Capcom is “actively pursuing friendly acquisitions and partnerships” with foreign outfits, and developing games like Dead Rising and Lost Planet with a more Western audience in mind. And today Namco Bandai established Surge, a new publishing label “dedicated to providing cutting-edge, genre-defining games that are targeted at satiating the appetite of western gamers.” Surge will produce games across a variety of genres and platforms.
In a survey conducted by Japanese search engine Goo, the Wii Fit ranked third for the year behind the year’s two sweet sensations: salted sweets and raw caramel. Wii Fit became a national phenomenon because it was seen as an easy and fun way to get fit.
Around 3 million units of the software and companion “balance board” hardware are expected to be sold by Nintendo in Japan this year, it said recently. Worldwide the company expects to sell 10 million units this year.
Well it’s good news for PC fans who are looking forward to the Burnout Paradise “The Ultimate Box” pack, because Criterion has announced that they will be allowing the box to be tested on a trial basis to all users including PC users in February of 2009. On top of that, trial users are getting the chance to check out the entire game, not just a limited sector. That’s right, we can now check out every aspect of the city and try out a good chunk of game features. Criterion basically is doing this to ensure PC users don’t run into any unnecessary technical glitches before selling the product to them (once again CG thinks about us).
