Tag: gaming

UE3 powers ‘Fable: The Journey’ and Kinect Fun Labs

Lionhead Studios that Unreal Engine 3 will power latest installment of Fable saga.

PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES (June 6, 2011) – Microsoft Studios, Lionhead Studios and Epic Games, Inc. announce that Lionhead is developing “Fable:The Journey” using Epic’s award-winning Unreal Engine 3. Revealed today during the Xbox 360 E3 2011 Media Briefing, “Fable: The Journey” is poised to take the cherished action-adventure series to Kinect for Xbox 360. Under Microsoft’s licensing agreement with Epic, Lionhead is equipped with the latest Unreal Engine technology to bring powerful new experiences to the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 exclusive franchise that has sold more than 9 million copies.

“In using the Unreal Engine with its excellent tools for crafting cinematic in-game experiences, it allows our developers to focus on the quality and uniqueness of ‘Fable: The Journey,'” said Peter Molyneux, creative director of Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Game Studios Europe. “Already we are seeing a more beautiful, vivid and unique world full of dramatic moments and have crafted new, never seen before gameplay experiences.”

“The world of Albion has always been a beautiful place, and Lionhead embellishing it using the bells and whistles of Unreal Engine 3 makes it even more magical,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “Furthermore, Lionhead truly impresses with their proficiency for Kinect, with intuitive and natural feeling player interactions using voice and gesture controls in demonstrations we have seen firsthand. That gripping experience combined with stunning UE3 visuals truly make this is a world-class union of imagination and technology.”

About Unreal Engine 3
The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for its cutting-edge graphics, best-of-breed suite of integrated tools and scalability across platforms.
Epic Games’ research and development continually evolve Unreal Engine 3’s highly mature toolset and content pipeline. Unreal Engine 3 is available across multiple platforms including iOS, Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3, PC, Mac and Android. Unreal Engine 3 is designed to accelerate developers’ productivity for computer and video games, mobile games and applications, training simulations, 3D visualizations, digital films and animated television shows. Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder and five-time winner of Game Developer magazine’s Best Engine award in the US as well as the current holder and three-time winner of Develop magazine’s Best Engine award in the UK. Developers can start using Unreal Engine 3 with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of the engine’s award-winning toolset available at www.udk.com. Additional information on Unreal Engine 3 can be obtained at www.unrealengine.com.

PERFORMANCE DESIGNED PRODUCTS (PDP) ANNOUNCES E3 2011 PRODUCT LINEUP

New hardware on display includes precision controllers for fighting game fans, wireless Afterglow controllers and headsets and licensed products.

LOS ANGELES, CA ­ JUNE 3, 2011 ­ Performance Designed Products LLC (³PDP²), a worldwide leader in the video game accessory market, announced its line-up of new video game controllers and accessories being shown during the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. New hardware on display includes precision controllers for fighting game fans, wireless Afterglow controllers and headsets and licensed products featuring Cars 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Nerf, Energizer and Transformers 3.

³Our goal is to create high quality controllers and accessories that suit the needs of everyone,² Tom Roberts, chief technical officer of Performance Designed Products. ³From competitive fighting gamers to young players just starting out, we¹ve created products to reach from hard core to casual audiences and back.²

PDP will be showing the following items during this year¹s E3:

• New versions of the highly-rated Mortal Kombat Klassic Fightstick for
both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, including a re-skin that reflects the color scheme of the original Mortal Kombat arcade game cabinet. GameStop will exclusively be offering a limited run of Mortal Kombat Klassic Fight Sticks bundled with the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kompilation, a digital release containing Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
• The Versus Fight Pad, the high quality pad designed for six button
fighting games, available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now the Nintendo Wii and are officially licensed for all three systems.
• The first rechargeable, wireless light-up Afterglow controller for the PlayStation 3
• The Afterglow Communicator, coming for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Wii Chat headset enhance online multiplayer chatting experiences.
• Keep Earth from going dark with the limited Collector¹s Edition
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Wireless Controller and Bluetooth Headset for PlayStation 3. Designed after the loveable and courageous Bumblebee, this wireless controller and Bluetooth headset (which can be stored in the controller) feature authentic Transformers details, light-up logo and official artwork.
• My First Remote, a micro-sized, kid-friendly remote designed for Wii
players with smaller hands that also features interchangeable Disney artwork.
• The Wii Blaster, a unique lightgun-style controller for the Wii that comes with a download coupon for the WiiWare shoot-Œem-up game, Big Town Shootout.
• New licensed controllers and accessories featuring Transformers 3, Nightmare Before Christmas, Cars 2, Nerf and Energizer.
• Microsoft Kinect mounting solutions and extension cords and PlayStation Move accessories to help keep gamer¹s living spaces organized.

OPTOMA GT750 PROJECTOR COMPATIBLE WITH ALL GAMING AND ENTERTAINMENT FORMATS

The GT750, the first portable projector that is compatible with all gaming formats and standards, including Blu-ray 3D.

PRESS RELEASE

FREMONT, Calif. | June 6, 2011 | Optoma, the best-selling brand of DLP projectors in the USA, and the only projector maker with its eyes focused directly on the gaming market, has introduced

The projector will be unveiled June 7-9 at the Electronic Entertainment Industry (E3) Expo in Los Angeles (South Hall, booth 3054), with availability scheduled for August at a price of $799.

“This is a milestone product for Optoma and a direct response to 3D gaming enthusiasts who want to take advantage of the newest technologies,” said Jon Grodem, Optoma’s senior director of product & marketing. “And as more 3D content becomes available, both for games and general entertainment, the GT750 becomes a natural choice.”

The GT750 becomes the fourth member of Optoma’s award-winning GameTime line and includes features that create an immersive and exhilarating gaming experience. Its 2500 lumens of brightness and short throw lens combine to deliver bright, larger-than-life images, even in small rooms that might not easily accommodate other projectors.

And its powerful 10-Watt stereo speaker system delivers in-the-action sound without external speakers.

The GT750 offers a native widescreen 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution, and is designed to maximize the widescreen attributes of major gaming platforms, including those running 3D content on Blu-ray disks. Optoma’s unique circuitry accepts Blu-ray’s HDMI 1.4a 3D signal and converts it for display in 720p resolution 3D.

It also is PC and MAC compatible, supports computer resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels (HD), and accepts common global video inputs and video formats up to 1080p (HDTV, EDTV, SDTV, NTSC, PAL, SECAM). The GT750 comes packaged with a custom backpack to accommodate the on-the-go gamer, and a remote control is also included as standard equipment.

Unity Technologies Celebrates Six Years of Indie Game Development Goodness

The leading Indie game engine celebrates its sixth birthday.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – June 06, 2011) – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for awesome games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today celebrated Unity’s sixth anniversary.

Unity, launched onstage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in 2005, is commemorating six years of steadfast leadership and relentless innovation in democratizing game development and making it possible for everyone to create rich interactive 3D content.

“We bet on broad democratization of game development and have been aggressively coding and innovating to realize that vision,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “We just surpassed the 500,000 user milestone, our customers continue to amaze us with their creations, and we are expanding our team at a rapid rate. It’s exciting to be both an instigator and a participant in this revolution.”

A few of the things that have happened in the last 12 months:

Unity was named the #1 Game Engine by Game Developer Magazine readers, received Develop Magazine’s coveted Grand Prix Award and won the prestigious Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award Unity became the platform of choice for teaching students how to design and develop games

The company’s registered user base surpassed 500,000 users; 150,000 of these users are active monthly users representing well over a million hours of game development every month

The free Unity browser plugin for playing web games exceeded 60 million installs

Unity and the Unity Web Player were certified by the US Army and Air Force so they can be installed on their secure networks

The third generation of Unity, with dozens of major new features, 100+ additional enhancements and up to 10x performance improvements, and support for Android were released

The company teamed with Qualcomm to bring Augmented Reality (AR) to Android The number of Unity games in the Apple iOS App Store exceeded 1500 — “best of” and “top selling” games include Battleheart, Gears, Samurai II, Skee-Ball and Snuggle Truck

The company rocked Game Developers Conference (GDC) in a big way and won Best of Show The company announced a deep partnership Electronic Arts (EA)

The company launched the Unity Asset Store, a digital marketplace where developers can share and sell assets to accelerate development, and it’s quickly become the #1 marketplace for Unity developers

The company introduced Union, a business unit dedicated to distributing high quality 3D games on mobile phones, tablets, set-top boxes, connected TVs and other new platforms — Union announced a partnership with Sony Ericsson to enable rapid development and porting of Unity-based games to the new Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY smartphone and a partnership with RIM to bring dozens of Unity-based games to the PlayBook

For the full list of awards and accolades, simply visit:
http://unity3d.com/company/fast-facts.

Moshi Monsters Hits 50 Million Registered Users Worldwide

Publisher claims Moshi Monsters is one of the fastest growing kids entertainment brands in the world with 50 million registered users worldwide.

PRESS RELEASE

New York – June 6, 2011 – Two years ago, London-based startup Mind Candy launched Moshi Monsters (www.moshimonsters.com), with the goal of giving 6-12 year old kids a fun, social and safe online experience. Today, Moshi Monsters is a new form of children’s entertainment. The website forms the heart of the experience, which combines adoptable pet monsters, safe social networking, games, stories, missions and educational puzzles.

The site has become hugely successful over the last year growing at the rate of one new sign up every second, with the fastest growth being seen across North America.
Following its online popularity the brand has made a successful transition into the offline world with the launch of best-selling toys, books, video games, trading cards and a Moshi magazine within the UK and Australia.

Spin Master is onboard as U.S. toy partner and Moshi Monsters toys will launch in North America this summer via an exclusive partnership with a major retail partner – to be announced imminently. Books from Scholastic and trading cards from Topps are on shelf in the U.S. currently and many other categories including the magazine and video games will roll out in the coming months.

Hot on the heels of its retail success, Mind Candy is also now working on music, live tours, a revolutionary TV platform and a Moshi film.
From near bankruptcy in late 2008, Mind Candy is on course to generate over $100 million in gross retail sales across all Moshi Monsters related product during 2011.
“North America is a huge growth area for us right now,” said Michael Acton Smith, CEO and creator of Moshi Monsters.
He continued, “We’re delighted to hit 50 million registered users and have even more ambitious plans ahead. Our vision is to build the largest entertainment brand in the world for this new digital generation of kids.”

For those who don’t know … what is Moshi Monsters?

Players choose from one of six virtual pet monsters – Furi, Poppet, Diavlo, Zommer, Luvli and Katsuma – that they can create, name and nurture. Once their pet has been customized, players can navigate their way around Monstro City, taking the daily puzzle challenge to earn ‘Rox’
(virtual currency), playing games, solving Super Moshi Missions, personalizing their room, showing off their artwork, reading stories and communicating with friends in a safe environment. Now kids can enjoy Moshi Monsters in a variety of forms whether it be online, via books, a magazine or playing with their favorite toy.

About Mind Candy

Online gaming and entertainment company, Mind Candy was founded by internet entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith (CEO) in 2004. The company created Moshi Monsters, which has 50m players around the world and is now expanding rapidly offline into books, toys, trading cards, TV and film.