Social games company Playdom has acquired its fifth acquisition in four months, picking up Facebook games developer Hive7 for an undisclosed sum.
Hive7 is best known for Knighthood, and produces games for Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and other social networks, including Youtopia, Kick-Off and Sindicate.
“Gaining access to Playdom?s industry knowledge and resources represents a unique opportunity for our studio to operate on an entirely new scale,” offered Max Skibinsky, CEO of Hive7.
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THQ’s VP of core games, Danny Bilson, has claimed that television is becoming an increasingly irrelevant medium for videogame marketing.
Speaking to the[a]listdaily, Bilson said “One of the bigger questions we have to ask ourselves is how important is television? How important is television to a core gamer on a non-television brand? So I think television has some relevance on WWE and UFC because I consider those TV brands. But our other stuff, I question it severely.
“It?s incredibly expensive, and what I can do with two million dollars, which will buy a few TV spots on a big sporting event, what I can do in outdoor, or on the web, or direct-to-consumer is way more exciting.
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Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has stated that the Nintendo 3DS handheld will not launch until 2011.
While in prior statements the compant had claimed the portable would hit retail before the end of its fiscal year in March, in an appearance on US talkshow Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Fils-Aime categorically said “It’s coming out next year. We cannot wait.”
There had been speculation that the glasses-free 3D device would arrive in the US and Europe in time for Christmas. This may remain the case for Japan, but with Fils-Aime not naming a month or season, the handheld may be some time off for the West.
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Warner Bros’ LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 has knocked Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption off the top of the all-formats charts in the UK.
The top ten has seen a shake-up this week, with a handful of new titles entering the charts ? 505 Games’ Naughty Bear is at number five, Sony’s highly-acclaimed RPG Demon’s Souls at six and Activision’s Transformers: War for Cybertron at eight.
However, Activision and Raven’s new first-person shooter, the heavily delayed Singularity, only managed to scrape the top 40 at number 38.
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EA Sports president Peter Moore has claimed that gamers appreciate the need for the publisher’s controversial Project anti-trade-in technology.
The Online Pass requires that purchasers of some second-hand EA titles must pay an additional fee in order to access their online modes. As of this month’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, it will be used on all EA Sports titles.
Gamers “recognise the business model implications of new versus used,” Moore told gaming site Kotaku.
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Sony Enertainment Online’s vritual world Free Realms now boasts over 12 million users, with two million of those gained during the last four months.
The free-to-play MMO, aimed at younger gamers, launched last year – pulling 10 million users within just 10 months of existence.
While Sony has yet to release information on how many of those 12 million players are subscribing or paying for extra content, it’s an impressive headcount for what has been a troubled sector of late.
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Global publisher Activision Blizzard has joined developer organisation TIGA, backing the continued fight to gain tax relief in the UK.
The company has two major UK teams, Blur studio Bizarre Creations and FreeStyleGames, makers of DJ Hero.
“At Activision Blizzard we are extremely supportive of TIGA’s campaign to secure games tax relief for the UK development community,” said George Rose, chief policy officer at Activision Blizzard.
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New console technology in the form of Move, Kinect and home 3D are all just stop-gaps on the road to the next-generation of home consoles, which could arrive within two to three years, according to Capcom’s David Reeves.
Sony has always championed a ten year plan for the PlayStation 3, and Microsoft said last week it sees another five years of life in the Xbox 360, but Reeves, who spent 14 years at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, believes new hardware will arrive sooner ? although the publisher is happily jumping in and exploring possible new markets on the current-gen machines.
“Capcom is embracing it, we’re working with Microsoft and with Sony on both sides and trying to match up the IPs we have with what the first-parties want,” said Reeves of motion controllers Kinect and Move. “It’s not a forced fit. In some ways it’s quite a natural way of progressing.”
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