PopCap Games Chief Creative Officer Jason Kapalka has claimed that current publishers are not ready forwith the new age of mobile and social gaming.
Observing that "FarmVille is probably more of a WoW-killer than the Old Republic," the co-founder of the Bejewelled developer felt that many gamers no longer had the time on their hands necessary for traditional games.
"I think increasingly a lot of people are in that position, and games have to evolve to meet that need," he told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today.
The director general of UK trade association ELSPA, Michael Rawlinson, has stated his belief that the British videogames industry needs to unite and work more closely together.
The announcement, during a keynote speech at the Digital Spark conference, comes a week before the organisation is set to rebrand to UKIE - UK Interactive Entertainment - as it seeks to expand its remit from looking after the interests of traditional publishers alone.
"Boundaries are blurring between developer and publisher and with these changes new opportunities are arising, and we all need to adapt to make the most of this brave new world," he said.
Early bird tickets for Screen Yorkshire and Game Republic's Games Invest event at this year's Eurogamer Expo are currently available at discount rates.
Early tickets are available until September 6, and are priced at £35 as opposed to the full price of £50.
The event provides small and medium companies a chance to get advice on finding investment funds for games projects, as well as providing informal and formal pitching opportunities.
Yahoo! Japan and developer DeNA's joint venture development portal Yahoo! Mobage is set to open to the public on 1 October, and hopes to reach 72 million Japanese internet users with its PC and mobile game service.
The company is seeking to attract American developers with the promise of reaching DeNA's 20 million monthly mobile users and Yahoo! Japan's 52 million internet users.
Developers have been able to access DeNA's mobile platform, Mobage, since January this year. DeNA claim this has led to participants seeing a reported ten-fold sales increase in six months, with an average earning of $1 million (£652,230) per month for a top game.
Blizzard Entertainment has revealed that its long-awaited RTS sequel, StarCraft II, has now sold over 3 million units after one month of availability.
The news follows strong early sales of the game, which became the fastest-selling PC RTS title ever after shifting 1.5 million copies in the first two days after release.
"We appreciate all the enthusiasm that players around the world have shown for StarCraft II," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "It was important to us to deliver an overall gameplay experience that was accessible, balanced, and fun, and it's been gratifying to see how strongly the global community has already embraced the game."
UK retailer GAME has made its first steps into online distribution, with the release of new software tool GAME Downloader.
While the application does not allow full game downloads as yet, at least it scans users' PCs for installed games and then provides automatic notification whenever new patches or DLC becomes available.
The Downloader can also notify gamers as to the availability of demos, trailers, mods and indie games.
Catalis SE, the group that owns Kuju Entertainment, has announced that it is splitting out its Doublesix studio from the rest of the company to stand alone as a new business division.
The division will continue to work in the digital download and self-publishing sector, following the success of titles including Burn Zombie Burn and South Park's Let's Go Tower Defense Play or PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade respectively.
"It's important for us to separate Kuju's more traditional and core work for hire business from projects that fall into the digital self-published realm," said Kuju CEO Nigel Robbins. "Kuju's three other studios and the imprints under Doublesix Video Games may share a common goal of creating compelling quality games, but the disciplines are somewhat different and the new structure will bring out the best in both divisions."
The North East of North (NeoN) festival is to return to Dundee in November, offering a full month of digital arts events across the city.
While the programme also encompasses design, art and music, games are a major part of the proceedings. The University of Abertay will run a series of panels, debates and workshops on November 11 to 12, hosted and attended by a wide array of software companies.
On November 8 to 10, the city additionally plays host to AppCon and AppJam, respectively a conference and 48-hour development competition for mobile and social games.
Micropayment firm ATLAS Interactive has appointed a new Chief Operations Officer.
Andreas Pritzlaff has been promoted after two years working in Mobile Solutions at the German firm, and will now head up business operations including product management, purchasing, business development and customer care.
Said Marco Priewe, Managing Director of ATLAS, "Mr. Pritzlaff has in the past two years contributed significantly to the development of Mobile Solutions and has several years of experience in the telecommunications industry. I am pleased that our management team consisting of Andreas Syska-Funk and I could expand further with Mr. Pritzlaff, an important member."
Activision Blizzard's parent company, French media conglomerate Vivendi, has today increased its profit predictions for 2010 - despite recording a dip in second-quarter profits of 3.7 per cent to 669 million (£552.6m) from 695 million (£574m) last year.
Vivendi did not hesitate to point out that the increase in predicted profits was due to an unexpectedly good performance from Activision Blizzard's properties, in which it owns a 52 per cent controlling stake. The drop in second quarter profits was ascribed to fewer music releases from Vivendi's major artists such as Eminem and Lady Gaga.
Last month, the company's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 became the UK's best selling game of all time.
Electronic Arts has accused Edge Games' notoriously litigious boss Tim Langdell of "fraudulent misrepresentations", as it battles against his claim that EA title Mirror's Edge infringes his trademark of the word 'edge.'
The publisher has filed a counter-suit against Langdell, claiming his failure to release any games involving the contested trademark for some years constitutes deception of the US patent office.
EA is demanding that Langdell's trademarks are wiped out something that a number of smaller developers who have suffered the former IGDA board member's threatened legal wrath would no doubt welcome.
An open source alternative to the PSJailbreak hack called PSGroove has been made available this morning, with the features intended for piracy removed.
The homebrew code must be downloaded to a AT90USB or variant before being installed, part of a USB development kit available for as little as £25.
In addition, the new hack doesn't feature the code in the commercial variant which causes a PlayStation 3 to lock up if the dongle is removed once the hack is installed.
Mobile games publisher Gameloft has announced its financial results for the first half of its fiscal year to June 30, 2010, noting an 11 per cent increase in overall sales compared to the same time frame last year to 66.6 million.
Those results helped the company achieve a 5.3 million profit, more than doubling last year's total of 2.2 million - and the publisher expects the continued sales of smartphones to help it sustain that growth.
One of the main reasons for the improvement was an 82 per cent growth in revenue from Apple's App Store, while the company also cited "efficient cost control" as a contributing factor.
Xbox's Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) has confirmed rumours of a new model of Xbox 360 controller, citing the main improvement as a new D-pad which transforms from a directional controller to a single button when rotated 90 degrees.
The post on Hryb's blog details all of the new features of the controller, including a matte grey finish and all grey buttons.
The new dual-function D-pad is believed to be a response to a long-standing user issue with accuracy, especially in the light of games which require precise directional control from the D-pad, such as Street Fighter IV.
Electronic Arts has revealed that its internal estimates make this year's edition of Madden NFL the best-selling game for August in the US, across all platforms.
The publisher announced that sales of the game were up 5 per cent year-on-year, with the release of the Ultimate Team mode at launch propelling digital revenue up by 200 per cent.
"Madden NFL 11 is the number one selling game in August, and the game has created enormous enthusiasm in the online community," said Peter Moore, president of EA Sports. "Each day on consoles, fans are playing as many games online as the equivalent of 750 full NFL seasons."
Beleaguered firm Interplay is to step back into the publishing business. It yesterday announced its new Discovery program, intended to offer "great new games at great new prices" from small developers worldwide.
Interplay shut down active business in 2004, but was kept alive as a corporate entity solely as a result of selling the Fallout license to Bethesda in 2007.
However, it retained rights to publish its own Fallout MMO were certain funding and deadline conditions met. In January this year, the publisher confirmed Masthead Studios is working on the MMO, codenamed Project V13 but it must release it in 2011 or the rights default to the Bethesda.
While social game companies are over-valued, online publisher Bigpoint is eyeing traditional console makers for acquisition as they represent better value and are struggling in their own market.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz today, CEO Heiko Hubertz said that deals like Disney's $763 million buyout of Playdom are "crazy" and he doesn't expect valuations to drop to realistic levels for at least another year.
"There are many companies that have paid crazy valuations, just look at the Disney and Playdom acquisition, that was a crazy valuation from my point of view," said Hubertz.
German AI middleware developer Xaitment has secured 2.4 million (£1.98 m) in investment funding, largely from the Triangle Venture Capital Group, with co-investment from ERP Startfonds.
The company, which produces out-of-the-box AI solutions to game developers, will use the money to continue its business expansion, as well as improving the five development tools which it currently offers to market.
"AI middleware is an exciting topic of discussion in game development circles and has the most potential for growth. Xaitments AI solutions bring the time and cost saving percentages that game developers need in this extremely competitive field of gaming," said Xaitment CEO Andreas Gerber.
Game Connection Europe 2010 has been confirmed as taking place in Lyon on 16 to 18 November. In addition, four brand new events have been confirmed for the conference.
Firstly, there's Game Connection Selected Projects. This event is focused on rewarding exciting innovations and exhibitions of skill within the industry, giving twenty carefully chosen companies the chance to show off their talents to Game Connection attendees. Applications for Selected Projects are online now.
A second event, Game Connection Invest, is similar, but will allow more established companies the chance to pitch to investors for funding. Applications for companies looking for investment are open until 5 October.
