LA Noire lives up to the name "movie-like" video game

A packed crowd of over 200 film fans filled the SVA Theater in New York City during the recent Tribeca Film Festival to watch LAPD Homicide Detectives Cole Phelps and partner Rusty Galloway track down “the red lipstick killer” in LA Noire.

But the action on the big screen, set during 1947 Los Angeles, wasn’t a movie. LA Noire is the latest video game from publisher Rockstar Games. And in contrast to many video games … Continue Reading

The most anticipated video games of 2010

It’s that time of year again, when people look ahead to the new year and salivate over tomorrow’s videogames. 2010 is shaping up to be a stellar year for hardcore gamers. And with so many games coming out, narrowing down the list to just 10 wasn’t an easy task. But we’ve eliminated games that haven’t officially been announced yet and focused on big games for each console, as well as the PC. We’ve also arranged … Continue Reading

Video game creator Jace Hall tries hand at TV with ABC’s “V” remake

As the founder of Monolith Productions, videogame creator Jace Hall is the man behind such PC shooting titles as Blood, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, No One Lives Forever and TRON 2.0. These days, Hall heads up HD Films, which is still immersed in the videogame landscape. The studio is finishing up Chadam, a 10-part Internet short film series that was created using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 technology. Hall also recently wrapped a documentary for … Continue Reading

Ubisoft to debut three short films based on Assassin's Creed II game

MONTREAL, Quebec – Video game publisher Ubisoft is touting the beginning of its entertainment convergence strategy with the unveiling of the first of three short films based on its popular Assassin’s Creed game series.

Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, created by acclaimed Hollywood special effects studio Hybride Technologies (which Ubisoft acquired last year) and Ubisoft Montreal’s Ubisoft Digital Arts (UDA), will make its global debut on Oct. 27 on the front page of YouTube in eight countries.… Continue Reading

Konami's 2009 games include controversial Fallujah episode of Iraq War

Konami Digital Entertainment recently showcased its slate of 2009 games, included a controversial one based on Fallujah, a battle site in the Iraq war.

Anthony Crouts, vice president of marketing at Konami Digital Entertainment, talks about this and the company’s other new titles.

VB: Can you talk about Six Days in Fallujah and how that came about?

AC: When a handful of Marines from the 3-1 battalion came back from Fallujah, they approached Atomic Games … Continue Reading

Applied Research Associates Acquires Virtual Heroes to make serious games

Defense contractor Applied Research Associates has acquired Virtual Heroes, a game developer which has shown a particular skill in creating games for business or educational purposes.

Albuquerque, N.M.-based ARA bought Virtual Heroes, based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, for an undisclosed sum. Virtual Heoes specializes in “serious games,” or those which have some kind of educational or business purpose beyond pure entertainment.

While serious games have been the subject of plenty of research and … Continue Reading

Sega shows off next big Olympics game, targets Wii and DSi

Sean Ratcliffe, vice president of marketing at Sega of America (pictured below), talked with us about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, the sequel of a massively popular game which sold 10 million copies.

Sega collaborated on the game with with Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto. The game will ship on the new Wii and Nintendo DS ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

VentureBeat: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Summer Games … Continue Reading

GameStop’s Bob McKenzie sees little recession impact on gamers

Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at specialty videogame retailer GameStop, was on hand for the official launch last week of Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 game that turned San Francisco’s Union Square into a biohazard event. McKenzie took some time away from the party to talk about the Nintendo DSi launch, what impact the recession is having on used game sales, and why it’s good for the industry to see big games launching throughout … Continue Reading

EA Sports chief Peter Moore on upcoming games

Electronic Arts sports game chief Peter Moore held court in downtown San Francisco last Thursday as his division offered the press its first look at 2009 releases like Fight Night Round 4, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 10, Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods on the iPhone and EA Sports Active. VentureBeat sat down with Moore during the event in a one-on-one interview and here is what he had to say.

VB: Last year, the big … Continue Reading

The ten most-anticipated video games of 2009

With the new year approaching, there’s no time like the present to look ahead to what is shaping up to be another record-breaking year in the videogame business. While many big games have yet to be officially confirmed or even announced, especially from Nintendo’s tight-lipped camp, there are enough console games out there to compile this top ten list. I’m leaving out downloadable games – Take 2 Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and … Continue Reading

Atari president Phil Harrison on creativity and the future of video games

When he was president of Sony Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison was focused on creating new gaming experiences like the karaoke-based SingStar franchise, the Hollywood cinematic series, The Getaway, and the user-generated toolbox called LittleBigPlanet. Harrison, now president of Atari/Infogrames, explains how the decisions he made in building some of these successful global gaming franchises for Sony Computer Entertainment are impacting the choices he makes in leading Atari down its revitalization path.

VB: While over at … Continue Reading

Q&A with Cliff Blezinski on making "Gears of War 2" for the Xbox 360

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–When it comes to this Christmas, Epic Games‘ “Gears of War 2” should sell a lot of copies, and potentially a lot of hardware, for publisher Microsoft. The first “Gears of War” sci-fi shooting game debuted in 2006 and sold more than five million copies, giving Microsoft a critical new franchise in the console war. With the new game now complete, Cliff Belszinski, lead design director at Epic Games, was on hand … Continue Reading

Q&A with Kareem Ettouney on Sony's great hope: LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3

NEW YORK CITY—Sony is pulling out the stops to celebrate the launch of a critical game, LittleBigPlanet, from developer Media Molecule. In the game, you can customize a group of ragdoll characters and use them to solve puzzles to navigate a visually cute world that makes you feel like you’re moving through a model railroad landscape. The console maker needs this game to attract mainstream audiences to the PlayStation 3 and so it held a … Continue Reading

Q&A: EA's Ben Bell on making The Sims 3

With over 100 million copies sold across the globe, The Sims is more than a game franchise for Electronic Arts. It’s an entire division, or a studio label in EA parlance. It’s been five years since The Sims 2 brought 3D to these games. In February, EA’s Maxis studio will release The Sims 3 on the PC. The new game features improved graphics and an entire town called Pleasant Valley, but the heart of The … Continue Reading

More video game publishers embrace Comic-Con show

SAN DIEGO, CA— The Comic-Con show is on the rise, with so many game companies showing up there to unveil new games that it is probably a contender to replace E3.

Over 150,000 fans flocked to downtown San Diego for Comic-Con less than a week after the E3 Media & Business Summit, which is undergoing a big makeover as we write. While E3 focused on a core group of journalists, Comic-Con International is an event … Continue Reading

E3 trendspotting: Game publishers turning more to girl gamers

LOS ANGELES—With the influx of fresh new gamers, thanks in large part to the popularity of mass-market game machines, the DS and the Wii, more game companies than ever are jumping on the girl gamer bandwagon. Practically every booth at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit this year had something to offer for female gamers of various demographics.

The breadth of games ranged from Nintendo DS titles like Namco Bandai’s “National Geographic Panda” and … Continue Reading

The top 10 sleeper video games of E3

The big video games of the E3 Media and Business Summit have been blasted across magazine covers and websites for the past few months, but the show still offers a large selection of lesser-known games that are worth a look—even if they lack the marketing muscle of the blockbusters. The following list contains solid sleepers, some of which have received positive buzz and press coverage, but none of which made Dean Takahashi’s “most anticipated” games … Continue Reading

E3 coverage: “Fallout 3” Executive Producer Todd Howard on Sequels and Franchises

“Fallout 3″ by Bethesda Softworks was the first game Microsoft showed off at its Xbox 360 press conference today and the top pick in Dean Takahashi’s “most anticipated games of E3.” The game’s executive producer, Todd Howard, took some time to discuss the state of the game industry in this exclusive interview. Since graduating from Virginia’s College of William & Mary in 1994, Howard has been one of the driving forces at Bethesda Softworks, which … Continue Reading

Interview: Gameloft gung ho about iPhone gaming

PARIS—The largest mobile game publisher in the world, Gameloft, has a line-up of six games ready for today’s launch of Apple’s new App Store, which coincides with the release of the new 3G iPhones. Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president of publishing at Gameloft, overseas all development at the company across all gaming platforms. In addition to showing VentureBeat playable versions of Gameloft’s launch titles, de Vallois took some time to discuss what impact Apple’s … Continue Reading

Electronic Arts expands its casual game line-up

Electronic Arts is going after the casual consumer on multiple fronts. It offers Pogo.com online and EA Mobile for cell phone users (which will also expand to Apple’s iPod beginning July 7). Now EA Casual and Entertainment is unveiling the first offerings from the Hasbro licensing deal it negotiated last fall, and EA Sports is revamping its entire Wii lineup of games under the All-Play branding.

The publisher showcased many of its upcoming games at … Continue Reading