VentureBeat

Blizzard switches World of Warcraft partner in critical China

Blizzard Entertainment, owner of the massively popular World of Warcraft game, has switchted distribution partners in the increasingly important Chinese market.

Blizzard will now work with NetEase.com to distribute and operate the game for the next three years in China, following the expiration of a deal with The9. The change isn’t surprising, since Activision Blizzard’s chief rival, Electronic Arts, holds an ownership stake in The9.

China is one of the fastest growing games markets, because of its… Continue Reading

BioWare’s founders envision Dragon Age Origins as dark heroic fantasy universe

Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are the medical doctors who found a second career in video games. They’re the co-chief executives of BioWare, the division of Electronic Arts that is known for its outstanding role-playing games. BioWare’s pattern is to create a universe first and then build a game around that fiction. If it’s a hit, then they do more games in the same universe. Their latest project is Dragon Age Origins, a new fantasy… Continue Reading

Will Wright favors Web 2.0-like community-driven game design

Will Wright believes that successful games depend on a feedback cycle where designers create games and incorporate the feedback and content generated by users. As such, the best games evolve after they ship and game companies should do a lot more to reap benefits from game usage data.

A game designer at Electronic Arts, Wright has created some of the best selling games of all time, including The Sims franchise, which has sold more than 100… 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

Electronic Arts shows off fitness, iPhone games in its EA Sports line-up

Electronic Arts showed off its latest sports games today, with a heavy emphasis on new kinds of games that could appeal to wider audiences.

Among the big titles coming soon is EA Sports Active, a fitness title for the Nintendo Wii that resembles the Nintendo Wii Fit title (which topped 10 million unit sales last year). But EA Sports Active isn’t just a knock-off of the popular balance-board game.

The game has a deep fitness program for… Continue Reading

Warner Bros. snatches Lord of the Rings game license

Electronic Arts held the Lord of the Rings license throughout the triumphant years of the Peter Jackson films. But apparently it has surrendered the rights back to Tolkien Enterprises, which in turn has given the license to Warner Bros., which has a game division.

The companies haven’t confirmed this account, which Variety reported. If true, then it would explain some things. EA recently released The Lord of the Rings: Conquest game to generally lousy reviews. Its… Continue Reading

Shake it up baby with The Beatles: Rock Band game

Apple Corps, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they will release a new music video game, The Beatles: Rock Band, in September.

That should shake up the music genre, since the Beatles have never been the subject of a big game, and this is the first title licensed by Apple Corps, which holds the worldwide licensing rights to the Beatles’ music. It will be distributed by Electronic Arts.

The game will be released in North America, Europe,… Continue Reading

Dice Summit: EA CEO says game companies have to cut the fat, and focus

Electronic Arts has just had to cut 1,100 of its 10,000 employees. John Riccitiello, chief executive of EA, talked at the Dice Summit today in Las Vegas about how the company is dealing with that and about its strategy to survive in the recession.

It’s hard to talk about innovation, Riccitiello said, when you’re hearing negative economic news on a daily basis that’s equivalent to a once-in-a-century event such as landing a man on the moon.

Riccitiello… Continue Reading

Latest Lord of the Rings game doesn’t quite measure up

I’ve just finished playing the single-player campaign of Lord of the Rings: Conquest, developed by the Pandemic Studios division of Electronic Arts. And I think the game highlights a tough question for game developers: How do you make a game challenging enough for veteran players without frustrating them?

Lord of the Rings: Conquest is based on a license from the Saul Zaentz Co., which has the game rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy book series (my favorite… Continue Reading

Emergent racks up $12.5M for game-development software

Emergent Game Technologies, a Calabasas, Calif.-based provider of applications used to develop video games more cost-efficiently, just raised $12.5 million in fifth-round funding to support the commercialization of a new product, slated to launch during the Game Developers Conference in late March. The company claims its technology minimizes cost and development time by cutting down on the required back-end of game software. Right now, its Gamebryo platform is used by Disney, Electronic Arts, and others… Continue Reading

[Updated] Defying recession: U.S. video games grow 13 percent in January

The U.S. video game industry continues to defy the recession, with sales in January up 13 percent compared to a year ago.

Overall January sales were $1.33 billion, up from $1.18 billion a year ago. Game hardware was up 17 percent to $445.4 million; game software grew 10 percent to $$676.6 million; and game accessories were up 11 percent to $209.8 million.

Nintendo continued to rule the roost. It sold 679,200 Wii console units, while Microsoft sold… Continue Reading

GDC 09: conference to reflect a more global game industry

The 2009 Game Developers Conference will feature a more global list of speakers who reflect the video game industry’s changing landscape.

The show, which runs in San Francisco from March 23 to March 27, will include keynote speakers Satoru Iwata, chief executive of Nintendo, and Hideo Kojima, the Japanese creator of the Metal Gear series of console video games, published by Konami.

Iwata is a hero for reviving the industry with the launch of the Wii game… Continue Reading

Electronic Arts reports wider loss, laying off more people

Electronics Arts said in its earnings call today that it had a wider loss than expected in its third fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 and it will lay off more people than it planned.

Redwood City, Calif.-based EA will now lay off 1,100, or 11 percent of its 10,000 employees, rather than the 1,000 in previously said in December. It will close 12 offices, compared to nine previously announced.

EA has also cut about a third of… Continue Reading

Taking on giants, GamesCampus and Cybersports move into online sports

Taking on giants is part of what it means to be a startup. Today, two young game companies are launching online sports leagues — something, for the most part, that gaming goliaths like EA have yet to come around to.

These ones will stand out from the pack because they’re trying to build high-quality virtual worlds that can support large sports fan communities.

GamesCampus of San Jose, Calif. has adapted an online baseball game created by Korea’s… Continue Reading

EA doubles down on the Spore franchise with a series of new 2009 spin-offs

Electronic Arts announces today that it is working on a number of new games based on its ambitious Spore franchise.

Lucy Bradshaw, head of the EA Maxis game studio, said in an interview that the universe built around Spore, which launched in September, is going to expand in several directions. Already, the company plans to launch an expansion pack called Spore Galactic Adventure, which will supplement the original with more play options in the popular space-based… Continue Reading

Roundup: Tech salary raises in ‘08, Supreme Court knocks down anti-porn law, and more layoffs

Here’s the latest action, depressing as half of it is:

Apple will make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010 (at least in spirit) — The company has already said it will stop attending the Macworld event, so rumors that it will go to CES instead, persist. Apple or no Apple, CES is doing its best to woo the third-party developers and manufacturers with what has been dubbed the iLounge Pavilion for iPod and… Continue Reading

Dean’s top ten family games of 2008

As always, my other top-ten games lists were chock full of the violent fare that I enjoy. But family games are big in my house too, so here’s my list of the best family games of 2008:

1. Wii Fit (Nintendo Wii) Nintendo. May 2008. Yes, this game made multiple lists, but for a good reason. It’s fun. Itgot gamers off their couches and running around in circles, jumping up and down, and trying to keep their… Continue Reading

Dean’s top ten games of 2008

Here are my picks for the best games of the year. Each and every one of these games was so good that they could all easily be picks for game of the year. It’s a reminder that 2008 was one of the best years we’ve ever had in the video game business.

1. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) Microsoft/Epic Games, Nov. 2008. It’s probably no surprise that my favorite game of the holiday season is also… Continue Reading

The top 20 game stories of 2008

Please check out our link to VentureBeat’s inaugural game conference, GamesBeat 09, on March 24.

Also, see our top 20 game stories of 2008.

The top 10 iPhone games of 2008.

The 10 most-anticipated games of 2009.

The game and virtual world fundings of 2008.

And Dean’s top 10 picks of the holiday season.

2008 has been a big year for the games market. Game sales soared to new heights this year and resisted the onset of the recession. Here’s a… 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