Star Trek Online game gives Cryptic Studios a chance at a mass audience
[Editor's note: check out our awesome video of Star Trek Online. Photos courtesy of Cryptic, Alexa Lee].
Cryptic Studios is one of the few companies that has made a living at making massively multiplayer online games and lived to tell about it. Since 2000, the company has created three successful MMOs: City of Heroes, City of Villains, and Champions Online.
But now it has a chance for the big time with Star Trek Online, a new MMO… Continue Reading
Are profits in video games shifting from the West to the East?
The worldwide video game industry is experiencing healthy revenue growth. In the U.S., sales grew 19 percent to $22 billion in 2008, according to market researcher NPD. That has been a cause for much celebration as games outrun the recession.
But market researcher DFC Intelligence in La Jolla, Calif., has a different take. In a report today, the company asked whether revenue gains are coming at the expense of profits. And while U.S. companies have collectively… Continue Reading
Roundup: Intel cuts estimates, iPhone games taking off and more
Here’s the latest action:
Intel cuts fourth quarter estimates — The chip maker says sales could fall by as much as 19 percent, and things look similarly bleak for chip companies Applied Materials and National Semiconductor.
IPhone takes on Nintendo and Sony in portable gaming — Among other things, the iPhone tempts developers with lowered distribution costs. There are almost 2,000 games already available in Apple’s App Store.
Google joins smart grid group — The group, called the Demand Response and… Continue Reading
Game designer Richard Garriott returns to earth after trip to International Space Station
Game designer Richard Garriott returned safely to earth today after a trip to the International Space Station aboard a privately-funded rocket launched by Space Adventures.
Garriott landed in the Kazakhstan steppes aboard the Soyuz TMA-12 space craft with fellow crew members Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko. Garriott, the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, made history as the first U.S. second-generation astronaut to go into space. (Volkov was also a second-generation astronaut). He paid $30 million… Continue Reading
Space-faring game designer Richard Garriott to promote his game in outer space
Richard Garriott is one of the most famous game designers on the planet and he has been inducted into just about every gamer Hall of Fame. Now he wants to be famous off-planet.
At a personal cost of more than $30 million, the game designer has signed up with Space Adventures (in which he’s an investor) to be shot into space on October 12 on a Russian Soyuz rocket. And while he’s up there, logging days… Continue Reading