An unannounced air combat game titled "Stormbirds," in development by Juice Games, was recently cancelled by THQ, according to former Juice artist Greg Calvert.
Stormbirds was set for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC before THQ apparently got cold feet. As a result, the team of over 30 developers was laid off by Juiced owner THQ.
"The game was in the same genre as Ace Combat and HAWX," wrote Calvert in a recent blog post. "THQ deemed the project too high risk, [and] as a result the entire team were made redundant on the 1st of December 2008."
Juice Games was acquired by THQ in 2006. The developer is best known for the "Juiced" series of racing titles.
Rather than see the fruits of their labors go to waste, some renders (below) from the Stormbirds project have been released by both Calvert and Steven Kerswell of CG studio RealtimeUK, along with an intro cinematic which is available from the link at the top of... More »
According to a story published by The Times, insider sources from Sony Corp. say the company is in for some "sacred cow-slaying" cost cuts.
This alleged drastic restructuring goes so far as to suggest that there will be closures of company factories and that major divisions will be shut down. This news comes roughly a month after it was revealed that Sony had plans to cut 8,000 jobs from its non-SCEA workforce.
However, as MCV (linked above) reports, Sony is already denying the supposed corporate restructuring. "We do not plan to announce additional restructuring measures at this time," said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari. "We don't have any such plan."
Whether true or not, Sony's corporate outlook is rather dire; analysts are saying that a radical restructuring is long overdue. They suggest that Sony needs to focus on content and softwa... More »
According to Stars and Stripes (linked above), the Army is paying nearly $18 million in order to acquire a new training simulator that will allow soldiers to virtually drive vehicles, fire weapons, and pilot aerial vehicles in combat scenes.
To quote: The Army is shelling out nearly $18 million for a new training simulator game that will allow soldiers to drive virtual vehicles, fire virtual weapons and pilot virtual unmanned aerial vehicles in combat situations.
The contract for "Game After Ambush" was awarded late last month to software developers Laser Shot, of Texas, Bohemia Interactive, of the Czech Republic, and Australia-based Calytrix Technologies.
The new simulator — a modification of the commercial "Virtual Battle Space 2" — will replace the Army’s Official video game "DARWARS Ambush," which the service uses to train soldiers for combat.
Since 2006, the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and I... More »
Being one of Konami's biggest studios, Kojima Productions has some big plans for 2009. What are they up to? What's big man Hideo Kojima working on? And more importantly, are David Hayter and the rest of the gang still willing to work on more Metal Gear games despite some (questionable) psychological trauma?
Speaking to Famitsu about their plans for 2009, Hideo Kojima reveals that their studio will be starting with a clean slate (well, considering that Ryan Payton has already left...) and still aim to be a global competitor in the video game industry.
Interestingly enough, it seems as if Hideo Kojima is feeling the pressure from Western studios. What with so many industry key persons stating that video game development is no longer centered in Japan, Kojima Productions is now reviewing their current team structure, tools, staff, and basic operations.
I've thought a lot about how Western games have been winning, looking it from a globa... More »
Another year has passed and in 2009 promises an amazing round of games from each platform and we are likely to see mobile phone gaming finally crack the North American market (whether it is through a Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple, or Andriod powered phone), but before we can look to 2009 we have to evaluate 2008 and see how it matches up to the so-called Best Year of Gaming; 2007.
2007 was a year where there was no shortage of quality on any platform. With the DS sporting heavy hitters like Zelda, Puzzle Quest, Hotel Dusk, and Contra 4, the PC reclaimed top honors with amazing experiences like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and Crysis, but the Xbox 360 was the platform that took the crown with some of the PC offerings as well as it crown jewel, Halo 3.
Not to be discounted, the Sony platforms could not be forgotten either with titles like Uncharted, God of War 2 and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. With such a heavy field of courter vying for our attention, wh... More »
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