Weekly Industry News

    Good day! We
    looked at the team of the “Game Star” portal, appeared on the “Games” blog and decided that he lacked a strong, interesting, and most importantly regular, news bulletin. We are glad to see the efforts of our colleagues who provide the blog with even video information, but we decided to approach the issue from a different perspective, i.e. in the form of a classic digest. I would like to hear comments, suggestions, and also, what the hell is not joking, praise :) So far it’s only possible to post on my personal blog, so we apologize for the temporary inconvenience.

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    Staff reduction at Maxis studio

    Publisher Electronic Arts has officially confirmed the information that the staff of the studio Maxis has been reduced. How many developers are sent to free bread is not reported. According to representatives of EA, the reason is completely not in the money. This is a common situation in the gaming industry, when the studio is expanding, then decreasing, it all depends on the situation on the market at the moment. There will be no changes to Maxis project releases. The release of Spore Hero for Wii and Spore Hero Arena for DS is not postponed for a single day and will take place on October 9th.

    Recall, in the spring of this year, Maxis left its founder and legendary game designer Will Wright. He went to the company Stupid Fun Club, which he himself founded back in 2001, where he produces websites and television shows.

    Raven Software: the blow of the crisis “blew” part of the staff

    Studio Raven Software, located under the wing of the publisher Activision, announced the dismissal of 35-40 of its employees - office workers in Wisconsin (USA). The reasons for the dismissals are not called, but it is curious that statements about personnel changes were made almost immediately after the release of Wolfenstein shooter on August 18, 2009.

    Now the studio continues to work on the sci-fi shooter Singularity, the release of which is delayed. Whether this is due to the economic crisis, which clearly hit the company, is not known.

    Reason for closing FASA Studio

    In September 2007, if you still remember, FASA Studio was closed, which released MechWarrior 4: Vengeance, Mechcommander and Shadowrun. Only today, the former head of the studio Jordan Weisman (Jordan Weisman) revealed what was the reason for the closure.

    He says that in fact FASA Studio died back in 1999 when Microsoft bought it. Even then, she began to crumble in front of her eyes. Jordan claims that Microsoft acquired FASA for the reason that the latter, firstly, was the owner of a popular franchise, and secondly, that it made very strong projects and had its own “culture” of game development. And all this immediately began to crumble. Actually, the last brick fell apart in 2007.

    Jordan Weisman is currently working for the benefit of Smith and Tinker, or rather, is the head of the studio. Together with the guys from Piranha Games they make the new MechWarrior, a preview of which we covered on our website. Together with MechWarrior, the company’s nightstand holds intellectual property rights, such as Shadowrun and Crimson Skies, inherited from FASA.

    Turbine pulled Atari into litigation

    In the gaming industry, there are two great ways to get rich: make an awesome game and get someone to court. And you can, without wasting time, create a game and immediately start to sue someone because of it.

    Today, for example, it became known that the Massachusetts (USA) studio Turbine sued Atari. They did not share the MMO game Dungeons & Dragons Online and the issue price is very high - $ 30 million.

    The situation was as follows: Turbine studio developed Dungeons & Dragons Online, the publisher was Atari, which has exclusive rights to the Dungeons & Dragons series.

    According to the plaintiff, the publisher is trying to get rid of the previously concluded agreement on post-release support for the project for the sake of another in-house development that it intends to launch. Studios have to independently support the project at their own expense, which is contrary to the contract and greatly offends the Turbine management.

    In compensation, the developers want to get 30 million green rubles.

    Splash Damage simultaneously announced Brink 2 and 3

    British studio Splash Damage announced both the second and third parts of the shooter Brink.
    The announcement is surprising because the first part of the shooter has not yet come out. Its release is scheduled for 2010. Perhaps the developers are very confident in their abilities.
    The first part of the shooter Splash Damage was announced in May, this will be the first independent project of the studio. Prior to this, Splash Damage worked only under the wing of other, larger companies.

    Final Fantasy XIII: U.S. release date set

    Another "last infinite fantasy" Final Fantasy XIII has found an exact release date in North America. A significant event for fans of the series will be held June 21, 2010. In Japan, as always, everything is much more optimistic: the game will hit the shelves this year, that is, more than half a year earlier.

    The Gamestop online store is already ordering Americans to pre-order, which will cost $ 59.99. Releases of the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game will take place simultaneously and will cost the same.

    We also want to bring to your attention our journalism:

    Diablo 3. About the monk and not only

    Blizzard is still betting on characters with skills of a frankly magical nature. The monk is a warrior of light and a wonderful fighter with the undead. Has a rather charismatic appearance and a lot of interesting and unusual abilities.

    The announcement is just around the corner. Part 1. (GTA 5, Doom 4, Fallout 4, Dead Space 2, etc.)

    Today we want to tell you about the continuations that are in work, but there is practically no information about them. Their full announcement, as the name implies, is not far off, but it’s not yet clear where these mountains are and what the future of famous titles is.

    The announcement is just around the corner. Part 2. (Fable 3, HL 2: Episode 3, Hitman 5, Thief 4, etc.)

    Having gone through the memory, news archives and all kinds of interviews, we selected another pack of interesting projects in our opinion. Below you will find out who creates the remake of Syndicate when Agent 47 returns, what the ninth of Mortal Kombat will be, and much more.

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