Gamertell

Canadian-based Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) has invested the sum of $1 million dollars in Silicon Knights, the creators of the upcoming Too Human  or the development of a videogame prototype.

So far the only words coming out of Silicon Knights is that they have described the unknown projects as a third-person action/psychological thriller. This brief description could point to a possibly sequel to Eternal Darkness, which was developed by Silicon Knights for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. However, there is no conformation on this as of yet.  Silicon Knights is expected to begin work on its next title after the May 2008 release of Too Human and be completed in 2010 for all next-gen consoles.

The OMDC is an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture that facilitates economic development opportunities for Ontario’s cultural media industries including book publishing, film and television, interactive digital media, magazine publishing, and music industries is now looking towards the multi-billion dollar industry of video games. Silicon Knights, which is based out of Ontario, Canada, is one of two companies to be supported by the OMDC. The other company to receive the exploratory funding was Digital Extreme; the makers of the upcoming title Dark Sector.

The funding by the OMDC is meant to help developers showcase their new ideas and attract additional funding from publishers. It is hoped that by providing critical support at the prototyping stage of development, that OMDC can help Ontario based developers retain a larger share of their intellectual property and to demand higher royalty payments.

Read [IGN] Also Read [News Wire] Site [OMDC] Site [Silicon Knights]

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Sometimes game have “Platinum Hit” written all over them. And then, they are contenders for the “What the Hell are They Thinking?” award. When it comes to creating a videogame based on the world’s most gluttonous acts, the so-called sport of professional eating, we’ll let you decide which award is most appropriate.

Mastiff Games, a San Francisco based publisher mostly known for Gameboy titles, has acquired the video game rights to the Major League Eating competitions.

According to Mastiff Games, Major League Eating: The Game will feature the world’s greatest eaters competing across…

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The ESRB,  a non-profit group that assigns ratings to the video games industry, has just given Lost Planet Colonies a Teen rating for Animated Blood, Mild Language and Violence. This indicates that Colonies is, indeed, in production. Capcom has yet to address whether or not Lost Planet Colonies is a full sequel or just an expansion pack.

Rumors of Lost Planet Colonies have been roaming around the internet for several months after Capcom had trademarked the game’s title last year. Bad news for PS3 owners, though. The ESRB rating was only giving for Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game with no mention of a PS3 version.

It is likely that Capcom will make some kind of official announcement at this year’s GDC regarding Lost Planet Colonies‘s status.

Read [IGN] Also Read [Kotaku] Site [ESRB]

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Gearbox Software, the Texas-based developer famed for the Brother’s in Arms series, the original Halo for the PC and the expansion packs that followed the first Half Life, has announced on its forum that it is working on something huge. Really huge.

In a brief interview with Kotaku, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said, “I’ve started a new project. It’s big. It’s, like, look-at-our-line-up-and-imagine-something-even-bigger kind of big. I’m directing it myself. I can’t mention it publicly yet. When you find out what this is, you’ll likely agree that…

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After reporting its first ever billion-dollar quarter, Silicon Valley-based chipmaker Nvidia has announced planes to purchase chipmaker, Ageia.

While Ageia’s might not be a household name, the company was responsible for the world’s first dedicated physics processor in 2006. The chip was designed to handle real-time physics calculations for more impressive and diverse visual effects in games. Ageia’s PhysX software is also currently being used in all three current generation consoles.

Terms of the deal…

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As if gamers needed another reason to spend more time online playing Call of Duty 4, Activision and Infinity Ward has announced new maps for the game are on the way for download, both through Xbox Live and the PS3.

The yet-to-be-named maps are the first wave of downloadable content for the title that, just a few weeks ago, did the impossible and beat Halo 3 as the most played game on Xbox Live. Both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 maps are scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2008. New maps for he PC version have not yet been announced.

As of yet, Infinity Ward hasn’t said what environment types will be presented or what gamers can expect to pay for this first download, only that they promise that these new additions will be worth the wait and will thrust gamers into a hot zone of added combat across a variety of intense multiplayer locales.

Read [IGN] Also Read [VideoGamesBlogger]

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Considrering Blizzard Entertainment is making tens of millions of dollars each year with World of Warcraft, the company should at least be spending some of that cash on a new game or, at the very least, something that isn’t centered on the Warcraft universe. Thankfully, it looks like Blizzard might just be doing just that with the rumored development of Starcraft Online.

Developed by Blizzard in 1998 and originally released for the PC and Mac, Starcraft has remained hugely popular in the United States and abroad (especially in Korea). It was only last year (2008) that Blizzard announced a Starcraft sequel was in the works for the PC. This came after…

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Rumor blog Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars reports that Electronic Arts is currently working on a new installment of the Wing Commander franchise. 

Surfer Girl originally stated in the blog post in question that the “epic space game” that EA was rumored to be developing was a new WC.  The post has since been edited to say that Wing Commander isn’t the “epic space game” after all, but it’s nevertheless still under development, due to someone in the reader comments stating that Surfer Girl is contradicting herself, since she mentioned in an earlier post that the epic space game was another, unrelated title.

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November 2006 marked the release of arguably the best shooter to be released on Microsoft’s Xbox 360. That of course being, Epic Game’s, Gears of War. After a total of six new multiplayer maps, one new game mode, 250 Xbox achievement points and a large expansion for the PC, Epic has announced it does not have any plans to create any more original downloadable content for Gears of War through Xbox Live.

Developer of Gears of War, Epic, told IGN that it is moving on to other projects.

Some might ask, or at least hope, that that new project might be a direct sequel to 2006’s game of the year. While Gears of War 2 hasn’t officially been announced, it is a good bet that a sequel is in the works, in one form or another. This move by Epic might just be the first hints that they are ready to return to Sera and allow players to finish the war with the Locust Horde.

Despite this news and that it has been more then half a year since the last downloadable update to Gears of War, Gears has remained one of the most popular Xbox Live titles.

Read [IGN]

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Just when the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to be getting brighter for us Star Trek fans, bad news comes out from the game’s San Francisco-based developer.

P2 Entertainment, formerly Perpetual Entertainment, has announced it will no longer be working on the highly anticipated Star Trek Online MMO. While few specifics have been offered as to why P2 Entertainment has been pulled from the project, the license and game’s content (which does not include the code) have all been transferred over to a yet-to-be-named Bay Area development studio.

This doesn’t mean that the game is canceled, at least not at this time, but this set back may push the release…

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