eGames Forms Partnership With Leading Hollywood Animation Studio
LANGHORNE, Pa. — Casual games developer and publisher eGames, Inc. today announced a partnership with Creative Capers Entertainment, Inc., one of Hollywood’s leading animation studios, to collaborate on creating eGames’ latest social game by developing compelling graphics and animations in a style that appeals to the baby boomer demographic.

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This week hosts Andrea Rene and Jessica Villarreal are joined in studio by Robert Welkner, host and producer of Coin-Op TV. The girls played Goldeneye 007 in the Showdown and talk about their video game highlights from 2010. Rob, Adrian, Jes, and Andrea gave out the 2010 TWiVG Awards! For more information, show notes, and schedules go to www.thisweekin.com.

All Points Bulletin Music Studio Trailer [HD] Developer: Real Time Worlds Release: 6/29/2010 Genre: RPG Platform: PS3/X360/PC Publisher: EA Website: www.apb.com APB: All Points Bulletin is set in San Paro, a persistent, online modern city which lives and breathes, filled with a population of civilians going about their daily lives. Joining the civilian population are opposing factions of players: Criminals and Enforcers, fighting for control and leaving their mark as they succeed or fail. Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machinima twitter.com Inside Gaming twitter.com Machinima Respawn twitter.com Machinima Entertainment, Technology, Culture twitter.com FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE SPORTS GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE TRAILERS, GO TO: www.youtube.com TAGS: All Points Bulletin Gameplay Trailer [HD] machinima video game real time worlds rpg role playing gangster gangsta xbox xbox360 playstation playstation3 ps3 windows live pc ea san paro epic fail sony computer entertainment scea soe online Microsoft apb opening yt:quality=high

The social gaming publisher Playdom has acquired Acclaim, reports Edge Online. Acclaim CEO Howard Marks will run the newly acquired studio, while chief technology officer Neil Malhotra will transition into the studio’s senior technical officer.

“Joining forces with Playdom is a natural fit,” said Marks. “Both companies share the vision of connecting people globally through quality social games. Our deep expertise in building multi-player online games and Playdom’s vast player community will help us bring out the next generation of social games.”

“Bringing Howard and Neil into Playdom strengthens our leadership and bolsters our position as an innovative games developer for the future,? said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom. ?Howard and Neil have worked together building and operating games for many years, and their pipeline of new games is strong. We are also excited about opening our first Los Angeles based social game development studio which gives us access to all of the game development talent in Southern California. We look forward to big things from this team.?

www.youtube.com Click above to see Blur Gameplay: Drifting (Demo Game Footage Video)! Inside Gaming Plus: Blur Special (Bizarre Creations Studio Tour) We had a chance to check out Blur from famed studio Bizarre Creations in their native town of Liverpool, England. While we were there, we took a little studio tour. Enjoy! – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machinima twitter.com Inside Gaming twitter.com Machinima Respawn twitter.com Machinima Entertainment, Technology, Culture twitter.com FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com TAGS: yt:quality=high Blur Bizarre Creations Activision Blizzard Microsoft Windows PC Vista [7] Xbox 360 X360 PlayStation [3] PS3 play station video game racing powerups power up multi single player multiplayer video game gameplay footage

Way back in September of 2008, long before drama between Infinity-Ward and Respawn Entertainment clogged up everyone’s RSS feeds, there was another new studio formed by a handful of key staffers from a major game developer. It’s been quite some time since we last heard from the folks who left Retro Studios to found Armature Studio, but it looks like the former Metroid Prime creators are finally gearing up for their first big project.

According to a newsletter sent out by Armature (via Joystiq), the company is “staffing up for the initial stages of an exciting unrevealed project with an excited unrevealed publisher!” Presumably, that means the closure of EA’s short-lived Blueprint Division may have had some effect on Armature’s initial publishing deal with EA.

Positions currently open at the Austin-based studio include senior game designer, animator, visual effects artist, systems engineer, and tools engineer. We’ll keep you updated the moment we hear anything further about Armature’s big debut.

In what has become a common refrain over the past month, four more former Infinity-Ward employees have joined former studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella at Respawn Entertainment.

G4 is reporting that Preston Glenn, Sean Slayback, Chad Grenier and Zied Rieke have all joined the startup. Grenier and Rieke are senior and lead designers respectively, while Glenn is a level designer and Slayback is a game designer.

The defections bring the total number of employees who have made the jump to 16. With Infinity-Ward continuing to bleed employees, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey speculated that the studio will be “essentially closed” after the next map pack.

Bungie’s ten-year contract with Activision is specifically for its new IP, leaving the studio free to make games for other publishers. However, due to the scope of this new project, Bungie will likely focus its entire team on it for the immediate future.

Speaking tothis morning, Bungie’s Brian Jarrard (right) told us that while the studio is technically still independent, it will most likely work only on the new Activision-partnered series for the duration of its ten-year contract.

“To be realistic, the types of things that we have inshopand the ambition and scope of this project is going to take the full might of our entire studio to bring this thing to life and to do it well,” said Jarrard.

Activision may be planning to shut down Infinity-Ward after completion of the second Modern Warfare 2 map pack, reports CVG. “Continued defections from their Infinity-Ward studio have created meaningful uncertainty around the future of their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise,” wrote Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey in an investor note. “We expect Infinity-Ward studio will be essentially closed after their next map pack release, with development work on Modern Warfare 3 spread between two studios not historically tied to the franchise.” He may be referring to Treyarch and Sledgehammer, both of which have been tapped for future Call of Duty titles, but haven’t worked on a Modern Warfare yet.

Keep in mind that, for the time being, this is only speculation from an analyst. If it proves true, Activision will be putting the final nail in the golden goose’s coffin. Even as leadership has flooded from the studio, Activision has retained the Infinity-Ward name; if they shut down the studio, even that will be gone. Don’t worry too much about the staff, though; we’re sure most of them can find jobs at some other studio.

As fired Infinity-Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella left the studio early last month, they, along with everyone else who’ve departed on their own initiative since — that’d be roughly a dozen so far — have also said goodbye to their Modern Warfare 2 bonuses, Activision media manager Dan Amrich says. Bonuses that will make the people who remain at the studio that much wealthier.

“Vince and Jason had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it’s still going to the people who work at IW.”

As more people go, and Amrich believes that’s probable, those bonuses will only grow larger.

“I’m confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus — and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay.”