ALPHA | WORLDVIEW
WorldView Our monthly digest of global games news…
DEALS US-based game retail giant GameStop has acquired leading online Flash games portal Kongregate. Swedish firm Illuminate Labs has been bought by middleware firm Autodesk. Intel has been named as a key investor in cloud gaming service Gaikai. Social game group Arkadium has licensed Hansoft’s project management and QA tech. Twisted Pixel Games has licensed RAD Games Tools’ animation toolkit for its new project Comic Jumper. Emergent Game Technologies has signed a deal with Aristen that combines their FxStudio with the LightSpeed engine. Trinigy has inked seven new Vision Engine licensing deals with Asian firms Neowiz, Nano Play, SmileGate, Aurogon Games, Nsid Globaland FPTOnline. Sony Online Entertainment has signed Romino Games’ sidescrolling action RPG Swords & Soldiers. Disney has acquired US-based Tap Tap Revenge developer Tapulous. 10 | AUGUST 2010
CODIES SIGNS MORPHEME DEAL NaturalMotion, the design tools provider that span out from its humble roots at Oxford University, has arrived at what is possibly the firm’s biggest contract yet – a long-term deal with UK stronghold Codemasters. The agreement between both parties begins with Bodycount, the latest FPS project underway at Codemasters Studios Guildford under the guidance of Stuart Black. NaturalMotion is providing its Morpheme animation engine to the studio, though the wider agreement will see Morpheme licensed out to a number of other Codemasters projects. Codemasters CTO Bryan Marshall said that the Morpheme engine “integrates perfectly” with the studio’s famed EGO Game Technology Platform. “The Morpheme engine and tools enable fast and compelling content creation, driving Bodycount’s explosive animations to new heights,” He added. www.codemasters.co.uk
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IAN LIVINGSTONE TO LEAD INDUSTRY SKILLS REVIEW
TAX BREAK JOY FOR NORTH CAROLINA STUDIOS
Ian Livingstone has been appointed as the government’s skills champion for the video game sector. Livingstone, life president of Eidos and chairman of the Skillset Computer Games Skills Council, is now tasked with driving both the video games and visual effects industry workforce to increase skills across the board. The appointment is also setting the scene for Livingstone to begin work with Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil and Double Negative’s Alex Hope in launching a thorough review of education and training in the UK games and VFX industries. The review is set to be carried out by NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and Skillset. It was announced by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey at the Develop Conference 2010 in Brighton. “This announcement is a fantastic recognition of all of the brilliant work Ian has done for the UK’s games sector. We could not imagine a better qualified person for this role,” said Skillset chief executive Dinah Caine. “Skillset is very pleased to be given the opportunity to contribute to this review, which comes at an important time for our sector. We look forward to working with NESTA and with e-skills-UK as we continue our partnership work championing skills development in this sector.” www.skillset.org
Next year the US State of North Carolina will grant its game studios a 15 per cent tax break – a measure which will bring a key competitive advantage to local firms such as Epic Games, FunCom and Red Storm. The tax break relief will also apply to local companies building game platforms – doubling the delight of Gears of War and Unreal Engine creators Epic Games. www.ncgov.com UK
ZATTIKKA RAISES $5.5M IN FUNDING Online and mobile games firm Zattikka has raised $5.5 million in funding through its parent company Expedite 5. Led by Notion Capital and a group of private individuals including Harald Ludwig, co-chair of Lionsgate Entertainment, the investment will bolster Zattikka’s efforts with regard to recruitment, R&D and marketing. The company also plans to further broaden its portfolio of browser and mobile games. “Over the past two years the consumer appetite for online gaming has increased significantly with revenue already standing at over $2.25bn in 2008 and growing 20 per cent per annum. This much broader audience is being driven by females and premium gamers developing a passion for casual social gaming,” said Tim Chaney, CEO, Zattikka.
“To successfully operate in such a competitive fast-growth industry we are focused on developing games that appeal to the different demographics of this wider audience. This round of funding led by Notion Capital means we can now push ahead with recruiting even more skilled people and put substantial investment behind product development and marketing,” he added. www.zattikka.com CANADA
FEMALE RUN STUDIO OPENS IN CANADA In what is said to be the first of its kind in the country, two game industry entrepreneurs have opened a female-owned and operated dev studio. Experienced industry names Brenda Bailey Gershkovitch and Kirsten Forbes are the two execs spearheading the Vancouver-based Silicon Sisters Interactive. The outfit is said to have a predominantly female workforce, including designer Brenda Brathwaite as a consultant. The group is building two titles – one for PC and another mobile platforms – but is also open to certain work-for-hire projects. Despite making noise about being a studio rooted in sisterhood, Gershkovitch insists that the firm’s design philosophy isn’t one gripped by the X-chromosome. “We’re not interested in ‘pinkifying’ games,” she says.