Posts tagged webcomic

Since there was some positive response yesterday, and few to zero nay-sayers in sight, I’m going ahead and bringing back another edition of the GNoI (Game News of Interest). So here it is, unedited, on proofed, and free from all of the distracting web-browsing that you would need to unceremoniously submit your self to, in order to find this stuff on your own.

GNoI – the daily report of interesting game industry news that is, well, of interest! We wade through the seemingly endless muck of shock, shlock and gleaming stupidity of the industry news so YOU don’t have to! Here are today’s bite-sized, nuggets of interest, behold, news:

The Federal Trade Commission is taking a good long look into the bid (hostile in most regards) from EA for Take2.

Adam Sessler interviews the authors of Grand Theft Childhood, the new book which takes a careful look at the correlation between violent vid-games and real-world youth violence, with surprising results that are far from the norm that we’ve come to expect on the topic, especially from politicians looking to utilize games on their poli-platforms.

Games, in way to get kids into libraries again is what libraries are looking to do. Tomorrow, Friday, has been designated as ‘Gaming @ Your Library Day’ byt the American library Association, which is, quite obviously, meant to try and lure and sway today’s youth to the old standby of the brick and mortar public houses of books. We’ll see how it goes…

The FCC will be holding a hearing regarding Net neutrality at Stanford Uni today. It is expected that representatives from ECA, GamesForChange, and SaveTheInternet will be doing their best to show up, and voice their concerns regarding the corp-thieving and control of digital space. Let us all hope that this time, Comcast won’t pull another ringer stunt like they did last time to quell the voices of descent/reason/freedom.

According to analysts the EA proposed take-over of Take2, will require EA to pony up even more cash per share ($30USD+ per) which is at least a $4USD increase from the initial proposal. Whether or not EA will actually show the money is still yet to be seen, and with the revived interest of the FedTradeComish now being thrown into the mix as well, things do not bode well for EA’s attempts to grab the house behind GTA.

SCi has not been in the best financial condition of late (not Atari level bad, but still), yet it seems that they may be receiving a bit of a vitamin boost in the form of a possible and alleged stock deal with either NBC Universal or Time Warner. SCi is the parent Co of Eidos (think TombRaider). The new deal will either increase NBC’s current interest or create a new interest for TW, either way SCi needs the funds to secure their new salvaging strategy.

In apparent reaction to the recent price-cut of the M$ 360, Xbox is reporting a full doubling of sales in Europe, even hinting at more than doubling.

The gama is running a good thought/opine piece on the possible future of a one-console environ and what it would ‘really’ do to the industry as a whole outside of the general consumer perspective.

Ankama Studio (France) has partnered with Kalmeo to release DofusPocket for the mobile market. The title is a mobile version of the hugely (7m reg users) tactical-MMOrpg, Dofus. The port will have new content and additional features to help separate it from the online flash-based version and to make it more than a clone/port.

MindCandy has launched new VW called Moshi Monsters, which is reportedly targeted at ‘little kids and big kids alike.’ It is cute, there’s no denying, but will the tamagotchi style play design offer enough to keep the kiddies entertained and coming back for more, and enough to get monies from mommy and daddy? We’ll see…

Cheyenne Mountain (dev house behind Stargate Worlds) has just announced the creation of a new publishing house, known as FireSky. Some of the thinking behind FireSky’s strategy is fairly interesting a worth at least a sound-bite driven glance.

SquareEnix has announced a new mobile ‘mail’ MMO entitled Ellark. The release is scheduled for Japan with no work for other regions and it will incorporate the now popular micro-transaction model to support the otherwise free game.

Toyota, not content to merely have a VW presence in Gaia Online is now opening their own VW, known as Totya Metapolis. The link includes a vid tour of the project currently running on the Meet-Me technology for Japan.

Numedon (Whyville, SportsBlox) is looking to close their Series B funding drive with an estimate of nearly $2mUSD(+) in the final outcome.

BBC Worldwide has partnered with Star Farm Produictions to release a new children’s fantasy VW.

The Cartoon Network original VW, announced at last year’s SDCC, has now been pushed back to Fall 2008.

Gaia Online has announced a new MMOG that will be in some way ‘tied’ to the existing Gaia brand but not directly connected to the current gameplay. The game has been in dev since 2007 and SDCC will be where you need to be to get into the Beta version of the game.

GTAIV’s proposed DLC might actually feature an entire city, this would be the largest DLC currently available for any title and actually makes it closer to an outright expansion in more traditional PC gaming terms.

Tokyopop (where many mangaka seem to get their start, yours truly included) has set a 3 yr publishing cycle to release 22 new mangas tied directly into the WoW and Starcraft seri/universes. To be accurate the mangas are actually more manwha with possible writers from the west added in – the announcement has been made in correlation with the currently running NYCC.

Allegedly, a Take2 stock-holder is filing a class-action lawsuit against Take2 for its refusal of EA’s buy-out offers, reporting that the refusal is fiscally irresponsible on the level of being criminal.

And finally to close out today’s GNoI in the proud and continued tradition that you’ve come to expect, here it is, your moment of zen, featuring Uwe Boll, Voltron, VGcats, and aDutyToDo (say it fast please). Zen is beginning now:

Uwe Boll is actually (and I’m really NOT kidding here) stating that Spielberg and Michael Bay, have been using false idents to sign the current petition to get the crazy German to quit butchering cinema and game-movies in general. For those not in the know, Uwe, supposedly stated (probably in a publicity stunt to coincide with the upcoming trash, Postal) that he would quite making movies if 1,000,000 individuals would step up and tell him to ‘STOP.’ So far, the effort has garnered at least 200k responses, and in light of the strength of the internet driven poll/petition, Uwe is already backpedaling and claiming that the ‘sigs’ are merely the work of a ‘few individuals’ signing over and over under aliases. He didn’t say ‘alias’ actually, probably, because he can’t spell it…

Official petition for all interested parties and lovers of both cinema and games that wish the horror to finally come to an end.

Free Voltron episode is now available on Xbox vid… erm kaaaaaaaaaay…

Glory be unto Scott and his VGcats, which despite the very efforts of god himself, has survived a recent tornado and is back to doing what he does best… making game-themed webcomics fun again.

GNoI has it’s own ‘duty to do’

–Aleister

Gnarls Barkley – Surprise

PS

Work on tomorrow’s comic is still commencing, right now, I’m just busy coloring the thing and with any luck (and hopefully, without any currently unforeseen complications, professional, medical or otherwise) it will be here, where it belongs on NR!