Village Gamer

Vancouver – With two days of sessions, an expo, networking events, Future Play and the Game Career Seminar, GDC Canada is a must attend event for developers looking to learn, network and be inspired by their peers.

Download the GDC Canada preview guide and start planning your GDC experience now.

Events at GDC Canada

Passport to Prizes
Tuesday, May 12th, Starts at 10:30am & Drawing at 6:15pm
GDC Canada Expo
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Vancouver – Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today two new content packs for Need for Speed™ Undercover. The Challenge Series is free and features 60 events across two new game modes including the opportunity to earn up to three new cars. The premium Boss Car pack will give players access to Undercover’s specially customized boss vehicles for $5.00 (400 MS points).

The Challenge Series and Boss Car packs are available now on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and coming soon on the Xbox 360® videogame system from Microsoft and the PC. This new content reflects an ongoing commitment of post-launch support to Need for Speed fans.

Challenge Series:

• Highway Wars is the ultimate fusion of Undercover’s signature Highway Battles with the adrenaline fueled competition of sprint racing. In this mode, players will race at top speeds through traffic filled highways against three AI opponents in a winner take all battle to the finish line.
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Big Fish Acquires Premium Sim Developer Grubby Games

Vancouver – Big Fish Games™, the world’s leading online destination for games and interactive entertainment, announced today the acquisition of Grubby Games, an award-winning Vancouver games studio which was established in 2004.

“Big Fish Games has a remarkable culture and a unique, multi-platform development approach that aligns with our vision for creating a differentiated content.” said Ryan Clark, co-founder and CEO of Grubby Games. “We are thrilled to be a part of Big Fish Games and in just a few short weeks, we are fully integrated into the company.”

Known for several award-winning titles such as “My Tribe,” “FizzBall,” and “Incredibots,” Grubby Games stands out in the casual game industry for their innovation and success in challenging genres and for their proprietary simulation game platform.

“The creative minds at Grubby Games have generated a best-in-class approach to design that fits wonderfully within our studio,” said Patrick Wylie, Vice President of Big Fish Games Global Studios. “We have had the pleasure of working with Ryan and his team during the last four years and we are delighted to have them as part of our future.”

Gormley ON – Sharpen your sword and get ready to guide Dirk the Daring as he races through time to save the beautiful Princess Daphne from the clutches of the Evil Wizard Mordroc in Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp. This long awaited sequel to the award-winning game Dragon’s Lair has been completely restored and enhanced with an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix and is now available on Blu-ray from Digital Leisure.

From legendary animator Don Bluth (‘An American Tail’, ‘The Land Before Time’) Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp allows you to play the heroic Dirk the Daring, who must stop the Evil Wizard Mordroc as he has kidnapped Princess Daphne and taken her through time! But you must hurry, for once the Casket of Doom has opened, Mordroc will place the Death Ring upon Daphne’s finger in marriage and she will be lost forever… in the Time Warp!

Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp was authored in the Blu-ray Java environment (BD-J) and features completely remastered animation, and an all-new surround sound mix, creating a fully arcade-authentic experience.
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Toronto – Although the economy has slowed and the unemployment rate has risen locally and nationally, employers are still hiring in the information technology sector. MSEmploy Canada — Canada’s only Microsoft-focused job and training portal – is sponsoring a Career Fair in Mississauga on May 6 to connect job candidates with expanding IT companies.

When: May 6, 2009 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Microsoft Canada Head Office at 1950 Meadowvale Blvd.  Mississauga, ON

The focus of MSEmploy Canada and the career fair are positions associated with Microsoft technologies, such as .Net, SharePoint, Hyper-V, and Dynamics. Some of the types of jobs being sought are .Net Developer, System Engineer, Technical Support, Project Manager, and Network Administrator.
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Vancouver – Just a reminder to our readers – there is only one more day of voting left for the NMBC PopVox Awards, which will be presented next month during Vancouver Digital Week. Tickets for the PopVox Awards are still available through the PopVox web site. After a quick email verification process, members of the public can vote for their favourite entry in the following categories:

Best Student Project
Best Start Up
Best Do-Gooder (Social Change Initiative)
Best Company Use of Social Media
Best User Generated/Crowd-sourced Content Site
Best Mobile Application
Best Game (Handheld)
Best Social Media Application
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Toronto – Emanuel Rosen, author of “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited”, will give a keynote presentation at Search Engine Strategies (SES) Toronto 2009. The largest search engine marketing conference in Canada, which will be held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto June 8-10, 2009, also announced that it is adding “Monetizing Your Audience: Live Site Clinic” to the agenda.

Emanuel Rosen

Now in its sixth year, SES Toronto is considered the definitive digital event for marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals. The event is organized and programmed in cooperation with the SES Advisory Board, Search Engine Watch and Andrew Goodman, the founder and president of Toronto-based Page Zero Media.
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Ottawa – Trend Micro Incorporated, a leader in network antivirus and Internet content security software and services, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire the Third Brigade business, a privately-held security and compliance software company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Trend Micro is buying the business to accelerate its dynamic datacenter security strategy, and to provide customers with access to critical security and compliance software and vulnerability response services. These all contribute to protecting physical, virtual and cloud servers, and corporate endpoints, from sophisticated malware and malicious activity. The acquisition is subject to certain approvals, and is expected to close in the 2nd quarter of 2009. Financial terms are not disclosed.

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Vancouver-based Interactive Agency, Engine Digital, has increased its head count with the recent additions of award-winning Designer and Web Strategist, Sean Mitchell, and Interactive Producer, Justine Kwong.

As a recent contract resource to Engine Digital, Sean will now assume the role of Interactive Production Manager, bridging the agency’s creative and development teams, overseeing innovation, and quality control of digital campaigns and web strategy work. Sean will also assist with client strategy on key accounts including TELUS. Prior to joining the firm, Sean provided strategy, design, and development for a list of international clients including Acura, Adidas, OfficeMax, Purina, Rogers, Scion, Veer, and Yahoo!

Justine will utilize her solid set of Interactive Producer skills on campaigns for a variety of agency clients. Ms. Kwong brings to Engine Digital a notable CV of digital agency experience at Ottawa-based RealDecoy where she worked with clients such as Health Canada, Dept of Foreign affairs & International trade, Canada Science and Tech Museum, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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Toronto – G4BOX Inc. a North American publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment media, announced today that it will host its first official PvP Arena Tournament for players of its popular MMORPG, Metin2. Players can go to the official Tournament Page for more information and to sign up.

Beginning April 30th at 4 PM EST, players from the FREE KINGDOM server can sign up for one of 16 spots for each level bracket. Opponents will be randomly chosen on the day of registrations and the chosen players will be revealed just 10 minutes before the start of the tournament!

Players are allowed only one entry per account in either the low level or high level category.

“Our players have enjoyed PvP play amongst themselves for awhile and we thought it was time we host an official tournament,” said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX. “We have some great prizes available and are looking forward to the excitement and energy of an arena tournament!”

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