Village Gamer

Eidos Montreal is looking for programmers for its Thi4f development team and also has a few other job openings. Interested? Apply online.

Vancouver’s Klei Entertainment has entered into an agreement with Creative Artists Agency. “The CAA are quite selective in their clients, so I’m happy that they’ve agreed to represent us,” says Jamie Cheng, CEO of Klei Entertainment. “Klei is known to create great original properties, and the CAA will help spread that love around.” Creative Artists Agency also represents such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg and has offices around the world, with a Canadian location in Calgary.

For Cheng, their partnership with CAA signals how within the gaming industry, the importance of creative talent is becoming more important. “It’s inspiring to see the industry grow as a creative medium and this is another step in the right direction,” continues Cheng. “And with their experience and backing during negotiation, we are able to focus on building the best creative studio possible, which of course is what Klei is all about.”

Longueil’s D-BOX Technologies has announced that the next movie title to feature its immersive motion technology will be Focus Features’ new film, “9” debuting on Sept. 9, 2009. “We are proud to announce our first agreement with Focus Features and the fourth movie title to feature D-BOX Motion Code™,” said President and CEO of D-BOX Technologies, Claude Mc Master. “Since unveiling D-BOX motion technology in movie theatres in April, we have continued to experience steady growth and enter new markets in the U.S. and Canada. This latest film will be the first animated film to feature D-BOX’s innovative motion technology and we look forward to announcing additional movie titles and theatre locations in the near future.”

The NPD group has released stats that show EA Sports Active finished in the Number 3 spot for games, with more than 289,000 units sold in the USA last month, while Radical Entertainment’s PROTOTYPE finished in top spot for console titles.

The report continues with other important sales stats: Nintendo’s consoles and handhelds still own the markets in United States – despite reports of console and game sales falling by 31% in June. According to their figures, Americans purchased more than 424,000 Nintendo DSi systems and more than 342,000 Nintendo DS, more than all current-generation consoles combined. The Wii™ marked its 21st consecutive month as the top-selling U.S. home console, with nearly 362,000 finding new homes in America – all while experiencing a 45% sales drop. Even with the Wii’s sales figures falling and with sales increases for the Xbox 360, Microsoft still could not break Nintendo’s stranglehold on the top console spot. The Sony PS3 experienced a 59% drop in sales, once again leaving it in the dust of the other consoles. We have considered several times purchasing one, but until the price comes down, we simply can’t justify buying one just for the few PS3 exclusive titles we may or may not play.