Village Gamer

Edmonton – Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced that the release of Dragon Age™: Origins on PC has been rescheduled to the last half of 2009 from the previously announced early 2009 release date, coinciding with the release of the console versions of Dragon Age: Origins.

“Dragon Age: Origins is shaping up to be quite amazing in its level of quality and polish,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “I’m really proud of our team, who are working very hard to make Dragon Age: Origins the biggest and most exciting BioWare game yet, and we will work to ensure it not only meets, but exceeds the expectations of our loyal audience of fans.”

Dragon Age: Origins is the spiritual successor to BioWare’s critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate™, featuring deep character customization and roleplaying, morally challenging decisions, tactical party-based combat, and a wealth of gritty, mature sub-plots that together make it one of the most highly-anticipated PC and console releases of 2009.

Vancouver – We dropped by SFU Harbour Centre on Saturday afternoon to check in on the local entries for IGDA’s Global Game Jam event.  There were 26 entrants for this inaugural competition, which was opened with a Keynote address given by Kyle Gabler (World of Goo). This was followed with the reading of the competition’s constraints and team formation.

The smallest team, Scorched Physics, was comprised of just 3 members, while One Tonne Punch weighed in with an 8 member team. Several participants came from UBC, SFU, VFS and the Masters of Digital Media programme at GNWC, while several were recent graduates now working in the
game development industry at studios such as Relic, Radical and Deep Fried Entertainment, with one competitor hailing from Seattle, who works at Satori Software. The only female competitor, freelance artist Rachel Curtis worked on The Treelings’ team.
Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal – Mia’s Reading Adventure – The Bugaboo Bugs has won a Gold Medal from Mom’s Choice Awards. Developed by Kutoka Interactive of Montreal, Mia’s Reading Adventure is for children aged 5-9. The game follows primary school curriculum and enables the player to lead Mia the Mouse through a reading adventure. Designed to entertain, teach and spur imagination, the Mia series of titles feature lovable 3D characters who also happen to be house pests who have moved into Mia’s mansion.

Mia’s Reading Adventures, comprised thus far of six chapters, “includes 12 exciting reading and writing skills activities each with 4 distinct levels of difficulty. Topics covered: associating images to words, adverbs, phonics, rhymes, spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, reading comprehension, word recognition and more.” Mia’s Reading Adventure comes in DVD-ROM format, and runs on both Windows and MAC platforms.

Read the rest of this entry »

– Backbone Entertainment Magazine and KPMG are searching for the Top 20 Web 2.0 pioneering companies in Canada. Is yours one? Do you know one that is? Backbone and KPMG are looking for the companies who are leading the way across four implementation categories:

1) Problem solving: customer response, idea generation, solution brainstorming ?
2) Innovation: crowdsourcing, market prediction, participatory feedback
3) Collaboration: jams, customer input, user rankings?
4) Knowledge sharing and management: teamware, wikis, blogs and collaborative content creation

To nominate your company or someone else’s, visit the PICK 20 nomination page. Winners will be announced in the August/September issue of Backbone Magazine. The deadline for submissions is March 2 2009.

Absolute customers use Google Maps, GPS and Wi-Fi to visually track their computers

Vancouver – Absolute® Software Corporation announced today that it has added Wi-Fi geolocation tracking to its popular Computrace® line of mobile computer anti-theft and management products. With this addition, customers can now track their computing devices on a Google™ map using either GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation location information sent from the laptop.

“In the present economic climate, there is increasing pressure on IT and compliance departments to get more from their investments in mobile computing while ensuring maximum protection against data breaches,” said John Livingston, Chairman and CEO of Absolute Software. “The addition of Wi-Fi tracking is helpful for us in our recovery efforts and for organizations in reducing loss and exposure to data breaches. But, more importantly, it enables organizations to track their Wi-Fi enabled computing assets, such as desktops, laptops, and netbooks, on a single worldwide map. When used effectively, this intuitive tool can help them mitigate losses by enabling simple and timely identification of when an asset may have moved to unauthorized locations.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – Sony Canada today unveiled the winning designs from its This Vaio PC Is Me Contest.  Canadians were given the opportunity to submit designs and share their inspirations for the latest line of VAIO FW notebook computers. The contest, which ran from October 1 through November 15, 2008, offered entrants from across the country the unique experience of working with Sony to develop an authentic and stylish product.

The winning design and runner-ups were selected from hundreds of submissions. Through the voting and submission process, Canadians were asked to vote for their favourite designs, allowing them to be part of creating a truly personalized product.
Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – PowerUp announces a major update to the NOMBZ: Night of a Million Billion Zombies ONLINE public beta release!

The update includes numerous bug fixes, performance optimizations, and feature refinements, much of which is in response to player feedback received during the first two weeks of our public beta. Also included in this update are several new levels for both the single and multiplayer game modes, along with two new environments.

NOMBZ ONLINE continues to evolve in response to player feedback, as PowerUp pursues its goal of making NOMBZ ONLINE the best free 3D browser-based zombie game on the web!

Ottawa – The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) is pleased the government has listened and given a two year extension to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF).

“The CTF is the single most important initiative that supports distinctively Canadian television shows,” says Guy Mayson, President and CEO, CFTPA. “Since its inception in 1995, the CTF has contributed $2.5 billion to the economy, and triggered the production of more than $8 billion in Canadian programming. Overall across Canada the independent production sector employs close to 100,000 Canadians every year. Long-term sustainable financing is absolutely key to the stability of our sector.”

The CFTPA is also pleased the government is supporting the growth potential of interactive media production by essentially maintaining funding levels to the CNMF. The CNMF is a national program that supports the creation and distribution of interactive digital cultural content products. A strong interactive sector is essential if Canada is to be competitive in the exploding international digital marketplace.

Read the rest of this entry »

Global Studio Teams Drive Quality and Innovation in Three New Games

Vancouver – Fifteen years; more than 40 countries; close to 100 million games sold. Need for Speed™ has helped to define automotive culture for millions of fans with its embrace of the car lifestyle and its cool rebellious attitude. Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) unveiled the details of what is in store for the franchise over the next 12 months, as the property expands to new platforms, new categories and new media.

Need for Speed is committed to providing unique and customized experiences for all types of racing fans by establishing three independent series; simulation, action and arcade racing. Each series will be developed by a highly-specialized team dedicated to delivering the ultimate racing experiences to car enthusiasts around the world – whether they be interested in adrenaline action, arcade fun or authentic simulation.

“We recognize racing videogame fans are very passionate and unique – they want customized gameplay experiences. Whether it’s more of a realistic driving game with accurate car physics or over-the-top cop chases, we are making different games for different audiences,” said Keith Munro, vice president of marketing, Need for Speed. “Each game provides a deep, engaging and rich racing experience. We’re giving players the option to choose the best racing title that suits their style of gameplay.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Annual list highlights technology trends and those private BC companies positioned for high growth potential in 2009

Vancouver – Rocket Builders has released its seventh annual “Ready to Rocket 25” list naming 25 privately held BC companies that are best positioned to capitalize on the 2008 technology trends that will lead them to faster growth than their peers in a number of technology sectors. The annual “Ready to Rocket 25” list provides accurate predictions of companies that will likely experience significant revenue growth, venture capital investment or acquisition by a major player in the coming year. The “Ready to Rocket 25” list is the only predictive list of its kind in North America.

Although companies identified on this year’s “Ready to Rocket 25” did not grow at the pace of the previous year, the group still experienced a median growth rate of 50%, and an average growth rate of more than 100%. Of the identified twenty-five companies on the list:

* 76% exceeded 25% growth
* 58% exceeded 50% growth
* 44% exceeded 100% growth

The average increase in headcount for the 25 companies was 12%, with median annual revenue for 2008 benchmarked at $2.5 million dollars. Across the list of twenty-five companies:

* Aggregate revenue of over $130 million dollars
* The companies employed over 1200 employees
* Employment increased by 129 people
Read the rest of this entry »