Village Gamer

Via Xbox Wire: Microsoft Studios has acquired the rights to the “Gears of War” franchise from Epic Games, including rights to all existing and future games, entertainment experiences and merchandise. In addition, Microsoft announced that Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver will take over development of the “Gears of War” franchise and that Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games on the “Gears of War” franchise, will join Microsoft and play a key studio leadership role at Black Tusk on the development of the franchise going forward. By the way, Black Tusk is hiring. Read the rest of this entry »

Xbox Entertainment Studios has announced an original documentary series that will debut exclusively on Xbox in 2014. Xbox will produce the series with two-time Academy Award-winning producer Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man and Man on Wire) and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn (FX’s 30 Days and PBS’s American High) through their new multi-platform media company, Lightbox.  Read the rest of this entry »

Square Enix® and Eidos-Montréal™, the award winning studio behind the critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution®, have released the second trailer in a series of stylized videos that focus on the rich narrative and characters of THIEF’s corrupt and broken city. Each trailer in the series tells a story from the perspective of a different character describing life in the broken, repressed City that is being ravaged by the ruthless Baron Northcrest and the mysterious sickness known as ‘The Gloom’. Read the rest of this entry »

Montreal startup Neptune Computer Inc. is nearing the $700 000.00 mark on its amazing Kickstarter campaign, which began back in November and concludes this Saturday, December 21st. The campaign surpassed its $100 000.00 goal 27 hours after launching the fundraiser for its Neptune Pine smartwatch. Due to the volume of support received on Kickstarter, the Neptune Pine achieved all of the original stretch goals of the campaign and has added more to meet the level of support the company has received. These include:
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Ubisoft^®  has announced that the first DLC for Assassin’s Creed^® IV Black Flag™ multiplayer, Blackbeard’s Wrath, is available from Wednesday for download on PlayStation Network for the PlayStation^® 4, PlayStation^® 3,  and from Tuesday on Xbox LIVE for Xbox One, Xbox^® 360 and PC. Three new characters join the hunt, Blackbeard, the Jaguar and The Orchid, each character bringing their unique skill set to battle for the title of best assassin. Read the rest of this entry »

Beginning this January, HGTV Canada explores home building like never before in the brand new original series Timber Kings. Follow the grueling jobs and jaw-dropping experiences of the master log smiths at Pioneer Log Homes in Williams Lake, B.C. as they build massive, multi-million dollar log homes under tight deadlines and intense pressure. The drama begins on Timber Kings Sundays at 10pm ET/PT beginning January 5^th on HGTV Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

Custom-built, destructible airships? Check. Flying sky whales with mineable innards? Check. Procedural Steampunk landscape floating at 40,000 feet? Check. Funding to make it all happen? …the studio will know 61 hours from now. Snowed In Studios has just under three days left to fund Windforge, their first original title. After contributing to the development of such titles as The Sims 3 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a successful launch would mean the freedom to continuously devote resources to their own original content rather than fulfilling the dreams of others. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft and Team Dakota have begun inviting fans and creators who have registered on the Project Spark site to participate in shaping one of the most anticipated games of 2014 with the “Project Spark” Beta Program exclusively on Windows 8.1. Since “Project Spark” was announced at E3 in June, hundreds of thousands of fans have signed up for the closed beta, which has begun rolling out today. Starting exclusively on Windows 8.1 and available to fans on Xbox One early next calendar year, registered beta participants are welcomed to a dynamic community where players create and creators play. The beta for both platforms will continue until the product launch next year, and there’s still time to sign-up online. Read the rest of this entry »

Disney XD is putting the ‘fan’ in Fangbone by giving viewers the power to call the shots for its latest pilot. The network’s new animated adventure follows the epic journey of a nine-year-old barbarian warrior and is getting an early start on DisneyXD.ca, where viewers can influence the pilot’s creative direction by voting for what they want to hear. Feedback from Disney XD fans on the interactive website will be incorporated into the show ahead of its network premiere in late January 2014. Read the rest of this entry »

As a denizen of the airborne world of Cordeus, you travel places by way of airships you build entirely from scratch. This means building a deck with whatever you can find-wood, metal, rocks or even giant animal corpses-adding engines and propellers and taking to the skies in your own custom-built vessel. But the skies are far from friendly, and enemies like pirates and krakens threaten to destroy your creations piece-by-piece until nothing but your grappling hook can save you from plummeting to your doom.  Enter Windforge, a 2D side-scrolling, independent sandbox title in the works by Ottawa-based Snowed In Studios. Until now the company has survived on contract work, contributing to AAA titles such as EA’s The Sims 3 and Eidos Interactive’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and now, for the first time, Snowed In seeks to fund its own independent title by turning to Kickstarter. Read the rest of this entry »