Village Gamer

Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that Orlando Magic center, Dwight Howard, will be the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10. A three-time NBA All-Star, Howard is currently looking to lead the Magic franchise to their first NBA Championship. The No. 1 pick of the 2004 NBA Draft was the 2009 NBA Defensive Player of the Year presented by Kia Motors, an All-NBA First Team selection the last two seasons, and stole the show at the 2008 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest with his superhero antics. Additionally, Howard was the starting center of the 2008 U.S. Basketball Men’s Senior National Team which won the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing. NBA LIVE 10 is currently in development under the EA SPORTS™ brand by EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C. and will be available worldwide this October.

“It’s an honor to be named as the cover athlete for NBA LIVE 10,” said Howard. “This year has been a crazy ride and this is a cool way to cap it off. Of course – there is one more thing I’m on the hunt for that would complete it.”
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Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is holding a contest for Canadian residents* to win a HyperX^® gaming system or other prizes. Register online for a chance to win.

HyperX

“Kingston is proud to hold this contest as a thank you to all of our supporters and fans of the HyperX line of enthusiast memory in Canada,” said Jennifer Shih, marketing coordinator, Kingston^® Canada. “The HyperX name has become a trusted brand worldwide and continues to gain popularity with the recently released T1 heatspreaders, 12GB triple-channel kits and the new HyperX Fan which looks cool while keeping the memory cool.”

Eight prizes will be awarded:

• One gaming system powered by Kingston HyperX memory worth $3,000 (U.S.)
• One Kingston SSDNow M Series 80GB solid-state drive
• One HyperX DDR3 2GHz 6GB triple-channel memory kit
• Five DataTraveler^® HyperX 16GB USB Flash drives (one per winner)

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Toronto – Wicked Interactive Ltd., a leading North American video game publisher, today announced the upcoming release of ACE Online Episode 3.2, a patch to the current Episode 3 -War of Pandea, that offers all new content including a new Nation War System, a revamped game interface, new maps, an all-new slot machine and new cash shops items. The game, which is part of the Suba Games library of free MMOs can be downloaded at the Suba Games web site.

“We are excited to launch this new update for ACE Online,” said Garvin Yeung, CEO of Wicked Interactive LTD. “Episode 3.2 offers several updates throughout many different areas of the game and we think players will be thrilled with the new content.”

Nation War System Updated
The mothership war system has been completely revamped. No longer will motherships be summoned based on nation points, instead they will be scheduled at a specific times decided by the nation leaders. In addition, Outpost Wars occur more frequently and are now activated concurrently of each other. Also, rewards earned within the war system are now totally performance-based. The better a player performs in combat, the better their reward.
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Stratford – The Canada 3.0 forum concluded Tuesday with the declaration that all Canadians should have the opportunity to participate in a fully digital world and reap the economic benefits of commercializing innovation.

“We have the opportunity to lead the world in digital media and create a national advantage by investing in innovation and turning that into commercially viable content and technology,” said Tom Jenkins, newly named Chairman of the Canadian Digital Media Network’s Advisory Board, and Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Open Text.

To be a leader in digital media all Canadians should be connected to content and able to access that content on an equal level, organizers agreed. Content needs to be respected and copyright and ownership protected, says Ian Wilson, Strategic Advisor for the University of Waterloo Stratford Institute. “We need to connect Canadians to content on a fair and transparent basis,” said Wilson. “And every citizen in Canadian society regardless of geography – whether in an urban area or not – should be able to connect to Canadian content in an increasingly mobile world.”
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Toronto – Ancestry.ca, in partnership with Library and Archives Canada (LAC), today completed the world-first online launch of the Historical Canadian Censuses, 1851-1916. Never before have all of the nine available national censuses⁽¹⁾ been published online, fully indexed and including original document images.

Together, these censuses contain more than 32 million names – all searchable for the first time – of those living in Canada from the mid 19th century through to the early 20th century – a period of nationhood, new arrivals, great change and significant growth.

It is estimated that half of all living Canadians (16 million people)⁽²⁾ will be able to trace their ancestors in the censuses – Ancestry.ca has found those of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff, jailed businessman Conrad Black, singer Alanis Morissette and actress Pamela Anderson (original images available).

So what is a Canadian? Canadians have been asking themselves this very question for as long as we have existed as a country.
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Montreal – Newly-founded Montreal-based game developer and publisher Gamesmith Studios is the latest company to board the iPhone games train, and it’s doing so in grand fashion by releasing 8 fresh new titles simultaneously.

The company’s founders, both under the age of 30, promise that this initial launch is the first of many, hinting that they have already signed a number of partnerships which will be revealed in the future. “Publishing great Apps conceived by other developers is an intricate part of Gamesmith’s strategy. We like to think of our arrangement as a collective of small independent developers, working together to increase our exposure on Apple’s App Store, and collaborating to create great new innovative products“ says Jasson Michaud, co-founder of Gamesmith Studios. “We want the Gamesmith name to be synonym of fun, high-quality interactive products.”
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Vancouver – New Media BC and Kenton Lowe have just issued a statement in which Kenton has officially stepped down as the President of New Media BC. He will be taking on a position with Bardel Entertainment, and in his stead, board member Rochelle Grayson will be taking over as temporary President until a replacement is found and hired.

Rochelle Grayson

In his statement, Kenton thanked the members for working with him during his time as President of the association, and he, along with NMBC Chairman of the Board, Warren Franklin were pleased to make the announcement regarding Rochelle. As many in this city know, Rochelle has been very active in the new media industry, most recently with Work [at] Play. Kenton will be working closely with Rochelle to aid in the transition, and he looks forward to staying in touch with friends and colleagues as he moves on to a new stage in his career.

We here at Village Gamer wish Kenton all the best over at Bardel and enthusiastically welcome Rochelle as the (albeit) temporary leader of our provincial organization.

Vancouver – The June 17th presentation of Watchmen Revealed, which features Ben Cole, Landon Bootsma and Tim Mulvihill of MPC Vancouver will explore the pressures of recreating one of the most acclaimed comic books in history, revealing the challenges they faced in assembling some of the more complex scenes and answering questions surrounding the diverse techniques used. MPC Vancouver is hiring, so be sure to bring your demo reel and visit their recruiting booth during the pre-show event.

The evening will begin with the Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH chapter’s first Annual General Meeting since its formation as a non-profit organization. Members are asked to be at the VanCity Theatre at 6:00pm for this very important meeting. Following the meeting at 6:30 will be an industry social mixer. It is not necessary to have tickets for Watchmen Revealed in order to attend the AGM and the mixer. Contact Siggraph Vancouver to register for these two pre-show events.

Watchmen Revealed is sponsored by: BCIC, 3vis, VanArts, Sophia Books, AnnexPro, Stash Digital Media, VEAbc and Society of Graphic Designers Canada, Vancouver Chapter.

Toronto – Interactive Ontario today announced a new project, ONKidz, that is aimed at promoting Ontario’s Kids sector on a global scale. The ONKidz project will culminate with a business event focused on the interactive kids space in the spring of 2010 in Toronto, Canada. ONkidz supports the creation and commercialization of Ontario-made interactive media content and services for kids ages 4 to 15.

“It goes without saying that kids prioritize their interactions with and through digital media very differently than their parents,” said Ian Kelso, President and CEO of Interactive Ontario. “ Interactive Ontario is thrilled to present a unique event pulling together the leading creators of interactive experiences and the producers, broadcasters, and publishers who are leading the charge on building integrated cross-platform markets.”
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Toronto – Add eBook Reader to the long list of features for the highly-anticipated Palm® Pre™ phone. Shortcovers by Indigo Books & Music, Inc. today announced the service will available on the newest phone from Palm, the Palm Pre. Shortcovers is an integrated online and mobile service that provides access to eBooks from any mobile device. Shortcovers’ catalogue of popular books includes titles from major publishers including Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Harlequin.

“We’re excited to make Shortcovers available on Palm Pre. Pre’s high resolution screen and innovative design make it a great eReading choice for consumers,” said Michael Serbinis, President of Shortcovers. “We are committed to providing eBooks to consumers on the mobile device they already own.”
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