The Rundown: Feb. 9, 2009
Today on The Rundown Star Wars: The Force Unleashed wins a Writers Guild Award, D.I.C.E. sells out, and Rush invades Rock Band for Wii.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Wins WGA
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has been honored for best videogame writing at the 2009 Writers Guild Awards. The awards are given for achievement in writing for screen, television, radio, news, promotional and video games. While some might scoff about Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed winning this award, it is at least a better pick than last year’s - at least in some gamer’s minds.
D.I.C.E. Sells Out
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced that the 2009 D.I.C.E. has officially sold out. No they aren’t sponsored by Cover Girl, or E!; the event has sold out of attendee slots. The event will be held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, February 17-20, 2009, and features a line-up of industry leaders, visionaries and decision makers that are shaping the future of interactive entertainment. The Academy has opened a waitlist which will be cleared before the beginning of the summit on February 17th. For a list of speakers and panels, check out www.dicesummit.org.
Rolando Lite For Free
ngmoco has released Rolando Lite, a stand-alone game showcasing the opening levels from Rolando. The Lite game is now available for free on the Apple App Store. In Rolando Lite, players guide creatures called Rolandos through Honeycup Meadows, the first of four worlds featured in the full-priced premium game. Hit the link for details.
Rush Hits Rock Band Wii
Harmonix and MTV Games announced seven new tracks from Rush to the Rock Band Music Store for Wii. If you haven’t been tortured by bad singing while playing Rock Band or Rock Band 2, this song set will do the trick. Tracks include Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt and Vital Signs. The new tracks cost $2 each.
Michael Mays Joins Silicon Knights
Silicon Knights has hired Michael Mays as company Vice President. Mays will work closely with President Denis Dyack. Mays has almost 20 years in the financial sector. Prior to joining the company he worked for several companies, including Allied Research International Inc., CTS Partners (where he was also a Principle), and Control Delivery Systems.
Deadly Creatures Ships
THQ and Rainbow Studios have shipped Deadly Creatures to retail outlets worldwide for Wii. Besides the voice talents of actors Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper, Deadly Creatures takes players on a cinematic journey from the perspective of a Tarantula and Scorpion who fight their way through a series of realistic situations. Deadly Creatures is available for the suggested retail price of $49.99.
3 on 3 NHL Arcade Hits XBLA
3 on 3 NHL Arcade will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace this week. The game was released on PlayStation Network last week. The game, developed by EA Sports Freestyle is a 3 on 3 arcade style hockey game feature bobble-headed NHL stars/ The game will be released this Wednesday for 800 MS Points.
reTension Released
So Not Soft has released their first game, reTension. reTension is currently available for download on Xbox 360 Community Games. reTension is based on the classic card game Memory, where players match corresponding words and phrases together. reTension features two game modes, Arcade and Speed. Arcade mode allows the player to choose to play with the default Trivia deck or the Classic deck of cards. The object of the Speed mode is to finish the selected number of rounds (3, 5 or 10 rounds) as fast as possible. The game is a mere 200 MS Points.
Amelie’s Cafe Opens
Alawar Entertainment has released Amelie’s Cafe, a fast-paced time management game featuring financial strategy, point-and-click action and match-three puzzle solving. The Boolat Games title is available at Alawar’s website alawar.com and will soon be appearing on popular download portals in the U.S.
EEDAR Inks Nielson Deal
Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (or EEDAR), has inked a long term agreement with The Nielsen Company to provide analysis of historical marketing campaigns in the video game industry. Data from Nielsen’s Monitor-Plus advertising monitoring service will be integrated with EEDAR’s proprietary database of video game features, or Game DNA, covering more than eight thousand historical game titles. The combined data will be delivered via EEDAR’s GamePulse and DesignMetrics services.
