Crispy Gamer News

THQ, already known for its hit WWE SmackDown vs. RAW series, apparently has enough stroke to even put the fighters of the Ultimate Fighting Championship down for the count. According to a Sports Illustrated report, UFC fighter Jon Fitch has been terminated from the franchise (along with many of his American Kickboxing Academy teammates) for refusing to sign away rights to his image for use in THQ’s upcoming UFC video game.

According to the report, the problem stems from UFC’s requests that fighters sign a merchandising deal giving the UFC rights to use fighters’ likenesses in various licensing deals for life. The issue with Fitch apparently finally came to a head when he was approached with the THQ deal.
(more…)

SCI FI and Trion World Network have hired two key industry veterans to help co-develop a connected video game and television show. Kevin Beardslee joins Trion to serve as Senior Development Director for the project at Trion’s San Diego development studio. Television writer Peter Egan has been tapped to write the pilot episode. 

Kevin Beardslee has over 15 years experience in game design, with over a decade spent developing MMO’s. Most notably, Kevin served as a key member of Blizzard Entertainment’s core development team for MMO World of Warcraft before founding Carbine Studios, a division of NCsoft North America, where he created and oversaw the development of an unannounced MMO. Working with Trion, Beardslee will act as the Senior Development Director for the co-developed SCI FI – Trion MMO video game. Peter Egan’s television experience includes Playmakers (ESPN) and Over There (FX Network). For NBC Entertainment, Peter served as a writer on several series including Medium and Medical Investigation. Egan also served as writer and story editor on the SCI FI series, The Dresden Files.

Trion and SCI FI hope to transcend the standard television and gaming experience by simultaneously co-developing a game and cable television property. The Trion – SCI FI partnership promises a synergy between entertainment mediums creating a “single rich, fictional universe of story telling.”

Midway announced today that Hollywood action star Vin Diesel will be peeling out to retail shelves early next year with the February 16th release of Wheelman on the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3. The upcoming open-world driving game is currently in development at Midway Studios - Newcastle Ltd., and is being co-produced by Vin Diesel and his Tigon Studios video game production studio. Midway and Diesel also plan for Wheelman to eventually hit the big screen, based off a script already in development.

“We’re designing Wheelman to play like a Hollywood blockbuster,” said Diesel. “Playing this game will be just like taking control of the greatest car chases from feature films, except this time you’re in the driver’s seat.”
(more…)

It’s official. After months of buildup, hype, pomp, and circumstance, Xbox owners are finally getting their hands on the “New Xbox Experience”. At 5:00a EST, Microsoft opened the flood gates and 360 owners were greeted to a mandatory system update when they started up their consoles. So, how smooth was the launch? We’ll see over the next few days and weeks, but in the meantime, I can at least share my own “New Xbox Experience”.

Well, like many of the gaming masses, this morning was my first solo run at the NXE. Sure, a number of people managed to get in some early access, courtesy of a consumer survey from Microsoft a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn’t one ‘em. So at 5am on the nose, I booted up my 360 and, sure enough, the update was ready for me. The download process was much faster than I expected, as apparently MS had already done a lot of the heavy lifting with earlier updates. From start to finish, the whole thing only took about two minutes.
(more…)

Sad news yesterday for the world of professional gaming. The Championship Gaming Series pro gaming league has packed up, turned off the lights, and left the building. The official word of the CGS dissolution came as a surprise to fans of the league. Gamers checking out the CGS website were surprised by an open letter, which read as follows:

“Today BSkyB, STAR, and DirecTV ended their Championship Gaming Series (CGS) business.

While the concept was ahead of its time and we are extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, it became increasingly clear that as this ambitious project evolved, that profitability was too far in the future for us to sustain operations in the interim.

Our goal was to be ahead of the curve in the e-sports space, and we conceived of CGS as a true sports league. We invested wholeheartedly in the venture and presented viewers with a top-notch production, but the economics just didn’t add up for us at this time.

Our only regret is that we will lose a team of creative and talented individuals who invested their hearts and souls into Championship Gaming Series. We recognize their achievements, and thank them for their hard work and passion.

BSkyB, STAR, and DirecTV continue to be committed to the video games sector, which is an important part of many of our customers’ lives and a great source of entertainment.

Sincerely,
The CGS Team”

Well, if a company is going to make educational games, who better to do it than National Geographic? Earlier today, Ted Prince, chief operating officer of National Geographic Ventures and executive vice president of operations for National Geographic Global Media officially announced the formation of a new division, National Geographic Games, which will publish and develop games across major gaming console, handheld, online and mobile platforms.

National Geographic Games is led by a team of industry vets. Paul Levine, senior VP at National Geographic Ventures, will lead the new division. Chris Mate, formerly an executive at Take Two Interactive and Bethesda Softworks, has joined as vice president and general manager for NGG and will oversee and manage the group’s daily global operations.
(more…)

While the fat lady may have sung on Brash Entertainment, that doesn’t meant there’s not still plenty of fallout. The company is currently being sued by not one, but two game developers in Los Angeles Superior Court over alleged nonpayment.

The first lawsuit, filed back on October 30th by California-based 7 Studios claims Brash failed to pay it $581,000 for its work on two video games, Six Flags Fun Park and 9. 9 was to based on an upcoming animated feature film by director Tim Burton. Meanwhile, Six Flags Fun Park, for the Nintendo Wii and DS, was nearly complete when Brash decided to exercise a clause in its contract and cancel the game without cause in early October.

The second lawsuit, filed by Slovenian game developer Zootfly on Friday, alleges that Brash owes it $748,000 for work done on a video game adaptation of the Fox television show, “Prison Break.” Brash gave that game the axe at the end of September.

Brash (or what’s left of it at least) has been silent about recent issues. There’s been no response to inquiries about the status of its lingering licenses, and no comment made about these recent lawsuits.