Big Fish Games now on People.com

Big Fish Games announced a strategic partnership with People.com, the leading celebrity news site that manages to attract 10 million monthly users. Starting today, People.com’s main games page will feature select online and downloadable games in various categories. In addition, visitors will have access to Big Fish Games’ entire catalog of over 2,000 games through its own Web site. People.com will receive a share of the revenues on all game purchases its visitors make from Big Fish Games.

This partnership further illustrates the transition that is occurring with many print publications as they look to strategically partner with media companies to increase traffic to online content and engage their readers in new ways.

Namco Bandai Partners to publish CITIES XL in select regions

Yesterday Namco Bandai Games announced its new European operations Namco Bandai Partners. Today that group reveals its first title. Today it announced plans to publish the next generation city builder title from Monte Cristo Games, CITIES XL, in UK, Nordic Countries, Iberica, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, with distribution in other European countries previously secured by Monte Cristo. CITIES XL is scheduled for release this coming October 2009.

For more information about CITIES XL can be found at www.citiesxl.com.

Namco Bandai Partners forms

Namco Bandai Games Europe S.A.S. today announced the completion of its purchase of Atari’s global PAL distribution operation (Europe), with the entity renamed Namco Bandai Partners with immediate effect. The company will, as of this announcement, distribute titles worldwide, excluding Japan and North America, from Namco Bandai Games, Atari and other major international video game publishers.

Operating in 50 countries with 17 offices including UK, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Nordic, Benelux, Greece, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, NAMCO BANDAI Partners is now one of the world’s strongest and most comprehensive video game retail distribution networks in the world.

In the UK, the company will operate as NAMCO BANDAI Partners UK, working with its partners in publishing, media and retail to bring a wide range of original video games to market for all audiences.

Impulse Surpasses 1 Million User Mark

Stardock announced that its digital download platform, Impulse, has managed to exceed one million customers since its launch last summer. Since its debut nine months ago, Impulse platform has made available games from Stardock’s catalog, indie developers and publishers like THQ, 2KGames, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcatcher, Epic, Paradox and more. The platform also offers non-game software applications, utilities, anti-virus and more. Stardock announced earlier this month that the millionth user would win a custom-built $4,000 PC gaming rig and has awarded James from Bloomington, Illinois who purchased Sacred 2: Fallen Angel last week.

Impulse is set to get a major update on April 7 with the release Impulse Reactor, a development platform that includes in-game community features, multiplayer matchmaking, achievements, cloud multiplayer, and vendor neutral IP protection in the form of Game Object Obfuscation (Goo).
Impulse Reactor does not require publishers to change any code in their software to make use of Goo or include a third-party client with their title. This allows publishers to have a single executable to be sold at retail or digitally that is vendor neutral. The third major update to Impulse also includes features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC.)

Finally Gas Powered Games’ new real-time strategy / role-playing game, Demigod will showcase the new Impulse Reactor features, when it is released on April 14.

Fillpoint Acquires Crave

Newport Beach, California-based video game distribution company Fillpoint, has acquired Crave Entertainment for an undisclosed amount of money. Crave Entertainment, which is also based in Newport Beach, develops and publishes a variety of casual and budget priced games for various platforms. The company was purchased alongside Indianapolis, Indiana-based SVG, a distributor of video game software, hardware and accessories. Both companies were purchased from Handleman Company.

Fillpoint acquired both companies to expand its brick and mortar distribution operations, increase its software catalog (with the help of Crave) and expand its foothold into the online digital distribution business.