Welcome to the first Rundown of 2009. Are you ready for 2009? I hope this year won’t suck as bad as last year. Now onto today’s light news stories: Street Fighter IV controllers, and update to A Murder of Crows, a new Elebits game hits retails, more MySims games announced and the release of Saint’s Row 2 for PC - all after the jump.
Lighthouse Interactive has inked a deal with Nintendo to allow the company to develop and publish Wii and Nintendo games in Europe. The deal gives the company the ability to expand its portfolio beyond PC, PS2 and PSP games. Lighthouse predominantly publishes PC titles that have origins in Europe.
“This is a significant milestone in the continued growth of the company,” says Steve Wall, co-founder and Vice President of Lighthouse Interactive. “It gives us the opportunity to further expand our product catalogue and take Lighthouse Interactive to the next level.”
Learn more at www.lighthouse-interactive.com.
Lighthouse Interactive and developer ClockStone Software have released a Development Kit for their action RPG game AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage. The development kit contains complete reference documentation of all Avencast game engine commands and parameters, including several step-by-step tutorials explaining how to use the level editor and modify game content. It also features a level editor, visual effects editor and script and configuration files (monster AI, hero skills and attributes, items and equipments, and other game components).
Due to the technical nature of the package, some modding or game development skills are probably needed to create something worth playing. If you have the patience and skills, you can download the kit from www.lighthouse-interactive.com. A support forum is available as well.
Get more RPG news here.
For those that care, Lighthouse Interactive has delayed its real-time strategy war game, East India Company. The game, which was originally scheduled for release in Q4 2008, has been pushed to Q1 2009. Lighthouse says that this delay is “in the best interest of fans and the game.” East India Company is described as a dynamic real-time strategy war game for Windows, based on the exploits and adventures of the infamous 18th century East India Companies. Playing as one of eight nations spanning Europe to the Far East, players are challenged to build the World’s most powerful trading empire as they engage in open sea battles in both single player and multiplayer modes and trade.
“Allowing more development time further ensures that Nitro Games will deliver the best gaming experience possible,” says Raymond Snippe, Senior Development Manager of Lighthouse Interactive. “We want to wow strategy fans with EIC’s technically advanced proprietary game engine and incredible cinematic game environments. We are confident that gamers will agree it’s worth the wait.”
We shall see.
Lighthouse Interactive announced today that it has signed a licensing agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment America. The publisher licensing agreement gives Lighthouse the power to develop and publish video games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The company did not reveal whether or not this license gave it the right to publish PlayStation 3 titles.
Publisher Lighthouse Interactive has shipped out Ship Simulator 2008 to North American retail outlets today. The latest title in this naval simulation for Windows includes a number of new features according to Lighthouse. These include dynamic ocean waves and realistic ship motions, open ocean voyages, a visible damage system, 50 missions, day and night cycles, 16 different ships from which to choose, seven harbor environments around the world, weather effects, a mission editor, and free-roaming multiplayer. Ship Simulator 2008 sounds like the Lexus of naval simulations — if you are into that sort of thing. Look for it in stores beginning today.
