by Michael French
Who needs triple-A titles? That’s the message from studios as the support for digital distribution swells, but beware: games for such platforms are now more complex – and more expensive to make.
Recent word from heavyweight studios, established smaller teams and new companies shows that demand for these games from publishers is only outstripped [...]

A German investment group has made a £4.4m offer to buy developer Kuju.
The offer by Catalis, which already owns QA company Testronic, looks set to go through, having been recommended by the Kuju boad. Irrevocable acceptances have been obtained representing approximately 54.6 per cent of the outstanding share capital.
The offer values the shares at a [...]

A direct-to-consumer, publisher-free agenda is on the cards for Realtime Worlds after an investment boost, says chairman Ian Hetherington.
Speaking exclusively to Develop, Hetherington – the co-founder of Psygnosis and one time CEO of SCEE who is also chairman of MotorStorm creator Evolution – said the company plans to “look at significant developments in the online [...]

via MCV
Media giant Warner Bros. has bought a ten per cent stake in SCi thanks to a newly-announced deal worth £44.5 million – and the UK publisher has scooped eleven high profile licences in the process.
The new deal means that SCi has claimed the rights to high profile IP including several Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera [...]

Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar is putting together a games development team that will be based in central London.
Job postings by the developer-publisher imprint of Take Two have revealed the company’s intentions to set up a new development studio in “the heart of London” to go alongside its European publishing HQ on London’s King’s Road.
“We [...]

After bloggers found out that it was in fact Sony who were marketing their PSP through guerilla tactics, SCEA has owned up to the fact that it was behind the promotion;
Alliwantforxmasisapsp.com was a marketing campaign fronted as an independent blog, whose authors supposedly had a friend (“Jeremy”) that wanted a PSP for Christmas.
One blog entry [...]

via develop
Realtime Worlds, the UK development outfit established by the creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, has received a USD31 million cash injection.
The investment in the Dundee studio comes from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world’s leading venture capital firms and will see NEA Principal Patrick Chung and NEA Partner Harry Weller [...]

Namco Bandai president Takeo Takasu has claimed that any game must sell at least half a million copies on the PlayStation 3 in order for it to make a profit, in an interview with business site Bloomberg. According to Takasu, increased development costs for the console, particularly relating to graphical assets creation, means that the [...]

Off to Finland today to teach ARG’s and Transmedia to students of Kemi-Tornion University

via Keith Stuart Games Guardian
Everybody loves Wii. I think it’s safe to assume that now. But there’s something worrying within the pervasive success of this unassuming machine. As you know, the console ships with Wii Sports a collection of fun little sporting mini-games designed for quick, accessible entertainment. If purchasers fork out for an extra [...]