News: Stomp! Smash! DESTROY! For free! MechAssault devs Day 1 Studios present Reign of Thunder. Let’s not beat about the bush. Smashing robots is a lot of fun. It’s a law of nature. Getting to do it for free, when the robot-smashing is coutesy of MechAssault devs Day 1 Studios? Now we’re talking. Reign of Thunder, looking [...]

News: Double Fine supremo Tim Schafer voices his concerns over Xbox Live’s seemingly self-imposed brain drain of talent. Although once lauded as a new home for small, independent developers and studios, the Xbox Live Marketplace has come under close scrutiny as of late, as users voice their concerns over the new layout and attitude held by Microsoft [...]

News: Good news for fans of Skyrim, as Bethesda aims for fewer, ‘meatier’ DLC installments for the award-winning RPG. ‘For Fallout 3 we did five DLCs,’ explains Bethesda‘s Todd Howard to Kotaku. ‘That was a very aggressive path for us. Our plan now is to take more time, to have more meat on them . They’ll feel closer to [...]

News: Never far from trouble, Sony’s Vita may now be losing developers to Nintendo’s 3DS. Beset with sliding sales figures and region-locking measures that had consumers up in arms, the Playstation Vita may now be haemmoraging developers eager to work with the more solid foundations that the 3DS provides. Quoting an ‘anonymous industry source’, Kiyoshi Shin, former head of the [...]

Rockstar fields fan questions regarding a possible L.A. Noire sequel. Despite Team Bondi, the studio behind L.A. Noire collapsing underneath a slew of staff complaints and loss of faith from its backers, the potential for a sequel to the 2011 hit may not have gone with it. In a Q&A session with fans , Rockstar fielded questions from the [...]

Already buried under a pile of legal proceedings, IP development house Personalised Media Communications adds to Zynga’s woes by suing over patent infringement. With a reputation for infringement that would put most kleptomaniacs to shame, Zynga finds itself under fire from intellectual property developers Personalised Media Communications, for, it alleges, the infringement of four patents made [...]

A wonderfully surreal collaboration between Steam and Bethesda brings Portal 2 and Skyrim closer together. With the Skyrim Creation Kit and Steam Workshop now up and running, Bethesda and Valve have chosen to celebrate these community milestones by releasing the ‘ special suprise ‘ hinted at in development blogs – dropping the Space Core from Portal 2 into Skyrim. Literally. As you can see [...]

Skillset and National Apprenticeship Service to encourage smaller firms to take on interns. Speaking this morning, during National Apprentice Week, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced the launch of a new campaign to create 500 new internships in 300 selected creative businesses, offering up to £1,500 to firms preparing to take on their first apprentice. ‘Apprenticeships are [...]

The live-action undead-invasion game returns for 2012 – adding Glasgow to the tour. As you may well remember, last year, BeefJack Editor Lewis Denby soiled his undergarments in the name of journalism as he participated in the live-action zombie event ‘ 2.8 Hours Later ‘, a full day of solving puzzles and running like hell from the undead. [...]

Are indie titles being forced into obscurity in the Xbox Live marketplace? ‘Ultimately I do not believe the XBLIG market is growing,’ states Kris Steele, developer for Fun Infused Games , on his blog ‘I believe these numbers show that. I believe the biggest factor is Microsoft’s burying of XBLIG.’ It’s a harsh stance to take, but in light [...]

Bloomberg writer Jennifer Price estimates the ‘Real Cost’ of gaming at over $17,000. Seriously. Bloomberg’s ‘Real Cost’ guides have always been, at heart, a rather amusing ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach to dealing with specific situations – but there’s always been a core of sound, logical advice to some degree. However, a recent article by [...]

1,000 players and no lag? MuchDifferent flex their tech muscles in a record-breaking FPS deathmatch. Sticking it to multiplayer shooters everywhere, MuchDifferent‘s technological showcase demo, Man Vs Machine , blew away the competition during a one-off event. Boasting a record-breaking, 1,000 players linked into the same game, via new online technology that allowed players to seamlessly migrate from server [...]

The Family Research Council slam Star Wars: The Old Republic over same-sex marriages. Ah, conservative Christian groups. You give them an inch, they think you’re trying to poke it somewhere unwelcome. President of the pro-family group ‘Family Research Council’, Tony Perkins, has described the proposed implementation of same-sex marriages in Bioware‘s new MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic [...]

Expanding ever further, Microsoft have begn hiring for two new studios – LEAP and Platform Next. While some may consider now to be the time for careful investment in existing studios, or cutting losses altogether, Microsoft are bucking the trend as they openly recruit for two new teams under the Microsoft Studios umbrella: LEAP and Platform Next . [...]

Saw this coming? Still touring the festivals, Indie Game: The Movie has been optioned by HBO for a fictional adaptation. If all the SOPA rage has been getting you down, leave it to America to turn up some news so genuinely bizarre that it could only be the truth. Nobody could pitch a drama about game [...]

After file-hosting site Megaupload bit the bullet, many other sites are falling on their swords to evade the law. With Megaupload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz currently billed as an extreme flight risk , thought to hold multiple identities and a history of fleeing criminal charges, swathes of fellow file-sharing sites have been cutting their file-sharing technologies to the bone . [...]

Hidden for 6 years, a SOPA-style bill for Europe, ACTA, has been uncovered. If you thought it was safe to take a step back and enjoy the temparary reprieve that the Obama administration has afforded us from the spectacularly invasive SOPA bill, think again. A bill set to affect many of the same rights as the SOPA [...]

Discussing Rockstar’s direction for Max Payne 3, Remedy shows great confidence in the studio. In a chat with Kotaku, Remedy‘s head of franchise development, ‘Ozz’ Hakkinen, gave a glowing report of Rockstar‘s take on the cult action franchise, Max Payne. With Max Payne 3 heading into a new arena (the seedy, sunny favelas of Brazil), and sporting a Bruce Willis-style [...]

Much anticipated stealth project Thief 4 may bring online gameplay to the table. Rumblings from the NeoGaf forums have been turning up some significant details surrounding Eidos Montreal ‘s next big project, Thief 4 . If they turn out to be true, that is. A LinkedIn profile for one member of the Eidos Montreal staff, Colas Fievet , listed among his duties from [...]

Already mortgaged to the hilt with limited-access DRM, Ubisoft may have struck an own goal as their latest DRM shuts out honest gamers. PCs are constantly being tweaked, altered, boosted, repaired and rebuilt. It’s part of the design ethic and, dare I say, part of the charm. Although it’s understandable that developers do have to worry [...]