The first video dev diary for Space Marine has been posted to YouTube – check out the action and hear from the devs as they talk about Relic Entertainment’s next title. Set in the rich Warhammer 40,000 universe created by Games Workshop®, Space Marine is scheduled to be released worldwide for the Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 and Windows PC in August 2011.

You are a Space Marine, one of humanity’s elite warriors, the last line of defence between mankind and its enemies. Through extensive genetic modification, psycho-chemical conditioning and years of rigorous training that would kill a normal man a Space Marine becomes superhuman. When one of the industrial ‘Forge World’ planets where humanity creates its greatest weapons, comes under attack and the thousands of imperial soldiers stationed there are overwhelmed the only thing standing between this planet and its total destruction is your Space Marine.

Paradox Interactive has released the first trailer of Supreme Ruler: Cold War. Developed by BattleGoat Studios, which also created the successful Supreme Ruler 2010 and 2020, their most recent title invites you to relive the tension and uncertainty of the Cold War.  Supreme Ruler: Cold War is the next installment in the Supreme Ruler series and gives players control over a 1950’s United States or Soviet Union as they try to lead their country to glory.

As leader of the United States or the Soviet Union, you must make the correct Economic, Diplomatic, Domestic and Military decisions to successfully navigate your country through this dangerous historical era and increase your nation’s Sphere of Influence on the world stage.

SIGGRAPH 2011 Tickets Now Available For Purchase. Early Bird pricing is in effect until June 17th. Member, non-member and student prices are available for all categories: full conference, full conference single day, basic conference, basic conference single day, computer animation festival. Please see the ticket information page for full details on categories and pricing.

SIGGRAPH 2011 in Vancouver – Make It Home

Congratulations to onX Enterprise Solutions, who has received two Cisco Partner Summit regional awards for Canadian Managed Cloud Partner of the Year and Canadian Borderless Network Partner of the Year.

Don’t forget that nominations are open for the 2011 VIATeC Awards. A little saddened that VIATeC is using the current tide of attention being paid to that recently fired TV personality as part of their promotional efforts, but here are the categories open to Vancouver Island technology companies:

• Technology Company of the Year
• Emerging Technology Company of the Year
• Employer of the Year – can only be nominated by staff
• Online Strategy of the Year
• Environmental Excellence
• Executive of the Year
• Employee/Team of the Year
• Innovative Excellence
• Product of the Year
• Member’s Choice for Service Provider of the Year – can only be nominated by a technology company.

The Awards ceremony will take place in Carson Hall at the Victoria Conference Centre on June 2nd. Tickets are $150.00 for VIATeC members and $200.00 for non-members.

Here is the launch trailer for Hothead Games‘ latest entry into the digital download realm. Swarm is scheduled for release on PSN March 22nd (March 30th in Europe) and XBLA worldwide on March 23rd. This is definitely one game I’m looking forward to getting my hands on – I’ve been hoarding most of the MS Points I was given for Christmas just so I can see how many ways there are to squish and dismember these little blue guys.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will already know that Swarm is an action-platformer that allows you take control of 50 utterly fearless Swarmites and drive them through an intense, entertaining and often suicidal battle of survival. Run, bash, huddle, boost, stack, jump, push and throw your way through gauntlets of death and destruction in an attempt to collect valuable DNA and ensure that at least one Swarmite survives.

Atari has released the second developer diary from its upcoming XBLA, PSN and PC download top-down arcade shooter Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, which was developed at Behaviour Interactive. Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is out on XBLA and PC download on March 23rd and will launch on PSN on March 30th (even though the dev diary says it’s available now).

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is a four player, ghost-busting adventure that will take players on a brand new paranormal experience. Players will suit up with their proton packs and assume the role of a rookie hired by the Ghostbusters to save New York City from a disaster of ghoulish proportions.

The action-packed gameplay progresses as players complete jobs as fearless rookies who explore a series of haunted environments that must be cleared of any ectoplasmic threats. The gripping adventure rages on as players encounter gigantic bosses that require a concentrated effort to defeat using a medley of highly destructive weapons including the Proton Stream, Plasma Inductor, and the Fermion Shock. Rookie Ghostbusters will face the dangers of the eerie world alone or with a ghostbusting team of friends both locally or online through the game’s multiplayer capability.

Big Blue Bubble’s Burn The Rope is bigger and better than ever with a version for the iPad launching today! Now is the time to join in the flame-lighting fun with bigger graphics, brighter fire, and Wickman as you’ve never seen him before! Burn the Rope HD also features an innovative new touch control scheme exclusive to the iPad that lets players rotate the puzzle onscreen.

Burn the Rope is a casual puzzle title that was originally released on the iPhone in December 2010. The goal of the game is to burn as much rope as possible on each level – which is not as easy as it may sound. The fire only burns upwards, so the player must rotate the rope to keep the flame going – once all the flames are out, it’s game over! With clever, hard to master puzzle designs for each level and some insects that add to the gameplay in unique and interesting ways, Burn the Rope been one of the hottest apps in the App Store for the past several months.

With 116 exciting levels (and more on the way), Burn the Rope is incredibly fun and addictive, and the new features in Burn the Rope HD for iPad let players experience the game in a whole new way

Additional HD Features Include:

• Apple Game Center support with 30 achievements and iTunes library support
• All-new Bug-Blasting Bonus Rounds!
• Lights Out! Mode – light the way as you burn!

BioWare will be releasing Mass Effect: Arrival, the thrilling final mission for Mass Effect 2 on March 29th. This conclusion to Mass Effect 2 and preamble to Mass Effect 3, Arrival will also include three new achievements (or trophies) for the Xbox 360®, PC and PlayStation®3. The PDLC pack will be available for 560 MS Points on Xbox 360, $6.99USD on PlayStation Network and also available for PC for 560 BioWare Points.

In Mass Effect: Arrival, Commander Shepard is sent to the edge of the galaxy to rescue an undercover operative who may have evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion that has been looming since the very beginning of the series. Returning and playing a prominent role in Mass Effect: Arrival is fan favorite Admiral Hackett, who is voiced by legendary science-fiction actor Lance Henriksen (Alien, Terminator).

“All year, we have been extremely honored and humbled by the reception we have received for Mass Effect 2 from players around the world, including our post release DLC”, said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer, Mass Effect series. “Mass Effect: Arrival is an exciting extension to Mass Effect 2 and will show players just how close the Reapers are to returning and completing their deadly harvest.”

Only two weeks after launching, TVO’s new applications for BlackBerry® smartphones for early learners and school aged-kids, have been downloaded from BlackBerry App World™ over 250,000 times.

Flower Frenzy and Polka Dot Shorts support learning objectives from the Ontario school curriculum and are teacher and classroom tested. Both are designed for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 5.0 and higher. Polka Dot Shorts is a sequence matching game for kids aged 2-5 that supports the early-learning and kindergarten math curriculum. Flower Frenzy is an entertaining and educational game with three levels of progressive difficulty that uses pictures of flowers to help kids ages 6-11 learn to create sequences.

Both apps teach kids pre-cursors to patterning skills which help build the foundational knowledge required for mathematics in later years.  Each app also has a safety feature to prevent young users from making phone calls or sending emails.

“We’re really excited that so many kids are embracing TVO’s latest digital media offerings,” says CEO Lisa de Wilde. “There is a real need for digital content that will engage kids in learning that complements what happens in the classroom environment. We’re happy to help fill the gap.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today simplified the process for Canadians who want to change providers for their television, home telephone, wireless or Internet services. Consumers will now be able to switch service providers with only one phone call. Once it has obtained the proper consent, the new provider will make all the arrangements on behalf of consumers to have the services transferred over. The CRTC requires that customer transfers be completed within two business days, except for wireless service where transfers must be completed within 2.5 hours.

“In a competitive marketplace, consumers are always encouraged to explore different options for their broadcasting and telecommunications services,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC. “The new rules will make the transfer process a seamless and convenient experience, while enabling Canadians to benefit from receiving retention offers from their current providers.”

If they prefer, consumers can also cancel their services by contacting their service provider directly, which can make them offers to retain their business. The CRTC reminds consumers that, when switching to a new service provider, they are still responsible for any termination penalties or other terms associated with their existing contract. Additionally, the CRTC has established safeguards to prevent service providers from sharing confidential customer information with their internal sales and marketing groups during the transfer process.

Following today’s decision, the CRTC has also launched a new proceeding seeking views on whether these safeguards are still in the best interests of consumers and whether they limit a consumer’s ability to receive offers from a service provider. Interested parties may submit their comments by April 18, 2011. They may do so by completing the online form, by writing to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N2, or by fax at 819-994-0218.

Nominations are now open for the Sara Kirke Award for Woman Entrepreneurship, which is presented to the woman who has shown the most outstanding technological innovation and corporate leadership — leadership that has significantly expanded the frontiers of Canada’s advanced technology industry. The purpose of the Award is to celebrate innovation, entrepreneurship and create positive role models for women. The Sara Kirke Award for outstanding woman in technology innovation and corporate leadership for 2010 was awarded to Carol Leaman, CEO of PostRank Inc.

Sara Kirke is considered by many to be North America’s first entrepreneur. She arrived in Newfoundland in 1638 with her husband David Kirke, who was soon recalled to England. Sara, however, continued to reside in Avalon, and conducted business as usual from the Pool Plantation. Lady Kirke was a remarkable individual as she managed affairs at the Pool Plantation and became one of the most successful merchants on the English Shore — and was almost certainly North America’s first and foremost woman entrepreneur.

Submissions for the 2011 Sara Kirke Awards must be received at the CanWIT office by April 15, 2011, and all nominees must be a member of CanWIT, which is itself a Division of CATAAlliance. The 2011 winner will be announced at the 26th Annual Canadian Innovation and Leadership Awards Gala on May 18th, which are being held at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa.

The BCIC-New Ventures Competition: 2011 is now open for applications until April 18 at midnight, with the first seminar in the new nine seminar series taking place on April 4th. The competition dates and seminar schedule have been officially set and now it’s up to the competitors to invest $200 in their technology business idea and learn how to develop it into a profitable company.

As one of North America’s largest technology business idea competitions, BCIC-New Ventures attracts applicants from a wide range of industries including cleantech, media, Internet, information technology and life sciences. BCIC and the New Ventures BC Society invite BC entrepreneurs to submit their ideas to the 11th annual BCIC-New Ventures Competition offering the chance to win a share of the more than $360,000 in prizes.

Added to the mix of prizes to be won this year are the $15,000 Vancity Social Venture Prize and two prizes for Agricultural technologies, valued at $30,000 and $20,000. The competition has also launched a separate stream for Agritech competitors, with events starting March 30.

The competition is open to any BC person, resident or business with a technology-focused idea that has not yet secured significant financing from external investors (i.e. investors other than friends, family and company founders).

The series of nine business education seminars, open to both the public and competition applicants, will take place in Vancouver at the SFU Beedie School of Business beginning April 4, 2011. Students with valid ID can register to attend these seminars at no cost.

Register today to:

• Learn from some of BC’s top business experts at our business-education seminars
• Network with top professionals in business, law, finance, government and academia
• Improve your business and strategies during each round of competition
• Receive advice and insight from mentors In Round 3
• Present your condensed business plan to a panel of ‘angel’ investors, venture capitalists and industry experts in Round 4

Now in its eleventh year, the main BCIC-New Ventures Competition attracts applicants from a wide range of industries. This year we’re launching a new stream of the competition focused on Agritech ventures in the categories of: primary production, food, and bioenergy/bioproducts (for or from agriculture).

This new program is funded through Growing Forward, a federal/provincial agreement between the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to support agri-food technology innovation and commercialization.

There will be two specific prizes – a $30,000 first prize and $20,000 second prize for Innovation in Agricultural Technology – plus specific events for Agritech competitors who proceed through the four rounds of the business competition. Applicants who register will also be placed into the larger competition with the chance to compete for more than $300,000 in additional prizes.

AOL Canada is proud to sponsor the Interactive Category of the 2011 National Advertising Awards (NAA) that celebrates and rewards outstanding Canadian advertising creativity, delivering fresh new ideas to Canada’s leading brands. In addition to the recognition they receive with the award, category winners will attend the 58th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival June 19 to 25, 2011 in France.

“Sponsoring the interactive competition aligns with our commitment to high-value, premium quality and creativity online,” says Graham Moysey, AOL Canada General Manager, “At AOL, it’s all about creating a vastly improved online consumer experience – what better way than to get Canada’s best and brightest creatives engaged?”

AOL is also working with agencies that are submitting entries to consider using AOL’s award-winning HD content delivery platform, Pictela, now available in Canada. Pictela provides agencies with a broad and highly unique canvas for demonstrating their creativity.

In the Interactive Category, participants are challenged with a brief from Biotherm to recruit new users to their BioLab Skin Solutions. All category briefs were made available on March 2 and the deadline for creative submissions is March 31. Winners will be announced at the National Advertising Awards Gala on May 5 in Toronto.

“Participating in the National Advertising Awards Interactive Category is a fantastic opportunity to submit the challenge of taking our BioLab recruitment animation to the next level to the best Canadian creative minds,” said Bradley Smith, Biotherm Marketing Director. “I can’t wait to see how they’ll translate Biotherm’s biological expertise and its strong Canadian heritage into a complete interactive brand experience that will attract new consumers to the brand.”

“The National Advertising Awards are unique because they are North America’s only major brief-based competition,” says Cam Gardner, President, Adcam Media Group, Owner of The National Advertising Awards. “It’s always a thrill to see the results of unleashed creative thinking against the needs of major Canadian brands. We’re grateful for the support of sponsors like AOL Canada who help make the awards possible.”

TVO has launched two free apps for BlackBerry® smartphones for early learners and school aged- kids. Both games support learning objectives from the Ontario school curriculum, have been teacher and classroom tested and are designed for BlackBerry® smartphone devices with OS 5.0 and higher.

Polka Dot Shorts is a sequence matching game for kids aged 2-5 that supports the early-learning and kindergarten math curriculum. The app features TVO’s beloved children’s character Polkaroo and challenges players to find a sequence of dots and rewards them for the correct answer.

Flower Frenzy is an entertaining and educational game with three levels of progressive difficulty that uses pictures of flowers to help kids ages 6-11 learn to create sequences. Both Polka Dot Shorts and Flower Frenzy teach kids pre-cursors to patterning skills which help build the foundational knowledge required for mathematics in later years.

TVO is also a proud member of the BlackBerry® Alliance Program which gives TVO access to a wide array of benefits to help support, market and distribute their applications for BlackBerry smartphones. Both games were developed with the expert advice of TVO’s in-house educator, and BlackBerry Alliance Program partner Sweet Caesar.

Speaking of interactive entertainment for kids, Loud Crow Interactive has just released its latest eBook to the iTunes App Store. Sandra Boynton’s The Going To Bed Book is available now for the iPhone and iPod Touch ($1.99 USD) and the iPad ($2.99 USD).

The Going to Bed Book app has all the magic and appeal of a traditional pop-up book, offering lively interactivity and thoroughly mesmerizing discovery. Imagine! An ark that rocks. Characters that respond to touch with sound and movement. Tap water that turns on and off, and steam that fogs the screen. Can you write your name in the steam? Of course! There are teeth to brush, and a group exercise session with ten pajama-clad animals (big and small) each with its own unique exercise. Help the little piggy turn off the lights, then rock to sleep to the music box sound of twinkling stars. There’s something wonderful to discover on every page.

The Going To Bed Book allows young readers to touch, pull, and turn animals and objects to make them move, or they can tilt the device to watch things slide and cascade. The ebook is narrated by Billy J. Kramer and features the same original text and illustrations as that found in the actual board book. Enable the “Big Guy Reads It” option with word highlighting to help improve reading skills, or use “I want to read it myself” and hear individual words pronounced with the tap of a finger.

Vancouver developer Kerberos Studios has unravelled more mysteries of the universe in a new video interview with Martin Cirulis, the lead designer of Sword of the Stars II: The Lords of Winter, sequel to Kerberos’ hit 4X science fiction strategy game.

Cirulis gives an introduction to the dangerous Lords of Winter and underlines how the Sword of the Stars II universe has evolved since the first game. Learn how Kerberos uses mechanics to enhance narrative and get an introduction to what the new Mars 2 engine brings to the table. Cirulis also talks about the different ways to kill your enemies and how diplomacy has evolved to take into account the needs of an established empire.

A Bigger, better, stronger, faster Sword of the Stars II will be coming to your corner of the galaxy this autumn.

Another Canadian-made game in the Paradox Interactive stable is Supreme Ruler: Cold War, and BattleGoat Studios has released a new developer interview for this upcoming historical grand strategy title. In this latest video, BattleGoat Studios Lead Designer David Thompson gives players a bit of insight to what they can look forward to in the latest addition to the Supreme Ruler series.

Supreme Ruler: Cold War is the next installment in the Supreme Ruler series and gives players control over a 1950’s United States or Soviet Union as they try to lead their country to glory. Players make economic, diplomatic, domestic, and military decisions to grow and modernize their nation to ensure its place atop the rest of the world.

Scotiabank, in partnership with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), have launched the Small Business Big Impact Challenge, which shines a spotlight on small business owners who are positively impacting their communities in the areas of employment, innovative products and services, as well as leadership.

“At Scotiabank, we recognize that small businesses play a vital role in building strong communities. Much more than just a place to purchase food or to get a car serviced, they contribute in ways which make our communities better places to live, for each one of us,” said Islay McGlynn, Managing Director and Head, Scotiabank Small Business. “With the Small Business Big Impact Challenge, we want to recognize and reward small business owners who have made an impact on their community by going above and beyond to meet not only the needs of their customers and employees, but the community at large.”

“Small businesses are small in name only,” commented Aron Gampel, Deputy Chief Economist, Scotiabank. “Small businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy, providing big support to the nation’s G7-leading performance. Small businesses are not only big generators of jobs in goods and services throughout the country, but they are also big contributors to the investments and exports that are important drivers of growth.”

To qualify for the Small Business Big Impact Challenge, entrants must demonstrate how their business has made a difference in the community where they live and work in one of the following three categories:

• Providing Employment: Implementing employment practices that reflect and support community needs as well as employment opportunities.
• Offering Products or Services: Creating new industries or ways of doing business, or offering unique products or services that benefit their community.
• Demonstrating Leadership: Taking a leadership role in initiatives for their community that ultimately makes it a better place to live and work.

“Beyond their indispensable role as job creators and innovators all across Canada, small businesses start as the heart and soul of their neighbourhoods and have a hugely positive impact on community prosperity and identity,” enthused CFIB president, Catherine Swift. “In conjunction with CFIB’s 40^th anniversary and during 2011, the federally designated Year of the Entrepreneur, we are delighted to be partnering with Scotiabank in support of those small business owners who stand out amongst an already outstanding group of peers.”

The challenge ends on April 30, 2011. All Canadians are encouraged to visit the website as everyone can vote for their favourite small business. The top 15 entries, five in each category, will be presented and evaluated by the Expert Small Business Judging Panel, which will then select the three finalists to be awarded $10,000 each.

The Expert Small Business Judging Panel consists of:

• Islay McGlynn, Director and Head Small Business, Scotiabank;
• Kaz Flinn, Vice-President Corporate Social Responsibility, Scotiabank;
• Catherine Swift, CEO, CFIB;
• Tom Sloan, Vice President Small Business and Commercial Markets, Export Development Canada; and
• Greig Clark, PROFIT Magazine columnist, and founder of College Pro Painters.

The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, welcomes the passage by Parliament of Bill C-22, An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service. The legislation will help protect children from online sexual exploitation.

“The creation and distribution of child pornography is an unspeakable crime which will not be tolerated in Canada,” said Minister Nicholson. “Our legislation will assist police in tracking down Internet sexual predators, and rescuing children from sexual exploitation.”

In September 2008, the Federal/Provincial/Territorial ministers responsible for Justice agreed that Canada’s response to child pornography could be enhanced by federal legislation establishing mandatory reporting of online child pornography by providers of Internet services.

Bill C-22 applies to suppliers of Internet services to the public, including those who provide electronic mail services, Internet content hosting services, and social networking sites. It requires them to:

• Report, to a designated agency, tips they receive regarding Web sites where child pornography may be available to the public; and

• Notify police and safeguard evidence if they believe that a child pornography offence has been committed using an Internet service that they provide.

Failure to comply with the duties under the legislation will constitute an offence punishable by graduated fines. For individuals (sole proprietorships), the maximum penalty is a fine of $1,000 for a first offence; $5,000 for a second offence; and for third and subsequent offences $10,000 or six months imprisonment, or both. For corporations and other entities, the maximum fines are $10,000 for a first offence; $50,000 for a second offence; and $100,000 for third and subsequent offences.

“We all have a role to play in the protection of children from sexual predators,” said Minister Nicholson. “This legislation will improve the collaboration between internet service providers and police to better protect children from online sexual exploitation.”

The Canadian Council of Learning (CCL) has launched a new online tool that allows users to measure the state of two crucial components of financial literacy—numeracy and document literacy—in more than 52,000 neighbourhoods and communities across the country.

The two new interactive maps produced by CCL, in partnership with DataAngel Policy Research Inc., provide literacy profiles for neighbourhoods across Canada, highlighting at-risk communities where residents lack the basic literacy skills needed in today’s knowledge-based society. The maps were produced using estimates generated by DataAngel Policy Research Inc. using data from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (IALSS) conducted by Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the 2006 Canadian Census. These new literacy domains add to earlier maps CCL released on health literacy and prose literacy.

The results show that 55 percent of adult Canadians (aged 16 and over) had low levels of numeracy and 49 percent had low levels of document literacy. (This is based on the number of people who scored below Level 3 on the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), a survey conducted by Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.)

Numeracy and document literacy are essential parts of what many consider “basic literacy” and provide a key foundation in developing a more sophisticated set of financial literacy skills.

“Canadians are increasingly faced with a complex array of financial decisions in their everyday lives—from choosing a mortgage and retirement planning to managing consumer debt and funding post-secondary education,” says Dr. Paul Cappon, President and CEO of CCL. “Yet, many Canadians do not have the financial literacy skills needed to make informed decisions related to money and investment.”

Numeracy is the ability to use basic math skills in everyday life. It includes such skills as calculating a tip at a restaurant, balancing a bank account or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement. Document literacy is the ability to find and use information in forms, charts, graphs and other tables. Financial literacy involves the use of multiple literacies—prose, document, numeracy—often simultaneously.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines five levels of literacy with level 1 being the lowest and level 5 being the highest. Level 3 is internationally accepted as the level of literacy considered necessary for meeting the demands of everyday life and work in an information-based society.

“The first step in any process of improvement is to be able to accurately measure change over time. CCL’s innovative maps help Canadian communities, and the country as a whole, determine current literacy levels,” says Cappon. “I hope that decision-makers and individuals throughout Canada will use these maps for the purpose of continuous improvement.”

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed in today’s conference call to investors that there will be a new Assassin’s Creed game this year, however we will all have to wait until May for more details.

Winnipeg studio Infinite Ammo, the co-developer of Aquaria, has posted a dev diary update for Marian and the Fantastic World of Dreams, and the game thus far looks great. In this very detailed dev diary you read about the process of meshing 2D with 3D and the trials the team has experienced thus far as the game unfolds. You can also hear a sampling of the game’s soundtrack as you read the diary post.

If you are unfamiliar with Infinite Ammo’s project, the game’s main character is Marian, a beautifully carved marionette who rips her strings from the grasp of ‘The Narrator’ and to become her own master. She becomes caught in the dream world between life and death, learning to her own puppet strings as a tool in her quest to discover her true identity, and in fitting with today’s universal Valentine’s Day theme, she may even find true love.

Rocket5 Studios has released the first teaser trailer for that studio’s upcoming iOS game XS Force, which the creators will be demoing at GDC 2011. XS Force is an explosive arcade shooter starring characters inspired by some of the biggest action movie stars of the 1980?s, and this trailer lets you get a glimpse of one of the XS Force heroes.

Rocket5′s previous titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch include Giant Moto and Holeshot Drag Racing as well as amusement apps Alien Booth and iSpoof Walken.

Source Studio has announced new DLC for the recently updated Proto Galaxy. Proto Defense, the first DLC release for Proto Galaxy, will soon be available for free via the game’s Steam page. Check out what’s coming in this expansion:

Released in October 2010, Proto Galaxy is a turrent defense game that allows up to four players to team up and save the galaxy from an alien force determined to enslave humanity. As Earth’s last line of defense, you must put an end to the attacks and rebuild a home for the survivors.

Distribution360 has acquired rights to distribute the Cartoon Network U.K. version of Skatoony to French and German-speaking Europe as well as Spain. The company will also distribute the North American version of Skatoony—produced by marblemedia—to the same territories. Skatoony (U.K.) airs on Cartoon Network U.K.; Skatoony (North America) was commissioned by TELETOON, and premiered on the Canadian kids network in English and French this past October. Skatoony is the first animated/live-action quiz show adventure that pits tweens and ‘toons against each other in four frantic, trivia-based rounds. Set in a fantastical television studio in the fictional town of Showtown, the series is anchored by the cartoon duo of host Chudd Chudders and his lounge-singing sidekick, The Earl. Each week, they attempt to put together another show, while all manner of mad happenings occur around them. Skatoony Interactive features the “Skatoony Home Game,” a multi-player game where kids play Skatoony in real-time against other kids online.

“We’re excited to be distributing both versions of Skatoony to international markets,” says Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier, Managing Director/Head of Sales, Distribution360. “We’re looking forward to offering broadcasters a library of versioned episodes in order to identify content that best suits their needs.”

“Working with Distribution360 gives us the opportunity to exploit new territories for Skatoony,” says Michael Carrington, Chief Content Officer, Turner Broadcasting. “It’s a fantastic fast-paced game show which is sure to delight new audiences across Europe.”

In addition to Skatoony, D360’s kids slate also includes Splatalot, Ambition Skatecamp, This is Daniel Cook, and This is Emily Yeung for distribution to international markets.

Communitech’s annual Tech Leadership Conference on March 2, 2011 is the place to be for anyone in high-tech — to hear keynote speakers author Geoffrey Moore and futurist Watts Wacker, share views with journalist and author Scott Berkun, and gain insights from a high-tech power panel moderated by former Global national news anchor Kevin Newman. More than 500 people are expected to attend the largest such one-day event in Southwestern Ontario.

“It’s an action-packed day that will focus on the new fundamentals of business in an era where the power of the crowd shapes everything from marketing practices to purchase consideration, and leading-edge innovation continues to drive rapid change,” said Iain Klugman, president and CEO of Communitech.

The Tech Leadership Conference will feature a ‘BIG Conversation’ between Canadian industry leaders — MKS CEO Philip Deck, Sr. VP OSI John Ruffolo, and CTO OpenText Eugene Roman with Geoffrey Moore and moderated by Kevin Newman — addressing the major shifts occurring in the tech industry. Startup companies will also pull back the curtain on latest innovations moving from stealth mode to commercialization in the annual Tech Expo staged at the conference.

Geoffrey Moore is best known as the author of the ground-breaking book “Crossing the Chasm” and is a managing director at TCG Advisors and a venture partner at MDV. Tech leadership attendees will hear from Moore how disruptive innovation can have a positive impact on their business plans. Lecturer, best-selling author, political commentator and social critic Watts Wacker will bring a futurist’s perspective to the Tech Leadership Conference, focusing on navigating the sea of change in business.

Scott Berkun — author of three best-selling books, contributor to publications such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, and a blogger for Harvard Business and BusinessWeek — will investigate the myths of innovation.

Breakout sessions at the Tech Leadership Conference include the following topics and leaders:

* Myths of Innovation: Scott Berkun
* Developing Your Digital Roadmap: Dan Christian, DanoDigital
* Recruiting Trends: Sharon Rudy, SpencerStuart
* Under Construction: The Sales and Marketing Organization of the Future: John Neeson, Sirius Decisions
* Life After Exit Leadership Panel: Steve Woods, Google; Yvan Couture, Primal; Ron Neumann, Dejero Labs; moderated by Greg Barratt, Communitech.

Congratulations to Toronto-based SecureKey Technologies Inc., who has received an investment from Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization. SecureKey designs hardware and software solutions to enable the strong cryptographic capabilities of debit, credit and identity smartcards including those within NFC based phones to be used for online authentication and online purchases. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Canon Canada is launching a national print and broadcast campaign, developed with JWT Canada that is uniquely Canadian – for Canadians by Canadians. The campaign, with additional online elements to be incorporated in the next several months, aims to deepen Canon Canada’s emotional connection with its consumers through the telling of important shared moments in life.

JWT Canada undertook strategic sessions with the various business units, which resulted in the notion that people need and want Canon imaging products when the output really counts; be that a photo of your child’s graduation, a retina camera that can detect early warning signs of diabetes or print-outs for an important client presentation. The campaign takes the focus off the product attributes and shines a light on the people who use Canon products.

A free version of The Balls! Extreme Sports Ball Busting has been released by Savant Inc. The Balls game is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad; the paid version is listed at 99 cents USD. The free version offers OpenFeint and the same great graphics, audio, and frantic gameplay as the paid version, with a teaser for another mode coming in the future.

Riese: The Battle for Eleysia by Genius Factor Games has had an update to its features, along with a bug fix. Add features include the addition of Head-to-Head Multiplayer (via local wifi), stability improvements and aforementioned bug fixes, along with updates to the battle screens, How To Play help and screen-flow for editing decks. Riese: The Battle for Eleysia sells in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 USD.

Drift Mania Championship is now available worldwide on the Mac AppStore for $2.99. This new high-resolution version includes all the in-app purchase items that are available as options in the iOS version. As with all previous platform versions, the Mac AppStore version is loaded with new features like real drifting, as well as the ability to compete with users who are on other iOS or Android devices. Experience longer burnouts, taking 11 different vehicles through 3 levels of difficulty on 8 tracks as you compete to take over the global leaderboards.

ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver has just announced its latest event, which will be held on February 8th in the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at the SFU Woodward’s campus on West Hastings. Tron – Cult Favourite to Franchise will feature two presentations that will take a look at this convergence of  Vancouver film and game development teams. The first presentation will cover the visual effects used in the making of TRON and TRON: Legacy. This session will be presented by TRON animator and programmer Frank Vitz and Darren Poe, Digital Supervisor at Digital Domain Vancouver.  In the second presentation, former Propaganda Games Technical Art Director Gary Snyder and Art Director David Patch will share their experiences working with the TRON: Legacy film team to recreate the TRON assets and storyline in the video game TRON: Evolution. Tickets for this event are $25.00 for non-SIGGRAPH members or $15.00 for members and include a pre-event social mixer.

Hothead Games has released part two of the Ask Dr. Mike video series with Dr. Mike Hayward. Watch this intense and dramatic documentary which studies the habits of Swarmites as they weave their way through diabolical and unrelenting gauntlets of death and destruction, attempting to be the last pudgy blue moron still standing. It is highly recommended that those who are planning to take over their own Swarm colonies study the video series closely, so that you will be prepared for any situation into which your Swarmites will undoubtedly  place themselves. If you have the opportunity to practice herding cats, I suggest you take advantage of the experience.

As part of the PlayStation®Network “11 for 11” sale, players can grab Big Sandwich’s thrilling dragon-themed game HOARD™ for half-price until January 31st. With game play for 1 to 4 players, HOARD™ combines action and strategy elements to create an innovative gameplay mix unlike anything else on the store. The game features over 35 levels, 4 game modes, 100+ badges to earn, trophy support, leaderboards, and any combination of couch and online players. Best of all, HOARD™ puts the dragon in the hero’s role, where he must strive against cruel knights, fierce wizards, conniving burglars, and even rampaging giants.

Critics and consumers alike have appreciated HOARD’s unique design. IGN recently honored HOARD™ with the “Best Quick Fix” Best of 2010 award, and the game was also nominated in the “Best Competitive Multiplayer” category. Joystiq says “HOARD’s gameplay shines,” and 1UP reports “the game hides a surprising layer of complexity and strategy.”

“If you’ve been keeping an eye on HOARD™ but have been waiting for the right time to try it, now’s officially that time,” says Glenn Barnes, Big Sandwich’s Creative Director. “For less than 8 bucks you get a proven, acclaimed game with over 20 hours of gameplay. It’s a no-brainer.”

Don’t forget to get your nominations in for The Technology Impact Awards. The BCTIA will be accepting submissions for BC’s top technology innovations, companies and individuals from all sectors until March 11th. The TIAs will be held on the evening of June 9th at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The Award categories are as follows:

Technology Awards: Most Promising Pre-Commercial Technology, Excellence in Product Innovation and Best Application of Technology

Company Awards: Most Promising Start-up, Emerging Company of the Year and Company of the Year

Personal Recognition Awards: Team of the Year, Community Engagement and Person of the Year

The Canadian Marketing Association invites you to attend the 2nd Annual CMA Awards Case Study event, where attendees will join Master of Ceremonies Aldo Cundari in a close-up look at some of today’s top creative works and better understand how they came to be CMA Award winners. The Case Study event will be held in the Victoria Room at  Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel on February 2nd from 3:30 – 5:30pm, with a networking social immediately following the session. All-inclusive tickets are $75.00 each for CMA members or $95.00 earch for non-members. Tickets for the cocktail party only are $25.00 each for CMA members or $30.00 each for non-members.

Merging+Media has announced that there will be a Spring session featuring Anita Ondine-Smith, who will present an exclusive Transmedia Seminar + Lab on April 28th and 29th at the VanCity Theatre in Vancouver. The focus of this session will be a 1/2 day Seminar with a 1 ½ day hands-on in-depth lab on the full cycle of Transmedia development, writing, production and distribution from Conception to Consumption. Event participants will obtain a framework for production as well as Creative Toolkit and Business Strategies for Transmedia production. This Transmedia theory, Case studies and architectural workshop is designed to provide tools to create successful transmedia productions. The seminar portion of the event will be open to 100-150 people, while 20-24 producers, writers, broadcasters, commissioning editors will be selected to take part in the workshop.

Merging+Media has also confirmed that the next full conference and master class will be returning in October. Like the first conference held last fall, this event will feature world class speakers and experts who will present “Best in Class” case studies and high calibre discussions on the business of cross-media production. The two day programme will include a Masterclass + Conference, International B2B Matchmaking, Networking receptions, M+M Socializer + Digital Gallery to showcase our latest local technology. The Merging+Media 2011 Masterclass will include the Merging+Media Pitch and Development Prize. Keep an eye on the Merging+Media site for confirmed dates and speakers.

The Canadian Telecom Summit has early bird pricing available until February 28th, which means you can save $200.00 off the regular registration price. The 10th annual Canadian Telecom Summit will be taking place in Toronto on May 31st through June 2nd and offers three days of discussion regarding the key issues and trends surrounding the Canadian Telecom industry.

Group buying site SwarmJam, which launched across all Postmedia Network properties in December has expanded to the Winnipeg area through a partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. The promotion-based system uses a platform through which consumers are connected with local businesses. SwarmJam’s group buying service offers savings of 50% or better, which for some deals can actually grow progressively better as more people sign onl For “progressive deals”, when the offer closes, the number of cumulative purchases determines the actual discount. So, these deals become better as subscribers share the promotion with friends, family and people in their social network. Users of the service simply sign up for a free subscription to get the SwarmJam Winnipeg Daily Deal emailed directly to their inbox. They can then click on deals they like, pay online, print the certificate and visit the business to redeem it. There are currently thirteen major urban and suburban areas which offer SwarmJam deals.

Wicked Interactive, publisher of Mission Against Terror, has launched Occupation Mode with a twist. Alongside the hotly anticipated new game mode which brings hardcore, capture-the-flag-style gameplay comes the chance to win the most unique and priceless weapon so far seen in the popular, free-to-play shooter – the Golden AK-47.

“We have been saving this announcement for just the right moment,” said Sam Ho, Director, Wicked Interactive. “With the frenzy of excitement over Occupation Mode, it seemed like the perfect time to blow everyone’s minds with this news. The Golden AK-47 is the ultimate showpiece for the M.A.T. community.”

The Lottery System enables players to take a break from a raw competition of Occupation Mode. Just like any other lottery, players step up, lay down their ticket and spin an actual wheel that appears right in the middle of the screen. The Golden AK-47 is merely the ultimate prize; there are plenty more for those who are feeling lucky.

“There are a whole assortment of weapons that the Lottery System offers,” added Ho. “Many, like the Golden AK-47, are one-of-a-kind items that cannot be purchased. We hope the M.A.T. Community enjoys the new System. It’s our way of helping them forget the winter doldrums.

“Swarm is perfect for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade because of its unique art direction and gameplay,” said Nigel Fox, Head of Publishing for UTV Ignition. “We’re thrilled to be partnered with Hothead because we share their passion for bringing unique experiences to gamers through these innovative digital platforms.”

“We’ve been working hard on Swarm for a while now and think it’s our most addictive game yet,” said Joel DeYoung, Director of Game Technology for Hothead Games. “The Swarmites are both lovable and deliciously expendable at the same time-the game’s creation is proof positive of the dangers of excessive exposure to Saturday morning cartoons we were warned about so many years ago. Swarm is exactly the genocidal romp your parents hoped you’d grow up and marry someday.”

Swarm is the first game to feature mass character control, where you move all 50 Swarmites at once. Steer your swarm through the game and they naturally flock and flow around obstacles. Creatively combine swarm moves to work your way through a relentlessly dangerous and hilariously brutal environment. Compete against your friends to get the high score by deftly moving through the world and cleverly solving puzzles the game throws your way.

UK retail store ShopTo.net recently an Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Q&A competition asking customers to send in their questions about Brotherhood, Ubisoft and making video games for Julien Laferrière, the Production Manager on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Julien and his team chose the best questions and have produced this exclusive Assassins Creed developer video for ShopTo.

The submitters of these questions will each be receiving an Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Poster, and the best question (as picked by Julien) will be given an exclusive Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood hoodie not available anywhere else.

Ubisoft Montreal has also released the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood soundtrack for digital download, making it available via iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, 7Digital and Qobuz. Visit the Ubisoft Music site for song previews.

The beloved Christmas story that defines the true spirit of the season is coming to Apple®iPad™ and iPhone™ as a new, delightfully interactive experience! PadWorx Digital Media, Inc., an independent developer of a new category of interactive eBooks for tablet PCs, announced today it will release A Christmas Carol on the App Store® in time for the holidays!

“This is unlike any version of A Christmas Carol ever seen before,” said Jeffery Alan Schechter, CEO and producer at PadWorx Digital Media, Inc. “Charles Dickens’ remarkable book reminds all of us not just about the importance of gratitude and charity, but about the power of personal transformation. Running with this idea and borrowing from the ‘steampunk’ art style more closely associated with Jules Verne, we’ve designed our A Christmas Carol to feel as if the iPad or iPhone you’re reading it on has been itself transformed into a steam-powered machine.”

Readers will not only witness Ebenezer Scrooge’s heart-warming transformation through 130 pages of lovingly abridged text, but for the first time they will become part of the story through revolutionary interaction. Turn the key in Scrooge’s door and watch as the door knocker changes into the deceased Jacob Marley, or try your hand at cleaning pages of the grime of industrial-era London. Whether you’re traveling through time and space with Scrooge and the spirits of Christmases Past, Present, and Future, or powering up and manipulating an assortment of wonderful steam and gas-powered inventions, PadWorx A Christmas Carol’s steampunk-style animation, illustrations, original score and sound effects will captivate readers through the story’s unforgettable images and lessons of darkness, despair, joy and life.

The design and execution of PadWorx’s A Christmas Carol is so innovative that it has been endorsed by the Dickens family. “Reading A Christmas Carol has become a holiday tradition for many and we’re delighted to see PadWorx’s interactive version give families an entirely new way to experience the cherished story and perhaps even introduce the well-known classic to a younger generation,” said Mark Charles Dickens on behalf of the Dickens family.

A Christmas Carol is the second title in a series of new interactive eBooks developed by PadWorx Digital Media. The company released its debut title Dracula: The Official Stoker Family Edition last month, which quickly garnered national attention and praise from critics and consumers alike, becoming Apple’s iPad App of the Week the day after release.All interactive titles released by PadWorx Digital Media are built from the ground up using a proprietary game engine and create a brand new, fully-immersive reading experience through the combination of text, animation, gameplay elements, touch screen interaction, social media, sound effects and more. A Christmas Carol will be released first for the iPad, followed shortly afterwards by a version for the iPhone.

1. Is every option (choice you have to make in order to progress) obvious/presented clearly before you?
No. Absolutely not. Some choices will be presented in ways that the outcome will be more obvious but, a lot of choices will be more or less hidden in the challenges you face and in the narrative. Depending on how you react, later outcomes will vary. We didn’t want to make a game where all the choices are telegraphed because it makes the choice more often than not based on how you want to boost your character as opposed as being immersed in the fantasy of the game. It’s definitely more subtle than a lot of games.

2. Will we encounter books, news terminals, newspapers, ATMs; and will some even be influenced by your own actions?
You will encounter a lot of things to read like newspapers, eBooks, etc. Unfortunately, we had to cut the ATMs because we were running out of time.

3. How many items will Adam be able to carry, and does this exclude weapons?
Depends on the size of your inventory. If you invest in it, you’ll carry a lot and if you don’t, you’ll have to make difficult choices on what to keep with you or not. It includes everything but “story items”.

4. Regarding the Icarus Landing system: Is there any scientific research or advancement made that support the concept behind this aug? How can it be done?
The Icarus Landing System is a discreet augmentation surgically implanted in the user’s lower back, slightly above the coccyx at the base of the vertebral column. The device has an accelerative descent sensor built in; in freefall, the unit will automatically activate the patented High-Fall Safeguard System, an EMF decelerator generating a fixed-focus electromagnetic lensing field, projected downward along the plane of the drop. This field pushes against the Earth’s magnetosphere and slows the user’s descent to a manageable velocity, allowing him to fall from almost any height (within reason) to a relatively soft landing.

5. Will augmentations be permanent once installed, or can players mix-and-match augs or remove them?
There are indeed permanent.

6. How do augmentations like the claymore work when Adam wears his coat?
There are holes in his coat that allows for the claymore to work perfectly fine.

7. How are the augmentations divided amongst the four pillars that have been mentioned?
There divided in different categories like Cranium, arms, legs, torso, etc.

8. What are the augmentations that Adam starts out with?
Single Takedown, IFF, Retinal Prosthesis, basic hacking ability and the Infolink essentially.

9. How does health regeneration work? What will trigger it, how fast is it going to be, will it use energy?
When you take damage your health goes down. If you have being hit for “x” seconds, than it starts to regenerate somewhat slowly. It’s not as quick as games like Halo or CoD. You really need to stay out of the firing zone otherwise you won’t last long. When in trouble, you can use consumables (if you have any) to replenish it faster or to boost your health when it’s already full.

10. Will there be weapon stores for purchasing ammunition and tools?
Yes, there are some hidden merchants offering different kind of weapons and items. You need to find them though.

11. If players choose to play in a certain manner, they’re presumably going to be doing a lot of hacking throughout this game. Considering it sounds like the hacking minigame is quite complex (and presumably at least reasonably time consuming) what have you done to ensure that it doesn’t get incredibly tedious over time (Bioshock’s hacking minigame as a poor example)?
Every hacking session is different. Based on your level of hacking augmentations, the chances that the Sub-Routine will detect you will vary. And each time, you need to adapt to what happens. Also, there are some rewards (credits, virus programs, etc.) that can be accessed but always while managing the Sub-Routine system trying to catch you. So, it becomes a game of adaptation and  how much risks are you willing to take to get additional rewards.

12. Will I be able to pick all pieces of junk and different stuff just like in DX1 and use them to distract enemies or do something else with it?
You’ll be able to use different types of boxes to distract NPCs indeed. If you’re referring to things like a pencil or a glass the answer is no. We have a very detailed and rich world to discover so we had to make some tradeoffs in terms of the scope of interactive objects in order to keep a smooth framerate.

13. Why were BE cells, lockpicks and multitools removed?
We wanted to make hacking more important and deeper. And since we had so many features to develop for this game, we had to focus and lose some things like lockpicks and multitools.

14. Will the earlier Deus Ex music theme return?
Maybe…

15. Are we able to HOLSTER OUR WEAPON in Deus Ex Human Revolution?
Of course we are. Deus Ex is not a typical shooter when it’s all about gunning down enemies. Your journey brings you in civilized places where guns are not well appreciated. So, holstering it will make people more willing to speak to you. Who would chat with someone pointing a gun on our head?

Assassin’s Creed: The Fall follows 19th century Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov as he strives to claim an artifact of immense power from the hands of the Templars, encountering historical figures such as the ruthless Tsar Alexander III. Meanwhile, in modern times, a troubled young drifter copes with unsettling visions of a possible past life – visions that have irreversible consequences for the present.

Eidos Montreal’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to get a special preview tomorrow (today in AU) at The Mana Bar, a video game bar down in Brisbane, Australia. A team from Square Enix will be presenting a game demonstration, which will be followed by an exclusive video from the developers. Prizes and competitions giving away unique Deus Ex merchandise to the bar’s clientele during the day.

Vancouver’s Loud Crow Interactive Inc., a digital book publisher founded by a group of interactive entertainment veterans, announced today the redefining of e-books with its first release, PopOut!™ The Tale of Peter Rabbit, now available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch in all non-European territories.

With decades of combined experience in interactive digital media, the team at Loud Crow has applied its creative talents and technical expertise to revolutionize the reading experience. “For us, it’s all about making the reading experience fresher and better than ever,” says Calvin Wang, Founder and CEO. “We blend traditional content with rich, interactive elements such as audio, animation, and even touch and tilt gestures. Using the original illustrations and text, we’re able to achieve an authentic, yet modern experience that our readers will find unique and inspiring.”

The publisher’s first title in the PopOut!™ series of interactive children’s books brings the age-old Beatrix Potter classic to life with signature PopOut!™ spin-wheels, pull-tabs, spring-mounted elements, and objects that literally pop out of the page. Complete with a beautiful classical piano soundtrack, fun and immersive sound effects, and a charming vocal performance, this is an experience you and your family won’t want to miss.

ItWowed.Me, a new smartphone technology platform developed by Majestic Media Ltd., allows businesses and brands to drive audiences to Facebook fan pages and convert them into fans.

“Like” something in real life? By placing a Quick Response (QR) code on real world objects, smartphone users can now scan these codes with their iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or any smartphone device and instantly “Like” the real world product or business on Facebook, thus sharing it with their friends on the social media site.

Utilizing a smartphone app like ScanLife, the QR code connects the smartphone’s Internet browser on to the corresponding fan page, allowing brands to convert their target audiences in retail locations into fans.

With the surging popularity of smartphone technology, ItWowed.Me provides companies with the ability to easily increase their fan base on their Facebook fan pages. The smartphone system is a breakthrough for brands looking to maximize their exposure for dynamic real world events, products or exhibits by linking these environments to social networks like Facebook.

“With It.Wowed.Me we’re bridging the gap between Facebook and the real world,” said Mario Zelaya, Managing Director at Majestic Media. “Any smartphone user will now be able to instantly share a product, brand or event they ‘Like’ with their friends on Facebook, providing companies with the capacity to increase their fan base on fan pages with tangible results. We’ve worked with companies that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, trying to increase traffic to their fan pages on Facebook. What we’ve done is created a simplified solution so they can take their digital fan conversion strategy to the real world and at no cost.”

Some of the features of ItWowed.Me include:

* The ability to place QR codes on any type of object (e.g., napkins in a restaurant)
* Direct connection to corresponding mobile optimized fan pages
* Access to system analytics to measure the success of initiatives

Brian K. Branson, President and CEO of Global Knowledge Training LLC, announced today the appointment of Scott Williams to the position of President, Global Knowledge Canada. Williams replaces Donna de Winter, who, as CEO of Nexient Learning, Inc., was instrumental in the sale of Nexient to Global Knowledge in August 2009.

“The integration of the operations of Nexient and Global Knowledge is now essentially complete,” said Branson. “With the integration behind us, we are ready to move to the next phase of our development in Canada.”

Williams has been serving as Vice President, Product Management for Global Knowledge Canada since the acquisition. With more than 25 years of experience in the technology and training industries, he has held senior management positions in operations, product management, development, and marketing.

“Scott has the critical skill set and passion to develop and lead the execution of a strategy to solidify Global Knowledge’s position as the training provider of choice in Canada,” said Branson. “I’m looking forward to working with Scott as he leads the Canadian team to renewed growth for Global Knowledge Canada.”

Williams holds a B.Sc. from Queen’s University and a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto. He is a published author, a seasoned technical instructor, an expert facilitator, and a popular public speaker at conferences throughout North America.

Video Games Live tickets have entered the pre-sale phase – if you get the VGL newsletter, you will have a pre-sale link and code to get your tickets before the general public. If you’ve been living under a rock and for whatever reason haven’t yet seen a Video Games Live show – what are you waiting for? Here are the announced 2011 Canadian tour dates:

April 13 – Vancouver – Performing Arts Centre 7:30 PM
April 14 – Vancouver – Performing Arts Centre 7:30 PM
April 15 – Victoria – Royal Theatre 7:30 PM
April 17 – Calgary – Jack Singer Concert Hall 7:30 PM
April 18 – Edmonton – Jubilee Auditorium 7:30 PM
April 20 – Saskatoon – TCU Place 7:30 PM
April 21 – Regina – Conexus Arts Centre 8 PM
April 22 – Winnipeg – Burton Cummings Theatre 7:30 PM
April 23 – Winnipeg – Burton Cummings Theatre 1:30 PM
April 25 – Thunder Bay – Community Auditorium 7:30 PM
April 27 – Kitchener – Centre In The Square 7:30 PM
April 28 – Hamilton – Hamilton Place Theatre 7:30 PM
April 29 – Ottawa – Civic Centre Theatre 7:30 PM
April 30 – Montreal – Place Des Arts 7:30 PM
May 2 – Toronto – Massey Hall 7:30 PM
May 3 – Kingston – K-Rock Centre 7:30 PM

A new publication by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) in conjunction with CIBC provides valuable cash management advice for small- and medium-sized businesses. The “Cash Management Toolkit for Small and Medium Businesses” authored by Jeffrey D. Sherman, MBA, CA, is designed to help business owners understand the various components and concepts of cash management. A special seminar was held this morning at the Toronto Board of Trade to mark the official launch of the toolkit.

“Taking a strategic approach to cash management is essential for business owners, especially in today’s unsettled economic climate,” said Cairine Wilson, Vice-President, Member Services, CICA. “The toolkit is designed to support business owners in developing a solid cash management foundation.”

“CIBC recognizes that one of the fundamentals to success for any business is managing cash flow effectively,” explained Jon Hountalas, Executive Vice-President, CIBC Business Banking. “This toolkit is a rich, comprehensive guide and an excellent resource for every business leader that can be used by businesses in any industry at any life stage.”

The toolkit provides an in-depth case study and a number of checklists to assist business owners. It also provides detailed advice on issues such as:

* Budgets, projections and forecasts
* Fraud and risk management
* Credit and collections, payment terms
* Optimizing inventory
* Obtaining and investing cash
* Handling debt
* Working with your banking partners

Additional information about the toolkit, including how to order a copy, is available online, the toolkit is available in both English and French.

Although there are no details available yet regarding the title, the Canadian-based game developer has promised that a game trailer will be available shortly after the winners of the contest are announced.

“We expect this game to make #2!”, says Complex Games Lead Programmer Frano Sailer in his usually cryptic way, “once this game launches, it’s really going to hit the fan!”

Battlegoat Studios and Paradox Interactive today announced the launch of the first Supreme Ruler: Cold War developer diary. In addition, to celebrate the occasion, they have released a selection of new downloadable wallpapers.

In Supreme Ruler: Cold War, players will enter the world of the 1950′s and navigate their nation through many of the historical headlines. Prepare to battle economic challenges, unstable governments and worldwide tensions in this grand strategy experience.

“With Supreme Ruler: Cold War as our first historical title, it brings the very exciting new realm of ‘what if’ into the gameplay of Supreme Ruler,” said Stewart Braybook, Battlegoat CEO. “History tells us about the Cold War, but there are so many turning point events and personalities that the end result was never certain. Supreme Ruler: Cold War will allow players to see if they can change history, improve upon it or succumb to it.”

Game Features:

- Play as the United States or Soviet Union in Campaign Mode
– Control any Nation in Post-World War II Era in Sandbox Mode
– Use Diplomacy, Trade and Espionage to influence the policies of other nations
– Research new Technologies to give your nation an edge
– Grow and Modernize your Economy
– Control Military production and deployment, or let your Ministers take care of the details
– And when Diplomacy Fails… Sophisticated Real-Time Strategic and Tactical Control of your Military Forces
– Enhanced Graphics and Sound including New 3D Terrain
– Experience the redesigned GUI with improved On-Map feedback and streamlined controls
– Up to 16 players in Multiplayer over local network or Internet

Still with publisher Paradox Interactive, they, along with Vancouver’s Kerberos Productions have released a new engine teaser trailer for Sword of the Stars II, the follow-up hit to the 4X franchise, Sword of the Stars. The game offers an evolved version of the original six races from Sword of the Stars and its expansions, Sword of the Stars II reveals the deep, dark secret of the Suul’ka. Boasting an all new graphics engine and incorporating new ship details that allow for new fleet strategies and tactics, Sword of the Stars 2 is poised to revive the 4X space genre and is scheduled for a 2011 release.

“The students participating really are amongst the next generation of geniuses,” said Troy Vasiga, chair of the 2010 IOI organizing committee. “One consequence of the world being digitized is that everything is information. These students are going to be the people that write computer programs that help solve significant problems in disease, health-care, transportation, energy and other disciplines – in many cases problems we haven’t even yet anticipated.”

An opening ceremony, open to the public, will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday at the Waterloo Recreation Complex. The event will feature such guest speakers as David Yach, chief technology officer of software at Research In Motion, and Arturo Cepeda, president of the IOI. The actual competition takes place on Monday and Wednesday, when participants spend five hours each day solving a total of eight tasks. Those tasks, which are translated into each team’s official language the night before, challenge such computing skills as problem analysis, design of algorithms and data structures, programming and testing.

Three sample tasks are available online and one of them is called Guess. “In our sample version,” explains Gord Cormack, chair of the IOI 2010 host scientific committee, “contestants must write a computer program to assume the role of a child playing the popular guessing game, ‘I’m thinking of a number between one and ten, can you guess it?’ The object is to identify the number with as few guesses as possible.”

In between the opening and closing ceremonies, when they are not practicing or competing, team members, leaders and guests will enjoy a range of fun and/or learning activities. Final results of the 2010 IOI, including gold, silver and bronze medal winners, will be announced at closing ceremonies on Friday, from 5 to 9 p.m. at Bingeman’s in Kitchener. Visitors will experience a few of the sights, sounds and culture of Canada. Planned activities include tours of Waterloo, both the university and the region, as well as visits to Canada’s Wonderland and Niagara Falls.

On Sunday, Monday and Wednesday evenings, Waterloo faculty members and graduate students with Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science will give a total of 10 presentations on a range of topics, including one entitled How to See: the Neuroscience of Vision and another on A Short Introduction to Mind Reading. Four will be in English, with the remaining in Arabic, French, German, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish.

“Students from over 80 countries will shortly be arriving in Waterloo for the 22nd annual International Olympiad in Informatics,” said Richard Forster, executive director of the IOI. “Having seen the preparations that have been put in to the contest by the hosts, I am confident that these students will enjoy a successful event and take away happy memories of Waterloo and Canada.”

Most teams include up to four participants, plus two leaders, though interest in Japan is great enough that the team is traveling with its own documentary crew. Team members are competitively selected, in some cases early enough to allow a year’s training. Leading Canadian contenders, including two who won silver medals at the 2009 IOI held in Bulgaria, attended a training camp last May in Waterloo to sharpen their skills and enter a six-hour contest. The top eight students in that contest form Canada’s two teams at the 2010 IOI. As host, Canada will enter one official (first) team of four competitors and an unofficial (second) team of four competitors. Eight Canadians were selected out of a pool of 21 leading contenders who qualified after writing the Canadian Computing Competition, run by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo.

Congratulations to EA Sports, whose Wii title EA Sports Active was named by NPD as the #6 top-selling Wii title in the USA as of June of this year.

EA Sports has also named Los Angeles Galaxy star Landon Donovan as a cover athlete for EA Sports™ upcoming title FIFA Soccer 11. The 28-year-old American soccer hero will join Real Madrid’s Kaka and Arsenal’s Carlos Vela on the front cover of FIFA Soccer 11 in the United States and Canada when it is available in retail stores September 28. This is Donovan’s third FIFA cover, as he was also featured on the North American FIFA Soccer 2003 and FIFA Soccer 07 covers. This is the first appearance for Kaka and Vela.

“Landon is the most recognizable, popular and accomplished soccer player in the United States and he was at his best with the world watching during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™,” said Matt Bilbey, Vice President of Soccer, EA Sports. “After his FIFA World Cup™ performance and the season he had with the Galaxy last year we felt he belonged back on the cover of FIFA Soccer 11.”

A reminder to hockey fans about a contest that will see EA Sports™ give one lucky fan and their family an opportunity to meet the NHL® Slapshot cover athlete, Wayne Gretzky. Dubbed The Wayne Gretzky Challenge (no purchase necessary), the contest will ask hockey fans to submit either a video or photo submission that showcases their passion for the sport of hockey for a chance to meet the Great One at the NHL Slapshot launch event in September.

Participants will be asked to submit their videos and photos through the contest tab on EA Sports’ NHL Facebook page. The top 10 finalists, as chosen by the EA Sports NHL Slapshot team, will have their submissions hosted on the EA Sports NHL Facebook page, with public votes determining the eventual winner.

Contest Schedule:

August 8 – Contest submissions open
August 19 – Contest submissions close
August 23 – 10 Finalists revealed
August 23 – Fan voting begins
August 26 – Winner announced

NHL Slapshot introduces a revolutionary hockey stick accessory that allows players to shoot, pass and body check just like the pros. In addition to having his likeness on the front of all packaging, Gretzky will be available as a playable character in the game when NHL Slapshot is available in retail stores on September 7, 2010.

Uh oh – I see more bear insanity in my future – 505 Games and Artificial Mind & Movement have announced that new DLC for the recently released Naughty Bear game is now available via Xbox LIVE® Arcade and the PlayStation®Network in North America. Players can download the code update as well as the all-new free Level 8 episode for challenging and never-before-seen gameplay.

In the free DLC episode, Naughty Bear receives a surprise invite to a suspicious cake tasting party where he is to be the guest of honour. Players must help Naughty decipher the real motive behind the invitation before things get out of hand on the Island of Perfection. Also included in the expanded in-game content are additional costumes, hats, weapons and four new challenges in an originally themed environment.

Upon downloading Level 8, gamers will meet the X-Bears, a gang of superhero bears led by Danger Bear. Adored by their fellow bears on the Island of Perfection, the X-Bears possess super powers and are always ready for battle. Players will also meet Bubbles, Danger Bear’s ultimate die-hard fan, who is identified by his sidekick mask and the Danger Bear hat he wears. Though Bubbles has no superpowers of his own, he solidifies his dedication to Danger Bear and the X-Bears by employing an Uzi in the fight against Naughty.

Vancouver indie developer Captain Games has released its latest iPhone title. Available now in the App Store is So Long, Oregon – an educational but fun game about American history. The premise of the game is to drive a wagon across the American west, then veer south in search of the legendary ancient lost city of gold known as El Dorado. So Long, Oregon uses OpenFeint to allow for greater competition among players as they vie for the highest scores and most achievements. Players are challenged to hone their wagon driving skills along the Oregon Trail or in three other driving tests as well as battle disease and other timely obstacles. So Long, Oregon is priced at $1.99 USD, and if you buy it now, you will get a free playable Ford Escort for in-game use.

Ontario’s XMG Studio has launched its new space age iPhone game, Cannon Cadets. This physics based application will have you rocketing your way through its visually stunning and equally challenging levels as you fight to free fellow cadets, all in the name of fun.

As Cannon Cadets hero Rocketboy, you will battle the evil lab monkey Gordo by launching yourself and your team of cadets through crazy structures at his evil robot army. Determined to rid the galaxy of fun, they have locked up your fellow cadets and it is your duty to release them from the clutches of their robot guardians.

Saving your fellow cadets won’t be as simple launching yourself into the robot stronghold. You must strategically project yourself into structures ranging from simple to complex constructions that include rolls, slides and hinges. Each new level is sure to provide challenges to children and adults alike as you fight to destroy the robots and release your friends. Cannon Cadets is currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, with an iPad version to follow soon.

“Cannon Cadets is all about fun. The characters are fun, the music is fun and the game, is really, a lot of fun,” said Ray Sharma, Founder, XMG Studio. “We loved the genre of game where you fling projectiles at a structure and try to collapse it. We combined that fun gameplay mechanic with our unique story and added our own twist of chain reactions and moving targets and we think gamers are going to really enjoy playing Cannon Cadets.”

Features of Cannon Cadets include:

- 80 beautifully illustrated mind twisting levels on four unique planets
– 4 playable characters (RocketBoy, RocketGirl, Pop, and Granati)
– Hidden Bonus Levels
– Amazing game physics including hinged and moving objects, as well as complex chain reaction style challenges

Ubisoft has released the first Dev Diary video for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Check out what the dev team has to say about the next chapter of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, when the secret war between Templar and Assassin continues.

Edmonton distribution company FlicStick announced today the tentative release date of October 1st, 2010 for its in-house-developed patent pending “FlicStick Movie System”.

The FlicStick is made for both XBOX 360 and PS3 gamers, enabling them to simply and easily fetch quality movies and watch them via their console’s USB port. Initial broadcasting of movie content will include trailers and Indy films, but the company will become actively engaged in discussions with larger movie content suppliers as the product gains traction in the market.

Gamers are expanding their console uses and want quality movies. Current movie download services can be difficult, complicated, slow, and may require longer-term subscriptions or commitments to use their services. Retail content renters often have poor inventory and are time consuming. These factors make watching content complicated, restricted and slow. The FlicStick simplifies the entire process with a Live Movie Guide, faster downloads and the ability to channel high quality content to watch on the XBOX and Playstation 3. The Live Movie Guide automatically displays the newest available titles. Once the movie has been selected and temporarily preserved, the user then puts the FlicStick into their console to watch.

In another step towards expanding the digital reach and impact of its award-winning educational children’s content, TVO is proud to announce an exciting new distribution initiative with the launch of BlackBerry® Podcasts, which allows BlackBerry® smartphone users to easily discover, acquire and enjoy podcasts. In an exclusive arrangement, four new TVOKids video podcast channels focusing on the hard-to-teach subjects of math and science will be made available on BlackBerry Podcasts:

* Math for early learners aged 2-5
* Science for early learners aged 2-5
* Math for school-age kids 6-11
* Science for school-age kids 6-11

Featuring popular TVOKids hosts and characters like Gisèle, Enviro Girl, Lotta Numbers and Jay the Blue Jay, TVO’s four exclusive Math and Science video podcast channels will be presented within the Education category of BlackBerry Podcasts beginning Wednesday, August 11. Like all TVO-produced children’s content, the TVOKids podcasts are designed with educators to support the Ontario school curriculum and empower parents to join in the fun while helping prepare their children for classroom learning.

“Increasingly, people are discovering that ‘going mobile’ with TVO is the perfect anytime/anywhere solution for keeping young minds active and engaged outside of the classroom,” says Chief Executive Officer Lisa de Wilde. “And with our educational content now available for BlackBerry smartphones, we’re creating unique ‘pass-back’ learning opportunities between parents and their children. I’m incredibly proud that we’re collaborating with an outstanding industry leader like RIM, an organization that shares our vision for making science and math fun and engaging for kids.”

“BlackBerry Podcasts offers an enriched and streamlined multimedia experience and we are pleased to work with TVO to bring their compelling and exclusive educational content to customers with the launch of this exciting new service,” said Alistair Mitchell, Vice President, Multimedia Integration.

A member of the BlackBerry® Alliance program, TVO’s future plans include developing select educational web games from tvokids.com for use on BlackBerry® smartphones.

Kobo has partnered up with the Fairmont Hotel chain to offer Fairmont Gold guests access to Kobo eReaders featuring a library of new and bestselling Random House books. The Kobo eReaders are now available at select properties in the US and Canada for guests staying on Fairmont Gold, a private, dedicated area offering guests the experience of an exclusive oasis with personalized service and enhanced amenities. The eReaders are loaded with a variety of fiction and non-fiction eBooks by authors including Bret Easton Ellis, Sophie Kinsella and Alexander McCall Smith. Upon returning the Kobo eReader, guests will receive a special offer for $2 off select Random House titles.

“Travelers are a great fit for the Kobo offering and a group that is eager to engage in eReading,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “We know that travelers do not want to carry heavy books in their luggage, and vacations provide the perfect time to relax and catch up on reading. This partnership allows Kobo to expand our reach and offer our service to an important segment of our customer base.”

The opportunity to trial a Kobo eReader is a benefit of Fairmont President’s Club (FPC), the brand’s guest loyalty program. Free to join, Fairmont President’s Club provides guests with special benefits and privileges designed to reflect individual travel preferences and offer an enhanced level of service. Personalized travel profiles afford members customized stay experiences, while in-hotel benefits include private check-in, complimentary room upgrades, and high-speed and wireless Internet access. Guests can enroll at time of booking or online.

Brad Martin, President and CEO, Random House of Canada commented, “Random House is excited to partner with Kobo and Fairmont Hotels to give travelers the opportunity and convenience to read books by some of our bestselling and award-winning authors on Kobo eReaders. I’m sure guests will really enjoy this great reading experience.”

In addition to the Random House library, Fairmont guests can easily access Kobo’s eBook store to browse and purchase from Kobo’s collection of over two million titles, thousands of which are available for free. Kobo also offers free eReading apps for today’s most popular devices, such as iPhone, Blackberry®, Android, and the latest tablets, including iPad. Kobo‘s eReading service is being used by customers in more than 200 countries. A customer’s Kobo library is bookmarked from one device to the next for a continuous reading experience. The Kobo eReader is available for $149 at Borders in the US and at Indigo Books & Music and Walmart stores in Canada.

Brian Richardson, VP Marketing and Communications, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts says, “Offering benefits that are valued and distinctive allows us to provide our most loyal guests with something unique – either during the stay or when they return home. The Kobo eReader is a great way for guests to enjoy entertainment while staying with Fairmont and a great partner for us.”

The Kobo eReader is available at the following Fairmont Hotels & Resorts: The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Fairmont Pacific Rim, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, The Fairmont Royal York, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, Fairmont Château Laurier, Fairmont Turnberry Isle, The Fairmont Copley Plaza, Boston, and The Plaza, A Fairmont Managed Hotel. Additionally, in hotels where Fairmont Gold is not available, guests can request Kobo eReaders through Royal Service.

Players who discover the Playboy magazine in the game will receive a unique and special upgrade for Chuck Greene, the main character in Dead Rising 2. Furthermore, players will come across Playboy ads and billboards that will feature specially selected issues from the magazine’s 57-year history.

The new magazine system for Dead Rising 2, which will feature Playboy along with various other publications, is an evolution of the popular book system from the original Dead Rising game. Along with the special Playboy issue, there will be a variety of different themed magazines that Chuck will be able to pick up for bonuses to use to help fend off the zombie hordes along the way.

“The Sin City-type environment in Dead Rising 2, Fortune City, is a natural playground for the Playboy Bunnies,” said Seon King, Senior Director of Licensing for Capcom Entertainment, Inc. “We have integrated the Playboy brand throughout the game in ways that bring even more life to Fortune City and add to the user experience.”

For those unfamiliar with the premise of Dead Rising 2, former motocross champion Chuck Greene arrives at Fortune City, America’s latest adult playground, to participate in the zombie game show Terror is Reality, a gruesome test of strength and agility through excessive and imaginative  elimination of hundreds and hundreds of zombies. While in Fortune City, a zombie outbreak occurs and Chuck must survive the onslaught of the undead for 72 hours. Pitted against bosses and psychos – tens of thousands of zombies and the constant countdown of the clock – while potentially rescuing other survivors of the zombie apocalypse, players must also unravel the greater conspiracy behind the outbreak.

The Dead Rising® series is renowned for letting players pick up and use everyday items to fend off hordes of the undead, but Dead Rising 2 adds a new twist with combination weapons. Take two objects, add a roll of tape plus the inventiveness and skilled hands of Chuck Greene and an innocent water gun and a can of gasoline become a deadly flamethrower, while a garden rake and car battery combine to create an electrified zombie prod. Using combination weapons to fend off hordes of the undead in fun and grotesque ways is only just the beginning as the more combo weapons a player uses, the more Prestige Points (PPs) they will rack up. Earn enough PPs and Chuck levels up which will helps him along the way.

Equally important is Chuck’s need to to find Zombrex, a drug that stops his infected daughter Katey from turning into a zombie. Players will decimate thousands and thousands of zombies in an increasingly outrageous manner in order to beat the clock and survive 72 hours in the darkly comedic, no-holds-barred confines of Fortune City.

June is also the month when we 360 players are supposed to get a prologue look at Dead Rising 2 with the availability of Case Zero, which was announced in February as being in the XBL Marketplace on June 30th (I am awaiting confirmation on the release date). Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, will introduce gamers to Chuck Greene and provide a link between the original game and the events that await players in the gambling paradise of Fortune City.

June has been an incredible month thus far for Quebec’s Frima Studio. On June 1, Mr. Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec, Mr. Sam Hamad, Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, Minister of Labour and Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale region, and Mr. Steve Couture, CEO of Frima Studio, have announced an investment of  two million dollars in the training of the Québec-based studio’s personnel, specialized in the development of video games. Half of this sum will be invested by the Government of Quebec via Emploi-Quebec and its envelope destined to large-scale economic projects.

“Quebec has become a destination of choice for many multinationals in the interactive
entertainment industry. We are known around the world for our creativity and dynamism in that field. This fairly recent reality is owed to people of vision and passion; to people who get involved, and who dare take the necessary risks to build the companies that will, over the years, become symbols of pride for us all,” declared Mr. Charest.

The development of a video game requires the participation of experts in various fields. To ensure coherence and cohesion within the teams of artists, game designers, interface designers, animators, programmers and testers, each employee must develop a certain level of versatility within the framework continuum, which this training plan will enable.

“The interactive entertainment technology industry plays an important role in establishing the Capitale-Nationale’s unique signature of learning and creativity. The video game industry is one of the region’s fields of excellence, and contributes to its positioning on the international scene. Our government is proud to endorse Frima’s training plan, which will allow the creation of 147 jobs over three years and consolidate its 201 production-oriented workforce,” stated Mr. Hamad.

“Frima’s success rests first and foremost on its employees’ know-how. Investing in training allows us to increase our level of expertise, to stand out from the crowd, and, mostly, to attract and keep new promising talents. In addition to ensuring the upkeep and creation of new jobs, and the consolidation our position as an economic lever in the region, this investment will fuel our growth and contribute to making Quebec into a world leader in video games and interactive entertainment,” declared Mr. Couture.

Frima is also the fastest growing game development house in Canada. The studio placed 14th in Profit Magazine’s 2010 Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies list, and it placed 1st for the second year in a row on L’Actualité’s annual list of the fastest-growing companies in Quebec, with a growth of 3,002% between 2004 and 2009. This prestigious lineup lists the 20 companies that experienced the greatest increase in sales figures.

“Frima is the first company to sit at the top of that list two years in a row! We are very proud of this accomplishment, and we wish to thanks all our employees,” declared Frima’s CEO Steve Couture.

Frima also announced today that its soon-to-be-launched PlayStation® mini title, Young Thor, will be prominently featured in Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s booth at E3. Young Thor is one of the first mini titles – playable on the PlayStation®3 and PSP® systems – to be developed from the ground up exclusively for the platform, rather than ported over from a previous game.

As young Thor, you’ll have to travel to both Midgard and Asgard, battling hordes of mythical monsters as you strive to put an end to Hel’s evil designs. The three Norns – Urd, Skuld and Verdandi – have gone missing, leaving no one to tend to Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Can you save the day and restore balance? Do you have what it takes to be the mighty god of thunder?

Frima Studio has already established itself as a leader within the PlayStation mini space with 2009’s Zombie Tycoon. The strategy game allowed players to take command of three squads of the undead to conquer cities and enslave humanity and is a top-selling mini.

Wait, we’re not done yet! Frima has also announced the launch of its first Facebook title, Rock Paper Sumo. Ridiculously simple to play and cleverly addictive, Rock Paper Sumo lets Facebook gamers don the sumo wrestler’s mawashi and fight to be the top contender in the world arena of ‘rock-paper-scissors’!

“Rock Paper Sumo is a brilliant twist on the classic hand game ‘rock-paper-scissors’ and a great way to challenge and taunt your friends for ultimate dojo supremacy,” said Steve Couture, CEO of Frima Studio. “The game has a fun and unique art style and tons of customizable options for your sumo wrestler…plus who doesn’t like laying the smack down on friends with one of the most simple yet tried-and-true games of all time?”

In a quest to become the ultimate rikishi, wrestlers must live by the ancient ways of sumo: train hard, eat lots of calorie-rich bento to pack on the pounds, engage in sparring sessions against a deadly dummy and fulfill dojo duties with honor! Spend hard-won Bento Bucks and Dojo Dollars on hysterical makeovers with over 200 accessories to choose from, like cowboy hats, pink Mohawk, fu manchu, assorted tattoos, or even a chest fro! Each player must challenge his Facebook friends to fight in order to win battles and unlock achievements, brawling his way up the global leaderboard to ultimately be hailed as the best rock-paper-scissors player in the world!

Untold Entertainment has released new artwork for its upcoming word puzzler title Spellirium. Today we are introduced to two of Spellirium’s primary characters: Brother Todd, a young Runeskeeper and his blue tunk sidekick Lorm. The pair must set out on a quest to find other Runeskeepers in the post-apocalyptic era known as The Now, a time when modern civilization has become buried beneath a mile of earth, and it is your job to help them overcome challenges and hurdles with your word skills.

I have been playing Spellirium’s various iterations thus far and have enjoyed it immensely. Watching the backstory and characters coming to life had definitely added another level of anticipation for the next test round, and of course, to see the game completed. I bet that if you were to sign up for the development diary newsletters, you too might have the chance to play Spellirium sooner than its release.

Hot on the heels of the launch success of ModNation Racers, United Front Games has released a little intel about their newest title in development, True Crime®: Hong Kong, which will be handled by game publisher Activision.

Inspired by classic Hollywood and Asian cinema style thrillers, fans can dive deep into Hong Kong’s Triad criminal underbelly and gain access to the latest True Crime news, assets, promotions, and more! The new web site also reveals the first details on some of the project’s Hong Kong Cinema and Hollywood talent, further underscoring United Front Games’ commitment to delivering a game experience that looks, feels and plays like a true Hong Kong action flick.

As a newly hired thug within the Triad organization, undercover detective Wei Shen must do whatever it takes to stay undetected and survive, balancing his moral duty as a cop with the objectives of the assignment. In order to ascend the ranks of the underworld, gamers will engage in visceral, fast-paced martial arts combat and explosive gunfights, along with high-octane driving sequences and acrobatic free-running chases as they go deeper and deeper undercover.

True Crime’s story takes players on a roller coaster ride through the game’s vast, action-packed open-world Hong Kong setting, introducing handfuls of intriguing characters in a truly unique and dangerous city. Lending more authenticity to the game’s narrative and further bringing True Crime’s characters to life, Activision and UFG have enlisted the voice over skills of top Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood talent, including Tom Wilkinson, James Hong, James Liao, Byron Mann, Dustin Nguyen, George Cheung and Sammo Hung to name but a few.

Bill Hutchison, Chair of the i-Canada program, which is supported by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, seeks to spread ultra-broadband communications among all Canadian communities, has been awarded the prestigious REALCOMM Digital Impact Award. The REALCOMM award is given to the person who has best advanced the development of the “net generation building”.

Mr. Hutchison is the inspiration and creator of the Information Technology component of the massive Toronto Waterfront Revitalization project. One of the largest development projects in the world, the Waterfront project will include to-home or to-office information transmission speeds of 1 gigabit per second — 100 times faster than most home broadband connections.

“Our vision with this ultra-broadband Waterfront project is to provide a quantum leap in connectivity,” said Mr. Hutchison. “We will use it as the core infrastructure that sparks innovation for businesses and home-owners alike. The ultra-broadband capability will allow intelligent buildings to be remotely controlled to manage heating, lighting and cooling systems. People using ultra-broadband will not have to commute to work or in some cases even to the doctor’s office; communication will allow high-capacity engagement.

Mr. Hutchinson went on to say that “we see i-Canada as a nation of Intelligent Communities large and small, central and remote, all enjoying the economic development, job growth and social prosperity now available in the world’s leading Intelligent Communities or Smart Cities. We want to expand upon Canada’s “Islands of Excellence” like Moncton, Fredericton and Waterloo who have all been recognized for excellence by the Global Intelligent Community Forum. We are a living laboratory for creative opportunities.”

Though the i-Canada program has not been officially launched, it already has some 300 signatories, including a Provincial Premier, Municipal leaders, business executives and leading academics.

The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today announced the launch of a public consultation on foreign investment restrictions in the telecommunications sector.

“Our goal is to encourage investment, innovation and competition in the telecommunications sector for the benefit of both businesses and consumers,” said Minister Clement. “We look forward to receiving Canadians’ views on this important issue.”

In the Speech from the Throne and Budget 2010: Leading the Way on Jobs and Growth, the Government of Canada committed to opening Canada’s doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors, including telecommunications, in order to attract new capital and to encourage innovation and competition.

The consultation will run until July 30, 2010. The consultation paper outlines the current restrictions, describes how Canada compares with other countries and presents the following three options for consideration:

* Increase the limit for direct foreign investment in broadcasting and telecommunications common carriers to 49 percent
* Lift restrictions on telecommunications common carriers with a 10-percent market share or less, by revenue
* Remove telecommunications restrictions completely

Reviewing restrictions on foreign investment is consistent with the government’s approach to rely more on market forces and less on regulation in the telecommunications industry. Telecommunications is a critical part of the digital economy — a key government priority.

Congratulations to CityMax.com, who has been named Company of the Year by Small Business BC’s Successful You Business Awards. This citation, which is sponsored by WorkSafeBC, concludes a year in which the website builder company earned multiple industry accolades, recognition in the House of Commons for holding Canada’s first Entrepreneur Spirit Day, and was featured in the Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine for its efforts in supporting small business owners.

“This award is an exciting achievement for our team and our site builder,” said Dean Gagnon, Chief Evangelist and President at CityMax.com. “Every facet of our company is based on helping entrepreneurs make money online, so to be recognized by our peers is truly humbling. This has been a collaborative effort from our support staff, to our expert programmers, to our 30,000 small business customers – and we hope to ride this momentum towards achieving our goal of helping 1 million entrepreneurs with our website software.”

In the past year, CityMax.com has been recognized as the #2 Best Company to Work for in BC (BCBusiness Magazine), received its second WebAward for Outstanding Achievement in Website Development (Web Marketing Association), and was listed in PROFIT Magazine’s NEXT 100 Emerging Business in Canada.

Joe Deobald, Brand Manager and 5-year employee, commented on the award: “It has been an incredible journey, going from a tiny start-up to a company supporting thousands of entrepreneurs around the world. We continue to add the right pieces to grow, and I am very excited to see what the future holds.”

The Company of the Year Award is presented to the nominee who has demonstrated an outstanding, growing business; innovative product(s), increasing jobs, increasing sales, overcoming adversity, and community contributions.

Fair Copyright for Canada (administered by Michael Geist) also has an active Facebook group which carries updates and opinions relevant to Bill C-32. One point which seems to be an area of contention is the Digital Lock, and CBC News has written a very comprehensive look at what it could entail. I freely admit that I have not had time to read and process all of the information about C-32, and while I will endeavour to do so, I would like to invite someone more expert in the ramifications of C-32 to write a guest editorial explaining the good and the bad of our copyright bill. While many of what we could deem as special interest groups are voicing their opinions about Bill C-32, the most relevant to both us and our readers is what those in interactive media are saying. All of the sites and Twitter accounts above contain links to opinions and press releases from groups such as ACTRA, AFM and the Documentary Organization of Canada, and I invite you to check them out. Here is what ESAC has to say about the reforms:

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has released a statement about Bill C-32, congratulating the Government of Canada on its introduction of copyright reform legislation which will help protect Canadian content creators and digital media companies. ESAC believes that protecting the intellectual property of industries that contribute to Canada’s prosperity is not only good public policy, but is essential as our economy transitions to more knowledge-based jobs.

“We applaud the government for showing leadership on this complex issue and we look forward to studying the bill more closely,” said Danielle Parr, Executive Director of ESAC. “Without strong protection for our intellectual property, we’re basically operating in a digital Wild West. Promoting piracy under the guise of ‘user rights’ does nothing to defend the livelihood of thousands of Canadians who rely on turning great ideas into world class entertainment,” she added.

“Piracy fundamentally undermines the integrity of the marketplace. It forces creators to compete against black market versions of their own products, affecting their ability to recover the considerable investments associated with digital media production. A strong bill – one which prohibits hacking of digital works, trafficking in hacking tools and that makes those who facilitate digital piracy clearly liable for their activities – is critical to the success of Canada’s digital economy,” says Parr.

In the industry’s view, a bill with clear protection for intellectual property will enable creators to decide how and at what cost their products can be accessed and in turn allow consumers to decide which products succeed and fail by voting with their pocketbook. Further, by supporting a diverse range of business models, strong copyright will facilitate increased competition, which ultimately leads to greater consumer choice and lower prices.

In related news, the Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a report about The State of Online Video. While this study was conducted in the USA, the information can be useful to those Canadian companies and individuals who produce web-distributed products. The study is available as a downloadable PDF, or it can be read online.

And now back to our regularly scheduled Canadian game industry news and updates:

THQ has confirmed in an official press release that Relic Entertainment’s Company of Heroes Online will indeed be released to the North American market this fall. Building on the frenetic Real-Time-Strategy action of the original Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes Online is free to play and offers army specialization, commander customization, and persistent progression, allowing players to strategize on and off the battlefield. Players will also have the opportunity to earn or purchase special units and upgrades and improve their army with each and every multiplayer victory.

Vice President of Global Brand Management Travis Plane commented that, “We are delighted to bring this award-winning franchise to gamers in a whole new way with the online version of the Company of Heroes experience. Players will benefit from the persistent upgrades and the ability to tailor their armies to really suit their play style making this a unique experience for everyone.”

Capcom® Mobile and Classic Media, whose portfolio includes of some of the world’s leading kids, family and pop-culture brands such as Where’s Waldo?®, Casper the Friendly Ghost® and Lassie®, have announced the release of Where’s Waldo?® In Hollywood, the sequel to last year’s top-selling mobile phone game.

“The first Where’s Waldo? game was a run-away mobile hit with its addictive mini games and classic search and find puzzles,” said Midori Yuasa, President, Capcom Interactive, Inc. “For the sequel we’ve built on the winning mix with a whole new crop of puzzles, achievements and even more Waldo fun.”

“Capcom Mobile has done a terrific job translating the search and find experience of Where’s Waldo? for mobile and we are excited to partner with their team on the second game,” said Nicole Blake, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Consumer Products, Classic Media. “With its crowds of celebrities and celebrity-spotters, Hollywood is an exciting place for fans to take up their search for Waldo.”

Based on the international publishing phenomenon, Where’s Waldo? in Hollywood, developed by Capcom Interactive Canada, chronicles the world-famous traveler through a series of tinsel-town themed adventures. Players can join the search with multiple search and find games that are based on classic scenes from the book series, as well as five mini games, including Tic-Whack-Wizard, Odd One Out, and Slide Puzzles. As players progress, they will be able to unlock bonus content and earn in-game achievements. Where’s Waldo? In Hollywood is currently available for download on most North American carriers.

EA has released a new Dev Diary for the upcoming Need For Speed World. Check out what they have to say about the game in this new video.

Meanwhile, over at EA Sports, it seems that the developers have gone out on a limb and predicted that Spain will take home the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Using the market-leading EA Sports™ football engine that drives 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ on the PS3 iand Xbox 360, EA Sports was able to simulate the 2010 FIFA World Cup and test all 32 teams under the same conditions they will face in the weeks ahead. It was determined that Spain will defeat Brazil 3-1 at Soccer City on July 11 to win its first World Cup. The testers holding the controllers – and thus the “players” free will, determined the following from their simulation:

* World Champion: Spain
* World Cup Final: Spain 3 Brazil 1
* 1st team to be eliminated: South Africa
* Golden Boot winner: David Villa (Spain), 7 goals
* Golden Ball winner: Kaka (Brazil)

EA Sports is also predicting that soccer fans around the globe will compare these astonishing results to the real-world tournament as it unfolds beginning June 11. The Final itself was an epic battle as Brazil put on a dazzling display of free-flowing samba style football early on against the Spaniards, taking a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute with a Felipe Melo strike from just inside the box. It didn’t take long for Spain to level the score after a goalie error that left striker David Villa in the clear. He tapped in his 6th goal of the tournament in the 42nd minute. The second half saw fortunes turn in favour of Spain, as their disciplined build up play and domination of possession paid off with a goal in the 61st minute when Villa connected for his second goal of the match, off of Andres Iniesta’s driven cross. Brazil had several efforts on goal in the final third of the match but couldn’t capitalize on its chances as they pushed all players forward in an attempt to draw even, eventually conceding a splendid counter attack goal in the 88th minute from Cesc Fabregas, which delivered Spain the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Spain’s path to FIFA World Cup glory included a quarterfinal 5-4 penalty shootout victory over Italy after an absorbing 1-1 draw, and a 2-1 win over Argentina in the semi final. Brazil’s journey to the Final included a 3-2 win over the Netherlands in the quarter final and a 5-4 shootout victory over England after the two teams played out a 2-2 draw in the semi.

Music makers who play games will soon be able to play, record, edit, save and playback their own song creations on their Xbox 360 drum kit peripherals in the form of Vancouver’s All Seeing Eye Games‘ debut title Drum Studio. Drum Studio utilizes the full potential of the drum kit to put the power of music creation in the players’ hands.

No longer will players merely play along to pre-determined drum lines. Instead, they will create their own jams on drums they’ve customized from a library of over 320 sounds. A simple & elegant recording interface allows players to layer in multiple tracks and hone their songs to perfection before they save the song, kick back, and watch an animated drummer play back their creation.

The past few years have seen the music game genre explode into a cultural phenomenon only to fizzle out in its own stagnation & over saturation. Drum Studio aims to push the genre forward in meaningful ways with its robust customization & creation tools and re-ignite some of the passion players felt that first time they sat down at a plastic instrument peripheral.

Drum Studio is the inaugural product of All Seeing Eye Games, a Vancouver-based independent game development studio founded in November 2009. It is dedicated to making accessible games that push the boundaries of innovation. Drum Studio is releasing in June 2010 exclusively on the Xbox LIVE Indie Games channel of Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 80 Microsoft Points.

Twenty-five Boys and Girls Clubs youth from across Canada will get the opportunity to pursue their careers and life goals through higher education as recipients of a $4,000 Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship.

“I am extremely honoured to be selected as a recipient of the 2010 Future Leaders Scholarship,” said Scott McKinnon, a longtime member of Boys and Girls Club of Saint John. “Without this award, I may not have been financially able to attend university next year and continue towards the completion of my degree. This scholarship will allow me to better focus on the requirements of my courses without worrying about the stress incurred by having to find a way to cover the costs associated with a year at university. I am very thankful that Future Shop has partnered with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada to provide this opportunity.”

Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, through the generous support of Future Shop, has been supporting the education dreams of youth for ten years through the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships program. The program provides vital financial support at a time when tuition costs continue to rise. Since the program was created, more than 550 young people have received scholarships totaling more than $1.5 million. Each student receives a $3,500 or $3,000 cash award along with a $500 or $1,000 Future Shop gift card to provide needed technology and school equipment.

“I am the first person in my family to go to university. My parents couldn’t afford to go and I feel really blessed to have come to Canada and been given all these opportunities,” said Majda Miljkovic, a past Future Shop Future Leader Scholarship recipient who is currently studying Education at the University of Manitoba. “The Future Leaders Scholarship has helped me keep up with paying for school on my own, stay out of debt in doing so, and also look around me and realize just how lucky I am to be here today.”

Building on the ten year success of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and Future Shop have developed a new program, Future Generation, which will launch later in 2010. An evolution of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships, Future Generation will aim to provide young people in Grade 10 with the financial resources to achieve their long term education goals and the skills and technology needed to be truly successful.

“Future Shop is committed to investing in creating positive opportunities for young people and together with Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada we have helped hundreds of young people over the past ten years realize their dream of post-secondary education,” said Cheryl Grant, Community Relations Manager, Future Shop. “Through the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships we have improved the lives of youth and families across the country, and we will continue to make a difference through the upcoming Future Generation program.”

Recipients of the Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarships are selected based on their outstanding contribution to their Boys and Girls Club and local community, good academic standing and financial need.

2010 Future Shop Future Leaders Scholarship Recipients

Alberta

Amaira Hanson, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary
Erin Hutchinson, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary
Tammy Morgan, Stettler and District Boys and Girls Club
Courtney Johnson, Boys and Girls Club of Brooks and District

British Columbia

Reid Neilson, Boys and Girls Club Community Services of Delta/Richmond
Janette Wheeler, Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs
Eileen Zheng, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver

Manitoba

Sabreen Shahin, Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg
Hope Akello, Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg

New Brunswick

Sarah Stewart, Miramichi Boys and Girls Club
Scott McKinnon, Boys and Girls Club of Saint John

Newfoundland and Labrador

Alexandria Hemeon, Botwood Boys and Girls Club Inc.

Nova Scotia

Carlos Beals, Boys and Girls Club of Dartmouth

Ontario

Kaitland Thompson, Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Clubs
Mike Ali, Boys and Girls Clubs of Peel
Osman Omar, Boys and Girls Club of London
Mahdi Hussein, Eastview (Toronto) Boys and Girls Club
Meagan La Plante, Boys and Girls Clubs of Kawartha Lakes
Prince Sunama, Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area Inc.
David Francis, Boys and Girls Club of East Scarborough
Ismail Abdulle, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa
Richard Lorde, Braeburn Boys and Girls Club

Prince Edward Island

Donald Gallant, Wellington and Area Boys and Girls Club

Quebec

Lois Boateng, Boys and Girls Club of LaSalle / Club Garcons et Filles de LaSalle

Saskatchewan

Kayla Krawetz, Battlefords Boys and Girls Club

Quick Play is exactly what it says – you are tossed into a randomly chosen match and expected to hold your own. Exhibition Mode will let you chose your teams, but don’t expect the game to be an easy trouncing of your opponent. Meanwhile, over in Campaign Mode, you can customize your pixelated self to your heart’s desire before heading off for a play-through of 18 tournament matches with varying challenges which you must successfully complete if you want to take part in the ultimate tournament and become the Pur Futbol champion. Take a look at the European launch trailer for the game to check out how it’s done.

Pur Futbol is not meant to be a technical round of sanctioned world cup soccer. It’s meant to be fun, challenging and rewarding in that there is somewhat less structure than the more rigid, rule-following soccer titles out in the game market. You will be granted special team management privileges by completing the challenges set out for you; this means you can upgrade your character, trade or steal other players, building your team up to the ultimate playing machine required to dominate the world on the soccer pitch.

Pur Futbol offers 230 players, 17 of the top teams from the international leagues, as well as 3 legend-status teams. The Hometown Champions feature on the Pur Futbol site lets other players view local and global leaderboards as well as search for future opponents. With Xbox Live or PlayStation Network accounts, players will be able to challenge friends, families and foes to some fierce online play, further extending Pur Futbol’s replay attraction.

As we saw with Ubisoft Vancouver’s first title Academy of Champions, the game’s environment is full of rich graphics with recognizable locations and fantastical backgrounds. Pur Futbol also ties in with Ubisoft’s Uplay system, where you can get bonus actions and rewards as you earn Uplay points. As shown here, you can get a special Ubisoft team uniform set with 30 Uplay points. Pur Futbol is rated E for Everyone and is available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Pur Futbol is listed at GameStop Canada for $39.99.

Tickets for SIGGRAPH Vancouver’s next event are now on sale. The Making of ModNation Racers, which will feature presentations by Clint Hanson, Lucas Granito and James Grieve from United Front Games, this panel presentation will take place on June 29th at the VanCity Theatre. Tickets will be available to members for $10.00 and $20.00 for non-members.

Chapters will be hosting two book signing sessions with author Neil Pasricha for his  newly published work “The Book of Awesome“, which was inspired by the Webby Award winning blog 1000 Awesome Things, where he posted one awesome thing in life each day. The Book of Awesome reminds readers of little things that make everyone smile. You are invited to join Pasricha as he signs copies of this universal high five for humanity at these Chapter’s outlets:

Chapters Macleod Trail – 9631 MacLeod Trail S.W., Calgary on Thursday June 10th at 5:00 pm
Chapters Robson – 788 Robson Street, Vancouver on Saturday June 12th at 2:00 pm

Crank Storyboard Suite 1.1 is now available from Crank Software Inc., an innovator in embedded user interface (UI) solutions. Compared to older, traditional electronic design automation tools, Storyboard enables R&D teams to quickly and collaboratively develop rich and dynamic graphical user interfaces while optimizing hardware performance.

* Enhancements available in Crank Storyboard Suite 1.1 provide functionality that enables R&D teams to accelerate the design cycle resulting in faster times to commercialization.
* Storyboard 1.1 gives teams extended platform support for new operating systems and architectures
* Storyboard 1.1 delivers unparalleled performance though the use of industry standard graphics API’s

“Crank Storyboard Suite 1.1 is a result of listening to our customers and delivering the new functionality that they require to perform their jobs more efficiently. Storyboard is enabling R&D teams to more quickly prototype and simulate user interfaces to streamline the development cycle and release products with richer, more complete experiences for their users.” said Jason Clarke, Crank Software’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Storyboard 1.1 includes the following enhancements over the previous version:

* Extended platform support for Storyboard Engine

- Linux support increased to include Renesas MPU SH4A
– QNX 6 support increased to include PPC and Renesas MPU SH4A
– Windows CE 6.0 support for ARM platforms

* Linux hosted development for Storyboard Suite
* Lua debugger integrated into Storyboard Designer
* Performance optimizations by leveraging graphics acceleration though industry standard API’s including DirectFB and OpenVG

Toshiba and PHAX Gaming have joined forces to produce the first organized Canadian Online Gaming League. Over the next eleven months of online battle, over $30,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to Canadian players who display the top notch skills and the dedication it takes to become Canada’s Best. Toshiba and Taco Bell have supplied great prizing like Nokia Surge phones, Gunnar Optik e-SPORT Collection glasses and Taco Bell gift cards.

Not only will gamers have a shot at winning placement prizes, all tournament registrants are also automatically entered into a draw for a Toshiba Qosmio X500 Gaming Laptop or one 46″ UX600U REGZA LCD TV, both valued at $1999.99. The 2010 Toshiba PHAX Canadian Open line-up features the hottest titles in both XBOX360, Wii, and PC Gaming, with the inaugural 2010 tournament lineup to include the following:

HALO 3 4v4 (Xbox 360)
Counter Strike 1.6 5v5 (PC)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 4v4 (Xbox 360)
Super Smash Brothers Brawl 1v1 (Wii)
NHL 2010/11 1v1 (Xbox 360)

Over the next twelve months, registration for the Toshiba PHAX Canadian Open will be wide open and free of charge to Canadian players. For your convenience, the structure of the league schedule caters to both short term (4 week) tournaments, but also offers longer term ladder (8 week) competitions. If you play more than one game, points earned in each game will be added to your Player Total and jump your name to the top of the individual player leader boards. The PHAX Gaming crew will be broadcasting live tournament matches, conducting player/team interviews, and keeping up with all of the Toshiba Phax Canadian Open News online throughout the entire season.

AfterCAD is pleased to announce that San Francisco-based start-up Nukotoys has selected Aftercad’s Immersion 3D technology to power its cloud Gaming-as-a-Service (GaaS) offerings.

“We want our online 3D multiplayer games to be playable by as many kids as possible. After reviewing various technology options, we found Aftercad Immersion to be the best fit for streaming our highly immersive games to browsers on even lower-end machines,” said Rodger Raderman, Co-CEO of Nukotoys. “In addition, due to a rich informational environment that allows us to utilize both server and client optimally, Immersion gives us UI flexibility that is absent in other solutions.”

Aftercad has recently expanded its 3D web publishing efforts to include the new Immersion 3D application porting service for Game and 3D application developers looking to migrate their titles and apps to the cloud. As cloud computing begins to weaken the console makers’ grip on gaming, developers are looking to cash in on the new cloud gaming methods being touted by services like Onlive, Otoy, Gaikai and others. Aftercad Immersion delivers the technology to maximize this new cloud delivery method while giving developers the the ability to leverage the full power of HTML5 on the clients’ computer or mobile device.

“Other methods out there rely on just the video stream and an sometimes even a plugin to bring the remote game play to the user in time to react and send those commands back again. This method is called ‘Soft PC-Over-IP’ will always be lag sensitive and function as a closed loop. Immersion does a much better job by opening up the loop, allowing game developers to utilize the power at both ends of the wire thus greatly reducing the dependence on bandwidth alone,” said Chris Boothroyd, CEO of Aftercad. “We are pleased with Nukotoys’ selection of our Immersion technology, it is yet another validation of the superiority of our patent pending approach and we are looking for more game developers to join us in the cloud.”

According to Statistics Canada, only one third of small businesses survive over five years, and Cognition LLP is shaking up the legal market again by offering free legal consultations to entrepreneurs.

“Start-up companies typically can’t afford their own in-house counsel, nor can they spend a lot on outside legal services, with the result that they try to handle this work themselves. That’s when they get into trouble and miss valuable opportunities in their contracts and structuring,” notes Cognition partner Rubsun Ho.

“So we thought we’d help them out,” adds co-founder Joe Milstone. “If we get them as clients later, that’s a bonus. But for now, we’re just happy if we can improve their odds.”

What are some of the worst legal mistakes that start-ups and growth companies make? Through its network of 20 lawyers, Cognition has rescued clients from some really bad blunders. The top five are:

- Doling out equity without documentation or proper thought
– Not having a solid shareholders’ agreement, leading to messy conflicts down the road
– Hiring employees and contractors on a handshake, exposing the company to unnecessary termination risk and disputes over intellectual property
– Entering into major agreements with suppliers, customers and distribution partners without thinking through the terms or implications, including what’s not in the agreements but should be
– Blindly adopting others’ precedents and policies for their own use, assuming that “one size fits all” businesses and situations

To be closer and more accessible to entrepreneurs, Cognition has taken up residence at MaRS, a Toronto-based innovation centre, in association with Ogilvy Renault. Entrepreneurs can drop in or make an appointment for no-cost legal consultations during the hours of 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday at Cognition’s MaRS office at 101 College Street, Suite 140.

Cognition is no newcomer to doing things differently. As an entrepreneurial venture in itself, its lawyers work largely from their own homes or onsite with clients. This ‘virtual’ approach has allowed the firm to dramatically trim costs and thereby hold its fees to about half of what the traditional legal establishments charge. The firm also pioneered the alternative legal services model of providing start-up and growth businesses with their own dedicated in-house counsel on an outsourced basis.

“We do a lot of work for smaller, younger companies, so we’re familiar with their issues. We help them avoid the pitfalls, and often we can provide other value-added services for which we charge nothing,” says Ho.

For example, because of its network of contacts and experience, Cognition has been known to help start-up companies find venture capital and even new customers.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Cognition is offering free legal advice,” says Nussar Ahmed, President of AddictiveMobility, a client of the firm and of MaRS. “That’s just who they are. They got us over the early legal hurdles, and because they really wanted us to succeed, they leveraged other business opportunities for us as well.”

The amount of development that went into Assassin’s Creed II is mind-boggling. With over 230 features and a dev team of over 300, just the massive amounts of data to keep a rein on would bury the uninitiated. Patrick stated that through the entire development process, the most important things to pay attention to are your game play pillars and the need to keep an honest perspective. He said that your game play pillars are used to create the challenge, while your supporting features give meaning and depth to the core, while exotic features are used to change the pace of the game.

Patrick also drew attention to the importance of play tests and making the most of the test feedback in the development of your title. Using a two-fold process of Qualitative and Quantitative Reporting will give developers a very good perspective of what gamers like or do not like, as well as how they are playing your game. The Quantitative portion focuses on data tracking and usability reports, which provide concrete information to orient discussion on data instead of personal opinions. Meanwhile, the appreciative, or Qualitative reports, give context to the data you’ve collected, and you can see what is working, what isn’t, and what changes need to be made so that the gamer can more fully experience (and enjoy) the mechanics of the game.

Patrick also touched briefly on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and how everything learned in the two previous Assassin’s Creed development processes helped the team work quickly through a very short ten month production window. A big part of this was the strength, scope and depth of the team’s design documents. He stated that it is very important to keep your documentation up-to-date right through until the end of the project. Paying attention to your development documentation will cut down on needless questions and distractions, as well as force you to think and keep track of the vision for your title. As has been stated in many, many game dev seminars – it is cheaper to fail on paper than in production – and Patrick reiterated this by saying how important it is to challenge every feature you want in your game on paper first. This is not a perfect process, but it will reduce risk to your bottom line. In reply to a question asked from the audience, Patrick noted that features drove a large part of the story, and have a big part in the future of where the Assassin’s Creed franchise is heading in the future. Too bad he wouldn’t expand on that future…just where is Assassin’s Creed III going to take us? Curious gamers want to know.

SIGGRAPH Vancouver has two more upcoming events which may interest you. The first is Alice in Wonderland – Creating Underland on May 25th at the Empire Theatre on Granville. This session features two presentations, the first with animation director David Schaub (Sony Pictures Imageworks), who will give you a look behind the talent and tools that were used to create Alice In Wonderland. Mr. Schaub will focus primarily on the standard creative elements of the show, but he will also provide insight into the surprising challenges and innovative technical solutions that were used to breathe digital life into over 30 inhabitants of Underland including the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen and the Cheshire Cat.

The second Creating Underland session will be presented by freelance Visual Effects Supervisor Carey Villegas, who will focus on the process of photographing the “live-action” component of the film, as well as the many challenges that he and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Ken Ralston faced in post production while creating the visual and stereo 3D effects. A screening of Alice in Wonderland will follow the technical presentations. Tickets for this event are $20.00 for non-members and $15.00 for members.

The other upcoming SIGGRAPH Vancouver event, just announced last night, will focus on The Making of ModNation Racers. Featuring Clint Hanson, Lucas Granito and James Grieve from United Front Games, this panel presentation will take place on June 29th at the VanCity Theatre. Tickets will be available to members for $10.00 and $20.00 for non-members. As of press time, this event had not yet been added to the SIGGRAPH Vancouver web site, so you’ll have to check the association’s site later for ticket availability.

Interactive entertainment company Ludia and FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) have announced the availability of The Price Is Right game ($9.99) for the Sony PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on the PlayStation®Network. Players can now “COME ON DOWN” for their shot in Contestant’s Row, bid on items in 19 different pricing games, test their luck with spinning The Big Wheel, and experience the winner-takes-all tension of the Showcase.

“We are pleased to extend our tremendously successful The Price Is Right game to PlayStation 3 systems via the PlayStation Network,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This first game release is just the beginning for Ludia games on PS3™, and further reinforces our multiplatform game strategy.”

The Price Is Right for PS3™ features:

* 19 favorite pricing games to play including Plinko, Cliff Hangers, Punch-a-Bunch & many more.
* Rich graphics, including stages, The Big Wheel, and other game elements combined with all the familiar music and sound effects to create a true-to-show game experience.
* Original, fully customizable 3D player avatars: choose hairstyles, clothing, accessories and more.
* Two game modes: single player and multiplayer.
* Unlock bonus items as a reward for progress in the game.

“The Emmy Award-winning The Price Is Right is the #1 daytime game show on television, and one that holds a consistently solid fan base” added Olivier Delfosse, Director of Interactive for program licensor FME. “We are delighted to continue to work with Ludia to bring an authentic brand experience to an even broader public of PlayStation 3 systems owners.”

Mobile Game Studio invites you to travel The High Seas on your iPhone. This new action packed game will put you in the boots of a treasure hunter. Fighting against the mighty pirates, lethal castles and deadly whirlpools you sail the seas in search of treasure chests. Pass through the Caribbean and Arctic on your quest for the title of a first class treasure hunter.

The High Seas brings you into a whole new world, full of action, danger and mystery. Each level will present you with a new challenge; a number of gold. You are to collect the set amount of gold, but the mighty pirates will do everything in their power to protect their loot. Take a stand against your enemies with your cannons, which follow your command at the touch of a button along with a steering wheel you rotate to guide your ship across the seven seas. The sea is also against you on your quest as they put deadly towers, castles, icebergs and whirlpools in your path. The Ghost Armanda will bring your skills into question along with the mystical ghost towers. The title of treasure hunter never looked so far away.

At an official ribbon cutting ceremony at ParetoLogic’s Victoria head office, company executives unveiled PC Health Advisor to the public. The new software packs a huge number of features and tools to optimize, secure, and maintain Windows PCs. With ParetoLogic’s successful track record, indications are that PC Health Advisor will help millions of customers and their computers.

“We are absolutely ecstatic about PC Health Advisor and the ways it can help people,” said Elton Pereira, ParetoLogic’s President, CEO and Co-Founder, at the program launch celebration. “This is the software that our users have been asking for.”

PC Health Advisor raises the bar for system utility and optimization software. Included in the digital multi-tool are a registry cleaner, privacy scanner, and malware process detector. The registry cleaner detects and removes problems in the Windows registry to improve performance, speed and system stability. The privacy scanner locates personal information and then permanently erases it. Computers continually record a user’s actions, the files accessed, and websites visited. PC Health Advisor removes this privacy and security risk. The malware process detector, as the name implies, searches for active malware on the system. This ensures that malware does not annoy users with pop-ups, or endanger them with keyloggers or Trojans.

“We’ve integrated truly essential functions,” said Ted Deng, Senior Project Manager at ParetoLogic, “not only are vital optimization features included but we’ve also added completely new tools and controls.”

These tools include direct access to Windows customization options, a process manager, duplicate file finder, Startup Manager, and BHO Manager. The software pairs ParetoLogic’s user-friendly interface with an array of technologies that have traditionally been the exclusive domain of highly trained technicians. All told, the toolkit gives Windows users unrestricted control over their computers, and instant power to clean, tweak, and fine-tune them.

“The software is so powerful, but the interface so easy-to-use,” said Pereira with a smile, “PC Health Advisor might end up giving some users a reputation as a computer whiz.”

With a new management team firmly in place, Vancouver’s Rainmaker Entertainment continues to evolve as a multifaceted animation studio with its focus on creating, developing and producing its own animation projects. To that end, the company has unveiled its first slate of proprietary projects, it was announced today by Catherine Winder, President and Executive Producer of the company.

“Rainmaker is fully utilizing its resources – creative talent, storytelling and technical and artistic skills – to bring an exciting and entertaining array of ideas to the global animation film, television and home entertainment markets,” said Winder. “We have over 200 talented artists who are eager to set the company on a new course, leveraging our expertise in CG animation and our breakthrough animation techniques. Our team is also comprised of top notch development veterans and, with our production acumen, we’re now ready to take Rainmaker to the next level in realizing our goals as a full fledged animation studio.”

Rainmaker Entertainment, which purchased Mainframe Entertainment and its mainstay and groundbreaking TV property ReBoot, the first ever CG animated series, have released the following details about its new slate and updates on the creative staff working on the projects:

Ogo, in development as a theatrical animation movie, is based on Canada’s famous water monster, believed to reside in Lake Okanagan in the South Central interior of British Columbia. The movie is a comedy that pokes fun at all idiocracies of the monster’s lore and its impact on modern life. The story is about a little girl who reveals the monster’s existence to the world and then must do everything in her power to protect it. Ogo is written by Jacob Medjuck, formerly an animator at DreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Interactive, Sony, Warner Bros and Fox and currently an independent filmmaker. Rainmaker is actively seeking distribution partners for Ting & Juma as well as Ogo and Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes.

Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, being developed as a series of animated holiday specials for the television and home entertainment/DVD marketplace, is based on the 1939 children’s classic written by American author DuBose Heyward. Rainmaker has acquired the rights to the book, in which Heyward tells the story of a country bunny who always dreams of being one of the five Easter bunnies chosen by the old, kind and wise Grandfather Bunny. Bernice Vanderlaan (Disney’s “Life With Derek”) has been signed as the writer on the project. Vanderlaan has also written over 30 episodes for PBS Sprout’s preschool blocks, including its holiday special “Preschool Musical on a Stick”. She has also co-created and produced several imaginative children’s programs including Disney’s “Flash Forward”, Family Channel’s ” Hello, Mrs. Cherrywinkle” and GMTV’s “Rockabye Bubble”. David Snowden and Alison Fine, who won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for “Bob’s Birthday”, are also on board as Consulting Directors.

Ting & Juma: The Movie rounds out the initial Rainmaker development slate. Ting is a tiny frisky alien with an attitude, while Juma is a forest dweller with a thirst for creativity and adventure. Rainmaker’s artists created the characters and have already produced several short films of their exploits together. In the movie, Ting and Juma team up on a journey story to find Ting’s home. Rainmaker is currently taking pitches from writers for the project.

Open Text Corporation has been awarded a 2010 SAP® Pinnacle Award in the category Global Software Solutions Partner of the Year. Pinnacle Awards are granted to leading SAP partners that have excelled in enhancing the customer experience, addressing critical issues such as accelerating co-innovation and improving return on investment. Winners were selected based on over 230 nominations in 27 categories received from partners and SAP employees. Open Text received the award at a special awards ceremony held on the eve of SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP’s international customer conference currently underway in Orlando, Florida.

“The SAP Pinnacle Awards reflect the strong success we are seeing globally in helping customers in a wide range of sectors from energy to financial services to government agencies connect their content with SAP solutions,” said Patrick Barnert, Vice President, SAP Solutions at Open Text. “The fact that we’ve now won an SAP Pinnacle Award three years running underscores that this is a highly effective partnership and that Open Text is committed to bringing real business results to customers. We look forward to even greater success in the coming year.”

Nova Scotia’s Innovacorp has won one of the highest international honours for its work in helping new businesses. Stephen Hartlen, Innovacorp’s interim president and CEO, accepted the National Business Incubation Association’s international award for its work in the business incubation industry on May 18, at the association’s annual international conference, also taking place in Orlando, Florida.

“This award represents the hard work of our dedicated and professional staff, and our partners and clients,” said Mr. Hartlen. “Combined with our compelling economic, client satisfaction, and leading indicator measurements, this award tells us that our High Performance Incubation business model is globally competitive.”

Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Bill Estabrooks, acting on behalf of Economic and Rural Development Minister Percy Paris, congratulated the corporation on receiving this distinction.

“Innovacorp plays an important role in business growth in our province,” said Mr. Estabrooks. “It helps Nova Scotia-based knowledge companies sell their technologies and succeed in the global marketplace. This helps create good jobs and grow our economy.”

Innovacorp helps Nova Scotia entrepreneurs prosper in the global marketplace through its High Performance Incubation business model, which is based on a unique approach of incubation infrastructure, business mentoring, and seed and venture capital investment. Its key industries include information technology, life sciences, and clean technology.

“We continuously refine our business model and assess ourselves against other models around the globe,” said Dr. Jacquelyn Thayer Scott, chair of Innovacorp’s board of directors. “It’s very gratifying when the premier international organization in our sector recognizes what we do as being best in class.”

Absolute® Software Corporation, the leading provider of firmware-based, patented, computer theft recovery, data protection and secure computer lifecycle management solutions announced today that it has partnered with Trend Micro™ to include Computrace® LoJack® for Laptops in select bundles to be offered by Trend Micro. Offerings will be available for the back-to-school shopping season.

The combination of LoJack for Laptops and Trend Micro Internet Security offers joint customers a more comprehensive computer security package. With Trend Micro, computers are protected against online theft and viruses. With LoJack for Laptops in place, customers can be assured that if their computer is stolen, the Absolute Theft Recovery Team can gather evidence and work with local law enforcement to get their computer back.

“Computers have become the blue-prints to our lives. We do our banking there, store our passwords, and record our lives in pictures and video – everything to do with who we are. If your computer is stolen, it can be a scary occurrence, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Mark Grace, vice president of consumer business at Absolute Software. “With Absolute on your side, you have your own investigative team standing by to take action. We can delete your sensitive data, render the computer useless, send messages to the thief, conduct a full investigation and physically recover your computer – all while working with local police to help catch the thief. Without Absolute, you’d have little chance of seeing your computer again. Absolute greatly increases your chances of recovering your stolen device.”

“For Trend Micro, our customer’s personal online freedom directs how we design our products and solutions,” said Tobias Lee, vice president of consumer marketing, Trend Micro. “We’re pleased to partner with Absolute Software and offer our mutual customers an extra layer of mobile and laptop security.”

Multiplied Media Corporation has announced the availability of an enterprise build of their award-winning Poynt application. BlackBerry smartphone users on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) will have full access to the benefits and features of the Poynt application.

Poynt is a convenient and timesaving GPS-enabled application that connects users to local businesses, people, restaurants and movie theaters at the moment they want to find or acquire products or services. Poynt gives consumers the ability to move beyond discovery of their local area to view movie trailers and show times, book dining reservations, compare local gas prices, view directions on a map, click-to-call a business or view a website.

“Poynt is an effective tool in reducing business costs and enhancing workforce productivity through fewer directory assistance calls and the ability to quickly set up business lunches or find meeting locations,” said Andrew Osis, CEO of Multiplied Media. “The new BES build allows BlackBerry enterprise administrators to easily manage distribution and updates of Poynt to their colleagues, connecting them with the local area to get quick search results, turn-by-turn directions and mapping, or detailed location information.”

“Poynt is a very useful application and we are pleased to now be able to give our organization access to it,” said Gavin Wilson, Senior Support Analyst at Oxford University Press. “We appreciate that Multiplied Media delivered a well-packaged BES build of the app that is easy to deliver to Oxford University Press’ Blackberry users.”

Multiplied Media has turned off update notifications in this enhanced enterprise build to ensure BES users do not need to download the app directly when an update becomes available. Poynt offers two versions of its Enterprise build to ensure BES users can fully utilize the application whether it’s through a desktop manager or BES connection only. Poynt is currently available for BlackBerry® smartphones in Canada, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain.

The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, has announced the appointment of Ram Krishna Raju as a member of Telefilm Canada.

“I am delighted that Mr. Raju has accepted this appointment,” said Minister Moore. “Telefilm Canada will undoubtedly benefit from his strong leadership, dynamism, extensive knowledge, and experience in the digital and information technology industry.”

As founder of e-academy Inc., Mr. Raju has built and led, since 1997, one of the world’s leading providers of hosted electronic software delivery solutions and software licence compliance for the education market. This company is recognized by leading software companies such as Microsoft, Adobe Systems, and several other major software developers.

Prior to that, Mr. Raju worked at Dalhousie University as a Professor of Information Systems and as a Manager of the Computing and Information Systems Department, where he established a university computer store that has remained profitable since 1984. His work in this field was recognized in 1995, when he was elected Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Campus Computer Stores to represent more than $125 million in purchasing power in negotiations with hardware and software companies. Mr. Raju holds three degrees from Dalhousie University: a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science, and a Master of Business Administration.

Yahoo! Canada continues its vision of becoming the centre of peoples’ online lives by delivering customized content across multiple platforms and innovative new products to Canada’s World Cup 2010 fans. As Canadians prepare to join hundreds of millions of soccer fans from around the world this June and July to celebrate the world’s biggest sporting event, Yahoo! Canada is creating an online home for Canadian soccer fans who want to access all the action from their desktop or web-enabled device.

“It’s a big year for sports in Canada, and Yahoo! Canada is excited to continue providing original content and real-time coverage and insights for Canadians around the events that matter most to them. Whether it’s the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and now the World Cup, Yahoo! Canada is as passionate about providing leading online sports coverage as Canadians are about cheering for their favourite teams and home town athletes,” says Max Tremblay, Director of Marketing, Yahoo! Canada.

Yahoo! will provide sports fans with customized online and mobile experiences during World Cup 2010. Canadians can follow all the World Cup action online. Later this month, Yahoo! will also launch a comprehensive mobile site for Canadian soccer fans.

Yahoo!’s reign as a technology leader continues by kicking up the science for this year’s World Cup and offering the following innovations for fans:

* New Shortcuts in Yahoo! Search results that will launch in more than 25 markets throughout the summer. These Shortcuts will provide rich information such as photos, videos, schedules, live scores, stats, team information and news, right on the Search results page.
* Real-time scores, schedules and breaking news, all of which fans can have at their fingertips by downloading the Yahoo! Toolbar with World Cup coverage. The toolbar can be customized with a country-themed skin to support any competing team.
* Yahoo! Sports World Soccer 2010, a pick’em style fantasy soccer game available to Canadians that allows fans to select winners for each match of the World Cup.
* Yahoo!’s first global online penalty shootout contest — Yahoo! Penalty Shootout is set to launch at the end of May. Soccer fans will be able to compete with friends, other fans, and sworn soccer rivals from around the world for a chance to win the Yahoo! Sports Pass, tickets to any four premier sporting events in the world over the next four years.
* Predictalot from Yahoo! Labs is a fun experiment that puts the “wisdom of the crowd” about the World Cup to the test. Predictalot allows fans in every country to make millions of interesting predictions, like “How many teams from Europe will advance to the quarterfinals?” or “Will a country that has never won before win it all this year?”

Both Yahoo!’s PC and mobile platforms will allow fans to get breaking news and analysis, scores, player stats, live commentary and video from Yahoo! Canada Sports and will include:

* On-the-ground reporting from South Africa by award-winning sports writers Martin Rogers, who spent seven years as a soccer writer for the London Daily Mirror, covering the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and international soccer; and Yahoo! Sports editorial team members Dan Wetzel and Les Carpenter.
* “World Soccer Roundup”, a daily video news show that will recap top stories and give information on upcoming World Cup events.
* Dirty Tackle, a leading soccer blog from editor Brooks Pecks and contributors Richard Whittall and Ryan Bailey.

And in very late-breaking news from the INplay 2010 conference happening right now in Toronto, Shaw Communications has announced that they will be adding a new digital media programme to their Rocket Fund. Further details will be available via the Rocket Fund’s web site this coming Monday, May 24th.

This year’s list of Canada’s Greenest Employers was announced this morning by the editors of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. Fifty organizations across Canada were recognized on this year’s list.

There’s another fun gaming-related mixer coming up in Vancouver – check out the Olympic Gaming Mixer, which will be taking place on the evening of Friday, May 7, 2010 at the Century Restaurant and Bar on Richards. Check out the event’s FaceBook page for the list of challenges to be had at the Olympic Gaming Mixer.

Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver presentation of Designing Assassin’s Creed II featuring Lead Game Designer Patrick Plourde from Ubisoft Montreal, which is generously sponsored in part by AnnexPro and 3vis. He will discuss the challenges faced by the dev team: an enormous scope, one of the biggest development teams ever assembled and a limited time frame. This talk is about sharing our best practices to ship high quality games through a focused and rigorous Design Process while maximizing the output of production. Tickets for this May 18th event at the VanCity Theatre are only $15.00 for SIGGRAPH members and $20.00 for non-members. Annual SIGGRAPH membership is only 35.00 – and gets you special pricing at all of our great chapter events. You should join today.

DigiBC has put out a call for speakers for its Vancouver Digital Week 2010 event which takes place May 25-28 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Please see their site for more details.

Interactive Ontario is pleased to welcome back Alexander Manu to give a keynote presentation at INPlay 2010. Manu, who delivered a keynote address at Interactive Ontario’s iSummit in 2006, is a strategic innovation practitioner, international lecturer and author. For over 20 years Alexander has enabled global companies as diverse as Motorola, LEGO, Whirlpool, Nokia, Navteq and Unilever, to develop policies and strategies that address emerging issues through strategic foresight and pre-competitive business models.

Goldtooth Creative has once again shown their video magic – check out the Cover Reveal trailer for EA Sports’ Madden NFL 11, developed by Florida’s Tiburon Studio. Goldtooth’s incredibly talented teams have produced trailers and cinematics for many of today’s top titles. Need a production team for your project? We recommend them.

BC indie developer Krabbitsoft Studio has released new features and specs for their RPG Krabbit World Origins. Featuring some very unique creatures, Krabbit World Origins has a very strong player community, and allows for single or multi-player modes. This is a game we’re going to be taking a look at in the coming weeks – look for it to be featured in our review section later in May 2010.

Banff World Television Festival has just released a call for entrants for the nextMEDIA Digital Hot List. This is a competition open to developers, content producers, and digital superstars. This is your chance to showcase your new, innovative digital property and grab the attention of advertisers who are looking for exciting brand integration opportunities. There are four available categories for entry:

*  Media (Does your website stand out amongst the rest?)
* Talent (Are you a proven online superstar with millions of followers?)
* Content Proposal (Got the best new idea for online content and branded entertainment?)
* Technologies (Are you creating the coolest apps, games and digital ad solutions?)

This contest closes on May 3rd, so if you’re interested in entering, you’d better get a move on!

New children’s mobile application studio Googly was delighted to find its first app, Alphabets in the Zoo featured yesterday in iTunes’ New and Noteworthy section, and amazed to see it reach number one on the education list.

Alphabets in The Zoo features a charming new animated alphabet song and story to help children learn their letters as they look, listen, and sing-a-long. Children’s understanding of the alphabet is taught and reinforced as they enjoy Saad Rashid’s colorful animation, listen to the Fauzia Abbasi’s delightful lyrics, and enjoy Dave Klotz’s catchy tune. Googly plans to release an iPad version of Alphabets in The Zoo shortly, and three more original children’s apps in the next 30 days.

Montreal publisher Strategy First has announced the release of Two Time Aggie award winner Dark Fall: Lost Souls and World Basketball Manager 2010 on Steam. The world’s leading platform for the digital distribution of PC games with over 25 million users world wide will offer a 10% discount on both games from April 21 – 28, 2010.

“We are excited to bring these two great titles to 25 million Steam users” says Strategy First Director Emanuel Wall, “We are proud to offer a two time Aggie Award winner, and the first PC Game from Greece to be published on Steam.”

Dark Fall: Lost Souls is the Aggie Award winner for Best First-Person PC Adventure game, and winner of Best Sound Design. Dark Fall: Lost Souls is a horror adventure game penned by the ‘Lost Crown’ author Jonathan Boakes. The new game engine allows full exploration and movement, letting the player physically interact with the eerie setting and really ‘feel’ the place while using light as your weapon and ally to fight the darkness.

Localized in several languages, World Basketball Manager 2010 allows gamers to take charge and manage basketball teams from all around the world. Gamers have access to over 11,000 basketball players on over 900 teams, and 1,300 managers from nearly 200 countries. Easy to learn and play, WBM 2010 has 95 tournaments to enter with Real Time Matches wth pre-season training centres and Manager Actions which allow for such activities as team promotions to player transfers.

Toronto – Tungle has introduced its Tungle.me software for IBM’s Lotus Notes at the Lotusphere Comes to You conference in Toronto. The application will be introduced and demonstrated on stage today by Tungle CEO Marc Gingras and IBM Software Group Director of Messaging, Ed Brill.

“Tungle for Lotus Notes helped me streamline the maintenance of free time across multiple calendars inside and outside of my company. It helped reduce emails and scheduling conflicts,” said Chris Miller, Director, Connectria, a provider of customized IT services to name brand clients globally. Miller was part of a group who tested a beta version of the software.

Tungle.me makes it easy for people to schedule meetings across organizations, calendar systems and time zones by eliminating costly double bookings and the endless back and forth of finding a time to meet. The addition of Lotus Notes means that Tungle now works with all major business- and consumer-oriented electronic calendar environments, including Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Entourage, and is also available on the iPhone and Blackberry.

“With the introduction of Tungle.me for Lotus Notes, many millions of additional business people around the world can spend more time being productive and less time playing scheduling ping-pong,” said Tungle CEO Marc Gingras.

IBM Lotus Notes collaboration software is available for the full spectrum of proliferating mobile and Web-connected devices such as the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia Symbian smartphones, thin clients, laptops and desktops used to access corporate applications and business processes. Lotus Notes is available in a cloud-based version, and also comes bundled with hardware and other offerings via its Lotus Foundations line for mid-sized businesses.

Toronto – WinMagic® Inc. has opened an eStore so that customers can instantly purchase and download standalone SecureDoc products for Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X for $99, a 10 Pack for $945 or a 25 Pack for $2320 as well as a one, two or three year maintenance service packs.

SecureDoc also supports and manages hardware-encrypted disk drives including self-encrypting drives conforming to the Opal standard put forward by the Trusted Computing Group in January 2009, in addition to Seagate® Momentus® FDE drives and encrypted thumb drives from vendors like Ironkey, Sandisk, Kingston, MXI, etc. This provides the flexibility to deploy any combination of hardware and software-based encryption – or transition between the two – with full transparency for users and a consistent management interface for administrators.

Additionally, SecureDoc now supports Intel® Anti-Theft Technology, which is available in select systems with the new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family. Intel AT acts as a laptop theft deterrence mechanism – enabling organizations to issue a “poison pill” to stolen laptops whether or not they are connected to the internet. When a protected notebook is reported as lost or stolen, Intel AT can remotely disable the computing platform and perform a data-disable function. SecureDoc seamlessly adds full-disk encryption and encryption management to Intel® AT – ensuring data cannot be accessed in the time it takes to report the loss and disable the laptop even if the hard drive is removed and installed on another computer.

Vancouver – Telefilm Canada is pleased to announce that it will present the Show Canada 2010 Closing Gala this evening. This year’s edition of the largest film industry convention in Canada is currently under way in Vancouver. Telefilm Canada, a partner in the success of Canadian cinema, is presenting the Closing Gala to celebrate the country’s film industry and its creators. Well-known Canadian comedian Brent Butt will be host for the evening.

“Show Canada is an important gathering for the Canadian film industry and Telefilm Canada is proud to support this event by presenting the Closing Gala,” said Sheila de La Varende, Director of National and International Business Development, Telefilm Canada. “On top of keeping participants busy with plenty of film screenings, seminars and an awards ceremony, the convention, organized by the Show Canada Committee, provides participants with a venue to discuss major industry issues like social marketing and multi-platform distribution. The Show Canada programme, designed to meet the needs of the Canadian film industry, attracted between 400 and 450 professionals, including studio heads, distributors and movie theatre operators from across the country. The closing ceremony will be the perfect ending to this exceptional event,” she concluded.

Those attending the Closing Gala presented by Telefilm Canada will have the opportunity to preview films scheduled for release this year. Successful 2009 productions, including a number of films that benefited from Telefilm Canada’s support, will be highlighted during the evening.

Quickly emerging as one of Canada’s newest technology companies to watch, Blitware Technologies Inc., is pleased to announce the achievement of a milestone for its popular driver update software, Driver Fetch. In March 2010, over 2 million computer users installed the utility software program, setting a new record for the company, and forging the course for future Blitware products.

Incorporated in late 2008, Blitware is a young software company that has produced four utility software applications since its inception. It’s flagship product, PC Medkit, was launched in the consumer market to help computer users clean, repair, and optimize their PCs while their File Helper software application enables computer users to find and open previously inaccessible files that they had downloaded. Though the company’s other software applications enjoyed strong consumer uptake, Driver Fetch is gaining the attention of the general computing population and experts alike. Designed to assist users in identifying and installing the drivers necessary to run hardware and peripheral devices, Driver Fetch is popular amongst those who expect the best in computer performance as well as those who install new hardware and peripherals. The program’s ability to detect and access drivers even when a computer is not online or cannot access the Internet is unique in the industry and has gained the program significant praise from technology experts.

Riding the success of the Driver Fetch milestone achievement, Blitware is now taking the time to build its online community. Appointing an Online Community Liaison, Blitware is reaching out to its current and future customers through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr in an effort to make their corporate presence known and reach out to those computer users who need assistance with updating drivers, opening files, and optimizing their PCs. Blitware is hard at work on their newest product that promises to be another winner in the utility software sphere and is expected to be released in Summer 2010.

Presagis™ has announced the availability of Terra Vista 6.1.1 with support for OneSAF Terrain Format version 8.0 (OTF-8). This new release provides users with the ability to generate highly detailed and correlated OTF-compliant databases for OneSAF Objective System (OOS) version 4.0 runtime environments.

“With this release of Terra Vista, Presagis continues to deliver on its commitment of supporting key industry standards and to provide our customers with the features and functions they require to create correlated semi-automated forces databases,” said Chris Henderson, Vice President and Product Segment Lead for Visualization & Content Creation Products at Presagis. “Our customers can now create OTF-8 compliant databases using a product that provides the highest level of correlation in more formats than any other terrain generation tool in the industry”.

New to the OTF-8 format is the ability to build OTF databases that are smaller than a GeoTile and contain non-contiguous areas. Terra Vista users will benefit from increased flexibility and time-savings with the new OTF-8 format which enable users to create detailed terrain databases in all pages of a GeoTile when building an OTF database.

Terra Vista also offers users a wide range of methods for implementing Ultra High Resolution Buildings (UHRB) into their OTF-8 database. Users can import geospecific UHRBs modeled from the Creator Building Interior Wizard, or use models generated from other applications, to accurately construct and populate OTF databases with realistic, complex, and accurate Ultra High Resolution Buildings in the OneSAF Objective System.

eBay is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the launch of eBay.ca and a decade of connecting millions of buyers and sellers across the country, helping them to explore opportunities in the world of online commerce. eBay Canada marks the milestone with the induction of Canadians into the eBay Canada Hall of Fame, the launch of a charity auction to benefit Free The Children and awarding prizing worth $5,000 to contest winners. These celebration activities will recognize and reward the more than 11-million Canadians who have benefited from eBay in special and often unique ways over the last 10 years, during which time Canadians have bought more than $7-billion on eBay.ca, leading to a decade of success that would not have been possible without its millions of passionate community members.

“In just 10 years eBay.ca has become an important enabler of small businesses in Canada and the premier online shopping destination for Canadian consumers,” said Andrea Stairs, country manager of eBay Canada. “From a modest start in 2000, eBay.ca has grown tremendously and now helps millions of Canadians to buy and sell online with ease.”

Over the last decade eBay Canada has supported numerous causes and Canadian charities. For its tenth anniversary celebration, eBay.ca will auction off a number of high-profile items where members will have a chance to bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences benefiting Free The Children. To date, Free The Children has built more than 500 schools, bringing the fundamental right of education to over 50,000 children every day. The auction is live, with a large array of notable experiences up for grabs.

And in the totally cool robots department, The Aeryon Scout, a small man-packable flying robotic system, manufactured by Aeryon Labs of Waterloo, gave law enforcement officers the break they needed in a recent drug bust in Central America. This small, lightweight mini-helicopter that is remote-controlled from the ground by computer was able to provide visual surveillance of a suspected narcotic trafficker’s compound deep in the jungle. The Scout provides the features of larger unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in a small package, at a fraction of the cost.

“This might sound like a plot from a TV show like CSI or 24, but it’s a real-life application of our robotic technology,” said Dave Kroetsch, President of Aeryon Labs. “This is what the Scout was designed for: providing aerial intelligence in settings too challenging or dangerous for humans to venture into.”

Kroetsch said the law enforcement officers took the Aeryon Scout into the jungle, in hostile territory, under the cover of darkness. At first light they cleared a small launch area, took the Scout out of its suitcase-sized case, and snapped it together. Measuring only 80 cm by 80 cm when assembled and weighing just over a kilogram, the Scout was easy to transport. They then set the robot’s target by selecting the location of the drug compound using a touch-screen satellite-map interface on a portable computer tablet. The target location was approximately 1 km from the operator. For security reasons the actual date and location of the operation cannot be publicized.

The Scout, which can quietly travel as far as three kilometres from the operator’s location and up to 500 metres off the ground, is ideal for this type of beyond line-of-sight surveillance as the officers did not need to see the unit to control it. Once at the target location, the Scout’s motion-compensated camera took digital still images and streamed encrypted digital video in real-time to the operator’s computer, with no risk to the investigating officers.

The images enabled the enforcement team to determine the interior layout of the compound, establish what vehicles were inside, identify possible escape routes, and assess what security measures were in place. Most importantly they were able to see a gap in the wire surrounding the compound that was then used as the entry point for the raid. The successful bust resulted in the arrest of the drug gang members. Before the use of the Aeryon Scout, law enforcement officers would typically drive an armoured vehicle through the wall of the compound and face unknown circumstances on the other side.

The drug bust is just one of the scenarios where the Aeryon Scout is useful to police and similar agencies. Easily carried in a backpack, the Aeryon Scout assists with documenting accident scenes, following fleeing suspects, and aiding in search and rescue operations in day or night, especially beyond line-of-sight of the operator. Military units can use it to scope out areas with dangerous or rugged terrain. There are also industrial applications such as inspecting the exterior of buildings or gathering air samples from exhausts and smokestacks.

“The Scout’s low noise, radar, visual and heat signatures make it an ideal platform for covert tactical imagery collection. You can set it up in a couple of minutes out of its case, fly the mission, and be gone without ever alerting the target. And if you can play a simple video game, you can fly the Scout,” said Charles Barlow, President Zariba Security Corporation and former Canadian intelligence officer.

Aeryon Labs designed the Scout system to be easy enough for even non-technical people to use with minimal training. Its on-board computer system supervises all aspects of the mission, allowing the operator to focus on completing a task.

“We’re excited to have developed robotic technology which is practical and affordable for law enforcement, military and security forces, and can save lives. And that’s priceless,” said Kroetsch.

Vancouver

The second event is a virtual event directly from Autodesk. ‘Seize the Opportunity at the Autodesk Virtual Event” is comprised of 3 sessions for Digital Entertainment Creation software including Smoke for Mac OS X along with sessions for building, engineering and more. Please see the event listing at Autodesk for details and registration. This virtual event will run on April 19th from 7am – 2pm Pacific Time.

Toronto – TransGaming, Inc. and Ubisoft®  have collaborated with TransGaming to bring The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom™ video game to Mac® via TransGaming’s Cider Portability Engine. TransGaming, a leading developer of portability technologies for the electronic entertainment industry, brings the Mac version of The Settlers 7 Paths to a Kingdom simultaneously with the PC release to both traditional retailers and online merchants including, GameTreeOnline.com. This new global release extends TransGaming’s partnership with Ubisoft, that includes Prince of Persia® and Shaun White titles, and continues the collaboration of bringing great video game content to the Mac community.

The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning strategy game, The Settlers®: Rise of an Empire, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom will also offer an exclusive Gold/Collector edition of the game available for purchase via download only. The standard and Gold/Collector editions are available immediately for consumers to purchase and download.

“We are pleased to bring another great Ubisoft game to the Mac, and the simultaneous deployment could only be made possible through our Cider engine,” commented Vikas Gupta, President & CEO of TransGaming, Inc. “Settlers is an award winning franchise, and I’m sure the Mac community will be thrilled to have access to this great new release through both retail channels and GameTreeOnline.com.”

“Ubisoft is excited about the simultaneous multiplatform release of The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom™,” said Carrie Tice, Senior Director of Strategic Sales & Partnerships at Ubisoft. “The partnership with TransGaming to bring our titles to the Mac allows us to expand our business and serve the growing Mac gaming community with new and exciting game releases.”

The standard edition is priced at $49.99 and is available via digital download and at retailers, with the exclusive Gold/Collector edition only available via digital download for $59.99. In addition to the standard edition game play, the Gold/Collector edition provides exclusive unlockable content for consumers, including: one exclusive map, the original soundtrack of the game and additional castle forge elements – including a gate, balcony, bay, gargoyle and two windows – allowing players to customize their castles and make their cities unique

Gormley – Digital Leisure has announced their latest title, Chess Challenge! for the Wii. According to the title’s info page, patience will be key going up against the best players from around the world with Chess Challenge! Perfect your chess skills by playing against the computer in multiple difficulty modes or using the Nintendo ® Wi-Fi Connection service to start climbing the worldwide rankings. Win online matches and even see how your chess rating stacks up against the world by viewing the online Leaderboard.

If you don’t have time to play your friends in a live chess game, Chess Challenge! also lets you play up to five different Wii Friends using WiiConnect24. With full Mii support you can really bring your games to life! Start off practicing on some casual games, and work your way up to fully ELO rated matches. With all of these gameplay options you have some serious chess action awaiting you!

Kitchener – IGLOO Software has announced the availability of free online communities with business-ready solution templates. IGLOO’s free offering is ideal for project teams, SMB’s, not-for-profits and associations.

IGLOO’s online communities offer powerful content management, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, within one secure, cloud-based social solution. In the free edition, users can experience the benefits of an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface for web publishing and information sharing; Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, messaging and forums for collaboration; and personal profiles for social interaction and professional networking.

“Our free version is truly game-changing”, said Dan Latendre, CEO of IGLOO Software. “In this new world of Web 2.0, offering a free version of your software has become a normal course of business,” he added. “But, unlike other free social offerings, our community solutions are focused on the needs of the business user – helping them to identify, connect and leverage the talent, knowledge and relationships that reside in their organization.”

Online communities, powered by IGLOO Software can be up and running in less than 60 seconds. Start from scratch or choose from a collection of preconfigured solution templates:

* Corporate Website
* Intranet/Team Space
* Partner Portal
* Customer Support Site
* Classroom & eLearning

Additional business templates will be available soon, including Project Team, Research Community, Sales & Marketing Community and an Event Site template.

“As with the introduction of any new technology, the smart organization starts small. [Make sure to] carefully define the business issue you want to address and work closely with business leaders in a controlled pilot to ensure that your organization will embrace social technologies,” said Rob Koplowitz, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research.

IGLOO Software also offers a variety of value-added services, optional modules and upgrade features such as: BlackBerry® client to connect a mobile workforce; e-commerce integration to process paid memberships, donations or shopping cart transactions; desktop client integration to improve productivity; custom domain creation to reinforce branding; real-time communications integration with Skype™, Windows Live™ Messenger, Google Talk™ and Yahoo!® Messenger; Salesforce.com integration to improve visibility into sales and marketing metrics for Social CRM; and Microsoft® SharePoint integration to leverage existing infrastructure to access and share existing corporate information.

IGLOO’s free online community edition is available immediately. The free edition is available for the first 25 members with unlimited anonymous users. To upgrade to IGLOO’s Basic Edition for more than 25 members, pricing begins at less than $4/user. There is Enterprise Edition pricing available for large corporations, where entry level support begins at $2,000. There is also a collection of professional services packages to meet the needs of any budget.

Montreal – Ubisoft has unveiled the Assassin’s Creed Personal Space for the PlayStation Network. Available today for $4.99, the Personal Space includes a multi-player tower defense-style game where Assassins will battle Templars along with concept art, the Animus 2.0 database, the full Lineage live action short film and dev blogs.

Ubisoft has also confirmed that Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction™ is on schedule and will be in stores next month. They’ve also released the latest Dev Video, which you can watch below:

Toronto – Leading independent studio E1 Entertainment has signed a long-term distribution agreement with kids production company Amberwood Entertainment. Through the deal, E1 will handle worldwide distribution rights for Amberwood first-run and selected kids catalogue programming, act as the global sales agent for its animated “Rob the Robot” series and secures first-look at all future projects.

Specializing in but not limited to animation, Amberwood creates, develops, finances and produces its properties which are then licensed throughout the world. Amberwood’s portfolio of titles now handled by E1 consists of more than 240 half hours of programming including well-known children’s brands such as “The Secret World of Benjamin Bear” (39 x 30) which is licensed to over 120 territories and currently in production on season 4 (13 x 30); “Rob the Robot” (26 x 30) currently in production, as well as popular library titles including “Zeroman” (13 x 30), “Hoze Houndz” (78 x 30) and “Katie and Orbie” (78 x 30).

“Amberwood is one of Canada’s most prestigious producers of high-quality children and family programming,” said Peter Emerson, President, E1 Television. “This distribution agreement and first look arrangement compliments our overall strategy to grow our global kids business.”

“Amberwood has distributed its productions to over 120 territories worldwide and we are confident that E1 can further this success” stated Jonathan Wiseman, Senior Vice President at Amberwood.

E1 Entertainment has been growing its E1 Kids division by partnering with acclaimed creative talent worldwide to bring award-winning content to life. The deal with Amberwood is in keeping with the company’s strategy to aggressively grow E1 Kids, which has seen tremendous success to-date with properties such as “Peppa Pig” and “Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom” in the UK and “Majority Rules” in North America. The deal also comes on the heels of an announcement of a kids’ television development deal with legendary rockers KISS.

“Backed by the success of our properties such as Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly, E1 Entertainment is rapidly becoming recognized as a leader in the production and distribution of quality kids programming around the globe,” said Patrice Theroux, President, E1 Filmed Entertainment division. “This deal fulfills several key priorities for our E1 Kids business – it gives us a stronger presence in the Canadian market, creates opportunities for future Canada-UK co-productions, it brings further diversity to our kids programming library and it provides us with an ongoing relationship with an established producer of quality kids programs.”

Montreal – iCongo Inc., a leading provider of e-commerce, multi-channel, order management and marketing systems, announced today the release of M-Commerce as part of its industry renowned E-Commerce Platform. iCongo customers can immediately take advantage of their existing platform to explore the mobile channel.

The addition of mobile technology in the iCongo E-Commerce Platform is a natural next step for a marketplace that is ready to use M-Commerce. “Our customers count on us to help grow their businesses through iCongo’s growing suite of solutions, services and consultative approach to maximizing online revenue. M-Commerce is a growth channel and we want our customers to tap into the benefits early. Consumers expect to buy any product from anywhere and have it fulfilled from any store location, something mobile marketing and a mobile storefront powered by iCongo’s Cross-Channel systems provides. It brings our endless aisle literally to the palms of the consumer.” Stated Steven Kramer, President for iCongo.

Retailers looking to launch mobile storefronts can protect their existing investment, using iCongo’s mobile offering which leverages existing CMS (Content Management System) and marketing tools to push content to a mobile-optimized storefront. In addition, retailers can maintain their PCI compliance across all channels through iCongo’s PCI Compliant multi-channel E-Commerce Platform.

“iCongo’s approach to M-Commerce has been developed in conjunction with our clients feedback and needs in mind,” added Steven Kramer, President for iCongo “As a provider with cross-channel capabilities, the iCongo E-Commerce Platform can take all the benefits already achieved through cross-channel and in-store integration strategies and transfer those same benefits to the mobile channel.”

With iCongo’s E-Commerce Platform including M-Commerce and Cross-Channel, retailers are well positioned to maximize each channel’s potential, meet every customer’s request, in any channel – anywhere and offer all the functionality that will set them apart including anywhere-to-anywhere fulfillment, find it in store, and return/pick-up in store.

Vancouver via GDC

This video supports its showing at this year’s Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, Calif. March 11-13, 2010. As one of the 2010 Independent Game Festival (IGF) finalists (and recognized for its excellence in “Visual Art”), Shank will be on display at the IGF Pavilion during regular Expo Hall hours.

Montreal – Ubisoft has released a new game play trailer for Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands. In Forgotten Sands, the developers are using the setting to take the Prince back to the roots which were a big part of Sands of Time. Our hero will travel to his older brother Malik’s kingdom, which is under attack by the Sand Army. Those gamers who played Sands of Time will be able to make use of the Prince’s signature moves and acrobatics in The Forgotten Sands. Using the same Anvil Engine which was built for Assassin’s Creed, The Forgotten Sands will feature a rich environment with massive battle scenes. Just from watching the trailer, I know that my Prince character will be facing certain death a good amount of the time, however – The Forgotten Sands looks to me like another beautifully crafted historic time piece with lots of room to explore and details to take in.

Burnaby – Electronic Arts Inc. has announced the all-new Exotic Racing Series pack for Need for Speed SHIFT. On March 18th, gamers will have access to seven phenomenal new cars and an amazing new track in the game. Highlighting this exclusive pack of cars are the McLaren MP4-12C and the legendary BMW M1. Players won’t find more brilliance, innovation, or drama than in these magnificent machines, where each is a potent mix of race car and road car. The Exotic Racing Series pack will be available worldwide on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system for $10.00 or the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for $10.00 or 800 Microsoft Points ^{(Xbox LIVE® or PlayStation Network account required)}.

Over 50 exciting new events have also been created specifically for these cars including time challenges, endurance and sprint races. The challenging and spectacular new Riviera track boasts four unique layouts, each with daring corners, multiple blazing straight-aways and a few hairpins that will push these cars to the limit. Players that complete the package will receive an additional 125 Microsoft gamerpoints or 5 PlayStation Trophies as a reward for undertaking various exciting challenges.

The Exotic Racing Series pack cars include:

1. Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
2. BMW M1 Procar
3. GUMPERT apollo
4. Honda NSX
5. McLaren MP4-12C
6. Maserati GranTurismo S
7. Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss

Need for Speed SHIFT features an intense first-person crash dynamic and a signature cockpit view that delivers a true driver’s experience. The game further personalizes the experience through the all-new driver profile — a unique persona based on the driving skill and style of each player. Need for Speed SHIFT is now available on the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, mobile and the iPhone™.

Canada – Best Buy will launch the highly anticipated God of War III on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at midnight openings (12:01 a.m.) at select Best Buy Canada stores nationwide. The first 100 people who purchase God of War III at each of the participating stores hosting a midnight opening will receive a free God of War t-shirt. You can also trade in 2 select games and get God of War III for free from March 16-18, plus you will bet triple Reward Zone points if you purchase the game between March 16-18.

The following locations will be hosting midnight openings for the God of War III release:

1. Cambie – 2220 Cambie Street, Vancouver B.C.
2. Coquitlam – 1135 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam, B.C.
3. South Edmonton – 9931-19 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB
4. Deerfoot Meadows – Unit 300-8180 11 St. SE, Calgary, AB
5. St. James Street – A-810 St. James Street, Winnipeg, MB
6. Bay and Dundas – 65 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON
7. Heartland Town Centre – 1-6075 Mavis Road, Mississauga, ON

Edmonton – PureInbox Inc. has released a software suite called Syncamatic™, which is able to sync your contacts, calendar, memopad, tasks and files over the air to your BlackBerry®, Mac or PC.  BlackBerry® users can now synchronize, protect and easily transfer data with their mobile devices without the need for a third party server and the new software interfaces enables users to continue to use applications that they already know such as  Outlook and the BlackBerry® MemoPad and its native address book.

Users can now have their BlackBerry® smartphones’ contacts, calendar, tasks and memo’s in continuous sync. with your office, wirelessly. PureInBox is offering a free 30 day trial for the premium version of Syncamatic, and as an additional bonus, Syncamatic will include a new feature which automatically synchronizes Files. This new feature will enable users to download files to their BlackBerry® smartphones, edit the files and attach these files to emails. If you require your data to be current and in constant synch, Syncamatic is for you! Your data is encrypted and should you lose your smartphone we can reinstall your data on a new phone.

Vancouver -  HootSuite has added Foursquare and MySpace functionality to their social media dashboard. The release comes just in time for SXSW – the massive interactive media, film and music conference in Austin, Texas.

Mayor of the Nest

Foursquare combines way-finding, social marketing and gaming in an addictive mobile app which encourages everyday socialites to “check in” at cafes, bars, conferences, and other locations to alert their friends, share tips and even become “mayor” of a location. Additionally, using HootSuite, travelers can easily follow recommendation from locals when visiting other cities. This location-based tool also creates a unique marketing opportunity for businesses who seek valuable word-of-mouth advertising and endorsements from regular customers.

Bands, Meet Fans

MySpace is the first stop for fans and artists to discover, connect and communicate. Consistently in the top dozen websites, MySpace is home to an abundance of creatives – from bands to filmmakers. With HootSuite, the hundreds of bands playing at SXSW can easily outreach to fans about gig locations, surprise shows and new song releases. Likewise filmmakers can quickly rally attention across networks for screenings and release dates. Fans can also spread the word about noteworthy bands or movies to build buzz – or to just make their friends jealous – all from the HootSuite web dashboard.

Tools for Marketers

Today’s release includes a powerful addition of default settings to custom URL parameters which were added in HootSuite’s “Barn Owl” release (Feb. 15, 2010). This feature helps marketing and customer service teams track campaign results by adding unique referral identifiers. The release also includes a variety of bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Bar-B-Q and Apps in Austin

Following the Android and iPhone App launch on March 2, HootSuite coordinated this release with the 23rd annual SXSW conference – a massive gathering of web tech, media and artists in Austin, TX which frequently acts as a launch pad and test bed for new media products and services. The HootSuite team will be on-the-ground keeping an eye out for users updating Foursquare and MySpace with HootSuite and sharing swag specifically designed for the culture of the conference.

GDC – Palm, Inc. has announced that a public beta version of the Palm® webOS™ Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is now available at the Palm Developer Center. Palm is demonstrating new games from early PDK developers in its booth at GDC (No. 2016).

The PDK complements the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK), letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK and mix them seamlessly within a single app. The PDK enables new functionality, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform. Developers can download the beta PDK and start developing today, but distribution of games built with the beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update.

“Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it.”

“The Palm webOS PDK is extremely powerful and far-reaching, as evidenced by the number of titles we’ve been able to bring to the webOS platform in a very short time,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “It’s quite difficult to make a great phone that’s also an outstanding gaming platform; Palm has been successful delivering both.”

Vancouver and New York – 2K Sports announced today they have signed Ryan Kesler, star two-way forward for the Vancouver Canucks® and 2010 Winter Olympics Team USA member, to be featured as the cover athlete and spokesman for their upcoming video game, NHL® 2K11.

“Having the opportunity to participate in the Olympics and play in front of my home crowd was one of the best experiences of my life. To now be chosen as the next cover athlete for NHL 2K11 is another dream come true,” said Kesler, alternate captain for the Vancouver Canucks. “It was awesome to work with 2K Sports last year on the NHL 2K10 commercial shoot and the outdoor motion capture session on the Las Vegas strip was incredible to be a part of. I’m looking forward to having just as much fun again, and helping them make another great hockey game this year.”

Drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in 2003 as the 23rd overall pick in the first round, Kesler has spent his entire five-year NHL career with the Canucks. As a 2009 Selke Trophy finalist, awarded annually to the top defensive player in the league, Kesler has blossomed into one of the most feared and relentless players on the ice. Best known as a two-way forward, Kesler also set personal statistical records last season with 26 goals and 33 assists. He was honored with the Cyclone Taylor award last year as team MVP and has helped to lead the Canucks this year to the top of the Northwest division.

“Ryan is one of the most talented and exciting players to watch in the NHL today and his popularity has grown exponentially since the recent success of Team USA at the Winter Olympics,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. “We’re thrilled to have him represent NHL 2K11 and wish him the best of luck through the rest of this season.”

Being developed by Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio, NHL 2K11 is not yet rated by the ESRB and is scheduled to be available for Wii™ in fall 2010.

Toronto - As part of its ongoing commitment to be the centre of people’s online lives, Yahoo! Canada today announced its partnership with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to provide hockey fans with live streaming video of the network’s popular CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts starting Saturday, March 13 until the 2010 Stanley Cup champions are crowned in June.

For the first time ever, the more than 16 million Canadians who visit Yahoo! Canada every month can access the new CBC & Yahoo! Canada site and catch their favourite hockey teams on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada each week. CBC will be responsible for all sales and marketing initiatives on the new site.

“It’s no secret Canadians love hockey, and as part of the company’s focus on delivering ‘wow’ consumer experiences, Yahoo! Canada wanted to make the experience of watching games even better,” says Gina Cothey, director, audience, Yahoo! Canada. “Hockey fans can watch their favourite teams in action and catch up on all the news and analysis from the hockey world just by visiting Yahoo! Canada. CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada is an important part of Canadian culture, and Yahoo! Canada is excited to partner with the CBC to offer NHL fans this unique online viewing experience.”

“CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada is pleased to be working with Yahoo! Canada on this initiative,” says Scott Moore, executive director, CBC Sports. “Yahoo! Canada provides a unique platform for CBC to extend the best in CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada programming to Canadians. In addition to our complete line-up at CBCSports.ca, we’re ensuring that Canadians can experience Canada’s number one weekly sports program whenever and wherever they choose.”

CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada content featured at Yahoo.cbc.ca will include:

• CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts live and on demand
• Hot Stove – Ron MacLean’s second intermission feature focusing on the latest news and developments from around the hockey world
• Coast to Coast – CBC’s expert analysts break down the evening’s action
• Top 5’s – A list of all the top hockey events of the night
• Peter Puck – A 26-part animated series featuring the legendary Peter Puck, focusing on interesting and unique stories of players and remarkable moments in hockey
• The Opens – Popular show openings from CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts
• Game In An Hour – Games condensed into an hour-long format
• Player stats and profiles and game highlights

Today’s announcement further reflects Yahoo! Canada’s commitment to bring all the latest sporting news and information to Canadians. During last month’s Games in Vancouver, Yahoo! experts and athletes Elvis Stojko (figure skating), Jennifer Jones (curling) and Ken Daneyko (men’s hockey) provided popular insights and analysis around the competitions and competitors.

Canadians came to Yahoo! Canada Sports in record numbers during the Games in Vancouver, with more than 1.7 million unique visitors during the week of February 15^th to the 21^st alone (comScore Media Metrics), making Yahoo! Canada Sports one of the most visited online destinations during the Games. This represents almost a doubling of the number of unique visitors to Yahoo! Canada Sports in the earlier weeks of February 1^st to the 14^th.

To support the company’s continued focus on hockey, Yahoo! Canada recently hired Sam McCaig, formerly with The Hockey News, into the role as hockey editor where he is responsible for delivering the best hockey content to users for all of North America. Yahoo! Canada Sports will continue to invest in and increase its hockey coverage with a junior hockey site launching in April.

All awards are for work completed in Canada by December 31st 2009. This includes products that were certified gold during the 2009 calendar year. Please note: videogame upgrades, expansions and mission packs are not eligible.

Vancouver – We’d also like to remind  you that the Technology Impact Awards also has a nomination deadline of March 17th. The BCTIA Technology Impact Awards celebrate the successes of our industry and the companies, people and innovation that continue to put British Columbia on the map and who serve as role models for others in our province. The Technology Impact Awards will be presented at the BCTIA dinner on June 8th. The dinner will be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre beginning at 530pm.

Vancouver – Last evening we stopped in at the Masters of Digital Media portfolio presentations, as always we were very impressed with all of the projects going on. The instructors, mentors and administrators at the campus have much to be proud of, and we foresee a very bright future for all of the innovative students in the current class. We invite you to check out the industry projects which we got a look at last night. We were particularly impressed with the innovative eLearning application Wound Care as well as with the Rainforest Project and the Bateman Centre Visualization Project.

Vancouver – Following the portfolio presentation we went over to the Pacific Space Centre to attend the VANarts graduation ceremony. VANarts also has many students to be proud of, as witnessed in the many student reels which were presented for 2D and 3D animation, Visual Effects, Game Art and Design and Digital Photography. We wish the graduating class all the best as they venture out into the wonderful world of digital media.

British Columbia – Are you a BC innovator and/or entrepreneur? Don’t forget to register for New Ventures BC. If you wish to take part in the competition and vie for some pretty hefty prizing, the first deadline is April 19th. There is also a 10-week seminar & networking series which starts on April 6th. These business education seminars are open to anyone, with a registration fee of $20.00 per seminar.

Burnaby – EA has announced that there will be an English-language beta event this weekend for Need For Speed World. The dev team will be playing with their first group of play testers, looking for feedback on player experience as well as important information regarding stability and scalability. According to Senior Producer John Doyle, this beta weekend is the first of many planned events which will involve more teams of (invited) play testers as the dev team looks at more aspects, options and areas of NFS World.

In his community announcement, Doyle also stated that the NFS community is invited “to model a car for launch. We’ve seen some of the amazing work you’ve done with our PC games once they’ve shipped and we’d like to showcase some of that work in World. Our good friends at Porsche have agreed to give players the chance to model the 959 for inclusion in the game and get credit for their creation.” EA will be announcing further details about this model activity at a later date.

Calgary – Ph03nix New Media today announced the availability of a new developer video for their recent addition to the App Store, Hottie Hookups. This humorous, behind the scenes video features Big Stack Studio’s Daniel Kratt and Craig Rushforth, along with the rest of the team, giving insight on their latest project as well as exposing a few their own geeky tendencies.

Along with the developer interview comes gameplay footage of this comical and irreverent title. Viewer beware, there is no shortage of geezers, nerds, and cougars.

Xbox Live has made a change to its Terms of Use and Code of Conduct which effects GamerTag names. According to Marc Whitten, General Manager at Xbox LIVE, these changes “will allow our members to more freely express their race, nationality, religion and sexual orientation in Gamertags and profiles. Under our previous policy, some of these expressions of self-identification were not allowed in Gamertags or profiles to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs. However we have since heard feedback from our customers that while the spirit of this approach was genuine, it inadvertently excluded a part of our Xbox LIVE community. This update also comes hand-in-hand with increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms.” While I personally feel that the gaming community is maturing somewhat in terms of behaviour, there will sadly be those who still feel the need to behave badly in mixed company, and while I feel that these changes are a positive move forward for the XBL community, I hope that those small-minded gamers find it within themselves to overcome their nastiness and evolve into a positive force in the Xbox community.

Quebec – Meridian4 has announce that they have signed a digital publishing agreement with Headup Games to publish their future titles for three years, starting with the turn-based strategy title Future Wars.

“Expanding our well-working and established partnership with Meridian4 to a full portfolio scenario is the next strategic and logical step towards our aim to reach gamers on a worldwide level throughout all retail and media channels. We started strong with the first two titles and are very much looking forward to bringing and creating new franchises together with their very experienced team” said Dieter Schoeller, Managing Director of Headup Games.

“Our initial agreement with them for Greed and Gear Grinder was very successful and we are delighted that we are able to continue to work with Headup Games. Their original and unique titles, such as Future Wars are a great match with our audience. We know that this title will do well and will have a wide appeal to all types of gamers.” said Andy Sher, CEO at Meridian4.

Similar to classic titles such as Advance Wars and Battle Isle, the game takes turn-based strategy gaming away from the micro-management overkill that it has become and using simple, proven rock-paper-scissors principles, reopens the genre to a wider audience.

With a modern 3D engine providing the graphics, a proven, easy to learn, but difficult to master set of rules surrounded by an engaging plot and challenging gameplay, the game will appeal to newcomers and hard-core gamers alike.

Also available is unlimited access and infinite possibilities to mod the game through open data structure, open scripts and an easy-to-use editor.

• Modern 3D graphics & proven gameplay embedded in an engaging and sometimes, humorous plot
• Infinite modding possibilities through open data structure, open scripts and editor
• Novel and unique game modes such as AI vs. AI or play-by-email
• Rock-paper-scissors principle makes Future Wars easy to learn but difficult to master
• In-game achievements encourages replay to acquire top honors

Vancouver

“We’re very delighted to have partnered with Metaboli and to be helping them expand their subscriber base across the globe, especially with their many telecom partners in Europe and GameTap’s service in the United States. There is a strong fit between both companies regarding our culture and goals. Core to both of our company’s philosophies is creating the best experience possible for users playing games online,” says Nick Mellios, CEO of Yummy Interactive.

By integrating the Yummy Games delivery platform and associated APIs into its on demand service platform Metaboli has increased compatibility, download speeds and added more games to deliver exceptional value and ease of use for their customers such as British Telecom and France Telecom, along with their 50+ other white-label services.

Metaboli now offers support for games on 64-bit processors along with Microsoft Windows®7 compatibility. A variety of games will also support mods, patches, and custom maps adding even more value to Metaboli’s services.

“By partnering with Yummy we have been able to make a leap forward in our Games on Demand services. Because Yummy’s solution is so easy to integrate and feature-rich, we have been able to innovate for the next generation of online PC gaming, and we are now even better positioned to take advantage of the paradigm shift to downloadable game content,” said Olivier Decrock, CEO of Metaboli.

Edmonton – Bioware has updated the Dragon Age wiki with new information about Dragon Age: Awakening. Players can get more advance information about the enhancements coming when Awakening is released in two weeks for Mages and Rogues. It appears that there will also be new information coming soon for Warriors, Armour and Weapons, but those pages have not yet been added to the Wiki. In the meantime, here is the latest trailer which introduces Mhairi, one of the newest Grey Warden recruits.

Dragon Age: Awakening, rated M by the ESRB, is scheduled to hit store shelves on March 16th. I have my pre-order in place, have you got yours?

Montreal – The achievements list for Splinter Cell: Conviction has been released on the Xbox360 Achievements site. There will be 45 initial achievements worth a total of 1000 gamer points, with 18 of those achievements listed as Secret. Secret Achievements drive me crazy, because I’m always afraid that I will miss some little clue or pick-up that will unlock the secrets of the Secret Achievements. For the named achievements, it looks like there is a good mix of single player and co-op tasks to complete, so I hope that some of my regular Xbox 360 co-op partners are picking up this title. Part 3 of the Multiplayer video series for Conviction was posted last week on You Tube, so in case any of you missed it, you can watch it here:

Splinter Cell: Conviction is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal and scheduled for release on April 13. This title is rated M by the ESRB.

Toronto – Registration is now open for Canada 3.0 2010, which is taking place in Stratford, ON this coming May 10th & 11th. Early Bird pricing closes on March 19th – attendees can register now for $495.00 + taxes and service charge. After March 19th, registration goes up to $595.00 + taxes and service charge. The Student Rate is $95.00 between now and May 10th.

Vancouver - If you’re like me and couldn’t attend the VX2010 speaker events which were held during the Olympics, you can now listen to the audio recordings on the Vancouver Experience web site. If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to visit the VX2010 showcase, again, the same as me, you’ll be happy to know that the showcase is still open. For more information about visiting the showcase, please check the Showcase Information page.

Vancouver – SoundOfMotion has officially launched AlpineSport – a mobile application for alpine sports: mountain bicycling, snowboarding alpine and cross-country skiing. AlphineSport debuted at the British Columbia Sport Technology and Innovation Show in Vancouver, which was hosted by the Government of British Columbia and the BC Innovation Council. The BC Sport Technology & Innovation Show highlighted home-grown BC sport technologies and innovation to international and domestic business visitors in Vancouver for 2010 Winter Olympic Games Winter Olympic Games.

Alpine sport athletes strive to know their speed or pace, altitude, climb or drop, time and distance and many other performance data to excel in their sports. Recreational alpine enthusiasts are also interested in performance data as well as mapping and sharing routes. Available now on Android Market, AlpineSport users can upload their data to the web portal and share with their friends via Twitter.

The AlpineSport application utilizes the power of smartphones with GPS and accelerometer. It provides sports performance monitoring, tracking, mapping and navigation for alpine sports. The application uses accelerometer to measure cadence in rotations per minute (RPM) for cyclists and strides per minute for cross-country skiers. It calculates G-forces (force of gravity) and air time (zero gravity) for skiers and snowboarders taking a jump.

All performance data, including speed, time, distance, GPS route, cadence, air time, G-force, strides per minute is recorded on the phone’s memory card in a simple CSV file and can be viewed on Google Earth in 3D.

Since the phone’s display is not easily accessible during the ride AplineSport application uses audible feedback for monitoring speed and pace, cadence, strides or air time. Users can record their own sounds and customize application when certain sounds should be played on external speakers or via a headset. By using audible feedback user can know important performance data without looking at the display.

Toronto – Conalgo, the folks who brought Tun3r to the world, have unveiled “Milk Crater” the world’s first real-time audio iPod browser. Unlike other iPod applications (including Apple’s own iPod application), Milk Crater allows the listener to browse an expansive tiled grid of their iTunes cover art. As the listener glides over a particular square, the audio switches in real time to the corresponding audio track. If the user returns to the same spot, she will hear the same track from where she left off.

Because the transitions between songs are seamless and uninterrupted, listeners are able to enter a mental state of “flow” when browsing music. It is this deeper level of immersion while browsing that becomes a new experience unto itself – not unlike creating music.

In order to assist users, Milk Crater also includes search functionality consistent with its ultra-fast interface. It is also simple and fast for the user to add tracks to playlists as they browse. Playlists can be saved for later or even exported.

“I’ve been bringing Milk Crater to parties and get-togethers and am always surprised by the reaction and how quickly people ‘get it.’ It’s been a great icebreaker,” said Neil Hepburn, GM of marketing.

Milk Crater has been translated into eight major languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese, German, Italian. The is currently on sale in the iTunes App Store for $2.99

Toronto

“It is an honour to receive accolades from such an esteemed group of industry peers,” said Tom McGillis, President, Fresh TV Inc. “I would like to especially thank our amazing team at Fresh TV as these awards embody the team’s continued dedication to creating quality, engaging shows.”

Stoked is an animated situational comedy about teens who come together one summer to work at world renowned Surfer’s Paradise Resort, home of the best surfing in the country. For twelve weeks they will spend their first summer away from home, work hard, and most importantly, have the opportunity to surf on their days off.

The series (26 x 30’) broadcasts Monday-Friday on Cartoon Network in the US and on TELETOON in Canada.

Edmonton – Bioware has released several new screenshots for the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins expansion chapter Awakening. These new images focus on Vigil’s Keep in Amaranthine, which had previously served as the base of operations for the Howe family and their troops. .

Amaranthine was the first of the Fereldan arlings to fall to the Orlesian occupation. As the port city burned, its ruling family, the Howes, fled to the countryside to wage a guerrilla war against the invaders that lasted for generations. No matter how enormous of a bounty the Orlesians promised, they could not rid themselves of the wily Howes and their ever-growing number of sympathizers.

The Howes chose the ancient fortress of Vigil’s Keep as their primary base of operations, hiding the entire rebellion within the vast complex of storage rooms and caves beneath “The Vigil” — right underneath the noses of their oppressors. When the Orlesians were finally ousted, it was at Vigil’s Keep that the flag of Amaranthine was first raised again, amidst cheers of victory. Vigil’s Keep became the new home of the Howes. Following the downfall of the Howes in Origins, Vigil’s Keep and arling of Amaranthine came under the control of the Grey Wardens. If you want to learn more about the rise and fall of the Howes, you’ll have to pick up a copy of Dragon Age: Origins, because I’m not saying anything about how they betrayed their allies and friends.

Bioware has also released a short trailer to introduce of one of the new party NPCs you will meet when you play Dragon Age Awakening, Anders. According to the video’s description, many mages chafe under the Chantrys control, and Anders is no exception. Its a lucky thing that Anders despises blood mages as much as the Chantry does, else he might have been executed as a suspected maleficaru.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening will be available for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC on March 16, 2010. And yes – I have already placed my pre-order. Dragons, magic, spies, blood and gore – too much goodness to miss.

Ottawa – W!LDBRAIN, the award-winning entertainment company and one of the world’s foremost producers of animation, has entered into a partnership with Fuel Industries, the Ottawa-based digital agency and producer of popular interactive brands, including AllGirlArcade.com, to develop television, motion picture, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products utilizing the existing popularity of Fuel Industries’ entertainment properties.

“Fuel has a great body of characters and stories with limitless creative possibilities,” said Michael Polis, CEO, Wildbrain. “As a company, we will strategically integrate the proven Fuel Industries branded properties and characters into our studio’s content and distribution businesses. Under this agreement, we are looking at a number of properties that have the potential to become sustainable franchises and growth drivers on a number of media platforms,” he continued.

“Our development deal with W!LDBRAIN, combined with their successful portfolio of world-class animation and family entertainment, is a major step in our company’s efforts to realize the full potential of our

interactive properties,” said Mike Burns, CEO of Fuel Industries. “As a digital agency expanding into an original content creator, we are confident that our expertise in building audiences for brands will continue to generate success for our own IP.”

Current Fuel Entertainment properties in development and/or production at Wildbrain include:

AllGirlArcade.com – A rapidly-expanding tween girl gaming portal and virtual world (Spark City) based on Fuel’s ‘Clik Stars’ property. The property is currently one of the web’s fastest growing girl’s portals, and includes a vibrant social network and a host of original web and mobile games based on the colorful characters.

Fairies and Dragons – A property for kids 6-10 that appeals to both girls and boys through the unique combination of four fairies and their elemental dragon friends into a magical storyline that has already captured hearts across Europe as the world’s first Digital McDonald’s Happy MealTM.

Sideway – A property for teenage boys that captures the art, passion and individuality of the underground graffiti culture that lives within today’s urban youth. Sideway follows the adventures of Noz, a rebellious New York youth, and his mysterious journey through the wacked out realm of Sideway, a two-dimensional world that exists solely on the city’s walls.

Tetsurai – Set in an alternate industrial future of hissing steam and clanking iron, Tetsurai is an engrossing property for teen boys that combines television, an MMO, an arcade fighter and a role-playing game in a dark, sci-fi package.

Montreal

Vancouver – IUGO has just announced that Cliffed: Norm’s World is now available on the iTunes App Store, and it’s free. Cliffed: Norm’s World is the Lite version of the highly addictive title Cliffed ($1.99USD), and allows players to experience  unlimited game play as the Cliffed character Norm. This lite version also allows for full-featured multiplayer experiences.

Edmonton – Another special on iTunes involves Bioware’s Mass Effect 2. Dark Horse Comics will be releasing Mass Effect Redemption #1 for free for one day only, on February 3. After the initial 24 hour period, Redemption #1 will then sell for $0.99USD. Redemption #2 is also scheduled for release in comic book stores on February 3. In Redemption #2, Liara T’Soni searches Omega — the most dangerous space station in the galaxy — for clues that could save humanity’s greatest hero, Commander Shepard. Redemption #1 is also included in the Collector’s Edition of Mass Effect 2.

Vancouver – Relic has released some early looks at the Chaos multiplayer units for the upcoming Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. Head over to the Relic Blog to get a closer look at the Space Marines, Havocs and Heretics who have fallen to the Dark gods of Chaos. Relic also recently released the full soundtrack for Company of Heroes, which is available for free on the game’s Steam page, where you can also purchase all three Company of Heroes titles for a special packaged price of $49.99USD.

Vancouver – Absolute® Software Corporation has launched Absolute Manage, the rebranded version of the Company’s recently-acquired cross-platform IT asset management solution. The new solution from Absolute complements its Computrace® family of data security, tracking and theft recovery solutions with full-featured computer life-cycle management capabilities.

Absolute Manage, formerly LANrev, provides organizations with an easy and automated way to manage PC and Mac® computers, as well as iPhone® devices, from a single interface. IT administrators using Absolute Manage can efficiently manage all their assets by automating time-consuming IT processes such as software distribution, patch management, asset inventory and imaging. Additionally, it helps organizations save money by allowing them to track installed applications and licenses, redeploy under-used licenses and hardware to maximize inventory, and avoid non-compliance fines. The MSRP for a standalone one-year license is $24.95 USD.

Some of the capabilities of Absolute Manage include the following:

- Application & License Management – Deploy software and manage licenses across the network.

- Security, Change & Configuration Management – Remotely monitor and adjust configurations, and execute files.

- Automated Patch Management – Centrally manage and install patches, and report on patch status for all managed systems.

- Computer Imaging – Install a complete OS plus all standard applications onto Mac computers while in use or just out of the box.

- Power Management – Comply with green initiatives and lower total cost of ownership by remotely enforcing power saving policy profiles.

- Asset Inventory – Collect hardware and software data points from devices over the network and analyze the information for timely and fact-based asset management decisions.

Calgary – ICEsoft™ Technologies, Inc. has announced the release of ICEpdf 4.0, an open source PDF rendering technology for Java.

ICEpdf is a lightweight Java rendering library that can be easily integrated within any Java-based client application or deployed on a server in headless mode as a PDF Servlet (JSP or JSF). ICEpdf is ideal for providing PDF viewing and navigation as well as PDF content conversion and extraction without the hassles of Java-to-native integration issues.

This latest version of ICEpdf contains numerous product improvements, bug fixes, and is now capable of:

* PDF document editing and saving for Link Annotation edits.
* Text selection and clipboard actions.
* The search API has been completely revamped allowing for search result highlighting, and more.

“Since ICEpdf was open sourced 8 months ago, the product has experienced unprecedented adoption”, says Robert Lepack”, VP of Marketing and Business Development at ICEsoft. “This latest release of ICEpdf adds important new features and capabilities that our customers, as well as community members, have been asking for.”

Feedback from gamers has been very positive, with one gamer stating that “The game has one of the most insanely strategic combat systems I’ve ever seen in an RPG!” Another gamer felt that the new demo, which features dramatic story driven cut scene samples & easy to follow instructions is very exciting, saying that “It was cool to see what my characters can get and become!”

Q1 2010 Features to look forward to include story driven cut scenes which will be integrated throughout the game, leading the player’s adventures. KWO Advanced Demo will be integrated as an advanced tutorial for the seasoned gamer, and quick keys tips screens will become accessible in game. Krabbitsoft has also announced that Party Play is also coming to Krabbit World Origins. Gather up to four party members consisting of both main and henchie Krabbits as you play through the quest stream. Experience your choice of six classes first hand, each with their unique powers and symbiotic weapon. Take control of individual party members at your discretion leaving the others to fight at your side or from a distance.

Gothic Alien Beauty of Krabbits Wallpapers:

Advanced demo background screens are now available as high resolution wallpapers. These new wallpapers feature six hand painted portraits of custom Krabbits showing off their Gothic alien beauty. This unique race comes into its own maturing as a noteworthy IP bravely breaking the mold of same old same old. KWO’s extraordinary color engine gives gamers the means to create Gothic beauties of their own.

KrabbitSoft has taken the next community building step with sharing KWO development & lore, expanding the reach of KWO and its players, who are encouraged to join and be heard.

• Development blogs – follow the developers as they share their journey
• Twitter, Facebook, Forum & YouTube tie-ins – instant access to community platforms
• Lite box videos & screenshots – easy viewing of game media
• Current release version – up front version info
• Avatar Gallery – extensive library of custom Krabbits to choose from
• Visitor polls (coming soon) – share your opinion

Montreal – Software entertainment publisher Strategy First proudly announce the New Year’s Meltdown promotion. The promotion will feature discounts on new releases and all back catalogue titles,  focusing heavily towards War Gamers everywhere.

New war game releases featured in the promotion include ‘9th Company: Roots Of Terror’, ‘World War I’, ‘Death To Spies’, ‘Stalingrad’, ‘Iron Clads: American Civil War’, ‘Cannon Strike’, ‘XIII: Century Gold Edition’ and ‘WW II: Time Of Wrath’.

“Gamers everywhere believe in Peace on Earth, except when it comes to great game play and prices.” says Strategy First Director Emanuel Wall “We want to wish everyone a happy holiday and New Year.”

The New Year’s Meltdown promotion will run from Dec.23, 2009 and end on January.4, 2010. All listed prices will receive a discount of 20 – 50 percent, depending on the title.

Victoria – Tecagora Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of PhotoCenter, an online service for consumers to order photo prints and other photo gift products.

In today’s world of technology, digital cameras are becoming smaller, camera resolution and memory card storage continue to get larger, and the price of cameras and memory card storage are becoming more affordable. Despite today’s world of advanced technology in online photo sharing and digital photo frames to display your photos, many consumers still prefer the traditional printing of photos, flipping through photo albums, and creating scrapbooks.

“Tecagora has always envisioned providing software solutions and services designed to make things easier to do for photo enthusiasts,” states Bruce Kwan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tecagora. “There is immense value and convenience in being able to select the photos to print, and order photo gifts from the comfort of your home and have them delivered right to your door. With PhotoCenter, we’re please to offer quality prints and products to help showcase your photos.”

By using the PhotoCenter services, Tecagora has eliminated the need of driving to a local retailer, waiting in line for a photo kiosk or at a service desk, and going through the process of selecting the photos and waiting for them to print. Products available from the PhotoCenter include items such as standard photo prints, canvas prints, posters, mugs, t-shirts, and puzzles. The PhotoCenter Product-Builder also helps to create and design the photo gifts right before your eyes. With PhotoCenter, ordering photo prints and gifts is simple to do, fast, and easy to use.

To end today’s Christmas Eve News, I’d like to send you over to the Bootup Labs Blog to experience their fun music video featuring “The folks from all of the companies at Bootup Labs and the rockstars of Strutta.”

To all of Village Gamer’s readers – stay warm, stay safe and have a happy holiday season.

Wwise 2009.3 includes the following new features and enhancements:
• McDSP effects: ML1 and FutzBox
• Peak meters on limiter effects
• Vorbis: major memory optimizations
• New & improved file packager
• Profiler data statistics

Audiokinetic and McDSP had announced a technological partnership a few months ago, and the ML1 and FutzBox plug-ins are the first results of this collaboration.

Audiokinetic also gave a sneak-peek of its roadmap for Wwise for 2010, and revealed that new features will include a convolution reverb. “We’re pursuing our goal to see Wwise become a comprehensive platform for sound design, while answering our customers’ needs,” said Simon Ashby, VP Product Strategy, Audiokinetic. “Our users asked for more high-quality effects and a convolution reverb, so we’re delivering these, and more.”

In parallel, Audiokinetic revealed a new pricing structure based on a “buy more – pay less” approach. The pricing structure allows game developers to qualify for discounts if they purchase several products developed by Audiokinetic.

• Purchase of 2 products grants a 5% discount;
• Purchase of the Power Pack – the combination of Wwise, Wwise Motion, SoundSeed Impact, SoundSeed Air, the 2 McDSP effects and the upcoming convolution reverb – grants a 20% discount.

“Our products are powerful yet affordable, and this new pricing structure offers a great value for money,” said Geneviève Laberge, VP Sales, Audiokinetic. “For example, purchasing the Power Pack for 1 title on 2 platforms now costs $33K – that’s an economy of $8,250 compared to the individual price of these 6 valuable products.”

Toronto – Wired Woman Toronto is in need of businesswomen who are interested in joining their mentorship programme as mentors. Wired Woman’s Mentorship programs run in both Toronto and Vancouver, and are for women entering or re-entering the work-force and targets women requiring career guidance. This career mentorship experience is enhanced with networking events and education workshops. Applications for prospective mentors and mentees are accepted all year long.

Montreal – At some time overnight, an (apparently Russian) hacker took over the official site for Splinter Cell, replacing at least the home page (I didn’t venture through bookmarks to test the other pages) with a black and grey static page and message in Russian, which roughly translates to:

Occasionally the security system will be switched off for planned work and data protection. During such work may be a breach in security from external threats. Thus, all off would be a random character in accordance with a random pattern of Delta-3-6-Oscar

The crest, which first appears on the hacked site and then in a text image makes use of the Romanov double-headed eagle, and the GPS co-ordinates in the lower right corner relate to Saint Petersburg in western Russia. The hacker left a message in the replaced source code, including his hacker handle in order to claim his conquest.

Hopefully the web teams at Ubisoft will be able to reclaim the Splinter Cell site soon and plug the holes which allowed outside access soon.

Still over at Ubisoft, the latest Dev Diary blog has been posted for Avatar the Game; today’s topic is Conquest, which is a real-time strategical mini game in which players must capture and hold territory for their chosen Faction, ultimately gaining control of Pandora.

Montreal – The National Film Board of Canada is proud to release the DVD box set Jacques Drouin: Complete Pinscreen Works as of December 2, 2009. Drouin’s name is inextricably linked to the legendary Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen, with which he produced a unique and poetic body of work.

The box set will be launched at a tribute to Jacques Drouin at the Sommets du cinéma d’animation, at the Cinémathèque québécoise, on Saturday, December 5 at 5 p.m. The event will include a screening of the documentary portrait Jacques Drouin en relief, by Guillaume Fortin.

“Jacques Drouin is a major figure in NFB history,” said Julie Roy, producer of the box set. “For three decades, he was the only filmmaker in the world who was working with the pinscreen, the incredible “dream machine” invented around 1930 by the Russian-born French filmmaker Alexander Alexeïeff. With his high-quality oeuvre, constant experimentation and eminently personal vision, Drouin proved that the pinscreen could express the imagination of people other than its inventor.”

A box set in the prestigious Mémoire collection, Jacques Drouin: Complete Pinscreen Works brings together the six animated shorts Drouin made at the NFB, including his now classic Mindscape (1976), all digitally restored for the collection created to preserve significant film works for the collective memory. Bonus features include four student films, two trailers and several animated sequences with the director’s commentary, as well as Jacques Drouin in Relief. Made specially for the box set, this documentary portrait offers new insights into the work of an outstanding artist. Complementing the films is a bilingual booklet containing essays by animation experts, Drouin’s notes and other invaluable archival documents.

Since Alexeïeff’s death in 1982, the only pinscreen in use anywhere in the world is the one acquired by the NFB in 1972. It consists of 250,000 pins, each inserted in its own hole through a vinyl screen held in a rigid frame. It was with this ingenious device that Jacques Drouin made all of his films, from Trois exercices sur l’écran d’épingles d’Alexeïeff, in 1974, to Imprints, in 2004. Today, animator Michèle Lemieux (Stormy Night) is using it to make her animated short Le grand ailleurs et le petit ici, produced by Julie Roy and slated for release in 2011.

A National Film Board of Canada production, the box set Jacques Drouin: Complete Pinscreen Works goes on sale at the NFB’s online store on December 2, 2009. It can by purchased by phoning 1?800?287?7710 or visiting the website .

The ten teams were playing Dragon Age: Origins, one of the most anticipated games of the fall release schedule. They played for the full 24 hours, switching off team members so they could rest up and develop strategies. Dragon Age: Origins will be released to the public on November 3rd.

Montreal - The Army of Two: 40th Day team has released the second part of their Dev Series, with Eric Chartrand continuing his discussion about the Multi-Player component for the game. Details are given about matchmaking, client servers and more. Army of Two: 4oth Day is in development at EA Montreal and will be released on January 12 2010.

Vancouver – Disruptive Media Publishers (DP), a leading provider of Xbox 360 personalization content, announced the release of a new collection of avatar apparel items featuring 30 top U.S. universities. The release marks the first time users can personalize their Xbox LIVE® Avatars with officially licensed university branded apparel licensed through The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), a division of IMG Worldwide. From varsity jackets to fitted caps, hooded sweatshirts, polo shirts and shoes, hundreds of unique university branded items are now available on Xbox LIVE Avatar Marketplace.

“Xbox LIVE Avatar Marketplace has been incredibly popular with our community,” said Christina DeRosa, General Manager, Xbox LIVE. “We know Xbox LIVE members love to represent themselves and their personalities through their Avatars – in fact, people have changed their clothes nearly 150 million times! Now whether you’re a student, alumni or simply a fan, you can wear your university gear with pride, which is truly exciting.”

“Universities have been cautious with regards to the digital personalization space, but we have been impressed with the creativity and capabilities of Disruptive Publishers,” said David Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Non-Apparel Marketing, The Collegiate Licensing Company. “We are excited about Disruptive Publishers’ depth of licensed offerings as well as their plans for collegiate expansion.”

“We see this as a first step in allowing consumers a chance to personalize their avatars beyond the traditionally rooted fashion and gaming apparel often found on Marketplace,” said Otis Perrick, Disruptive Publishers Director of Business Development. “We know that Xbox 360 users are doing much more than playing games, so we’re excited to incorporate licensed real-world elements from the top brands, leagues, artists and photographers into some of the highest quality personalization content on the platform.”

Also new from Ubisoft are two new Avatar The Game videos which focus on Wii play. The first video shows one of the missions which involves destroying a dam shows how players can use both co-op and single play to move through the environment, removing enemies and cheating death along the way.

The second game footage video demonstrates how the Wii balance board can be used during game play. Avatar The Game’s Wii version also supports Wii MotionPlus, and if you don’t own a balance board (which we currently don’t), not to worry, it’s not a mandatory peripheral to play the game.

Montreal

Set up in 2000 in Paris and comprising a highly talented team of developers, the Nadeo studio has won acclaim for the quality of its multiplayer technology which offers one of the best available on-line gaming experiences and has already notched up 10 million registered players. Its flagship game – TrackMania® – has 700,000 unique players a month and is a pioneer in the sharing of creations (almost 15 million custom tracks created since 2008). It is also the first eSport franchise for racing games.

“The acquisition of Nadeo is an important step in our expansion within the on-line gaming sector”, said Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft. “Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best on-line technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community. We are excited about the idea of introducing TrackMania® to an ever-wider audience and sharing the expertise of Nadeo’s teams with our Group’s other developers”.

“Joining Ubisoft is a huge opportunity for us to develop and innovate and take Nadeo to new horizons”, said Florent Castelnérac, Chief Executive Officer of Nadeo. “Nadeo’s team was keen for this acquisition to happen. Like players in a community, we see ourselves as being a complementary fit with Ubisoft and believe that we can share and quickly move ahead together”.

On the home front,  Ubisoft Montreal has released a question and answer session with Avatar game script writer Kevin Shortt.

Kevin Shortt

1. Does the storyline follow that of the movie?

The game story and the film story are two completely different adventures. The game timeline is two years before the movie covering a story that happens on a different part of the moon, Pandora. Our goal was to expand on the universe that James Cameron has created. We didn’t want a repeat of the movie adventure in a game format. Instead, we wanted an opportunity for fans to learn more about this beautiful world and the growing conflict between the RDA and the Na’vi.

2. What is the storyline of the Next-Gen game?

In the NG story, you play a character named Able Ryder, a signals specialist brought from Earth to help the RDA track down a sacred site on Pandora. If the RDA can find it, they can take control of the planet away from the Na’vi. This will allow the RDA to continue their mining of the planet’s resources that are desperately needed back on Earth. The Na’vi learn of the plan and start their own race to find the sacred site. You’re soon faced with a choice: do you want to help the Na’vi preserve their way of life? Or do you want to join the RDA and help to restore order to a mission quickly falling out of control?

3. Who are the main characters?

• You play as Able Ryder, a Signals Specialist brought from Earth to join the Avatar Program, and to track down a sacred site on Pandora.

• Kendra Midori is your main contact for the RDA. She believes in the RDA cause and reluctantly understands that war may be unavoidable between the Na’vi and the RDA.

• Commander Falco is the Head of Security for the RDA. He sees the Na’vi as nothing more than a virus. A virus that has to be wiped clean if the RDA objectives are to be preserved.

• Dr. Harper is Head of the RDA’s Avatar Program. Through all his years on Pandora, Harper has formed a close bond with many of the Na’vi. He understands their way of life and he sees the destructive nature of the RDA mining operations.

• Tan Jala is a Na’vi warrior who wants peace with the RDA. He believes in dialogue with an open palm, not a fist.

• Beyda’amo is a Na’vi warrior who believes there is no room for peace with the RDA. They must be eliminated – simple as that.

• Tsahik Sänume is the matriarch of the Na’vi Tipani Clan. She believes Able Ryder can help the Na’vi to stop the RDA assault.

4. Are some of the characters from the movie also in the game?

• Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) is the very first person you meet in the game. Grace is part of the Avatar Program. She assigns you to Dr. Harper. You meet her throughout the game.

• Trudy Chacon (Michele Rodriguez) is your chopper pilot throughout much of the game when fighting for the RDA.

• Commander Quaritch (Steven Lang) is an RDA commander who sets you on some critical missions during the game.

5. Anything else we should know?

The game asks players to do the right thing. The question for the player becomes ‘what is the right thing?’ We don’t give the player that answer. Instead the decision comes down to the type of person you are. How do you like to play the game, and what is your approach to this type of conflict? Philosophically and emotionally, you decide what is right.

“We’ve seen an increasing number of video game tie-ins with comics over the last few years. This marks another step in our strategy for extending EA’s wholly-owned game properties to new media. It is exhilarating to be working with the comic book creators directly,” said Mike Quigley, Group Vice President, Global Marketing, EA Games Label.

Under terms of the agreement, EA will fund and manage the creative aspect of the comic book series, while IDW will be responsible for printing and distribution. IDW is the leader in digital comic book distribution and the nation’s third largest comic book publisher overall.

“This is a great opportunity for IDW to work with a worldwide leader in video games,” said Greg Goldstein, chief operating officer for IDW. “We look forward to bringing a tremendous amount of great content into the comics market.”

Written by veteran comic book writer Peter Milligan (X-Men, Batman, Hellblazer), Army of Two is being published as a comic starting in January 2010. Rising star Chester Ocampo is the cover artist while the interior artist/penciler, Dexter Soy, is a ‘hot newcomer’ on the comic scene. Soy’s work suggests influences from well-known comic artists such as Whilce Portacio and Leinil Francis Yu. The first story arc, “Across the Border,” follows ex-Army Rangers Salem and Rios as they form their own Private Military Corporation: Trans World Operations. The story of the comic follow the events of the first Army of Two game but takes place before the deadly invasion of Shanghai by The 40th Day initiative in the videogame sequel. In the comic, Salem and Rios get more than they bargained for as they are unexpectedly caught in a brewing war between the Mexican Army, drug cartels, and The Maras – one of the most powerful street gangs in Mexico.

Inspired by the highly-anticipated BioWare™ RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, the Dragon Age comic book series will be written by award-winning fiction writer Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game, Ultimate Iron Man). The cover artist is the critically acclaimed Humberto Ramos. Story details and the interior artist are expected to be announced shortly.

To sign up for the EA Comics mailing list, register on the new EA Comics web site. The site will have complete information on all the EA comic book series, as well as unique “behind the scenes” content, news, blogs and artwork. The site will feature weekly content updates to keep audiences apprised of the latest developments on current and upcoming projects.

Also new on the Army of Two site is Part 1 of Nathaniel Brierley’s Dev Diary about the Artificial Intelligence in AoT: 40th Day. Here’s a clip:

“Artificial Intelligence may not be as exciting as explosions and awesome graphics, but nevertheless it’s hugely important in Army of Two: The 40th Day. We put an immense amount of effort into creating interesting, completely dynamic, behaviors for enemies and partner AI so that players get the reward of experiencing unique interactions with enemies as they demonstrate a wide range of behaviors that simply aren’t seen in other games. Army of Two: The 40th Day has iterated and improved on the AI in the original Army of Two, but we also implemented an array of completely new behaviors that we know everyone is going to have a blast experiencing.” … please click the link above to continue reading Nathaniel’s article.

Vancouver

Features:

• 10 unique and playful characters to choose from
• Pick up and play! Great for all ages
• Endless game play
• Online multiplayer! Race up to 8 players in real time over 3G and wireless networks
• Local and global leaderboards
• IUGO’s new VIP program: Tell your friends, earn points and unlock an exclusive mystery character sooner
• Stylized, clean graphics
• IUGO’s signature quality and polish

Ubisoft Montreal has released three new videos for their highly anticipated titles on their YouTube channel. Gamers can get their twitch on with a commented walk-through for Assassin’s Creed 2, featuring a variety of game play scenarios with narrative from AC2 Production Manager Jean-Francois Boivin. The only disappointment I have experienced thus far in regards to AC2 is the planned product releases for the Master Assassin Limited Editions. I want the Black version, but it is apparently only being released in other parts of the world, not North America. Those of us in North America are getting the White version, which does not appear to contain all of the same perks as the Black Version, such as Ezio in black and the same number of bonus quests. The North American White version only has one bonus quest while the Black version has three, and at this time it is unknown if the Black version will be region locked. There are also rumours circulating that the Black edition is sold out. Maybe Ubisoft will have a change of heart and at least give those of us in North America the opportunity to obtain the additional two bonus quests.

Shaun White fans can see a new video dev diary for Shaun White World Stage, due for release on November 8. Featuring members of the dev team and Shaun White, gamers get an advance look at how it feels like to be in the boots of a pro snowboarder. After watching the dev diary for Splinter Cell: Conviction, we have added it to our list of “must play” games. The development team gives an excellent explanation of what gamers can expect from the latest iteration for the Splinter Cell franchise, and you can get a look at the dev video on Splinter Cell’s site.

IMC Vancouver – As the Internet grows in importance as a communication channel for business, it’s important to understand how to move away from the diminishing returns that TV, Radio and Newspapers are delivering. IMC Vancouver provides the venue for businesses, government, social activists, agencies, consultants and students to take advantage of the new, and rapidly changing, way media is being consumed. Also economic pressures are making change in the marketing world even more urgent than before.

IMC Vancouver 2009 will cover each of the important methods of marketing online in order to investigate how attendees can attract the highest quality of traffic to their websites. On September 17, Google’s analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik and author of the best-selling book Web Analytics: An Hour a Day will present insight on how each website visitor should be treated as a valued customer and how to improve the performance of any website.

Then on September 18, Facebook’s newly appointed Canadian representative Louise Clements, will give attendees exclusive insights and knowledge from Facebook’s active, and rapidly growing online community. By understanding how to use Facebook to market yourself and your company, you will have the ability to better leverage this new and exciting social networking channel. Later in the day, Linkedin’s Steve Patrizi will also be giving a keynote address. Steve’s team works with the world’s most widely recognized brands and advertising agencies to help them connect with LinkedIn’s audience of affluent, influential, and ambitious professionals.

IMC Vancouver features in total over top 40 speakers from: Yahoo, Google, Bell Canada, Overstock, Aircell, BazaarVoice, Vancity, Tribalddb plus many more of the Internets top companies. Join the Conferencefor the most exciting line up of speakers, workshops and panelists ever at IMC Vancouver 2009.

Victoria - Skysoft has unveiled inForm 2.0, a software product which allows organizations to create wireless forms, databases, surveys, and applications for the BlackBerry Smartphone line-up from Research In Motion. Applications are built using a simple Microsoft Windows PC based editor and then deployed to any number of devices. Non technical users can create and use their own BlackBerry applications within minutes, with no programming required. The solution offers a cost effective alternative to expensive hosted services, middleware and development tools.

inForm replaces traditional paper based forms and spreadsheets, allowing organizations to streamline data collection and reporting. Examples of applications include retail product audits, customer surveys, expense tracking, invoicing, site and building inspections, product catalogues, job dispatches, service records, and more.

Toronto – Don’t forget to submit your company for the CIX Top 20 search – the submissions deadline is October 2 2009. CIX conducts an exhaustive search for the most innovative ideas, products, services and companies in the country. Each year 20 technology and clean technologies are selected via a qualified Selection Committee to showcase their innovative product and services in front of the CIX community. Each of the selected 20 will be asked to deliver a seven-minute presentation live on stage at CIX.  Recognized industry experts will act as Judges, evaluating the merit of their product or service and giving constructive feedback and guidance. ?The CIX community present at the event will vote for the CIX 2009 Award for “Canadian Innovation Leader”.

The CIX Top 20 is open to all Canadian companies who consider themselves, their product, technology or service to be innovative in the fields of clean technologies, information technology and digital media. Recognition as a member of the CIX Top 20 – Canada’s 20 Most Innovative Companies will provide a major boost to any participant.

Toronto Film Fest – Producer Daniel Wilson of Grand Slam Pictures announced today that the world premiere of The Long Weekend at the Marbella Film Festival (October 1-4 2009), will proceed as planned despite the growing controversy around the movie.

Additionally, Wilson will be selling the American and foreign rights at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 10 – 19 2009), along with his producing partner and the star of The Long Weekend, Peter Bonaventure. Wilson is already in negotiations with Peace Arch Entertainment for the Canadian television rights.

The controversy around the movie stems from the fact that the movie was shot entirely with hidden cameras, unbeknownst to the ‘actors’ in the movie. After five years of legal wrangling, the movie will finally have its world premiere, despite the controversy.

Producer and star Peter Bonaventure says the movie is a revolutionary piece of art, and he’s set up a web site and twitter page to argue his case, while the unwitting star of the movie, Joe Shelton, has set up a competing web site and twitter page to stop the release of the movie. Shelton commented, “How many people have to get injured or even die as a result of reality TV and movies before we realize this is a sickness of our society. It’s turned us all into Peeping Toms.”

Producer Wilson says, “I’m not taking a side. I’m just happy about all the publicity. It’s an entertaining movie so I hope we can sell more rights during TIFF.”

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Audio is an integral part of a video game. In fact, even a simple score can create a very large impact. Take the classic: Space Invaders. The music is 4 tones, but is considered by many to have one of the most successful scores.

1978
Space Invaders
Midway imports Space Invaders from Taito. A great example of simple, effective sound design, Space Invaders owes a large part of its appeal to its menacing, paranoia-inducing soundtrack. Not music per se, the thumping audio track actually accelerates in tempo as the enemy invaders draw nearer (and move faster). The effect: sweat, panic, and increased blood pressure in a generation of gamers.
From “A History of Video Game Music” on http://www.gamespot.com/features/6092391/p-2.html
As the music speeds up, so too does the heart rate of the player; this is so much so, that if one plays Space Invaders with the TV on mute,  s/he will find the game to be much easier. (give it a try! PLAY HERE).
Clearly audio has a great role to play, even on the most basic levels. Audio plays a very visceral role in game immersion and great audio will enhance your game, bringing it to the next level.

So now that the WHY is covered, we will move on to the HOW.

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Using an in-house audio provider will surely create a tighter product as the audio designer is involved in and surrounded by all aspects of the game. Of course, budgets do not always allow for in-house audio, and so many game companies choose to farm out the audio to a wide slew of providers of which I am one.

From environmental sound design and SFX to custom compositions and interactive scores, there are many types of audio assets that will add to a game. What all these types of audio have in common is they are all best approached through the five guidelines below.

1) Bring the audio designer into the game development cycle early.

Audio is often thought of as something that can be dropped in last minute, and as an audio person myself, I can often tell this to be the case when playing the finalized game. If the audio provider was brought in early, s/he can give many creative ideas of how to use the audio in a game to not only react to the game, but even advance the story (such as interactive music that gives feedback to the player letting them know they are moving in the right direction). If the audio designer is made aware of the story and game mechanics nearer to the beginning of the production cycle, a more interactive, interesting, and polished sound track can be created.

2) Relate some examples of what you like via links/samples.

Producers, programmers, artists and audio designers are not always speaking the same “language.” If a producer is looking for a sound to be more “sad“, I can easily modify the sound to be so; yet, descriptions are not often that simple. The complications arise when words of more depth are thrown around, or

words are not enough. This is where audio samples are of great value. If I am able to hear the emotion via a youtube clip, I am much more easily able to reproduce/create that effect in the language of music rather than through the intermediary that is the language of words. When speaking to an audio designer, speak in audio. Ideas will come across much more clearly and the results will be more accurate and impressive.
3) Ensure that the file naming protocol is very organized.

As an outsider creating audio, filename conventions are of the utmost importance. A solid nomenclature allows for greater organization and faster implementation into the pipeline. I am sure to name my created files the exact way they have been written by the client, and as such, the naming convention needs to be very solid on their end. It will save a great number of headaches and help to identify bleep_01a from bloop_02b.

4) Understand and appreciate that high quality audio takes time.

As with any sort of design, a rushed product can often show. This is especially true for custom compositions which really benefit from having extra time to develop a solid melody to truly immerse your player into the game. A melody need not be obvious, but needs to be there to keep the brain’s attention. This takes time to create – please be mindful of this fact.

5) Use audio to create your brand.

Every explosion, voiceover, and custom track created for your game should be a cohesive whole. This will identify the sound of the game much in the same way as the visual art and code performance does. Every game needs to be held together by its design, and audio should not be forgotten for its integral role in this. Be sure to leverage your audio designer’s talents to create a cohesive audio brand for your game. It may take more meetings to solidify this audio brand along with the other design elements, but surely the rewards will be in the strength of the final product.

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We spend much of our days listening and hearing.  As games are in some way a recreation and/or alteration of life, this listening and hearing needs to be included in the planning and creation of a game. A game without great audio is a loss to both the producers and the players. An audio designer should be 1) brought in early 2) related to in a language of audio 3) helped to be organized and efficient through a cohesive nomenclature 4) respected for her/his talents and 5) leveraged for their creativity, talent and branding ideas.

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Any feedback is welcome and I appreciate all dialogue.

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Ryan Arndt
Composer/Audio Designer
ryan@certainsound.ca
www.certainsound.ca

Ryan Arndt is a Composer/Audio Designer at Certain Sound, a studio which operates on an innovative “Pay What You Think It Is Worth” arrangement. He has composed music and created custom audio design for 10 games and counting and is currently producing a Vancouver Game Industry Fundraiser for the Vancouver Food Bank called “Ghoulash Bash” to be held October 2009. Please feel free to follow him on twitter @RyanAComposer and @GhoulashBash.

Credits list and more at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanarndt

Ghostbusters MP Dev Diary – Written By Threewave Software

It’s Crazy Enough that it Just Might Work…

When I first heard about doing the Multiplayer for the new Ghostbusters game, I was excited but very cautious as well. Movie licensed games are not something that Threewave, being a group of mostly hardcore shooter fans, usually get excited about. We were proven wrong.

If you don’t know, Threewave Software has made great shooter content for a long time. Threewave developed the original Threewave Capture the Flag (“CTF”) mod for Quake, and followed it up with work on top brands as Quake III, Doom 3, Jedi Academy, Soldier of Fortune, Turok, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Army of Two.

When we heard about the Ghostbusters franchise, our ears perked up. Ghostbusters certainly wasn’t our typical first-or-third person shooter fare; we were up for a change after finishing up a particularly difficult project.

We went to Dallas to check out Terminal Reality’s demo of Ghostbusters and were amazed; the physics system, ghost AI and proton stream tech totally captured the feeling of the movies. But how on earth would we make it work in Multiplayer where technical limitations (on number of physics objects, enemies and bandwidth restrictions) can be very strict? TRI had very simple Multiplayer technology at the time with a competitive “Ghosts vs. Ghostbusters” design that had problems. The timeframe in which to finish the project was very short as well. It was a long flight back to Vancouver.

Over the next month or so, however, we got more and more excited about the possibilities. Co-op gameplay was first and foremost in our minds; everyone wanted to play as the “actual” Ghostbusters team. We came up with a co-op design that maximized teamwork while allowing players to also compete among themselves, framed against the theme of “a day in the life of the Ghostbusters Team.” Players would travel around the City, doing Ghostbusting jobs to make the most cash. “Job Types” (modes) such as Containment and Survival were designed to appeal to all sorts of gamers, not just hardcore shooter fans. And of course the game needed to be replay-able; no game would play exactly the same way twice.

With a solid design, and a lot of hoping on the technical side (!), we started in earnest on maps and gameplay prototyping.

Serving All Your Supernatural Elimination Needs
For Ghostbusters Multiplayer we wanted to include featured locations from the Single Player game, but adapt them for Multiplayer use. All of the maps are designed to suit a majority of job types; it was critical that we allowed enough space for more enemies, more players, and more action! Threewave has some of the best level designers in the business and their expertise was critical in this regard.

Refining the different Job types took a long time. We had a good idea of how we wanted each to play but since we had no real network code for several months, our prototypes changed a lot over time. Once we were able to test the different Jobs, we quickly iterated on the rules and came to some solid decisions on what we felt was the most fun.

We also soon discovered we needed a few extra things to keep players challenged in Co-op Multiplayer as compared to the single player game. Four “live” Ghostbusters ended up completely destroying the AI ghosts! Teamwork was something we needed to focus on; in the Single Player game the other Ghostbusters help you, we wanted to make sure players did better by working together in Multiplayer.

Over the course of prototyping and development we decided to introduce limited ammunition and powerups; this choice really allowed us to reward teamwork and create some unique Multiplayer “Ghostbusters” technology items, such as the Proton Accelerator and the Ghost Shrinker.

We also added some unique Multiplayer AI “aggro” behaviours to challenge players even more. Some of these include ghosts that go berserk or even split in two when angered.

Persistent online ranking, automatic difficulty scaling and Most Wanted Ghosts to find and catch were added to keep players coming back to play again and again.

In Ghostbusters, ghost wrangling and trapping is one of the key elements players do over and over. The first time we tried Multiplayer wrangling, we knew we were on to something fun. In the Single Player game, if there are more AI players holding a ghost, the less the ghost struggles. We emphasized and added to this feature for Multiplayer Ghost Wrangling. If players work together, ghosts go down faster, and everyone gets a better score.

I Ain’t Afraid of No Code!

As our gameplay became more focused and successful, our tech team overcame what had earlier seemed technically impossible.

We developed interaction rules to limit (and hide!) the number of active physics objects to maintain network traffic and performance without sacrificing gameplay. An AI spawning and Job type system was developed to reduce the amount of hand scripting we needed to do while complying with Multiplayer requirements. Our programmers worked hard with our internal QA team to really make the Multiplayer game shine.

Call the Professionals

We knew about the pending merger; we never thought that Ghostbusters was in real danger of being dropped. We had completed some great focus tests and were well on our way to finishing up our portion of the game when we got the news that the game was actively being pitched to a new publisher. As an independent developer, the next few months were very challenging. We knew the title would be picked up eventually, but not knowing 100% when was not a good place to be in.

When Atari was confirmed to be the new publisher and the news surfaced that the release date was to be pushed out, we were very relieved. Not only would Threewave and TRI have more time to polish the game, but the game would have extensive marketing support to coincide with the Blu-Ray release of the Ghostbusters movie.

I’m proud of the team here at Threewave; we’re excited to be a part of the Ghostbusters game and look forward to playing online this summer!!

Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today unveiled new details of Need for Speed™ Undercover, the intense action racing game scheduled for release worldwide this November. Need for Speed Undercover has players racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals as they go deep undercover to take down an International crime syndicate. The new game heralds the return of high-intensity police chases and introduces the all-new ‘Heroic Driving Engine’ — a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles.

“Need for Speed Undercover puts you at the center of a big-budget Hollywood movie with all of the drama, action and dazzling chase scenes, right on your gaming console. The unique Heroic Driving Engine will give you ultimate control over the hottest cars and push you to use every ounce of skill to outrun the law and take down criminal adversaries,” said Executive Producer Bill Harrison.

A mix of stunning computer graphics and live-action movies will immerse gamers in the rich world of the Tri-City Bay Area. The city’s open-world environment features over 80 miles of roads, including an enormous highway system that sets the stage for heart-pounding highway battles. These high-speed, high-stake chase sequences will push players to the limit as they fight off cops and opponents while whipping through traffic at 180 miles per hour.

An intelligent new A.I. mechanic delivers a realistic and high-energy action driving experience. Going back to the franchise’s roots, Need for Speed Undercover features more aggressive and intelligent cops whose sole purpose is to take down the player quickly and by any means necessary. Need for Speed Undercover also features the series’ signature car customization, real-world damage and realistic driving physics. The game includes some of the hottest licensed cars such as the Audi R8, BMW M6 and Lexus IS-F.

Need for Speed Undercover is being developed by Black Box in Vancouver, B.C., and will be in stores North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21.

The game will be available for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and Wii™ as well as the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DS™, PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) handheld entertainment system, PC and mobile.

Details and facts about the upcoming addition to the Crash Bandicoot franchise were released this week at GC Leipzig.

Publisher Sierra Entertainment
Category Action
Developer Radical Entertainment
Format Xbox360, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP

Product Overview
In Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant, a rejuvenated Neo Cortex is taking over the world one brain at a time! Cortex and N. Brio devise a new kind of evil; a text-messaging, do-anything device which controls both mutant and bandicoot minds. Armed with his quick-wits and lightening agility, Crash must free his friends, the titans and save the day!
Product Features
• Mutant in Your Pocket! – Not only does Crash keep the ability to control his enemies when he jacks them – now he can store his favorite monsters in his pocket, upgrade them and utilize their powers when they are most advantageous

• “Free-Romping” World Design – Wumpa Island is fully realized as a real location, with a “free-romping” design that allows players to travel and explore through intersecting worlds, with different gameplay options available depending on what creature you’ve brought along for the ride

• Girl Power! – Your co-op partner is Crash’s sister, Coco, playable for the first time in the cooperative mode. Not only does Coco make the game that much more inviting for girls to pick up and play, she also brings with her a new tactile “treasure hunt” ability
• New Abilities
o Roll-and Counter Combat System – Crash will have a fun, agile dodge move and “counter” move which will inflict extra damage on his enemies
o Digging – Crash can now dig underground as real-life bandicoots really do; this will allow for Crash to unlock bonus items
o Climbing – Crash can climb vertical surfaces and jump side-to-side to connected areas and dodge hazards

Availability October, 2008

FIFlay: Can you please tell us some about the key features of upcoming FIFA 09?

David Rutter: One of the new modes that we are all very excited about is what we are calling Custom Team Tactics. The goal for the feature when we set out to do it was to distinguish the teams in our game by making each of them play differently according to how they play in the real world. In the process of building this feature we figured out that this is something that should also be exposed to the gamers so that they can adjust the way that the team plays to suit their own personal style too.

We put in a set of ‘sliders’ so that you can tweak and tune the way your team plays as if you were the first-team coach or manager. There are 11 sliders and options in the game, broken down into ‘Defending’ and ‘Attacking’ sliders. Attacking is then broken down further into ‘Build Up’ and ‘Chance Creation’ sliders.

There are roughly 140 attacking and 40 defensive options. One example is to adjust the Defensive Mentality – in a high setting you’ll have nine players pushing into your opposition half trying to cut-out play in much the same way as in the team pushing for a win,desperate to get the ball no matter how vulnerable that leaves you defensively. To counter this, the opposition could play a long, lofted ball over your last man and their striker might have 30 yards of space to run into between the last defender and the goalkeeper. The opposite example is low Defensive Mentality. Choosing this setting would mean your defensive line is deep leaving very little space for the attacking team to play in your half of the pitch. An attacking team is going to be met with a 10 man defense – so they’re going to need to use some pretty inspired quick passing and movement to get near goal. This is only some of the depth that we’ve added and we really recommend you experiment with the feature for yourselves to experience all of the nuances you can create. You can exchange them with your mates via EA Locker, and assign up to 4 of them to your Quick Tactics to execute during offline or online play. They’re really powerful.

We have also expanded our popular Be A Pro feature into a career mode. You’ll get the chance to choose or build a football player, control them for four seasons and grow their abilities using the experience points you gain on the pitch. Hopefully you’ll be good enough to get spotted by your national coach, with the ultimate aim of being your countries captain, and winning the International Cup to become a Legend.

For the first time in Be A Pro we’ll be allowing fans of the mode to play unlocked – so if you fancy a change of position you can still gain experience for your player, whilst playing as another pro. And if your mate pops over they can join in – either playing along side you – or trying to spoil your progress as your opponent.

We are also going to reveal some additional new features at the Leipzig Games Festival in Germany in August.

FIFlay: As you know, at FIFPlay we are trying to collect the suggestions and ideas of FIFA fans and deliver them to people like you at EA … Some of the features that fans would like to see in FIFA 09 are such as a stadium editor, in-game referee, more leagues & teams, kit/face editor tool, women’s soccer, more tournaments, training mode & …, how about them in FIFA 09?

David Rutter: We’ve not got all of these – but there’s the Referee and his assistants. We’ve also done a heap of improvements generally around the game. You’ll be able to customize your controller totally, and take it online. We’ve made the in game team management 2 player, and we’ve addressed the need for Manual v Semi or Full assisted in online play. Were also improving the ‘disconnection’ issues online – so…

1 – Up to 3 mins the users when quitting will get no penalty at all – This allows users to judge the connection quality.

2 – Between 3 and 5 mins the user who quits will get a DNF rating – This means we don’t penalize too harshly quitters in case the quality drops

3 – After 5 mins the user who quits will get a DNF rating and a 3-0 loss – The users own fault.

As far as training is concerned, there are a number of options available inside the practice arena. Firstly, for inexperienced gamers we will provide hints and tips in the form of overlays to show how to do different moves. You are also able to practice free kicks, and penalties. If you are outside the area and running at the goalie, press down on the D-pad and you will go to a free kick mode where you are standing. Press down on D-pad while inside the area and you will be able to practice the free kick.

FIFlay: As you can see in our FIFA 09 page at FIFPlay, there are more than 14,000 ideas submitted by FIFA fans for FIFA 09, what does it mean for you as FIFA producer, do you think that FIFPlay could help EA to hear the fans voice to make the game better?

David Rutter: We spent a lot of time reflecting on the community and press feedback from FIFA 08 and we managed to distill it down into 250 key additions and improvements to focus on for FIFA 09 gameplay, and we’re really happy to be able to say that the vast majority of them are things we know our fans are after. The three biggest areas of gameplay improvement you’ll see are in Responsiveness, Physical Play and their affect through Attributes, plus the AI.

Responsiveness this year has improved massively –- we’ve revamped our animations and animation technology to make sure every gamer controlled action, including dribbling, running, tackling, heading, passing and shooting, are much more responsive. You’ll feel the difference immediately. Now what you want to happen on the pitch really does happen when you want it to.

Physical Play and Attributes were top of our agenda too. For example, the team really felt that there wasn’t enough difference between small, pacey players, and large, strong players. This year you’ll need to become more familiar with the individual strengths and weaknesses of the players you have at your disposal and what they are capable of in real life. Fast players can nip in and out of tackles much faster than hulking defenders, but the little guys are much easier to muscle off the ball. Tackles are crunching – and we can discriminate between planted and trailing legs, so if you contact a player in the right spot he’ll go down or skip out of it authentically. We’ve also put in some amazing mid-air collisions and stumbles that add a fantastic sense of realism.

For intelligence, we’ve massively improved positioning,goalkeeping, reducing the frequency the ball is intercepted in certain situations,, through-balls and enabling skilled players to curl passes and crosses. Furthermore, keepers can change their mind mid-dive when they realize they’ve made a mistake…and that’s just some of the hundreds of changes we’re making to create a realistic football simulation.

FIFlay: Will be there a multi-platform online play feature, in which users with different platforms (PS3, Xbox360 or PC) can play against each other?

Unfortunately not – we cant currently do this. However, I will be able to talk more in depth about our online features and new capabilities in the coming months after we make some additional feature announcements this month and at the Leipzig Games Festival in Germany in August. What I can say right now is that the new EA matching –making hub will create a significantly improved experience when looking for other gamers to play online and this, combined with what we will be revealing in the coming months, should create a much improved online experience.

FIFlay: Do you play FIFA 08 at home or at EA, have you ever tried to play other football games like PES to see the difference between them and FIFA?

David Rutter: I’ve been a massive football and football simulation game fan for many years. I’ve played pretty much every footy game over the last 25 years …!

FIFlay: As a FIFA fan, if you want to submit an idea for FIFA 10 in FIFPlay.com, what it would be?

David Rutter: Hmmmm. That would be telling!