Village Gamer

For those few of you who have not yet experienced the #1 RPG title, Bioware has just announced Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Collection. With an overall value of $114.00, this all-in-one package is retailing for $49.99 USD for the PC version to $59.99 USD for the console versions. It is interesting to note that the Ultimate Collection is not yet listed on Canadian retailers such as GameStop or Amazon, but it is available at their American counterparts, as well as in the EA Store. The Ultimate Collection includes:

Dragon Age™: Origins

Discover the groundbreaking RPG, winner of more than 50 awards including more than 30 ‘Game of the Year’ awards! You are a Grey Warden, one of the last of a legendary order of guardians. With the return of mankind’s ancient foe and the kingdom engulfed in civil war, you have been chosen by fate to unite the shattered lands and slay the archdemon once and for all. Explore a stunning world, make complex moral choices, and engage in bone-crushing visceral combat against massive and terrifying creatures.

Dragon Age™: Origins – Awakening Expansion Pack

The story of the Grey Wardens continues as you are named Commander of the order. As your first duties you have been entrusted with rebuilding the order as well as uncovering the secrets of the darkspawn and how they managed to endure. Fight new enemies, learn new skills and spells, and explore an all-new area of the world, Amaranthine.

All Seven Content Packs

Extend your adventure, collect new rewards, gain new party members, and more as you delve deeper into the Dragon Age™ saga.

* The Stone Prisoner
* Warden’s Keep
* Return to Ostagar
* The Darkspawn Chronicles
* Leliana’s Song
* The Golems of Amgarrak
* Witch Hunt

~ Key Features

* A limited-time offer of the 2009 ‘RPG of the Year’ Dragon Age: Origins, the Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening expansion pack, and all nine additional content packs
* Critically acclaimed winner of more than 50 awards including more than 30 ‘Game of the Year’ awards

Electronic Arts Inc. has introduced a comprehensive insights suite which provides marketers with actionable consumer data based on their activity in and around EA games. A first of its kind, EA’s insights suite is a cross-platform tool which pulls together campaign performance, brand impact, social buzz, and where available, ROI, across all platforms on the EA network – mobile, social, online and console. Over time, advertisers will be able to benchmark their performance against their competitive set.

“One of the biggest challenges for marketers is comprehensively evaluating and learning from their investments across disparate audiences, platforms and content,” said Elizabeth Harz, Senior Vice President of EA’s Global Media Sales team. “Our insights suite is the solution. For the first time, our partners will have actionable insights as a result of their marketing communications to key audiences across all of our content and all of platforms. I can’t wait to get this into our partners’ hands.”

The rich feature set offers many benefits for advertisers, such as:

* Overview of key campaign performance indicators such as impressions, clicks, unduplicated reach, demographic profiles, and social media buzz
* Segmented audience insights based on cross-platform demographic, psychographic and social data
* Ability to drill down into the factors that impact campaign effectiveness including audience engagement, audience profiles, type of creative, measured over time
* Assessment of the social media sentiment and change in the brand conversation the campaign generates Read the rest of this entry »

The Government of Canada has launched a program to help kickstart Canadian businesses by testing their innovative products and services within the Government of Canada before taking them to the marketplace. To make the announcement, the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, was joined by Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the Greater Toronto Area, and the Honourable Rob Moore, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism.

“There is no question that in Canada we have enormous talent and potential when it comes to innovation,” said Minister Ambrose. “With this new program, our Government will be giving our talent a kickstart in getting their innovative products and services off the ground.”

This program is a new $40 million program announced under Budget 2010 to encourage federal departments and agencies to test innovative products and services in four areas: environment, health, safety and security, and enabling technologies.

“We listened to businesses across the country in developing Canada’s Economic Action Plan, and an important concern was how they could get their product to market in today’s economy,” said Minister Flaherty. “By testing their products and services within government, we are investing in job creation and in the future of Canadian companies that have innovative ideas.”

“Today’s new initiatives are among the important measures introduced by our Government to ensure Canadian small and medium-sized businesses can grow and prosper,” said Minister Moore. “We are proud to encourage Canada’s tremendous entrepreneurial spirit through this new program.”

“The government is recognizing that the gap between innovators’ ideas and the marketplace is simply someone willing to bet on them, willing to take a chance on their product and then willing to give them feedback so that they can grow their business,” said W. Brett Wilson of the Dragon’s Den. “This program is about giving entrepreneurs a chance, and I’m looking forward to watching as it performs over time.”

More information about the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program and Buy-Sell can be viewed online at their respective web sites.

The Canadian Embassy and DFAIT have extended an invitation to developers to a
Canadian Partnering Program at ModSim World 2010. The conference will be held October 12th – 15th at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virgina.

The program starts off on Tuesday, Oct 12, at 3:00 pm with an Information Session and Tutorial at Innovation Research Park at Old Dominion University, including a chance to practice your pitch with local companies, and will feature a site visit to see the school’s latest medical modeling and simulation technology.

The program will focus on finding partners for our Canadian participants. The Canadian Embassy will have a meeting room at the Convention Centre for one-on-one meetings, and will help set up meetings in advance for all participants, so get your company profiles in as soon as possible.

Wednesday will include a site visit to NASA’s Langley Research Centre, and all Canadian participants will receive a complimentary pass to the ModSim World VIP reception.

Thursday will feature the Canadian Happy Hour. This invite-only event will allow you to meet with invitees chosen to suit the Canadian attendees, as well as giving each participant the chance to invite conference attendees that they meet during ModSim.

Companies are encouraged to indicate their interest, and provide a company profile as soon as possible. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity! There is no fee for Canadian participants (ModSim World registration not included). If you are interested in participating and would like more information, please contact Daniel Zaharychuk or send your company profile to Assistant Trade Commissioner Stephane Eyer.

Open Text Corporation’s Open Text Records Management, a fully integrated component of the Open Text ECM Suite, has received the highest possible rating of “Strong Positive” in Gartner’s new report entitled “MarketScope for Enterprise Records Management” (by Kenneth Chin for Garnter, August 23, 2010)

Gartner’s MarketScope provides specific guidance for users who are deploying, or have deployed, products or services. A vendor with a “Strong Positive” rating is viewed by Gartner as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions, meaning that current customers should continue with investments while potential customers should consider the vendor a strong choice for strategic investments.

Open Text Records Management helps organizations safeguard against the liability, risk and cost of content and provides a way to verify the integrity of business practices. By ensuring that business policies and legal requirements govern the retention and disposition of content, Open Text Records Management helps organizations comply with worldwide regulations, standards, and certifications, such as U.S. DoD 5015.2, U.S. FDA 21 CFR Part 11, U.S. SEC Rule 17a, Europe’s MoReq, and Australia’s VERS. Open Text Records Management is a service provided to all applications of the Open Text ECM Suite and uses the core enterprise archiving capabilities of the suite.
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto-based ScribbleLive has launched the latest version of its live content management system (CMS) to help journalists spread news in real time. Social media services deliver information at a rapid pace. ScribbleLive enables media companies to harness the immediacy of these technologies while maintaining the control required in the newsroom to cover developing news events in a new style that meets the needs of its audience – fast, engaging and collaborative.

ScribbleLive is a comprehensive live CMS platform that enables media companies and large organizations such as Reuters and Hearst Television, to report on developing news stories like natural disasters, sporting events and election results in an entirely new way online. Journalists can now report story elements from e-mail, SMS, Twitter, voice call or the ScribbleLive web interface – whether in the newsroom or out in the field. The result is dynamic content that provides real-time updates, including multimedia, to readers as the event unfolds.

The event pages reside on ScribbleLive’s servers, but otherwise maintain a seamless appearance with the organization’s existing website – to both visitors and search engines. After the event, the searchable webpages remain, so readers can look back on the way the story unfolded – a unique opportunity to see a “rough draft” of history as it was first written.

“People want news delivered quickly – They are turning to social media sites such as Twitter to access breaking information, rather than waiting for news outlets to push stories through editorial review,” said Michael De Monte, co-founder and chief executive officer, ScribbleLive. “ScribbleLive changes the traditional linear flow of the newsroom to a more dynamic, collaborative process that empowers real-time reporting and audience engagement while ensuring editorial control and journalistic integrity. With our tool, journalists are able to tell stories in a completely new way.”

This latest version of ScribbleLive offers powerful new features that:

* Let journalists leverage mobile devices to create stories in the field via enhanced publishing capabilities through SMS and voicemail, as well as mobile apps for iPhone and BlackBerry
* Better harness information from Twitter with advanced filters
* Employ SSL to improve data protection
* Allow syndication of posts to multiple web properties
* Lay the groundwork for a revolutionary new way of telling stories and engaging with readers online Read the rest of this entry »

Kobo has announced the new Kobo Wireless eReader, the newest addition to the Kobo family. The new Kobo Wireless eReader adds WiFi connectivity, upgraded hardware with faster performance, longer battery life, and a sharper eInk screen.

With the new Kobo Wireless eReader, consumers can now shop on the go, anytime, anyplace, directly from their Kobo eReader with one touch of the “Shop” button. Adding over 200,000 books in six months, the Kobo store now boasts over 2.2 million books including today’s new releases and bestsellers, timeless classics and thousands of free books. Consumers can read on any device – iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, PC, MAC, Linux, and their library will always be up to date on their eReader. The addition of WiFi means consumers can now receive wireless deliveries of popular newspapers and magazines directly to their eReader.

With this release, Kobo demonstrates its continued commitment to providing customers with a choice when reading, rather than locking them in to a single provider. Support for open standards like EPUB and PDF means that customers can easily borrow and read the latest eBooks from their local library – for FREE – and also upload documents with an SD card, drag n’ drop or Adobe Digital editions. The eReader comes pre-loaded with 100 free literary masterpieces including a selection of fiction, memoirs, politics, philosophy and more.

“We introduced the Kobo eReader to make eReading more affordable and accessible for consumers. It worked, making the Kobo eReader a bestseller, and the industry followed,” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “Today, we are excited to introduce our latest generation, the Kobo Wireless eReader, enabling customers to shop and update their library on the go with superior performance for only $149 CAD. The launch of the new Kobo Wireless eReader caps a very busy month for Kobo, in which we announced a new application that will come preloaded on the Samsung Galaxy, introduced the new Kobo Desktop and updates to our iPhone and Android apps, and unveiled the first social reading application for Blackberry. The market for eReading continues to grow at an unparalleled pace, and Kobo is advancing even faster.”

The Kobo Wireless eReader will be available for $149 CAD at Kobobooks.com, and will be available for purchase at Borders US, Indigo Books & Music and Walmart in Canada. Online pre-orders begin today with the Kobo eReader being shipped to customers in October. The Kobo Wireless eReader is now available in three stylish colors: Onyx, Porcelain with Metallic Silver back, and Porcelain with a Pearlized Lilac back.

To celebrate the launch of the new Kobo Wireless eReader, Kobo has partnered with Random House of Canada and is pleased to offer two FREE eBooks to customers who pre-order the new eReader exclusively through Kobobooks.com or at Indigo Books & Music in Canada. The titles include International bestselling author Linwood Barclay’s critically acclaimed novel Fear The Worst which delivers readers a fast-paced suspense story, while When My World Was Very Small by Ruth Rakoff provides an intimate, one-of-a-kind memoir of family, food, cancer and recovery. Together these titles provide customers with an additional value of $59.90.

More Information about the Kobo Wireless eReader: Read the rest of this entry »

Sean Doherty, president and founder of New Brunswick-based Freelance Games, is proud to announce the release of its first independent game for the XBOX 360 – Starchon.

In development for over a year, Doherty is happy to see the game released to the public. “Starchon has a tremendous amount of depth and innovation for a game classified as a ‘shooter’”, says Doherty. “It’s hard to believe that Starchon actually started as a PC game back in 2005. It’s been a huge amount of work and consumed endless amounts of time. But, everyone agrees that the final product is well worth the effort.”

The arcade game’s description is as follows: The Engage the Pigia horde and defend the Super Defense Carrier while you destroy everything in your path. Unlock 5 game-altering playable starships, plus more than 39 components including weapons, shields, engines, and power generators. Over 80+ sectors of glorious victory.

“Starchon is a fun and engaging game in the spirit of classic arcade fun. This is one game that you won’t be worried about your kids playing,” says Doherty. “This style of game is more like how games used to be when I was growing up, but Starchon has been updated for today’s XBOX high definition gaming experience.”

Doherty is considering plans for Freelance Games’ future. “Starchon is the first game in the Starchon universe, but it will not be the last. I want this title to be the beginning of a series of independent video games for us,” says Doherty. “Today’s gaming platforms allow independent developers to publish games side-by-side with the big studios. It’s a great opportunity.”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieHptQH9Ezw]

Starchon can be purchased by surfing to the XBOX Live indie games forum, and searching for “Starchon”. In addition to being available directly through the Games Marketplace on Xbox 360 consoles, the game can be queued for download at the Xbox 360 Marketplace site. The price of the game is 80 Microsoft Points (equivalent to about $1).

Experienced game developers have confirmed the formation of a new independent studio named Renown Entertainment Inc. in Vancouver. Founded in 2009 by James Lau and Bill Li, the company will develop, publish and distribute interactive entertainment for video game systems, wireless devices and online.

President and Creative Director, James Lau, brings more than a decade of experience in the games and visual effects industries to drive the direction of the studio and game development.

“With today’s software, communication platforms and support for digital distribution, independent developers are empowered to create Triple-A games and reach a worldwide audience. This shift in the industry allows us to focus on crafting high quality games of exceptional value with efficient, multi-discipline teams on any platform including big blockbusters, which are usually reserved for large publishers and developers.”

“It’s a great time to be in game development despite the downturn over the last couple of years. It revealed a lot of issues that need to be addressed in order for developers to keep innovating and remain profitable while maintaining quality. With this in mind, we’re implementing new methods of game development for the rapidly evolving industry.”

Co-Founder and Technical Director, Bill Li feels “Engineering is only a means to an end to realize exceptional gameplay and a memorable experience. Our goal is to emotionally captivate players and keep them coming back for more.”

It is with these philosophies that Renown strives to transcend the artistic and technical aspects of game development to create truly rewarding interactive experiences.

Renown will launch their first game, Waves: Survivor, in October for the iPhone® and iPod Touch®. In this debut game, gamers will be challenged to see how many days they can survive in a rowboat while lost at sea. Obstacles will include riding huge waves and fending off dangerous creatures like the electric jelly fish and hungry sharks. Your character will also require some strong swimming skills as gamers build up their collection of deep-sea treasures and celebrate achievements by rockin’ out on their paddle guitar.

Waves: Survivor will also featuring leaderboards (via Facebook and Twitter), interactive water physics, continuous survival gameplay, touch and accelerometer controls, collectible items and more. Renown Entertainment’s second game (currently referred to as iOS Game D) is scheduled for released this winter. It would appear from the studio’s game listing that they are also working on a Triple A title for console and PC gamers.

TechnoMontréal’s Chairman of the Board and Senior Vice President and Director of the Montreal office for DMR-Fujitsu, Mr. Yves Pelletier, M.SC., CMC, FCMA announced today the appointment of three new members to the Board of the organization. TechnoMontréal is one of the major Information and Communications Technology (ICT) clusters in North America and is a powerful economic driver for entrepreneurs and creators of technology in Greater Montreal.

According to the OECD, ICT and the Internet are essential infrastructures for today’s economy. Given the significant contribution of the ICT industry to the knowledge economy, competition among host countries and regions to attract global leaders is increasingly aggressive, particularly in terms of incentives. The ICT industry provides over 120,000 jobs in the metropolitan area.

“We are faced with increasing global competition in the Information and Communications Technology field,” added Mr. Pelletier. “Unlike other traditional industries, we are facing a shortage of manpower which could, in the more or less long term, weaken the position of Montreal and Quebec on the world stage,” said Mr. Pelletier. “This situation is even more preoccupying considering that we have a recognized talent base and dynamic entrepreneurs that appeal to investors.” According to the president, our priority must be investing in the workforce, whether through training, immigration or tapping into the large pool of talented “baby boomers”.

The Information and Communications Technology sector plays an exceptional role in productivity, growth, job creation and the attraction of investments globally. “TechnoMontréal’s Board of Directors can further support the ICT cluster by stimulating its development in the region and strengthening its position among the world leaders,” said Mr. Pelletier. It is in this context that TechnoMontréal invites governments, entrepreneurs and creators to rally around major developmental projects and to support innovation, financing and the commercialisation of ICT companies. “I sincerely thank all the Board members who are willing to devote their time to our collective success and bring their experience to the growth and expansion of the industry globally,” he added.

New members joining the TechnoMontréal team come from the private and institutional sectors of the industry:

Mrs. Lyne Bouchard, Vice-Rector of the Longueuil campus and Vice-Rector of Information Technology Université de Sherbrooke
Mr. Denis Faubert, Senior Manager, Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ)
Mr. André Gamache, Strategic Advisor, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS)

Complete Board of Directors: Read the rest of this entry »

Corus Entertainment today announced the official opening of Corus Quay – the Company’s new Canadian headquarters built on Toronto’s waterfront. Corus Quay integrates advanced digital technologies and automated systems that transform Corus’ broadcast and content businesses making Corus Quay North America’s most advanced broadcast facility and Toronto’s smartest building, shown here in two photos by Richard Johnson.

Corus has implemented an integrated approach to the management of its broadcast and content creation systems. Corus Quay’s innovative use of technologies delivers a highly efficient, digital infrastructure which can provide a full range of content offerings on multiple platforms to Corus’ customers. Its insightful design creates a collaborative work environment, as well as an environmentally responsible facility. (See Corus Quay Technological and Operational Infrastructure Appendix)

“Corus Quay gave us the opportunity to transform the operational and technological processes that underpin our business,” said John Cassaday, President and CEO, Corus Entertainment. “Our fully integrated digital infrastructure provides Corus with the agility to respond to our customers needs in a changing marketplace. Corus Quay will also allow us to efficiently leverage all future growth opportunities.”

“With a fully integrated and 100% digital infrastructure, Corus is more prepared than anyone for a digital world because it can deliver content to distributors in any format for any platform with equal speed and efficiency,” said Marcos Gonzalez-Flower, Global Head, Media Consulting, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

Telefilm Canada is has mad public its 2009 International Markets Report (PDF). The report spotlights Telefilm’s key role in supporting Canada’s audiovisual industry at foreign markets. Despite the economic downturn during the year, the report highlights the remarkable increase in foreign sales achieved by Canadian producers and distributors at international markets and festivals where Telefilm organizes and runs the Canada Pavilion: the European Film Market at the Berlin Film Festival, MIPTV, the Cannes Film Market and MIPCOM.

Highlights

* Telefilm invested about $1.2M in support of Canadian companies’ participation at international markets. Every dollar invested by Telefilm within the framework of its foreign activities generated $16 in sales deals for Canadian film companies, compared with $11 in 2008 and $9 in 2007. If we include pre-sales and probable sales (that is, sales deals likely to be closed quickly after the market), this figure jumps to $100 for every dollar invested.
* In 2009, total sales and pre-sales of Canadian films and television programs stood at $17.6M, a 26% increase over the $14M earned in 2008. Negotiations conducted during the international markets generated $90.7M in probable sales. This brings the total of sales, pre-sales and probable sales to $108.3M, a 27% increase over the previous year’s total of $85M.
* In 2009, the Cannes Festival was the most profitable market in terms of the ratio of sales, pre-sales and co-production/co-venturing agreements per dollar invested: every dollar invested by Telefilm generated more than $333 in economic activity.

“There’s no doubt that Canada’s audiovisual industry benefits from the strategic support it obtains abroad from Telefilm,” said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. “We’re very pleased to see how dynamic our companies are when they negotiate co-production and co-venturing agreements with foreign partners. Telefilm’s activities at international markets provide a real showcase for Canadian talent abroad and prove that Canadian products can compete on the world stage.”

On the international stage, Telefilm, in partnership with members of the International Business Development Group, offers strategic and operational support to Canadian companies by organizing the Canada Pavilion at a number of international markets and festivals. At the Pavilion, Telefilm supports producers’ and distributors’ sales promotion efforts through initiatives that target investors and buyers from around the world. These activities also allow Canadian and foreign producers to pool their resources in order to co-produce films and television programs. Finally, Telefilm supports the international launch of Canadian productions through special marketing activities at festivals deemed to provide the best business opportunities for Canadian companies.

Overall, Canadian companies stated that they were very satisfied with the full range of services that Telefilm offered abroad in 2009.