Village Gamer

Montreal – Ubisoft has released their quarterly fiscal outlook, and while some areas reflect the dismal economic performance being seen around the globe and across all industries, the bombshell that immediately grabbed our attention – especially that of MMO enthusiast Michael, is news that there will be a third Assassin’s Creed in 2010. With multiplayer. This new expansion is over and above the two DLC additions already slated for release over the next couple of months, and is not an expansion on Assassin’s Creed 2. With the Assassin’s Creed franchise at the top of my own personal favourites, this is exciting news indeed. Of course with Ubisoft’s fiscal year for 2010 not beginning until April, this could well mean it will still be another year before this new chapter appears on game machines everywhere.

Disappointing news also contained in this press release was notification that Splinter Cell: Convictions has been held back until April, and the highly anticipated R.U.S.E., currently in development over in France, has also been delayed.

Not surprisingly, Avatar the Game did not sell as well as was anticipated. Whether or not this is because many families don’t yet own the levels of technology – such as 3Dtv – required to play this title in the manner for which it was developed, or simply because the storyline didn’t grab gamer attention as much as was hoped, remains to be seen.

Yves Guillemot

Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer, spoke to the news contained in the fiscal report, stating that “Despite a number of highly successful titles, such as Assassin’s Creed 2 – which is expected to reach 9 million sell-in units by the end of March 2010 – and Just Dance – our great Wii success during the holiday season – Ubisoft has not met its financial targets. The considerable contraction in the DS market during the year particularly affected Ubisoft, leading to a €160 million (approx. 240 million CAD), or almost 50%, year-on-year drop in the Company’s casual segment sales. At the same time, like in 2008, the year 2009 saw the release of many more very high-quality games than in the past. Against this backdrop and with a view to further reduce our exposure to the DS, we intend to continue to refocus our development resources on our major franchises and on the Xbox360 and PS3, the two consoles that are expected to see sales growth in games for gamers in 2010. Ubisoft has already demonstrated its capacity for success in the high-end games market thanks to Assassin’s Creed 2, with sales 40% higher than for the first title. The 2010-11 line-up – which is stronger in franchises for Xbox360 and PS3 – reflects our refocusing efforts and should enable us to both win market share and enhance our profitability.”

With that said, Ghost Recon fans will be happy to know that a new title in that franchise is coming, along with Raving Rabbids 4 and of course the highly publicized Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, along with a new Driver title. Hopefully we will see vast improvements in the Driver franchise with the release of this new title.

Something in the Ubisoft statement does concern me, though. There is mention that the company will be focusing on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which in the studio’s opinion are “the consoles which are expected to experience sustained sales growth in games for gamers in calendar 2010.” Does this mean that Ubisoft considers the Wii to be on the decline because of lower sales in the DS market? While the studio did also announce that other titles and innovations would be made public throughout the year, will the Rabbids be exiting from the Wii, the console which is credited with bringing families to the gaming arena – or will the Rabbids be Ubisoft’s main saving grace in the family market?

I do have to wonder about how Ubisoft concentrates its efforts on repeat business from franchise title fans (okay, I am guilty on that count), while not taking full advantage of the newer, high quality family titles like Academy of Champions Soccer from its Vancouver studio. While it certainly promoted the title to industry at E3 and GDC San Francisco, it did not, in my opinion at least, successfully promote the title to the buying public or to those buyers responsible for stocking stores, and I feel that this is one area in which the massive corporate hierarchy at Ubisoft fails – and could in part be responsible for lowered sales and lowered publicity – simply because there appears to be no logic or consistency in the flow of media relations and access to assets for publication and promotion (Ubisoft Corporate is not the only developer/publisher to be guilty of this). Perhaps this is an area which Ubisoft should be addressing when looking at their overall corporate performance as they enter their coming fiscal year – innovation isn’t important only in game development, it’s important in game marketing as well, because the times have changed, and not all game purchase dollars are spent the same way. In an age when citizens are urged to “buy local” – why not promote locally-made titles to the local buying public, so that they know when they spend money allocated to, say, family entertainment titles – they can base part of their decision on choosing to support a locally (or even nationally) made quality title, thereby also supporting their local economy.  This would add another selling feature to Canadian-made titles, kind of in the way clothing has a “Made in Canada” label, but that’s just my opinion.

Toronto – The world’s first teacher-designed, 100% online training course that brings the SMART Board fully to life in every K-12 classroom was introduced today by Blossom Learning, an online training company comprised of former educators and AV presentation professionals who are dedicated to transforming the way technology is integrated in the classroom.

The “Online Applied SMART Board Course” provides K-12 teachers and school administrators with a simple low cost way to fully maximize their investment in SMART Boards. That’s because, the 100% Internet based “Online Applied SMART Board Course” is being made available for the precedent-setting price of only US $69.95. What’s more, the eight-chapter step-by-step guide to fully integrate the SMART Board into any classroom environment is hosted by a 21st Century avatar named “Mrs. Blossom,” a composite K-12 teacher that every professional educator will immediately relate to.

“It’s time to change the way educators learn how to use the SMART Board,” declared David Weatherhead, Blossom Learning’s Sales & Marketing Manager. “There’s more than one way to do training and it doesn’t just have to be face-to-face based. Our course offers a supplement to traditional training, as well as an impressive stand alone offering for districts on tight budgets. Thanks to the robustness of today’s high-speed Internet, we can now develop and deliver comprehensive and compelling online training courses that inspire creativity in the classroom, help school districts leverage their investments in hardware technologies, and dramatically increase the productivity of every dollar invested in training.”

With the average cost of a typical face-to-face SMART Board training seminar now hovering around $1500 for a three day equivalent course (not including supply teacher and travel expenses), it’s clear how the US $69.95 priced Blossom Learning “Online Applied SMART Board Course” could radically transform the SMART Board training landscape, particularly for school districts located in remote areas where face-to-face training is rarely available.

The “Online Applied SMART Board Course” comes with built-in LMS administrative facilities that allow school districts to facilitate purchases, allocate courses to teachers, and track individual teacher progress toward completion. Designed by former teachers and AV presentation professionals, the “Online Applied SMART Board Course” integrates 21st century information and animation into an eight chapter course hosted by the teacher avatar Mrs. Blossom. The course allows teachers to complete training on their schedule, which shouldn’t take any more than two to three weeks. However, teachers will be able get up and running with the SMART Board within ten minutes of beginning our course! By the time they are finished, teachers will have progressed sequentially from the Fundamentals level through the Intermediate and Advanced levels, and receive a personalized Certificate of Completion.

Blainville – Machine 22, an independent game developer with not a lot of information on its web site, has announced the release of Blimp Wars. Blimp Wars is a browser based multiplayer game where players are fighting in the sky at the controls of steampunk blimps.

Features:

– Steampunk themed multiplayer action
– 3 multiplayer modes for up to 6 players in each game
– Solo challenges teaching the basics of the game
– Over 60 parts and boosters offering hundreds of possibilities to players while customizing their blimps
– Achievements system
– Family friendly and colorful 2D graphics

Free and requiring no download or plug-in, Blimp Wars offers quick and instant actions to players with little time on their hands but still looking for the excitement only multiplayer games can provide.

Vancouver – Following IUGO’s massively successful Zombie Attack! games, ZA! and ZA! Second Wave, the indie studio has launched a free version of ZA! Second Wave titled Zombie Attack! Bridge Defense. As the titles suggests, the lite version contains the bridge map for users to sample kill a variety of zombies with cool new weapons. Second Wave features more maps and hordes of challenges in the full version. IUGO also recently unveiled their web site’s nice new design – head on over to check out its shiny awesomeness and all of IUGO’s titles today – and don’t forget to vote for IUGO and other great Canadian games, publishers and studios in our Reader’s Choice Canadian Video Game Awards – only one week left to vote!

At CES: Palm released details about their developer kit for webOS during their 3D gaming announcement at the Expo, where they introduced several graphics-intensive game titles for webOS, from leading game developers EA Mobile™, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Laminar Research. Demonstrated at Palm’s CES event, the games will be available today in the Palm App Catalog for Palm Pre customers.

“We are very excited about the potential of webOS as a platform for mobile 3D gaming,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “This is a key application category, and we’ve worked closely with some of the leading game developers to deliver a great game experience for our customers.”

“Recent improvements to Palm webOS represent major advancements in enabling world-class mobile gaming,” said Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile. “These innovations have allowed us to quickly bring our best IP to the platform.”

The developers introducing titles today have had early access to the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK), which extends the Palm webOS Software Development Kit (SDK) with a set of tools, documentation and APIs that let developers write plug-ins for their webOS applications. The PDK lets developers easily integrate C and C++ code into their webOS applications, enabling new functionality, including immersive 3D games. A public beta version of the webOS PDK is scheduled to be available to all developers in March.

“The performance of the platform allowed us to create these great games in a limited timeframe,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “webOS allows us to deliver an outstanding gaming experience, and we look forward to bringing our best games to Palm customers worldwide.”“We expect the plug-in model to play an important role in the evolution of the webOS platform, just as plug-ins have with web browsers,” said Mitic. “And with this plug-in, we are making it super-simple for developers to bring the hottest games to webOS.” Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – Only days after announcing PressDisplay.com support for the Sony and Kindle devices, NewspaperDirect Inc., the world leader in multi-channel newspaper and magazine distribution, announced that PressDisplay.com is available for mobile phones running the Google Android mobile operating system, including Google’s latest handset, the Nexus One.

Starting today, PressDisplay.com subscribers can point the Web browser on their Android phone to www.PressDisplay.com and enjoy any of the more than 1,400 local, national and international titles currently available on the world’s largest online newspaper and magazine kiosk. Unlike other news aggregation sites, which provide a limited sample of free news stories from an assortment of news sources, PressDisplay.com offers full-content newspapers and magazines in an intuitive digital format that replicates the printed edition.

PressDisplay.com has also been optimized for Android, making it extremely easy to browse and read entire publications, including all images, cartoons, puzzles, and even advertisements. Navigational controls and gestures such as tables of contents with sections, zoom and pan, and page scrolling are supported. Other advanced features include full graphics and text views, auto-jumps that link articles spanning different pages, cross-title search, article sharing, commenting, text-to-speech, and access to back issues.

PressDisplay.com is popular with consumers who want access to multiple news sources, and corporate customers who need to monitor printed media for business-critical news. With more than 1,400 full-content digital replicas of newspapers and magazines from 93 countries in 44 languages, the website is also the standard in more than 2,500 libraries worldwide. Some of the prestigious titles from around the world available on PressDisplay include The Washington Post, USA Today, Toronto Star, National Post, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Daily Mail, Irish Independent, L’Equipe, Il Giornale, Iltalehti, Bangkok Post, Kommersant, and De Volkskrant.

“We believe in giving readers what they want: their favorite publications, in their entirety, presented in a familiar, intuitive format, wherever readers are, and on whichever device they prefer,” said Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “And, in addition to providing the broadest range of distribution choices for our customers, we offer a proven paid content business model to our publishers — at no operational cost to them.”

Effective immediately, publishers of the hundreds of private-label SmartEdition newspapers powered by PressDisplay technology can offer their subscribers their e-editions on Android devices. Whenever PressDisplay.com supports a new device, it is also made available to NewspaperDirect’s publishing partners for their own SmartEditions.

Waterloo – Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS), a world leader in telematics and mobile media solutions announced today the upcoming availability date of XTop Mobile. XTop is a Smartphone and PC downloadable application that seamlessly leverages the internet connectivity from your Smartphone, enabling you to surf the web and open attachments on your laptop/PC immediately after they arrive on your Smartphone. With XTop, you never have to search for a WiFi hotspot again. XTop will be available through several leading content portals and wireless carriers by March 31st, 2010.

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Montreal – Funcom is delighted to announce a key nomination for its newly established Montreal based company, Funcom Games Canada. The award-winning Miguel Caron – who brings with him over 15 years of organizational leadership experience – has been appointed to serve as the CEO for Funcom Games Canada Inc.

“We are thrilled to have Miguel join us at Funcom,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “Our Montreal based Company is central to a string of new business initiatives in Funcom, both in the high-end MMO space and in the casual MMO space. Mr. Caron will be

Miguel Caron

instrumental in developing and expanding those initiatives. We have already found Quebec and Montreal to be an excellent location for business and we look forward to further expand our operations here under the leadership for Miguel.”

Miguel Caron has a proven track record of driving strong, sustainable revenue and productivity gains within highly competitive national and global markets. Mr. Caron will take on leadership of several strategic initiatives for Funcom, in several different areas of the exciting MMO games segment. One of his first mandates will be to lead the growth in employees at the Montreal company.

“Funcom is renowned for quality productions such as ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and the ‘Longest Journey’ series. I have found its management team to be extremely competent, which is of course a key aspect of being successful in such a competitive market. I look forward to bringing my business experience to help that management team generate even more value to all Funcom stakeholders,” stated Miguel Caron, the newly appointed CEO of Funcom Games Canada.

Mr. Caron has led successful public and private businesses such Lyrtech Inc. He was instrumental to the growth of many high-tech companies and won many awards like the Arista price for best young entrepreneur of the year for mid and large size company as well as the Deloitte Canadian Fast 50.

Funcom is a world leading independent developer and publisher of online games, and was founded in 1993. There are currently over 300 talented individuals from over 35 different nationalities working at Funcom, spread out across offices in Norway, China, Switzerland, Canada and the US. This makes Funcom one of the most multi-cultural game development studios in the world. The company is responsible for multiple award-winning titles such as the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ and ‘Anarchy Online’ MMOs, as well as the ‘The Longest Journey’ and ‘Dreamfall’ adventure games.

Vancouver – Independent development studio Slick Entertainment, best known for its work on the award-winning N+ for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, announced today that it would put the pedal to the metal at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with its newest gaming creation, Scrap Metal™. A certified Scrap Metal™ demoist at Microsoft’s CES 2010 location (Booth #7144, Central Hall) will offer tech journalists and gaming enthusiasts alike the opportunity to check out the new racing title expected to launch on Xbox LIVE. Arcade this spring. Registered press and other attendees are invited to stop by the booth at any time, although guaranteed media appointments can be scheduled by contacting Carolyn Carnes of Flash Fire Communications.

Drift around corners with guns blazing and take out legendary competitors in the fast-paced, top-down racer, Scrap Metal™! Fight your way through explosive, action-packed missions and defeat cunning bosses to add their vehicles to your garage. Customize newly-acquired cars and return to the track to blast through more enemies. Then, jump online with Xbox LIVE® to race against friends and crush their cars with the wheels of a massive monster truck in pulse-pounding online multiplayer matches.

Langley – GoalsOnTrack.com has just announced a 2010 New Year release version which can help you better set, track, and reach personal and professional goals. Using GoalsOnTrack.com’s simple, attractive web 2.0 style interface, people can set goals just about anything they want, from staying fit, to landing a job, to buying a home, or traveling around the globe. GoalsOnTrack.com can help you easily create a S.M.A.R.T. based goal, and then keeps you focused and on track with user-defined supporting tasks or action steps. By consistently adding and completing these tasks, the web site keeps track of your real progress on the goal, and you will be motivated to see the result of your effort toward accomplishing your goals. Beyond that, GoalsOnTrack has just released a rich set of features, such as vision board, habits tracker, etc.

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Many fans of the classic FPS and LAN tournament favourite have often wondered where Minh “Gooseman” Le has gone. Well, it turns out that since leaving Valve Software a few years ago, the former Vancouverite and SFU student joined Korean software developer FIX Korea in 2008, and they have just announced Minh Le’s current project – Tactical Intervention, will have a beta release in the first part of 2010.

Mihn Lee worked on various games including Counter-Strike for HL2, CS:Condition Zero, CS:Source, and Day of Defeat at Valve. Lee left Value because he wanted to create his own FPS. Lee started working on Tactical Intervention since 2006 and then joined FIX Korea two years ago as vice president.

Tactical Intervention takes aim at maximizing strategic team play. The game is being developed with the Source Engine and is set in the modern battle between terrorists and counter terrorism teams. Tactical Intervention is guaranteed to deliver real-like weapon and character design as well as K9 units and hostage NPCs with impeccable AI.

“The Counter-Strike-type of game is proven to be a success throughout regions such as Asia, Europe, and North America. It is quite challenging to balance between bringing out familiarity and new system at the same time. But I can guarantee you will have fun playing it,” said Mihn Lee.

Tactical Intervention is already licensed in North America and Europe and the developers are currently looking for publishing partners in other countries including Korea, Japan, China and in Southeast Asia.

Ottawa – Fuel Industries has released a new web application which is designed to make the following of topics on Twitter much easier. TweetYouThere is currently in beta, and is showing the current tweets relating to this month’s CES in Las Vegas. TweetYouThere makes it simple to follow each company’s Twitter feed updates, and you can choose to view results either alphabetically or by popularity. Each company’s feed shows up in a sidebar window when you click on their respective names. I couldn’t find much in the way of information about this web app on the Fuel Industries’ site, but I would certainly be interested in learning more about TweetYouThere and finding what is in store for it in the future.

Congratulations are due to Klei Entertainment, whose upcoming title Shank has been nominated to the IGF Awards, which take place at GDC San Francisco. Shank has been nominated in the Excellence in Visual Art category. Another Vancouver-made title in the running at IGF is Enviro-Bear, an iPhone-iTouch game designed and developed by Justin Smith. Enviro-Bear has been nominated for a Nuovo Award. Shank and Enviro-Bear are the only two Canadian titles which have been nominated for this year’s IGF. Good luck to both studios!

Toronto – Canadians will be among the first in the world to experience open and integrated social media, communication and entertainment with the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia ™ X10 phone, which will make its North American debut first in Canada , exclusively from Rogers . The Xperia ™ X10 is expected to be available in the second quarter 2010.

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Gormley – Digital Leisure has announced that their newest title, Fast Draw Showdown, designed exclusively for Nintendo’s WiiWare™ game service is now available for download.

When it comes to fast draw there are only two types of people: the quick…and the dead! Now you have the chance to find out where you stand, or lie, as the case may be. You’ll go up against the best quick draws in the business, including one of the world’s fastest, Wes Flowers.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KSA0rY43Rc]

Unholster your Wii Remote™ and show’em who the fastest draw really is, in this live action shooter – a first for the WiiWare service! Once you’ve mastered your shootin’ skills, take on all your friends to see which of you really has the quickest draw.

You’ll need some serious speed and awesome accuracy to take on these gunslingers…so get ready for some real fast draw action! Fast Draw Showdown is available today in North America and later this month in Europe, exclusively on WiiWare for 500 Wii Points™. Fast Draw Showdown is rated T by the ESRB.

Montreal – Ludia’s new title Hell’s Kitchen Vs., which is based on the U.S. TV phenomenon where world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay puts aspiring chefs through rigorous culinary tests is also now available on WiiWare. The game recreates the show’s pressure-cooker atmosphere as two players battle head-to-head in an arcade-style kitchen challenge. Try to conquer your opponent in each time-management test, while taking the heat of Gordon Ramsay judging and rating your performance at every stage of the game. Designed for 1 or 2 players, Hell’s Kitchen Vs is rated E by the ESRB and costs 800 Wii Points to download from the WiiWare store.

London ON – Big Blue Bubble also has a release out on WiiWare today. Pub Darts is a simple darts simulation which uses the Wii Remote™ controller’s unique controls to mimic dart-throwing motion. The game is set in a local pub where the players will settle in to play some of their favorite dart games, including 501, Cricket, Around the Clock, Killers and Baseball. Controls function just like throwing a real dart. Players are able to create their own personal profiles, including selecting their avatar image from a collection of creative characters and the design they would like displayed on the dart flights. Pub Darts is rated E by the ESRB and is downloadable for 500 Wii Points.

Also out today is Big Blue Bubble’s first Fighting Fantasy game book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, now available on iPhone and iPod Touch for $2.99usd. For the first time ever, you have the opportunity to explore the world of Titan on a portable screen bringing the adventure with you wherever you go.

Experience the book that started the massively popular series which has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and set a new standard in roleplaying excellence. This exciting game plunges you into a thrilling adventure to the top of Firetop Mountain and its vast treasure, ruthlessly guarded by a powerful Warlock. Will you have the courage, tact and skill to survive where none have returned to tell the tale?

Following the successful Nintendo DS launch of the game of the same name, Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for iPhone and iPod Touch takes a different approach bringing Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s legendary game book to your favorite handheld device. Scroll through the pages effortlessly by tapping the screen to flip pages, roll dice by shaking your iPhone and experience the breathtaking tale that has sold millions of copies.

Fighting Fantasy readers will be excited to know that Big Blue Bubble will be releasing four more titles in the series. In January, look out for Deathtrap Dungeon as it makes its iPhone debut providing the user with the same level of adventure, excitement and ease of use that The Warlock of Firetop brought.

Fighting Fantasy fans will love the classic story and original illustrations with a technological twist. No more dice, pencils, or bookmarks. All the special features are built in!

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As requested by some of our readers, here is a complete list of the games, studios, characters and publishers who have been nominated for our very first Readers’ Choice Canadian Video Game Awards. Good luck to all of the nominees – and you don’t need to be Canadian in order to vote for your favourites – if you like ’em, let ’em know by giving them a vote.

Go here to vote

Best PC Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Braid – Hothead Games
Dragon Age: Origins – Bioware
Fort Zombie – Kerberos
KrabbitWorld Origins – Krabbitsoft
Madballs In Babo: Invasion – PlayBrains
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Beenox

Best XBox 360 Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Dragon Age: Origins – Bioware
Madballs In Babo: Invasion – PlayBrains
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
Wet – Artificial Mind & Movement

Best PlayStation 3 Title

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Ubisoft Montreal
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
NBA Live 10 – EA Canada
Prototype – Radical Entertainment
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games
Wet – Artificial Mind & Movement

Best Wii Title

Academy of Champions – Ubisoft Vancouver
Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Copter Crisis – Digital Leisure
Monsters vs Aliens – Beenox
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage – Ubisoft Montreal
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games

Handheld PSP or Nintendo DS Title

Avatar – Ubisoft Montreal
Dragon’s Lair – Digital Leisure
Fighting Fantasy: Warlock of Firetop Mountain – Big Blue Bubble
Ice Age 3 – Artificial Mind & Movement
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Capybara Games
NBA Live 10 – EA Canada
Sudoku Challenge – Digital Leisure
The Bigs 2 – Blue Castle Games
Warriors Orochi 2 – Koei Canada
Zombie Tycoon – Frima Studio

Best Handheld Phone or PDA Title

Dead Strike – Psychoz Interactive
Diamond Fever – Howling Moon Games
Gravity Well – Genius Factor Games
Implode – IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Jamble – No Robots Interactive
Sky Babes vs Fly Boys – A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games
ToyBot Diaries 3 – IUGO Mobile Entertainment

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OTTAWA – NAV Canada reports that a flight plan for an aircraft departing the North Pole on December 24, 2009 has been filed with millions of destinations in Canada and around the world.

NAV Canada says it has not handled a flight plan of this size for about a year noting that this breaks the record that was set on December 24-25 2008 by a Mr. K Kringle.

NAV Canada does not reveal the identity of pilots filing flight plans but an unnamed source confirmed that it is Mr. Kringle. “The paperwork says Kris Kringle, but everyone knows him as Santa Claus,” said the NAV Canada source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Pilot Kris Kringle

The details are confidential, but NAV Canada has confirmed that aircraft will carry a huge cargo of brightly coloured packages and will fly at a tremendous speed guided by a flashing red light at the nose of the craft.

“That red light makes the aircraft’s nose so bright. It worked especially well on one foggy Christmas Eve several years back,” recalled one air traffic controller.

A new feature of this year’s special flight will be high-tech equipment on board the sleigh that will allow NAV Canada to pick up the flight as it flies over Hudson Bay on the Company’s new Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) System.

In the past, when it flew over the 850,000 square kilometres of Hudson Bay the sleigh would disappear from the radar screens because of the lack of surveillance coverage. “That was always a concern, but the situation has now been resolved with our new ADS-B system around the Bay and the North Pole’s decision to invest in the on-board equipment,” says a NAV Canada spokesperson.

NAV Canada will be hard at work on Christmas ensuring that the normal air traffic control, flight information and advisory services, are provided for this special flight and all other aircraft – with technical operations and engineering support – as we do 365 days a year.

NAVCanada, the country’s civil air navigation services provider, is a private sector, non-share capital corporation financed through publicly-traded debt. With operations coast to coast, NAV Canada provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

Interested parties can track the progress of this very special flight on NORAD’s site, watching Mr. Kringle’s progress as he journeys along his filed flight plan. In the meantime, visit the North Pole to watch as the whole town prepares for this monumental flight.

Ontario – Howling Moon Games has released their newest iphone title Solar Advance in the iTunes App Store for 99 cents usd.

As the player, you are the intelligence controlling an advance technology that can store the suns energy for use back on a distant planet. As the intelligence you will need to motion special matter that absorbs certain forms of energy. The energy that needs to be caught bursts from suns. Along its path it changes shape and colors. The color of the flare needs to be met by the same color matter for it to be harnessed.

Game Features:

* Each new level leaves the player with more matter to control, more color differences from the solar flares.
* A timer calculates your overall game score, preventing your MAT’s from being destroyed decreases your overall time.
* Each sun has a different gravitational pull.
* New Collapsing Star mode just for the iphone
* An amazing leaderboard system to keep track of your highscores
* Try and collect all the rewards

Yarmouth County – Xona Games has announced that their newest game, Decimation X is coming to Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG) in January 2010 for 80 Microsoft Points. Xona Games has not yet released a lot of promo material for the game, but according to the Decimation X web site, game play will revolve around intense retro-styled shoot ’em action for 1 – 4 players and feature music from Imphenzia.

Gormley – Digital Leisure’s Dragon’s Lair is now available for download via Nintendo’s DSiWare store. Rated by the ESRB as E10, Dragon’s Lair is available for 800 DSi Points.

Title Details: You play the heroic Dirk the Daring, a valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. Control the actions of the daring adventurer and find your way through the castle of a dark wizard who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your journey to the dragon’s lair. Dragon’s Lair is a fully animated classic arcade game from legendary animator Don Bluth.

Game Developer Research is pleased to announce the debut of its sixteenth report, the ‘Game Developer Census 2009‘. The in-depth 248-page report aims to create an accurate list of each significant developer and publisher within the video game industry in the United States and Canada, as well as an accurate list of staff averages for each company.

The Census report lists more than 700 companies alphabetically by U.S. state and Canadian province, along with general contact addresses, website information, estimates of employee numbers and details on their market specialties (from casual gaming, online gaming, mobile gaming and serious gaming to PC, handheld or console gaming).

Not included in the Game Developer Industry Census estimates are game tools company, game contracting/services company, PR, marketing, and external business service, or game distribution and retail professionals. The report is intended to be a valuable tool for game industry trendwatchers, contractors, service companies, and other entities wanting to acquire accurate information to reach out to the North American game market as a whole.

According to Techvibes, “The report reveals that the United States videogame industry employee count is essentially flat year-over-year, rising slightly from 44,400 to 44,806. The small rise in North American game industry employment was marked by an unusually high number of new studios – particularly in social and online gaming – springing up to counterbalance the many closures that occurred throughout the rest of the industry.

Canadian companies, however, saw growth that can almost be called explosive. The continued establishment of new studios and expansion of existing large studios led Canada’s the employee count in the Census to rise 30% year-over-year. The totals rose from 9,500 Canadian video game employees in 2008 to 12,480 in 2009.

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