Zynga reportedly was in discussions with News Corp about purchasing MySpace. Reports are that News Corp wanted $100 million or over in stock from Zynga, and not cash.
While Zynga currently dominates games on Facebook, having a large platform all to itself might be the next logical step. However, with MySpace revenues down to $80 million from $300 million a couple years ago, Zynga is not likely to pay more than $50 million in cash.
Source: SF Gate
Reports are that Universal is looking to launch a new Doom movie. While it is still in early stages of production, it will reportedly not follow the events of the 2005 movie, starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
While the original film was not a box office success or well received critically, Universal is keen to do the film in the wake of the success of G.I Joe : Rise of Cobra. They’re looking to film the movie in 3D.
Source: Hollywood Insider
With all of the additions to the PS3 version of Portal 2, including a Steam copy, cross-platform co-op play and cloud-based saves, some Xbox 360 owners feel a bit put out. Still, Valve has come out to say that Xbox 360 version has no more-or-less than any other version, gameplay-wise.
When you buy them they’re all the same,” said Valve writer Chet Faliszek. “They’re all exactly the same. Content-wise, you’re getting the same experience in them. It’s just once you start looking at co-op. The Mac, PC and PS3 can all play together, they will all get updates quicker. For some people that will make a big difference.
Source: Eurogamer
With Shenmue III likely to never materialize, creator Yu Suzuki gave his take on the final entry for the franchise at GDC 11, created with the help of Mega64. Not to spoil anything, but Suzuki’s straight faced delivery makes this all the better.
The latest version of the Unreal Engine 3 was shown off at GDC 11 and its level of detail wowed the crowd. Now, the general public can watch all the gritty detail for the trailer called Samaritan.
A lot of puzzle games involve blocks of some sort, but Slam Bolt Scrappers presents a unique use of block. In the game players fly through the air, punching cthuloid grubs to get colored blocks, placing these blocks into squares of the same color, turning them into powerful weapons that automatically attack their opponent’s tower . . . yeah, it’s confusing but fun looking.
Activision appears to be done with Guitar Hero and DJ Hero for now, but they might not be abandoning the music genre entirely. Rumors are that Activision is working on a new game called Dance Hero.
Some of the rumored songs to be included are 2012 by Jay Sean (feat Nicki Minaj), Out Of Space by The Prodigy, The Way I Are by Timbaland (feat Keri Hilson and D.O.E.) and Take Over Control by Afrojack (feat Evan Simon). While there’s no confirmation of platforms, Move, Kinect and Wii are all likely candidates.
Source: Kotaku
Facebook has announced that it has updated its Facebook Insights for Websites analytics tool. This will help publishers find out what users on Facebook are talking about, sharing or liking at any given moment.
We hope the real-time reporting and additional granularity help you quickly identify opportunities to highlight engaging content, wrote Alex Himel, a software engineer at Facebook in a blog post.
Source: AdWeek
Dragon Age: Origins was originally designed for the PC and later ported to consoles, something that effected the quality of the console versions. Dragon Age II Producer Fernando Melo promises that the presentation of the sequel will be more accurate across all versions.
“We’re obviously keeping all the good stuff and we made a short list of everything we thought needed improvement,” he explained. “Consistently, they kept coming up in reviews and fan feedback, and for us it came down to the visual style.
“As well received as Dragon Age was, ‘art’ kept coming up and particularly so on the consoles,” added Melo. “It was a PC game that was ported to consoles and I think they suffered a little bit because of that. That was something we wanted to get right.”
“For Dragon Age II the art team took that on full stride and basically revamped the art style with the goal that, if you look at a screen from Dragon Age II you know it’s Dragon Age, I think they’ve done a fantastic job with that,” he concluded.
Source: CVG
Microsoft has announced that their Kinect motion sensing camera has sold 10 million copies worldwide. What’s more, that’s been accompanied by the sale of 10 million standalone Kinect games at the same time.
“The sales figures here speak for themselves, said Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records. According to independent research, no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector.
