Bungie Goes MMO

Bungie has confirmed that they will be working on a “massively multiplayer action game.” Initial rumors said that the game was WoW in space although Bungie lead network engineer David Aldridge claims this approximation is not the case.

Bungie has hinted at in the past an interest in a persistent world game, although they have never developed such a game before. The game, games or whatever it ends up being will be published by Activision.

Bungie added something about it being a joke but its hard to say whether they’re just trying to cover up for a broader announcement they’re not ready to make.

Source: IGN

Gears Of War 3 Beta Access At GameStop

GameStop has announced that those who pre-order Gears of War 3 will receive access to the multiplayer beta on April 25, 2011. Bulletstorm: Epic Edition owners will have access starting April 18.

Those who participate in the beta will receive the Beta Tester Medal, along with the Thrashball Cole character variant and Gold-Plated Retro Lancer at 50 and 90 matches played. Those who participate in the beta will receive the flaming hammerburst, lancer sawed-off shotgun and gnasher shotgun variations.

Insomniac Games Loses Its Mind In Recruitment Video

Insomniac Games has long been known as one of the best places to work in the gaming industry, with benefits and perks almost unheard of at other places. Just to show they don’t take themselves too seriously, Chris Stathis appears in this supposedly old public access television video from the ’90s.

Nexon Launching Facebook, Mobile Games

Nexon has announced that they are entering the realms of social and mobile gaming. They will be bringing the racing game KartRider Rush to iOS and Android and the action/RPG MapleStory Adventures to Facebook later in 2011.

Expanding our global IPs into the social and mobile gaming space is a watershed moment in Nexon’s global expansion efforts, said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO. Not only will this move provide new ways for hundreds of millions of fans worldwide to experience Nexon’s games, it allows Nexon the opportunity to prove the robustness of its business model on new platforms.

Atari Sues Zoo Publishing

Atari has filed a lawsuit against Zoo Publishing. The $6 million lawsuit is because Atari alleges that they failed to deliver promised goods.

According to the suit, Atari says that Zoo received $2.5 million without giving out the promised games. They also said that Zoo sold the finished product directly to retailers, which violates their contract.

Zoo never delivered any of the finished, packaged video games to the customers even though Atari advanced to Zoo the funds for manufacturing the video games subject to those orders, Atari alleges.

Zoo, which specializes in DS games, has no comment on the suit and Atari had no comment outside of their initial release.

Source: AdWeek

Nintendo Downloads Not Operating To Iwata’s Standards

Nintendo has managed to do very well for itself over the past few years, but its downloadable services have lagged behind offerings from competitors. Nintendo CEO and President Satoru Iwata has confirmed that since WiiWare launched in 2008 and DSiWare followed in 2009, they have not achieved the success the company would like.

To date, our WiiWare and DSiWare services have not operated as well as they should have, said Iwata at his GDC keynote.

He did note, however, that 3DS SpotPass function, the wide range of eShop content and wi-fi access.

Source: MCV

Sony Announces Move.Me App

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced the Move.Me application. This will allow academics, researchers, students, and hobbyists to create software for the PlayStation Move on PC and PS3.

“PlayStation Move’s camera-plus-controller combination allows for the most precise and immersive gaming experiences,” said John McCutchan, senior engineer, SCEA Developer Support. “Now we’re formally taking that advanced technology, which was almost ten years in the making, and offering it to innovators outside of our traditional game development community so they can create their own applications to impact the world in exciting new ways.”

Find out more at http://www.us.playstation.com/move-me.

Zynga Defends Medium Of Social Games

Facebook games, and in particular Zynga, have gotten a lot of heat at GDC. Zynga s Brian Reynolds fired back during the event with a defense of his medium.

I ve seen a lot of these aren t really games; they re not fun; they re evil, said Reynolds. Apparently, as of yesterday, we are preventing game developers from making a living.

Facebook is a fun place. We socialize there with people we like. I got into making these things because I thought they were the coolest thing around, he asserted. We get to speak to larger audiences than any one has ever been able to talk to before. No one has reached this many people through games before. All these things are there and alive in social games just as they have always been there in all games.

He highlighted the social nature of social games, saying, We are doing our players a service. We are giving them a reason to socialize with each other. We are starting their conversations. Where we are is not where we want to be, but I can tell you, with twenty years industry experience, they are games. They are innovative and they are exciting.”

Source: IndustryGamers