Tony Hawk HD Remake Passes Over 120,000 Sold First Week

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD sold 120,000 copies in its first week on sale. The game launched on Xbox Live Arcade, with a launch on PSN planned for August and on PC later this year.

Day-over-day sales have apparently been solid as the game has received good word of mouth. “It should be interesting to see the sales on PC — we’ve been surprised how many people are asking for that,” noted Josh Tsui of Robomodo.

Source: Gamasutra.com

Zynga Being Investigated Over Stock Fire Sale

Reports are that Zynga is being investigated by multiple law firms for their business practices before the company’s recent stock dive. This follows reports that a number of Zynga insiders sold large amounts of stock just months before their value tanked, raising concerns that information about the state of the business was being withheld.

Levi & Korsinsky is investigating “concerns that Zynga misrepresented and/or failed to disclose materially adverse facts about its business and financial condition”.

Zynga recently lowered its outlook for the rest of 2012, citing “delays in launching new games, a faster decline in existing web games due in part to a more challenging environment on the Facebook web platform, and reduced expectations for Draw Something.”

Source: Kotaku

Disruptor Beam Hires New COO

Disruptor Beam has announced that it has hired Blue Fang Games veteran Hank Howie to be the company’s new Vice President of Business Development & Chief Operating Officer. He will be responsible for licensing, publishing and building partnerships on behalf of the company, as well as operations relating to all projects including the upcoming Game of Thrones Ascent social game being developed in partnership with HBO and author George R.R. Martin.

“With over 20 years of experience in the game and Internet industries, I’m confident that Hank’s worldwide connections and in-depth insight will prove to be invaluable as we continue to grow,” said Jon Radoff, CEO and Founder of Disruptor Beam. “I can’t think of a better person to help Disruptor Beam reach its next chapter, creating innovative social and mobile games and furthering our position as a key member of not just the Boston game development community, but the global games industry as a whole.”

“I’ve experienced first-hand the industry-wide transition towards targeting a continually growing population of casual gamers with social and mobile games,” said Howie. “The potential for Disruptor Beam to become a leader in this space is clearly apparent. This is one of the many reasons that I am thrilled to join the Disruptor Beam team and I’m looking forward to building prosperous and long-lived partnerships that will skyrocket the company to the next level.”

Find out more about Disruptor Beam and Game of Throne Ascent in this exclusive [a]list interview.

Dark Knight Triumphs In Second Weekend

The Dark Knight Rises added $64 million to its domestic total and $122.1 million from 17,000 locations in 57 overseas markets, upping its international gross to $248.2 million. The worldwide gross after two weeks is $537 million for the Christopher Nolan movie.

There were worries after a lower-than-expected $18 million from the box office on Friday that the Colorado shootings and the start of the Olympics had put a damper on the movie’s reception. While The Dark Knight Rises was tracking off of initial projections, a positive $25 million Saturday (which was up overall for the movie industry) put it in a more positive position.

The weekend is still off roughly 25 percent from last year’s comparable frame, but the Saturday comeback was seen as a sign of endurance by some studio executives and suggests the Friday result may have had as much to do with the opening ceremony of the Olympics in London as moviegoers’ reluctance to return to the theaters. The latter is an important point, since research firm NRG polled movie goers late in the week which showed that between 20 percent and 25 percent of moviegoers said they were hesitant to return to theaters in the wake of the Colorado movie shootings in which 13 have died and 57 were injured.

Source: The Wrap

E3 Staying In L.A. Until 2015

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced that the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will remain in Los Angeles for the next three years. E3 2013 will take place June 11-13, 2013, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, L.A. LIVE and a plethora of venues throughout downtown Los Angeles and the City.

“We are proud to partner with Los Angeles for another three years. The City serves as a strong backdrop for the video game industry’s biggest announcements and we look forward to remaining in LA,” said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. video game industry. “Video games are a dominant force in the global entertainment marketplace and there is no better place to display that than Los Angeles. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the City and AEG.”

45,700 video game professionals, analysts, journalists and retailers from 103 countries attended E3 2012. The city of Los Angeles was notably eager to keep E3, as the thousands of people attending generated roughly $40 million in revenue for Los Angeles in three days.

“The City of Los Angeles is thrilled to welcome E3 back for another three years,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “My office was committed to doing whatever it took to keep the largest annual conference that the City hosts here for another three years. I personally joined in the negotiations, and we worked with all parties to ensure the needs of E3 would be met. The City is grateful the Entertainment Software Association continues to view L.A., the entertainment capital of the world, as the ideal location for the world’s premiere video game convention.”

The main threat to E3 remaining in Los Angeles were AEG’s plans for downtown Los Angeles that are scheduled to include a reduction in size of the Los Angeles Convention Center, a necessity for the planned development of the new Farmer’s Field. That concern has apparently been addressed with E3 now situated in multiple venues in close proximity.

“ESA’s commitment to remain in Los Angeles is a critical endorsement of Los Angeles as one of the nation’s most important convention destinations,” said Timothy J. Leiweke, president & CEO, AEG. “Working with ESA to provide the confidence in scheduling they have requested has truly been a collaborative effort. We are also grateful to ESA for their thoughtful input into the design plans which will result in the most efficient and modern facilities that will not only benefit E3 but all of the new conventions that will come to Los Angeles. On behalf of our City and AEG, thank you ESA, we won’t let you down.”

“ESA supports AEG’s mission and vision for downtown Los Angeles and the areas surrounding the Los Angeles Convention Center,” Gallagher added. “We appreciate AEG’s willingness to work in partnership with our organization to not only create a construction schedule to accommodate the needs of our guests but also their commitment to incorporate many of our suggestions into the design of the new venues. These resulting upgrades to the facility will truly benefit all conventions and further establish Los Angeles as industry leaders. We are glad we could come to an agreement that keeps E3 in its traditional home.”

Registration for attendees is not currently open, but additional info for hotel & travel accommodations, media credentialing and registration will be forthcoming and available at www.e3expo.com.

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Dead Space 3 Given Co-Op to Appeal To More People

Many people have noticed that what’s been shown of Dead Space 3 is far more action oriented than its predecessors Dead Space and Dead Space 2, which concentrated far more on horror. According to EA Games’ marketing manager Laura Miele, the change of tone is a reaction to product research.

“We were doing research coming out of Dead Space 1 and 2 and we’re really proud of those products. We received feedback to understand how we can take the game out to even more consumers,” she stated. “We were hearing feedback that they love the thriller game, but it was pretty scary, and the obvious next step was that they wanted to play with someone. So we introduced co-op into the game.”

“The horror of Dead Space is still all there. It’s still true to its roots and no less scary, but people felt far more comfortable playing it with someone else than they did doing it on their own,” she added. “Personally, I would rather go to scary movie with my husband rather than sit at home with the lights out watching one on my own. We’re looking for that to reach out to consumers that perhaps were not open to Dead Space 1 and 2.”

Source: MCV

Car Town Coming to Asia Via Proto Corporation

Cie Games announced that they are working with Proto Corporation. The developer of the automotive-based Facebook game Car Town has 40 million users and a means to help expand the auto-enthusiast magazine across Asia,

“We are thrilled to partner with Proto Corporation to focus on bringing localized and exclusive content to Car Town players in Asia,” said Dennis Suggs, president and CEO of Cie Games. “Enabling fans to play in their native language with new, custom-designed features for each region will further enhance the players’ overall user experience and expand our community.”

The partnership will see Proto publish, market and develop localized versions of Car Town on Facebook for Asia in 13 countries, including Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Cie benefits from being one of the first social game developers to utilize a game as an effective brand building and advertising platform.

Thousand Pounds Teaser Video Gives A First Look At Clandestine

Thousand Pounds Action Company, makers of live action martial arts shorts for anime, manga and video game fans, have released the first teaser video for their original web series, Clandestine.

The world of Clandestine revolves around four supernatural clans who rule mankind from the shadows.  Each clan wields unique abilities, both mental and physical, that they’ve used to strike a balance of power amongst themselves.  How these abilities factor into clan-on-clan battles will be one of the most exciting aspects of how combat and fight action scenes will play out in the series.  Add to that Thousand Pounds’ pedigree in martial arts action film-making, choreography and stunts.

Now the filmmakers are giving a first glimpse and establishing just how powerful clan warriors are, even when faced with the elite human killers.  The first teaser trailer from Clandestine introduces the Eagle clan through a runaway named Baruti (Brendon Huor).  Baruti has ventured off into the city, where he garners unwanted attention from several crime factions. When they all place a hit on him, they underestimate how dangerous he can be.

The Eagle are cunning, tactical, and unmatched in strategy. They see all. Uncontrollable emotions and weak minded individuals are their playground, as they can manipulate the minds of any enemy that isn’t mentally stable.

As Baruti’s would-be assassins close in on him, they quickly realize that while their death-dealing skills are unmatched in the world they know, they simply become toys when they enter an Eagle warrior’s playground.

Dishonored – Daring Escapes

This trailer shows Corvo being chased by the City Watch in the Boyle Mansion and there are three distinct examples given for how to escape. Choose your own adventure between The Long Jump, Sleep Tight, or Chain Possession . . . or just let the video play and watch them all!

Be Immortalized In SimCity

Fans have a chance to be immortalized in the new SimCity by naming a diner. Text “SIMCITY” to 44144 and enter your idea to name a diner. Get friends to vote for your entry and the diner name with the most votes wins.

Friends can vote once per day by texting. Diner name entries and votes will be accepted up to midnight July 31 so enter now and tell your friends to vote and vote often. Good luck and may the best diner name win!