via MENAFN

Sony Corp., the world's largest maker of video-game players, has announced fresh plans to cut jobs at its PlayStation subsidiary in the U.S. to reduce costs, Bloomberg reported.

The reductions add to planned job cuts in Europe and come after the PlayStation 3 contributed to a $558 million fourth-quarter loss, the company's widest in four years. Sony's video-game unit, which has sold more than 100 million PlayStation 2 consoles, is under pressure to boost sales of the PS3, which trails sales of Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Last month, Sony said that its losses at the game unit will narrow by almost 80 percent in the year ending March 2008 and will turn profitable the following year, as the company raises sales and slashes production costs.

Also, Tokyo-based Sony in April said it may cut 160 jobs at its European game unit to reduce costs. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. has 1,900 workers, it said. ...

via Gameinfowire

Corks are flying across the continent as Eidos and Crystal Dynamics toast the release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which ships to North American retailers today.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a celebration of Lara's original adventure in an entirely new Crystal Dynamics game. In 1996 the original Tomb Raider video game launched and introduced the world to Lara Croft, one of the entertainment industry's most successful and prolific cross-over properties.

"The anniversary edition is a fan-inspired celebration bridging Lara Croft's groundbreaking past with a revived passion for new adventures and technical advancements," said Bill Gardner, president and CEO of Eidos Inc. "Lara Croft is at the doorway of a new decade, and we've made sure she's ready to face exciting new challenges in the world of entertainment."

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary takes advantage of more than 10 years of technical advances to faithfully recreate the sense of isolation, suspense and surprise of the original title, but with greatly expanded environments, enhanced puzzles, updated weapons and the smooth, athletic character movements introduced in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend in 2006.

Said Matt Gorman, director of marketing at Eidos Inc., "Tomb Raider: Anniversary is an exciting adventure for fans of the franchise and a great introduction to Lara Croft for a whole new generation of consumers."

The first Tomb Raider game sold more than seven million copies worldwide. Lara Croft went on to become a global entertainment icon, gracing more than 200 magazine covers, touring with U2 and topping $1 billion in brand equity. In total, the franchise has sold more than 30 million games, inspired two feature films and produced comic books, animated series and countless other licensed products.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary was developed by Crystal Dynamics, with versions available for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and Windows PC under Windows Vista. Versions for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system and the Wii console are forthcoming. ...

via Fragland

According to Gameinformer Nintendo US will soon lose three of their major managers. They're talking abut George Harrison, Beth Llewelyn and Perrin Kaplan.

Normally they would have gone to San Fransisco or New York to go on with their current jobs, but things seem to turn out quite different. They're probably putting things to a halt when it comes to their current career.

Remember though, this is a RUMOUR, but it sure ain't fun for Nintendo...

At the moment, the rumour is being firmly denied by Nintendo:

"In terms of the execs leaving we have not heard anything regarding that speculation - and it remains speculation," the spokesperson told GI.biz. "We are not commenting further on those rumours at this time." ...

via IGN

Stylus not enough control for you? Then you'll want to pick up Nintendo's newest DS game. The latest issue of Famitsu has the first word on Slide Adventure: Mag Kid, a new DS game that will make use of a bundled "slide controller" peripheral.

The slide controller plugs into the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot and, laying beneath the system, looks somewhat like a stand. As you slide the DS around on a table, the controller picks up your movements. This is how you move the main character about the overhead fields of play.

The main character in question is the Mag Kid of the title. This peculiar circular creature has special magnetic properties which makes things attach to him. You'll have to use this special power to solve puzzles that take place about a house.

Mag Kid has a few special moves that make use of the slide controls. Sliding the DS in an enemy's direction makes Mag Kid ram into and paralyze the enemy. Paralyzed enemies can be attached to Mag Kid, giving him, depending on the enemy type, special powers, including lasers and fire breath. Finally, when you've lost interest in your support crew, you shake the DS to release them.

Mag Kid seems capable of attaching a small army of enemies to himself -- at least eight from what we've been able to gather. Some stages require that you create chains of enemies in the correct order.

As one example of the gameplay we can expect from the game, Famitsu details a boss fight in which Mag Kid faces off against the flames from four burners on a stove (the Four Flame Brothers, as they're known). To defeat the boss, you attach water drops to Mag Kid, then toss them at the flames.

Sounds like another cool gameplay concept from Nintendo, although we're wondering if the game will support the stylus for situations where you can't place the system on the ground (like on a train, or when you're hang gliding). A Japanese release for Mag Kid is set for 8/2, so expect further details to surface shortly. ...

Source Code of the new Xbox emulator for PC, Xenoborg, was released.

This is what blueshogun96, the author, said:

Hey guys. Alot of people have been bugging and nagging me about how my Xbox emulator is doing lately, so I thought I'd post some progress. Well, it's been over a year since I've started this project (May 27, 2006 exactly) and I haven't had alot of time to work on this either, but I've managed to get some results out of all that hard work. I'm posting the binary and source code below. The source code is released under the GNU general public license. You can do just about whatever you want with it. It uses LLE instead of HLE and uses OpenGL instead of Direct3D.

There's alot of stuff to be done in this source code. Optimizations, and corrections, etc. Also note that alot of the NV2A GPU emulation code may be innaccurate or just plain wrong (like everything else)! Be warned the CPU core isn't completed either. The x86 instruction set is very MASSIVE and will take a while to complete. And no, it does not play Halo 1/2 and the BIOS emulation isn't started yet. Anyway, give it a look and let me know what you think about all this. I have over 50 MB worth of documentation I've used, but I'll post that when I get back from work ...

via Gaming Bits

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is the follow up to 2005's creepy FPS game with a mix of forensics, Condemned: Criminal Origins. Monolith Productions, the developer behind the game, and SEGA released additional character and environment artwork. See the artwork below.

"The original, Condemned, was a game which truly shocked and scared its players with its subtle details, gripping story and eerie tension throughout,” said Gary Knight, European Marketing Director, SEGA Europe. “Condemned 2: Bloodshot takes these three key elements to heightened new levels, providing a superb mature gaming experience that will constantly surprise its players and keep them gripped from start to finish.”

New to this release of Condemned is online multiplayer deathmatch. Condemned 2: Bloodshot will be released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, which is currently estimated for a first quarter 2008 release.









...

via Gaming Bits

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is the follow up to 2005's creepy FPS game with a mix of forensics, Condemned: Criminal Origins. Monolith Productions, the developer behind the game, and SEGA released additional character and environment artwork. See the artwork below.

"The original, Condemned, was a game which truly shocked and scared its players with its subtle details, gripping story and eerie tension throughout,” said Gary Knight, European Marketing Director, SEGA Europe. “Condemned 2: Bloodshot takes these three key elements to heightened new levels, providing a superb mature gaming experience that will constantly surprise its players and keep them gripped from start to finish.”

New to this release of Condemned is online multiplayer deathmatch. Condemned 2: Bloodshot will be released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, which is currently estimated for a first quarter 2008 release.









...

via Cubed3

Sega's Yosuke Okunari recently sat down to discuss various aspects of its forthcoming Wii exclusive port of the arcade game 'Ghost Squad', covering how it will differ from the original and the potential of other shooters coming to Wii. Below are some excerpts from the interview:

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IGN Wii: Have the graphics been changed for the better or worse in the transition to Wii?

Yosuke Okunari: The graphics are customized for the Wii console. However, I think the users who have played the arcade version should have little discomfort.

IGN Wii: As far as gameplay is concerned, how does the shooter feel on Wii? Is there any IR calibration in-game, or was it not needed? What kind of options have been included for Wii players?

Yosuke Okunari: With the household TV becoming sophisticated, gun shooting games were only available in arcades for a certain time. However, Wii enabled the players to enjoy gun shooting games at their own houses. What's more, you don't have to buy any additional peripherals. This is a simple story, but very important. Ghost Squad should probably be the first gun shooting game on Wii. And people should be able to rediscover the excitement of gun shooting games.

IGN Wii: Sega has a plethora of light gun games in its arsenal. Why start with Ghost Squad?

Yosuke Okunari: Ghost Squad is not a series title, but we thought it would be perfect for our first challenge on the new hardware. And we also think the depth of the game is suited for home video games. Of course, Sega still has a lot of very attractive gun shooting games and in my personal opinion, I think we should continue releasing them on Wii. However, I can not tell you about our future plans yet.

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Be sure to check out the full interview here. ...

via InterGame Online

The Dubai Entertainment Amusement and Leisure show brought together nearly 180 companies from over 30 different countries, but dominating the event was Amusement Services International, the main representative of Sega in the Middle East.

The company had almost 500sq.m of stand space. “The need for more space this year was more appaòent than ever, with the variety of equipment we exhibited,” said Sega’s Justin Burke. “We also displayed the largest amusement machine the industry has ever seen at this show, Outrun 2 SDX.

“This attraction, along with our exclusive, hand-picked line-up of Sega products such as HOD 4 Special, After Burner Climax, Lets Go Jungle, Too Spicy Twin and other show stoppers, had onlookers in a state of excitement, showing time and time again what ASI and Sega can do together,” he continued

Sega’s Paul Williams added: "I was very impressed by the display in Dubai. This is a growing market for us and our distributors are capitalising on that. The range of large products Sega currently has suits the Middle East market very well indeed." ...