EALA lead designer Sam Bass discusses the ideas that his team has injected into Command & Conquer 4, the last game in the series, to help make the RTS genre more approachable to newcomers and more satisfying to all. View post: The End of RTS? A Command & Conquer 4 Interview Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →

A distribution agreement between PC developer and publisher Paradox Interactive (Victoria II, Hearts of Iron) and publisher SouthPeak (My Baby) has gone sour, and Paradox has filed for an injunction. According to legal filings obtained by Gamasutra, Paradox claims SouthPeak owes it some $585,382 it’s collected from the sale of its games — the money remains unpaid due to SouthPeak’s... 

“It’s an interesting time to be an RTS developer,” says Command & Conquer 4 lead designer Sam Bass. The upcoming release of StarCraft II will be a boon to the genre overall, he says, expecting it to “help the market” — support he says RTS gaming needs right now. “I think we’re a little bit in danger of becoming like the flight sim market, where... 

Longtime EA Sports VP and general manager Steve Chiang just left the company to join social gaming giant Zynga — and he’s being replaced with new execs who also have their eyes on the social space. Former Global Online Group leader Andrew Wilson has stepped up to head worldwide development, and 13-year Electronic Arts veteran Pauline Moller, former general manager at EA Canada, is the... 

[UK writer Fraser McMillan discusses Valve's seminal first-person action title Half-Life 2 for Gamasutra, examining and revisiting the smart design decisions behind the classic game.] I’ve just finished Half-Life 2 for the first time. It has taken me three attempts – once on Xbox 360 and twice on PC – to see Valve’s defining game to its conclusion. That this relatively minor... 

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up the week's top indie games on his sister 'state of indie' weblog, highlighting the most interesting titles that have come to light in recent days.] This week on ‘Best Of Indie Games’, we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week Read the rest here: Best Of Indie Games: Cut,... 

Gamasutra’s weekly column, “Saling The World”, covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide. This week’s charts, with data taken from March 18th, 2010, find God of War III leading console software sales in the United States, while Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver head... 

Warner Bros. Interactive has announced of Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a co-op action RPG, to be released in 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game will be based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novel series, not the film property, and will “explore both original and familiar narrative elements” of the series, says the company’s press release Read more: Warner Bros. Announces... 

Rockstar NYC is the award winning publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Max Payne, Red Dead Revolver, Bully, The Warriors, Manhunt, and a host of other hugely successful, high profile titles on PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, PC and more. The New York City office is Rockstar’s worldwide publishing headquarters. It is the home of our marketing, public relations, and product development... 

In today’s Gamasutra feature, Ryan Winterhalter introduces us to two Westerners who’ve set up shop in Tokyo: Dutch-born British citizen James Kay and his partner Paul Caristino, founders of Score Studios. The two both say the fact they established their business in Japan was practically incidental, but not without a unique set of concerns. From the feature: There are many areas of the... 

Organizers of this May’s GDC Canada event in Vancouver, BC have confirmed the first social game and iPhone lectures for the event, with speakers from Zynga (Farmville), iPhone experts IUGO, and Diner Dash creator Nick Fortugno discussing major emerging markets. Registration is now open for the event at the Vancouver Convention Centre, which talkes place on May 6th and 7th — with early,... 

For its third straight year, chip maker AMD will support the annual Games For Change Festival in New York. The event plays host to educators, activists and healthcare professionals looking to work with video games. This year, AMD will provide a $100,000 grant to sponsor a full-day design workshop geared at educators at the festival. Go here to read the rest: AMD Provides $100,000 Grant For G4C Design... 

Excited about shaping the primary look of many different worlds? Read the rest here: Concept Artist – The Workshop Marina del Rey, CA, USA Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →

[GamerBytes editor Ryan Langley examines February 2010's PlayStation Network debuts and continuing successes, with charts and leaderboard data, to find out which games are doing well at the start of the year.] Back in 2008, February was the launching pad for several big titles – Flower, Noby Noby Boy and NHL 3-On-3 Arcade. Visit link: In-Depth: North American Playstation Network Sales, February... 

Nordic Game’s 2010 event in Malmo, Sweden has revealed its keynotes, headlined by Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale. Segerstrale will open the event on April 28, and his talk is designed to frame Nordic Game’s “Entrepreneurship”-themed portion Read the original: Nordic Game 2010 Reveals Segerstrale, De Fondaumiere Keynotes Bookmark It Hide Sites  Read More →

Here we are in an era of video games coming under intense scrutiny for their violence, and for any hint of sexuality. This is an era in which the Australian and German governments are rejecting the sale of certain games by the handful, Venezuela has banned all “violent” video games with sweeping terms, and psychologists study the effects of violent games on behavior around the clock. It’s...