The Super Soldiers

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTWO), announced today that Jade Empire: Special Edition is now available in stores across North America and will be available on March 2nd internationally. Developed by BioWare, Jade Empire: Special Edition is an award-winning action-RPG that delivers an incredible story-driven game play experience with stunning high-resolution graphics and controls optimized for the PC.
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Capcom has already confirmed postlaunch support for its Xbox 360 action game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, but today the publisher announced that it is going to be offering more than a few bug fixes and presentation tweaks. Over the next few months, Capcom will release seven new multiplayer maps for Lost Planet, one of them free and the rest divided into three map packs for sale on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

“We’re committed to bringing new content to the thriving community of Lost Planet fans,” said Charles Bellfield, vice president, marketing, Capcom Entertainment, Inc. “The development team is steadily working on additional environments to provide players with new ways to enjoy the intense Lost Planet brand of action.”

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With nearly 5,000 game development jobs, tax credits for software production, and publishers like EA and Ubisoft finding success in the city, Montreal may be the coldest hotbed of game development in the industry today. Yesterday it was announced the city would be receiving another studio from a frontline publisher, as Eidos and the economic development agency Investissement Quebec laid out plans to establish a new studio in Montreal.

The studio will develop four games for the newest generation of systems and be accompanied by a new testing unit. Eidos expects to hire 110 people in Montreal by the end of the year, with the operation reaching 350 people within three years. Eidos attributed the pool of experienced talent in the area and tax incentives on game development as a pair of the factors that convinced it to establish operations in the city.

Activision today said that it has received another warning from the Nasdaq after failing to file its earnings for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, in time. The publisher also said that the warning was expected.

This is the second straight quarter in which Activision has failed to file its earnings in time. Both delays were caused by internal investigations into stock-option grant practices. The company did, however, issue a recent “preliminary” earnings report in which it claimed it sold $822.8 million worth of games during the fourth quarter of 2006.

Activision was granted continued listing on the basis that it files both delayed quarterly reports by May 9 of this year, but does say that there is no assurance that it will be able to. If it fails to file its reports by that date, the company’s stock could be delisted.

PRESS RELEASE — Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, announced that Pirates of the Spanish Main, the newest expansion for the Pirates Constructible Strategy Game™ (CSG) Online, is currently in development at the company’s Denver studios and scheduled to launch Tuesday, February 27, 2007. The Pirates CSG Online is based on WizKids’ successful tabletop strategy game, where players build 3D ships from die-cut cards and sail the high seas in search of treasure.

“Pirates of the Spanish Main is the first of many expansions SOE has planned to support the growing community of players for Pirates CSG Online,” said Christopher E. Sturr, Senior Global Brand Manger, Sony Online Entertainment. “They’ve been eager for more content, and I think their patience will be more than rewarded with this expansion.”

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A World of My Own (AWOMO), a joint project between Virgin Games and Game Domain International, is expected to “revolutionise” the way games are sold, the two companies believe. Promising rapid download speeds–claiming to enable play within minutes–greater security, and ease of use, the virtual world is expected to see “downloading of video games to grow rapidly.” Game publishers including Koch Media are said to have already registered their support and are “enthusiastic” about participating in the project.

Virgin’s chairman, Sir Richard Branson, commented, “This is a really exciting development for us, as it gives us the opportunity to do for PC games what iTunes has done for music. The GDI technology will revolutionise how the mass market will play games and will give them more choice for less money.”

The AWOMO platform is due to launch later in 2007, with “a large selection of games available.” The companies are expecting international demand to be high.

Though the litigation-inspiring Guitar Hero controller already has some limited motion-sensing functionality, it appears it is about to get much more. Buried in yesterday’s Activision conference call was an easily missed nugget of info that will literally be music to Nintendo fans’ ears: It looks like Guitar Hero is coming to the Wii–and the Nintendo DS.
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Last month, Ubisoft reported solid earnings for the October to December 2006 quarter. And although the French publisher is already flush with cash, it is about to receive a sizable chunk of free money.

Today’s issue of the Quebecois broadsheet La Presse reports that tomorrow, the Canadian government will announce it is giving Ubisoft’s Montreal-based subsidiary C$8 million (around $6.8 million). The payment is part of an ongoing grant program that will see Ubisoft receive C$454 million (approximately $383.9 million) from Ottawa to create 1,000 jobs in Quebec, Canada’s large, predominantly French-speaking province.
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Last year, Guitar Hero publisher RedOctane and parent company Activision sued The Ant Commandos, a company that makes unlicensed guitar controllers for the popular rhythm game. They claimed that the peripheral maker infringed on its trademarks. The Ant Commandos filed a countersuit alleging that RedOctane copied the official Guitar Hero peripheral’s design from its parent company’s “Magical Guitar” controller, released years earlier for Konami’s Guitar Freaks line of games. By year’s end, the two companies had settled their dispute.

Now Activision is suing The Ant Commandos again, with a complaint filed in US District Court in Los Angeles last month. But the peripheral maker has some company this time. Three people who worked on Guitar Hero and PR firm Reverb Communications were also named as defendants. Reverb formerly represented RedOctane, and last month announced that it was providing services to The Ant Commandos. In the same press release, The Ant Commandos announced that Reverb’s vice president of business development had joined its board of directors. Harmonix, the studio that developed the first two Guitar Hero games, is not named or involved in the suit.
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At the Electronic Entertainment Expo last year, Konami revealed that work had begun on a live-action movie based on Metal Gear Solid. The news broke via a pamphlet for Studio Kojima, the Konami-owned development house headed up by Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima.

“I have received many offers to adapt Metal Gear Solid. It has taken a long time, but we have finally settled on an arrangement,” Kojima said in a statement. “False facts aside, a movie project is underway. I have finalized a Class-A contract with a party in Hollywood.”

For eight months, the identity of the aforementioned “party” was unknown. That changed this week, when Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman Yair Landau revealed his studio is developing the project.
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