Bin War

French publisher Ubisoft has signed sports icon Pelé to front its first entry into the lucrative football genre.

Academy of Champions is a football title for Nintendo's Wii, and highlights the continued efforts by Ubisoft to take a chunk of the market currently dominated by Electronic Arts' FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer brands.

"We made our mark in the sports genre last year with the global success of Shaun White Snowboarding," offered Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft. "Now, with Academy of Champions, Ubisoft offers another sports game with a fresh approach that has something unique to offer young gamers and sports fans."

NCsoft has announced the availability of the City of Heroes: Mac Special Edition. The Mac Special Edition is a download-only client that includes the usual 30 days of play time and "a set of exclusive in-game items."

Hurray for Mac folks, eh? Mac players will play alongside PC players, by the way -- in case that doesn't fall more in the "well they sure as poop should be able to!!" category on its own.

"How do you beat World of Warcraft?" is a question I've heard asked plenty of times in the past four years. It's the wrong question. Other developers and publishers have been asking the right questions all this time - questions like "what can we learn from the success of World of Warcraft?" and "how do we co-exist with World of Warcraft?"

Many companies have tried to clone the success of Blizzard's game, with extremely limited success. Others have attempted to appeal to the hardcore audience who, some argue, are marginalised by the mass-appeal of WoW - a generally doomed endeavour, since that audience may be noisy online but it's actually extremely small in size and not hugely lucrative. Others still have tried genuinely new approaches, but have failed to learn WoW's vital lessons about accessibility and progression, and have paid the price.

Sony Online Entertainment is one of the companies which has struggled to get the questions right. From being the largest operator of massively multiplayer games in the western world, thanks to the success of the Everquest franchise, SOE has seen its fortunes decline as Blizzard's star has risen. Everquest maintains a legacy audience, but new launches such as Vanguard have badly misjudged the marketplace and failed to attract significant subscriber numbers.

The best things come in small packages, people say, and it is quite true in online racing games. Racing game is just enough to pump excess amount of adrenaline in the body for people of all groups.

Who does not love car racing which gives the thrill of neck to neck finishes. The internet is a mine of online racing games and it does not take much effort to learn them either. It is very easy to get started but it does need some effort and skill to master the game.

There are many advantages in online racing game. You need not wait for a long time for the game to load as they have very good graphics. Online racing games have fun music and superb sound effects to set the player in the racing mood. Also, it does not cost a dollar to play these games because they are found in umpteen numbers on the internet and can be started playing right away.

Additionally, online racing games do not eat away a lot of your time; you can just play it for some amount of time and end it there. Racing games online are found in various modes of transports like car, bikes, juggernauts, buses and not to forget the space vehicles. Each one is different in its own way and there is no place for boredom and lack of excitement.

Online racing games can be played just for fun or can invite others to challenge in scoring points. Online racing games can be played in the privacy of the room and enjoy hours of fun.

Microsoft today announced the evolution of Zune, its end-to-end music and entertainment service, to a new platform and new markets. Zune will extend its video service to Xbox LIVE® internationally this autumn. This marks an important development in the Zune strategy and brings the Zune brand to over 17 million international Xbox LIVE subscribers.

Zune will be the premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalogue of TV and films to the platform and exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo next week, attendees will see first-hand how Zune integrates into Xbox LIVE creating a game-changing entertainment experience.

This is the first time Microsoft has marketed the Zune entertainment service in Europe and is also a key step in Microsoft’s strategy to offer consumers a connected Zune experience across three screens (TV, PC and mobile).

“The Zune experience is growing beyond a music player in the U.S. Zune’s international expansion starts with video on Xbox LIVE; eventually we’ll offer the full digital entertainment experience spanning screens, devices, platforms and geographies,” said Chris Stephenson, General Manager of Consumer Marketing for the TV, Video and Music Business. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision; this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.”

With Zune video on Xbox LIVE consumers will have the option to view a wide selection of TV and film content how and when they want: either instant streaming, download to rent or download to own, so you can watch even when you aren’t connected to the internet.

Neil Thompson, Senior Director Entertainment Division UK & Ireland commented: “Xbox customers in the UK & Ireland enjoy music much like a national sport. This introduction of Zune video service to Xbox Live will offer additional even more high definition content continuing our journey to become the leading platform for entertainment experiences.”

In addition, Microsoft today confirmed the next generation of its portable media player, Zune HD. Available in the U.S. only from this autumn, Zune HD is the first portable media player with built-in HD Radio receiver, HD video output capabilities, OLED touch screen, Wi-Fi and an internet browser

Tomonobu Itagaki, the outspoken game developer previously in charge of Ninja Gaiden developer Team Ninja, has returned to videogame development with a new team tentatively named Tokyo Vikings.

In an interview with consumer publication 1UP, former members of Team Ninja confirmed that they had recruited many of the main talents behind both the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises, and are working on an original IP.

Itagaki was tight-lipped on the nature of the new title, saying only that it will not be a one-on-one fighting game, and that it was "too early" to talk about.

THQ's executive vice president of publishing Scott Guthrie has resigned from the publishing company with immediate effect.

Guthrie was responsible for overseeing sales, marketing and distribution for the company in North America. According to a statement, he has left to pursue a new opportunity.

"THQ has a deep and experienced global sales and marketing team and we continue to execute on our focused product strategy," commented Brian Farrell, THQ’s president and CEO. "We wish Scott well in his future endeavours."

PlayStation Home's focus is firmly on producing content and growing its community, with chasing profit coming further down the list.

That's according to Peter Edward, director of the PlayStation Home Platform Group, who told GamesIndustry.biz he believed that monetisation of the PlayStation 3's virtual world environment would happen as a consequence of fulfilling the top two priorities.

"On the one hand, yes - Home is an ambitious platform and has been in development for some time, so obviously that's a lot of money," he explained, ahead of a speaking engagement at GameHorizon next month. "But it is a platform, it's not a single software product. We do have a profit and loss on Home, and obviously revenue is an important part of it, just like with anything else.

There are currently 13 million unique Xbox Live users playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, according to a new interview with Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling.

Speaking to Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb in his latest podcast, Bowling commented that: "Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live just exploded. I mean right now we're at 13 million unique users on 360 and that's insane."

In January, Bowling put the online total for the Xbox 360 at 10,006,606 unique users, suggesting a considerable increase over the last few months - despite the game having been originally released in November 2007.

Independent publisher Playlogic Entertainment has announced that it will begin publishing games for the Nintendo DS and Wii consoles in North America.

According to a press release, the publisher has been granted an official publishing license by Nintendo of America, and is set to begin releasing its current line-up of Wii and DS software in the region.

"Becoming an official Nintendo publisher for North America is very integral to our growth strategy for 2009," said Playlogic executive VP Rogier Smit. "We have a really strong line-up of titles for the DS, Nintendo DSi and Wii platforms and are confident that our games will be very competitive in the Canadian and US marketplace."

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