Author Archives: Steve Murray
Assassin’s Creed Franchise Taken Over By Ubisoft Quebec
Ubisoft’s flagship development studio will no long be the force behind Ubisoft’s flagship franchise. As part of an expansion of their Quebec City studio, Ubisoft is moving their Assassin’s Creed franchise from the control of Ubisoft Montreal, home to all of Ubisoft’s triple-A franchises, to Ubisoft Quebec.
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Geek Links of the Week
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority have said that EA’s ads for Dungeon Keeper Mobile are misleading. That’s not surprising. Calling it a game is misleading. [Eurogamer]
The court-ordered Google plan to remove search results in Europe is already being used for evil. A former Merrill Lynch banker whose investments cost the company millions has gotten a BBC report about him pulled from Google search results. So now Google has been forced to remove a legitimate story because someone didn’t like it. Amazing… [BBC]
Which game engine is the best according to industry experts and indie devs? It’s still the Unreal Engine. Just because it doesn’t seem to have taken off with the triple-A devs doesn’t mean Unreal 4 won’t still be big. [Develop]
The latest controversy to strike eSports isn’t a cheating scandal but a social network promotion scandal. Prominent eSports news site OnGamers has been banned from Reddit for a year leading to the resignation of Rod “Slasher” Breslau from the site after a submission and upvoting scandal. [OnGamers]
Fox News, the conservative pseudo-news channel that hates liberals and youths, ripped of BioShock Infinite’s logo for a logo of one of its pandering crusades. The irony. [The AV Club]
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Frozen Mashed Up with Game of Thrones
I’ve never watched Frozen but if it’s anything like this mashup trailer that combines scenes from Frozen with Game of Thrones, I may have to watch this one. Frozen just so happens to mashup absolutely perfectly with Game of Thrones. I know that the classic Disney movies were done so that all ages could enjoy them but I’m not sure this is quite what Walt had in mind.
Oh, and Season Four spoilers.
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IeSF Ends Male-Only Restriction in Tournaments Following Hearthstone Controversy
A controversial week in the world of eSports turned out to have a happy ending. After a Finnish Hearthstone tournament was outed as being male-only and that restriction as having come as a result of the event being a qualifier for the International e-Sports Federation World Championship, IeSF has done a complete rethink on its tournament policies and are eliminating its male-only tournaments and opening them to all genders.
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Airtight Games Closes Weeks After Releasing Murdered: Soul Suspect
The pressure on developers to take big budgets and turn that into far bigger revenues has been crippling the games industry over the last few years. As budgets grow, innovation stagnates as developers and publishers have become far too scared of financial failure to try new things.
The latest victim appears to be Airtight Games. Having just recently released new IP Murdered: Soul Suspect, Airtight has closed its offices and is selling off its equipment four weeks after the game shipped.
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eSports Weekend Calendar: July 4 – 6, 2014
If you’re a StarCraft fan, this is a big weekend for you. Both WCS Europe and WCS America are wrapping up 2014 Season Two this weekend which brings us one step closer to BlizzCon and the StarCraft World Championship.
If SC2 isn’t your speed, there’s plenty of action elsewhere. The League Championship Series is holding another super week this week so if you’re looking for more League of Legends action, this is the week for you. There’s even some Dota and Hearthstone action for you this weekend. It’s a busy weekend in the world of eSports. This is why I do this calendar every week.
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ESL’s Intel Extreme Masters Announces StarCraft II Tournament in Canada
After the massive success of the 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series Season 3 World Finals in Toronto, it was only a matter of time before the highest level of competitive SC2 returned to Canada. It won’t ESL bringing WCS Americas to Canada but ESL’s premiere competition series, Intel Extreme Masters, that will be coming to Canada for a stop in August.
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Ouya Unveils $60 Subscription Plan for Whole Game Library
It’s been quite a long time since we’ve heard anything from the little $99 Android-based console that started a new industry for cheap consoles in the living room. If you had any interest in the Ouya, how quiet they’ve been since launch would be a cause for concern.
However, the folks at Ouya have come up with a new plan to inject some life into the console. They’ve announced plans for a 12-month subscription to their game library for $60 per year.
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Evolve Wins Best of Show and 3 Other Best of E3 Awards
After an E3 that didn’t really set the gaming world on fire for the remainder of 2014, the 29 media outlets on the Game Critics Awards panel have announced the official best of E3 award winners. The big winner was Evolve which picked up four awards, including Best of Show. Hot on its heels was No Man’s Sky which won three awards, one of which is was best Indie Game.
By the way, don’t try to make sense of why some games won some big awards but missed out on other awards. Given that I keep hearing about these awards from Geoff Keighley, I’d imagine that some VGX-style consolation prizing is going on.
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Six Seasons and Where’s My Movie? Yahoo Revives Community
Just when we thought that we were in the darkest timeline, Yahoo, of all companies, grabbed the die from mid-air and saved Community from cancellation. The former search engine turned web conglomerate is getting into the original programming business and is leading off with a 13-episode sixth season of the cult hit sitcom.
et geekera 