An interesting article yesterday over at SMH.COM.AU about the Australian game industry..
"This year, investment in Australia by the big US and European games publishers - Electronic Arts, Infogrames, and Vivendi Corporation's Universal Interactive, the top three - will be well over $50 million and this, industry experts say, is only the start.
Companies such as Infogrames Melbourne House, Blue Tongue, Tantalus and other smaller houses now command about 50 per cent of what has become an…
I guess it was highly anticipated that Sony will drop the prices on their consoles after Microsoft and Gamecube did theirs. Well the news is in that Sony has done just that. Hopefully the reductions will apply to here in OZ real soon. (the prices below are in US dollars btw.. $199 US = $365 AUS)
"Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced that effective immediately, its leading PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system will be available to consumers for $199, a more than 30 percent…
While Photoshop is the king of image editing, it just wasn't made for drawing/editing on the pixel level. That's what Promotion is for! Designed similarly to Deluxe Paint on the Amiga, it's the ideal tool for you 2D artists out there developing graphics/animation for GameBoy Advance or mobile phones.. Download the trial and check it out!
Sydney developers Strategic Studies Group have a new release. Taken from their website which explains it more accurately than I ever could:
"Strategic Studies Group has announced Decisive Battles of World War II: Korsun Pocket the long awaited sequel to The Ardennes Offensive in the Decisive Battles system. The game will be released in the second half of 2002 through Matrix Games. Korsun Pocket uses a greatly improved version of the Ardennes Offensive engine to recreate the desperate German…
Irrational Games (the guys behind Freedom Force) has posted a couple of days ago on their website that they are hiring. They're aiming to fill several positions at their Canberra studio. The new positions are Senior and Lead Programmers and a Writer, for Irrational Games' upcoming product line. MORE INFO HERE...
EA games have announced Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, a 3d platform action/adventure game for the Gamecube and PS2 by Brisbane developers Krome Studios. (Looks great!) Release date has been set to Autumn in the US, 2002. Links available at our Krome Studio profile section !
With all the hi-tech doom and gloom recently, it's a surprise to find that the games industry is still growing..
"The videogame industry seems to exist in a kind of parallel universe. Despite the recession, the protracted tech slump, and Sept. 11, sales of videogame hardware, software, and accessories increased 43% last year, to a record $9.4 billion"
More info here
Fujitsu, a world leader in hard disk drive technology, has developed revolutionary new read head and media technologies that will enable hard disk drive (HDD) recording densities of up to 300 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in?). The new technologies are expected to lead to the commercial introduction within two to four years of 2.5" hard disk drives with capacities up to six times the recording density available today.
More info here
Sony's Playstation 2 has hit the 30 million sold mark. So far, there have been 11.3 million units sold in North America, 9.9 million units in Japan, 8.8 million units in Europe.
Sony is also planning to release the Playstation 3 in 2005. The machine is expected to be around 200 times more powerful than the current PS2, and games will be downloaded and played over a highspeed fibre-optics connection.