Networking-oriented business event Game Connection is reporting 220 exhibitors confirmed for its Game Developers Conference appearance next month. Game Connection 2009, taking place March 24 to 26 in San Francisco, is described on its official site as "a unique speed dating event for business-focused game makers." Though 40 percent of exhibiting companies hail from North America, it will host companies from more than 30 nations, with 15 percent comprised of companies headquartered in Asian countries. ...

NCsoft's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa finally reaches its planned shut-down date on Saturday. But the development team at NCSoft Austin seems to be taking the opportunity to create something almost unheard of in video game story: a final, absolute ending to the narrative in which the good guys ultimately die. According to an in-character message posted on the game's official site, the world of Tabula Rasa (which apparently dropped its Richard Garriott's prefix in the ...

For the second year in a row, Microsoft is inviting Xbox Live users to vote for their favorite downloadable games on Xbox Live Arcade. Six games were nominated in each of nine categories, including Best Overall Arcade Game, Best Cooperative Multiplayer Game, and Best Innovation in XBLA, to name just a few. Number-None's Braid is a leading contender, nominated in five different categories, and publisher Capcom enjoys a strong presence as well with Street Fighter ...

What do Tetris, Sim City, Jenga, and World of Goo have in common? They are all somehow, if loosely, about architecture. GameCareerGuide, Gamasutra's sister site for career and education information related to game development, has presented its readers with a creative exercise to invent a new game that is also somehow about architecture. Gamasutra readers have been invited to try to solve the challenge as well. The purpose of the challenges, a weekly series, is ...

Italy-based independent studio Geniaware announced its opening and its licensing of Emergent Game Technologies' multiplatform game engine Gamebryo. The developer, which boasts a "rapidly expanding international team" and an internal artificial intelligence-dedicated department, is working on a multiplatform 3D title based on a "wide audience" topic. The project is expected to require some 30 months of work before its completion. "I would like our talented team to be inspired by the brainwave of Leonardo da ...

In an intriguing design feature, Electronic Arts designer and Page 44 veteran Matt Allmer re-imagines the famous '12 Principles Of Animation' for video games -- adding a principle along the way! Gameplay design can be chaotic, full of frustrations and contradictions -- Allmer compares it to "sailing a ship while still building the hull or "jumping out of a plane while still sewing your parachute" -- which is why he believes the field needs a ...

As the British government continues its discussion on the private regulation of the video game industry, YouGov releases the results of a poll done for the British Board of Film Classification that demonstrates parents' concerns about video games -- and supports its intention to be the single video game ratings body. According to the survey, three quarters of British parents report being "concerned about the content of video games", and express a belief that games ...

UK company Eidos Interactive saw revenues increase by 26 percent in the six months ended December 2008 -- and the Tomb Raider publisher also managed to reduce its losses to £1 million ($1.4m). The release of Tomb Raider: Underworld helped revenues to rise to £80.3 million, compared to £63.4 million ($113.5m) at the same time the previous year. Even more significantly, the company also managed to shave its net debt from £5.7 million ($8.1m) to ...

Rumors and speculation surrounding a potential PlayStation 3 price cut announcement have been swirling in recent days, and during a recent technology conference, executives from publishers THQ and Electronic Arts have weighed in. This week, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said he believes a price adjustment could come out of Sony's just-held retailer meeting and take effect by April, but so far the manufacturer has stayed quiet. But that hasn't kept third parties from tossing ...