The Unreal Engine 3-powered, "Metroidvania"-styled side-scroller Shadow Complex broke Xbox Live week-one sales records with 200,000 units sold, Epic Games and developer Chair said Monday. The companies, along with Microsoft, said the game is the most-downloaded single-player game in Xbox Live Arcade history for the first week. Shadow Complex, released on August 19, is Chair's sophomore effort on Xbox Live, having released Undertow in 2007 -- also powered by Unreal. Shadow Complex "exceeded sales expectations," ...

The Indie Game Challenge development competition has had its deadline extended nearly a month, from October 1 to October 31. Announced last month, the content is sponsored by retailer GameStop, game development school The Guildhall at SMU, and academy The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. For a $100 entrance fee, the Challenge offers the chance for independent developers to win a $100,000 grand prize in either the professional or nonprofessional category, or a $50,000 ...

Rockstar Games said Monday that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is coming to Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch this fall, following the March release on the Nintendo DS. The M-rated game garnered strong reviews from critics when it launched in March on DS this year. The game, developed by Rockstar Leeds, sold 163,000 units in its first two months. Rockstar also recently announced that it would release a PSP version of the game this fall. ...

Jade Raymond, the highly-visible producer of Ubisoft's multi-million selling Assassin's Creed, is heading up the publisher's recently-announced Ubisoft Toronto studio, the company said Monday. Ubisoft said it would be founding a Toronto-based studio in a major announcement in July. The government of Ontario is investing CAD$263 million ($226 million) into the development studio over the next 10 years. Raymond will lead day-to-day operations at Ubisoft Toronto, and will report to Yannis Mallat, CEO of both ...

The International Game Developers Association said Bob Bates is stepping down as co-chair of the game developers' trade body in order to pursue an unnamed "dream project." He was on the board for six years. During his time on the IGDA board, Bates was "chair of several committees, secretary, vice chairman and chairman (2005 & 2009)." Bates became chair of IGDA in March this year. Taking his place is co-chair Tobi Saulnier, who took on ...

Graphically-enhanced versions of the acclaimed PlayStation 2 games God of War 1 and 2 are both coming to PS3 on Blu-ray disc in the God of War Collection this holiday, Sony Computer Entertainment America said Monday. Sony is selling the collection for $39.99, or $20 cheaper than a typical PS3 release. The compilation will arrive a few months before God of War III for PS3, which is due for release in March 2010 and is ...

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference (also parent of Gamasutra), has announced its advisory board for the October 11th-13th GDC China event in Shanghai. Board members include industry veterans Ding Yingfeng, product director of NetEase's popular Chinese free-to-play MMO Fantasy Westward Journey, Eric Chang, CTO and co-founder of XPEC Entertainment, Xu Xiao Yue, a lead engineer at Ubisoft Shanghai and Joe Zuo, vice president of Shanda Games, the Shanghai-based licensed publisher of MapleStory, ...

[We round up the top console digital download news of the last week from Gamasutra sister site GamerBytes, including brand-new game announcements and scoops from the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, WiiWare, PSP Minis and DSi.] Well, after the announcement of the PSP Minis program, we've caved in -- GamerBytes will now also bring you the latest news in Nintendo DSi and PSP mini software alongside Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare ...

Doritos and Xbox Live Arcade? Microsoft is partnering with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division on a second XBLA game design contest called "Unlock Xbox," with a $50,000 consultancy as the ultimate prize. Doritos and Microsoft did a previous iteration of the competition starting in 2007, claiming the first consumer-created XBLA game, Doritos Dash of Destruction, as the result. The companies say it became the fastest XBLA game to reach one million downloads. The competition is open to ...

The Walt Disney Company has acquired comic book and movie producer Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, bringing some 5,000 iconic characters under the Mouse's purview. Marvel continues to produce comic books and license its characters for multimedia uses. In recent years, it has expanded to funding and producing its own feature films like Iron Man, as opposed to licensing its own characters to third parties for those. The acquisition is likely to have wide-ranging implications ...