Gadgets and Video Games

Earlier this month, Take-Two announced the potential movement of one of the titles planned for release in its fiscal fourth quarter, extending from August to October. The choices were: LA Noire , Mafia 2 , Max Payne 3 , or Civilization V . During our demo of Mafia 2 on Wednesday, we were told the game would make its Q4 release, removing it from the list of potentially delayed titles.

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Q4 release for Mafia 2 (re)confirmed; Payne, Noire, Civ V still on hit list

One of the big trends at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference is social gaming, thanks to wild success stories like Facebook-powered Farmville . While many see social gaming as the next big thing, Will Wright — famed creator of SimCity , The Sims and Spore — warned GDC attendees that expectations for the genre are unrealistic. “What people tend to do is apply a power curve to this,” Wright explained using the above diagram

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Will Wright predicts social games will grow to 25 percent of market

Game industry analysis firm EEDAR dropped some interesting statistics during its GDC panel this year. The first half of the presentation — hosted by EEDAR president Geoffrey Zatkin — concerned new intellectual property in the games industry. According to Zatkin, the amount of new IP released has increased slightly over the last three years

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GDC 2010: EEDAR talks new IP strategy

The latest trailer for EA’s upcoming reboot of the Medal of Honor series, which debuted this week on GTTV , really goes out of its way to explain exactly the kind of gentlemen you’ll be piloting this summer . These guys are Tier One Operators — “experts in the application of violence” — which might explain why some guy who seems to just be hanging out gets totally messed up without much of a reason. Aside from a repeat performance of the “kick dude in chair out of window who’s actually booby-trapped with explosives,” we’re given a bit of a hint at what to expect from the game.

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Medal of Honor trailer defines Tier One Operative (in case you were wondering)

click to kazoomi Like some of the best loyalty quests in Mass Effect 2 , ” Kasumi’s Stolen Memory ” is an inventive sub-story that steps away from all the galactic peril just long enough to explore the motives and traits of a newly recruited squad mate. The downloadable add-on introduces Kasumi, a cocky human thief in search of data relating to a former partner (in crime?), and sees Shepard accompanying her on an important and incredibly dangerous two-person mission. You know, a date. Donning a sleek bit of evening wear and a false identity, Shepard accompanies Kasumi to an exclusive party — the kind that requires either a shiny invitation or a shady conscience. While the commander mingles, a cloaked Kasumi keeps an eye out for the hidden art vault that she believes holds her partner’s grey box.

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Impressions: Mass Effect 2 DLC – Kasumi’s Stolen Memory

EA DICE has been a fairly prolific developer during the current console generation, churning out both a high-profile title based on original IP ( Mirror’s Edge ), as well as ones based on established franchises like Battlefield . EA was searching for a way to capitalize on the downtime between these blockbuster releases — a game which would be relatively quick and painless to create, while still standing up to the quality standards set by their previous releases. Thus, the idea for Battlefield 1943 was born. Battlefield 1943 producer Patrick Liu explained the studio’s unique design philosophy while making the game, which boiled down to “make the game as long as resources last.” They maximized the amount of content they produced under this strategy by settling on the somewhat smaller scope of the game early, and focusing on recreating the Battlefield experience to adhere to that scope

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GDC: EA DICE on building a bite-sized Battlefield

In the video game industry, the talent (read: game developers) are often “hired guns,” if you will — part of a developer that is either wholly owned by a publisher (i.e. Infinity Ward’s relationship with Activision) or a developer that’s being contracted for development by a publisher (i.e. Ruffian Games ‘ relationship with Microsoft). Rarely, if ever, is an individual (or individuals, as is the case here) represented by a talent agency, nonetheless a fancy, bigtime Hollywood one like Creative Artists Agency.

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Ex-Infinity Ward heads now represented by Creative Artists Agency

In a panel titled “Where Did My Inventory Go? Refining Gameplay in Mass Effect 2 ,” BioWare’s Christina Norman talked about the radical changes made to the second chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy.

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BioWare’s Christina Norman defines goals for Mass Effect 3

Evan Wells doesn’t look like he’s old enough to be co-president of Naughty Dog , does he? Even after shepherding Uncharted 2 through development, which has picked up just about every award on the planet, he still maintains his youthful vim and vigor. While we don’t know what his eternal youth secret is, he did give us the inside scoop on the workings at Naughty Dog when we spoke with him at GDC . Besides letting us know about their new studio and the hectic days just before shipping Uncharted 2 , he also talks PlayStation Move development, Jak and Daxter plans (he wants to see one on the PS3), and expanding Uncharted to the PSP . Pause your game and head on through the break for the full interview.

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Interview: Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells

PlayStation Home director Jack Buser kicked off Sony’s final day of GDC 2010 panels, announcing that the virtual community’s worldwide userbase now stands at 12 million. The population has grown by two million users since December 2009, and is double of what it was in June of last year. Buser expanded on the stats, pointing out that these numbers aren’t based on one-off visits; according to Sony’s data, 85 percent of users who create a Home avatar return more than once. The average citizen, he said, spends an hour in Home each visit.

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PlayStation Home population at 12 million