Village Gamer

Acquisition to Accelerate Autodesk?s Games Strategy; Complements Digital Entertainment and Visual Communications Offering; Lets Artists Choose their Passion

Montreal – Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) and Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all of the assets of Avid’s Softimage business unit for approximately $35 million.

Softimage was founded in 1986 by Daniel Langlois and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Softimage develops 3D technology for the film, television and games markets. Its flagship product is SOFTIMAGE|XSI, an extensible 3D animation software solution used by leading media and entertainment companies, including Digital Domain, Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation, CAPCOM, Animal Logic and The Mill. Autodesk Media & Entertainment provides animation, visual effects, editing/finishing and color grading solutions for the 3D market, including entertainment and design industries.

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-From VFS– Save on production time and costs by seamlessly transferring your 3D experience to Softimage|XSI in this comprehensive course in the most advanced 3D animation software for games, film, and TV. Guided by 3D expert and teacher Craig Slagel, you’ll also find out how to tap into Softimage’s powerful new ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) and get a running start on using this revolutionary platform to increase production efficiency and consistency. Learn how to code less and create more.

November 22-23, 2008
Vancouver Film School
1380 Burrard Street
9am – 6pm Sat. & Sun.

Price: $795 CAD (includes Saturday & Sunday). Only 20 spaces available and spaces limited to 2 per registrant. Contact softimage@vfs.com to enquire about group bookings.

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Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game* of all time reveal new private funding investment

Vancouver – Smoking Gun Interactive Inc., an independent premier video game studio announced today that it has recently finalized a multi-year, multi-million dollar financing agreement with private investors to expand the studio and the development of an as-of-yet undisclosed new property.

“This injection of private capital allows us to continue to control our own destiny, and deliver on our vision of taking interactive entertainment in new directions, and redefining what tomorrow’s games can be”, said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director of Smoking Gun Interactive, “We’ve expanded our core team with some exceptional talent, and with this financial expansion we’re now looking forward to welcoming new faces to our team and new partners to our business, as we become a leading force in independent games development”.
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Bangkok/Vancouver – Sanuk Games, a leading independent game studio in Southeast Asia, announced today the opening of a new studio in Vancouver. Ali Kojori, a seasoned game executive and entrepreneur, is appointed as managing director.

Ali started his career in the entertainment industry in 1994 as an FX/Character Animator/Lead Animator with Morning Glory Images and with Mainframe Entertainment on various television shows. In 1999, Ali moved into the video game industry at Electronic Arts, starting out in research and development on the upcoming PS2 and Xbox game consoles, and switching shortly thereafter to Technical Art Director role for a number of AAA titles including Def Jam: Vendetta (AKI), NBA Street, SSX, SSX Tricky, Triple Play Baseball 2001 and Fight Night 2004 (NuFX Chicago). He also served as Animation Director on FIFA 2003.

In April of 2004, Ali founded NextGen Entertainment, a new game production company. NextGen secured a contract with their first client Ubisoft to complete their Racing/Combat title 187 Ride or Die on which he served as Producer. In June 2005, Ali was assigned as a Senior Producer on a PS2, XBOX, PC title Heroes of Pacific, Published by UbiSoft / CodeMasters and Developed by IR Gurus Interactive in Australia. The game was released in October 2005.
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Autodesk M&E Events are presenting their Dream, Dare Deliver seminar on November 4th at the ScotiaBank Theatre on Burrard Street. Register for this event and learn all about the versatility of the Autodesk family of creative design products. The first portion of the seminar will cover 3ds Max, Mudbox and MotionBuilder. The second portion of the seminar will cover Toxik, MotionBuilder and Maya. Following the seminars, there will be an informational session regarding product subscriptions and then a question and answer period. A product raffle and reception will round out the afternoon.

New Media BC’s members celebrated the first Canadian National Digital Media Day by holding their 10th Annual Annual General Meeting at Radical Entertainment’s Terminal Avenue studio.

After a welcome greeting from Radical President Kelly Zmak, New Media BC President Kenton Low opened the AGM with a quick recap of 2007’s events and milestones, along with a look into the future plans and how New Media BC will move our west coast digital media forward. With a growing membership base, a good financial position, an expanding list of programmes and a higher level of political awareness, the future does indeed look bright for the New Media BC Association.

Brief reports were filed in regards to Opportunity Alert, Mobile Muse and The Fusion Forum. NMBC members also received a progress report on the Board’s lobbying efforts with the Provincial and Federal Governments in hopes of improving the economic outlook for the digital media industry in British Columbia. Of course the most exciting announcement of the night was the fact that Vancouver will be home to GDC Canada, which will take place during Vancouver Digital Week in May of 2009.

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The 2009 Game Design Expo, hosted by Vancouver Film School, is accepting submissions from game industry professionals wishing to present at Game Design Expo on February 7-8, 2009 in Vancouver, BC.

The sold-out 2008 Expo featured speakers from Bungie, BioWare, Activision, EA, and many more, and garnered unprecedented support from the media and industry. Join the conversation: play a part in your industry’s evolution and the fostering of new talent.

The Game Design Expo organizers are looking for guest speakers with something to say and a desire to share their knowledge. In particular, we welcome talks that fall into the general categories of Pre-Production, Prototyping, and Pitching. If you are interested in becoming a guest speaker at the Game Design Expo, please contact the Event Manager, Shira Gordon at 604-631-3562.

Richmond, British Columbia – September 10, 2008 – Microsoft Corporation’s first Canadian development center officially opened today in Richmond, British Columbia. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre (MCDC) currently employs over 300 of the world’s best software developers who work on over half of Microsoft’s products including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, the Zune Media Player, Windows Mobile, Ad Platform, AD Search, Unified Communications, Exchange Server, Visual Studios, Silverlight and the Xbox 360.

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Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that it will continue in the studio’s long tradition of delivering powerful content-creations to the gaming community by releasing the Dragon Age™ Toolset. BioWare will be presenting the Dragon Age™ Toolset at the Penny Arcade Expo in the Washington State Convention & Trade Center today through Sunday. Designed specifically for the highly-anticipated Role-playing PC game Dragon Age™: Origins, the Dragon Age Toolset provides players with developer-grade tools that will allow them to produce their own content.

Attendees of the Penny Arcade Expo will be the first ever to see the new toolset in action as BioWare will provide a live demonstration of some of its exciting features and capabilities. The Dragon Age Toolset will be part of a stage demonstration during the Penny Arcade Expo at 1:30pm, August 31, on the main stage at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle, Washington.

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The tenth Annual General Meeting for New Media BC will be held on Thursday September 25, 2008 at Radical Entertainment, 8th Floor – 369 Terminal Avenue in Vancouver. The doors will open for registration and networking at 3:15pm, followed by the official meeting at 4:00pm. New Media BC members will be updated on all of the activities which New Media BC has participated in over the past year, see an outline of what is planned for the coming year, go over the financial reports and elect the Board of Directors for 2009-2010. There will also be announcements regarding Digital Week 2009. After the conclusion of the AGM, members are invited to celebrate Canada’s first National Digital Media Day by mingling to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and view a Politube Shorts Screening presented by New Forms Festival. Members need to pre-register for the AGM and Mixer – if you’re not a member of New Media BC but would like more information, please check out the Membership Benefits page on the New Media BC site.