Village Gamer

Vancouver Film School to Host Weekend with Game Industry Luminaries – Ubisoft’s Clint Hocking Announced as Keynote

November 18, 2008 – Vancouver, BC – Building upon the sold-out 2008 event, the third-annual Game Design Expo, hosted by Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution, is shaping up to be even bigger and better. Set for February 7 and 8, 2009 at the Vancity Theater at the Vancouver International Film Centre, the weekend will be headlined by Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal (Splinter Cell, Far Cry 2), a popular speaker at industry events, and will feature an exciting lineup of talks and panels with the leading minds in game design.

The event begins with Industry Speaker Day on Saturday, February 7, aimed at game industry professionals and enthusiasts alike. Hocking’s keynote will pave the way for presentations by designers and producers from top companies like Epic, Insomniac, Radical, and Relic. An industry panel with panelists from EA, Obsidian, Propaganda, and more will round out the day.

Tickets to Industry Speaker Day are CDN $75 for the full day and are expected to sell out quickly when they go on sale today, November 18, 2008. For ticket purchases and the latest information and schedule, visit gamedesignexpo.com.

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Street Fighter® Branded Destination Experience to be featured in the New Xbox Experience!

Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, is proud to announce that the much anticipated Super Street Fighter® II Turbo HD Remix for Xbox LIVE® Arcade will be one of the first games to be featured in the New Xbox® Experience with a Branded Destination Experience.

Launching tomorrow, the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix destination experience will provide a central place for Xbox LIVE Arcade gamers to learn about new content, view the latest trailers, and access downloadable content, including picture packs, and both Basic and Premium Themes. The new Street Fighter® Premium Theme features extensive high-definition graphical layers that take over your Dashboard, presenting a fully dynamic and encompassing package for the ultimate social entertainment experience on Xbox LIVE.

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Toronto – The Adventure Company and JoWooD Productions, leading publishers of adventure games worldwide, are pleased to announce Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun for Wii™ has shipped to retail stores in North America.

This is the third game in the successful series adapted from the popular Agatha Christie novels and the second release on the wildly popular Wii platform. Based on the novel Evil Under the Sun by the world’s best-known mystery author, this title seamlessly channels the stunning environments, unique puzzles and exceptionally rendered characters into this adventure game friendly platform.
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Black Box, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), announced that Need for Speed™ Undercover is available at retailers today in North America and on November 21 in Europe. Need for Speed Undercover is an action-packed game whose story of pursuit and betrayal takes players back to the series’ roots with break-neck cop chases, spectacular highway battles and an expansive open-world.

Need for Speed Undercover features stunning Hollywood-style live-action in-game movies in which the player is recruited by Federal Agent Chase Linh, played by Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III and Live Free or Die Hard), to go deep undercover in order to infiltrate and takedown a ruthless international crime syndicate. Posing as a wheelman, the player will be required to prove themselves by completing jobs, racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals.
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Choose from a wide selection of original paintings, photographs, prints, ceramics, sculpture, wearable works and more. This is your opportunity to purchase creations from Emily Carr’s up-and-coming artists and designers.

This year’s sale is produced by studioshop, Emily Carr University’s online store. Visit the site before or after the sale for online shopping from home!

Friday, November 21 from 1pm to 8pm
Saturday, November 22 from 10am to 6pm

Concourse Gallery, North Building
Emily Carr University
1399 Johnston Street
Granville Island

Admission is free.

Toronto – SilverBirch Inc. has announced that it has completed the sale of its 60% stake in Crossroad Mobile, LLC. For
nominal consideration, the assets and related liabilities have been transferred back to the purchasers. Under the agreement, the effective closing date is September 30, 2008.

The transaction will result in the elimination of just over $40K of debt in relation to a Secured Promissory Note and reduces further dilution for SVB’s shareholder with the immediate cancellation of 1,800,000 warrants.
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Annex|Pro, a well-known value-added technology solutions reseller based in Vancouver, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a series of educational seminars. Congratulations to Kerry, Byron and the whole team at Annex|Pro!

November 24 – Eyeon Generation World Tour: Eyeon Generation is a breakthrough family of products that satisfy the demand for an end-to-end VFX environment and delivers timeline editing with up to 4K disk based playback, backed by 20 years of Fusion compositing development. The Generation workflow seamlessly integrates and collaborates with all eyeon products as well as removing the interoperability bottleneck with other products.

November 25 – Matrox MXO2 – Streamline Your Apple Final Cut Studio Workflow: Discover the Matrox Hardware Advantage with MXO2, a portable, affordable, and complete I/O device for the Mac. Be among the first to see this award-winning device in action.

November 26 – Render Farms 101: From Rendering to Reality in no Time: Want to learn more about render farm management? PipelineFX expert Troy Brooks has extensive experience in film and game development workflows, and will show you why using the right tools will improve productivity and increase content quality while optimizing hardware resources.
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Toronto-based distribution company, Breakthrough Entertainment announced Nat Abraham as its Head of Distribution. Mr. Abraham will oversee daily operations including worldwide sales, pre-sales and co-production opportunities.

Most recently Head of Canadian Sales and Acquisitions at Breakthrough, Mr. Abraham has been instrumental in the company’s recent acquisitions including Science of the Senses, Fraud Squad and The World Without Us.  He spearheaded Breakthrough’s collaboration with Canadian-based production company, Partners in Motion producers of Crime Stories, Re-Inventors and Disasters of the Century, all of which are distributed by Breakthrough Entertainment. Under his direction, Breakthrough also became one of the largest suppliers of third party factual programming  as well as high definition concerts to Canadian broadcasters including Coldplay, Gwen Stefani and The Tragically Hip to name a few.

“Nat has had a tremendous impact on our distribution division,” said Peter Williamson, Partner/Executive Producer, Breakthrough Films & Television “As our new Head of Distribution he will continue to drive international sales as well as our growing library of programming.”

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Digital Games-Based Learning Company scores Best in Show and Best Service/Product Provider at DevLearn 2008

DISTIL Interactive Ltd., an Ottawa-based leader in the use of digital gaming technology as a corporate learning environment beat a field of 40 learning technology vendors to win two key awards at last week’s DevLearn conference in San Jose CA.

The Best in Show was awarded for the digital learning environment “Business in Balance: Implementing an Environmental Management System” developed in collaboration with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) teaches organizations how to develop an environmental system for their workplace. The Best Product/Service Provider category was awarded for across-the-board product excellence.

“This is an exciting achievement by the DISTIL and CSA teams,” said CEO Robert Thompson. “While we strongly believe in digital gaming’s power as a corporate learning tool, being recognized by the attendees at North America’s largest international e-Learning showcase is a great endorsement. We believe a key ingredient in our Best Product/Service Provider award was our integrated assessment technology which mines the game-play data to provide feed-back to learners and to provide their organization with detailed performance information.”
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Experience All-New Game Tempo Control, Authentic College Atmospheres and EA SPORTS ESPN Classic Tournament of Legends

Electronic Arts Inc. has announced that NCAA® Basketball 09 ships to retailers today in North America, delivering a college basketball experience that captures the emotion, intensity and atmosphere of a real college basketball game. Featuring former UCLA star Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves on its cover, NCAA Basketball 09 showcases a new, strategic college basketball gameplay experience that challenges gamers to replicate their school’s style of play and set the game tempo to win.

Experience the electricity of game night with the band playing fight songs, the student section leading the cheers and ESPN college basketball broadcasters Dick Vitale, Brad Nessler and Erin Andrews providing the commentary. Whether your school plays up tempo looking to push the ball in transition, runs a half-court offense that utilizes the clock and limits possessions or features a balanced attack that combines transition offense with set plays, NCAA Basketball 09 rewards the strategic gamer and emphasizes team specific styles of play.

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