PopCap Dublin shuts its doors for good

EA Games has closed the PopCap Dublin studios, just over a year and a quarter since it bought out the casual game developer and a month since 50 other employees were fired from the US branch. Apparently most of the 96 people affected by the closure will be offered places at other PopCap or EA studios, but of course that would mean up and moving to a different location. However there are quite a... more.

“Fragrance Company Aims to Capture the Scent of Videogames”  – That is the title that jumped out at me as I scanned Google News today.  After clicking the article to reveal the sentence, “Mega Man is the first game character to receive a personalized aroma,” I thought there was no possible way it could be a real news article.   No, clearly something out of The Onion or some other sat... more.

On KitGuru, we have shed light upon video games for an array of audiences, including the 10 year old who developed a video game for his blind grandmother and the organization that reviews video games for the deaf and hard of hearing for playability (since some games are virtually impossible for deaf gamers to play due their basis in audio cues).  Here is a company that’s making waves among a sp... more.

If you, too, believe it’s time for a revolution of how swordfighting is portrayed in video games, you should check out this Kickstarter project quick, before the deadline is up! As of right now, Clang has over 7,000 backers and is less than $70,000 away from its goal.  The bad news is that it’s only days away from the end of its pledging cycle.  Will it make it to $500,000?! The projec... more.

It is not solely the storytelling, graphics, and gameplay that make or break a game, and it is not always the collaboration of each of these elements that makes a game better than one that only incorporates one or two of these elements.  Although gameplay sets video games apart from other mediums (just as images set films apart from novels), I contend that it is not merely the gameplay that turns... more.

I recently wrote an article titled “The Future of Prestigious Awards for Video Games – Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, Etc.” that I reposted on Gamasutra and was cited as a feature post.  I wrote about the possibility of the video game industry to someday gain credibility in the form of prestigious award ceremonies similar to the Pulitzer and Noble Prizes. Upon beginning to write responses ... more.

It may seem like a long shot to break into the gaming industry with a degree like economics, but it turns out, it isn’t that far-fetched of an idea. While the word “trade” may evoke images of caravans from long ago, such as the Silk Road and the Bermuda Triangle, trade has very tangible relevance to today’s world.  Whether you’re scouring Craigslist for the greatest trade deals, stri... more.

First of all, I can’t imagine having the dedication to play one game file for 10 years.  After all, a couple hours of an Age of Empires or SimCity file is enough for me, and then I create a new one.  There’s something very appealing about continuously creating different versions of (perhaps not a utopian world) but a village or city laid out perfectly, in your own vision.  (But maybe that�... more.

You know, the rating system for video game is the deciding factor for many children – whether they are allowed to play a game or even buy it. What do you really know about how these ratings are decided?  It’s a given that there are specific ratings for specific age ranges with associated reasons for the rating, but who decides what “comic mischief” is or what exceeds the teen rating fo... more.

While it is widely known that Japanese and American cultures are integral to modern video games, the influence of Norse mythology is often taken for granted. After all, what fantasy game doesn’t include references to some Norse deity or creatures derived from the ancestors of the Vikings?  Scandinavia is what I like to call “the forgotten Europe,” since people without ties to the region ... more.