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Sega publishing Ron Gilbert's Double Fine game

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It's been almost two weeks since Double Fine and Ron Gilbert gave us our first glimpse of their new game (different from Double Fine Adventure, the Kickstarter project), and today Sega all but outed itself as the publisher.

After tweeting a link to the image above, the official Sega account has been silent on the matte. It's easy to see the images Gilbert's been teasing match up with the shaded area above. All that remains is the official announcement.

Warn your family: Kung-Fu Superstar is motion-controlled martial arts

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Kung-Fu Superstar is a new Kinect game from Kinesthetic Games, a developer formed from former staff at "Codemasters, EA, Climax, Lionhead Studios and others." It's also a really good excuse to clean up your living room and perhaps send your kids to their friends' houses, lest they all be kicked.

Kung-Fu Superstar purports to teach you real martial arts techniques, which you use to play out the story of kung fu enthusiast Danny Cheng, who hopes to "discover the secrets of Kung Fu and become the most popular martial arts stuntman Hollywood has ever known."

The game is clearly made for Kinect, but studio head Kostas Zarifis tells Joystiq, "We're developing the game for multiple platforms (Kinect definitely being one of them). The game will have a very important controller component too!" Wii and PS3 are both listed among the tags for the YouTube clip embedded above.

Lawsuit outs West and Zampella's salaries, bonuses at Infinity Ward: Projected $13M bonus in 2010

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Former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella had projected salaries of $420,000 in 2009, with projected bonuses of more than $3 million each, emails between Activision bosses in 2009 show.

The spreadsheet lists the expected salaries of the top 20 Infinity Ward employees in 2009 and 2010. The 18 remaining employees -- the bulk including software engineers and game designers -- had projected salaries between $71,500 and $173,000. The seven employees under West and Zampella each expected a bonus of $603,000, while staffers seeing the lowest percentage of the bonus pool (1.5 percent) had a projected $278,000.

In 2010, the year Activision fired West and Zampella, they were each expected to earn $437,000, with projected bonuses of $13 million each. The rest of the top 20's projected salaries and bonuses rose accordingly, with salaries between $74,000 and $180,000, and bonuses ranging from $1.4 million to $2.5 million.

"If you recently worked on a hit FPS, read this and see how incredibly underpaid you are," ngmoco general manager Benjamin Cousins tweeted about the documents.

The emails were released into public record in the lawsuit between the Infinity Ward Employee Group and Activision; West and Zampella sued Activision in 2010 claiming they were owed $36 million in royalties associated with Modern Warfare 2, after Activision fired them earlier that year. West and Zampella now claim $1 billion in damages and the case is set for trial May 29.

Take-Two ends fiscal '12 with loss, high '13 projection raises eyebrows

Take-Two Interactive's revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, were $825.8 million, short of last year's $1.14 billion, because it didn't have Red Dead Redemption in it. Last year's breakout star, L.A. Noire, did well with 5 million units shipped, but that doesn't compare to the more than 13 million units (8.5 million at that time) done by Red Dead Redemption.

Overall, the publisher had a net loss of $108.8 million for the year, compared to the $48 million profit in the previous year.

Here's where things get interesting: During this afternoon's investor call, CEO Strauss Zelnick reiterated a point from earlier in the call that there are "titles yet to be announced for fiscal 2013." This is significant because the company expects revenues of $1.75 - $1.85 billion for the fiscal year ending next March. Look back at that blockbuster Red Dead Redemption year, and note that revenues reached $1.14 billion. So, what's the deal?

Officially, at this time, Take-Two plans to launch Borderlands 2 in September, NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in October and, finally, BioShock: Infinite in February. Although any one of those could be a runaway hit, there's still $600-$700 million missing over that impressive Red Dead year to hit the projection. Either Grand Theft Auto 5 is secretly on the docket for this year or Take-Two is expecting blockbusters from more than one of the announced games.

Scourge: Outbreak spreads to PSN, XBLA, Mac this summer

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Tragnarion Studios, who you may (may!) remember from the DS game Doodle Hex, is working on a futuristic third-person shooter for XBLA, PSN (PS3), and Mac. Yes, those are the correct platforms.

Scourge: Outbreak introduces the "Echo Squad," a group of mercenaries hired to take out the Nogari Corporation, conveniently located on Nogari Island. Four players can team up to infiltrate the "alien-infested facilities," locate a double agent, destroy the Nogari, and gain control of the "Ambrosia" power source. Functionally, this means co-op shooting, with story segments coming through as flashbacks from the four separate characters.

Scourge: Outbreak will allow players to stop both the scourge and the outbreak this Q3, "later this summer."

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NBA 2K13 slotted for October 2

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NBA 2K13 is set to launch on October 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and PC, Take-Two Interactive announced today. This is in line with the October precedence set by previous NBA 2K titles. Developer 2K Sports has yet to reveal any details about the game, but our best guess is that it will feature an orange ball and some tall dudes.

2K13's direct predecessor, NBA 2K12, shipped 5 million units, Take-Two said.

Max Payne 3 ships 3 million units, PC launch pushed worldwide June 1

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Max Payne 3 has shipped 3 million units since hitting shelves last week, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed in its FY 2012 financial report.

Take-Two also announced Max Payne 3 is now scheduled with an international PC release date of June 1. Rockstar initially planned to launch Max Payne 3 for North American PCs on Tuesday, May 29, but has pushed that back to meet the standard European launch day of Friday that week. All's fair in love and gritty, noir-style war.

XCOM delayed again, beyond Q1 2013

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the strategy game, is still coming on October 9, but XCOM the shooter is growing ever more distant. Take-Two's latest earnings report gives the game a "fiscal year 2014" date, which puts it between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014.

The previous release window announcement put it in the previous fiscal year – and that announcement was, itself, a delay from a proposed March 6, 2012 release date. At this point, 2K is racing against science; if engineers of the future develop a method to contact and interact with alien life for real, this game will suddenly seem less exotic.

Activision enlists former Rockstar bosses to help with new UK studio

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Former Rockstar bossmen Mark Washbrook and Mark Lloyd are helping establish Activision's freshly announced UK studio. The studio, based in Leeds, will focus on mobile development and is led by Team17 co-founder Martyn Brown. Brown hopes to eventually have a staff of 40 at Activision Leeds.

Washbrook established Rockstar London, which worked on mobile aspects of Manhunt 2 and online features of Max Payne 3. He left Rockstar in February 2011 and worked as game director at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for six months.

Lloyd was studio head of Rockstar Lincoln for 12 years, but left in March 2011 to found his own games consulting service, Titanium Consultancy, which has since been voluntarily dismantled.

Activision Leeds was established in November, but is just now blipping on public radar. Washbrook and Lloyd could be at Activision Leeds for the long haul or as initial consultants; Activision hasn't clarified.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier review: More than just a soldier

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a game that, at first glance, may seem like an advertisement for 'murica's armed forces circa 20XX. "Sign up. You can rock Pantera in the barracks, blow up helicopters and assassinate evil warlords every day," I imagined the end credits might read.

But between every clichéd cutscene, showing the four members of Ghost squad swilling beer and talking car engines while they wait for their next mission, are a bounty of excellent gameplay scenarios: VIPs to rescue, things to blow up and stealth missions that require diligent adherence to caution and calculation rather than simply making sure you move slowly and stay out of sight. No two missions in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier are the same, and the diversity in locales and armaments means there's always something new to see – and shoot.

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Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and a whole new (open) world

Image We know, we know... another Lego game based on a popular franchise? But Lego Batman 2: DC Super Hereoes is looking to be different, featuring an open world and the borderline blasphemy of talking Lego characters. Also, we'd be lying if we said that the exchange between Batman and Superman in this ... Continue Reading

Dead Island reanimated for 'Game of the Year Edition' June 26

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Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition is now official and ready to ruin your summer vacation plans on June 26. First revealed earlier this month by the British Board of Film Classification, the GOTY packs includes the standard game, along with downloadable content "Ryder White," "Bloodbath Arena" and "The Ripper."

The tropical zombie apocalypse RPG, which has sold over three million copies worldwide, will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC for $29.99.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown trailer digs deep into the 'ant farm' base


XCOM: Enemy Unknown's October 9 launch date this morning was also coupled with screenshots and a developer doc on XCOM's base of operations. Referred to as the "ant farm," the XCOM base is a living cutaway, allowing players to build out and create all new rooms to assist the agency in its clandestine operations.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown launches retail operations October 9

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown begins training a new generation of operatives in the art of global xeno defense on October 9 and 13 in North America and internationally, respectively. 2K Games plans to launch the console and PC versions simultaneously.

Pre-orders of the game will receive the Elite Soldier Pack DLC, featuring a blonde, flattopped recruit inspired by the original XCOM. It also includes soldier deco packs for players to customize the look of their character with "complete color customization." XCOM fuchsia team, move out!

The October XCOM launch brings a little more clarity to BioShock Infinite's move to 2013, giving 2K Games more breathing room for a potential break-out by a mostly forgotten franchise. This doesn't mean GTA V is off the table for October, but it's hard to imagine the blockbuster series launching then without sacrificing one of the publisher's games in that month. And by "one," we mean XCOM.

Sit down before you read about Kinect SDK update 1.5

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The 1.5 update for the Kinect SDK has been released to developers, and it adds a solid list of new capabilities, including something called Kinect Studio (that allows developers to record user movements and play them back for the code later), a development kit for Face Tracking (which enables Kinect to track facial features), and new Human Interface Guidelines and other documentation improvements.

But the marquee feature here is that Microsoft has finally laid to rest the question of whether the Kinect works when seated or not. Now there's a full Seated Skeletal Tracking mode, which only tracks a person's head, torso and arms. Microsoft recommends this not only for when games players are seated, but for any application where the lower half of the body doesn't need to be tracked. Finally, there are also new language packs. In addition to languages like French and Japanese, you get Kinect support for regional differences in languages, like English/Canada and English/Australia. Crikey, devs will be well chuffed about that, etc.

Babel Rising should've been named 'Babel Falling,' this trailer suggests

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What would life be like if you could fell entire civilizations with a flick of your wrist, crush hordes of men with a downward swat and destroy worlds with a ridiculous, wide-armed downhill skiing motion? You'd either be Lord Voldemort, or you'd be playing Babel Rising on Kinect, like the stylish young man in the video above.

Babel Rising is set to launch in June for PlayStation Move and Xbox 360's Kinect.

Silicon Knights entitled to $1 per claim if it wins court case against Epic Games

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Silicon Knights will be entitled to $1 in damages, per claim, if it wins a court case against Epic Games over inadequacies in the support of its Unreal Engine. Silicon Knights first sued Epic in 2007, alleging Epic didn't fulfill the promised delivery time or expectations of Unreal Engine 3, forcing Silicon Knights to build its own engine for the production of Too Human.

Silicon Knights didn't provide a breakdown of the damages it sought, and the judge assigned his own value of $1 per claim, Polygon reports. If Silicon Knights wins the case, it will be able to appeal how the value was chosen and perhaps raise it to a figure that can't be found on neighborhood lemonade-stand signs.

The case is in court this month and is expected to run for another week.

Three more playable characters for new Double Fine game

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Double Fine is building up an intriguing cast of characters for its mysterious, bone-themed game. First we had the monk, the hillbilly and the time traveler, and now we have three more random occupations to ponder: the adventurer, the scientist and the knight.

Double Fine's Ron Gilbert posted images of each of these characters on his blog, Grumpy Gamer. The only other information gleaned from the reveals appears to be that the knight isn't exactly Sir Bravery, but we could have gotten that from the little shaking knees in his picture.

DmC Devil May Cry delayed, hitting January 2013

DmC Devil May Cry has been delayed. The redesigned Dante will now perform endless aerial combos and smart-ass quips on consoles starting January 15, 2013 in North America and Europe. A PC version has also been announced, and is set to strike "later in 2013."

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Activision/Bungie contract reveals four-game plan code-named 'Destiny', potential for new Marathon

As a side effect of Activision's ongoing court battle with former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, details of the company's deal with Bungie have been made public in documents posted by the LA Times.

According to the documents, Bungie has agreed to create four "sci-fantasy, action shooter games" in a project code-named "Destiny" (for which Bungie filed trademarks last year). The first will be an Xbox exclusive (360 with the option for its successor) in fall 2013 (versions for other systems would follow one year later) with followup games on Xbox successor, PS3 successor, and PC in 2015, 2017, and 2019. Four DLC expansions, code-named "Comet," are included in the deal, due fall 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020.

In the contract, Activision reserves the right to take over the "Destiny" property if Bungie fails to meet its requirements; however, it stipulates that it will not begin more "Destiny" projects until Bungie has completed its work.

The contract also gives Bungie the freedom to put five percent of its staff to work on a prototype for a new game referred to as "Marathon," with the team size allowed to grow after certain operating income. There are also rules governing how much of the company's staff can work on Bungie.Net, Halo Reach DLC and other projects.

That takes care of the next eight years or so of video game news. Who wants tacos?

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