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Free-to-play online publisher Nexon America (Maplestory, Dungeon Fighter Online) revealed that its revenues grew 26 percent for the second quarter of 2010 ended in June. While Nexon America, which is the Stateside arm of South Korean developer and publisher Nexon Corp., hasn't yet provided exact revenue and profit numbers for Q2 2010, it noted that in June alone, its revenues were 36 percent higher compared to the same period last year. This announcement continues a ...

Academic, author and game designer Ian Bogost is a little bit worried that his latest game, Cow Clicker -- a simple Facebook title simply about clicking on cows -- might receive more attention than anything he's done to date. If that turns out to be the case, it'll be an interesting turn of irony, the sort that motivates the sometimes-controversial designer: this is because Cow Clicker is a satire that asks players and developers alike ...

Veteran game designer and erstwhile cosmonaut Richard "Lord British" Garriott has prevailed in his legal action against former employer NCsoft, scoring $28 million in a dispute over stock options and the circumstances of his departure from the company. A federal court yesterday ruled that NCsoft had deprived Garriott of profits on his stock options by mis-categorizing his exit. The Ultima creator, whose last project with NCsoft was the disappointing Tabula Rasa, left the company in ...

While many major Japanese game companies seem to be struggling to stay healthy in the face of a strong yen and Western market factors -- Capcom yesterday posted a dramatic 90 percent profit decline and Nintendo opened up a $288.4 million loss in its first quarter -- the picture is a bit better for Sega, which turned a profit in its own first quarter report today. Sega Sammy, the holding company that is parent to ...

Longtime LucasArts producer Haden Blackman, a key figure in the writing and production of Star Wars games, is leaving the company after 13 years to "explore new creative challenges." The writer and executive producer of the fan-favorite Force Unleashed series, who's also worked on a number of the developer's Star Wars tie-ins in the past, told consumer site IGN that his resignation was a tough decision, but it's "the best time" to move on. A ...

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. presents his weekly roundup of the top free and commercial indie games from his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The goodies in this edition include a time-bending platformer similar to Number None's Braid, a new educational game created by the developer of Flotilla, a ...

Albert Reed, studio head of Demiurge Studios, holds a view that while creativity is key in coming up with game concepts, so is honing those concepts for marketability and skills, as part of a Gamasutra feature interview. Says Reed, "I think in the game industry, we are short on pragmatism, for sure. I don't think that it's more essential than being especially creative, or having brilliant, distinctive artwork, but I think in the game industry, ...

Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide. This week's charts, with data taken from July 29th, 2010, find Starcraft II heading cross-platform sales in the United States and Europe, while Capcom's Sengoku Basara 3 comes out on top in Japan. Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information ...

The Entertainment Software Association, a major U.S. video game industry trade organization, spent $1.1 million to lobby on behalf of game publishers and developers in the second quarter of this year, a slight drop from the organization's recent spending. In the second quarter of last year, and in the first quarter of this year, the ESA spent about $1.2 million lobbying, making this quarter's figure an 8 percent drop on both a year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter ...

[Sister site FingerGaming rounds up the week's most popular paid and free iPad gaming applications on the App Store as of today, with Gameloft taking the lead with steep price drops for Shrek Kart HD, Iron Man 2 HD, and Brothers in Arms 2 HD.] This week's top paid titles are: 1. Shrek Kart HD ($0.99) 2. Iron Man 2 HD ($0.99) 3. Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front HD ($0.99) 4. Chopper 2 ($2.99) ...

The state of Maryland has officially recognized local developer Firaxis' Sid Meier's Civilization V by naming the day of its release after the game itself. As dictated by a gubernatorial proclamation, September 21, 2010 will be known as "Sid Meier's Civilization V Day." Governor Martin O'Malley signed the proclamation today, citing the achievements of legendary designer and studio founder Sid Meier, "a longtime and celebrated Marylander who has spent his full professional life in this ...

Farmville developer Zynga has teamed up with telecommunications/media corporation Softbank to create Zynga Japan, a joint venture focusing on social games and the local mobile market. Along with announcing the Tokyo-based joint venture, Softbank revealed that it's completed a previously reported $150 million investment in Zynga, boosting the San Francisco's total amount of venture backing raised since its founding three years ago up to almost $370 million. With the establishing of Zynga Japan, the developer ...

[Every other week, we'll examine the fastest growing Facebook games (according to monthly active users), looking at which titles and developers are having the most success attracting new players on the social network.] Though Lyore Network's QuizBone doesn't seem to really qualify as a game, the quiz-making title was still the fastest growing app listed in Facebook's "Games" category, doubling its audience to 2.9 million after gaining 1.5 million new users in the last week. ...

There will be no video game based on the Adult Swim animated series Metalocalypse -- at least not the one that was under development by Green Bay, WI-based developer Frozen Codebase. "Yeah, it's not going on any longer," studio found Ben Geisler told Gamasutra in a Thursday phone call, confirming an earlier report on Siliconera. "We were making the game for Konami, and Konami lost the license." For Frozen Codebase, the game's axing is old ...

For game makers, deciding whether to charge for certain content in online games can be a tricky balance between fostering player loyalty and making some quick revenue. To charge or not to charge is something that the Aion team at NCsoft was recently pondering. The MMORPG, released in September 2009, is due for a substantial expansion in September 2010 with Aion 2.0, now known formally as Aion: Assault on Balaurea. The game's lead producer Chris ...

Emergent Game Technologies, the company behind the multiplatform Gamebryo and Gamebryo LightSpeed engines, announced today a multi-SKU licensing deal with Tencent, a Chinese provider for Internet and mobile value-added services. Tencent's interactive entertainment division develops and hosts a catalog of online games, including shooters like Cross Fire, MMOs such as Fantastic Melody Online, and a collection of casual and social online games. Tencent plans to use the Gamebryo engine for several of its unannounced projects. ...

Realtime Worlds, developer of APB and the original Crackdown, has announced Project: MyWorld, a PC platform that combines social media with a virtual representation of the real world. More of a social platform than a game, Project: MyWorld uses data from GIS (geographic information system) mapping services to create a 3D render of entire countries. Users can then alter the features of cities and towns using in-game tools to make buildings and other structures more ...

Paris, France-based mobile game publisher Gameloft on Thursday reported a rise in fiscal Q2 revenue, thanks to rapid smartphone adoption, increased market share in traditional Java and Brew phones and a 113 percent jump in sales on Apple's App Store. The company reported sales of 33.6 million euros ($44.1 million) for the quarter ended June 30, a 15 percent year-on-year climb. Half-year sales are up 11 percent to 66.6 million euros ($87.1 million). The French ...

Poor console game sales and a strong yen continue to challenge Capcom. After closing 2009 with a 73 percent profit drop, its results for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30 were also weak, with profits down 90 percent to 2.2 billion yen ($25.3 million). Sales fell 2.4 per cent to 19.03 billion yen ($217.7 million). While in its game segment alone (Capcom has multiple businesses, including arcade operations) sales were slightly up, it had ...

Profit remains just out of reach for Sony's PlayStation business, but the division continues to cut losses -- whereas last year it was 36.7 billion yen ($422.1 million) in the red, this year's fiscal first quarter sees Sony's game segment report a smaller 3.8 billion yen ($43 million) loss. Sales in the Networked Products and Services division, which houses PlayStation and PC products, saw sales up 32 percent thanks largely to the lower-cost, higher value ...