Rob Fahey (Page 131)

The International Game Developers Association has announced the recipients of several Game Developers Choice Awards, with six development veterans from disparate parts of the industry set to receive their gongs at GDC next month.

The PlayStation 2 is set to receive a raft of new first-party exclusive titles later this year, with third instalments for Jak and Ratchet & Clank planned, along with a sequel for Sly Raccoon and a possible follow-up to The Mark of Kri.

Publisher Electronic Arts is reportedly planning to shut down its Origin Systems development studio in Austin, Texas, and is offering staff at the studio the choice of relocation to California or a severance package.

British developer Warthog is accelerating its plans to develop titles in partnership with IP holders, with negotiations currently underway with new IP providers to secure work on two further movie-related game projects.

Square Enix' PS2 RPG Final Fantasy X-2 has debuted at number one in the UK software charts, knocking Sega's Sonic Heroes off the top spot, while the Cube and Xbox versions of Prince of Persia have also sold well.

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has given the first official indication that sales of the N-Gage game deck are not living up to expectations, but says that the platform must be given until November 2005 to prove itself.

Dynasty Warriors publisher Koei has taken the top spot in the Japanese charts with another historic action title, Sengoku Musou, while Nintendo's Famicom Mini GBA titles have also made strong debuts.

Videogame sales and marketing agency Brightspark Entertainment has been enlisted by the University of Abertay Dundee to provide mentoring to two start-up game developers which emerged from the Dare to be Digital contest.

UK development trade body TIGA has announced that it is to lend its support to the European Games Network trade show next September, with the body participating in the creation of a developer's exchange area at the show.

The company behind the forthcoming Phantom game platform, Infinium Labs, has stated that it may file a lawsuit against news website HardOCP over an article in September 2003 which cast doubt on the firm's real intentions.

Three keynote speakers have been confirmed for ELSPA's annual Games Summit in London this June, with the heads of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Nintendo Europe and Infinium Labs all due to speak at the event.

Details have emerged today regarding the teams working on two of EA's biggest forthcoming games - with Scottish developer Visual Science working on GoldenEye, while the EA Northwest studio is updating the classic Strike franchise.

Publisher Acclaim has announced its results for the quarter ended December 31 and the first nine months of its financial year, revealing a $9 million loss in the December quarter on falling revenues.

Microsoft has moved to officially deny a report which appeared in the New York Times earlier this week stating that the Xbox console would see a price cut to under $150 at some point in April.

Publisher BAM! Entertainment, recently threatened with delisting from the NASDAQ for a second time, has announced that it is to buy Scottish developer VIS Entertainment in a share deal worth around $8.5 million.

The president of the Entertainment Software Association, Doug Lowenstein, is set to deliver a keynote speech at the European Games Network trade show in London next September, as part of a wide global focus for the show.

The new studio set up by Core Design founders Jeremy Heath-Smith and Adrian Smith has become the latest development team to sign up to use Criterion's Renderware middleware technology in its games.

The first anniversary of the retail launch of Xbox Live in Europe is set to be marked with a €330,000 prize giveaway featuring cash and merchandise prizes for randomly selected GamerTag holders.

The latest console software charts from market research firm NPD Funworld show that NFL Street on the PS2 was by far the biggest selling title in the month of January, with Sega's Cube version of Sonic Heroes coming in second.