EA Mobile Suffers Layoffs
An undisclosed number of people have been laid off from EA’s Montreal division.
The news comes via Gamasutra, who first reported the layoffs. The same unnamed source who brought this to the site’s attention also notes that this could be the beginning of the end for EA Mobile.
"We made a staffing change in our Montreal studio to align with our current development and service plans,” EA told the site. "A small number of employees were impacted, and we are working closely with each of them to ensure the best transition possible."
EA also went on the record as stating "these changes do not impact our current development plans."
New Gameplay from Bossa Studios’ Worlds Adrift
A new gameplay video has been released for Worlds Adrift, an upcoming open world adventure game from Bossa Studios and Improbable.
Announced in December 2014, Worlds Adrift is an attempt to bring the physics based fun of Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread into a multiplayer setting.
Players will be harvesting materials, crafting new items and looking after their ship while they swing rapidly through the environment using a grappling device. It will feature a day/night cycle, with the game playing differently based on the time of day.
You can find more information on the Worlds Adrift website. You can read also read IGN's review of Bossa Studios' "darkly entertaining" Surgeon Simulator.
Nintendo Dates Smash Bros. Amiibo Update on 3DS
An update to add in Amiibo support for Super Smash Bros. 3DS will arrive on February 10, Nintendo has revealed.
The news comes during a busy week for the Nintendo handheld. Alongside the release of the New 3DS – which features a stronger CPU, Amiibo support, and improved 3D capabilities – comes the remastered version of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The eShop also sees the introduction of IronFall: Invasion, Kirby Fighters Deluxe, Dedede’s Drum Dash Deluxe, and the release of the anime streaming service Nintendo Anime Channel.
Nintendo also recently informed players how Xenoblade Chronicles 3D Amiibo support works. According to the official Twitter account, players who own the Shulk Amiibo can place the figurine onto the New 3DS and earn in-game tokens, which can then be spent to unlock music and new character models.
Theory of Everything, Boyhood Win Big at BAFTAs 2015
The winners of this year's BAFTA Awards have been revealed, with The Theory of Everything and Boyhood winning big.
The awards were handed out at a ceremony at London's Royal Opera House last night, with the story of Professor Stephen Hawking's life bagging gongs for outstanding British film and its adapted screenplay, while leading man Eddie Redmayne walked away with best actor.
It didn't manage to win best film, however. That went to coming-of-age tale Boyhood, with director Richard Linklater also picking up best director for his work on the movie shot over a period of 12 years and Patricia Arquette being crowned best supporting actress. For the last six years the best film winner at the BAFTAs has gone on to win an Oscar. With the Academy Awards in two week's time, it sets up an interesting clash between Boyhood and Birdman, the latter of which only won a single award last night for best cinematography, but picked up the best film gong at the Director Guild Awards in the US.
Mark Hamill’s Don’t Talk at the Movies PSA
Mark Hamill doesn't want you to talk at the movies.
While doing press for Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Mark Hamill recorded a PSA advocating for silence during a screening at the theatre, on behalf of The Alamo Drafthouse.
Check out Mark Hamill's (playfully) intimidating public service announcement, below:
Starring Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, Kingsmen: The Secret Service opens stateside February 13. Check out our thoughts on the film, courtesy of Senior Editor Scott Collura.
EA, We Need to Talk About Porsche
On Friday last week I received a press release from EA spruiking the debut of a brand-new Porsche model in Real Racing 3. According to EA this marks the first time a real car reveal has happened in a mobile game. It’s a nebulous sort of claim, to be honest. The video below hit the Real Racing YouTube channel on February 4, but the first advertisement the new Porsche Cayman GT4 hit Porsche's own YouTube channel on February 3. The press release from Porsche itself, also dated a day prior to EA’s press release, makes no mention of Real Racing 3. Nor have any of the specialty motoring sites that reported on Porsche’s new Cayman unveil.
Frozen Wins 2 Grammy Awards
"Let it Go" has won yet another award. The Grammy Awards were held tonight and, even though it came out in late 2013, Disney's animated blockbuster Frozen won a pair of trophies.
Other movie-related winners included Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" from Despicable Me 2, composer Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel, and 20 Feet From Stardom.
BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA
- Frozen
- Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Tom MacDougall & Chris Montan, compilation producers
- Label: Walt Disney Records
BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA
Silicon Valley: Season 2 Teaser
We've got our first look at Silicon Valley's second season, and the Mike Judge comedy series doesn't seem to be dropping its trademark profanity or wit.
Check out the Silicon Valley: Season 2 teaser, courtesy of HBO, below!
Warning: NSFW due to explicit language...
Starring Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Crew and Zach Woods, Silicon Valley returns for Season 2 on Sunday, April 12 at 10pm ET on HBO.
Anthony Couto is a writer for IGN. He co-hosts a podcast about horrible movie sequels – called Here We Go Again – which you can “like” on Facebook. Ponder with him on Twitter at @AnthCouto or on IGN at TonyCouto.
Contrast Dev Compulsion Games Teases Its Next Game
Compulsion Games is teasing a new project and it is not a sequel to the 1920s noir puzzle/platformer Contrast.
The studio reveals that a sequel to Contrast is not out of the question but it is working on a new untitled game, according to the Compulsion Games website.
Compulsion Games wants to tackle “something fresh” that involves “masks, drugs and memory loss.”
The studio posted two pieces of stylish concept art for the new game. One image features a wide-eyed woman with an eerie white mask and the other is a colorful city street contrasting old brown brick buildings. A billboard appears to say "put on your happy face," possibly alluding to the aforementioned masks.
Evolve is Getting These Improvements with Its Day One Patch
Turtle Rock Studios’ 4v1 competitive shooter launches tomorrow along with a 3 GB day-one patch, introducing new elite skins, game level loading optimizations and more.
Players will be required to download the patch, the size of which varies from system to system, before they can jump into any matches on the servers. The update features balancing tweaks, general bug fixes, performance improvements ranging from load times to matchmaking and network bandwidth optimizations. It’ll ALSO open connectivity to work with the match-3 Evolve Hunters Quest app that launched last month.