Rope-swinging game Rope Racers is now available in the App Store

The new free-to-play instant multiplayer game Rope Racers from Small Giant Games is now available for download on the App Store. Starting on March 17^th, Rope Racers will also swing onto Google Play.

Helsinki, Finland – March 10^th, 2016 – Rope Racers, the addictive new multiplayer game from the Finnish mobile developer Small Giant Games, is now available free for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in the App Store via http://bit.ly/RopeRacers. The Android version will be available on Google Play as of March 17^th. Check out the official trailer here https://youtu.be/F4groT47tvA.

Players will have to swing, run, and race around the whole world against nine other players in order to become the best Rope Racer of all time. From the very start, the focus of the gameplay is on the multiplayer aspect, while the “intelligent matchmaking” ensures that the competitors in the race are on a similar game level and thus everyone starts with similar conditions.

During the game, players must attach a rope to the ceiling by touch and hold, giving them momentum and speed, while at the same time dodging many obstacles which can slow them down. Every level also has turboboosts and coins to collect, which can be used later for racing advantages.

In order to participate in a race, players use virtual currency for a participation fee. At the end of the race, every participant receives prize money – the amount depends on their position – as soon as they cross the finish line. Cool and funny characters can be collected in the game to build teams. These characters can be upgraded with the coins earned to change their appearance or improve their skills.

Along with the career mode, the game also includes a feature for friendly races, where players can challenge their friends on social media to find out who the ultimate Rope Racer is! Get ready now to be able to keep up in Rope Racers, one of the fastest multiplayer action games ever!

Features:

• An addictive rope-swinging game!
• Compete against real people from around the world
• Tens of exciting levels spread in 20 challenging leagues
• Insanely fast gameplay with simple controls
• Impressive graphics with gorgeous locations such as Paris and Las Vegas
• Large roster of cool and funny characters that can be unlocked and upgraded
• Friendly tournaments against Facebook friends
• Available in 9 languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Italian, Russian, Turkish

About Small Giant Games

Small Giant Games is a mobile games company based in Helsinki, Finland. The company was founded by a team of game industry experts, who were the core team members and pioneers of free to play game development at Habbo Hotel. Small Giant focuses on creating beautiful and deeply engaging character driven multiplayer mobile games for advanced casual gamers.

http://www.smallgiantgames.com

http://www.facebook.com/SmallGiantGames

http://twitter.com/SmallGiantGames

Sheltered launches on PS4, Xbox One and PC next week

UK – 10^th March – Games industry veteran and games label Team17 and independent developer Unicube are excited to announce that their co-developed post-apocalyptic survival game, Sheltered, will be available to download for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Mac and Linux on the 15^th March.

After a global apocalypse, a frightened family find their way to a deserted shelter, where they try to survive. You take on the role of protecting four family members. Their wellbeing and survival is your responsibility. One mistake, one bad decision and a loved one is gone, forever. Sheltered is a world where death is permanent.

Combat claustrophobia, radiation and mental exhaustion as you try to turn the cold and cramped shelter into a home. And as they cling desperately to life, you must send family members from the scant protection of the shelter, outside into the dangerous, desolate wasteland to scavenge for vital supplies. You’ll come across abandoned towns, roaming factions and feral beasts.

How you handle the many moral choices you’ll encounter could be the difference between the family surviving or dying.

Features:
•    Family comes first: Keep your family alive and protect them from the ravages of the harsh post-apocalyptic world
•    Pets: Your pet is family too. Choose between the dog, cat, fish, snake or horse
•    Make the shelter a home: Maintain your shelter – keep it secure, habitable and make sure that the family have enough resources to survive. Protect your shelter from hazards and infiltration!
•    Crafting system: Create comforts for your family’s shelter and weapons for combat
•    Customisation: Your family is unique to you; you decide their gender, names and their appearance
•    Exploration: Send out your family to explore and gather resources for everyday living and crafting
•    Recruitment system: Recruit outsiders with different personalities, integrate them into your shelter life and earn their loyalty
•    RPG mechanics: As your family develop, their stats will adapt with an evolving experience and trauma system. Attributes, strengths and weaknesses will dynamically change based on your choices
•    Dynamic encounter system: Your family will encounter various threats including roaming factions and feral beasts
•    Turn-based combat: For those that cannot be reasoned with, violence can be used as a last resort. Your family may depend on it
•    Vehicles: Make exploration quicker and safer
•    Bloodlines: Extend your family lineage

Sheltered will be available to download for Xbox One, PS4, PC, Mac and Linux on the 15^th March for just £9.99 / $14.99 /12,99  €

Assets are available to download from: bit.ly/ShelteredPressKit

To keep up to date with all the information on Sheltered please visit www.team17.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @Team17Ltd.

The Turing Test – first-person adventure puzzler game to be released by Collective on Steam in August 2016

LONDON, March 10 2016: Square Enix Collective™ is to publish The Turing Test, a forthcoming first-person puzzle game created by British studio Bulkhead Interactive, on Steam™.

The game will release in August 2016 and puts players in the shoes of Ava Turing, an engineer for the International Space Agency (ISA), as she attempts to uncover the truth behind the research base on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

Solve puzzles using your Energy Manipulation Tool (EMT) to transfer power out of one object and into another; power up and take control of artificially intelligent machines, manipulate giant structures and solve complex tasks – all woven into a multi-layered story based on the human struggle for control.

The game, being developed using Unreal 4, is the next project to release from Bulkhead Interactive. The studio previously released Pneuma: Breath of Life, and recently concluded a successful Kickstarter campaign for their next project Battalion 1944 (which is planned to release in 2017).

“I’m very excited to be working with the Bulkhead Interactive team,” said Square Enix Collective creator and project lead Phil Elliott. “It’s our aim to support new development talent in a range of ways, and it’s already clear that this team is destined to have a big impact on the industry in the future.”

“We’re big fans of the platform that Square Enix® has created in Collective,” said Howard Philpott, Creative Producer at Bulkhead Interactive. “We’re excited to be a part of Square Enix’s plans for the future of the industry. For us at Bulkhead they’ve opened many doors that wouldn’t have been accessible to us without their connections or years of experience in publishing games. They’ve given us the opportunity to make The Turing Test a more solid, polished, and ultimately an all-round better game.”

The Turing Test will be one of the games featured in the Square Enix Collective range at EGX Rezzed, taking place in London from April 7-9. As part of the partnership, the game will benefit from marketing services provided by world-leading agency Petrol Advertising and forecasting and evaluation support from EEDAR.

Creative control and all IP rights are retained by Bulkhead Interactive.

Website: www.theturingtestgame.com
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHQmZn88k1E
Assets can be found here: http://square-enix-press.com/download/38002/c60248521c434d89440603da77045f319d6b839b

An Xbox One version of the game will also be released in August, published directly by Microsoft.

Square Enix Collective is a platform that aims to help independent developers find an audience for their projects, by enabling them to tap into our community and media resources. Projects which gamers support through the initial Feedback phase may be offered continued support through crowdfunding too; but developers are free to choose whether to accept, and retain IP and creative control over their projects.

Collective also offers distribution and publishing services to games already funded, and invests in production of a small number of titles to help them complete development and get to release.

Square Enix Collective website: collective.square-enix.com
Follow @SQEX Collective on Twitter®: twitter.com/sqexcollective

SQUARE ENIX, the SQUARE ENIX logo, SQUARE ENIX COLLECTIVE, and the SQUARE ENIX COLLECTIVE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Square Enix group of companies. BULKHEAD INTERACTIVE and THE TURING TEST are trademarks of Bulkhead Interactive. PETROL is a trademark of Petrol Advertising, Inc. EEDAR is a registered trademark or trademark of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Corporation. STEAM is a trademark and/or registered trademark of Valve Corporation.  All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Nexon Group to Acquire Mobile Game Developer Big Huge Games

Enables Long-Term Service of Critically-Acclaimed Strategy Game DomiNations, Which Has Surpassed 19 Million Total Downloads Worldwide

TOKYO – March 10, 2016 – NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”) (3659.TO), a worldwide leader in free-to-play online and mobile games, today announced that its consolidated subsidiary, NEXON Korea Corporation (“Nexon Korea”) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Big Huge Games, a developer of strategy gameDomiNations.

Big Huge Games is an independent game studio co-founded by industry veterans Brian Reynolds and Tim Train, renowned developers behind Civilization II and Rise of Nations. Nexon and Big Huge Games announced a strategic partnership in July 2013, and the debut title, DomiNations, has garnered critical acclaim and international success, including surpassing 19 million total downloads[*] worldwide since its launch in April 2015.

Together, Nexon and Big Huge Games will provide long-term, comprehensive service ofDomiNations, including game development, operations, user support and marketing. In addition, combining Big Huge Games’ skilled creative team and development capabilities with Nexon’s global publishing expertise will enable Nexon to consistently provideDomiNations players with fresh content and engaging experiences over the long-term.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Big Huge Games. One of Nexon’s core objectives is to empower the best game developers around the world enable them to succeed,” said Owen Mahoney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexon. “DomiNations has achieved great success in both the West and Asia, and we’re excited to work with Big Huge Games to deliver the best quality gameplay to fans for years to come.”

Tim Train, Chief Executive Officer of Big Huge Games, commented, “We’ve had such a great relationship with Nexon on DomiNations, and we’re very excited to become part of the family. We share Nexon’s vision that games are most successful when passionate, talented designers can create innovative gameplay, and we look forward to many years of working together to create worldwide hits that change the mobile landscape”

Nexon creates and publishes creative and entertaining games for players around the world. Going forward, the Company will continue to focus on the development and service of high-quality games through in-house development and strategic partnerships.

About DomiNations https://dominations.nexonm.com/
The engaging single- and multiplayer, base-building strategy game challenges players to develop and rule their own civilizations throughout world history, from the Stone Age to the Space Age. In the game, players relive history’s most famous conflicts and build Wonders of the World in an expansive and immersive environment. The title has been critically acclaimed on both stores and selected as “Best of 2015” by App Store in four countries in Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong). In addition, it was awarded as Google Play’s “Best Games of 2015” in Korea.

About NEXON Co., Ltd. http://company.nexon.co.jp/
NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”) (3659.TO) is a worldwide leader in free-to-play online and mobile games. Founded in Korea in 1994, Nexon developed one of the world’s first graphics-based massively multiplayer online games. Nexon also pioneered the concept of microtransactions and the free-to-play business model, setting a new standard in which play is free, and users have the option to purchase in-game items to enhance their experience. Nexon currently services nearly 100 titles in more than 190 countries. The Company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and its shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

About Big Huge Games www.bighugegames.com
Big Huge Games specializes in mobile strategy games. The studio was founded in 2013 by 25- year game industry collaborators Brian Reynolds and Tim Train, along with several other long- time veterans, and hopes to keep the flame alive of the original Big Huge Games which ran from 2000 to 2012. We build prototypes and improve them constantly until we love playing them ourselves – we know you won’t love our game until we love it. Big Huge Games is represented by Ophir Lupu of United Talent Agency.

Contact information
Nexon Corporate PR  [email protected]

Fractured Space Update Introduces Custom Matches — Battle with or against Friends for Bragging Rights

Guildford, 10^th March 2016.  Edge Case Games, developers of the team-based space combat game, Fractured Space, revealed that today’s eagerly anticipated game update introduces Custom Matches, one of the features most requested by the game’s community.

The system has been designed for matches with friends, including both friendly encounters and clan training. It allows for everything from one-on-one games to full five-on-five matches.

A Steam Community Group, Fractured Fight Club, has been set up to facilitate challenges and the establishment of casual teams.

Team leaders will decide the number of players and game mode before the game begins, and players can invite others to the lobby to quickly and easily fill out a match. During this process, ranks and Matchmaking Rating (MMR) will be fully visible to assist with balancing.

“Fractured Space is at its heart a team game, and Custom Matches will bring a number of important player benefits, from playing fun matches with friends to full-on clan training exercises,” said Sam Bennett, Community Director at Edge Case Games. “Thanks to our open development model, ECG is able to listen and adapt to features that are important to our community.”

Fractured Space is a team-based space combat game fought in gigantic capital ships with the intensity of a shooter and the big-picture-thinking of a strategy game.

Originally launched on Steam Early Access in November 2014 to critical and commercial success, Fractured Space has attracted over 500’000 players as the game continuously evolves using an open development model where the community is encouraged to talk directly to the development team, highly influencing the development of the final game.

For updates on Fractured Space please follow:

https://www.fracturedspace.com/
https://twitter.com/fracturedspace
https://www.facebook.com/FracturedSpace

https://twitter.com/RenaissancePRUK
https://www.facebook.com/RenaissancePR

About Edge Case Games
Formed in 2014 from the team behind the hit space game, Strike Suit Zero, Edge Case Games brings its expertise and passion for space games to its inaugural title, the tactical space MOBA, Fractured Space. Based in the development hotbed of Guildford, UK, the team is dedicated to expanding the scope and scale of space-based gaming through an open development philosophy that leverages the enthusiasm of the gaming community.
About Fractured Space
Fractured Space is team-based space combat fought in gigantic capital ships with the intensity of a shooter and the big-picture-thinking of a strategy game. Fractured Space is currently available for PC on Steam Early Access and is set for a wider free-to-play release in 2016.

Today kicks off Naughty Dog’s five episode behind-the-scenes series, ‘The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End’.

The video team at PlayStation has been given incredible access to the Naughty Dog studio, game assets, and many of the people working on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End including Creative Director Neil Druckmann to craft a compelling series to cap off this final chapter for Nathan Drake.

The first episode, titled ‘The Evolution of a Franchise’, kicks off the series with a brief look at how Naughty Dog and the Uncharted series has evolved, since Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune made its debut on the PS3 in 2007. It also includes mentions of the lasting influence of The Last of Us on the team and its development process.

You can view the first episode here.

The five-episode series is scheduled to be released throughout March and April, so we hope you tune in to each episode. The rundown of episodes is:

• The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: The Evolution of a Franchise
• The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: Growing up with Drake
• The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: Pushing Technical Boundaries Part 1
• The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: Pushing Technical Boundaries Part 2
• The Making of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End: In the End

Several years after his last adventure, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End sees retired fortune hunter Nathan Drake forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. His greatest adventure will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he’s willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is launching exclusively on PlayStation 4, 10 May, 2016. 

You can read the full blog post here.

Software update adds additional items, modes and features, giving players even more opportunities for creativity in ‘block-buster’ game

10^th March 2016 – A new software update to Super Mario Maker for the Wii U console has added additional items, modes, and features to the critically-acclaimed game, making it even more fun to create, share, and play levels from all around the world. You can check out the new trailer here.

One such new addition is the Key item from Super Mario World for the Super NES: when grabbed, it unlocks the new Key Door item, granting access to new parts of the level. Accessed by shaking the P Switch and Door items respectively, the Key and Key Doors can be used in conjunction in order to create challenging new levels. The Key can even be attached to enemies, forcing players to defeat them in order to retrieve the Key and move forward, meaning it’s now possible to create courses with mandatory boss battles.

When players shake a coin while creating a course, it will now change into a Pink Coin, and if all of these are collected in a course, a Key will appear. By combining the Key, Key Door and Pink Coins, players can expand their imagination and create unique puzzle-solving levels.

A new Spike Pillar obstacle will also be added to the game. Originally featured in Super Mario World, this huge, foreboding column comes slamming down from where it’s placed, and appears in a course by shaking the Thwomp item while creating a course.

Players looking for a serious challenge are in luck, as after downloading the free update, a new “Super Expert” difficulty will be added to the 100 Mario Challenge. This new difficulty pulls random courses that have been categorised as being “Super Expert” after their creation. By completing 100 Mario Challenge on this difficulty, five new Mystery Mushroom costumes can be won, as well as three new costume rewards from completing the mode on “Normal”, and four for finishing it on “Expert”.

The new additions aren’t just reserved for the game itself: the Super Mario Maker Bookmark website, which lets users sort and search for levels using a smart device or browser, will now display Super Mario Maker World Record players.

Recently, there have also been some new costumes added to the game, including the always smart and sometimes zany Professor E. Gadd from the Luigi’s Mansion games. Fans of Daisy can play through the Adventures in Sarasaland Event Course and also get the Daisy costume. Players should check Event Courses often for new levels to play.

Super Mario Maker has a staggering 6.2 million different user-created playable courses, which in turn have been played more than 400 million times as of 27^th January. For more information about the game, visit http://gamesites.nintendo.com.au/super-mario-maker. To view these updates in action, watch the Super Mario Maker 9^th March update trailer on YouTube.
Additional Links:
Nintendo Australia website: http://www.nintendo.com.au 
Nintendo Australia Twitter: https://twitter.com/NintendoAUNZ
Nintendo Australia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NintendoAUNZ
Nintendo AU on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/nintendoau

ODIN SPHERE® LEIFTHRASIR SKILLS AND COMBAT TRAILER RELEASED!

NIS America have already announced that Odin Sphere Leifthrasir will be joining its European RPG lineup in June 2016 and now they have released the new ‘Skills and Combat’ trailer. You can watch it via the YouTube link here: https://youtu.be/uhV4MVXiTC8

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a 2D sidescrolling action RPG, steeped in Norse mythology or a Wagnerian opera. The new game is a complete HD remake of the original PS2 classic Odin Sphere from Vanillaware, the team behind the hit side-scrolling action game Dragon’s Crown and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Atlus U.S.A. will be publishing this game in North America.

About the story:

The kingdom of Valentine was the most powerful country on the continent of Erion. Its people thrived using the magical power of the Crystallization Cauldron, but it was destroyed in one fateful night. And so, a war over the now master-less Cauldron has begun, involving all the nations of the land and growing more intense by the day. Is the End near, as the Prophecy states?

For more information about Odin Sphere Leifthrasir visit: http://atlus.com/osl/

Click here to view the new Skills Trailer https://youtu.be/uhV4MVXiTC8

Click here to download the assets for Odin Sphere Leifthrasir: http://we.tl/ShAaVYFOME