SILICON STUDIO TO SHOWCASE NEXT-GEN MIDDLEWARE AT GDC 2014 HIGHLIGHTED BY SQUARE ENIX’S GUNSLINGER STRATOS 2

Located in the South Hall Booth #1335,
Square Enix’s New Arcade Shows the YEBIS 2 Difference

Twain Harte, CA – February 28, 2014 – Silicon Studio, a high-end middleware provider, is proud to announce it will showcase its ever-evolving development tools at this year’s Game Development Conference (GDC), highlighted by Square Enix’s new arcade title, Gunslinger Stratos 2. Silicon Studio (located in the South Hall at booth #1335 from March 19 through March 21) will exhibit the latest technology demos powered by YEBIS 2 middleware currently available to development studios worldwide. Playable for the first time in North America and powered by the optical effects from YEBIS 2, GDC attendees are encouraged to experience Gunslinger Stratos 2.

“We congratulate the YEBIS 2 team as exhibitors to GDC 2014,” stated Nobuaki Kadoi, producer for Square Enix Co., Ltd. “Through the power of YEBIS 2, we are able to provide a greater sense of reality in the dark, cinematic atmosphere of Gunslinger Stratos 2. Game players will be truly immersed into the movie-like experience of the game. We appreciate the opportunity in showcasing the playable exhibition of Gunslinger Stratos 2 at Silicon Studio’s GDC booth, and look forward to more innovations with YEBIS 2.”

For more information on Gunslinger Stratos 2, visit the official Website HERE

“We are excited to see the outstanding technology at Silicon Studio’s exhibition booth at GDC 2014,” says Tomoya Asano, producer for Square Enix Co., Ltd. “Having developed Bravely Default in partnership with Silicon Studio, we can see the evidence of how innovative YEBIS 2 can be to developers globally.  Square Enix is happy to welcome Silicon Studio to exhibit at the Game Developers Conference 2014.”

A nexus of real-time post processing effects, YEBIS 2 is advanced middleware with physically based optics simulation. It provides various high-quality lens effects, such as Glare, Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Lens Distortion, Film/Photo galvanic Effect, Color Correction, Anti-Aliasing and much more, all designed for both current and next-gen development.

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ABOUT SILICON STUDIO
Established in 2000, Silicon Studio© is an international company based in Tokyo, Japan, that delivers leading innovation in digital entertainment technology and content. Silicon Studio provides cutting-edge solutions in rendering technology, research and development methods, game content, post processing effects and online game solutions.

From fundamental development to integration and implementation, Silicon Studio provides seamless support to all aspects of a client’s digital content needs and contributing to their success in creating groundbreaking and award winning interactive entertainment for current and next generation platforms.  For more information, please visit www.siliconstudio.co.jp

EDGE OF REALITY’S LOADOUT HITS TWO MILLION-USER MILESTONE

Over-the-Top Shooter Rockets into the Top of Steam’s Charts within First Month 

AUSTIN, TX (February 28, 2014) – Edge of Reality today announced its Free-to-Play (F2P), online multiplayer shooter Loadout saw over two million users sign up for the game in its first 14 days of release. Players have logged a total of over 9 million hours in Loadout, and it currently stands as one of the top five most popular F2P titles on Steam.

“The near-overnight success of Loadout has been simultaneously humbling and exhilarating,” said Rob Cohen, CEO of Edge of Reality. “Our community means everything to us, and we can’t thank them enough for helping to make Loadout what it is today.”

Since its official release on January 31 of this year, Loadout has been wildly popular – so popular, in fact, that it made getting into the game on day one quite the feat. To prepare for the mass influx of people, Edge of Reality set up additional infrastructure, but even those precautions proved insufficient to meet demand.

“The incredible surge of interest at launch shattered all our expectations, and it unfortunately just became too much for our servers to handle in the beginning,” added Cohen. “Very few Steam titles have reached the peak concurrent users we achieved upon release. We’re committed to delivering an excellent game to our community, and we continue to work hard to ensure that our servers provide all our players with the same fluid, responsive, and enjoyable experience across the board.”

About Loadout

Loadout is the fast-paced, free to play shooter that has been critically praised for its wild humor, acrobatic gameplay, and INSANE quantity of weapons and customization options. From your gun’s chassis and barrel to its trigger and stock, everything can be modified. Fire bullets, rockets, searing flame, plasma beams, healing syringes… if you can dream it, you can build it. Loadout is available for free on Steam and at www.Loadout.com.

For more Loadout mayhem, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Edge of Reality

Edge of Reality is an independent, world-class console game development studio based in Austin, Texas. Throughout its 16-year history, the studio has released 16 titles on 8 platforms, selling over 20 million units worldwide. The company is entrusted with some of the biggest brands in the industry, and the team works with passion to deliver high-quality entertainment. More information about Edge of Reality and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.edgeofreality.com.

PREMIER INDIE GAME PUBLISHER DEVOLVER DIGITAL HOSTS FIRST EVER DEVOLVER FAN ART GALLERY AT GDC
 
Hotline Miami, LUFTRAUSERS Fan Art on Display 

AUSTIN, TX – Feb. 28, 2014 – The industry’s best looking publisher, Devolver Digital, announce the first ever Devolver Digital Fan Art Gallery during the Game Developer Conference, March 19-21 at the Book Club Gallery. Just two blocks from the Moscone Center, the showcase portrays a stunning array of fan art from the world’s finest indie games for the most discerning of collectors. The Devolver Digital Fan Art gallery includes fan art from some of Devolver’s roster of exquisite games, including Hotline Miami, LUFTRAUSERS, Gods Will Be Watching, Broforce, and more.

Additionally, shadowy members of the indie publisher will be on hand to discuss the state of indie games, where Devolver Digital wants to take their projects in 2014 and Devolver Digital’s killer lineup for the rest of the year, which includes Dennaton’s much-anticipated Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Vlambeer’s upcoming LUFTRAUSERS, the fun-loving Dropsy, and the emotional Always Sometimes Monsters and more to be announced soon.

“As an honorable patron of exquisite fan art I feel that it’s time to share my vast collection of beautiful pieces from all over the world,” said Fork Parker, Devolver Digital CFO. “However, my sensual collection of Broforce hentai will remain private. That’s just for Fork.”

For free booze, good times, and excellent fan art, hit the Devolver Digital Fan Art Gallery at:
http://fanart.devolverdigital.com/

STAR LORDS HITS NEXT MILESTONE WITH NEW ALPHA UPDATE ON STEAM EARLY ACCESS

New Features Include Shinier Graphics, New UI, Fleshed Out Domestic Policies, and More; Plus, New Screenshots

Haarlem, The Netherlands – February 28, 2014 – Development of Iceberg Interactive’s upcoming 4X space-strategy game Star Lords is progressing apace, as Arkavi Studios has provided a huge new update for its growing fan base. The new build offers gamers a streamlined, user-friendly UI, a more stable build, a more active and fleshed out domestic policies mechanic, an overall graphics update, a change in currency that encourages more exploration, and much more.

Details for the 16.0 Updated Build Include:

• Streamlined UI (game creation screen): Players now have a single menu with three tabs: Race Selection, Galaxy Settings and Game Settings. Each of these tabs has been greatly improved from the previous menus, with less cluttered and better organized information.
• Stability Improvement: a new series of experimental fixes will fix most (if not all) stability issues. Regretfully, some of these experimental fixes involve temporarily removing the weapon and armor ship parts from the game. These will be reinstated in a later build. It’s very important for Arkavi Studios to know if these fixes are working on a variety of PC configurations, so any feedback on whether or not the game still crashes for you is very important.
• Domestic Policies: The domestic policies mechanic has been fleshed out and further balanced, with various random events having an impact on the population’s approval of certain policies. Now, an event message box will pop up when the majority of the population disagrees with one of your policies.
• Bug Fixes: Among them, most (if not all) of the full-screen issues (such as the screen only displaying a part of the UI for example) should be fixed, the tutorial text is no longer out of bounds and the crashes on loading a game should be gone once and for all.
• Balancing: Some general balancing has been done, most importantly, every player now starts with 5000 BC, to make the early game more challenging, and exploration more rewarding, with valuable space debris having a bigger impact than before.
• Graphics Update: Improved backgrounds and updated the ship models for the Krifith Empire. More improvements in this aspect will be introduced incrementally.

In Star Lords, players take command of one race to join the struggle for supremacy in the galaxy. As the leader of an empire, players are tasked with exploring the stars, colonizing new worlds, managing an empire, and conquering whoever dares to oppose them. Within a framework of turn-based strategy and turn-based combat, Star Lords endeavours to differentiate itself by enabling players to beat their opponents by using generals, diplomacy, intelligence, trading, or plotting the downfall of enemies by financing wars against them or aiming to cause anarchy.

Star Lords is currently in the Alpha stage and available on the Steam Early Access program at $19.99. store.steampowered.com/app/246940/

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ABOUT ARKAVI STUDIOS
Arkavi Studios is an independent game development company, founded in 2013 in Leiria, Portugal. We are really passionate about what we do, putting our heart and soul into every game we make, and making the games we would like to play.

ABOUT ICEBERG INTERACTIVE 
Iceberg Interactive is an independent video game publisher founded in 2009 by an international group of games industry veterans and is located in Haarlem, The Netherlands. While keeping its roots in the European retail games market, Iceberg has rapidly increased its focus towards the global digital games market, by building strong direct relationships with dozens of Game Portals. Staffed with avid gamers, Iceberg works closely with an international assembly of game developers, both midsize and indie. With a distinct focus on the strategy, action, simulation and adventure game genres, the company has garnered attention with acclaimed releases including Killing Floor, Wings of Prey, APB Reloaded and Endless Space among its 70+ game arsenal – with more promising games in the pipeline.

Play it cool!

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army series hits half a Million sales

Rebellion marks series’ first birthday with huge sale, announces console entry also in development. 

February 28^th 2014, Oxford – Independent UK developer Rebellion today announced that the hugely successful Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army series has reached over half a million sales across Steam, retail, and the Rebellion Gamestore.

To celebrate the series’ first birthday the studio has released a bundle pack including both games and launched a 75% sale on both Steam (ending March 3^rd) and the Rebellion Gamestore (ending March 7^th).

That means gamers can pick up the entire series for just £4.49 / $6.25 or download either game on their own for just £2.49 / $3.75. 

Console entry now in development

Released a year ago today, the series made its debut with Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army – a horror spin-off from 2012’s award winning Sniper Elite V2.

But the intense four-player co-op and great value price point quickly proved so popular that a dedicated team began to work on a sequel, eventually launching seven months later during Halloween 2013.

Both games were only available on PC, and having teased the possibilities in previous statements Rebellion’s CEO and Creative Director Jason Kingsley can now finally confirm that a console entry is in development.

“We can’t say much yet but it won’t just be a re-package of the first two games – there will be plenty of new content to get stuck into.”

“Like many independent developers, we’re still learning the ropes and having a lot of conversations with the platform holders. We’re not at the stage where we can confirm the platforms right now, but we’re fortunate to have experience already from self-publishing on Steam and mobile, so we’re confident it’ll go smoothly.” 

Links and keyfacts:

• Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 1 & 2 together have sold over half a million units world-wide through digital platforms and retail in just one year.
• Both games and a new ‘Bundle’ pack are 75% off on Steam and the Rebellion Gamestore for a limited time. Gamers can get both games together for just £4.49 / $6.25
• A console entry for the series is now in development – platforms are as yet unannounced.

About Rebellion

Rebellion® is the studio behind worldwide number one hit games such as Sniper Elite V2 and Aliens vs. Predator. One of Europe’s leading independent video games developers and comic book publishers, Rebellion is privately owned company based in Oxford, United Kingdom, and prides itself on its unique and innovative approach to IP development and stewardship. It has been responsible for a diverse portfolio of publisher-owned and internally developed IPs, including Star Wars BattleFront, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death, The Simpsons Game and Sniper Elite.

Rebellion’s publishing portfolio includes multi award-winning British science fiction comic 2000 AD, the 2000 AD Graphic Novel line, the internationally-acclaimed fantasy, science fiction and horror imprint Solaris Books, and shared-world pulp imprint Abaddon Books.

For more information please visit: http://www.rebellion.co.uk/

Like Rebellion on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RebellionDevelopments

Follow Rebellion on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rebellion