Some industry insiders have long suspected that LucasArts may be in the process of restructuring itself. It's all official now as layoffs have been confirmed after the release of Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC,  PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, DS). Details after the jump.

It looks like WiiWare developers will be getting some help from audio and game developer Shin'en Multimedia. The company has just announced that it will be making its DSX toolchain available to WiiWare developers to help them make do with the limited resources available to them. More in the full article.

With the arrival of next generation consoles in the gaming market, players have been feasting their senses on high quality graphics, surround sound, and engaging gameplay.

On the other hand, developers just grit their teeth and labor on as inflation sends costs of next-gen game production costs sky rocketing. More details regarding this after the jump.

  

While a lot of big companies have been relying on various Asian countries as outsourcing producers for their products, China seems to have raised this trend a step further and made their own version of Nintendo's best selling Wii console.

Subtly Dubbed the "Vii", it sports practically all of the features its Nintendo counterpart has as well as a few more gimmick accessories thrown in as you can see in the image above. To be honest though, an inflatable jet ski accessory does sound kind of cool.

Anyway, from the look right down to the whole family appeal of the Wii console, the Vii pretty much mimics all of the Wii's finer points. Aside from the fact that components are cheaper in the country, copyright issues aren't that closely enforced thus making the "cloning" of the Wii such an easy endeavor.

While imitation can indeed be the highest form of flattery, we'll just have to see what the big wigs at Nintendo think of this should they decide to turn their attention to this new console.

 

Here's a bit of a surprising development in the high-definition media battle: Sony's deep in the middle of negotiations with Toshiba regarding the sale of Sony's microchip-producing facilities. These microchips are the same ones that give the PlayStation 3 its fair share of next-gen processing power.

This news comes directly from the business daily Nikkei, citing sources close to both parties.

Now it's nothing to get all up in arms about - Sony's just doing some very clever outsourcing, that's all. This is part of Sony's strategy to cut down on costly semiconductor assets, and this will let the electronics giant focus on the production of other products such as image sensor chips in digital cameras and camcorders.

And Sony is not letting go of the microchip facilities for a song: the company behind the PlayStation 3 looks to hand over the deed to the facilities for a cool 100 billion yen - that's about  US$ 869.7 million dollars out of Toshiba's pocket. Although it seems that this price is right up Toshiba's alley, as an agreement between the two companies is expected in the near future.

And here's even more good news: to make sure that there's going to be no shortage of chips for PS3 production, Sony is also considering a partnership with Toshiba on the management of the facilities themselves after all is said and done. This bodes quite well for the PlayStation 3 - as it's going to have two great minds taking care of its chips rather than just one.

Not a bad business move from Sony indeed!

Thanks to super7 for the tip!

Alexander Fernandez, founding member and CEO of Streamline Studios, has been named as the keynote speaker in the Asian Games Convention. The convention will be held on September 6 and 7 at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center.

Under Fernandez's directive, Streamline was able to deliver critically-acclaimed video games such as Gears of War, Saints Row, and Ghost Recon 2.

Fernandez's speech will be titled The Rising Value of Content Capital and will tackle the issues surrounding the importance of content-driven games and how outsourcing can help develop the industry.

"We view GC Asia as a key forum for addressing both the opportunities and challenges of the emerging content creation sector in Asia," said the Streamline Chief. "With game development ever more a global phenomenon, it's the perfect time to address the implications for all parties involved: creators and publishers alike."

GC Asia is the regional counterpart of the recently-concluded GC 2007 in Leipzig, Germany where talks about the industry as well as exhibits of the biggest gaming projects today were held. The event covers all forms of gaming from consoles, PCs, handhelds, and even mobile phones.

If you're interested in GC Asia and would like to participate, you can go to www.GC-asia.sg to find more information.

Just yesterday, we reported that Crytek established a new studio in Budapest, Hungary, to work on a new game which is apparently a non-FPS title. Over at Next-Gen.biz, Crytek engine business manager Harald Seely talked about their new studio and their drive to think outside the FPS genre that has made them famous.

When asked about their new studio, Seely said that "we think that there are a lot of other interesting opportunities out there... We haven't really scratched the surface of [what the] CryENGINE can do. We want to explore those opportunities." No other details were revealed about Crytek Budapest's game-in-development.

But he did talk about Crytek's move to open house in Budapest. He said that:

Eastern Europe as a source of game development has already proven itself... It's already growing very quickly, a lot of companies have put studios in the East. A lot of them aren't really publicized. A lot of the work is in the mode of outsourcing. But I think as they become more and more experienced with the tools we have today, there's going to be a lot of original ideas coming out of there as well.

With regards to Crytek's alleged plans to dish out something good on the PS3, this is all Seely had to say:

How's our PlayStation 3 project coming? I wasn’t aware we announced any PlayStation 3 project yet.

In case you have forgotten, this rumor was revived due to a job listing for a PS3 programmer on Crytek's official website. Earlier, Crytek CEO Cervat Yerli just said "nope, no comment on this" when asked about Crytek's PS3 plans. Crytek's lips are still sealed, so you guys could still speculate away.

Take note that this is not an attack against Nintendo. It is, however, an inevitable question that had to be raised after so many months of Wii shortages. Nintendo had its own approximations of the world's total demand for the Wii, yet isn't working on a solution to expand their manufacturing capabilities.

 

So yeah, we have to ask, "What's up with the Wii?" In a blog article at Freakonomics, Dubner and Kimmelman contributed their thoughts on the pre-supposed "colossal blunder" on Nintendo's part in a piece entitled, "We Want a Wii! (Still)." We guess they're still hoping that this article would get noticed and someone would be hearty enough to ship them one...any charitable takers?

But there are certain points that their article delivers, and it seems plausible that something just isn't right. When did the Wii come out? November 2006, right? So over through the holidays and up to now, all Nintendo was able to do was to bring a couple hundred thousand more over the six million unit quota for the entire world market at the end of March.

Nintendo has reassured that they're doing everything possible, and that they are already at their maximum output. If that's the case, shouldn't they be working on outsourcing someone to beef up their production lines? There was no official announcement that Nintendo was experiencing supply shortages, so this shouldn't be a problem at all for the Japanese giant.

Still, it's April now, and while the Wii is steadily climbing up the console sales chart, it just remains a steady climb: no spikes, no curves, just one line with a constant slope. Is Nintendo planning on being the metaphorical slow, steady tortoise in this race? Hopefully, time will tell.

Paul Steed, former artist for id Software's first in the Quake franchise, is now Chief Creative Officer at Exigent, an Indian game outsourcing firm. No longer drawing gorgeous pixels for your VGA screen, Steed is now educating Indians and encouraging them to make games for the western market.

We know you're probably asking, "What in the world is he doing there?" In an interview with "The Art of Gaming" haven Gamasutra, he revealed his revelation of the business of outsourcing and how he got interested in it.

After leaving Atari last September, he moved on to Exigent, and hoped to tap into the productivity potential in the Asians' love for games.

But more importantly, he sees that the future of the game industry rests on the mobile game and the PC. He said that there are more computers and cellphones in the world than consoles and "[that will] never change." In fact, he believes once his company goes from outsourcing only to part developer studio "Exigent Interactive," they will be only focused on games for the PC. He defended his position, saying, ""That’s what’s most accessible for audiences."

Steed also spoke about Sony and the PSP. And guess what, PSP folks: he says that "Sony just lost focus" on the PSP. In the defense of his opinion, he added, "They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and you’re like, 'Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as Nintendo’s next-gen home system?'"

Piracy is commonly frowned upon by most members of the game industry - but not by Paul Steed. We'll let him explain his two cents worth on the (overrated?) issue of piracy:

My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I can’t stop it, so I don’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book ... my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, 'Well, at least they put my name on it!' I don’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just don’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

He also said something about casual gaming, although it's a bit "nit-picky" on the fairer gender of gamers. We'll leave it to you, oh curious web surfers, to hop right to the interview and read it for yourself, via the "Read" link below.

In line with the success Midway Games has been receiving with hits like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the company receives another batch of good news by way of Matt Booty.

Midway's worldwide studios senior VP was happy to announce they will now be centralizing all their outsourcing work to the Central Outsourcing Group (COG), of which Midway's Austin studio would be taking the helm.

“Consolidating all product development outsourcing initiatives into a centralized group will allow Midway to focus on creating AAA next-generation content,” Matt said in light of the move. Going into detail, he explained that COG "will provide expertise in outsourcing management and development pipelines across all of our internal studios.” This announcement also comes in light of their recent financial reports, which also details on a new MK game in the works.