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Cryptic Studios, original developer of NCsoft’s superhero MMO City of Heroes and developer of the recently canned superhero MMO Marvel Universe Online, has announced its next game. It’s a superhero MMO.

US magazine Game Informer has the scoop in its next issue, and has leaked a couple of details early along with the mag’s cover.

The game will be called Champions Online and is planned for “consoles” as well as PC. Seems it will allow you to play as a hero or a villain.

Cryptic Studios is a leading independent developer of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, with a reputation for delivering profitable, on-time, on-budget titles. They developed the innovative and successful City of Heroes, as well as its subsequent expansion, City of Villains. Both titles garnered numerous awards from leading enthusiast press including GameSpy’s Game of the Year award in 2004.

Cryptic Studios’ development process is centered on efficiently structured teams working together in a collaborative atmosphere to develop high quality games. Their goal is to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience appealing to a wide range of audiences. As an independent developer, Cryptic has the freedom to choose projects they are passionate about, based on genres and IP they know and love. Cryptic’s belief in balancing valuable family time with work provides a positive environment, promoting team work, creativity, and the exchange of ideas and opinions.

Tags: Cryptic Studios

RealNetworks Inc. have announced an exclusive partnership with the casual games network, Spill Group from Casual Connect. RealGames, the casual games business unit for RealNetworks, expects to see an increase in global reach as a result of the partnership.

RealNetworks said that RealGames gained exclusive syndication rights for Spill Group’s Family section of key portals, which include Games.co.uk, Jeux.fr, Gioco.it, Jetzspielen.de, Spelletjes.nl, Spela.se, Juegos.com, Gry.pl, Gamesgames.com and Ojogos.com.br.

With the addition of Spill Group’s worldwide presence, RealGames is expected to reach 48 million unique game players per month with its quality, best-selling casual game titles, RealNetworks noted.

Original Story

Tags: Casual Connect, Games.co.uk, Gamesgames.com, Gioco.it, Gry.pl, Jetzspielen.de, Jeux.fr, Juegos.com, Ojogos.com.br, RealNetworks, Spela.se, Spelletjes.nl, Spill Group

King.com, the world’s largest skill games site, said that 190 million games were played on the King.com platform in January 2008. This represents a 138 percent increase from the same period the year prior. The announcement was made at the Casual Connect Europe conference currently being held in Amsterdam.

King’s rapid 2007 traffic growth was driven by new and better games, but also the implementation of a powerful new back-end architecture in the autumn to support King’s growth for years to come. Other key components of King.com’s success were its fruitful relationships with large portals and media properties, a successful strategy of bringing hit television programs to the gaming experience, and a thriving community of gamers.

“King.com continues to move from strength to strength,” said Toby Rowland, co-founder and co-CEO of King.com. “People who like to compete at casual games are finding King.com and staying there.”

King.com notched up many other achievements and milestones in 2007. The company extended its exclusive relationship with Yahoo! to provide skill games across Yahoo! Games; continued game development for hit television shows, launching ‘Deal or No Deal: The Banker’s Quiz’ and ‘The Biggest Loser’ in the US, and signed new partnerships such as Real Networks in the US and MTV3 in Finland. In addition to skill games and entertainment, King.com saw rapid growth in MyGame.com, its free site aimed at social networks and community platforms worldwide. And finally, in March 2007 King.com was named the ‘Fastest-Growing UK Company’ in the Media Momentum Digital Media Awards.

Tags: King.com, MTV3, Real Networks, Yahoo

Sandlot Games, a developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games, has announced the launch of Monster Mash. This addictive and strategic adventure game, published in conjunction with Kranx Productions, transports gamers into the fairy-tale world of Curly Valley, where they’re forced to defend villages from the invading hordes of quirky and bizarre monsters.

In a distant fairy-tale world, the villagers of Curly Valley are being attacked by legions of monsters. While under siege, it is up to you to protect them from the coming onslaught of these wacky creatures. Use all of your cunning and might to repel these mysterious invaders by fortifying the vulnerable villages with various towers, upgrades and unusual defensive armaments. Protect the grateful villagers who cheer your every conquest!

“Monster Mash’s game play, graphics, music, and flat out fun-factor make it a great addition to our portfolio and should offer Sandlot fans some quirky new content. It also signifies an aggressive push we have to publish more games from our game developer partners,” said Daniel Bernstein, founder and CEO of Sandlot Games. “Because we’re a development studio ourselves, we find that independent developers are more eager to work with us. We understand what it takes to develop hit games and we work with top developers such as Kranx to maximize the revenue potential of Monster Mash as we bring it to market.”

With more than 25 increasingly powerful tower upgrades and nine unique storybook-inspired scenes, Monster Mash is an addictive strategy adventure game. Enjoy hours of challenging play, more than 20 monster characters, 11 power-ups and level altering items, and much more.

Monster Mash is immediately available on Sandlot’s website (www.sandlotgames.com) for $19.99. It will soon be available on a variety of other major game portals.

Release 

Tags: Kranx Productions, Sandlot Games

New media pioneer Scott Bourne and Podango Productions today announced the launch of “The Game Council,” a new 30-minute podcast for gamers featuring the latest video game news and reviews.

Hosted by game chick Maria Bernal-Silva and game guy Gregory Martin, the 30-minute show will air tri-monthly, on the 1st, 10th and 20th of every month, on the Podango Network (http://podango.com).

“We see Game Council hosts Maria and Gregory as the Ebert and Roper of video games,” said Executive Producer Scott Bourne. “There’s a huge gamer market out there and Maria and Gregory are pumped to party with them thrice monthly.”

Because Maria’s and Greg’s tastes in games are completely different, the show will be funny and provocative. Maria favors console-based, intellectually challenging games like puzzles, treasure hunts, narrative spy games and brain benders. Greg enjoys playing adrenaline-based action games with exploding faces, decapitation and creatures of the night that sneak up on you in the middle of game play.

Their opposing views [Read more]

Tags: Podango