Though our last report from the company indicated that they were still afloat, there’s no question that what’s left of Flagship Studios is dangling precariously close to the water. As prognosticated in early June, most staff have been let go, further subscriptions for completed title Hellgate: London have been blocked, and work-in-progress Mythos has gone on hiatus. Meanwhile, Korean financier and online partner HanbitSoft has made public their intentions to pursue Flagship’s intellectual property, to the very doors of the bank if need be.

But amidst all this turmoil, hope springs anew. The Mythos and Hellgate forums, scheduled to die a quick death last Friday, are mysteriously still running. Community Manager Diane “Tiggs” Migliaccio told Hellgate: London players neither the forums nor the game would disappear come the end of July. And now, a representative from Namco Bandai has stepped in to say that “we’re working on it,” and that an announcement of some sort is coming. Continue Reading

GameCyte has just learned that the 2008 China Game Developers Conference, commonly known as GDC China, has been canceled.

Our source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that “relationship issues within China” are preventing conference sponsor Think Services (formerly CMP Game Group) from going forward with their plans for the event.

Though the first GDC China — held in Shanghai last year — was publically considered a success, it was announced last December that its successor would move to Beijing instead. GDC China 2008 was slated for this September 24-26.

CMP was unavailable for comment at time of publication. Given the unconfirmed nature of this report, we’re calling it rumor for now.

Intellisponse, you’re doin’ a heck of a job. The rumors swirling about the gaming community are too many to count today, after an intrepid NeoGAF member found a gaping security hole at market research firm Intellisponse. The firm’s clients seem to have included Microsoft, Activision, and Disney, and now a feast of unconfirmed information has turned up everywhere, from possible game announcements to Microsoft’s answer to Miis. Phones are likely to be ringing off the hook, and eager journalists are going to have plenty of questions to ask at next month’s E3.

Honestly, a leak this massive has got to be one of two things: Either this is an intentional move by Microsoft to get the buzz going early, or Intellisponse gon’ get sued and/or fired. Trust me, I’ve been on the “oops” side of the fence when proprietary info gets out at the wrong time, and it doesn’t end well. For those of you not dodging blame, however, let’s have a look at the juicy rumors! Continue Reading

Yes, I know, ronin refers to a masterless samurai, but I don’t know a fancy word for rogue ninja. Team Ninja of Tecmo, specifically, which is rumored to be undergoing a larger exodus following the departure of their outspoken leader, Tomonobu Itagaki. According to 1UP (spotted via Next-Gen), upwards of three dozen Team Ninja employees may be leaving the company, sowing chaos and lawsuits in their wake. Continue Reading

In another move toward limiting the freedom of the games press to convey facts to readers, Stephen Totilo over at MTV Multiplayer has posted reports that Konami is requesting that reviewers not mention certain technical details about Metal Gear Solid 4 in reviews. Those details, however, have already been leaked. Specifically, Konami is rumored to have asked reviewers not to mention the length of the game’s cut-scenes or the size of the ever-controversial installation on the PlayStation 3.

Continue Reading

Over the weekend, Square Enix released the company’s financial results from fiscal year 2007, and the results aren’t good. The company sold a little over 2 million fewer units in 2007 than it did during 2006. That does not bode well for the company, and it helps explain the focus on alternate business models. According to a report at Kotaku, President Yoichi Wada is threatening his employees with layoffs if the company does not reverse its niche focus:

Apparently, there has been an internal shakedown going on. According to several company insiders, things are getting heated. Word has it that a fierce meeting was held over a month ago where the Square Enix honcho threatened to start axing employees if they didn’t (and we’re paraphrasing) “stop making games that only they wanted to play.” Wada is supposedly worried that the company’s games have become more and more insular, alienating itself from the mainstream.

The next installations of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are still on the horizon, but they have been on the horizon for so long that people are starting to question whether they will see the light of day in this decade. If Wada really wants to change the company’s focus, he has to realize it will take time and development cycles before the output of the company is more mainstream. I imagine, then, that the axe is unlikely to drop in the near future. We’ll keep our ears open for any further developments.

Whoops — please disregard our earlier post regarding a potential leak about StarCraft 2’s minimum system requirements. FiringSquad is now reporting that their contact at Blizzard has denied the veracity of these requirements, saying that they were “based on speculation by a Spanish gaming magazine.” We’ll keep an eye out for more news on Korea’s national pastime as it breaks!

My autographed copy of Surfin’ the Highway — the original print, mind you — should confirm my position as a fan of all things Sam & Max. This love extends quite liberally onto the episodic Sam & Max games from Telltale Games, so I consider it to be a Very Good Thing™ when news comes along that more folks may get an opportunity to play them. Spotted over at Joystiq, the folks at TheBBPS.com had a nice little chat with Telltale’s Marketing Coordinator, Emily Morganti, who revealed a few things about the future of everyone’s favorite canine/lagomorph duo. Continue Reading

UPDATE: Turns out maybe these specs aren’t real. 

According to a report at CVG, the Starcraft 2 system requirements have leaked out of Blizzard proper. It is striking that the requirements are so (comparatively) daunting:

Minimum Requirements:GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256Mb RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1Gb
Internet: ADSL 1 MBitRecommend Requirements:

GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512Mb RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

Optimal Requirements:

GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 Ghz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb with DualChannel mode.

Certainly these aren’t the sort of numbers that would allow you to run Crysis, but Blizzard has a habit of making games with ridiculously low minimum requirements. It’s one of the reasons that adoption for World of Warcraft has had so few impediments. Still, my new MacBook Pro should be able to handle the game. The real question is whether my reflexes and build order skills are anywhere near the level they were ten years ago.  Ahh, the thrill of the Zergling rush!

There has been no confirmation from Blizzard yet about the specifications, so we may have to wait until BlizzCon for any official word.

Need an update here! Need an update here! Need an update here! Shacknews managed to get a few words out of Valve’s Doug Lombardi, who spoke briefly about seeing the recent Team Fortress 2 updates appear on the Xbox 360 version of the Orange Box bundle. Previously only available in the PC version, TF2 has seen the addition of new weapons, achievements, maps, and an entirely new gameplay mode, while its console counterpart has languished in its launch form. No more, hopefully! Continue Reading