TechLuver.com

Santa Clara, CA — NVIDIA on Monday, Feb 04, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AGEIA Technologies, the industry leader in gaming physics technology. AGEIA’s PhysX software is widely adopted with more than 140 PhysX-based games shipping or in development on Sony Playstation3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and Gaming PCs. AGEIA physics software is pervasive with over 10,000 registered and active users of the PhysX SDK.

Like graphics, physics processing is made up of millions of parallel computations. The NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT GPU, with its 112 processors, can process parallel applications up to two orders of magnitude faster than a dual or quad-core CPU. More at NVIDIA.

Paris, France — Dec 02, ‘07 — The French and US companies behind the hugely popular video games “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” announced Sunday that they are merging in an 18.9 billion dollar deal, which could shake up the global video games industry.

Vivendi, the French media and entertainment conglomerate, said Sunday that it planned to acquire a controlling stake in the US video game publisher Activision in a deal aimed at taking advantage of booming video game markets like South Korea and China.

Under the agreement, which values Activision at $18.9 billion, Vivendi would combine its game division with Activision, creating the largest video game company in the world that is not owned by a maker of game consoles.

Vivendi and Activision executives said that by combining the two game businesses, they could help Activision, which has developed popular games for consoles like the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, move more strongly into online “massively multiplayer” games, which have legions of devoted fans in Asia and elsewhere.

Vivendi has specialized in multiplayer games like “World of Warcraft,” which has more than nine million players worldwide, including millions of paying subscribers in China and South Korea, making them some of the only successful Western entertainment exports in a region ravaged by piracy.

Blizzard is the biggest player in online gaming and Warcraft is the global market leader of what are known as massively multi-player online role-playing games, or MMORPGs.

It is currently owned by the French media group Vivendi. As part of the merger plan, Blizzard will invest $2bn in the new company, while Activision is putting up $1bn.

The merged business will be called Activision Blizzard and its chief executive will be Activision’s current CEO Bobby Kotick. Vivendi will be the biggest shareholder in the group.

Jean-Bernard Levy, Vivendi chief executive, said: “This alliance is a major strategic step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertainment sector. “By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry.”

Meanwhile, as news of the merger reached the ears of videogamers Sunday morning, many of them began to wonder if they should be getting ready to play a merged game called “World of Guitarcraft.”

More at Vivendi. (in pdf)

Tokyo, Japan — Nov 12, ‘07 — JapanToday is reporting on sales of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360 have exceeded those of Sony’s PlayStation 3 for the first time on a weekly basis in Japan, citing a survey.

The site further reports, “According to the survey conducted by research firm Media Create Co, Xbox 360 sales came to 17,673 units in the week to Saturday, against 17,434 units for PS3.

Xbox 360 overtook PS3 as the second best-selling video game machine in Japan, Media Create said. Nintendo’s Wii stayed the best-selling machine. The Xbox 360 machine performed strongly partly because Microsoft on Nov 1 cut its price by up to 5,000 yen. In the preceding week, Xbox 360 sales totaled only 3,718 units.” More at JapanToday.

WhatTheyPlay is all about videogames, and it’s for parents just like you. We’ll help you understand everything you need to know about the games your kids want to play, and bring you friendly, helpful, unbiased information about the content and the experiences that videogames provide. Says the welcome message at WhatTheyPlay.com

Los Angeles — Nov 12, ‘07 — Alex Pham of LA Times writes on a site that features reviews not for the kids playing the games but for the parents supervising them.

In his words, “For many parents, figuring out which video games are safe for kids can itself be a maddening game.

Most game reviews in fan magazines and on enthusiast websites don’t offer much help, with their fixation on geeky details such as frame rates, texture maps and physics engines. The packaging gives parents a few clues — whether the game contains violence, strong language or sexual innuendoes — but little else.

Two game industry veterans plan to launch a website today that aims to help parents who might not know what a first-person shooter is but have kids clamoring for the new “Halo 3″ game.

Although video games have become an increasingly popular form of entertainment, ringing up more than $30 billion in annual sales worldwide, parents often don’t hear much about them until a controversial title hits the news.

“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” earned that spotlight two years ago when a programmer uncovered nude sex scenes hidden in the game that a software download made visible. Its publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., last week settled a class-action lawsuit by agreeing to pay $1 million in consumer refunds.

This year, Take-Two’s “Manhunt 2,” a game about a sociopath on a homicidal rampage, was banned in Britain for what regulators there called its “bleakness and callousness of tone.” In the U.S., the industry’s Entertainment Software Rating Board gave the title an “Adults Only” rating, a category that most retailers refuse to sell. Take-Two later blurred out the violent scenes to earn a more acceptable “Mature” rating, but hackers found ways to restore the graphic depictions.

Microsoft Corp. last week announced a feature on its Xbox 360 consoles that would let parents limit the amount of time their children spend playing video games.” More at LA Times.

Opera Software ASA of Norway unveiled the details of upgraded functions added to the new version of the Internet Channel, a Web browser for Wii.

Tech-On! reports, “Nintendo Co. Ltd. started distributing the new version Oct. 10, 2007. According to Opera, the company’s Web browser function used in the Internet Channel was upgraded from version 9.1 to 9.3. In addition, the browser now supports USB keyboard and widgets and is added with a function to link with the Wii Message Board.

Nintendo upgraded the Wii firmware from version 3.0 to 3.1 on Oct. 10, 2007. According to the information posted on Nintendo’s Wii support Web page, the upgraded firmware officially supports USB keyboard as hardware.”

More at Tech-On!