by Rainier on May 5, 2006 @ 11:40 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Already revealed a while ago, Vivendi Games today announced that it has secured the rights to publish Saber Interactive's FPS TimeShift, offering unprecedented time-control technology that allows players to stop, slow or reverse time.
by Rainier on May 3, 2006 @ 5:18 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Mid April Vivendi announced it had hired former Ubisoft COO Tremblay, but now it seems that this may not go into effect anytime soon. During his Ubisoft days Tremblay was a strong supporter of its one-year non-compete clause barring employees to jump ship to another developer/publisher. Now its seems Tremblay is
victim of his own stance, as Ubisoft is taking him to court blocking his Vivendi appointment.
by Rainier on April 20, 2006 @ 1:51 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi Games' revenues of EUR 134 million were 18.6% above the prior year, an increase primarily driven by the continued success of Blizzard's MMORPG World of Warcraft. Other solid Q1 2006 performers included North America revenues from Ice Age 2, based on the movie in current release from Fox, and continuing strong sales from backlist products including 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Crash Tag Team Racing.
by Rainier on April 19, 2006 @ 4:55 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
VUGames announced today that Martin Tremblay has joined as President, Worldwide Studios. In his new role, Martin will be responsible for setting the vision for the company's products, overseeing operations of internal studios, and managing external development relationships.
by Rainier on April 19, 2006 @ 1:45 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Revealed last year, VUGames today announced that it has signed FreeStyle Street Basketball, a fast-paced online basketball game where players meet on virtual courts to challenge each other in a dynamic pick-up game environment, featuring cutting-edge music, fashions and gravity defying basketball moves.
by Rainier on March 7, 2006 @ 5:06 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
VU Games announced today the formation of a new division, Vivendi Universal Games Mobile, dedicated to publishing games for the emerging mobile games market. VU Games also named Paul Maglione, who moves from a major mobile games publisher, as President of VUG Mobile.
by Rainier on Feb. 4, 2006 @ 2:44 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
VUGames issued a press release regarding a reorganization of its global sales structure to further build the retail performance of Blizzard and Sierra titles. But more importantly was a small note way at the bottom "Phil O'Neil, President North America and COO, has elected to explore opportunities outside of VU Games. "
by Rainier on Jan. 5, 2006 @ 3:44 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
VU Games today announced that it has completed the purchase of independent developer, High Moon Studios. VU Games will retain High Moon's team of more than 100 development professionals, as well as rights to the studio's intellectual properties. High Moon recently released its first FPS title DarkWatch, published by Capcom.
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under
E3 - Pre - E3 2003
"The breadth and depth of our publishing portfolio are clearly represented in our E3 line-up, and we are very proud of the high caliber of our brands and products," said Luc Vanhal, President and COO, North America for VU Games. "Our cross-platform support is illustrated by our well-balanced mix of PC titles and video games for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance -- several of which will offer online multi-player capabilities. Additionally, many of our products shown at E3 will be available later this year in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, which further underscores our commitment to bringing
by Rainier on Dec. 21, 2005 @ 11:26 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
Recently certain UK media outlets have been reporting on rumors that French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal might be interested in taking over SCi, who recenrly purchased Eidos. Today VU issued a statement saying any such rumor is incorrect, "In view of articles published in the UK press, Vivendi Universal denies any interest in Sci Entertainment and also denies having made any offer."
by Rainier on Oct. 28, 2005 @ 5:59 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi and HD Publishing today announced an exclusive worldwide agreement for the modern day warfare RTS game, Joint Task Force. Under the agreement, VU Games will co-publish, market and distribute HD Publishing’s Joint Task Force for the PC in 2006 under the Sierra brand.
by Rainier on Sept. 13, 2005 @ 9:56 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
World of Warcraft has been a worldwide success and enabled Vivendi Universal Games to return to profitability. VUG's earnings operations were EUR 13 million, compared to a loss of EUR 168 million in the first half of 2004, mainly due to the increase in net sales and reduced operating expenses as a result of the recovery plan introduced in 2004, but also benefited from the worldwide success of World of Warcraft (4 million players at the end of August) and a strong increase of subscriptions with higher margins.
by Rainier on Aug. 8, 2005 @ 9:53 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi today announced its September line-up of interactive games based on the latest additions to Mattel's successful Barbie and My Scene entertainment franchises. Inspired by the animated movie releases Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus and My Scene Goes Hollywood arriving on DVD/VHS this Autumn.
by Judy on July 28, 2005 @ 12:10 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi Universal Games' revenues for the first half of 2005 are €238 million were 61% above the prior year, mainly driven by World of Warcraft and the first quarter launch of Robots, a children's game based on the movie.
by Rainier on July 25, 2005 @ 12:17 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
EA has signed a pact with New Line Cinema extending its rights to make games based on The Lord of the Rings franchise using images and actor likenesses from the pic trilogy. In addition, EA has now also signed a deal with with Tolkien Enterprises for J.R.R. Tolkien's literary trilogy, previously in the hands of Vivendi, giving it rights to use events and characters from the books not used in the pics.
by Rainier on July 6, 2005 @ 9:24 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi Universal Games and Epic Games today announced a studio-wide agreement under which VU Games will license Unreal Engine 3 tools and technology for next generation console and PC game development.
by Rainier on June 15, 2005 @ 9:08 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi today announced the acquisition of independent game developer Swordfish Studios, recently responsible for Cold Winter. Under terms of the agreement, VU Games will retain Swordfish Studios’ U.K.-based team of 45 development professionals. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
by Judy on May 12, 2005 @ 9:33 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Vivendi today announced its multi-platform product line-up for the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Among the highly anticipated games will be Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft: Ghost, a tactical-action console game set in Blizzard's epic StarCraft universe.
by Rainier on April 29, 2005 @ 8:59 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Valve and Vivendi today announced the settlement of a pending federal court lawsuit filed by Valve in August 2002. The parties have resolved their differences, and the settlement provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims. VUG will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005, and notify distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VUG that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafés and grant cyber café licenses. All previous license agreements made by Vivendi are being terminated. Needless to say, settlement or not, this is a huge win for Valve.
by Rainier on March 23, 2005 @ 7:50 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
Vivendi today announced that VU Games has completed the purchase of independent console developer, Radical Entertainment, known for Simpsons: Hit & Run, and currently developing Hulk Destruction and Scarface. Under the agreement, VU Games will retain Radical's team of more than 200 development professionals, as well as acquire the studio's exclusive game development technologies. Radical's founder Ian Wilkinson has been named President of Radical Entertainment, and the studio will remain in Vancouver, Canada.
by Rainier on March 9, 2005 @ 10:01 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
Today is the first official day of the Game Developers Conference where various publishers and developers show their latest technology. Of course Vivendi is present where they show various of their upcoming titles, and we have screens for :
- F.E.A.R. (PC)
- Scarface (PS2/XBox/PC)
- SWAT 4 (PC)
- The Bard's Tale (PC)
- Empire Earth 2 (PC)
- The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (NGC/PS2/Xbox)
- Flatout (PS2/Xbox/PC)
by Judy on Feb. 17, 2005 @ 8:48 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
Vivendi today announced a global distribution agreement with Majesco to distribute two of its most thrilling titles; BloodRayne 2 available for the PlayStation2, the Xbox and PC, and Advent Rising set for release on the Xbox and PC.
by Judy on Feb. 7, 2005 @ 2:49 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
VU Games today announced the appointment of Danny Hammett as Senior Vice President of Value Line Publishing for North America. In his new role, Mr. Hammett will oversee product development, sales, marketing and business development efforts for VU Games' newly created value line business, which will mine the company's deep library of more than 700 PC and console titles, as well as introduce a new slate of interactive products for the mass market.
by Judy on Jan. 6, 2005 @ 2:42 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
The rivalry between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba/NEC's HD-DVD rages on as today the first two game companies have announced their support for Sony's Blu-Ray solution. Electronic Arts and Vivendi Universal Games will announce their support for the Blu-ray Disc optical disc format on Thursday afternoon at the CES.
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