Village Gamer

Toronto – Kids Help Phone announced today that it is participating in Google’s launch of the YouTube Safety Centre in Canada. Kids Help Phone will be featured as a resource for kids on the dedicated Canadian pages containing online safety tips and resources for young people across the country.

“Kids Help Phone is very excited to be involved in YouTube’s new Safety Centre for Canada,” says Meghan Reddick, Director of Marketing, Kids Help Phone. “Our counsellors connect with kids from across Canada every day about issues like cyber-bullying, online safety, abuse and more. Through the YouTube Safety Centre, online users will have easy access to our counsellors and to information on our website – 24 hours a day, 365 day a year.”

YouTube users will be able to access the Safety Centre in the Help & Information section located in the bottom navigation bar of YouTube.com. When they click on Safety Centre, users will be directed to information about online safety as well as content from Kids Help Phone and other support organizations about issues like cyber citizenship, child and teen safety, hateful content, harassment and cyber-bullying and suicide.

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Vancouver/San Francisco – The next generation of video games are wowing gamers with unprecedented high def graphics and gameplay that pushes the boundaries of what the new systems have to offer. An exciting new technology now promises to bring game audio to the next level as well. At this year’s Game Developers Conference, DTS Inc will educate developers on their cutting edge DTS Neural Surround Sound technology that enables games to present real-time, discrete 7.1 soundtracks on the Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and via PC.

“Our goal is to give developers the audio tools to help them create gaming experiences more immersive than ever before,” says Mark Tuffy, Director of Business Development, Interactive Media at DTS. “With our DTS Neural Surround technology, games will deliver true 360 degree gaming for the first time ever. The potential here for what sound does in a game is almost limitless.”

By using existing technology built into the systems, DTS Neural Surround is able to convert the 5.1 signal into a true 7.1 surround experience. Whether the signal is digital or analog, DTS Neural Surround is able to convert the sound into rich, fully immersive 7.1 channel surround sound. Now, when gamers hear something creeping up behind them, the sound will really be there.

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Montreal/San Francisco – Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia was the recipient of the Best Visual Arts award at last evening’s 9th Annual Game Developers Game Choice Awards, held at the Moscone Convention Centre in conjunction with the Game Developers’ Conference. The artwork in Prince of Persia is hauntingly beautiful, with rich, highly detailed environments. We at Village Gamer were lucky enough to have attended a recent SIGGRAPH Vancouver event which featured the artwork and creative processes used in developing Prince of Persia, and we extend our congratulations to the many artists who worked on the title.

Game Choice Awards Winners’ List

Game of the Year: Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Game Design: LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Writing: Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

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THQ and Relic Entertainment to Deliver “Direct Fire” Control and Intense Combat in Newest Installment of Award-Winning Company of Heroes Franchise

Vancouver – THQ Inc. today announced Company of Heroes®: Tales of Valor™, the next chapter in the critically-acclaimed Company of Heroes franchise, has reached the gold master stage of development and has entered manufacturing. Developed by award-winning Real-Time Strategy (RTS) developer, Relic Entertainment, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor offers three, intense single-player campaigns, three new multiplayer modes and an innovative “direct-fire” feature that offers an unprecedented amount of control on the battlefield. Scheduled for a nationwide release at all major retail and online outlets on April 9, 2009, Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor will be available as a Games for Windows® PC title for a suggested retail price of $29.99.

“Building upon the recent critical and commercial success of Dawn of War II, Relic Entertainment is set to deliver the next great chapter in the award-winning Company of Heroes franchise,” said Kevin Kraff, vice president of global brand management, THQ. “Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor strengthens Relic Entertainment’s reputation as a leading RTS developer, with an unwavering dedication to innovative, ground-breaking gameplay experiences.”

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Toronto – Today, Delvinia has launched the first in a series of published insights that will help understand the digital behaviours and attitudes of Canadian consumers. The insights, driven by their proprietary Insight Engine will give a breadth and depth of understanding, that until now, not offered by digital marketing services firms.

“Given the economic slowdown of recent months, Delvinia recognizes the need to provide a tool that would uncover and understand what drives consumers,” said Adam Froman, President and CEO of Delvinia Group of Companies. “The insights can then be harnessed to create meaningful digital customer experiences that will engage and are relevant to various Canadian demographic groups across a number of consumer sectors. The data uncovered can be a real eye-opener.”

The first insights that Delvinia is releasing looks at two important consumer segments that warrant understanding and continue to represent a great deal of spend potential: Baby Boomers, those aged 45 to 65, and adults who Don Tapscott referred to as the Net Generation (NGen), classified as young, tech-savvy adults between the ages of 18 and 30.
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Toronto – The entertainment software industry is a growing and vital contributor to the Canadian knowledge economy, according to a new report released today by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC). Canada’s Entertainment Software Industry: The Opportunities and Challenges of a Growing Industry, conducted by respected Ottawa consulting firm Hickling Arthurs Low, and commissioned by ESAC, is the first ever national survey report of the Canadian entertainment software industry, involving original research, surveys and interviews of industry leaders.

“Canada’s entertainment software industry is one of the most promising knowledge-based industries in the country,” said Danielle LaBossiere Parr, Executive Director of ESAC. “This report reveals just how prosperous entertainment software is to the Canadian economy: an estimated $1.7 billion in direct economic activity, 14,000 jobs, and a further $2.2 billion in retail sales figures highlight a strong industry in spite of the economic downturn.”
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Vancouver Press Release – For over 15 years, Robert McKee’s Story Seminar has been the world’s ultimate writing class for over 50,000 screenwriters, filmmakers, TV writers, novelists, journalists, industry executives, actors, advertising executives, producers, directors and playwrights.

Former STORY students have written: A Beautiful Mind; Lord of the Rings I, II, III; Ironman; Law & Order; CSI; The Daily Show; Friends; Frasier; Seinfeld; The DaVinci Code; Shrek; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; X-Men 3; Finding Nemo and many more.

And former STORY students have won: 27 Academy Awards (98 nominations); 141 Emmy Awards (476 nominations); 20 WGA Awards (72 nominations); 17 DGA Awards (45 nominations) and a Pulitzer Prize for Writing.

Robert McKee’s famous STORY seminar returns to Vancouver in June — don’t miss this opportunity to become a former STORY student yourself.

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Vancouver – The BC Innovation Council is pleased to be a title sponsor for the 2009 New Ventures BC Competition and the Impact Microcredit Competition which are both open to all British Columbians:

* 2009 New Ventures BC Competition – BCIC will be providing a total of $180,000 towards the Proof of Concept Awards towards the competition prizes. BCIC’s Proof of Concept Development Prize provides funding to New Ventures BC winners, to demonstrate the commercial potential of a new technology product, process or service. The funding supports advancement of the technology along the commercialization continuum in order to attract investors, commercial partners, and future customers.

The competition is open to everyone in British Columbia and entries will be accepted from a person, team or business. NVBC welcomes technology business ideas from all sectors. Registration for the competition will open shortly. Deadline to enter is midnight, April 20, 2009.

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New SoundSeed module will generate wind and “swoosh” sounds

Montreal/San Francisco GDC – Today at the Game Developers Conference, Audiokinetic Inc., the leading audio solution provider for the video game industry, unveiled SoundSeed Air, the new module of the SoundSeed product family.

SoundSeed is a family of interactive sound generators for game audio. It uses innovative digital sound processing (DSP) technology to create varied, hence highly immersive, audio environments, while keeping runtime memory usage and recording costs at a minimum.

SoundSeed Air is the latest addition to the SoundSeed family. This new module involves two source plug-ins. The first one is called “Wind” and generates dynamic and never-repeating ambiances while the second one, “Swoosh” produces short air displacement effects such as sword slashing or dragon wings flaps.

As SoundSeed Air is a pure parametric synthesis technology it does not require wave files and it has the potential to produce hours of none-repeating ambiances using virtually no runtime memory.

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Submissions for environmental awards open on Earth Hour March 28, 2009

Mississauga – Canon Canada is pleased to announce the launch of the 2009 Canon Canada Nurture Nature Awards. The Nurture Nature Awards is an environmental program that encourages Canadians to help protect or improve the natural habitat of an endangered or threatened species in their community. Beginning Earth Hour on March 28, 2009, individuals can submit a proposal consisting of a short video and a brief written plan on how they intend to positively impact a threatened habitat in their area. Proposals can be uploaded at www.canon.ca/donations_sponsorships until 5 p.m. EDT on September 1, 2009.

Three winners from across Canada will be announced on September 14, 2009. Each winner will receive a cash award of $20,000 to fund their project. Winners will also receive a Canon digital SLR camera and a Canon video camera so they can document their progress and the final results of their project.

“At Canon, our responsibility to the environment is part of everything we do. The 2009 Nurture Nature Awards is an opportunity for us to extend this commitment and recognize and support Canadians who want to make a difference in their own communities,” said Stanley Skorayko, VP of Corporate Communications and General and Environmental Affairs, Canon Canada. “Whether it is cleaning up a polluted pond, or re-claiming a woodland, Canon Canada invites individuals across the country to submit their plans to make a positive impact on the environment.”