Village Gamer

Vancouver – The British Columbia Innovation Council is pleased to welcome PMC-Sierra founder Greg Aasen as Chair of its Board of Directors. “The council has accomplished much in the way of fostering both technical and business talent,” Aasen said. “I look forward to continuing this work in my role as chair, and unleashing the full economic potential of innovation in British Columbia.”

Aasen was chief strategy officer at PMC-Sierra until June 2007 and has over 20 years of experience with the semiconductor industry. He has served on the BC Innovation Council board since 2006 and has been appointed to a one-year term as chair.

“Greg Aasen is highly qualified and will continue to build on what the council has already achieved under the leadership of Hector MacKay-Dunn,” said Ida Chong, Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development “I look forward to celebrating the council’s continued success in supporting innovation and commercialization to provide a high standard of living for British Columbians.”

Two new members have also been appointed to serve three-year terms on the board:

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New Affirmations iPhone app helps overcome stress and anxiety during these tough economic times

Toronto – ACQYR.com has released the iAmHappy iPhone app with over 500 positive affirmations to help people through these uncertain times.  With all the negativity swirling around us during this economic turmoil, it’s hard to keep a positive outlook and so this new iPhone application delivers a dose of positive affirmations. The positive affirmations have been specially crafted to transform your mental attitude and bring a more positive feeling in a negative world.

iAmHappy provides access to hundreds of positive affirmations across three dozen categories, coupled with 100 relaxing and soothing images and backgrounds. Simply shake the iPhone for a random affirmation such as “I surround myself with positive people just like me” and “No matter what the statistics say I am an exception to the rule.”
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Toronto – Red Wolf Online proudly announces its Beta launch of MeetingMade™, a web-based meeting scheduling tool that automates and simplifies the scheduling of meetings and events by removing the tedious ‘back & forth’ over the phone or email.

It can often take as much time to schedule a meeting as the meeting itself but with MeetingMade™ you can accelerate the process of scheduling meetings between individuals and groups. MeetingMade™ works in concert with your existing email and calendaring programs, integrating seamlessly with programs such as MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, GMail and Google Calendar.

With MeetingMade™, you and your meeting participants share your availability without disclosing or compromising personal schedules in an easy-to-use interface. MeetingMade™ then calculates the best meeting time for everyone. Only the person originating the meeting needs to be a subscriber – the participants use it for free.

MeetingMade™ is a pure web-application that does not require any downloading of software. MeetingMade™ works seamlessly with most known browsers and utilizes established calendaring mechanisms present in all of today’s email programs, online services, and smart mobile devices.

The Ultimate Two-Man Private Military Team is Back in Action Delivering New and Groundbreaking Cooperative Gameplay

Montreal – EA Montreal, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc., today announced ARMY OF TWO™: THE 40th DAY. The ultimate two-man private military team of Salem and Rios return in this epic sequel where they must survive and prevail in a city under siege. EA Montreal is once again leading the next evolution in co-op shooter games offering a fresh, innovative and fluid co-op experience with a deep arsenal of customizable weapons so players can team up with their friends online for the fight of their lives.

With ARMY OF TWO: THE 40th DAY, we’re pushing the tactical two-man military team into new battlegrounds offering a completely organic and rich co-op experience to deliver an action-packed co-op shooter this winter,” says Reid Schneider, Executive Producer, EA Montreal. “As chaos blankets Shanghai, China, you must rely on your partner to survive as you weave through a broken city left devastated in a mysterious wake.”
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Calgary – Psyko Audio Labs Inc. of Calgary will use a $975,000 investment by AVAC Ltd. to enhance an international marketing campaign to let gamers know how they can buy a set of the revolutionary 3-D-sound headphones that won first place at the world’s largest consumer electronic tradeshow held in Las Vegas in early 2009.

“The Psyko 5.1 headphones deliver precision directional audio through a patent pending technology that provides a sound-surround experience that gamers would call the ‘perfect room,” says James Hildebrandt, Psyko founder, CEO and Head Psyko. “There is absolutely nothing else like them on the market. That’s why our headphones won first place in the headphone category at the Vegas show and were a finalist in the game category. We went to the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world and won two top awards. It is like a rookie going to the World Series and hitting two home runs. Lots of people tested our headphones at the show and that produced a ton of positive reviews and videos on all the major tech web sites. We were already taking orders through our web site, but news of the tradeshow win has attracted a lot of new attention.”

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OpenGL and leading semiconductor companies combine to produce high performance graphics software and hardware for safety-critical markets

Toronto – ALT Software, a worldwide supplier of safety-critical 2D/3D advanced graphics software and development services announced today plans to extend their market leading OpenGL SC (Safety Critical) products to support the MB86298 ‘Ruby’ graphics processor unit (GPU) from Fujitsu Microelectronics, a major supplier of semiconductor products. ALT draws upon its graphics expertise and experience with Top Tier commercial and military avionics customers, to supply DO-178B/EUROCAE 12B certifiable MB86298 ‘Ruby’ solutions specifically for Integrated Modular Avionics applications.

MB86298 ‘Ruby’ is a 90nm CMOS Graphics Processing Unit based on a new chip architecture design. The chip is specified for demanding requirements and delivers optimal performance, low power consumption and targets graphic applications in the high end sector of automotive, avionics and industrial application fields. MB86298 ‘Ruby’ provides high performance 3D-rendering functions in combination with enhanced video capturing. OpenGL ES 2.0 conformity is attained via with its fully programmable unified vertex and fragment shader architecture. State-of-the-art -interfaces to the host and graphic memory provide the necessary bandwidth for the data throughput of future high end graphic applications.
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Montreal – Meridian4 is thrilled to announce that their physics-based hardcore casual game; Obulis will soon appear on Steam for sale to their millions of hard-core gamers.

“Obulis will be a great fit for Steam’s audience of gamers who love a unique and challenging puzzle game. The game has already received rave reviews from the press and it has appeared on many top ten lists in 2008 and we are excited about getting it out to a wider audience.” said Andy Sher, CEO at Meridian4.

Obulis will be available March 19th on Steam and will sell for $9.99.

About Obulis
Based on IonFX’s award-winning mobile game of the same name, Obulis takes things to the next level by fusing highly compelling gameplay with outstanding graphics, music and state of the art physics effects.

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Sault STE. Marie – The annual Future Play Conference on the future of game development has become an event that gets circled on the calendars of the gaming world’s top scholars, students and industry leaders. With 2009 keynote speakers that include games pioneer and guru Don Daglow and Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill, this year promises to be no exception.

With the 2009 Future Play Conference now partnered with the Game Developers Conference® (GDC Canada), there will now be even more opportunities for participants to benefit from influential speakers, thought-provoking panel discussions and valuable networking opportunities.

“I have a high regard for the role of Future Play in the game research and development vista in Canada,” says University of Calgary Professor Jim Parker, a long-time Future Play participant. “I was an early participant in Future Play, since 2004 in fact, when it was still named the Game Technology Conference, and I have been enthusiastic ever since. It has been the home of many innovations, such as the game contest in 2007 and in acting as host for the Canadian Game Studies Association in its early stages.”
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SEGA® Corporation today announced an exclusive partnership with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), the official licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to develop Vancouver 2010™ – the Official Video Game of the Olympic Winter Games. The game is being developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software for PC, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Vancouver 2010™ is an authentic simulation of a host of events from the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, focusing on the adrenalin rush that comes from the extreme speed of winter sports. Including the all new challenge mode, it will allow players to immerse themselves in the world’s greatest sporting event like never before.

“Vancouver 2010™ will set a new standard for the Olympic-themed video games genre,” commented Hugh Binns, Director of Eurocom Development Ltd., developers of Vancouver 2010™. “With the innovative first person mode to immerse players even more in the game, an all new challenge mode providing hours of entertainment and stunning high definition graphics, Vancouver 2010™ will be a fantastic experience.”
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Vancouver – 2K Sports has announced that The BIGS™ 2 will be developed by Vancouver studio Blue Castle Games. The sequel to the hit arcade-style Major League Baseball game The BIGS™¸ will be available this summer for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, and Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo. Known for its over-the-top style of gameplay, The BIGS 2 focuses on the “big” fast-paced moments in Major League Baseball with new opportunities to go up against MLB legends, more mini-games like Home Run Pinball, and a variety of other thrilling new features.

“Fans have been clamoring for a follow-up to The BIGS since it launched two years ago, so we’re excited to now deliver The BIGS 2,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of development, 2K Sports. “In the spirit of celebrating the most epic moments in Major League Baseball, The BIGS 2 offers a refreshingly fun and unique experience of dramatic walk-off homeruns, miraculous wall catches, acrobatic diving grabs, and many more incredible plays you’d usually see only in a highlight reel.”

Blue Castle Games is also developing Dead Rising 2 for CapCom which has not yet been given a release date.