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More Puzzle Quest coming from reborn indie Infinite Interactive
Yesterday's announcement regarding EA's Firemint and IronMonkeys merger actually had a sideplot to it, in that Infinite Interactive, which was "acquired" by Firemint last year, quietly split off this past January to be independent again."There was never an actual acquisition of Infinite, it was more of a merger. It was all amicable stuff – as much as it would be fun to have a bit of a scandal. Unfortunately there isn't one," Infinite Interactive's founder and creative lead Steve Fawkner told us. "I think everybody agreed that Infinite does its best work when it's independent, and so we headed back out into the wilderness to work on our own stuff again."Fawkner explained he couldn't get into the "nitty-gritty" details about intellectual property ownership and that things are "a little more complicated" than before, but that Infinite do still retain the Puzzle Quest and Warlords IP rights."While I don't have a specific announcement that I can make at the moment, if you shook a Magic 8-Ball and asked it 'Will Infinite's next game be a Puzzle Quest title?', then it would quite probably say 'All signs point to yes!'," Fawkner explained."In the short term, we will continue to build and innovate in the genres and settings that we know and love. That means games that combine fantasy, puzzles, strategy and tactics. It's doubtful we'll ever move too far from those genres, because they are our favorites, and you always do your best work when you're building games that you're passionate about."[Thanks Aaron S.]
IronMonkey and Firemint merging into Firemonkeys, jungles burn across the world
Electronic Arts is smooshing its two Aussie mobile developers together to form one studio known as Firemonkeys. IronMonkey (Mass Effect Infiltrator, Dead Space) and Firemint (Flight Control, SPY mouse) combined now form "Australia's largest game development studio." Awkward.Firemonkey will continue working on separate projects, along with "collaborating on new ones out of the EA Melbourne office."It should also be noted that shortly before it was acquired by EA, Firemint purchased Puzzle Quest developer Infinite Interactive. Now, the only thing more dangerous than Firemonkeys would be Infinite Firemonkeys.Update: Turns out Infinite Interactive quietly split away this past January.
Dead Space lands on BlackBerry PlayBook and Android ... well, Xperia Play
In this chart of non-iPad tablets compared to "obscure" video game consoles, the BlackBerry PlayBook is somewhere between the Philips CDi and the Atari Jaguar. That is to say, the PlayBook hasn't set the world, or really much of anything, on fire. Google's Android OS, on the other hand, is increasingly taking over the mobile space (albeit not the tablet space, where all Android tablets combined are somewhere between the 3DO and the Virtual Boy). While gaming on Android is still something of a challenge, thanks to a fragmented install base, unique platforms, and multiple stores, that hasn't stopped EA from giving it the ol' college effort. So Xperia Play owners can go to EA's own Flexion Android Store to download EA Mobile and IronMonkey Studios' excellent Dead Space mobile game -- easy! We weren't able to confirm that ourselves, not owning an Xperia Play, so we've put a word into EA for confirmation. But EA didn't stop there – it's also ported Dead Space to the PlayBook. Premiering today for the same $9.99 price as its far more popular iPad-based twin, the PlayBook audience is getting one of mobile gaming's most successful "core" games. And yes, it's a small audience (smaller than the Xperia Play?) but if EA plans to continue its mobile dominance, it helps to be everywhere. [Thanks, Gerry]
Dead Space for iPhone / iPod Touch and iPad now live (Or: Play Dead Space when you can't play Dead Space)
You're at work. The boss is really getting on your nerves. Dead Space 2 is out today ... but it'll be at least six hours before you manage to extract yourself from the sprawl (of cubicles). You could strategically dismember your coworkers, sure, but that's not only difficult, it's illegal. Instead, we're going to recommend that you download Dead Space for your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad and get down to the Dead Space-ing. Use stasis to freeze an enemy, switch to the plasma cutter, orient it vertically, sever his arm and then use kinesis to pick it up and shoot it through his torso. Having spent some hours with the game already, we can promise you this: Dead Space on iOS is a surprisingly competent mobile approximation of Dead Space. We'll have a full review later this week, but you've still got half a work-day to kill.
Rumor: EA buys developer IronMonkey Studios
Electronic Arts has allegedly purchased Australia-based IronMonkey Studios, best known for developing several successful iPhone titles for the mega-publisher. If true, the purchase continues EA's path of "restructuring" and a business strategy that targets casual, online and mobile markets. Aussie website Tsumea broke the acquisition story citing "very reliable sources" and noting that "details are very slim at the moment." Our own attempts to get EA to acknowledge the purchase are being answered by the sounds of silence. We'll be sure to update as soon as EA decides to say anything -- although, if it's in Simlish, we'll likely need a translator. [Via Develop]
