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iOS devs appear in new Develop 100 listing
The Develop 100 is a list put together every year of the top video game developers in the world, and this year there's a surprising trend showing up: a lot of iPhone and iOS developers are starting to make the grade. Touch Arcade spotted around 50 iPhone and iPad developers in the list, which is more than I've ever seen in a list usually populated with the likes of Bioware, Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment. Sure enough, Nintendo is number one this year, but World of Goo creator 2D Boy is in the second spot, with Cut the Rope developer Zepto Lab in third. A little further down, there's Chaos Rings developers Media Vision, along with 1337 Game Design (Dark Nebula), Rockstar Leeds (GTA: Chinatown Wars for iOS) and The Coding Monkeys (Carcassone). That's pretty amazing -- these little iOS developers are beating out much larger devs, like Halo's Bungie and Call of Duty's Treyarch, for the top spots on a pretty prestigious list. One reason for the changes is probably that the list is now weighted more towards the ratings on Metacritic, where iOS games tend to do very well compared to other video game titles (for a number of reasons, from a lower price to a completely different type of media and market). Still, it's interesting to see upstart iOS developers we know and love stacked up in such a favorable way against much larger and more experienced traditional game developers.
Rockstar Leeds refocusing on the next-gen
Will there ever be a San Andreas Story? It seems increasingly less likely. Rockstar Leeds, the talented team behind the first two PSP GTA games and the PSP port of The Warriors is looking to do its own thing, and work on original IPs for the "next gen." Studio head Gordon Hall explained to Develop, "We're going to be branching out further into next-gen - we've done original work on an existing franchise, but now we want to work on new IPs, and are looking at what we can do on Xbox 360 and PS3."However, Leeds isn't done quite yet with the portables. "It's not over for handheld for us - there's more coming there - but our new focus will be on the new formats." Hopefully, we'll see one more incredible project out of Rockstar Leeds for the PSP before they move on to greener (and more powerful) pastures.[Via Joystiq]
Rockstar Leeds tired of ports, working on new IP
The latest issue of Develop Magazine features an interview with Rockstar Leeds studio head Gordon Hall, who professes a desire to move on from portable ports – his studio was responsible for the PSP ports of Rockstar staples like Midnight Club, and The Warriors as well as two portable Grand Theft Auto titles – and develop their own new-gen IP. Hall said, "We're going to be branching out further into next-gen - we've done original work on an existing franchise, but now we want to work on new IPs, and are looking at what we can do on Xbox 360 and PS3."Hall's team – who previously worked on mostly GBA titles as Mobius Entertainment before being acquired by Rockstar in 2004 – has been relegated to the handheld "ghetto" for some time. Current development on ports of Bully and Table Tennis for the Xbox 360 and Wii platforms should be decent practice for their next project, of which Hall says, "... it's a short development cycle, just 18 months, and it really excites me." An 18-month dev cycle? Maybe something for XBLA and PlayStation Network, then? And what about a San Andreas Stories game? And what's with all the questions?
First-ever screenshots of The Warriors
The French site, Play France (O, RLY?), seems to have the very first images of the upcoming PSP port of The Warriors, Rockstar Leeds' follow-up to the first two GTA Stories games. These renders are at a much higher resolution than actual gameplay footage, meaning it'll look sharper than what will appear on your PSP. Regardless, considering the team's penchant for technical superiority, there should be little doubt that the game will look quite good on the PSP when it ships next year.[Via PSP GadgetZ]
The Warriors brings more Rockstar violence to the PSP
We don't usually do press releases, but I'm such a Rockstar nut that anytime they grace our handheld, I get excited. This port of the popular game based on the classic 70s film is being developed by Rockstar Leeds, the programmers of the graphically intense Grand Theft Auto Stories series. It's unknown if the PSP version of the game will feature any new content, but considering its holiday release date, we'll guess no."We set out to create a highly sophisticated portable game that delivers a visceral experience previously unseen on the PSP system," stated Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games. "We are looking forward to setting the definitive bar for the brawler genre on the PSP system by delivering an extremely stylish and exceptionally deep experience."[Thanks, steve!]
Dissecting Rockstar's formula: Joystiq previews Vice City Stories (PSP) & Bully (PS2)
The headquarters of Rockstar Games, a thin 6-story building squeezed between Best Buy and Adidas, stands just north of where Broadway cuts through Houston Street flowing downward into a mecca of trend -- or shopping for trends -- known as SoHo. A few blocks away Sony has erected one of the world's largest PSP displays (seen here), which towers over the intersection of Lafayette and Houston. But it's not just neighboring downtown-Manhattan real estate that connects Rockstar and Sony.
GTA Vice City Stories announced for PSP [update 1]
In case you missed the press release - we did - Rockstar announced Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in the midst of last week's chaos. The title (and Rockstar) was conspicuously absent from the E3 showroom floor, despite being targeted for an October 17 release (in North America). Still, this is far from a surprise revelation - and it's a game that has been rumored to exist since Liberty City Stories debuted. Now, it's just official.Update: added official logo.[Thanks, Soulo]
