..and by announce I mean they released another in a long line of poorly written and absolutely unexciting press releases. Moving on. LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs is a Japanese drama-soap game for the Nintendo DS, which JoWooD has chosen to be their debut title for the Nintendo DS, bringing Austrian-backed games to yet another console! LifeSigns will be released first quarter 2007 for the Nintendo DS console.

From JoWooD’s ‘Marketing Manager’:

Lifesigns for Nintedo DS takes part of all Nintendo DS features and we are really proud to publish such an innovative game concept on the successful Nintendo DS. This is for JoWooD the perfect possibility to have a good start on the DS console

Read more: LifeSigns: Hospital Affairs

JoWooD has launched the teaser page for Freakout, an upcoming freestyle skiing title to be released on the PC, PS2 and PSP platforms Q1 2007. Developed by Coldwood, who seem to be stuck making skiing titles for the Austrian publisher, Freakout aims to bring freestyle skiing to the masses, or at least to the countries where anyone actually cares about freestyle skiing.

Read more: Freakout | JoWooD

JoWooD today announced the acquisition of Canada’s DreamCatcher Games, a publisher and big player in North America’s action-adventure games market. The acquisition helps JoWooD to gain access to the tricky PC market in North America, where titles such as Gothic 3 and Spellforce have yet to find an audience comparable to that in Europe. The deal is rumored to be all stock and is subject to anti-trust approvals before it can go through.

Official press release after the jump..

Read more of “JoWooD acquires DreamCatcher Games“

Austrian publisher JoWooD has announced the launch of the homepage for The Mark, their upcoming first-person shooter developed by Greek developer Track7Games. An action/espionage thriller which takes the player on a fight against terrorists wanting to blow up London with a nuclear bomb, The Mark features a vast storyline mission which allows the player to change characters at the start of every chapter and of course, multiplayer deathmatch and capture the flag modes.

Read more: The Mark | JoWooD

Gothic 3, the revered RPG from European developer Piranha Bytes and publisher JoWooD is finally out and from all I’ve been hearing, is selling like hotcakes. Nevermind that it was a totally rushed release, is buggy as hell and JoWooD’s marketing department still writes their press releases like a 14 year old kid at a LAN party hopped up on Red Bull. No no, we jest, we like the look of Gothic 3 and we really hope it helps JoWooD out of the hole it continually digs for itself. One of my favorite scenes so far from Gothic 3 though has to be the already infamous boars from hell. These little guys are brutal, sometimes causing the player to fall into an infinite death loop, or wreaking havoc on multiple NPCs at one time.

Watch Gothic 3′s boars from hell after the jump (for as long as the YouTube link lasts)..

Read more of “Gothic 3 boars from hell video, first patch already available“

JoWooD announced this morning that they will be teaming up with VeriSign to develop “wildly popular” games to mobile platforms around the world. No details yet on what titles we’ll be seeing, but, they have gone so far as to say that they will be creating titles unique to mobile gaming. Judging on the past performance of JoWooD’s horrid marketing department, this isn’t saying very much since there’s not a press release they issue that doesn’t make me cringe. I for one would hope to see JoWooD try and push some limits, rather than pulling over the usual casual puzzle crap that would be sure sellers and seeing as how JoWooD really needs to regain some of it’s past sparkle and shine, now would be a great time for them to take some real risks. A Gothic or Spellforce mobile multi-player? Now that would be something exciting and unique.

Read more: JoWooD teams with VeriSign to develop mobile games

Yesterday, Gothic 3 developer Piranha Bytes announced via their website that their much-anticipated sequel in the Gothic series, Gothic 3, has gone gold. After 3 and a half years of development, Gothic 3 has a release date of October 13th, 2006 throughout various markets in Europe via JoWooD, with announcements for the US forthcoming from Aspyr Media no doubt.

Official announcement after the jump..

Read more of “Gothic 3 has entered gold-master state“

JoWood today announced it’s newest title, The Mark, a new first-person shooter where the player fills the role of elite Marines (or possibly mercenaries) trying to foil the plans of terrorists who want to launch a nuclear attack on Europe’s largest city, London. The game will feature solo and multi-player modes with all of the required features for a modern 1st person action title, from sneaking to stealth to level editing and modding tools.

Read more: JoWooD announces “The Mark” | The Mark

Riding the wave of a reported turnaround in their latest financial results JoWooD has announced two upcoming titles for 2007 which may or may not improve their financial situation after intense restructuring and massive layoffs (reportedly close to 100 employees were let go), which went completely under the gaming press radar. Other than the much-anticipated Gothic III, JoWood has announced the first expansion for SpellForce 2, “Dragon Storm”, which is being completed by Phenomic, which was recently acquired by EA, and this coming year’s installment of Alpine Ski Racing, “Alpine Ski Racing 2007: Bode Miller Vs. Hermann Maier”.

Read more: JoWooD announces two upcoming releases | Alpine Ski Racing 2007 | SpellForce 2

Several days ago EA announced the purchase of Spellforce developer Phenomic, another in a long line of EA investment in German game developers. The studio will retain it’s existing management structure, which have done quite an amazing job of building up the studio and weathering the rough time of Phenomic’s prior publisher, JoWood. Phenomic will continue creating RTS and adventure games for the PC, console and online platforms as part of the EA family of studios.

As of now there has been no reaction from JoWood, only to their stock price, which in once again in a small downward spiral as management appears focused on their reorganization rather than developing and publishing quality games (perhaps Bingo Online may be a more fitting title, as the casual market seems better suited to JoWooD). Spellforce 2 from Phenomic was recently released by JoWood / Aspyr Media to quite positive reviews and sales figures.

Read more: EA purchases Phenomic Studios, makers of Spellforce