Rockstar Games, the sequel spewing machine behind Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, Max Payne and other top franchises, has announced the long-awaited sequel to their urban racing series, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PS3.

Rockstar Games Announces Midnight Club: Los Angeles for PLAYSTATION�3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360™
Fourth Installment of the Blockbuster Racing Franchise Unveiled

New York, NY – May 16, 2007 – Rockstar Games is proud to announce the fourth installment of its critically-acclaimed and genre-defining Midnight Club franchise, Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Developed by series creator Rockstar San Diego, Midnight Club: Los Angeles will be available for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION 3 system in early 2008.

“Midnight Club’s addictive blend of freedom, style and sheer sense of speed sets it apart from its competition,” said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games. “With Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Rockstar San Diego looks to once again push the boundaries and expectations of what a racing game can be. Rockstar San Diego has always been the technology leader in delivering the ultimate racing experience, and with this game, they are looking to re-define the idea of a completely immersive racing game experience, both offline and online.”

“On prior consoles, the Midnight Club franchise continually raised the bar for racing games, evolving from being the first ever street racing game to setting the defining standard for credibly integrating street racing culture with an intense racing experience,” said Jay Panek, Producer of the Midnight Club series. “With Midnight Club: Los Angeles, our goal is to evolve on all possible levels and stay true to the hardcore gaming experience the series is known for, while making it accessible to casual gamers and car enthusiasts.”

Consistently the most innovative, highest-rated street racing franchise, Midnight Club set the standard of what an open-world racing game can be. Midnight Club: Los Angeles will deliver a truly immersive next-generation racing experience that is second to none.

For more information about Midnight Club, please visit our website at http://www.rockstargames.com/

JoWooD, 4Head and Deep Silver today announced the upcoming add-on for popular European life simulator The Guild. Titled “Pirates of the European Seas”, the upcoming add on bring players to Northern Europe, sailing the seas as a mid-evil pirate or tradesman. Including 3 new maps, 10 new hours of game play, and updated buildings, ships and professions, the The Guild 2 - Pirates of the European Seas is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2007, which means sometime by Spring 2007, a fact that would be nice to know if only JoWooD’s marketing department had any sense of writing an engaging and clear press release which doesn’t sound like it was written for a pharmaceutical company.

Read more: JoWooD announces The Guild 2 - Pirates of the European Seas

I haven’t seen an “it prints money!” .gif for the Wii yet, but if I had, now would be a perfect moment to post it. With the Nintendo Wii capturing the hearts of gamers young and old and demand FAR out-pacing supply, Nintendo has announced they will be ramping up production of their new console to 1 million units per month starting in April (about 23 units per minute!). Looking forward, Nintendo know their extremely strong upcoming lineup which includes the likes of Wii Fitness, Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing (!) and Smash Bros. Brawl (!) will be key to pushing those 1 million monthly units into homes over the coming year. Also key to Nintendo’s success over the coming quarters will be the amount of 3rd party commitment, which shouldn’t be all that difficult to achieve now that Wii sales are burning the barn and Ubi Soft is reporting a jump in profit thanks to strong Wii sales.

Read more: Nintendo to up Wii production to 1 million per month

At a press conference hosted yesterday afternoon in Vienna, Austria by the founders of Games That Matter, Ex-directors of Rockstar Vienna, Hannes Seifert and Niki Laber, along with partner Jürgen Goeldner, presented their business model and goals for the newly formed independent games production company.

With the intention of purchasing, developing and licensing game concepts internally, Games That Matter plans to offer publishers and potential investors the ability to, according to Managing Director Niki Laber, “participate in the actual IP without being forced to bear operative costs of a studio beyond the project.” Games That Matter’s small team, consisting primarily of ex-Rockstar Vienna staff, will be performing all aspects of the initial production for their titles, from scheduling and design to branding and vision, with content creation and development responsibilities being outsourced to strategic partners around the World.

The “visionary” business model behind Games That Matter closely mirrors that of the movie industry, with every project being spun off into its own individual corporation, allowing for a wide-range of investment opportunities with little risk for both Games That Matter and potential investors by keeping team sizes and potential overhead as low as possible. Games That Matter then sells or licenses the finished titles directly to publisher or distributors.

“In my 20 years in this crazy industry I worked on original IP as well as licensed properties,” said Hannes Seifert, managing director and executive producer of Games That Matter. “With our new approach to game production we bring together ideas, investors and developers and help companies of all sizes to work with us on breathtaking titles without forcing them to grow to death.” Explaining further, Seifert adds “We will be able to offer publishers a finished game at a specific point in time without the risk of financing. And we offer investors a high return and long life cycle of their investment. We do not see investors as necessary evil, but as vital partners in production. And as such partners they deserve a fair share of a game’s success.”

No announcements regarding projects or publishing partners have been made, though it was revealed that the team is currently working on one “AAA console and PC” project and discussions with major investors and publishers are on-going.

Read more: Games That Matter

Funcom and Eidos announced today that a new release date for the much-hyped MMO Age of Conan has been delayed until October 30th, 2007, allowing developers to “further hone the qualities of the game”. Perhaps a smart move considering that any MMO released at this point in time would risk being lost in the noise that is currently being generated by the release of World of Warcraft’s expansion. The title it currently undergoing a closed beta test with an open beta being announced soon.

Read more: Age of Conan delayed | Age of Conan

Where would OS X gaming be without Aspyr bringing some of the best games to the platform for us poor and under-represented Mac gamers? Nowhere, that’s where! Now, we have Prey to look forward to according to a recent press release from Aspyr. The mystical sci-fi thriller is currently under development by Aspyr thanks to a publishing agreement with Take Two / 2K Games and is anticipating a January 2007 release date.

Read more: Prey coming to OS X

ML Enterprises, an up and coming games industry consultancy startup from Munich, Germany, has announced their assumption of production for Replay Studios’ upcoming PC title, Sabotage. The interesting part of the announcement is the mention of ex members of Rockstar Vienna, Rockstar’s European development studio which was axed in May of this year, being involved in not only their own startups but also involved in work that actually gains them a little bit of credit. Good luck guys…

Read more of ”ML Enterprises, ex-developers from Rockstar Vienna, take over production on Sabotage“

Harvest Moon, the excellent Japanese farm/love/ultimate cuteness RPG from Nintendo will be making it’s way to Europe Q1 2007! Players will be tasked with running their farm, making sure all of the animals are happy, that their crops are tended to during the right seasons, and to gain rewards such as higher quality milk, eggs and wool from their flocks. Unfortunately no news on whether there will be any Nintendo WiFi support or not, but, I could only imagine the possibilities.

Read more: Harvest Moon DS coming to Europe Q1 2007

Microsoft’s online service, Xbox Live, announced yesterday that they’ve reached the 4 million subscriber mark, with projections showing more than 6 million by June 2007. Yet still it takes me ±15 minutes to actually get an online Street Fighter match going. Currently, Xbox Live is the largest platform for high-def, on-demand content and pulls a 24% trial-to-purchase rate. Not too shabby, but Microsoft has always led the way with their online service and I seriously doubt Sony or Nintendo will be able to build a better system.

Read more: Xbox Live reaches 4 million subscribers

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