GameStop for Tullamore, Midleton, Mullingar

GameStop Ireland continues to expand their network of computer games stores across the country.

The Irish division of the multinational retail giant plans to open
outlets in Tullamore, Co Offaly; Midleton, Co Cork; and Mullingar, Co
Westmeath.

After the openings, the Dublin operation will control 42 stores,
including nine in Co Dublin, five in Co Cork, four in Northern Ireland,
and shops in Birmingham and Stockport in England.

Set up in 1994 by Kevin Neary and Michael Finucane the company
started in the back of a Dublin bookstore and first traded as
GamesWorld before GameStop Inc bought a controlling share in 2003. At
that point, the retailer re-branded its 11 outlets, and started the
current expansion.

The parent company owns shops across Europe, North America,
Australia, and Puerto Rico – it reported $1.7 billion in sales for the
last nine weeks of 2006, a 29% jump on the same period the year before.

Derry computer games studio launches

Dark Water Studios, a start-up independent games developer, launched this week in Derry.

Dark Water are already working on an unnamed PC multi-player game
which is partly funded by Northern Ireland’s Department of
Enterprise. The company also says it is in the early stages of
prototyping a next generation console and PC title.

The venture is headed by Mike Brown, with technology manager Paul
Houbart and lead animator Rory Fellowes — together they bring over 50
years of experience to Dark Water. Currently employing ten people their
aim is to expand to 25 by the end of the year.

The company is understood to be an unofficial spin-off from Instinct Technology, a Derry-based games middleware firm previously called Torc Interactive. 

“Our aim is to bring together the cream of available game-creation
talent; by drawing from Northern Ireland’s existing talent pool by
using the quality of life offered by this unique location to attract
the cream of overseas talent and by making good use of the
opportunities for outsourcing and remote working which modern
technology allows” commented Brown.

Irish games swapping site set up

A new game-swapping website has been set up at gameswapireland.com, the site is free and is intended for people interested in an alternative method for exchanging new or old games.

Havok update from Dublin games firm

Dublin-based Havok have released an update to their physics and animation tools for PlayStation 3, Xbox360, and Nintendo Wii.

‘Havok 4.5′ has been optimized for the PlayStation 3, Sony’s new console soon to be launched in Ireland.

“We made sure that we met our customers’ demand for a PS3
optimized version of Havok as soon as possible” commented David
O’Meara, Havok CEO. “Havok 4.5’s ability to allow developers to
massively scale game content will make it possible to develop ever more
compelling, realistic and complex worlds that harness the full power of
new generation architectures”.

After an agreement with Sony in 2005, Havok Physics middleware comes with
PS3 ‘Software Development Kit’ for games developers working on the console.

The Dublin company’s software was used on last year’s high
profile games such as Oblivion, F.E.A.R., Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
Double Agent, and Superman Returns, and PS3 titles such as MotorStorm
(pictured above), Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom, and Tony Hawk’s Project
8.

PS3 price for Ireland was expected

- Irish launch price confirmed
- 60GB version only at launch

Sony has now confirmed that, at

New Nintendo blog

Eoin Stanley emails us to say he has set up a new Nintendo blog, nintendobaby.com.

Unlike the blog at wiffy.ie,
Nintendo Baby isn’t focused on Ireland, but worth a look anyway.
Stanley has previously worked on the web-design end the now defunct IrishGamer.ie.

In the past, he has also set up a Nintendo Logo Resource for
personal use within the graphic design community; it’s viewable at eoinstanley.com/nintendo.