Exhibit to feature best of student work

The Digital Hub in Dublin is to exhibit a selection of student work including games, films, animations, and installations.

‘Best in Show’ launches in the Digital Exchange on November 20, and will feature work of students from NCAD, DIT, Limerick School of Art & Design, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, and the London College of Communications.

It will be open to the public from Friday November 21 to Thursday 27, excluding weekends. For more see thedigitalhubexhibit.com.

Havok in court over brand firm dispute

Telekinesys Research Limited, the Dublin-based games middleware firm known as Havok, is being sued by a design agency that helped created their brand. According to the Sunday Business Post, the branding work for Havok by Dublin design company, Creative Inc, had appeared in a marketing magazine article as a case study.

Emmy-winning Havok then wrote to Creative Inc requesting them to cease linking it self to the games firm. But Creative are now taking action claiming they had an agreement to use work in case studies. The case was mentioned as a motion for entry in the commercial section of the High Court at the Four Courts in Dublin last week.

Havok, based in the Digital Hub in Dublin’s Liberties, was bought by chipmaker Intel late last year. It is best known for its physics software that helps games developers concentrate on other aspects of games creation, but has expanded to areas such as animation.

As result of the Intel buyout, Havok are to release a free non-commercial version of their Havok Complete product for PC from this May. The move is aimed at independent games developers and enthusiasts, as well as academic institutions with games courses.

According to the company its products are used in over 200 “AAA games” and as well as being used in well over 90 titles which are due to be released this year. There include Halo 3, Assassin’s Creed, and Guitar Hero
III, as well as the upcoming Alan Wake, Indiana Jones, and Starcraft II. The middleware maker lists many more on its website, Havok.com.

A deal with Sony before the PlayStation 3 release also saw a version of the Havok product bundled with development hardware kits for the console.

MORE: Legal dispute between Havok and design agency (the Sunday Business Post, March 16, 2008)

Star follows Sun’s lead on games in prisons

- More sensationalism on games consoles in Irish prisons two years later

The Irish Daily Star has followed the Irish edition of the Sun to sensationally link PlayStation access in Irish prisons to an individual criminal on their cover page.

The start of the year must be a slow news time for the two tabloid newspapers; the Irish Sun’s story was published Friday January 27, 2006, while the Star’s story was published on last Friday, February 01, 2008.

The Sun screamed “PLAYSTATION KILLER,” when there was no link to the killing in question and the games console. Meanwhile, the Star had the slightly more sober headline of “PAEDO’S PLAYSTATION”.

Nevertheless, Irish prisoners having access to games console has little to do with individual cases, and how likely it is for the 65-year-old convicted paedophile Martin Meaney to have much if any interest in computer games is also questionable.

The Star is normally levelheaded compared to the Irish editions of UK redtops available in Ireland, but in this case it invited readers to read on to page two where readers to a less than 150 words at the bottom of the
page.

The story focused on the prisoner being allowed a games console, a colour TV, and a kettle in their cells, rather then any detail of the court case which ended with Meaney receiving a two-year sentence.

GameStop expands with new shops in Finglas, Gorey, Castlebar, and Limerick

Games retailer GameStop is continuing to expand on its Irish locations with new stores recently opened in Finglas, Gorey, and Castlebar, while Limerick is to get a third store.

GameStop Ireland will have 50 shops under its control by the end of the month, including two in the UK.

The retailer has massively expanded since the US games giant bought up and re-branded independent Irish retailer GamesWorld in 2003. In the last two years alone, it has nearly doubled the number of locations in the Republic and the North.

Its parent company runs 5,000 stores across Europe, the US, and South America.

Xbox launches student karaoke contest

Xbox have launched a rock ‘n’ roll karaoke competition aimed at college
and university students in and around Dublin.

The karaoke contest, Songs of Praise, kicked off last night at the
Village on Wicklow Street, it will continue at the NUI Maynooth student
union bar on Tuesday.

The overall winner will receive a Gibson electric guitar worth over
€2,000. And each of the seven heat winners will walk away with an Xbox
360 package worth over €1,000, including a console, Guitar Hero III,
and other games.

There are six other dates between now the finals at the Button
Factory (formally the Temple Bar Music Centre) on December 6. These
include nights for DCU, UCD, DIT, and TCD. There is also a second
general night at the Village next Sunday, December 2.

The karaoke addicts will be given a rest with Phantom FM’s
DJ Sinead NiMhordha playing sets between karaoke stints. The Xbox 360
game Guitar Hero III — in which user play the game using a guitar — is
also on playable at the nights.

The Songs of Praise karaoke night is a regular on Sundays at the Village;
the Dubliner called it “Dublin’s best Karaoke Night,” the Irish Times said
it was “Dublin’s most successful and only credible Karaoke”, while the
Guardian said “now firmly established as the city’s place to go on the
Lord’s Day”.

The dates in full are: Tuesday November 27 at the NUI Maynooth SU
Bar; Wednesday November 28 at the DCU SU Bar; Thursday November 29 at
the UCD SU Bar; Sunday December 2 at the Village; Tuesday December 4
at the Odeon for DIT; Wednesday December 5 at Radio City for Trinity
College; and the finals on Thursday December 6 at the Button Factory.

Free tickets to the event can be got via getpraiseatxbox360.com.

In Ireland only children play video games

Above is how Toyota created an SUV television advertisement using the World of Warcraft game. That was in the US. In Ireland, only children play computer games.

Or at least that is what you’d think looking some things such as the Irish Film Censor’s ban on Manhunt 2.

With the massive amounts of advertising spend by games firms in Ireland recently ad space sellers here should by now notice the scale of the computer games market.

Of course, it has been growing in the past years, but on going high-profile ad campaigns such as those for PS3, Halo 3, and Fifa 08 should cement the view how widespread computer games now are.

But if we have really moved on might remain a unanswered question for some time. It’s only a year or two ago that one of us at Games Toaster had a phone conversation with a regional newspaper to be told that there is no money in computer games.

Richard Dean Anderson to launch Halo 3 in Dublin; Record breaking attempt planned

Actor Richard Dean Anderson is to launch Halo 3 in Dublin on Tuesday, forming one of the main elements of Microsoft’s Irish high-profile release of the highly anticipated Xbox 360 game.

News that the actor, most famous for playing MacGyver and more recently Jack O’Neill on Stargate SG-1, will launch the game was confirmed this evening to Games Toaster by a Microsoft spokesperson.

However, his visit to Dublin is still somewhat shrouded in mystery as there is still little detail of Anderson’s visit.

Record breaking attempt

Meanwhile, tomorrow - in the build up to the European release on Wednesday September 26 - Irish gamers will attempt to set record breaking times completing Halo 2.

The Guinness World Record - also organised by Microsoft - will start midday at the Dublin city centre in the morning. Microsoft expects hundreds games to turn up to the event at the Xbox Live Gaming Centre / Xbox Live Cafe.

The current record holder is Cody Miller who finished the game in three and a half hours with the ‘legendary’ difficulty setting on in August 2005. The publisher and console maker will be incentives such as prizes of
the limited edition ‘Legendary Edition’ of Halo 3, Marvel Halo graphic novels, and Halo 3 branded merchandise.

Promotion around Ireland

Microsoft also said that the game will be promoted across mediums and are aiming to make it one of the most high-profile entertainment launches. The Halo 3 TV advert, a still of which is pictured above, is just one example.

On the streets, Halo’s star Master Chief - or at least a person dressed as him - will appear on Grafton Street in Dublin this Saturday and Sunday, and move on to Cork, and Galway after that.

By the time of the launch, shoppers entering the main entrance of the St Stephens Green Shopping Centre will be greeted by Halo branding. This will link in with retailer Gamestop’s midnight launch at their new store at the shopping centre. Full details of of Gamestop’s midnight opening across Ireland can be viewed here.

GameStop opens midnight for Halo 3

Gamestop say they will open 14 of its 46 in the Republic and Northern Ireland at at midnight on Tuesday for the European release of Halo 3.

The retailer are to have midnight openings at Henry St, Stephens Green, and Clare Hall in Dublin, along with their outlets in Belfast, Derry, Limerick, Drogheda, Wexford, Tralee, Letterkenny, Mallow, Midleton, Killarney, and Bangor.

Other retailers, such as HMV, GAME, and Smyths, are also likely to have midnight openings in at least the main cities.

A Microsoft spokesperson told us this evening that, in Ireland, “Michael Finucane from Game stop says that pre-orders are running at twice the rate of Halo 2″, while a statement released this afternoon says the company worldwide is “running off 81 games per second to ensure that they meet global demand for this title”.

“It is fantastic to see the level of interest shown by Irish gamers, all of whom are eager to be one of the first people in the country to get their hands on what is set to be the must have game this Christmas,” said Orla Sheridan, country manager at the entertainment and devices division of Microsoft Ireland.

Halo 3 demand high says Irish retailer

Microsoft Ireland are reporting “Huge demand” for pre-orders of Halo
3, what it is calling the fastest pre-sales in video game history,
while Gamestop are say the
demand has been “nothing short of phenomenal”.

Worldwide pre-orders of Halo 3 have exceeded the 1 million according
to Microsoft, the publisher of the game and maker of the Xbox 360 games
console. No Irish sales numbers were released.

It’s set to be released in standard, limited, and “legendary
edition” - according to the publisher, the ‘legendary’ version is
expected to sell out before its September 26 launch.

Midnight openings are expected across Ireland for the launch of the latest Halo game.

“What we’ve experienced is nothing short of phenomenal, Halo 3 has
eclipsed the previous record set by Halo 2″ said Michael Finucane,
commercial director at Gamestop.

“It set a benchmark for others to follow and is a real indication of
how video games has now come to the forefront of the entertainment
industry… The excitement for Halo 3 is incredible”.

Intel buys Dublin games firm Havok

Dublin games middleware company Havok is to be taken over by chip manufacturer Intel.

The deal will see the company that grew out of Trinity College become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel.

Havok’s software tools have been used on games such as BioShock,
Harry Potter, Half Life 2, MotorStorm, and Second Life, and upcoming
titles such as Halo 3, Alan Wake, and Indiana Jones (pictured above).

FULL STORY: Dublin gaming firm snapped up by Intel

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