Newsbriefs: Madden Covered, R6 Vegas DLC, Half-Dome Conquest

Author: by Staff

[UPDATED: 4:00pm PST] Today's regularly updated newsbriefs include news of Tennessee Titans quarterback and NFL 2006 Rookie of the Year Vince Young named for the cover of Madden NFL 08, new Rainbow Six Vegas Xbox 360 downloadable content, and the announcement of the 7th annual Half-Dome Conquest series. - Major publisher and developer Electronic Arts has announced that Tennessee Titans quarterback and NFL 2006 Rookie of the Year Vince Young will serve as the cover athlete for the upcoming release of Madden NFL 08. Developed by EA Tiburon, creators of the NFL Street series and recently named developers of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Madden NFL 08 is scheduled to ship on August 14 for the Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, and PC. According to EA, the Madden franchise has generated over $2 billion in retail sales, with more than 60 million copies sold since the series launched almost 18 years ago. Electronic Arts' PlayStation 2 version of Madden NFL 07 was the top selling game overall in North America in 2006 with 1.8 million units sold, according to NPD Group sales data. “It is truly an honor for me to be on the cover of Madden NFL 08, every NFL player dreams of being on the cover,” said Young. “After being named Rookie of the Year and going to the Pro Bowl my first season – this is a perfect way to start my second season in the NFL.” - Ubisoft has announced the release of “Player's Pack Red Edition”, a new collection of downloadable content for Rainbow Six Vegas for the Xbox 360. Available for 800 Microsoft points ($10), the download includes five additional multiplayer maps and two new game modes. Three of these maps, “Doscala Restaurant,” “Marshalling Yard,” and “Roof” are new to the game, while “Border Town – Redux” and “Killhouse – Redux” are retooled versions of existing maps. The two new game modes added with this download include Assassination mode and a team-oriented, static control-point game mode called Total Conquest. - Chance Thomas, the composer for Peter Jackson’s King Kong and the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, has announced that his music/audio studio HUGEsound is readying the latest in its Half-Dome Conquest series. The 7th annual strenuous physical event will be held on Friday June 15, 2007, with participants ascending to the top of Half-Dome peak, a nearly 9,000 foot sheer granite behemoth rising in the heart of Yosemite National Park, and a special invitation/challenge is going out to Chance’s peers in the game development community. Past climbs have attracted hearty participants working for companies like Sony, Cyan Worlds and Vivendi-Universal. More information is available via the HUGEsound news page. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include an inside look on how to become a game designer, an interesting write up on the 2007 Independent Games Festival @ GDC, and a play-by-play dissection of Jack Thompson's most recent Fox News report. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sisterwebsite Serious Games Source include a partnership between Muzzy Lane Software and Harvard historian and political commentator Niall Ferguson to create a new series of serious games. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from ArenaNet, Blizzard, Day 1 Studios, Destineer, Gas Powered Games, Massive Entertainment, Midway Games, Radical Entertainment, Riot Games, Ubisoft, Vigil Games, and WXP3D.