Round Up: Ageia, SpinTop/Playtime, XBLA Unplugged

Today's round-up includes news of Ageia signing new executives and working with Russian publisher 1C Company, a merger between SpinTop Games and Playtime Games, and a retail collection of popular Xbox Live Arcade titles, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - Physics technology firm Ageia Technologies today announced that Russian publisher 1C Company has signed a publisher-wide licensing agreement for Ageia PhysX technology. 1C Company publishes and distributes titles from Eastern European developers, as well as titles of international publishers for the local market. In addition, Ageia also announced the appointment of veteran business execs Chris Engel and Michael Steele to head its sales and marketing teams, respectively. - Online casual game company SpinTop Games and new casual game development studio Playtime Games jointly announced a merger today. The combined team will maintain a commitment to the online casual game market. To outpace market growth, the new team plans to leverage its experience and competitive position to launch new consumer-focused services and games and to acquire or develop strategic alliances. The transaction is expected to be completed in August. Playtime's first PC game, Mahjong Escape - Ancient China, continues to be a top performing downloadable game, and was in RealArcade's top 10 for 5 weeks. - UK website Total Video Games is reporting that Microsoft will soon release a retail package containing a collection of the most popular titles currently available for purchase online over the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Marketplace. The collection, called Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged, will reportedly include titles such as Geometry Wars Evolved, Texas Hold 'Em Poker, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Outpost Kaloki X, Wik: Fable of Souls, and Hardwood Backgammon. The package will also serve the dual purpose of not only providing several games on a single disc at retail, but will also be designed to persuade those players who have not already signed up for Xbox Live to do so using a free one-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold that will come packaged with the collection. The website reports that the collection will ship in the UK this October for £20 ($36). - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include the news of a Mystery Science Theater clip from the PlayStation Underground disc, the release of the graphic/text adventure Trilby's Notes, and a look back at Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news on a serious game idea winning a UK educational event, Gamasutra product news on Google Earth and KML 2.1 using the Collada Interchange Format and the latest update of the Wwise audio tool, plus the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from BioWare, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Factor 5, Powerhead Games, and Vivendi Games.