Round Up: TLJ Reissue, DDO In Korea, Austin Market

Today's round-up includes news of The Longest Journey being re-released, Turbine selecting Letsgame to Distribute Dungeons & Dragons Online in Korea, and concerns over the future outlook for the Austin video game market, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, Serious Games Source news, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings. - Long-time Mac, PC, and music/DVD publisher Aspyr Media (Stubbs The Zombie) today confirmed that it plans to re-release the critically acclaimed PC adventure game The Longest Journey. Previously released in late 2000, the game is one of the most respected adventure games to be released in recent years. Earlier this year, the company published the game's Funcom-developed sequel, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey for the PC and Xbox. Aspyr Media notes that it will reissue The Longest Journey in early September. - Developer Turbine announced today that it has signed a distribution agreement with Korean online game and community portal Letsgame, and that the pair will work together to localize the popular MMORPG Dungeons & Dragons Online for the Korean market. Letsgame will market, distribute and operate the game in that territory. “The Korean market represents an important opportunity for Turbine,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “This agreement signals Turbine’s commitment to a long-term presence in Korea and the continued rollout of DDO as a global franchise.” - A new report by the Austin American-Statesman, which includes statements by several notable personalities within the game industry, highlights growing concerns and efforts within the city of Austin, Texas to retain game development talent. In an effort to compete with other game development hubs such as Los Angeles and Seattle, as well as neighboring Dallas, the report notes that city leaders are beginning double efforts to encourage game companies to plant roots in Austin, and have begun to invest more in “emerging technology sectors”, a catchall phrase that includes video games. The city is already home to a number of game development icons, such as Richard Garriott and Warren Spector, though the report points out that the last five years have seen a number of high profile companies such as Electronic Arts and Microsoft Corp.'s Digital Anvil studio pull out of the area. "Our lead in online gaming is very tenuous because there are other cities that are so far to date being more successful at the business-education connectivity to support this industry," commented Garriott. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include the latest 'Letters from the Metaverse' column, this week looking at gamer culture in virtual world Second Life; an absurd classic controller from Coleco; and an obscure 3DO title called Flupon World. - Today's update on Gamasutra's serious games-related site Serious Games Source includes an exclusive interview with Frank Blackwell, program manager for the America’s Army project office. - News on Gamasutra's new game education sister site Game Career Guide include a call for papers for the upcoming IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Backbone Entertainment, CMP Game Group, Datascope Recruitment, Eurocom Developments Limited, LucasArts, and Vicious Cycle Software.