Round-Up: Wik on XBL, GlobalVR & UltraCade, PopCap Award

Today's round-up includes news of an IGF winner getting onto Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360, an acquisition for GlobalVR, and a new casual game competition sponsored by PopCap. - Microsoft has announced that Wik: Fable of Souls will join the Xbox Live Arcade selection of downloadable games for the Xbox 360. Developed by Reflexive Software, the Independent Games Festival award winner features an unusual game mechanic that involves main character Wik swinging around the game worlds by his tongue. "We are obviously very excited that Wik will be featured on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360," said Simon Hallam of Reflexive. "Wik has been a true labor of love for us, and we know gamers will appreciate the uniqueness of the game and the character." - According to CoinopTODAY, GlobalVR - publisher of the popular PGA Tour Golf and Madden Football line of arcade games - has acquired UltraCade Technologies, maker of a popular arcade horse-racing title Breeders' Cup, as well as "retro game" system that combines several dozen older arcade titles in one cabinet. So far, the only news of the deal has been a phone conversation between Jim DeRose of GlobalVR and CoinopTODAY, but an official press release is apparently due in the near future. - PopCap Games, one of the larger developers of casual games with titles such as Bejeweled and Bookworm, has announced a new casual game award to be presented for the first time at independent film festival Slamdance 2006. The grand prize winner of the award will be considered for publication by PopCap, which supplies content to several casual gaming portals such as Yahoo! Games in addition to maintaining its own website storefront. - New additions to Gamasutra's sister website and game weblog GameSetWatch includes news on official Katamari Damacy clothing, highlights from an interview with Raven Software composer Zachary Quarles, a look at what may be the most bizarre Christmas-themed tabletop game ever made, and a bit about easter eggs. - Also updated today is product news, including the release of the latest DirectX SDK, as well as the latest Gamasutra job postings from companies including Abandon Mobile, Blue Fang Games, Amaze Entertainment, Factor 5, Hi-Rez Studios, Activision / Z-Axis, Krome Studios, Gamelogic Inc., Datascope Recruitment, K2 Network, Inc., and WXP, Inc.