Round-Up: NPD Delay, Getting Up Movie, Firaxis Win, Digital Play

Author: by Nich Maragos, Simon Carless

Today's round-up includes an update on the NPD results for North America, as well as MTV Films' acquiring of the rights to the Marc Ecko's Getting Up game, a 'Future 50' plaudit for Firaxis, and a New York gaming event, as well as the latest product news, GameSetWatch entries and Gamasutra job postings. - Although a number of other media outlets are already reporting the NPD game results for North America in November 2005, the firm has issued a warning that some "overstated information" made its way into the report, and is re-issuing its estimates tomorrow, Friday. It's not known whether the 330,000 Xbox 360 hardware sales figure for November is included in this restating. Gamasutra will post confirmed figures as soon as they are available. - MTV Films has acquired the film rights to Atari's Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. The game, which has drawn fire from some quarters for its graffiti-centric nature, concerns a young tagger called Trane trying to spread the word of a corrupt city government through street art. "We are eager to continually tap into the unique culture that exists in the video gaming world because these types of projects have a unique connection to the MTV audience," said MTV Films vice president David Gale. Though the game features a celebrity-studded voice cast, it's not known yet whether any of the stars will reprise their roles for a potential film. - SmartCEO Magazine, a publication geared toward CEOs and business owners, has named Firaxis Games, recently acquired by Take-Two Interactive, as one of its "Future 50," a list of the fastest-growing companies in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. region. The company will receive an award at an event for the Future 50 winners, to be held at Baltimore's American Visionary Arts Museum. "We're honored to be recognized by SmartCEO for our growth and success. To continue to be a leader in the industry, we will grow responsibly to meet the increasing demands of a competitive marketplace," said Firaxis founder and president Jeffrey L. Briggs. - The New York Museum of the Moving Image and New York Tokyo has announced the lineup of events for Digital Play: Reloaded, to be held on December 9th at 6:00 P.M. Among the games on display will be We Love Katamari, Nintendogs: Best Friends, Sonic Rush, Trauma Center: Under the Knife, EyeToy: Play 2, and others. In addition to the games, the event will feature a live performance from retro 8-bit musician Bit Shifter, as well as drinks on offer. - Over at Gamasutra's newly launched sister game weblog GameSetWatch, new posts have been added, including a great article on the NeoPets phenomenon, a round-up of Paraglyph's new game design 'bible', and UK Resistance's 'unique' attitude to piracy. - Also updated today: product news, including Nightlight's adoption of Virtools for its latest game, plus today's Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Day 1 Studios, Edge of Reality, EA Canada, Idol Minds, Immersion Medical, Page 44 Studios, Sony Online, and Stormfront Studios.