Today's Gamasutra news round-up includes the launch of Namco's new online paraphernalia store, Club Namco, Nintendo announcing final release dates for their high profile upcoming DS games, and a lawsuit against Take-Two due to falling stock prices, as well as the latest GameSetWatch updates, product news and Gamasutra job postings.
- Namco Networks has launched ClubNamco.com, an online store for paraphernalia featuring popular Namco characters and games, such as
Pac-Man,
Ms. Pac-Man,
Galaga, and
Dig Dug. In addition to the toys and collectibles, Namco intends to offer its popular ringtones and other mobile phone content through the site in the future. “We are excited to give fans of
Pac-Man and other retro classics the opportunity to purchase these specialty items they’ve been waiting for," said Namco America VP of sales and marketing Scott Rubin. "ClubNamco.com is the next step in Namco Network’s vision of providing game fans with acomplete mobile and online entertainment experience."
- Nintendo has announced release dates for two of its upcoming DS titles in the summer months:
New Super Mario Brothers, the first new game in the series with 2D gameplay since the SNES days, will arrive on May 15th, a week later than earlier retail solicitations indicated. The company will follow it up the next month with June 5th's
Big Brain Academy, the official title of the sequel to
Brain Age, which is due to ship on April 17th.
- Take-Two Interactive has come under another lawsuit related to its falling stock prices, after the
class action suits that began to crop up in February. The latest suit, filed by the Michigan-based Flint Employees' Retirement System, made allegations along the same lines as the earlier lawsuits, that the company concealed information it knew would lead to a drop in share prices. In addition, the suit charges that company executives dumped $18 million worth of stock after
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was given a new rating of Adults Only.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog
GameSetWatch include a bit on
The Game Innovation Database, the
International Chiptune Resistance World Tour, info on
the Shmup-dev.com PC Game Competition, and the latest installment of our weekly column,
Parallax Memories.
- Also updated today: product news, featuring
Kynapse AI Solution,
Competition SDK,
GarageGames' Torque Products,
Softimage SXI,
Ageia's PhysX SDK,
Di-O-Matic's Voice-O-Matic 2, and
Quazal's Spark!, as well as the
latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from iBase Studios, Mythic Entertainment, Disney Buena Vista Games: Producers, ProtonMedia, and Quicksilver Software, Inc.
