Tagged: eden studios

Develop Industry Awards Winners Announced

phil_harrison.jpgThe fifth annual Develop Industry Excellence Awards was held to honor the visionaries behind the greatest games in the gaming industry. Voted for by an independent panel of industry experts, this year’s winners include Motorstorm (PS3), Crush (PSP), Crackdown (Xbox 360) and many other titles. In all, there were 17 different companies and individuals claiming the 18 awards.

Evolution Studio’s PS3-exclusive racer and Zoe Mode’s Crush picked up the best new IP awards, while Traveller’s Tales picked up best indie developer and best use of a license for Lego Star Wars II. Test Drive Unlimited by Eden Games picked up the best use of online award, while Rare’s Viva Pinata grabbed the award for visual arts. Other winners include Sega, Ubisoft, NCSoft and many more. Below is the full winners list:

New Console IP
MotorStorm (Evolution/SCEE External Development)

New Handheld IP
Crush (Zoe Mode)

Best Use of a Licence
Lego Star Wars II (Traveller’s Tales)

Visual Arts
Rare (Viva Pinata)

Audio Accomplishment
FreeStyle (B-Boy)

Publishing Hero
Sega

Innovation
Real Time Worlds (Crackdown)

Tools Provider
Havok

Best Use of Online
Eden Studios (Test Drive Unlimited)

Services & Outsourcing
Babel Media

Recruitment Company
Datascope

New UK Studio
Realtime Worlds

Handheld Studio
Rockstar Leeds

Business Development
Blitz

Independent Developer
Traveller’s Tales

In-house Developer
Ubisoft France

Development Legend
Ian Hetherington

Grand Prix
Sony

Atari Announces "Corporate Plan"

It’s no secret that Atari has been in a dire position for some time now – the publisher reported a net loss of $5 million and has had its fair share of other bad news. However, the company’s CEO Bonnell, talking to MCV, rejected claims that the company was dying. He does admit that Atari is in the red and remarked that they might be looking into selling off some of their studios.

A quick rundown of their studios on MCV includes Reflections, known best for their work on the spectacularly abysmal Driver 3, who’s working on Driver 4; Melbourne House and Eden Studios, both of which are working on current and next-gen versions of Test Drive; Paradigm working on Stuntman 2 and Battlezone; and finally, the most popular of them all – Shiny which has worked on the universally panned Enter the Matrix and the better-received Path of Neo, both titles based on The Matrix movie trilogy.

Bonnell also said that the American branch of Atari may see some staff let go off – these staff are referred to as “redundancies”. In what can be termed as a followup, the company issued a press release announcing the implementation of its “corporate action plan.” The plan acts on cost control, disposes non-core assets and places a stronger emphasis on external development studios. Atari will also reduce its worldwide workforce by approximately 20%.