Gazillion has 300 employees and is already developing games for LEGO and Mattel. The deal with Marvel promises to bear a lot of fruit for both companies.

Marvel is continuing to rise.

he timing for the games is good because Marvel is in a golden age and has a whole slate of movies coming — Spider-Man 4, Thor, Captain America and Iron Man 2. On average, the 14 Marvel films made since 2000 have generated $400 million in box office receipts each. Marvel itself is not investing in the games; rather Gazillion has the responsibility of bearing the cost to make the games. By contrast, Marvel itself has taken over the production of its own movies, allowing it to become a major film company.

You’ll be hearing more about Gazillion in coming months. So far the company has kept quiet about their operations and has been operating in a stealthy manner until details of their game developments fleshes out.

Game publishers are currently among the most vocal about Sony cutting prices on the console. With more consoles out there, they can sell more games.

Some game publishers are even threatening to pull money from the development of games if they installed user base doesn’t get bigger soon. Electronic Arts is one such company.

“You can’t ignore the guy who has half the market,” said Peter Moore, who heads up the sports game division for Electronic Arts.

Sony, for their part, seems to be ignoring the pressure.

“Everybody in the development community would love for the PS3 to be free, so they could just sell razor blades,” said Peter Dille, President of Marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America in Foster City, California.

Today and today only, Amazon has discounted Guitar Hero World Tour across all platforms as part of their video game Deal of the Day program, with generous discounts across all four versions of the complete band kit. The Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions have all been dropped 37% to $119.98, while the PlayStation 2 version comes in at $10 cheaper, which for those of you with an aversion to simple maths is $109.98.

Source: Kotaku

Of course a game with this many fans is bound to cause a bit of controversy. Some people love it and others hate it. The reviews have been decidedly mixed.

“It’s a solidly constructed, workman-like effort with some cool set pieces that figure into some exciting boss fights (I’m looking at you, rad blast furnace battle with giant plague zombie). But too often you’re left befuddled, muddling through some strange, wrong-headed mixture somewhere between action and horror, hoping against hope that Resident Evil finds its way again,” wrote Joystiq.

Resident Evil 5 is out there and shipping like hotcakes so it’s likely we’ll be hearing a lot more about the game in coming weeks.

Now some are seeing this as a service that can be sold. They’ll notify people that you’ve gone to the great beyond.

The site was created by Mike and Pamela Potter in Colorado Springs, Colo. They also run a business that makes software for online games. Pamela said they realized the need for a service like this when one of their online friends, who had volunteered a lot of time helping their customers on a Web message board, suddenly disappeared.
He wasn’t dead: Three months later, he came back from his summer vacation, which he’d spent without Internet access. By then, the Potters had already had Slightlymorbid.com up and running for two weeks.

A third site with a similar concept plans to launch in April. Legacy Locker will charge $30 per year. It will require a copy of a death certificate before releasing information.

Now your fellow gamers won’t be left hanging.

“The reality is that Second Life continues to grow; every second someone joins. Second Life is hopping.”

The number of “active users” at Second Life has grown 25 percent since September last year, while the amount of time and money spent in the virtual world has climbed by similar percentages, according to Kingdon.

One of the issues hurting the image of Second Life is the amount of vacant real estate. Many have joined the game and later abandoned it. Whatever real estate they worked on becomes abandoned.

Linden Labs claims that $360 million was spent inside of the game last year.

We’ve been playing through a preview version of the game for more than a month now, and found it to be a largely successful mix of familiar and new elements. Like all the Resident Evil entries, this is essentially an action game where a somewhat generic protagonist has to travel through creepy houses, compounds, cities, or secret bases, shooting zombies, madmen, and other monsters along the way.
Two key elements separate games of this genre (the awkward Japanese translation is “survival horror”) from straight-up shooters. First, there are occasional brain-twisters to solve, such as deciphering a puzzle to open a door; secondly, ammunition for one’s firearms is relatively scarce, so making every shot count is important. However, RE5, like its immediate predecessor, Resident Evil 4, tones down both of these gameplay factors, at least compared with earlier games in the series, opting for a more fast-paced (some would say mainstream) approach.

You can purchase Resident Evil 5 for $59.95. It ships today.

Resident Evil 5

The trailer makes you want to play the game. Definitely a good sign.

“Majesco Entertainment brings the adventurous hidden object game Escape The Museum to the dynamic world of Wii. In the wake of a devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake, your task is to help battered curator Susan Anderson navigate the ruins of the National Museum of History, save everything she can, and reach her missing daughter, Caitlin.”

Sound easy enough? Good. If you accept your mission you’ll need to order “Escape the Museum” today so when it ships on March 24th you’ll be the first on your block to get a copy.

The best part about “Escape the Museum”? The price. It’s a mere $19.99 per copy.

Pre-order now:

EA says it adds a bigger playbook of new co-op moves available to players at any time, providing opportunities for more strategies than in the prior version. The title’s set to launch on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and PSP this Winter, although no specific date is yet confirmed.

“We’re pushing the tactical two-man military team into new battlegrounds offering a completely organic and rich co-op experience to deliver an action-packed co-op shooter this winter,” says EA Montreal executive producer Reid Schneider.

Electronic Arts has been focusing on adding depth to their core brands in the last few quarters. They are focusing on sequels to popular titles.